Chapter 534:
Everyone Is a Dud
“NOW, ENOUGH ABOUT ME; let’s talk about this village. You said both guilds were involved. How bad is it?”
Zinal and Fische gave my father tired looks in reply.
“Uhhh, okay, so we told you they’re fighting over who the next guild master will be, right?” Zinal asked.
We nodded. That much we already knew.
“So there’s three people vying for the position, and all three of them severely lack the leadership skills to bring people together.”
My father froze up and gave Zinal a dubious look. Zinal took his gaze head-on and nodded.
“Oh dear…it just keeps getting worse.”
It sure does. They all lack leadership skills? Isn’t that kind of a fatal disqualifier for somebody to lead a group of people? I’d heard a leader needed the power to mobilize people. They had to bring people of different opinions together and guide them in one united direction. That was an essential quality of someone at the top.
“Because of that, the adventurers can’t narrow it down to one person.”
Of course they can’t. No matter who they pick, they’d be a dud.
“So all three of them panicked and acted out in uniquely stupid ways. They threw money at everyone, tried exploiting weaknesses and blackmailing people, that sort of thing.”
My father smiled cynically at Zinal. “Well, that’s every cliché in the book.”
“You said it. When I first heard what they did, I got a headache from how stupid it all was.”
Well, of course he did. A guild master was someone who had your life in his hands in an emergency, so you could never choose him because he paid or blackmailed you. Of course, some people might be swayed that way, but not everyone.
“The adventurer guild should have acted the moment they learned the truth, but they were paid off. And the merchant guild turned a blind eye—or rather, they probably kept quiet because they figured they’d get paid too if they did.”
I knew people had a weakness for money, but that just seemed too weak. If they stopped and thought a minute about the future, they ought to know their actions would come back to bite them later.
“The former guild master made a lot of strict reforms along those lines, but it’s hard to purge rot from your organization once it’s taken root.”
I guess the former guild master couldn’t have accomplished that on his own. Wait a minute, didn’t that guild master die when a cave collapsed? Was that really an accident…?
“Whoa. Are you implying what I think you’re implying?” My father’s expression grew very stern.
Zinal nodded. “The old guild master was murdered by his former assistant. A nobleman happened to witness the murder and is being kept quiet with money. And here’s the cherry on top: The higher-ups at both guilds know everything. They know, yet they covered up his murder as an accident. Both guilds are full of corrupt cowards.”
“Puuu.”
“Teryuuu.”
Sora and Flame both cried out in disgust. They both looked very angry. And even though Ciel and Sol hadn’t said anything, they looked the exact same way.
“What’s come over them?” my father asked.
I did feel like they had been acting a little different ever since we started this conversation.
“Do you think they might know?” Fische asked, looking at my creatures in shock.
“Know what, sir?” I asked.
“The guild master who got killed was a tamer.”
“What?! He was a tamer?”
I was shocked to hear the word.
“That’s right. He was more famous as a tamer than as an adventurer.”
You don’t say. So he was a tamer. Then that’s why my creatures are angry… When did they find out the former guild master was a tamer?
“Ivy, what’s wrong?”
“Uh, nothing.”
Being with my creatures sometimes led to some strange experiences. Sora finding a good sleeping spot for the first time was one such experience.
“So what do we do now?” my father asked.
Zinal smirked devilishly. “What else? We punish them. And not just the ones who committed the crime but the bastards who turned a blind eye.”
I knew that was certainly a good thing, but wouldn’t that be a lot of people? If everyone involved got punished…I worried about whether this village would still exist at all.
“Can you manage that?” my father asked.
“Yeah, our friend will get here in a few days.”
Zinal’s and Fische’s “friend”? I guess everything will be okay, then.
“Are you guys gonna do anything?” my father asked.
Zinal and Fische shook their heads. “Nope. We’re gonna leave this village before our friend gets here.”
“Whoa, really?” I asked.
Aren’t they at least going to touch base with their friend first?
