3. This Is a Bribe, Defeat the Finance Director
3. This Is a Bribe, Defeat the Finance Director
After parting with Princess Beatrice, I didn't head to my next bribery target. I turned straight back toward my office.
No profound reason. The bribe box was just fucking heavy.
'That maid carried this thing around like it was nothing?!'
Some of the gems inside had to be gravity stones and condensation stones—absurdly dense for their size. A box barely the size of two palms topped twenty kilograms with ease.
I was supposed to lug this around and call on the rest of my bribe candidates? The plan could wait until just before the entrance ceremony. Tomorrow. Right now, my only priority was getting the box onto my desk.
Damn this useless body. If I were even 2nd Rank, hauling this thing would be trivial.
Wrestling a small box through a crowded campus, my shirt soaked through with sweat—there was no hope of avoiding stares. I faked composure as best I could and somehow dragged myself back to my office.
"Stupidly heavy."
Thud!
The sound alone announced the weight when I finally dropped the box onto my desk in the office adjoining the Chairwoman's.
I wiped the sweat from my brow, shook out my hands, and stared at the precious metals inside.
And fell into thought.
'What do I do with this?'
This bribe was fundamentally different from the one with Risha. Risha was from the same kingdom, which let us move gold coin discreetly through various channels.
Beatrice, as a foreign hostage, had nothing but the valuables she'd smuggled in when she was taken.
And obviously, I couldn't use raw gemstones as budget. Research funds, salaries, repair costs, maintenance—I had to convert them into gold coin somehow.
'Use the Chairwoman's connections?'
My eyes drifted toward the Chairwoman's office next door, where she was probably buried in paperwork. I looked away.
That would be the simplest route, but I couldn't run to her every time Beatrice handed over a bag of jewels. It wasn't a matter of conscience—I wasn't above asking for help repeatedly. It was pure efficiency.
'Finding a jeweler in the next town would be faster than tapping the Chairwoman's network.'
But using the Chairwoman's people would likely fetch a higher price than any ordinary merchant would pay. The trade-off was time—conversion would take longer.
What should I do?
Was there any way to use them as-is, without converting?
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
"......Adam."
"Ah, Laura?"
I wondered who it was.
What brings her here all of a sudden?
"You're being summoned. That guy's here."
"Huh?"
Summoned? That guy?
It took me a second to process.
"The dwarf. He showed up in a single day."
"Ah!"
"Adam...... brace yourself. Dwarves are notorious for being insufferable pricks."
The dwarf. Right, I'd called for one because the Rank Measuring Device got wrecked.
The thought of the repair bill sent a fresh wave of nausea churning through my guts, and a murderous impulse toward the protagonist who'd destroyed it followed right behind. I suppressed it.
Because a better idea had just occurred to me.
"Right, the short-stack dirt-grubbers."
"......Don't call them that in front of the dwarf."
Why not? They call us humans all the time. Surely a little racial slander was fair game?
Anyway, my idea was simple.
'A place I can use raw precious metals.'
And one had just presented itself.
All that remained was.
......gathering my resolve.
*
"Bring me liquor! Liquor!"
"......My apologies, but alcohol is prohibited in the reception rooms."
"I don't care about your rules—get me liquor! Is this how you treat an honored guest?!"
"To begin with, the academy doesn't stock alcohol......."
"Hah! I'll just leave, then! If I walk out, it's your loss!"
He wanted to kill him.
The academy staffer assigned to entertain the "honored guest" until the official handler arrived had thought it dozens of times already.
He kept smiling, straining for politeness, but the guest was relentlessly unreasonable, and the smile had long since stiffened into an awkward grimace. The honored bastard across from him clearly knew it and was deliberately cranking up the obnoxiousness.
Half the height of an adult man, a frame packed with muscle, a shaggy beard.
The honored guest—the dwarf—scratched his belly and bellowed again for alcohol.
The staffer cursed his luck at drawing the short straw and did his best to pacify the dwarf.
"Grandis Academy considers the dwarves good friends and valued business partners. If you could just wait a little longer—"
"Friends? Partners? Watch your mouth! We dwarves humor you out of charity—don't you dare, you mere human!"
Could I kill him? Maybe not kill him—just hit him once. Would that be so wrong?
Just as the staffer, spattered with spittle from the dwarf's wide-open, shouting mouth, was eyeing the chair beside him and fighting his rage.
The reception room door swung open, and two figures entered—a man and a woman.
"Thank you for waiting. I am Adam Caines, Finance Director of Grandis Academy."
"Finance Director......!!"
Ordinarily he bad-mouthed the Finance Director as an arrogant young upstart, but right now the man was a savior.
The staffer bowed over and over, showering Director Adam with silent gratitude and swearing to himself never to speak ill of him again, then fled the reception room without a backward glance.
Adam Caines, Finance Director, settled into the seat across from the dwarf. Laura Edelwein took her place standing behind him.
