Safekeeping of Valuables (4)
They had said no dungeon had ever appeared here. Yet the black Obelisk standing before my eyes meant one had just been created in the Behend Kingdom.
…I don’t know whether to call this good news or not.
The hidden piece I was after had finally shown up, which was great—except the chaos had to erupt right when I was trying to deposit our money. I was starting to worry that the man I meant to visit might already have fled. If I couldn’t leave the gold with him, the whole trip would have been a waste.
“So what are you going to do?”
“What do you mean, what~?”
Erinn closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. The playful glint had faded into something faintly serious.
“We go save people, of course.”
“There’s a Legion Commander involved, isn’t there? Can you take him on without any prep?”
Erinn answered without hesitation.
“Just because a black Obelisk appeared doesn’t guarantee the Magic Legion Commander himself is here~.”
“…Which also means he could be here.”
The black Obelisk was the Magic Legion Commander’s invasion weapon. Wherever one appeared, dungeonization began at once, and monsters teleported in using the Obelisk as a coordinate seized the area. Sometimes the Commander’s subordinates planted them. Sometimes the Commander did it himself. Walking in unprepared could mean running straight into a Demon King’s Legion Commander.
“Going in like this is dangerous.”
“Pfft. Is the scrub actually worrying about me right now~? How cheeky~♡”
“What?”
That was the thanks I got for fretting.
“Still, it’ll be fine.”
“Huh?”
“Because I’m not a scrub like Allen~♡”
Erinn said it with a mischievous little smile, then called out to Ser-Aria and Freya inside the carriage.
“Aria, Freya. You two come with me straight to the Obelisk. Everyone else heads into the capital right away~.”
“Mm, got it!”
“Yes.”
I pushed back a little against Erinn’s decision to split the party.
“Do we really need to split up? At least moving together would be—”
Dividing our forces when we had no idea what enemies were waiting felt like a bad call. I said as much, but Erinn refused to change her mind.
“We still have to deposit the money, don’t we~?”
“…Is depositing money really the priority right now?”
“Of course it is~. We came all this way. If we leave it with them, we won’t have problems moving around later~.”
Erinn continued.
“So secure that merchant’s safety. And let the Behend Kingdom know we’ve arrived.”
“I can handle that much alone. Let’s all move together.”
“No. We’re doing it this way.”
I couldn’t figure out why she insisted on sticking Letisia and Clara with me. I understood that at least one or two people needed to enter the capital and announce the Hero’s Party’s arrival, but I could do that by myself. There was no reason to split our strength.
Then Letisia spoke up.
“Erinn, Allen has Caesius now. One person with him should be enough.”
“You want me to trust this lizard~?”
So the reason she wanted to assign people was because I was weak. The fact that she was looking out for me, even a little, left me slightly—
“Do not call this body a lizard. And…”
Caesius cut in.
“If given the command, protecting my contractor’s safety is no trouble at all.”
I thought that sounded fine, yet Erinn still couldn’t wipe the unease from her face. Apparently I was that unreliable.
…Well, I am a weak little porter, so I get it.
Still, I felt I could at least protect myself now. Especially with Caesius right beside me.
That was when Clara stepped forward a little and spoke.
“…I’ll protect him, Erinn.”
“…Hmm.”
Erinn glanced at me, then looked at Clara.
“No need to go easy~.”
“…Okay.”
So Clara would stay with me. That meant Letisia could join Erinn’s side, which would shore up the firepower that had looked a bit thin with only three.
Erinn turned her head and stared at the black Obelisk.
“If you get hurt, you die~♡”
“…Me?”
“Who else is there~?”
“Puhaha! Be careful out there. Don’t get hurt!”
With that, Erinn vanished in a light tap of footsteps. Ser-Aria followed right after. Freya and Letisia glanced back at us for a moment.
“Please be careful.”
“Once you’ve informed the royal family, stay there. Don’t come this way.”
“Uh…”
The two of them quickly chased after Erinn and Aria. Once they were gone, I was left feeling a little awkward.
“Suddenly everyone’s worrying about me…”
Especially Erinn. “If you get hurt, you die” was just another way of saying “don’t get hurt.”
……Or is it?
Maybe it meant that if I got hurt I’d just be dead weight, so she’d kill me herself before I became a nuisance?
“…Allen, let’s go.”
“Ah, right.”
As Clara and I prepared to enter the capital, I looked at Caesius.
“Caesius, you protect me and Clara.”
“If that is a command.”
“Yeah.”
