78. Information Guild
78. Information Guild
The meal with Father was very peaceful.
It shouldn't have been peaceful.
I'd planned to ask Father about the hidden stories of Eustetia—the ones I'd deliberately avoided reading in the Forbidden Archive.
That was the plan... but I just didn't ask.
Instead of asking, I just made idle small talk.
Things that happened at the academy, reaching Tier 5, gossip about the imperial family, that sort of thing.
Oh, and I showed him my Device.
Father didn't seem all that surprised, so he must have already known, but when he saw the list of... hmm, friends? friends saved in my contacts, he smiled warmly.
And when he saw Fabiana's name, he was enormously startled and worried himself over nothing.
Even while all that was happening, Father kept looking like he was worrying and agonizing over what I might ask.
Actually, it looked like he was waiting for me to ask.
Even so, I didn't ask anything.
I just, hmm... I guess you could say I didn't want to break that peaceful time.
If it had been me in my Past Life, I would've asked right away without a second thought... why did I end up like this?
My heart seemed to have gotten a little soft.
Is it following my body? My rock-solid mind?
No way. That can't be.
It was just that my mental age had gone up a bit, and on top of that I'd been spending time in a very peaceful, cozy household, so I must have changed like this.
And more than anything... hmm.
I didn't want to have a heavy conversation with Father after not seeing him for so long, and I didn't want to make things awkward for him or make him worry.
And the Nameless Captain.
That peaceful atmosphere included the Nameless Captain too.
But that guy really didn't eat anything.
And he didn't say a single word either.
He just sat there in the same posture, cynically nodding, tilting his head, shaking his head—that was it.
I didn't know what fun he got out of tagging along.
I even tried talking to him with the implication that if he was going to be like that, he should leave everything to Uncle Kerion and go do some work.
When he heard that, he hung his head like he'd been deeply wounded and sulked for a while.
Someday... I want to peel off that mask.
He refuses to take it off even if it kills him, and the more he refuses, the more I want to peel it off—that's human psychology for you.
At least, for me.
I've been cursed out all over the place for being born with a rebellious streak, and the more someone hates something, the more intensely I want to do it.
I don't know when it'll be, but I made a vow that within five years, I'll definitely peel off that mask.
With that sort of feeling, we chatted about this and that, recalled lots of memories, laughed, ate, drank, and finished a peaceful dinner.
Father said he needed to head back to the Eustetia Duchy now, dropped me off at the academy, and hurried off.
And the Nameless Captain, after watching me enter the academy, melted into the crowd with a haughty, leopard-like stride.
Left alone like that, I didn't go straight into the academy. Instead, I headed in the opposite direction from where the Nameless Captain had walked.
I moved toward the back alleys of the Imperial Capital—the place where Stella had almost been kidnapped.
I'd heard a bit about it from Sara, but after confirming it again with what I'd found in the Forbidden Archive, I got the feeling that the back alleys of the Imperial Capital might be filthier than Ge Vihenum in a different sense.
Demons killing humans was only natural.
Monsters, Demonized Humans, Black Wizards—even beasts killing humans was only natural.
If I was being a bit more generous, you could say humans killing humans was natural too.
But if they only killed, that would be a relief.
The bastards gathered in the back alleys buy and sell those humans.
If you dig a little deeper... abnormal sexual desires? Apparently they cut off specific body parts and sell them for that sort of thing.
Well... supposedly most of those victims were humans with no connections, or humans who deserved to die.
Who knows. I'll have to see it for myself to know.
Anyway, the back alleys of the Imperial Capital were a lawless zone that even the Empire's nobles tacitly "used."
In the eyes of the higher-ups, it was a suitable place for use-and-discard purposes. Since it was where the filthy ones gathered, the ones who survived there were useful.
Representative examples included contract killings, tax evasion, money laundering, and so on, but that wasn't what I was there to look into that day.
I'm here to look for some petty thief bastards.
Hmm, to put it nicely, I should call it the Information Guild.
Actually, "looking for them" is just a figure of speech—I already know exactly where they're hiding.
Three in the Imperial Capital alone.
One in the Holy Kingdom.
And if you search all the neighboring countries, there are supposedly a little under fifteen or so.
There might be more now, or fewer, but that doesn't matter.
What I'm heading to now is the Information Guild's headquarters.
I did consider coming with the Nameless Captain, but for some reason I felt like I didn't want to show the Captain this side of me.
Same goes for Father and Uncle Kerion.
It might reach Nameless's ears someday, but that's a problem I can solve by making sure those bastards keep their mouths shut.
As long as I don't draw attention until I find the headquarters, there won't be any problem.
Probably?
...Though if any of the Information Guild bastards belong to Nameless, I might get caught.
I'll think about that later.
Now's not the time to worry about that sort of thing.
I'd passed along to Nameless the fact that there's something beneath the Imperial Capital.
Fuck. I never imagined that something like my grave—a gift left behind by Arisa—would be under the Imperial Capital.
