The Man Who Came Back

A large man walked through the town of Yoshanka, under cloudy skies again today.

He passed through the main gate, walked down the main street, and headed toward his destination: the Adventurers' Guild branch office.

“Geez, that took way more time than it should have.”

The man scratched his cheek; his face was covered in scars, and he had such a frightening look that an ordinary person would never dream of speaking to him first.

“Hm, hm, hm? Please do not say that. We, too, made every effort we could, you know?”

“With anything, doing a careful job takes time. Please forgive us.”

The man and woman walking behind the scary giant countered him without a moment's delay.

The man was slender and dressed neatly.

The woman was petite with plain features. Her ever-present smirk hinted at a nasty streak somewhere underneath.

“I know, I know! I'm not blaming you guys. Just please stop snapping back at me every single time I say something......”

Fed up, the giant raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.

The two behind him were small and didn't look strong, but the giant apparently couldn't get the upper hand against them at all.

“Still, what the hell happened to Yoshanka while I was gone? What's with all this energy?”

As he walked, the giant looked around curiously and tilted his head.

The Yoshanka he knew was supposed to be a depopulated town where the streets were deserted.

And yet, look at this.

Many adventurers were walking the main street, and apothecaries were chatting as they rested in the parks around town.

“Ha, ha, ha, isn't that a good thing? Though I do not know what occurred.”

“More importantly, we have already arrived at the branch office. Now comes the finishing touch. Please get your head in the game.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

The giant took a deep breath and reached for the handle to open the door of the Adventurers' Guild branch office.

But just then, the front door flew open outward with great force.

“Whoa! Hey, open the door gently! If you break it, I'll make you pay for it, you brat!”

“............”

The one who stepped out of the branch office, shoulders squared, was a silver-haired boy adventurer.

His face was bright red, his brow was furrowed, and his mouth was drawn into a thin line.

Tears were even pooling in his eyes; it was not difficult to imagine that something truly infuriating had happened.

Perhaps his vision was narrowed by rage, for the boy adventurer didn't even seem to notice the scary giant complaining to him, and he vanished, blending into the crowd on the main street.

“............Wasn't that Kamasse......?”

The scary giant recognized the boy adventurer.

He was a promising youth who had recently come to this town and been active at the Yoshanka branch office.

He was foul-mouthed and had a childish side, but he was honest and earnest at heart.

He hadn't thought the boy was the type of person to act like that, but......?

“Come now, no getting distracted. Please hurry up and go inside.”

“......Yeah, yeah, I get it.”

But the scary giant's train of thought was soon cut short by the man behind him butting in.

And this time, the giant actually opened the door and entered the branch office, pushed from behind.

◇ ◇ ◇

(Whew~~~, when they dragged me into it, I wondered what I'd do...... but it all ended safely without a hitch, so I'm so glad~!)

Now then, now then, shortly before the scary giant entered the office.

The receptionist Pilitza was letting out a sigh of relief.

The emergency Togodo Commander subjugation uproar, followed by the cursed child banishment commotion.

She felt as though she had just been swept along as the situation changed dizzyingly, without really knowing what was what, but she was certain she had made the best possible choice for herself.

The Commander had been subjugated, so the tedious paperwork never happened, the cursed child seemed to have left town, and the Trade Association's old geezers and grannies had gone home satisfied, too.

Hooray all round.

Since the cursed child was gone, her extra income would vanish, but that couldn't be helped.

It was money that had practically fallen from the sky to begin with, so getting greedy now would be a mistake.

She'd been planning to cut the girl loose at some point anyway, so there was nothing for it but to tell herself it was fine.

She'd earned enough. This was plenty.

The only unexpected thing was that brat called Kamasse strangely taking the cursed child's side and protesting to her.

That brat had leaped outside to chase after the departing cursed child, but he must have lost sight of her, as he returned quite quickly and had been raising his voice in protest to Pilitza ever since.

Well, he was quite eloquent, but in the end, he was just a child.

He was no match for Pilitza, a battle-hardened, wily, crooked receptionist; she had out-argued him, and he had just leaped outside with tears in his eyes.

“Mmm~~~! Fufufu!”

Released from the tension, she stretched her body as much as she could.

