“How are you going to show that you want to meet?”
“I’m planning to use the Information Guild.”
While the Information Guild was perfect for buying and selling information, the moment one visited there, they had to accept that their own information would be handed over to the guild. Even if Jake’s identity as the Hero wasn’t revealed, they would easily find out the date he visited the city or which inn he was staying at.
However, if they didn’t bear even that level of risk, there was nothing they could accomplish.
“He’s someone who hides even from the Duke, so do you think information will come out just because you visit the guild?”
“What I’m expecting isn’t information, but the information protection system.”
The Information Guild had an information protection system where one could place access restrictions on their own information.
If one paid a certain amount or more as a protection fee and placed access restrictions, anyone wanting to purchase that information would have to pay an amount exceeding that. If someone paid that enormous sum to buy the information, the fact that the information had been sold would be conveyed to the party who requested the information protection.
Jake was planning to use that system.
“When she hears that the information has been sold, Neria will check who bought the information. If that person successfully finds me and realizes I’m the Hero, she’ll definitely approach me. That’s my goal.”
“The Duke himself might have requested information protection on Neria’s name to prevent information about the forbidden book from spreading. If you’re not careful, you could end up alerting the ducal family.”
“I’m aware of that possibility. I also understand that there might not be protection on that information. But can you think of a better method than this, Klad?”
“…In the current situation, there doesn’t seem to be a better method.”
Jake felt proud at receiving Klad’s acknowledgment.
“What I need to be careful about is not letting my identity be revealed to the Information Guild.”
Changing hair and eye color didn’t change one’s atmosphere or voice. Even wearing a mask to cover the face could lead to one’s identity being exposed through body type alone.
However, surprisingly, it was Klad who presented a solution to that.
“Then I’ll just go alone.”
“You alone? Will that be alright?”
“Isn’t it better for me to go than you, whose face is known to the whole world?”
“But when we infiltrated the imperial castle, His Majesty saw your face.”
“Thanks to you blabbering nonstop, he probably can’t even remember my face. Besides, I changed my hair color when I went, so what’s there to worry about?”
“Even if your hair color is different, they could distinguish you by body type. Since a bounty was placed on me, the Information Guild must have taken interest too, and if they knew there was someone helping me and collected information about that… Whoa!”
Jake couldn’t finish his sentence as he caught something that suddenly flew at him.
What Klad threw was a money pouch.
Thud-
The protective magic that recognized the impact of catching the pouch as an ‘attack’ tore the pouch open, and gold coins spilled onto Jake’s lap.
“While I’m gone, go buy yourself a sword. A light and sturdy one. We don’t know what kind of battles will break out in the future, so how long are you going to keep swinging around just a wooden sword?”
When the topic of swords came up, Jake’s eyes lit up.
“Thank you, Klad. I’m keeping track of all the debts I owe you, so don’t worry. I’ll definitely repay them.”
“Whatever you say. I’ve put protective magic around you so you’ll be safe, but be careful. Don’t go too far.”
“Ah. I wondered why the pouch burst, but it was because it was perceived as an attack on me. I’m fine. Nothing wrong except my wrist tingles a little.”
Jake transferred the gold coins from the torn pouch to another money pouch and hurriedly rushed out of the room.
“I’ll be back, Klad!”
He had clearly completely forgotten about the Information Guild matter.
“Should I get going too?”
Klad confirmed Jake running out through the window and left the inn.
Finding the Information Guild and entering it wasn’t difficult. Generally, Information Guilds were known to disguise themselves by operating as restaurants in the morning and pubs in the evening, and one could only buy information by reciting a designated password, but that only applied to small-scale guilds with many enemies and little power.
Fortunately, the Information Guild here was fairly large-scale and didn’t turn away customers. Instead, they rated customers by rank, and the quality and price of information provided varied by rank.
Clink-
“Welcome.”
Right now, that guild member greeting him brightly was probably thinking to themselves, ‘Ah, a rank 7 has arrived.’
In this guild, rank 7 was the lowest rank, and even if they brought considerable money, the chance of being able to buy proper information was slim.
Clatter clatter clatter-
However, if that rank 7 brought an enormous amount of money, the story changed.
“Ah!”
The guild member guarding the reception desk panicked and reached out to catch the gold coins spilling onto the table.
“Th-this is… ancient gold coins!”
Ancient gold coins were made before the Empire was established, and were worth much more than regular gold coins circulated in the Empire. If one met a good collector, one could receive dozens of gold per coin for these precious things. This was the first time the guild member had seen this many ancient gold coins.
