Chapter 90 – Bear-san In The Middle Of An Incident, Second Occurrence
【Commerce Guild Master’s Point of View】
What was the meaning of this?
The adventurers I sent to attack the girl at the inn didn’t come back.
When I decided to ask other people to go and check, they said the place was really calm.
Was it possible that they didn’t attack her even though I paid them?
I couldn’t find any other reason than that.
The next morning, one of my subordinates came to my room in the Commerce Guild.
「Master.」
「What happened?」
「The people you sent to capture the girl yesterday were arrested this morning.」
What was this bastard saying? I asked them to attack her during the night, didn’t I? So why would they be arrested in the morning?
「Are you sure that it was in the morning?」
「Yes. This morning, we saw them being taken away by some Adventurer’s Guild employees.」
「Those idiots, did they attack in the morning?」
If it was like this, I could understand why they didn’t return yesterday night.
That might be so, but was there anyone who would attack early in the morning?
More than that, they were also arrested. They had to be idiots.
This was why I hated idiots who didn’t follow my orders.
Thanks to that, people would start suspecting me, you know!
「What will we do?」
「Let it be.」
「But...」
「Even if they bring up my name, there’s no proof. We just have to say that they are falsely accusing us.」
Since they had failed, we couldn’t attack her ever again.
What a bunch of useless adventurers.
The only problem was finding out how much food the brat possessed.
She shouldn’t have much of it, but it was still troublesome.
*Knock Knock*
Someone knocked on the door.
「What is it?」
An employee entered.
「The Adventurer’s Guild Master is here.」
I knew she would come.
I made my men leave and told the employee,
「Let her enter the room.」
A woman wearing clothes that emphasized her chest entered.
It was Atora, the Guild Master of the Adventurer’s Guild.
「It has been a while.」
「So, what do you want?」
「Yesterday night, the inn was attacked by adventurers, do you know something about it?」
Yesterday night?
I had just heard that they were captured this morning?
「No idea.」
I decided to say that I didn’t know about it, for now.
「The ones who attacked were adventurers who were going in and out of your Commerce Guild though.」
「That’s not enough of a reason for me to know about every adventurers’ movements, isn’t it?」
「However, the adventurers we captured said that they were following your orders.」
「No idea what you are talking about. Why would I want to attack an adventurer who I don’t even know?」
「To take away her wolves, right?」
「Are you telling me that the one who gave your stupid Adventurer’s Guild all those wolves was this adventurer?」
I already knew, but I pretended that I had heard about it just now.
「Yes, she is a really cute adventurer. The fact that a girl like her was attacked makes me really angry, you know.」
「Then how about executing the adventurers you arrested?」
「So, are you saying that you are not related to this event in any way?」
「Of course. I don’t even know when I will be attacked as well, so I would really recommend you to proceed with their execution.」
「Understood. I will be back.」
‘You don’t have to come.’, I thought to myself.
Atora went back, but I couldn’t think of this matter as finished.
I didn’t really understand what that Guild Master was thinking.
I knew that the time would come when they would find out about me.
If I wanted leave the city, I had to do it fast.
I wanted to reap profits for one more month, but that couldn’t be helped.
This was the fault of my idiot subordinates, as well as that Bear Suit wearing girl.
I assembled the three subordinates who knew about my ties to the bandits.
There were not a lot of people who knew what I was doing in secrecy.
That was because having less of them didn’t permit any information leaks and disposing them would be simple.
I told those three that, even though it was a little early, I would flee this city.
I ordered to them to leave the city tonight, and meet up with Borg.
I planned to steal the money of the Commerce Guild just before they fled, and then blame the deed on those three.
I had planned for them to be killed by the bandits when those three met up with Borg.
If we just left the corpses on the road, then everyone would think that the bandits took the money.
The money I stole from the Commerce Guild would safely be mine after that.
「I will return home first. I will be fast, so go and prepare as well.」
I returned home, and put all of my valuable things inside an item bag.
I also put inside some valuables that I stole from the fleeing residents.
Everything from this city was mine, so there was no problem.
Borg was an idiot who didn’t want anything other than women and money, so it was easy to control him.
Well, he probably didn’t have any ways to resell the other valuables. It would be useless to explain the value of jewels to him after all.
When I finished putting all of my valuables and food inside my item bag, I went back to the Commerce Guild.
For some reason, the Commerce Guild was noisy.
What could be the reason?
Had something happened while I was away?
When I saw the faces of the employees, they were all smiling.
「What happened?」
I asked an employee near me who looked delighted.
「You see, it seems that the bandits were captured.」
What did he just say?
「With this, this city has a way out again. Food will be able to flow too. We can say farewell to the life we had to endure until now.」
The employee said this while looking really happy.
Don’t joke with me!
The bandits were subjugated, you said?
If that was true, then I couldn’t take care of my three subordinates.
Still, the biggest problem was,
「Did the bandits all die?」
If they had all died, then there was no problem.
A dead man couldn’t talk, after all.
「It seems that they were captured. And it appears that the bandits were, for the most part, adventurers from this city. They are currently being questioned by Adventurer’s Guild Master.」
They were alive!
That was really bad.
If they all said that it was me who commissioned them, it would be really difficult to get out of this mess.
Were there no good ways of escaping?
「Furthermore, it seems that the one who captured them was a girl wearing a bear suit, and I heard that she is really cute from one of my acquaintances.」
This bear again?
Who on earth was she?
She brought a lot of wolf meat, had an item bag that could contain all of them, captured the adventurers who attacked her in the morning, and finally, captured all of the bandits. What sort of bear was she!?
「Guild Master. With this, we can put the idea you had into actual practice. I really felt ashamed, but now, we can finally do something about it.」
Throughout the last month, in order for the employees to keep listening to me, I fed them one lie after the other.
