The boss, whose mind had shattered and who could no longer speak, was left abandoned in the first-floor lobby of Grim Trading Company.
Practically dead anyway.
The hidden underground room was packed with earth and sand from [Rock-Iron Magic], burying the corpse and destroying all evidence.
Just to be safe,
I'd already stripped off all the valuables,
of course.
And from the boss's
person,
I found the White King Tiger Wolf in the magic bag I took.
The next morning, I went to the Commercial Guild to meet the Master.
"So you really went and got it back..."
"Well, I'll hold onto it until the actual auction. It'd just get stolen again otherwise."
"You're awfully sure of yourself."
"What are you playing dumb for? You know perfectly well there's a 'Diamond' embedded among the Commercial Guild members."
"...But we haven't been able to pin them down."
"Even if you could, you wouldn't be able to come up with a reason to remove them. Even if you did, they'd just send in the next one right away. And even if you could prevent that beforehand, you'd be terrified of retaliation by force. I already know who it is, but removing them would cause problems for you, so I'm not doing anything."
"Wait, hold on — you're saying this conversation could leak out too?"
"I've cut this space off from the outside, so that's impossible. If it leaked, the only person it could be is you."
"You've got to be kidding me..."
"There are other things I learned from the interrogations, but talking about them here might put your life in danger, so let's leave it at that."
"Yeah, yeah, got it, got it. But the auction procedures aren't finished yet. There are times when we need the actual item on hand to make progress, so I'll have to bring you in each time. That okay with you?"
"Of course. Then I'll release the spatial isolation and head home for today."
And so I released the demarcation of the Space-Time Magic and restored the space to its original state.
◇◇◇
"You've got to be kidding me... This is the biggest blunder since the Commercial Guild was founded..."
Basis, the master of the Commercial Guild, held his head in his hands.
A big fish had finally come along after all this time—an auction commission for a White King Tiger Wolf.
And to think the prey they'd been entrusted with had been stolen right out from under them.
That alone could cost the Guild Master his head.
What's worse, the one who retrieved it was the victim themselves, the culprit's accomplice was inside the Commercial Guild, and on top of it all, he was being told to pretend none of it ever happened.
He'd have to drive the auction price as high as possible and return half the commission fee.
Only then would they finally be back at the starting line.
He'd gone through all the trouble of extracting a promise from those idiot Adventurers' Guild people to hand over the full commission, and now it came to this.
Actually, weren't the Adventurers' Guild the ones at fault here?
Wait, could they have been the ones who stole it too? ...No, that's overthinking it.
...Earlier, he'd said they hadn't identified the culprits, but that was a lie.
He had a pretty good idea who it was.
But those people were... well, competent. Too competent.
They smoothly defused complainers who occasionally showed up at the Guild, sending them off with smiles on their faces. They could easily handle protecting their own lives, and they even took on dangerous frontier reconnaissance missions without breaking a sweat.
By the time anyone realized it, they had already become the Guild's main force.
He thought, "I've been outplayed," but it was already too late.
Without them, the majority of the Guild's operations would simply cease to function.
Besides, they had almost never directly interfered with the Merchants' Guild before.
This time, the Merchants' Guild's reputation would take a hit, but even if Alan didn't step in to fix things, they would have moved to keep the damage to a minimum.
Perhaps having seen through all of that, Alan came and told him he wouldn't be doing anything.
It was like dealing with a bunch of seasoned veterans.
But the fact that their faces looked so innocent and childish made it all the worse.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
*I've posted Chapter 0.1 in the exclusive status update notes.
It has no effect on the main story.
Skills: [Reverse] [Divine Eye] [Sword God] [Phantom Thief Gentleman] [Dark Magic] [Rock-Iron Magic] [Holy Magic] [Spacetime Magic] [Scorching Magic] [Freezing Magic]
Rank: Bronze
Thank you for reading, as always😊