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“I’m, I’m not doing this! Put that down right now!”

“Ignore them.”

Schurz continued reading the ledgers as I commanded.

With each page filled to the brim with writing that he read aloud, the corners of Schurz’s eyes narrowed and his lips tightened into a firm line.

“Profits…! What is everyone doing? Stop them at once!”

“Bu-but…”

The clerks in the office wore puzzled expressions.

And rightly so. Five guards, who had rushed in at the Mayor’s call, were sprawled in a corner of the office.

Of course, I had taken care of their injuries. They had only suffered light concussions and would likely recover in a couple of hours.

After rapidly reading the books for about thirty minutes, Schurz closed the ledger and spoke.

“Instructor, I’ve read through this year’s accounting materials.”

“What do you think?”

“There are definitely some glaring discrepancies in the ledgers. They tried to hide it, but there are abnormal figures all over. The taxes collected are shockingly high, but there’s a significant difference from the amount of taxes sent from Schwarzheim that I know of. Hmm… I don’t think this is everything.”

Could there be a ledger somewhere that records the truth?

Mayor Roman spoke confidently.

“It’s just a common accounting error that often happens when writing ledgers! You can’t pin anything on me for that! I don’t know what you’re looking for here, but I will never tell you!”

Setting aside his overly confident expression, this alone was certainly insufficient to accuse him of any crime.

But that was fine. I had known from the beginning it would be like this. No matter how foolish the mayor was, the most important records would surely be hidden in a place only he could see.

I lightly kicked the floor. It looked like a mere casual kick, but it was a finely tuned movement designed to maximize the sound’s reach.

Thud—

The sound spread out in a circle around me. And I felt the peculiar sensation caused by the sound waves passing through the walls and floors.

“Here it is.”

“W-wait…! No, don’t go there!”

Fortunately, the source of the peculiar sensation was very close. It was coming from within the office.

I lifted the elegant wooden desk in one go and tossed it aside. As I pulled back the monster fur carpet underneath it, a safe was conspicuously revealed.

“Where’s the key?”

“T-there isn’t one!”

“Hmm….”

Honestly, I hadn’t expected much from that question.

Seeing his face, it seemed he didn’t have the key on him right now. But I couldn’t waste time searching around for a key that could be anywhere. Unlike a secret safe, a key would likely be difficult to find using the same method.

But that was no problem.

I grabbed the handle of the safe and applied my strength.

Creeeak—! Crunch!

What should have held firm against my strength ultimately succumbed and shattered pathetically. Normally, one wouldn’t describe breaking down a door as simply opening it, but such small details weren’t important.

The mayor’s voice rang out hopelessly.

“No, what…? It was made of top-grade black steel that can even withstand swords…”

After casually tossing aside the distorted door that matched my grip, I inspected the contents of the safe.

Inside the safe were stacks of documents presumed to be the real ledgers, ten platinum ingots, and a thin scroll exuding magical energy.

I tossed the ledgers to Schurz and examined the scroll. While I wasn’t an expert in magic, the illustration on the scroll looked familiar.

If my memory serves me right, this is a teleportation scroll.

So, he had a way to escape if needed.

As the ledgers passed into Schurz’s hands, the expression on Mayor Roman’s face shifted to one of horror.

“N-no! Not that!”

As the mayor flailed towards Schurz, I sent out a weak killing intent. At that moment, he gasped, his face turning pale, and fell to the floor, weakened in the knees.

Just then, sensing the loud commotion, someone walked into the office.

It was Elizabeth.

“What’s happening here?”

Upon seeing the disheveled office, she flinched when her gaze fell on Schurz and me. But being the sharp person she was, she quickly shifted her attention to Mayor Roman.

As soon as their eyes met, Mayor Roman, awkwardly trying to rise with his weakened legs, finally crawled towards her with a desperate expression, shouting.

“P-princess! Please, do something to stop this! I’ve been so loyal to the royal family, this treatment is outrageous!”

“Hmm….”

Elizabeth sidestepped Roman as if to avoid him. Then she approached Schurz and asked.

“Did you find out anything?”

“Still reading, but… I’ve got a general idea.”

Schurz continued to speak without averting his gaze from the ledgers.

“It looks like there’s never been any money allocated for the adventurers from the start. The city’s treasury is already empty. They took excessive taxes as always, but most of it seems to have been funneled elsewhere, not to the administrative office. W? I feel like this person is involved.”

“W… W… Aha.”

Elizabeth, having chewed over the initials several times, seemed to have grasped something. Then, looking at the mayor and donning the well-groomed smile she wore during our first meeting, she said.

“It seems like the royal family you claim to be loyal to differs a bit from the one I represent.”

“T-that can’t be…!”

“Regardless, using the city’s assets for personal gain is a clear crime. The city’s assets are the city’s strength. And the city’s strength ultimately reflects the Empire’s power. Weakening the Empire’s borders in this way could even be seen as treason.”

At those words, Mayor Roman’s face turned ashen.

“T-treason…? Treason? That’s ridiculous! Please, spare me, Third Princess!”