And immediately.
"The same little brat from last year, eh?"
"That is correct."
"You humans really are hard up for talent. Sending a whelp who hasn't even sprouted hair on his tackle yet. What's the matter? Here to hide behind that Chairwoman human again and wag your tail, same as last year?"
"......!! That is utterly—"
Laura's face twisted with contempt as she glared at the snickering dwarf.
But before the dwarf could fire back, Adam's hand went up, and she stopped short, falling silent.
The dwarf merely snorted at the display. He crossed his legs, draped one arm over the back of his chair in an insolent pose, and fixed his eyes on Adam.
"Looks like you've grown some patience since last year. Little brat."
"I noticed it last time too, but dwarves truly are a race of forthrightness."
"......What?"
"Your city got leveled by a monster wave, and now you're running wild knowing full well the Chairwoman isn't nearby."
"................"
"Bow to the strong, strut before the weak—whether monsters or the Chairwoman. Truly the pinnacle of forthright behavior."
"You miserable shit."
"Oh, did the whelp who hasn't even sprouted hair on his tackle strike a nerve? The gentleman with a thicket of it right under his chin?"
Pfft.
Laura stifled a small laugh at Adam's delivery, while the dwarf's face crumpled spectacularly.
For dwarves, the half-ruined city from the monster wave and any insult to their beards were sacred taboos.
The dwarf looked ready to launch himself at Adam with a volley of curses, but—
"......Hoo."
He took a few deep breaths, his expression hardening into something cold as he shifted his posture.
From the insolent sprawl to a pose with his chin resting on one hand.
His tone now carrying genuine disbelief.
"That monster of a human isn't even at your side anymore. What exactly are you counting on, running your mouth like that?"
"You lot may act like uncivilized pigs, but this is still Grandis Academy. Even if you burst my head open, you'd die screaming under every torture imaginable. My life is guaranteed, isn't it?"
"Tch. You really are a lunatic."
"Be grateful I didn't call you a dirt-grubber."
"You just did, you maniac. Anyway, aren't you being a bit excessively hostile?"
"I got angry thinking about what you did to our staffer earlier. I'm over it now. Let's get to business."
"............."
Adam produced a contract with the same shameless air as if the entire sharp exchange had never happened.
Laura, standing behind him, and the dwarf across the table both shot him briefly nonplussed looks before turning their attention to the documents he'd laid out.
"The repair item is one Rank Measuring Device. The core is completely destroyed. You've already inspected it, I assume?"
"Yeah, I don't know which bastard did it, but they wrecked it good. Clearly a sword strike from someone 6th Rank or higher. You were that eager to see us, you just stood there and let it happen?"
"Fuck."
"What?"
"I was agreeing with you. Fuck, my measuring device."
".........."
There was a reason I'd agreed when the protagonist countered with five times the standard tuition instead of double. Regulations required a new contract for that kind of fee.
I'd been planning to bury the exam-site repair costs and the measuring-device repair costs in installment payments hidden inside the new contract. Sprinkled across other line items, they wouldn't draw notice.
Still, that didn't bring the measuring device back right now, so the profanity slipped out naturally.
Seventy percent directed at the protagonist, thirty percent at the dwarf.
"A-Anyway, I've inspected it. Conclusion first: repair is obviously possible."
"How long will it take?"
"Bring me the materials, and under three days. Now—shall we get to the real business?"
The dwarf was right. Everything so far had been mere skirmishing.
The real fight was the repair estimate.
"The type differs a lot from last year's, but the cost won't vary much. Something like this?"
"Are you insane? You expect us to supply the materials too?"
"Well, we could prepare them for you. At an additional charge, of course."
The figure the dwarf proposed wasn't just gouging—it was outright robbery.
The Rank Measuring Device was a versatile piece of equipment. Used in entrance exams, midterm assessments, final evaluations before graduation—basically indispensable.
And there were only ten of them. Each one was precious.
The dwarf had clearly seen through the academy's predicament and priced his work accordingly.
The unspoken logic: you have to fix it anyway, don't you? So you'll accept my terms.
Adam, however, only frowned slightly.
"Then let's consider this matter closed."
"What?"
"The measuring device is necessary for the academy, yes, but not enough to swallow repair costs like these. Nine or ten—it won't make much difference."
"Human, are you serious?"
"Let's be frank. I'm not the one using the measuring device. I'll simply inform the students that wait times for device access will be a little longer from now on. That's it."
Adam's statement was brazen to an extreme, but not entirely absurd.
If the academy had only one device, that would be one thing—but there were still nine others. And honestly, whether you had ten or nine, the absolute shortage was the same.
Students already had to apply and wait days to use the machine.
An extra day or two of waiting wasn't going to spark riots. It wouldn't cause a catastrophic disruption to academy operations.
The Chairwoman might not be able to say that, but the Finance Director could. He could simply declare that rather than pay that sum, the academy would endure a little inconvenience.
