Chapter 44: After What Occurred

（Teacher…!）

『Ah, it’s got quite the amount of magical power. It might just reach Threat Level D! Be careful!』

「Nn!」

Despite my approximation, whatever’s approaching has a peculiar magical power. It’s not the same as a Demonic Beast’s, Human’s, or… Well, anything’s. Really, it’s quite a strange magic power.

And that enigmatic presence is coming towards us at frightening speed. Perhaps it’s aiming at Fran? No, the idiot Viscount still counts as a Noble, so maybe he’s the target?

Well, anyway, this is no time to be careless.

「W-Why is your sword still drawn?! D-Do you intend to kill me?!」

For some reason Auguste is being noisy. Thinking about it, it’d be bothersome if he became a hindrance during the fight, so let’s have him be quiet for now. Lv3 Dark Magic: 『Mind・Lost』. It’s a spell that steals the target’s consciousness, causing them to faint. My guess is that this guy won’t have any resistance.

「Ah…….?」

*thmp*

Moving the collapsed Viscount to the side, we remain waiting for a few tens of seconds, and what showed itself was a strange half-translucent thing. How to describe it… It’s like a water sphere that keeps winding and changing its form while floating in the air.

「Miss Fran, you haven’t killed him, right?」

「?」

Suddenly, it started talking. Wait, it’s not guaranteed that it’s actually talking, as there isn’t any evidence of it having a mouth — let alone a face. Still, I think that it’s talking. Its voice seems familiar, too.

「Guild Master?」

「That’s right. Ah, is this your first time seeing one of these? This is one of the kinds of Spirits I use. Please, be at ease.」

「Spirit… First time seeing one.」

It’s also my first time coming across something like this. How should I say this… It’s a bit different from what I imagined. I had thought that Spirits would have a more humanoid appearance — something like a Sylph or an Undine.

It seems Fran was thinking along similar lines.

「Somehow, strange」

「What is strange! To call it strange… This child is an Intermediate level Spirit, therefore is has no human appearance. However, this child is also cute by all means you know!]

「Cuter ones: better.」

「The ones with humanoid appearances are Superior Spirits. There is no way someone would summon such a being for anything other than combat.」

Ah, so Spirits with humanoid appearance are Superior Spirits. Furthermore, the Guild Master is able to summon ones like that. This one’s only an Intermediate level, but it already has a lot of magical power, so just how powerful would a superior one be, I wonder?

If he can have several Spirits summoned simultaneously, then he’s quite the force to be reckoned with… The Guild Master is already tremendously strong all by himself, so with the addition of Spirits, wouldn’t it be a bit out of hand? Well, I guess that’s to be expected from a Guild Master.

「What did you want?」

「Oops, that’s right. I received information that Viscount Auguste left the town chasing after you.」

That only just happened… He has some pretty good ears.

「The gatekeeper, Sir Dert, kindly notified me. It was something along the lines of ‘Viscount Auguste went out chasing after her, will she be alright?’.」

Dert, I’m sorry for having thought that you might be a lolicon. You were just a good person.

「Nn. He appeared.」

「As I thought! An appeal to the Guild came in about securing the Viscount behind the scenes. You didn’t kill him, right? Right? Erm, maybe you accidentally killed him? That sure would be troublesome!」

「Didn’t kill.」

「R-Really? Good! Then, I’d like to take him off your hands. Of course, you won’t be handing him over for free.」

「Okay.」

「Really? Thank you! Well then, I will immediately make my way towards your location, so could you guard him for the time being?」

「Nn.」

「Then, excuse me!」

At with the Guild Master’s words, the Spirit’s figure disappeared. It seems that it was used in place of a messenger.

10 minutes later, the figure of the Guild Master appeared. Pretty fast. Seem like he put quite a bit of effort into coming out here.

「Miss Fran, thank you for waiting.」

「Nn.」

「Viscount Augusto is… Ah, there he is. Hey, over here.」

The Adventurers the Guild Master brought along lifted the Viscount up and carried him off.

