CH 146

It feels to me like what he says is directly negating our complaints.

“We will know the truth soon enough, but I have something else to ask. About a rumor going around in the guild.”

“Rumor? I don’t come here often, so I don’t know about it.”

“I see. It’s about the hunt for the superior species that appeared on the fifth floor. And about rookies that watched adventurers die and did nothing.”

“All right, but I want to know the specifics. Do you know about this, guildmaster?”

“I may have overheard…”

“Then why didn’t you deny it? Do you think it’s true?”

No response… Could it be that she’s purposefully leaving it be as some sort of test?

I look at Reese, and she has a small, gentle smile on her face. But upon closer inspection, I see a small wrinkle between her eyebrows.

I don’t really know what to think.

“Then let me ask you this, commander. If you accepted a quest to hunt a superior species, what would you do first?”

“Prepare. Check what kind of monster it is, what items we would need… We would have a lot to do.”

“I assume that’s all normal. Then why did no one do that? In regards to this hunting quest, I mean.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I’m not mistaken, all of this happened because people heard it was a dark wolf, but it turned out to be a shadow wolf. But both dark wolves and shadow wolves, despite being monsters of different ranks, have more or less the same weaknesses, right?”

“Yes, both are weak to the holy element. The difference is that dark wolves can be beaten by relatively strong people even without using holy attacks.”

“That seems to be the case. But there’s our first problem. They only brought supplies to camp.

Why did no one bring items to hit the monster with its weakness, the holy element? There were fifty people participating in that hunt, right? And no one brought any of it?”

It’s baffling.

Then again, maybe someone did, but they were killed before they could use it.

“The second problem is the levels of the adventurers. They were B and C ranked, and I’m pretty sure the adventurer guild considers shadow wolves to be A ranked monsters. So they were probably outmatched.

But when I saw them fight, the monster was on a completely different league. I’ve seen other B ranked adventurers, and to be perfectly honest, the difference in their power was too big. They said they were B ranked, but how strong were they really?”

Their equipment wasn’t bad, but they couldn’t fight very well. In fact, they even ran and abandoned the others when they decided they had no chance.

Of course, It’s not like I can’t understand treasuring one’s own life like that.

“So your colleagues died because I had something that could defeat the shadow wolf but didn’t use it sooner? They accepted the quest, so they should have taken responsibility and hunted it themselves.

They ran away, didn’t prepare their own food and instead came to us like parasites, and this is all my fault?

Bring them here. Remember, I’m a merchant exploring the dungeon. Is your organization so soft that you give high ranks to adventurers that are outmatched by a merchant?”

The whole situation was close to breaking down completely before we entered the picture anyway.

Jake hears me, and quiets down while crossing his arms. Is he gathering his thoughts in his mind?

This isn’t good. I feel like my emotions are going to burst. Like something dark is welling up inside me.

But then, we hear a knock on the door. Ash is back.

Whatever was rapidly swelling is dispersed by this.

Ash approaches Jake and speaks in his ear.

“Bring them here.”

Ash quickly leaves the room, and brings ‘them’ here. Some gulp when they see Jake.

“Do you know why you were called here?”

“No, we weren’t told.”

“Then let me ask you. They said that you used underhanded means to take places in line to enter a boss room. Is this true?”

“We have never done such a thing.”

One person immediately yells while straightening his back. The others all look away.

Jake looks at them silently, just staring with a stern expression.

“All right, I’ll believe you. That means you have tarnished the name of our clan members. How do you intend to take responsibility for this?”

“I don’t, really. You can believe them if you want. But if I’m telling the truth and they’re lying, how do you intend to take responsibility?”

He’s not responding. Is he just saying that because of his position? Does he really just believe them because they’re his fellow clan members? I can’t tell.

I can’t even tell if he really believes them, but if I use this opportunity to get the guild to investigate, something’s bound to come out.

“Guildmaster, please just look into it like I said earlier. See what parties went to that floor, and when they entered and returned. If you do that, you might start seeing things you didn’t notice before.

And by the way, I have no intention of forgetting about the abusive language they used against us.”

I’ve said all I wanted to say. A few of them seem shaken by what I said, but that doesn’t matter to me.

Honestly, I wouldn’t have cared if they didn’t get in the way of our exploration.

I really don’t care if someone dies because they’re careless, or because of a drop in quality, unless they band together and come bother us.

But this time I got involved in these things, so I wanted to say my piece. Honestly, this isn’t the only dungeon, so it’s not like I have to stay here.

Why do I have to get roped up into trouble everywhere I go? Go bother the ones chosen to be heroes with that sort of thing.

If I’m always going to get dragged into trouble where there are a lot of people, should I just build a house somewhere quiet and take it easy there? That’s something I want to do after I’ve saved up a good amount of money.

The atmosphere in the room is getting bad, so I decide to leave. It looks like some of them still have things to say, but I ignore them.

“Sora, are you sure you want to be so belligerent?”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I wasn’t actually angry.”

“Don’t overdo it. Even if it’s about us.”

But I think it’s natural to be angry after being talked to like that. I’m not saying the three of them are mine or anything, but I can’t forgive those people for treating them like that just because they’re slaves. I mean, if she agrees, I’m not going to argue. But those nasty looks are also part of the reason why I can’t forgive them.

“What?”

I’ve been staring at Mia while thinking.

I say it’s nothing, but for some reason she looks happy and holds on to my arm.

I don’t know what happened.