"............."
"................"
But Adam did not, as he had in the negotiation with the Raven Trading Company, make a show of storming out to pressure his opponent.
He knew that bluff wouldn't work on this particular opponent. And for all his talk, fixing the device was still the best outcome.
The dwarf, for his part, was in a similar position. The dwarven city had been half-destroyed by the monster wave and, even after more than twenty years, remained under reconstruction.
With astronomical sums pouring into rebuilding, there was no way rations and wages were flowing smoothly to every dwarf. The dwarves operated on a performance-based system.
Simply put, secure a contract, and you got paid and supplied according to the result. Which meant the dwarf across from him absolutely could not afford to walk away from this repair deal.
The payout he would receive for closing this one job beggared imagination.
In the end, it was a game of chicken. Both sides had compelling reasons to finalize the deal; both sides hurled insults and made outrageous statements and probed for weaknesses, but neither would actually leave the table.
The silence that seemed it might stretch on forever—
"Well. Why don't you take a look at this first."
"Hm?"
Thud.
—was broken when Adam abruptly placed a small box onto the table.
Inside the box, whose ominous weight had been announced by the sound alone.
"Oh, oh, ooooh......!?"
"Well?"
Lay a trove of jewels and gold, more than enough to cover the figure the dwarf had named earlier, with plenty to spare.
Finely crafted gold ornaments, high-purity gravity stones, condensation stones that compressed over ten kilograms of mass into objects smaller than a fingernail.
Each one a thing of high value in the dwarven world.
"S-So you're not paying in gold coin like last year?"
"Don't dwarves just convert gold coin back into gems and precious metals to carry home anyway? It's more convenient for you if we start with this."
"Well, that's true. Heavens, how much is all this......?"
"Do you consider this sufficient for the repair fee?"
"Sufficient? Of course! More than sufficient!!"
Infamously shameless as dwarves might be, faced with this quantity of valuables, even this one had no intention of playing coy and calling it a little short.
If he tried that and Adam packed the box back up, it was all over. The dwarf's eyes were glued to the gemstones and gravity stones.
Which was why.
"Ah, is that so?"
"......Huh?"
The dwarf didn't notice.
That this mere 1st Rank Finance Director—someone he could crush with one hand—
Shing!
Had drawn a dagger.
Thunk!!!!
And buried it into the table right beside the dwarf's face.
"Wha—ghk!?"
"You dirt-grubbing little shit. Do I look like a mark to you? Sufficient, my ass. You've got some nerve."
"You lunatic!! What do you think you're doing?!"
"That's my line. If the repair fee on one measuring device actually cost this much, your city would've been fully rebuilt ages ago. A little extra, sure—you're trying to swallow the whole hoard?"
"Are you looking for a fight?"
Crack.
The dwarf's thick hand closed around Adam's wrist, and an ominous sound rang out.
Adam was, after all, only 1st Rank. The dwarf's own level wasn't especially high, but it still exceeded 4th Rank. The power gap was enormous.
Even so.
Adam only grinned, insolent.
"Fine by me. Going to the underworld with a conscienceless bastard who calls double the price 'sufficient'—there are worse fates."
"............."
Could you really call this a negotiation? It was barely distinguishable from street thugs trading insults.
But Laura, standing behind Adam, understood.
If his opponent were human, perhaps not. But when the other party was a 'dwarf'—
All of this was practically a procedural step. As Adam had needled earlier, dwarves refused to conduct proper negotiations or dialogue with 'the weak.'
You had to resort to rough measures. You had to burn your presence into the dwarf's awareness, make yourself recognized as an equal.
Only then would dwarves drop the attitude and talk seriously. It was why everyone on the academy's staff dreaded dealing with them.
It wasn't just enduring their tyranny—it was having to put on this exact performance just to be acknowledged for a single negotiation.
A dagger kissing the dwarf's neck. The dwarf glaring at Adam.
After yet another exchange of withering stares—they'd lost count by now—
"......Half."
"Half would've been right, normally. But I'm feeling vindictive. One-third."
"You think I'll accept that?"
"It just became one-fourth."
"I'll say it again: half."
"One-fifth."
"I don't mean half as the repair fee. Give me half of that box, and I'll repair the measuring device... and throw in one extra. How about that? In exchange."
"The contract says you received only one-third, and you pocket the difference?"
"Quick on the uptake. I like that."
"Fine. Not bad."
And so.
A negotiation that had begun with bullying, descended into cursing, cycled through mutual probing, tried to inflate the repair fee, and escalated all the way to a drawn dagger—
Resolved itself with barely a moment's exchange.
Watching the dwarf and Adam shake hands with thoroughly satisfied smiles, as if they hadn't just been threatening each other seconds ago—
"......Really, Adam, grad school suits you better than the Finance Director's chair."
Laura.
Muttered the most terrifying thing said in that room.