Since we were bound by contract, I needed to be clear.
“That’s an order.”
The interior of Belpaste, capital of the Behend Kingdom, was pure chaos.
“We have to run—!”
“Hurry, this way!!”
People poured out of the capital in a frantic rush to evacuate, while the capital defense force struggled to restore order and calm the panic.
“Please remain calm, citizens!”
“It’s more dangerous outside right now. Go back inside!”
“I said you can’t leave!”
The responses sometimes turned rough. Peace and order had collapsed in an instant, leaving only chaos. The sight overwhelmed me.
Clara tapped my arm and looked at me with remarkably calm eyes, then pointed somewhere.
“…Is that the merchant company you mentioned, Allen?”
“…Yeah.”
The building she indicated bore the sign of the Black Frog, the merchant company run by the NPC vault-keeper and merchant we had come to find.
“Coachman, take us over there.”
“Yes…”
As the carriage approached, that side looked fairly chaotic as well. From a merchant company’s perspective, relocating their base immediately would be the best move, so they were in a noisy scramble to prepare for flight…
“Guildmaster! Stop being so stubborn and let’s run! You know perfectly well what that Obelisk means, don’t you!?”
A man was dragging someone by the arm, clearly trying to force them to flee. The woman whose arm he held couldn’t match his strength and was being pulled along, yet she still scolded him in a clear, measured voice.
“We flee only after we’ve first moved everything our clients entrusted to us. Do you intend to betray our clients’ trust?”
“Trust can be rebuilt! Lives can’t be remade!”
“No.”
The woman pushed her glasses up and spoke.
“Once trust is broken, it cannot be restored. It would be faster to simply start a new life.”
“So you’re saying you’ll die, is that it!?”
“I’m saying I’m not leaving, Brad.”
“Guildmaster, please stop being so stubborn…!”
Their voices grew more heated. Clara, Caesius, and I climbed down from the carriage and approached them. I threw my support behind the woman’s position.
“It’s all right for you to stay here.”
“…And who might you be?”
“See? He says it’s fine.”
The man barked at me.
“Hey! Don’t fill the Guildmaster’s head with nonsense and just keep walking! Can’t you see the situation here? ‘It’s fine to stay’—what kind of garbage is that…”
“The Hero’s Party has arrived. Staying inside the capital is far safer than going outside right now.”
“…What?”
The man looked at me in mild confusion, then glanced at Clara beside me and seemed slightly startled.
“…The Hero’s Party of the Dern Empire?”
He already knew. Maybe that was only natural for a merchant company that dealt in so much information.
“See, Brad? I told you it would be fine.”
The woman shook off the arm of the man—Brad—who had been gripping hers, and spoke.
“So the Hero has gone to that place, then?”
“Yes.”
“In that case…”
She looked at me and asked,
“Why have her companions come to me?”
She already knew as well. Of course she did—if the man who looked like her secretary had recognized Clara, there was no way she hadn’t.
I offered a slight smile and a polite greeting.
“A pleasure to meet you, Guildmaster Ophelia.”
This was the NPC I had been looking for—Ophelia.
“As of this moment, we will be protecting your person.”
She was the one who would hold our money.
Ophelia looked mildly puzzled.
“Why would the Hero’s Party protect me?”
“No grand or noble reason.”
I pointed to the carriage that had come in with us.
“We need to deposit money.”
“…You came to deposit money in the middle of all this?”
Ophelia asked as if she couldn’t believe it. I nodded and added one more line.
“This is the one place we can entrust it to no matter what happens, after all.”
Ophelia let out a short, dry laugh.
“You’ve come to exactly the right person.”
“Guildmaster, this is hardly the time for business…”
“A client has arrived, Brad. What are you talking about?”
Ophelia gave a small smirk.
“Judging by the fact that they’re even guaranteeing my life, they must be depositing quite a fortune. We should treat them properly.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Bring tea at once. It doesn’t suit the situation, but basics are basics.”
With that, Ophelia walked back into the building. Brad looked back and forth between her retreating figure and me with an awkward expression, then sighed and followed her inside.
Clara nudged me lightly and whispered,
“…Her instincts are ridiculously sharp.”
That was probably the instinct of a vault-keeper who only dealt with big players.
“Caesius, bring the gold coins.”
“Understood.”
“And Clara—just for a short while is fine. Go to the royal palace quickly and let them know we’ve arrived. If the citizens hear that the Hero’s Party is here, this chaos should settle down a bit.”
