Recap: That d.i.c.k n.o.ble is being a d.i.c.k. How will Master respond?
Also, this marks the end of chapter 4. Expect the full version of this chapter and the epilogue shortly.
“This is not an official hearing. We are, to an extent, listening to what she has to say in private. Thus, I believe that there is no need to rebuke her for telling some small lies.”
He was trying to protect us, maybe because he didn’t like n.o.blemen. I was thankful. Do your best, Guild Master.
“She lied to me, a n.o.bleman. Regardless of the occasion, that is a crime.”
“Though I am repeating myself, I did not think that a lie would be tantamount to a crime.”
“Regardless! This little girl can’t be trusted. After listening to her, isn’t it obvious that she doesn’t know her place?! She may even be a spy from another nation. I want all her possessions delivered to the knights order. We need to go over her belongings. Then I will overlook her transgressions.”
The heck? What in the world is he saying? Go over Fran’s belongings? What an obvious threat. Does he really think we’ll just go along with that?
“What in the world are you saying?!”
“Your Adventurer’s Guild ignored the knights order and raided the goblins. You must not have wanted to share the loot with the elite knights order. How typical of you lowly adventurers. But I’ll overlook all that as well if you hand over the Demon’s materials.
“Pardon? We did contact the knights order. Along with our strategy and the date and time of the raid.”
“Hmph, don’t you lie to me! Hand over half of all the loot you gained, all of the Demon’s materials, and that little girl’s belongings.”
“Half of all the loot? All of the Demon’s materials? We have no reason to give those things to the knights order when you have done nothing.”
“How dare you say that after purposefully ignoring us! You d.a.m.n adventurers were so overtaken with greed that you neglected to defend the city. We maintained public order while you were all at the goblins’ den!”
“Kuh. Something that only happened because you chose to ignore our request for reinforcements.”
“What’d you say?”
“No, I did not say anything.”
That aside.
The knights were so afraid of the hobgoblins that they refused to heed the adventurers’ request for help.
But the knights, after seeing how few casualties the adventurers suffered during the raid, desired the profits of our labors.
Now, who’s the real crook here?
“Hey, start by handing over that sword. It looks really well made. Where’d you steal it from? Tell me the truth.”
This piece of s.h.i.+t n.o.ble b.a.s.t.a.r.d walked towards us.
‘Should I cut him down?’
『Wait. Let’s keep watching what happens.』
I really did want to cut him down.
“The knights have no authority over the Guild. But despite that, you, a n.o.bleman, are giving us commands? And you are telling us to hand over the majority of our spoils, goods that adventurers laid down their lives for?”
“Of course. That’s my right.”
This b.a.s.t.a.r.d just agreed to that.
This made the Guild Master’s temper flare malevolently.
Wow, despite being this mad, he was still able to keep his cool and not get violent.
And on top of all that, he was even feigning a smile. You’re kind of cool, Guild Master.
“You can start by signing this contract. Here, sign this, saying that you agree to transfer the materials.”
“Does the order itself know of this? Including the Captain?”
“…Of course.”
“Then it should be okay for me to send an enquiry, yes?”
“What? There’s no need to do that.”
“I am the one who will decide that.”
Somehow, the tables had turned.
“Do you have a problem with me sending an enquiry?”
“Don’t make jokes! Are you trying to say that I’m lying?! H-How disappointing. I will take my leave for today!”
Wow. It felt like we just scored a palpable hit. He was obviously worried.
He must have come here without telling the Captain because he wanted to score some points against the Guild or to get our profits or something.
『Great, now let’s test it on him.』
Test what, you ask? Skill Taker, of course.
Luckily, he had a Unique Skill.
‘I want to do it too.’
『Yeah. I’ll try it out first.』
My target was the Unique Skill. But this skill was hard to use for anyone who didn’t have Appraisal.
The Demon didn’t have Appraisal. So though he said he was going to steal Fran’s skills, was he unable to carry it out because her Skills themselves were intrinsically different? I think in the early levels, Skill Taker chose something at random.
Or did the Dungeon Master forget to give the Demon Appraisal? Hm, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“I’ll be back!”
Shoot, my prey was leaving.
『I’m doing it. Skill Taker!』
Skill captured. Another strong point of this Skill was that it could be used while leaving the target totally unaware of what happened.
I secretly stole the Skill.
I got Logical Falsehood 5. I was able to steal Unique Skills.
The real danger of Skill Taker was that I could even steal the levels.
If we take a high level Skill, we’ll immediately be experts at it.
The only drawback was that because it appeared as one of my Skills rather than a Set Skill, I couldn’t share Logical Falsehood with Fran.
The opposite was proven true as well. We’ll need to choose which one of us should use which Skills.
“Skill Taker.”
Fran muttered this softly. And this was a success as well.
She took his highest level Skill, Royal Court Etiquette 4.
Heheheh. Just wait until you realize you’ve lost your most important Skills!
‘Master, I did it.’
『Yeah. This was a huge success.』
‘Should I cut him down now?’