I lightly struck the back of Mayor Roman’s neck. Now that his guilt was clear, there was nothing left to hide.

“Ugh!”

With the mayor instantly falling unconscious, I turned to Elizabeth.

She cautiously inquired.

“What will you do now?”

Naturally, the next steps were already decided.

“I need to meet the adventurers.”

*

There is no longer a mayor in Schwarzheim. However, calling the adventurers was not difficult.

“They say it’s a royal decree, what’s going on all of a sudden…?”

“Is it true that royalty has come to this city?”

Using a seal ring stamped with the Third Princess’s insignia, Elizabeth sent letters to each adventurer guild, soon three adventurers leading their guild members appeared at the city hall.

Leaders of the three major adventurers’ guilds in Schwarzheim.

All of them were S-rank adventurers who had reached the Master Class.

I confirmed they were all gathered in the reception room and then entered alongside Elizabeth.

Upon seeing Elizabeth’s white hair and red eyes, the leaders of the adventurers widened their eyes in shock. One armored human man knelt down to pay his respects to Elizabeth.

“I am honored to meet you, Third Princess.”

At this, the other guild leaders—dwarves and plainsfolk adventurers—awkwardly stood up from their seats and offered their bows.

Elizabeth lightly shook her head.

“Please stand. And you two, you don’t need to be so formal, since you are not citizens of the Empire.”

“If the princess says so… Ahem.”

“Then that will do. Manners make me uneasy. So, why have you called us?”

I shot a glance at Elizabeth. She nodded and promptly ceded the floor to me.

Naturally, they seemed surprised that I stepped forward instead of the princess.

The dwarf warrior spoke bluntly.

“Who are you?”

Instead of answering, I slammed the bundle I was holding onto the desk. Inside were the ten platinum ingots and the mayor’s seal ring.

The three adventurers were not particularly surprised by the platinum ingots but showed expressions of alarm at the mayor’s ring.

“As you can see, Mayor Roman is no more.”

“Hmph… That seems to be the case. So?”

“I hereby issue a request. The task, of course, is to protect this city from the undead.”

The dwarf warrior frowned and spoke in an annoyed tone.

“Hey. I don’t know who you think you are, but do you really think you can just throw this pittance at us and expect us to fight? Nothing is over yet!”

“What’s the problem?”

“What’s the problem!? Ha! That bastard mayor treated us like dogs! Bark when told to bark, bite when told to bite! We’ve put up with it until now, but now that the city is in danger, you want us to work for free? Do you think we’re fools or something!?”

The dwarf slammed his axe onto the ground, shouting angrily.

“Our pride as adventurers has been insulted, do you hear? But now that the mayor is gone, you want us to fight just for this money? You think we’re just pathetic fools!?”

“Pride… Hmm, pride.”

“Yeah, pride! Adventurers like us have our pride too!”

I said with a deadpan face.

“Does even a pitiful grave robber have pride?”

The reason Schwarzheim is known as the city of adventurers is because it’s the city closest to the Ionia Kingdom. The kingdom collapsed so quickly that most of its assets were preserved intact, and this city thrived by adventurers who came to scour the land littered with the undead.

Thus, the term grave robber was not entirely misplaced.

However, the dwarf warrior seemed genuinely offended.

“What? Y-you bastard—!”

I unleashed a wave of killing intent.

The air in the room turned icy, and the dwarf warrior’s mouth, which was about to shout further, snapped shut. The other two adventurers followed suit.

Elizabeth, standing behind me, was unaffected by the killing intent, but her complexion still paled slightly, as if recalling the memory of the previous threat.

I quickly withdrew my killing intent. The dwarf warrior muttered in astonishment.

“Y-you…? Did you just overpower us three with your presence? Just how strong are you…?”

This show of force was utterly necessary.

Adventurers tended to come from rough backgrounds, making them stubborn and proud individuals. They had a tendency to dismiss remarks from anyone they perceived as weaker. I had heard this from an old colleague.

I spoke calmly.

“If you have any real pride, then fight for the people of this place now.”

The reception room fell into silence.

The first to speak up was the armored adventurer.

“I will do it.”

“What? Y-you…! You’ve got no pride—”

“Didn’t we decide to fight together when the city truly faced danger? This is a situation we should have acted in ourselves. He’s the one who stepped up to resolve it for us. This debt we owe must be repaid.”

“N-no, dammit, that’s….”

It seemed they recognized me as the one who fought against the undead from the outset.

The plainsfolk warrior also picked up three platinum ingots, saying, “I’ve got about three thousand followers under me. For one gold coin each, this should serve as a down payment.”

One platinum ingot was worth 1,000 gold coins. Of course, it was evident that one gold coin as a down payment for S-rank adventurers was thoroughly insufficient.

The dwarf warrior began grimacing and finally sighed deeply.

“Damn it, that makes me the only fool… Even if I take the money, we agreed to keep our pride intact….”

With that, all three major adventurers’ guilds promised to join the fight.

Next time the city is attacked, I would at least be ensured that they could hold out a little longer without me. That meant my students were a bit safer.

“Phew….”

Finally, I had created an environment where I could move freely.

 

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