While I relaxed in the mansion salon one night, Emily came calling, “Yoda, you have a visitor.”
“A visitor? Who is it this time?” I asked.
“It’s their first time here. What should we do?”
“Let’s see what they want.”
“Okay. I’ll bring them to you!” she said before running out of the salon.
A first-time visitor, this late at night? Who could it be, and what do they want?
While I waited for Emily, Aurum ran in this time and said, “Ryota, let’s go to the pub!” Miike, a mini-sage and her permanent companion now, was cradled in her arms.
“The tavern?”
“Yeah! That place with all the people, where I get to hear all kinds of stories!”
“Huh. I guess you would like that.”
“Yep! So let’s go. Come on, I’ll even treat you!”
She held out her hand and created gold bars─not just one, but a whole pyramid-like pile of them. That could easily go for 4,000,000 piros.
That’s the incarnation of gold, the spirit of the dungeon Aurum, for you, I mused to myself.
“Whoa, no, no, that’s too much. We don’t need all that for one trip to the tavern.”
“Then let’s buy a round for everyone!” she insisted. “It’s a really fun place, so it’s worth it!”
“I’m amazed that you love it so much.”
“I do! So come on!”
“We can go, but...”
“Thanks for waiting, Yoda.” Just then, Emily returned with our guest in tow. He was a slightly haggard-looking man in his fifties, like someone from a dying shopping district.
“Thing is, we have a guest,” I replied to Aurum.
“Oh... Okay, that sucks.” She held out her hand again, and the gold disappeared. I appreciated how she was willing to let it go without a fuss, but it did feel bad to see her so dejected.
“We can go tomorrow, though.”
“You mean it?!”
“And we’ll talk to lots of people. Nobody can refuse a free meal, right?”
“Ooh...! Thank you, Ryota!” She lunged at me, hugged my neck, and kissed me on the cheek. Then, she happily embraced Miike and skipped out of the salon with him.
“...Ahem.” I cleared my throat nervously and faced our guest again. “Sorry you had to see that. I’m Ryota Sato. Nice to meet you.”
I tried to be extra polite since I hadn’t met him before. Simple manners, but a remnant from my days as a corporate slave─or rather, as a salaryman in general.
“My name is Dale,” he introduced himself. “Ah, excuse me for asking, but that was Lady Aurum, no?”
“Yes. Why?”
When I replied, something in his eyes changed. “So you really do live among spirits. And when she made that gold disappear into thin air, that was her spiritual power, too?”
His sudden interest left me taken aback. “Y-Yeah?”
After introductions, Emily poured tea for him and left the salon. Meanwhile, I sat across from him.
“So... What brings you here?” I asked.
“I am the chief of Tetramine’s Dungeon Association.”
“Ooh.”
Tetramine, huh? Sounds poisonous.
“Allow me to be frank! Would you be willing to move your base of operations to Tetramine?!”
“Hmm? Base of operations...” I thought for a moment before asking, “Wait, you want us to move houses?”
Dale nodded timidly. “Yes, sir! We’ve taken the liberty of preparing a mansion for you. It will come with a well-trained maid, and we’ll build a drop-buying shop close by. Of course, your companions will be treated equally well. Also...”
“Also?”
A mansion and maids? What more could one want?
“We will naturally issue licenses for every floor of our dungeon Plumbum.”
“Plumbum... Lead, huh?”
“Huh?”
“Oh, nothing. Hmm...”
This is kinda weird. He comes here and tells us to move to his city, where he’ll just give us a mansion? There’s something behind this, but what?
“...I can’t answer straight away. Let me think on it for a few days.”
Dale leaned forward dramatically. “Thank you, sir! Please, give it some thought!”
I didn’t know what he was really after, but he was obviously desperate.
☆
The following night, I took Aurum to Villa di H as promised, where we ran into Neptune and ended up drinking with him.
When I brought up what had happened last night during small talk, he chuckled and revealed the answer, “Ahaha! He’s after taxes.”
“Taxes?”
“Consider your influence a little more, my man. Remind me, how many people are in the Ryota Family these days?”
“Me, Emily, Eve, Celeste, Alice, and Miike... Oh, do the Cliff and Margaret Families count?”
“Latter aside, you have six people right there. And your taxes?”
“Hmm?”
“How much do you all pay in taxes each year?”
“Taxes, huh... I wonder.” I’d never paid it much mind. Adventurers’ taxes were hard to measure in this world, anyway, since they were deducted from your earnings every single time you sold loot.
At the next table was Eve, tipsy from beer and carrots. She took this opportunity to chime in, “A billion or so.”
“Eve?!” I gasped.
“The low level’s Family pays a billion piros in taxes.”
“That much?”
“He’s a major taxpayer, for a low level.”
“Wow.”
“There you have it,” Neptune said. “Bringing your Family in means enjoying your tax revenue. Tetramine has been suffering a bit of depopulation lately, so a billion means a whole lot more to them than it does to Cyclo.”