The piglet that Shaup-kun had been reborn into is energetically running around the floor of the room, which is currently also being occupied by a mound of gold coins and jewels that had come from my sling bag.
If Mora hadnât tried so desperately to stop me, that mound might have turned into a mountain or a mountain range.
When I fumble around in my bag, it feels like the 3,000,000+ coins and jewels that even I don't know the quantity of havenât gone down at all. In spite of that, the pile of treasure now in front of the adventurersâ eyes is apparently worth more than 100,000 Sedian gold coins.
The amount that Irudo was supposed to have paid for Moraâs rescue was 3,000 gold coins. If that is the market price for hiring a party as good as Sedamâs one, then there should be change and then some even after hiring all 10 parties represented here.
âI trust this is enough? If so, then I would like everyone to immediately get started with the job.â
âI-, Indeed it is. Duly acknowledged.â
With that, all of the adventurers, Guildmaster included, do a 180 and jump right into having a serious meeting about the job.
But not before moving to a different room, of course. It was quite distracting having that much money scattered all over the floor.
As expected of prosâonce the objective is clarified, the discussion proceeded very quickly. The meeting was soon over, with the following decisions reached: the high level warriorâs and clericâs parties would form the core of the escort group, and Sedam shall head the investigative group. In terms of number of parties, it is 4 towards escort, 6 towards investigation.
âI will first do some digging at the Thief Guild. I plan on bringing Shaup-kun along, so could I trouble you to return him back?â
âThat spell's duration is 6 hours. Just leave him alone and heâll eventually turn back by himself.â
âHaha, that sounds good. Iâll show him off to the guys in the Thief Guild too then. If I say âIf you refuse to cooperate, then youâll also be turned into a pig,â even their tongues should become a lot more loose.â
Sedam is as reliable as always. But with that flow of events, wonât it make me look a bit like a bad guy?
But then again, for someone whoâs come to this city for a few days, Â trying to catch assassins or masterminds would be like trying to hold a cloud with bare hands. Allowing these professionals to employ the methods they think best would be the wise choice here.
âWhich reminds me, is Claura not here?â
âClaura is a magician, after all. Magicians and clerics are handled in a slightly different way.â
It seems that because magicians and clerics possess highly specialized and effective abilities, they are allowed to hold dual membership in the Adventurer Guild and the other association related to their profession. In Clauraâs case, she is active as a magician more often than as an adventurer, so her participation in Sedamâs party is not always a given.
âMargils-sama, just leave everything to us!â
(Cultural Note: The actual line here is 性èčă«äčăŁăæ°ă§ăăŠăă ăă, which directly translates to âplease consider yourself as having gotten onto a large boat.â When you get on a boat with someone reliable steering it, you can just sit back and youâll still get where youâre going. The boat being large means itâs stable, no tossing and rolling. Cool phrase, isnât it?)
âBe it dark elves or Demonists, weâre gonna catch âem all!â (T/N: Soz, couldnât resist.)
Both escort and investigative parties are shouting enthusiastically as they file out of the Guild.
The investigation teamâs plans are to first gather information from the Thief Guild and information brokers in the slum areas, then to go through all the underground tunnels and places that look like viable hiding places with a fine-tooth comb.
The escort teamâs plan is to divide themselves up among 3 shifts to provide non-stop guarding over the mansion and Irudo and his people.
After filling out an official contract, we leave the Adventurer Guild behind us.
Because the escorts have already begun their duties, we take the carriage prepared by the Guild instead of using the Astral plane.
On the way back, we made a detour to the Council Hall so that I could check in on Council Chairman Zatou Braus.
He appeared to be in good health, but he continued to apologize profusely, so I told him to just focus on catching the criminals.
âOf course, of course. Even if we have to put Lelisâ prestige on the line, we will catch that criminal without fail.â
âThe criminals are a given, but please also catch the mastermind. It would be one thing if it was just me, but now even my friends have been targeted. I wish to immediately nip any possible future regrets in the bud while I still can.â
â...... Does Margils-dono believe that the criminal who tried to poison us both is connected to the ones tried to kidnap Irudoâs daughter?â
âCouncil Chairman, the fact that I hold goodwill towards the citizens of this city remains unchanged. I fully understand that these incidents are the handiwork of a very small number of people. As such, I believe that we can dispense with the tatemae, donât you agree?â
(T/N: Braus is trying to give shed doubt on the fact that the two incidents are connected so that he wonât have to handle the other one too. However, Gio-san is insinuating that this stance is mere tatemae, an official front that Braus is duty-bound to hold. By then saying that they are close enough to not need tatemae, he makes it so that Braus cannot hold onto his stance without âtoning downâ (which effectively means breaking) their alliance.)