Not just the weapons I used to favor in my Past Life, but all sorts of Elixirs, high-quality Mana Stones, jewels, gold coins.
There seemed to be something that looked like a Dragon Heart fragment too.
And, most importantly, the Elixir.
The Elixir is there.
A purple Elixir.
A Divine Relic (神物) beyond the highest grade.
"...It's definitely mine."
My mouth is already watering.
*****
I tied my hair up tight and hid it well.
It was a bit expensive, but I wrapped myself up in a hood enchanted with high-grade perception-inhibiting magic.
I also packed about fifteen bottles of good-quality Mid-grade Potions.
These will definitely come in handy.
On the way here, there was no tail, and I didn't see that damn Adelia's crow either.
The only thing following me was the gaze of the back-alley merchants. Even that wasn't the look of people seeing a noble lady, but the look of people sizing up someone on their own level.
Everything went perfectly.
With a satisfied smile on my lips, I looked at the run-down door right in front of me.
The entrance to a tavern with boisterous noise leaking out.
The sign read [Piergius].
It was the Information Guild's headquarters.
The head of the petty thieves was there.
Of course, even among nobles, not many knew this information.
Maybe even Fabiana didn't know.
Well, an organization like Nameless would probably have had it figured out, but without that level of information capability, this place was just an ordinary tavern.
I opened the run-down door of that tavern.
Creeeeak— the door opened with an unpleasant sound.
It was needlessly loud.
It was loud enough to announce someone's arrival even without a bell on the door.
It was made that way on purpose.
It was a culture I was quite familiar with from my Past Life, steeped in mercenary culture.
"...Heh."
A small laugh escaped me at the familiar feeling I hadn't felt in a long time.
And what I saw where that laughter scattered.
Were the faces of bastards so murderous that Eurasia would have drawn her sword on sight.
Seeing them run a drinking den like this while living the back-alley life, these were bastards who could handle themselves.
Half of them were probably affiliated with the Information Guild.
"...Damn, what a hardcore-looking bunch."
I let out another dry laugh at the sight of them and kept walking without a care.
Tap— tap—
Every time my dainty footsteps rang out, eyes gathered on me.
The chatter died down, and complete silence fell.
"What's this little brat now?"
"Kahahaha! Hey! Squirt! This ain't a place for you! You come here to beg?"
"You here to sell your body?"
"Who'd buy that scrawny thing? Hahahaha!"
Mocking laughter burst out from all around.
It was expected. It was so predictable it was boring.
So there was no reason to get worked up over it.
I memorized every face of the bastards who ran their mouths.
I even calculated where and how to fuck each of them up.
So without stopping, I walked up to the bar table where a man stood grinning.
"Little one. You come to eat or something? Got money? If you're selling your body, go upstairs. Though I don't know if there'll be anyone to buy. Keh heh heh."
When I reached the counter, the man who appeared to be the owner leaned forward and spoke.
I stared straight at him and answered.
"I came to buy some information."
"Information? What information? Want me to tell you how big I am? Huh? Keh heh heh."
Ignoring him, I kept talking.
"Ophelia Blumin. Where is she?"
Ophelia Blumin.
The head of the Information Guild, [Uranos].
The man's expression hardened when he heard that name.
"...Little one. Who the fuck told you that name, you little shit?"
His demeanor turned sharp. The bastards who felt that shift also quieted down and stared at me.
Without caring, I asked again.
"Ophelia Blumin. I asked where she is."
My voice echoed through the tavern, which had gone silent in an instant.
Ophelia Blumin.
Those who heard that name rose from their seats.
Some trembled, and some walked out of the tavern.
"Hah, this crazy little brat."
The man leaned forward even more.
A foul stench wafted out as if he hadn't wiped his mouth.
"I don't know who's backing you, but that shit doesn't fly here. So talk straight. Who is it. Which bastard told you. If you talk now, I'll at least give you some birth control. Yeah. Since your body's tiny as shit, you'll need painkillers too. I'll give you whatever drugs you want, so talk. If you talk, I'll let you walk out of here alive."
He swallowed his saliva with that foul-smelling mouth.
I stared at him for a moment, then scanned my surroundings.
The ones who stood up are definitely Information Guild members.
The ones trembling are just customers, and the ones who walked out of the tavern—
No. They didn't go outside.
I can't feel their footsteps or their presence.
The basement of this building.
From the basement, I can feel a faint vibration.
An uninvited guest showed up, so they went to inform the owner.
I pointed at the basement and grinned.
"The so-called boss is hiding underground like some kind of bug?"
The man's face turned bright red.
He ground his teeth and raised the machete he'd hidden under the table.
At the same time.
"You fucking bitch—"
Crack.
The man's nose bone shattered. His cheekbone caved in. His eyeball burst. His jaw was crushed. His teeth were all ripped out. His ribs were smashed, and thick blood soaked the floor.
Two seconds.
It took two seconds for the man with the shit-smelling mouth to faceplant into the blood and pass out.
I shook the blood off my hand and turned my head.
"Next."