CH 70

“Why did you call me so suddenly?”

“There’s an unpleasant situation going on.”

“What happened?”

“The guild master from Rent and merchants from your place were arrested.”

“On what charges?”

“I don’t know the details, but it seems they issued a false report and tried to push some sort of crime on other people.”

“The guild master and people from here?”

“Yes. And what’s worse, is that it seems an officer of veracity made an appearance.”

“Officer of veracity? But why?”

“It seems the daughter of a cardinal was involved. She was the one who demanded that an officer of veracity be called.”

“…And that’s why they were detained and I was called…”

“Yes. As a guild, we might have to send guards right away. You should contact the main office too.”

“I see…”

“In a way, isn’t this a good opportunity?”

“To right wrongs?”

“Yes. That sort of intolerable behavior has been increasing in the last few years. Maybe it’s a problem with the system, or maybe it falls on each individual employee, I don’t know for sure.”

“That might be true. It might have gotten too big, and that might have caused morals to start dropping. And people in the main office don’t get it.”

“Do you think they will complain after we send the report?”

“Probably. But they might finally learn their lesson. Every year problems like these keep increasing and they’re doing nothing about it.”

“Won’t they just treat it as a failure and try to pin the responsibility on someone?”

“Could be. But the real issue is that an officer of veracity showed up. Even if the main office itself tries, they won’t be able to overrule it.”

“All they can do is try to solve it amicably, correct?”

“Adventurers from another country and a low ranking merchant… I hope we can do a good job bringing this story to them.”

◇ ◇ ◇

“It turned out more serious than we thought.”

“Yes. I figured he was still green because he only recently registered with the guild. I really didn’t expect those demands.”

“Annulment of privileges and one platinum coin…”

“Yes. Just thinking of reporting this to the main office, and telling them they have to pay… My head hurts.”

“Do you think those adventurers put him up to this?”

“I don’t think so. We only spoke a little, but they didn’t seem very interested in this whole thing.”

“I think we were a little naive.”

“Yes. I shudder to think of them refusing these terms.”

“It’s not just a problem with the Aurora company, the guild is also bound to be impacted. Well, it has received a hard blow anyway.”

“No, let us be at least a little positive. This could also be a chance.”

“You have a point. But can we do it?”

“Whining will get us nowhere. This is the merchant guild’s problem as well.”

“I guess it’s a merchant’s nature to pursue profit. It does seem like a deviation from the ideals we touted in the beginning.”

“And if we reject this, word could spread through those adventurers. I feel like it would be better for us to take the initiative, recognize our mistakes, and show we are trying to change. But we will still suffer considerable damage.”

“All right. I’m ready as well. Contact guild masters from every country and explain the situation. Turning a deaf ear won’t work, and ‘silencing’ that person wouldn’t be easy either.”

“Because he defeated an orclord?”

“Yes. I asked an A ranked adventurer I know what one should do if they had to fight a named monster one on one.”

“What was the answer?”

“Just run away. If it was just a superior species, it could be possible to fight it depending on what kind of monster it was, but not a named monster.”

“Is this a joke? Are you saying a merchant defeated something like that?”

“We don’t really know where he came from. Also, if his guild qualifications are revoked, he will just move to another guild.”

“Most likely the adventurer guild…”

“And I’m interested in the potions he sold wholesale to the merchant guild. We don’t know where he got them, but it seems they were pretty high quality. Who knows if he can get more, but we shouldn’t lose that connection.”

“Because of the demon sighting?”

“Yes. Apparently there is a lot of commotion in the kingdom about it.”

“And they’re valuable items for battle. This country will probably send out an order to stock them as well.”

“It could be when a real invasion of the dark forest begins. Right now, the kingdom and the empire are acting as bulwarks, but we could eventually form a combined army.”

“Just talking about this makes my head hurt.”

“Indeed.”