Iâve got to apologize to Ensig and the readers. I had so much free time and just kept procrastinating until I noticed that Monday had already passed. I will try to manage my time better to prevent that from happening again.
â» â» â»
ïŒTeacherâŠ!ïŒ
ăAh, itâs got quite the amount of magical power. It might just reach Threat Level D! Be careful!ă
ăNn!ă
Despite my approximation, whateverâs approaching has a peculiar magical power. Itâs not the same as a Demonic Beastâs, Humanâs, or⊠Well, anythingâs. Really, itâs quite a strange magic power.
And that enigmatic presence is coming towards us at frightening speed. Perhaps itâs aiming at Fran? No, the idiot Viscount still counts as a Noble, so maybe heâs the target?
Well, anyway, this is no time to be careless.
ăW-Why is your sword still drawn?! D-Do you intend to kill me?!ă
For some reason Auguste is being noisy. Thinking about it, itâd be bothersome if he became a hindrance during the fight, so letâs have him be quiet for now. Lv3 Dark Magic: ăMindă»Lostă. Itâs a spell that steals the targetâs consciousness, causing them to faint. My guess is that this guy wonât have any resistance.
ăAhâŠâŠ.?ă
*thmp*
Moving the collapsed Viscount to the side, we remain waiting for a few tens of seconds, and what showed itself was a strange half-translucent thing. How to describe it⊠Itâs like a water sphere that keeps winding and changing its form while floating in the air.
ăMiss Fran, you havenât killed him, right?ă
ă?ă
Suddenly, it started talking. Wait, itâs not guaranteed that itâs actually talking, as there isnât any evidence of it having a mouth â let alone a face. Still, I think that itâs talking. Its voice seems familiar, too.
ăGuild Master?ă
ăThatâs right. Ah, is this your first time seeing one of these? This is one of the kinds of Spirits I use. Please, be at ease.ă
ăSpirit⊠First time seeing one.ă
Itâs also my first time coming across something like this. How should I say this⊠Itâs a bit different from what I imagined. I had thought that Spirits would have a more humanoid appearance â something like a Sylph or an Undine.
It seem Fran was thinking along similar lines.
ăSomehow, strangeă
ăWhat is strange! To call it strange⊠This child is an Intermediate level Spirit, therefore is has no human appearance. However, this child is also cute by all means you know!]
ăCuter ones: better.ă
ăThe ones with humanoid appearances are Superior Spirits. There is no waysomeone would summon such a being for anything other than combat.ă
Ah, so Spirits with humanoid appearance are Superior Spirits. Furthermore, the Guild Master is able to summon ones like that. This oneâs only an Intermediate level, but it already has a lot of magical power, so just how powerful would a superior one be, I wonder?
If he can have several Spirits summoned simultaneously, then heâs quite the force to be reckoned with⊠The Guild Master is already tremendously strong all by himself, so with the addition of Spirits, wouldnât it be a bit out of hand? Well, I guess thatâs to be expected from a Guild Master.
ăWhat did you want?ă
ăOops, thatâs right. I received information that Viscount Auguste left the town chasing after you.ă
That only just happened⊠He has some pretty good ears.
ăThe gatekeeper, Sir Dert, kindly notified me. It was something along the lines of âViscount Auguste went out chasing after her, will she be alright?â.ă
Dert, Iâm sorry for having thought that you might be a lolicon. You were just a good person.
ăNn. He appeared.ă
ăAs I thought! An appeal to the Guild came in about securing the Viscount behind the scenes. You didnât kill him, right? Right? Erm, maybe you accidentallykilled him? That sure would be troublesome!ă
ăDidnât kill.ă
ăR-Really? Good! Then, Iâd like to take him off your hands. Of course, you wonât be handing him over for free.ă
ăOkay.ă
ăReally? Thank you! Well then, I will immediately make my way towards your location, so could you guard him for the time being?ă
ăNn.ă
ăThen, excuse me!ă
At with the Guild Masterâs words, the Spiritâs figure disappeared. It seems that it was used in place of a messenger.
10 minutes later, the figure of the Guild Master appeared. Pretty fast. Seem like he put quite a bit of effort into coming out here.
ăMiss Fran, thank you for waiting.ă
ăNn.ă
ăViscount Augusto is⊠Ah, there he is. Hey, over here.ă
The Adventurers the Guild Master brought along lifted the Viscount up and carried him off.
