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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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After dealing with the demon, we left for the Imperial City early in the morning.
Couldn’t you have stayed at the inn and left in the morning?
I hate getting caught up in annoying situations.
Dealing with the demon was fine, but the problem was that the demon we dealt with was a marquis of the empire and the lord of the marquisate.
We should have been rewarded, but just the thought of being summoned by the emperor and dealing with formalities was annoying, so we left quickly.
But since we couldn’t leave without any explanation, we left a note explaining the situation.
I’m sure the butler there is competent, so they’ll handle it.
If they aren’t an idiot, they should be able to figure out who the culprit was just from us disappearing, so we came back after cleaning up nicely.
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Knock, knock.
“Master, may I come in?”
Even though the butler knocked, there was no response from inside the room.
Usually, there would be a reply right away, so the butler knocked a few more times.
But with no response, the butler opened the door, feeling suspicious.
“Please forgive my intrusion.”
The butler saw the smell of blood and someone who resembled the marquis slumped in a corner.
“…!”
The overall appearance was that of the Marquis, but the skin color was dull, and he had underdeveloped horns and wings, so he wasn’t human anymore.
“Wh-what is…”
There was a note on the demon’s face.
The butler moved closer to confirm the contents of the note, which were short.
[Your Marquis went crazy lol.]
And in the middle of the note:
[I took your vault as overtime pay lol.]
And at the very bottom of the note:
[If you tell anyone who did it, I’ll make you like that guy over there.]
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“Haaawn~”
“Luke, are you sure it was okay to leave things like that?”
“What else should I have done?”
They should be thanking us for doing that much.
Our request was to subjugate monsters, not to save the Marquisate, you know?
If it’s their territory, they have to take care of it themselves. What more do they want from us?
This world doesn’t even have overtime pay, yet they keep pushing people.
If I hadn’t robbed the Marquis’s vault, I was going to rob all the houses in the territory, just like a hero in green.
I filled in my lack of sleep with a lap pillow, and since we left the marquisate before sunrise, we reached the Imperial City just as the sun was rising.
We headed to the Adventurer’s Guild first to get paid.
I came to the guild often since being an adventurer was our job, but since we’ve been coming here nearly every day recently, it felt like home.
But the guild was packed for some reason.
Even more so than that time when I killed that annoying pig who sent assassins after me.
I had a hunch about it, and I just took care of it this morning, so the report shouldn’t have arrived here faster than us.
Maybe a real S-rank adventurer has come.
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
As I headed towards Adela, she gave me ‘that line’.
“How did the designated request go?”
“I solved it.”
“That’s a relief. The client wasn’t a strange person, was he?”
“No, he was a weird guy. He had slit eyes, so I hit him once, and then I hit him again because he was annoying.”
“…”
“I hit him extra hard for you, Adela. Aren’t I great?”
“…”
Adela’s lips were shut tight.
Hehe. She’s so moved she can’t even speak.
I’ll add this to your debt, so you can slowly repay me later.
I took the request form stamped with the seal out of my inventory and handed it to Adela.
Now the designated request was completely over.
“But what’s with all the commotion this morning?”
“Ah… Something big happened.”
“Did the Emperor die?”
“…That’s a comment punishable by death for insulting the imperial family, so please be careful.”
“So what? Everyone dies eventually.”
“Please don’t drag me into this…”
All people must die eventually.
Later, when the empire is invaded and the Emperor is in danger, I’ll help them.
Dying is not a bad thing, right?
Rather, they say death is a luxury, don’t they?
I’m just going to help them have a bit of luxury.
“So what’s the big deal?”
“Crown Rodion, the head of the Marquis family, was found dead this morning, demonized.”
“Hee…”
That’s fast, given that I just killed him this morning.
How did the news spread faster than us, who rode the carriage right after?
“The news travels fast. Is there a special magic that receptionists can use?”
“No. There’s a magic tool for emergency communications.”
A magic tool again.
In this world that didn’t have any science and technology, without even a magic tool, they’re just like primitive men who could make fire with their hands.
“If there’s such a convenient thing, then why did you bother with letters and stuff?”
“Using it requires a lot of magical power. So, it can only be used in big events like this.”
Tch. It would’ve been nice if they had something like a smartphone.
I should have commented on that modern fantasy novel that was in 2nd place.
“That’s why there’s such a commotion now. The news must have already reached His Majesty.”
Well, a marquis is second only to a duke.
There’s no way they’d let such a high-ranking noble betraying humanity slide.
It was a good decision to just leave a note.
