The hat twirled and fluttered through the air until it landed on top of the convulsing man’s face.
“Well, I should be going. Time to find a new job,” Natalie said, waving a hand and heading for the corner. Then she stopped and said, “By the way, are you familiar with a man a bit younger than me, with blond hair and blue eyes?”
“…Maybe.”
If maybe meant that’s the guy I’m looking for right now.
“He was watching you from the corner over there a minute ago.”
“Yeah, he lives right around here.”
It would only make sense that he was there. Most people, if they heard monsters were rampaging near their homes, would be alarmed and fearful.
“Well, when I turned around, he scampered off. Seems like something’s up with him.”
“You could say that.”
Natalie left, and I considered my next move. Since he’d come from farther away, I didn’t have enough information to draw upon. Now that Natalie had blown my cover and drawn his attention, it was going to be hard to sneak up on him. I’d have better luck dealing with him directly.
So I snuck into Donald’s place. It was locked, but getting it open wasn’t a problem.
Aside from the built-in closet, he had a bed, a chair, and a table. The place was desolate. Signs of habitation were scant. It seemed like he only came to sleep. That wasn’t too rare around here, though. The real question was whether he was connected to that gloomy goon of a sun god or not.
The quickest method of getting that answer would be to ask him physically. But if he turned out to be a totally innocent, regular person, I would end up on the wanted list instead.
The closet only had clothes and little things like that. Nothing interesting.
“Hmmm?”
Then I glanced under the bed and noticed something stuck to the underside. I reached down and pulled it out: a sigil for the shit-eating sun god. I traced it with a finger, and it left a trace of dirt on my skin.
“Gotcha.”
Someone was walking up to the door. It opened, and Donald came inside. He froze when he saw me.
“Who are you?”
“Your guardian angel.”
I lit up the temporary sun, got behind him, and tied him up using his own clothes. I hadn’t had time to set up a proper trap the way I had with those whoever-they-were brothers. This situation called for brute force.
Once he was immobilized, I deactivated the temporary sun. To keep him from making noise, I got out my knife and held it under his nose. If I took him elsewhere, then I could really go to town on him, but I didn’t have the strength for that.
“You must be Matthew. Why would you do something like this?”
“I’m the one asking the questions.” I pressed the knife to his throat. “You got any idea why the old man—the guildmaster—would have it out for you?”
I had a read on the old man’s scheme. He wanted me and Donald to take each other out. I’d thought this whole thing was suspicious at first, but I was only certain once I’d seen the sigil. No elite agent on a crucial mission like infiltrating the guild would leave such obvious evidence. Plus, a fervent believer would be handling that sigil every day. They wouldn’t let it collect dust like that. I didn’t even need to guess who’d put the symbol there.
Donald looked hesitant. He was clearly weighing his options.
“The old man hired me, but I’m not his confidant,” I said. “If you explain your story, I’ll let you go. Depending on what you say, I might even help you.”
After a long silence, Donald said, “All right. I’ll tell you everything.”
I undid the ties holding him down; this would make it easier for him to talk. Naturally, I took a seat by the door so he couldn’t just run away.
“So let’s start with the obvious question. Who are you?”
“I’m a monitor from the headquarters of the Adventurers Guild.”
Each branch of the Adventurers Guild ran its own business, but in addition to lateral ties, they had a vertical structure. Each country had its own guild headquarters that issued licenses to create local guilds, but that was just a pretense. The headquarters both maintained the power of the guild and prevented chaos from prevailing. Before the rules were sorted out, one town could have a dozen Adventurers Guilds. And some areas had guilds that couldn’t even manage an entire town’s worth of opportunity. The headquarters of the guild in Rayfiel was in the royal city, where it monitored the various branches.
“So you’re trying to uncover some malfeasance on the old man’s part?”
“We’ve heard stories about the guildmaster, Gregory, embezzling some of the guild’s profits, but never found any proof of it.”
On paper, his accounting was fine. They’d sent out several inspectors to audit him, but all of them swore the numbers added up. Either he was involved in some clever accounting tricks or he had bought off the inspectors. Knowing the old man, he’d definitely try something along those lines.
“The guild here suffered a major loss of personnel after that stampede. Senior leadership saw it as a chance to uncover any wrongdoing.”
“And you’ve snuck onto the staff and are conducting an internal investigation.”
I’d suspected as much. It sounded like something the old man would do. He used the tale of the skinflint sun god as bait to make me go after Donald. In the end, he’d have me either killed like Donald or blamed for Donald’s murder.
“Consider this a warning,” I said. No way in hell was I getting involved in guild politics. I was out. “Leave this town as soon as you can. If he feels like it, he can easily have you erased. Take your evidence and leave now.”
The old man was really sick of the former adventurer kept man his granddaughter was so fond of, it seemed. Part of his reasoning was the resurgence of Arwin’s popularity, leading to a fresh wave of complaints and threats to the guild about me. Maybe he’d already sent an assassin here. He could get rid of two inconvenient people at once. If I were him, it would be exactly what I’d do.
He was just like me.
Donald nodded and said, “Just a moment. I need to bring my reports,” then he opened the closet.
“Make it quick. Someone I know will help you get out of…”
I felt a prickling sensation on the back of my neck.
Something is coming.
The next moment, a shape flew toward the window. It crashed through the glass and the wall alike and landed.
It was a monster.
Huge, dark eyes gleamed on its hairless head, reflecting Donald’s terrified expression. Fishlike scales extended from its neck down, covering the hands and toes like armor. It looked like something between a monkey and a fishman. The thing strode toward us.
Is this another preacher? Another one infiltrated the town?
“I warned you…there wouldn’t be another chance,” it said in a high-pitched voice, directed at Donald. He turned pale and backed away.
“Is…is that…Sam?”
He knows this thing?
“What is this, your boyfriend? You gotta clear this up, then. Tell him you’re not cheating on him with me,” I said, using one of my classic wisecracks to distract them from the fact that I was pulling out the temporary sun. I didn’t like using it repeatedly in a small amount of time, but I couldn’t save it when there was a preacher around.
Donald backed away. Terror twisted his features. The monster named Sam closed the gap at once.
“Irradiation!”
The light of the sun filled me with strength, and I unleashed it in one go.
“Motherfucker!”
My fist caught the monster right on the head. It slammed into the wall and through, bursting out of the building.