ăWhere will he go?ă
ăAh, to the source of the request: Count OlmĂ«s[E1].ă
Thatâs a name I havenât heard yet. Who is he?
ăCount OlmĂ«s is Viscounts Augusteâs esteemed father.ă
ăFather detaining his child?ă
ăYes. I would like this to remain between just us, but from the start Viscount Auguste had a problematic personality. Still, for the sake of possessing the Law of Lies Skill, Count OlmĂ«s didnât punish him, but instead used him.ă
ăNn.ă
ăHowever⊠A few days ago, the Skill suddenly vanished. The reason is unknown, as itâs quite an unusual situation. Well, itâs possible that because he only used his Skill for worthless things, one of the Gods punished him.ă
Hmmmm, he was given a punishment alright. Therefore, itâd be fine to be seen like that.
ăAnyways, how he ended up after losing the Skill left even me astonished. He was the type to use the Skill to distinguish truth from lies with whoever he met, so when it was lost, it appears he became unable to trust anyone anymore.ă
I see. If a Skill you had since birth was lost, then what would become of you? In his case, he became distrustful of other humans. Well, it wasnât that simple, of course. It was more along the lines of completely breaking.
I had only thought that I obtained a convenient Skill, but⊠I should refrain from using it as much as possible. I donât want to become like the foolish viscount. Thinking that Iâd be alright so long as I had that SkillâŠÂ Iâm not special enough for something like that to become reality.
ăA few days prior to the discovery he also caused problems towards members of the Royal House, who were visiting for an inspection. Disregarding all semblances of etiquette, he grabbed at them and started shouting not to tell lies in front of an audience.ă
UwaaâŠÂ Thatâs terrible. No, wait⊠We also stole the Court Etiquette Skill, didnât we? Did that alsoâŠ?
ăAnd, while under house arrest, he slipped out of his room and hid himself. On that occasion, it seems that he took quite the sum of money with him⊠Most of it, he apparently used. We tracked his spending all the way to the place he bought some expensive armor.ă
In all likelihood, that was done under the influence of Gyuran. Then, after catching Fran he intended to abandon Aressa and escape⊠As if this idiotic noble would be able to pull that off.
ăIn Count OlmĂ«s case, he doesnât want this ordeal to breed a large commotion. And so, before Viscount Auguste made any more commissions, he came requesting to have him secured in secret.]
ăSecret?ă
ăCorrect. This is my personal opinion, but I believe heâs concealed the fact that his son lost the Skill and plans to make use of it in some way. Whether he plans on directly manipulating him, or perhaps plans on using some manner of medical treatment to get the Skill back remains to be seen, but⊠For the time being, he wants to restrain the Viscount. And so, as to prevent the exposure of this incident, the Count wanted to proceed with the highest possible degree of secrecy. Itâs something along this lines.ă
Hm HmmâŠÂ So in other wordsâŠÂ Hush money has been prepared?
ă*JiiăŒ*[M1]ă
ăâŠâŠ Donât stare so much. You have the privilege of having this treated as an accomplished commission with a bonus properly added on top.ă
ăNn. Of course.ă
ăIn exchange⊠You already know, right?ă
ăMouth: sealed.ă
Towards the suddenly nodding, seemingly self-confident Fran the Guild Master directed a strangely uneasy gaze.
ăHaa. Truly, I beg of you: keep it a secret. The other party is a powerful Noble after all. If heâs angered various troubles are sure to follow.ă
We also want to be spared from being dragged into the family troubles of Nobility. Even if we werenât asked, thereâs no way weâd go around spreading rumors.
ăWell, in regards to the Viscountâs personal effects I was told there was no need to recover them, so donât worry.ă
It seems that itâs been concluded that we plundered the equipment alongside and a large sum of money. Er, itâs a bit different, you know?
⊠It seems our debt towards the Guild Master has increased.
Afterwards, we made the decision to keep Franâs name from the Count. For such a powerful Noble, I doubt heâd have interest in the name of a commoner. Itâd be really unlikely, right? Still, this is just in case.
By the way, the commission fee alongside the hush money added up to 200,000Gorudo, so all of a sudden our money doubled.
As one would expect of a Nobleâs commission. Their sense of money must be strange indeed.