Anyway, everything was back to normal.

Short on excitement, but her peaceful everyday life would be back again.

The days of making a little extra money by tweaking the ledgers here and there would return.

Ah, now it was all over.

Thinking that the money piled up in her room wouldn't grow any more did make her feel a twinge of loneliness, though.

“Well, don't you look like you're having a grand old time. Huh?”

“Hya!?”

And then, it happened.

Suddenly spoken to, Pilitza was startled and jumped slightly in her chair.

This, deep, menacing voice...... she knew it well.

Timidly, she looked toward the owner of the voice, the person standing in front of the counter.

Because of his massive frame, she had to look up.

A scarred, scary face.

Radiating from that physique and face, an air of intimidation......

“Ah...... y, you're back!? Chief!”

Yes, he was none other than the branch chief, Dakkante, who had been away from the town of Yoshanka on a long-term business trip!

(Cr, crap! Wasn't the Chief supposed to be back way later!?)

Thinking this, Pilitza had let her guard down!

Unconsciously, she cast a fleeting glance toward her desk.

On the desk was an envelope containing 150,000 enn.

It was the money she'd set aside to pocket as her profit on tonight's Cysh grass.

And there was a person who did not miss that split-second movement of her eyes!

“Hm, hm, hm? What is this envelope? My, my, my? One, two, three...... quite a large sum, isn't it?”

It was the slender man who had walked in behind Chief Dakkante.

The moment he sensed Pilitza's strange eye movement, he leaped lightly over the counter and began searching Pilitza's desk in an instant.

“Ah, wait, what are you doing! You can't just, come into the office!!”

Pilitza protested in a panic, but the slender man acted as if she weren't even there.

“Well, well, well, Pilitza-san? What is this money? Please answer.”

“Haah!? Why would I tell that, to you...... I mean, who are you anyway!? There's lots of personal information in here! Outsiders, hurry up, get out of the office!”

“Oh my, how rude of me. My apologies.”

Despite saying this, the man showed no sign of leaving.

He reached into his breast pocket, took out a card, and flashed it before Pilitza.

It was an Adventurers' Guild employee ID.

Pilitza had one too.

But what was written on it was the problem.

Looking at the ID, and then hearing the slender man's introduction that followed, Pilitza's face contorted.

“I am Sainon, an investigator belonging to the Adventurers' Guild Headquarters. According to the regulations, I am permitted to interview employees for information and conduct physical searches, and employees have an obligation to accept such investigations. You understand, yes? You must have heard about this during your new employee training, right?”

“Ah, eh, i, i-i-investigator?”

Mouth flapping open and shut, Pilitza could only ask back in a trembling voice.

“In, in, in. Investigator. So? Pilitza-san, what on earth is this money?”

“Th, that's! It's the reward to be paid to an a, a, adventurer! I just set it aside from the other money so it could be paid right away!”

“And the name of that person?”

“C, confidentiality obligations.”

“It is quite all right. Naturally, I shall not carelessly repeat anything you tell me. Or rather, you are obliged to answer my questions. So, so, so? That adventurer's, name?”

“......Garisen, -san, it is.”

Holding down her trembling, Pilitza somehow managed to give the name.

Garisen was a made-up adventurer Pilitza had created to write into the ledger.

All the Cysh grass Emi gathered was recorded as having been gathered by this Garisen, and naturally, the rewards Pilitza had embezzled were recorded as having been paid to Garisen.

“Please check the ledger. There is nothing particularly suspicious about it.”

While pretending to be calm, Pilitza handed the relevant documents to Sainon.

It was a bold move, but she had ensured the ledger remained consistent up until now.

Even if these documents were examined, there would be no particular problem.

It would be troublesome if the person called Garisen were investigated in detail, but for now, she could buy some time.

While this investigator was absorbed in the ledger, she would look for some other way to talk her way out......

“Ehh!? Garisen-san, as in that wandering master herb-gatherer Garisen-san? The rank-3 adventurer with blond hair and a big scar on his forehead?”

As Pilitza racked her brain at full speed for a way out, a woman's voice reached her ears.

The owner of the voice was the plain woman standing behind the Chief, the other one who had come in with Sainon.