If we had stayed any longer, the imperial family would have sent someone from the royal palace to praise us.
Just the thought is annoying.
“But are you going to make the information public? It’s supposed to be a secret, but it seems that all the adventurers here already know about it.”
“Haa… information is always like that. No matter how much you try to conceal it, it’s bound to leak somewhere. Information, once released, quickly becomes a rumor, and rumors spread like wildfire before long.”
Words spoken during the day are heard by birds, and words spoken at night are heard by rats, huh?
That’s why rumors are so scary.
Regardless of whether they are true or not, they spread faster than a virus.
“What’s the current situation like?”
“The royal family is looking for someone to manage the vacant marquisate. Because of that, the Academy is in chaos. The family name ‘Rodion’ is now gone in the Empire, and all students with the Rodion surname have been held accountable.”
Wow, did he have a kid?
Whoever it is must be devastated.
They were studying diligently, only to have their life fall apart because of their father.
“Their response to the demonization is intense.”
Since he was a Marquis, I was expecting that it would end with demotion or asset forfeiture, but.
They just made his existence disappear.
“He was a traitor to humanity.”
Well, if you’re branded a traitor, your life’s pretty much over.
Actually, in a game from my past life, there was a cat-eared female character who betrayed humanity and the backlash was intense.
She got so many haters, she even became a meme, with so many pictures and stories about the mistreatment of her character popping up.
The marquis’s child at the Academy is probably being labeled a “traitor’s child”.
“By the way… wasn’t the place you went to the Rodion Marquisate…?”
“Don’t know lol.”
Clap!
That was the moment when the chattering in the adventurer’s guild suddenly stopped, and everyone’s attention was fixed on one spot.
When someone clapped loudly, the eyes of all adventurers in the guild turned to the source of the sound.
The sound came from somewhere above the first floor, and when everyone’s eyes looked up, a man was standing alone at the top of the stairs.
I wasn’t unfamiliar with that man.
He had a scar running down his right eye, and the white streaks in his hair made it easy to guess his age, but unlike his age, the aura that flowed from the man was nothing like that of an ordinary adventurer.
That great man was an A-rank adventurer and the Guild Master of the Imperial City branch.
It was Argo, who I saw for the first time when I first came to join the Adventurer’s Guild, and never saw again until now.
“It’s nice to see you all lively so early in the morning, but I’d appreciate it if you could also think of my pride.”
Argo, who stood on the stairs as if it was a podium, smiled.
To say he smiled, but in reality, it was just his lips that were curled up; his eyes weren’t smiling at all.
And then, everyone became silent.
“Adela, what does that mean?”
I didn’t understand, so I whispered to Adela.
“For the empire, it’s shameful news that a noble who is the cornerstone of the nation has betrayed them, so it wouldn’t be nice for it to become a subject of gossip, especially among adventurers who you never know how they’ll act.”
“So?”
“Do you still not understand…?”
“Nope.”
“…Sigh. The point is that you need to tell the adventurers to shut their mouths.”
Aha.
Then you could have just told us that, why beat around the bush?
This is why I went to science and engineering, not humanities.
“Alright. Thank you for understanding.”
Then, Argo, who had turned his back to leave, turned around again, as if remembering something.
“Oh, right. The academy has requested adventurers to help with their training. Anyone interested? They’re requesting D-rank or higher.”
Everyone in the guild became quiet.
“Is there really no one? The pay is good.”
Argo asked again, but the adventurers were still silent.
“Luke, why doesn’t anyone want to go?”
“Because adventurers are oil and academy students are water.”
They’re like two beings that could never mix.
When I first went to the guild, I got challenged because I was wearing the academy uniform.
I haven’t seen that bald guy lately.
It’s obvious that if they go, the academy students would tease them, so who would want to go, even if they paid well?
No, wait, it would be better if it was just the students.
There were professors who thought they were better than everyone else, and the professors might openly look down on them.
So, considering the relationship between academy students and adventurers, it’s natural for them to not go.
“Aha…”
“We’re done, so let’s go rest.”
Just as I was about to leave.
“You. In the academy uniform, stop right there.”
It seemed like they were looking for someone, but since it wasn’t about me, I was about to leave.
“Luke. Don’t move.”
If only he didn’t call my name.
I was wearing the academy uniform, wasn’t I?
No wonder everyone was looking at me when they said the “academy uniform”.
“I’m not Luke!”
“If you help with this request, I’ll let you take the B-rank promotion exam.”
“That’s right! I am Luke!”
Abuse of power is the best.
Loyalty, loyalty.
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