â...... Excuse me. Of course, you are correct.â
Normally speaking, the Chairman of a cityâs ruling Council is not an opponent that someone like me can act so superior towards. But.
For the guest that he invited (and himself) to get poisoned at the meeting he called, and to even be treated by said guestâthat is one colossal weak point.
Due to that, I could press him this forcefully. But, well, I need to be careful to not get cocky and up the pressure too high.
Which is why I also handed him a little bit of treasure under the pretext of âencouragement for the soldiers.â
The city seems to have around 1,500 soldiers, but there should be enough for everyone to get a bonus.
When I looked out of the carriage on my way back to Irudoâs mansion, all the guards I saw were conducting questionings and inspections with full motivation.
âHaahhâŠâŠ Gio-san, donât you think you just squandered a bit too much?â
So says Mora after we've returned to the mansion. As expected of a merchantâs daughterâshe looks like sheâs got a few things to say about the way I spend money.
To be honest, even I was thinking that it wasnât such a cool thing to do, so her comment was extra effective.
âMora, Margils-sama was doing that to protect usâŠâŠâ
âThatâs, I know that. But then it makes it seem like weâre just being a burden for Gio-sanâŠâŠâ
Mora pouts in response to Irudoâs rebuke, then sharply turns towards me and bows deeply.
âIâm so sorry, Gio-san, that I have caused you trouble yet again! Gio-san is a Great Wizard, but someone like me is getting in your wayâŠâŠâ
Indeed, thereâs no way that a serious girl like Mora wouldnât fret at seeing me throw money around like water.
From my perspective, however, my wealth was merely another number written down in some corner of Gioâs character sheet, so Iâve unconsciously gotten indifferent to it.
âMora, Iâm sorry for having made you feel that way.â
I kneel in front of Mora to bring our eyes to the same height.
âYou call yourself a burden, but that is not true. By calling me âGio-sanâ instead of âGreat Wizard-samaââby relating to me as a humanâit saves me from losing my human heart. If youâre cheering and applauding after having seen what I did todayâit gives me chills even thinking about it.â
âWhich is why I will never even hesitate to spend any amount of money if itâs for your or Irudoâs sake. I have arbitrarily begun to think of you two as âfamilyâ after all.â
When I was a salaryman in Japan, there was absolutely no way that I could have uttered such embarrassing lines, even if they were how I truly felt.
But this place is a world where people slightly simpler than those in modern Japan live, and I am wearing the mask of a Great Wizard. I hope I can be forgiven for this much.
I realized that I canât really conduct my own investigations because firstly, I would be distracted with worry if I had to be outside the mansion for an extended period of time; secondly, I know nothing about the locality; and thirdly, I donât have the personal connections to do this kind of thing.
Aside from the few times I accompanied Irudo outside on unavoidable business, I was basically holed up inside the mansion for the next 3 days.
In that time, various happenings like three assaults on the mansion by bandits employed by the dark elves and the discovery of an unknown underground passage took place. However, due to the adventurers enthusiastically taking care of everything, there was no screen time for me.
There was one more thing that happened that I did not know about.
The dark elves tried to abduct Claura. Now that I think about it, I guess she falls into the category of âpeople close to me.â
However, in my mind, she is âa reliable nakamaâ and not âa protection target,â so sheâd completely slipped my mind.
The investigative group caught onto the dark elvesâ movements at the last possible second and managed to protect her, so it did not turn into a big deal. When I heard about it all later, I shed almost enough cold sweat to drown in.
And of course, Claura gave me waaaay more than an earful.
I suggested assigning one of the adventurer parties to be her escort, but she said âHow can I let you do such an inefficient thing!â and so now she is also staying at Irudoâs mansion.
And then, on the fourth day.
The adventurersâ and city guardsâ great efforts finally bore fruit.
The exploration of the underground passage turned up the dark elvesâ hiding place, and 1 of the 4 dark elves was successfully captured.
â...... This isâŠâŠâ
Looking down on the dark elf that the adventurers had brought in, I inadvertently blurt out what I am thinking.
âWhy is there so much skin exposure?â