“…Will you be all right?”
I nodded at Clara’s question and pointed to Caesius, who was gathering the gold coins.
“I’ve got that lizard, remember.”
“…I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be here.”
“…Okay.”
Clara vanished from the spot in a flash. Moments later, Caesius returned carrying the heavy pouches of gold coins.
“Where did the dark elf go?”
“To the royal palace for a bit. And her name is Clara.”
“…Clara. Understood.”
“Let’s go in.”
I stepped into the building, and Caesius followed right behind. The man who had been dragging Ophelia earlier—Brad—bowed his head.
“Allow me to greet you properly. Welcome to the Black Frog Merchant Company. I am Bradley, secretary directly under the Guildmaster.”
So Brad was a nickname.
“The person here is the owner of the Black Frog Merchant Company and the vault-keeper you have been seeking—Lady Ophelia.”
“A pleasure.”
I returned their greetings with a bow of my own.
“I am Allen, a member of Hero Erinn’s party of the Dern Empire.”
“Allen?… Ah, so you’re the porter of Hero Erinn’s party.”
Ophelia reacted as if she recognized the name. She even knew about the scrub porter—her information network was impressive.
……Scrub?
“…I’m not.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
I brushed it off as talking to myself. Ophelia gave a small nod.
“The others didn’t come?”
“One of our party members who was with us has gone to the royal palace to announce our arrival. The Hero and the rest of the party have entered combat.”
“I see.”
Ophelia looked at me for a moment, then asked,
“But if only the porter has come to protect me… I know this is rude, but honestly, I find it hard to trust. I at least thought the thief from earlier would be the one protecting me. How exactly is a porter supposed to guard my person?”
“It’s not so much that I’ll be protecting you…”
I glanced back at Caesius, who was holding the gold coins.
“She will.”
“…Now that you mention it, I’ve never heard of someone like her being in the Hero’s Party.”
“She has more than enough power to protect one or two people, so you can rest easy.”
“Is that so.”
Ophelia gave a slight nod.
“I can hardly interrogate the person who’s going to protect my life any further. I’ll trust you. Shall we get to the main point, then?”
The way she treated the matter of her own life as secondary and the money as the main point told me just how seriously this woman took anything related to gold.
“You wish to deposit money.”
“Caesius, show her.”
“Understood.”
Caesius set down a single heavy pouch. Ophelia looked at it as if asking whether that was all. I shook my head.
“All of it.”
Caesius left one pouch on the floor and placed the rest on the table.
“…Are these all gold coins?”
“Four hundred gold coins per pouch. Seven thousand six hundred in total.”
Bradley’s eyes beside Ophelia went wide. Ophelia let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re entrusting me with a fortune of this size?”
“Yes.”
“With what mindset, exactly? Do you not understand the value of seven thousand six hundred gold coins? Or is this money somehow tied to crime?”
“Of course not. We’re the Hero’s Party. We wouldn’t handle money linked to crime.”
“Then…”
“I understand the value of this much gold perfectly well. That’s exactly why I want to leave it with you.”
I said,
“Is there anyone in this land who values credit more than you do?”
“…I don’t know if you truly understand. I do place enormous importance on credit, yes, but with this much money I could abandon the company I’m running now, go somewhere else, and start a new one without any trouble.”
Ophelia asked,
“What do you plan to do if I simply do that—handing over this entire sum without even splitting it?”
“Abandon the company you’re running?”
A short laugh escaped me. As if she would.
“How do you plan to abandon a company that seven thousand six hundred gold coins couldn’t even buy?”
“….”
Ophelia’s words stopped. Bradley’s gaze toward me shifted slightly as well. I smiled at the two of them.
“Did I pass the test?”
“…I have no idea how you figured it out. Is this place simply too awkward?”
“The Black Frog Merchant Company? No, it doesn’t feel particularly awkward.”
I said,
“I just knew from the beginning and came looking for you.”
“Haha.”
Ophelia let out a light laugh. Then she rose from her seat and began opening the pouches Caesius had set down one by one.
“Seven thousand six hundred gold coins. All genuine.”
“Of course.”
“Very well. A client of this caliber more than qualifies as someone I’ll take on.”
Ophelia removed her glasses with a soft click. She lightly tied up the hair she had left somewhat disheveled, then drew a small business card from an inner pocket.
“Allow me to introduce myself properly once more.”
The card she handed over did not show a black frog. It bore a roaring golden eagle.
“I am Ophelia, Guildmaster of Aurum Aquila.”