First, we raised the price of the food, so that after the bandits were eliminated, we would have the money to buy a lot of it, and also be able to pay someone to kill the Kraken.
With that, half of the employees trusted me.
Those employees sold the food to the rich people, and I was able to earn a lot.
However, since the food was only being sold to rich people, the other employees and the populace started showing dissent.
Food couldn’t go to poor people.
I personally didn’t care about how many poor people died, but it would be troublesome, so I gave the parts of the wolves or other animals that didn’t sell well, as well as the fish that could hurt you when you ate it, to those who didn’t bring any money.
「Master?」
「Nothing. For now, we have to wait for the report from the Adventurer’s Guild. There might still be some bandits left.」
I didn’t think that bastard (Borg) could have been defeated.
「You are right. It would be really troublesome if we dispatched someone and there were some bandits left.」
The employee agreed with me, and then went away.
I returned to my room inside the Commerce Guild.
I couldn’t think of any good ideas.
At least, Borg wouldn’t have been captured and should be waiting at the place we agreed upon.
Otherwise, I just had to kill those three myself.
Still, I didn’t have enough information to make my move.
If I waited too long, the window to flee would disappear.
Even while just taking my time to think about this, time was ticking.
Lost in my thoughts, I heard someone knock on the door.
「What is it?」
「The Adventurer’s Guild Master came.」
She was here already?
What a woman with lots of free time.
「Lead her here then.」
「You see, she said she wanted you to come outside.」
「Why is that?」
「You see...」
「I understand. I just have to go, right?」
When I came out, the bandits I had employed were all lined up.
They were all tied up, and even their mouths were shut tight.
Did she call me out so that I could see this?
When I looked at the lined up bandits, Borg was...Borg?
His body showed that it was really him, but his face was in a terrible condition.
Even more than that, this Borg was quietly sitting on the floor.
The Borg I knew should have been acting violently by now. This was a scene I couldn’t even fathom.
Atora was standing guard in their midst.
Huh? I could see a little black thing behind Atora.
Bear?
There was a little girl wearing a Bear suit.
Was it possible that she was the Bear from the rumors? The bandits had been done in by a brat like this?
I could only laugh. My plans were destroyed by a strange girl like that?
To stop my laughter, I stifled a smile while asking a question as if nothing had happened.
「Are those the bandits?」
「That’s right. They all said that they were employed by you.」
「I have no idea why they would say that.」
「Are you really saying that again?」
「I don’t know what I don’t know.」
The bandits all glared at me.
It would have been better if they were killed right after they were caught.
「And where are you going, carrying this large item bag?」
I was wondering why she changed the subject so suddenly, but now I knew.
Was it possible that I had been monitored? Did they already know what I was doing here?
I looked into Atora’s eyes, and they were eyes filled with confidence.
「I am just using it for work. It has nothing to do with you.」
「Hoo, I see. Could I see what is inside it then?」
「I refuse. Why would I have to show it to you?」
I was right, she already knew.
If they had a look inside, there would be no more ways to slip out of this.
I had a lot of stolen items.
「I will take full responsibility! Capture Zarad!」
I tried to escape, but I couldn’t escape from the former adventurers, now employees of the Adventurer’s Guild.
「Stop it!」
They took my item bag and restrained me.
「Then, let me take a look at what’s inside.」
Atora pierced her sword through my item bag.
At that moment, all of the things inside the item bag spilled down on the floor.
The residents who saw it started making a fuss.
【Yuna’s point of view】
Atora-san forced me to come to the guild.
I didn’t think that they would need me though.
She said she wanted to bring out all of the bandits, and that they were really docile when I was with them. Was I some wild animal trainer?
She said that her reason for bringing the bandits was to see the other party’s reaction.
She was right, when he saw the face of Blitz’s friend, his expression changed.
Did I beat him a little too much?
For an instant, he looked in my direction and laughed a little. It was just for an instant, and then he turned towards Atora-san and started a verbal fight.
「I will take all responsibility! Capture Zarad!」
The employees of the Adventurer’s Guild started to move, and Atora-san took out her sword and pierced the item bag that the little plump man possessed.
The bag tore immediately, and all of the items inside it scattered on the floor.
When an item bag was torn, all of the items inside flowed out, huh.
Well, if it didn’t flow out when torn, you would be troubled, right?
「Hey, what is with this quantity?」
A lot of things that could be sold for money dropped on the floor.
「Huh, I saw that at Damon-san’s place!」
「And I saw that at Doju-san’s!」
The residents started making noise.
Among the things that were scattered on the floor, there was a little ring with a jewel inlaid. Seeing it, a woman muttered with a little voice.
「This is my...That’s the ring that the bandits stole from me when I was captured...」
The woman was one of the women who were captured by the bandits.
She rushed over and grasped the ring tightly.
Tears slowly dripped from her eyes.
「Sai...」
She called out a name.
Then she stood up and shouted.
「Bring Sai back!」
She approached Zarad and punched him in the face.
「Bring back Sai who you ordered the bandits to kill...」
The girl broke down crying.
Seeing that, the anger of the residents exploded.
Rocks were flung towards Zarad’s direction.
They pummelled his head and his body. Those rocks also hit the adventurers who were pinning him down.
The flying rocks were not stopping.
Blood started flowing from Zarad’s face.
Even after that, the residents didn’t stop throwing the rocks.
The employees of the Commerce Guild stood still, utterly dumbfounded.
「Stop it!」
Atora-san shouted.
Hearing her shout, the residents stopped throwing rocks and became silent.
「Zarad’s trial will be held as my responsibility. I assure that with my name as the Adventurer’s Guild master!」
Author’s note:
I knew it, it’s really boring when I write something where Yuna doesn’t appear.