“If people find out we’re friends with this guy, things’ll get really annoying.”
Huh. So even though they’re friends, people can’t know about it.
“It sounds like a real challenge,” I said.
Fische smiled sheepishly. “He’s an investigator for the prince right now, so he wants to avoid being seen with us at all costs.”
Now that made sense. That would explain why they had to leave this village before their friend arrived.
“Is it okay if the prince’s investigators come here?” my father asked, which confused me a little.
“Working as the prince’s investigator is his under-the-table work. He’s being sent here from the adventurer guild in the royal capital to handle the problems in this village, so it’s okay. That’s under-the-table work for you.”
So, he works for the royal capital investigators under the table, and he’s being sent here for under-the-table work. But he’s friends with Zinal and Fische and…ugh, this is too complicated.
“Under the table, huh… Don’t worry, I didn’t hear anything,” my father said.
Zinal nodded. “Sorry. Guess I overshared.”
I’ll pretend I didn’t hear anything, too. Let’s just say Zinal and Fische are in a very complicated line of work.
“Oh, right. There was that father-child rumor we were worried about,” Zinal said.
My father looked at him.
That’s right. There was that rumor that a father and child were taking Marya with them. What happened to that rumor?
“So now the rumor goes, ‘The father and child were not with the criminal.’”
The criminal? Are they talking about Marya?
“Huh? So they changed it to criminal?”
“They changed it”? My father’s phrasing turned in my head.
“Yeah, we put the wheels in motion to change all references of woman or girl to criminal, and I think it worked. Now she won’t draw attention simply by being a woman.”
I see. So they did that to keep Marya from drawing attention. Rumors really can be bent to your will, can’t they? I’m impressed.
“And we got word from Garrit. He said everything’s proceeding smoothly, so we don’t need to worry. Also, he said they went to the town of Oll after dropping off the bride, but they decided to get raided by bandits along the way.”
Huh?! What is he talking about? Bandits?
“Wait, didn’t Druid or Fische tell you?” Zinal asked, looking back and forth between my gaping mouth and my father. I shook my head no; I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Why would I tell her? You said you were going to tell her, Zinal,” Fische argued back. My father nodded.
“Ohhh… Did I say that?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “What’s this about bandits?”
Did they make poor Marya get attacked?
“Don’t worry, they weren’t attacked for real,” Zinal said.
I nodded.
“We decided we’d better kill Marya off. The bounty hunters wouldn’t stop coming for her as long as she might still be alive, so we decided to kill her…er, that is, we’re going to supply a body, too. Then, we’re going to have Monz give her a new identity. It won’t completely erase all her worries, but we can at least make them quite a bit smaller.”
Now everything made sense.
“Oh, so that’s why you called her by her real name—Marya—when she was leaving town!”
I remember thinking it was strange for them to use her real name, though I hadn’t thought of it until after she’d already left.
“Yeah, if there was no evidence that she’d left the village, there would be doubts when she was attacked by bandits later. There was also a rumor floating around of a high-level adventurer rescuing Marya, so we ‘accidentally’ called Marya by her real name on purpose, to ward off that rumor. And I’m glad everything worked out according to plan.”
“But are you sure there won’t be any more bounty hunters?” I asked.
I could easily imagine bounty hunters coming after Marya the moment word got out that she had skipped town. And since they were traveling by horse-drawn carriage, they were moving rather slowly.
“A party of lady adventurers left town a little before Garrit,” Zinal explained. “We left a few more tricks behind as well, so I think we fooled the bounty hunters to an extent. We also planted a new rumor, so we bought them some time.”
This was a relief to hear. But it made me think, they had looked into rumors to learn more about this village, yet they had made up some rumors of their own. How could they tell the difference?
“Hey, Dad, how do you tell the difference between a real rumor and a fake one?”
“…Instinct, I guess.”
“Yeah, it’s instinct,” Zinal agreed. I looked at Fische, who was also nodding.
“Instinct. Interesting…”