「Where will he go?」

「Ah, to the source of the request: Count Olmës[E1].」

That’s a name I haven’t heard yet. Who is he?

「Count Olmës is Viscounts Auguste’s esteemed father.」

「Father detaining his child?」

「Yes. I would like this to remain between just us, but from the start Viscount Auguste had a problematic personality. Still, for the sake of possessing the Law of Lies Skill, Count Olmës didn’t punish him, but instead used him.」

「Nn.」

「However… A few days ago, the Skill suddenly vanished. The reason is unknown, as it’s quite an unusual situation. Well, it’s possible that because he only used his Skill for worthless things, one of the Gods punished him.」

Hmmmm, he was given a punishment alright. Therefore, it’d be fine to be seen like that.

「Anyways, how he ended up after losing the Skill left even me astonished. He was the type to use the Skill to distinguish truth from lies with whoever he met, so when it was lost, it appears he became unable to trust anyone anymore.」

I see. If a Skill you had since birth was lost, then what would become of you? In his case, he became distrustful of other humans. Well, it wasn’t that simple, of course. It was more along the lines of completely breaking.

I had only thought that I obtained a convenient Skill, but… I should refrain from using it as much as possible. I don’t want to become like the foolish viscount. Thinking that I’d be alright so long as I had that Skill… I’m not special enough for something like that to become reality.

「A few days prior to the discovery he also caused problems towards members of the Royal House, who were visiting for an inspection. Disregarding all semblances of etiquette, he grabbed at them and started shouting not to tell lies in front of an audience.」

Uwaa… That’s terrible. No, wait… We also stole the Court Etiquette Skill, didn’t we? Did that also…?

「And, while under house arrest, he slipped out of his room and hid himself. On that occasion, it seems that he took quite the sum of money with him… Most of it, he apparently used. We tracked his spending all the way to the place he bought some expensive armor.」

In all likelihood, that was done under the influence of Gyuran. Then, after catching Fran he intended to abandon Aressa and escape… As if this idiotic noble would be able to pull that off.

「In Count Olmës case, he doesn’t want this ordeal to breed a large commotion. And so, before Viscount Auguste made any more commissions, he came requesting to have him secured in secret.]

「Secret?」

「Correct. This is my personal opinion, but I believe he’s concealed the fact that his son lost the Skill and plans to make use of it in some way. Whether he plans on directly manipulating him, or perhaps plans on using some manner of medical treatment to get the Skill back remains to be seen, but… For the time being, he wants to restrain the Viscount. And so, as to prevent the exposure of this incident, the Count wanted to proceed with the highest possible degree of secrecy. It’s something along this lines.」

Hm Hmm… So in other words… Hush money has been prepared?

「*Jiiー*[M1]」

「…… Don’t stare so much. You have the privilege of having this treated as an accomplished commission with a bonus properly added on top.」

「Nn. Of course.」

「In exchange… You already know, right?」

「Mouth: sealed.」

Towards the suddenly nodding, seemingly self-confident Fran the Guild Master directed a strangely uneasy gaze.

「Haa. Truly, I beg of you: keep it a secret. The other party is a powerful Noble after all. If he’s angered various troubles are sure to follow.」

We also want to be spared from being dragged into the family troubles of Nobility. Even if we weren’t asked, there’s no way we’d go around spreading rumors.

「Well, in regards to the Viscount’s personal effects I was told there was no need to recover them, so don’t worry.」

It seems that it’s been concluded that we plundered the equipment alongside and a large sum of money. Er, it’s a bit different, you know?

… It seems our debt towards the Guild Master has increased.

Afterwards, we made the decision to keep Fran’s name from the Count. For such a powerful Noble, I doubt he’d have interest in the name of a commoner. It’d be really unlikely, right? Still, this is just in case.

By the way, the commission fee alongside the hush money added up to 200,000Gorudo, so all of a sudden our money doubled.

As one would expect of a Noble’s commission. Their sense of money must be strange indeed.

[E1] オルメス

[M1] The sound effect for staring intensely.