“Oh, oh, oh? You know of him? Taiche-san.”

“Yes. I have memorized the information on every adventurer in the guild, word for word. There is no adventurer named ‘Garisen’ other than that person.”

The woman conversed familiarly with Investigator Sainon.

She had to be Investigator Sainon's subordinate or colleague, something like that, anyway. One of his people.

This was a chance.

It was a fictional person she'd made up on a whim, but to think an adventurer with the same name actually existed!

Pilitza decided to play along with what Taiche had said.

“Yes! That's right~! It's that Garisen-san! He seemed to have his reasons, and he said to keep his name hidden, so! Even with an investigator, I was a bit hesitant to give out the information! I'm so sorry!”

She'd held back the information at first because of a promise to the adventurer himself.

Good, nothing unnatural about it.

“I see. However, that is a strange story, Pilitza-san.”

“S, strange? How? That adventurer was definitely Garisen-san, you know? There's nothing strange, about any of it......”

“Because Garisen-san passed away 5 years ago.”

“......Huh?”

“As I said, Garisen-san, has already passed away. ......And that Garisen-san, turned up here in Yoshanka, you say? Well now, what could be going on here? Did a ghost show up or something?”

Taiche said this while smirking.

(I, I got played~~~!!!)

Pilitza's face was now pale. Her lips were purple.

Her knees shook, and she felt dizzy.

Her heart pounded violently.

“Ah, by the way, someone impersonating Garisen-san is also out of the question. Garisen-san was indeed famous in some circles as a master herb-gatherer, but sadly, he also had a hidden face as a roving thief. His death 5 years ago, too, happened while he was in prison. Normally, nobody would impersonate a criminal like that, would they? Have you worked out that part of the story? Will you work it out now? Shall I give you a little time?”

“............”

Pilitza no longer had any strength left to argue.

Unable to stay standing, she slumped to the floor in spite of herself.

Right now, what was happening?

How, had it come to this?

Questions surged one after another in Pilitza's confused mind, swirling and disturbing her thoughts without being resolved.

She felt lightheaded. Her head spun.

Even so, there was one thing she could understand now.

That something was happening, something incredibly bad for her.

That one fact.

“......Haah. That's enough teasing Pilitza, Investigator Sainon, Special Affairs Officer Taiche. We're not getting anywhere at all.”

The one who interrupted the conversation with a sigh was Chief Dakkante.

“Ha, ha, ha! Well, I do apologize. It is just that I suddenly stumbled upon additional crimes in plain sight. I simply could not resist poking at them.”

Though he apologized with his words, Sainon showed no remorse at all and laughed happily.

“Geez. ......Hey, Pilitza, the money in that envelope can wait. First, let me explain why these two, who normally work at the guild headquarters, went to the trouble of coming all the way out to the likes of Yoshanka. By the way, got any idea why?”

Any idea?

Even when asked that, Pilitza had no clue.

Skimming off rewards?

Padding contribution points, to fake a track record?

Rigging stale requests?

She had ideas.

Too many of them.

“......Which one?”

Hearing those words that had accidentally slipped out, Dakkante dropped his shoulders and let out a deep sigh.

“Probably every charge you just thought of, I'd say. You figured you'd never get caught, huh, but you don't want to underestimate headquarters' investigative skills. Something tipped them off to your fraud, and when they dug for more crimes, out they came, one after another...... So then I got summoned to headquarters and got an earful. ......Well, never mind me. Anyway, in the end, this order came down.”

Saying this, Dakkante fumbled around in the front of his coat and pulled out a sheet of paper.

It was no ordinary piece of paper.

Its edges were adorned with lavish gold decorations, and above all, there was the signature at the very bottom.

The name written there was ‘Lairine Rune’.

The strongest special-grade adventurer, bearing the epithet “the Immutable.”

And the current Supreme Commander of the Adventurers' Guild. The top of the organization.

In other words, this paper was an order issued in the name of the Supreme Commander of the Adventurers' Guild!

“Ahh...... ‘For various charges, I order the detention of Pilitza, receptionist at the Adventurers' Guild, Teenidys Branch, Yoshanka branch office.’ And that's how it is. Pilitza, the jig is up.”

That was the end of Pilitza.