『Why do you keep asking that? Is there a reason why you want to so bad?』
‘Because he’s a rude p.r.i.c.k.’
I got the feeling that our child was slowly becoming more dangerous.
Will her recently acquired Royal Court Etiquette help her speak properly? No, I highly doubt it.
“Phew. I must apologize for what just happened.”
“Who was that?”
“The son of a Baron and the vice-captain of the Alessa Knights Order. He bought his way into his position, and his family’s wealth makes him insufferable to deal with. Around last year, he was ordered here every time something happened, so he came to hate this city. Though this is the first time he came here with such absurd demands.”
“I’ll complain to the Knights Order.”
“There is no point. For the most part, their parents simply ignore any such complaints. This is how he was raised to be such a dimwit. In addition, any haphazard attempts to get him punished would be preempted by his Skill, Logical Falsehood.”
“He’s a vice-captain even though he’s a weakling? All you need is money?”
“Ask that question to anyone in the land. And though he is a weakling, his level is quite high. Though n.o.bles only do this occasionally, they sometimes join a strong knight’s party and level up by hunting beasts.”
Was the Guild Master actually roasting his boss?
So that’s why his combat skills were so low.
Not only did he have no combat experience, but his level of 30 was due only to a knight.
“I’ll send him flying the next time I see him.”
“If possible, please refrain from doing that. It is okay. Though the Vice-Captain is an utter fool, he does have to listen to the Captain. If you tell the Captain, then he will settle down for a while.”
“Then it’s fine.”
“Thank you. Because if you harm him, then the repercussions will reach us as well.”
So it was all for your sake?!
Well, in his case, rather than a lasting relations.h.i.+p, we could use him in a sort of give-and-take.
“Thank you once again for giving us the Demon’s materials. Thanks to you, our guild has become wealthier.”
“Un.”
“But do you really not have the Demon’s magic crystal?”
C’mon, Guild Master, you too?!
“I am joking.”
“That was close.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was about to hit you.”
“Hahahaha. That is quite the scary threat. Then please do take care of yourself. He is a man who is not above trapping others by using his ability to see through lies.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Understood. Though I do not mind your nonchalance…”
“Can I go now?”
“Yes, thank you very much. Ah, please wait.”
“Un?”
“Please go to the front desk and raise your rank. The doc.u.ments have already been accepted.”
“Again?”
“Yes. You have once again accomplished an absurd feat. An adventurer who defeated a Demon single-handedly cannot continue to call herself an F rank adventurer. For now, we will raise your rank to D.”
“Not E?”
“I wanted to make you rank C, but the other branches refused to agree.”
I see. It was hard to believe that a newby adventurer could single-handedly defeat a rank B Demon. It’s not like this is a novel or something.
I was thankful just to be rank D.
“Okay. I’ll go to the front desk.”
“Thank you very much. Your reward will be there as well. With an added bonus.”
“Un.”
The other adventurers were in an uproar after we went to the front desk and they heard that our rank was going up.
Apparently, this was the fastest anyone had ever ranked up before in this Guild.
Because it had only been four days since we entered.
Based on what I heard, the adventurers had made bets on whether we’d ranked up or not. But they were blown away by the fact that we’d gone up two ranks.
People were shouting about that more thank anything else.
“Haha! Thanks to you, young lady, I made a lot of dough!”
“d.a.m.n it! I just lost a c.r.a.p ton!”
“Wahahaha.”
“Hey, want a cup of the hard stuff?”
“You idiot, such a little little kid can’t drink alcohol!”
“Yes, I do.”
“Whoa! For real?!”
“Then I’ll buy you some apple juice!”
And this is how Fran’s adventurer rank went up to D.
Rank D, huh. Now she was a full-fledged middle-grade adventurer.
I thought about this today, but wouldn’t it be better to tell the adventurers about me one day? Something like this might happen again.
It shouldn’t be too strange for a rank D adventurer to have a magic sword.
A sword that gets stronger by absorbing magic crystals. Revealing myself would probably make things more convenient for Fran as well.
But what about the fact that I’m an Intelligence Weapon… Maybe I should ask Old Man Garth for advice next time I see him.
Well, the majority of the adventurers probably already think Fran’s hiding it, so that part shouldn’t be a problem. Their tune would simply change from ‘She’s hiding it’ to ‘She absorbed it with her sword.’
When I think about it like that, giving the Demon’s materials to the Guild may have been a really good idea.
Because apparently everyone received a bonus thanks to that.
Maybe we should buy alcohol today. Cultivating even a small sense of camaraderie is important, after all.
“I’ll pay for it today.”
“What’re you saying?! So a little tyke like you is going to treat us?!”
“It’s okay. I got a bonus.”
“Whoa. You sure are loaded!”
“I’m not.”
“Kuhaha, you’re a fun kid, aren’t you!”
“Great, I guess I’ll drink as much as I lost today!”
“Wahahahaha!”
I never imagined it’d end up costing 100,000 gil…