“Ah, ahh…!”
The guild member couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration at this beautiful sight sparkling in golden light. Klad, watching this, raised one corner of his mouth in a smile as if mocking him.
This was a show.
A show to seize the initiative.
It was to gauge the opponent’s worth and pressure them to run to the guild master and convey that this customer visiting the guild for the first time must be treated with the utmost care.
“I’ll attend to you right away. Please wait just a moment!”
The gaudy show had been worthwhile.
Whether the pressure had properly taken effect, the guild member picked up every single one of Klad’s gold coins without missing any and neatly organized them before running inside the guild. He had planned to pretend not to notice if they took one or two, but it was befitting of a guild that made it their creed not to pay attention to money except when dealing with information.
“Hello.”
In less than a minute, someone presumed to be the guild master personally came.
“Thank you for choosing our guild. Now, I’ll escort you this way.”
The place he was guided to was a small room secured with various types of magic. Good security meant that conversations inside the room wouldn’t leak outside, but it also meant that those trapped inside would find it difficult to escape outside.
If a customer visiting the guild complained about the room’s security, they would answer as if it were nothing. They’d say that due to the nature of the Information Guild having many enemies, it was only to defend against customers’ attacks.
Of course, Klad didn’t care since he was confident he could break through that and escape the room, and also attack the guild’s owner sitting across from him.
“I want to buy information on Neria, the author of the forbidden book.”
Klad got to the main point before the other party could offer tea and attempt to extract information through useless conversation.
“It’s truly unfortunate, but information about the author of the forbidden book is extremely difficult to obtain. We only have exactly one piece ourselves.”
His tone wasn’t regretful at all.
Of course it wouldn’t be. This person wasn’t genuinely regretful, but rather wanted to boast that he knew one piece of information that others couldn’t obtain, saying they came to the right place.
“How much?”
Instead of answering, the guild master wrote an amount on a small piece of paper and held it out to Klad. The side with the amount written on it was facing the desk.
Tap.
Without even flipping the paper to look, Klad placed three ancient gold coins on top of it.
“The news that I bought this information will be conveyed to the information’s owner, right?”
“I can’t tell you that. You know that.”
Whether the information’s owner had requested information protection was also a type of information. To find that out, an additional payment was required.
Instead of explaining, the guild master asked with his eyes. Do you want to buy that information as well?
Instead of answering that, Klad conveyed what Jake had told him.
This was the real reason he had moved Jake separately and come here alone.
“Tell that bastard. A black-haired man is looking for him.”
***
Huff, huff-
When Klad returned to the inn, Jake, who had returned first, was swinging his sword inside the room.
“Ah, Klad. You’re back. Look at this, my new sword.”
He had thought Jake would take his time enjoying a city outing since he had money, but he really just bought a sword and came straight back.
“Can you see this exquisite blade? To maintain this uniform thickness, there can’t be even the slightest disturbance during the forging process. Although it’s not a sword made by a craftsman race like dwarves, I can assert that the affection put into this sword is comparable to theirs. This is…”
Jake continued bragging about his new sword for quite a while after that. If he had known Jake would be this happy, he should have bought it for him sooner.
“…And so I wanted to get my hands accustomed to the sword, but since this inn doesn’t have a separate training ground, I had no choice but to swing the sword in the room.”
“Let’s move to an inn with a training ground soon.”
“What happened with the Information Guild matter?”
“I thought you forgot, but you didn’t?”
“How could I forget my duty?”
The information Klad brought back was simple.
[The last book published by Neria, author of the forbidden book, ‘On the God of Abundance,’ is known to have first been distributed in the city of Audrit.]
“…Audrit!”
The author of the forbidden book was in Audrit, where the Hero’s Sword was presumed to be. Was this also a coincidence? His thoughts grew complicated. Jake gripped the high-quality parchment with the information written on it so hard it crumpled.
“There’s something in Audrit. That’s certain. Let’s wait a few days and if there’s no contact, we’ll have to go there, Klad.”
Having resolved himself that way, Jake began swinging his sword again with the determination to steel his heart.
Huff- Huff-
Klad sat on the sofa drinking tea while watching Jake’s training. He occasionally infused him with stamina recovery magic too.
Knock knock.
Huff.
At the suddenly heard sound of knocking, Jake stopped his sword.
Unlike Jake who had frozen at the sudden visitor, Klad calmly headed toward the window where the sound came from.
“It seems they’ve heard news of us over there.”
In front of the window sat a single bird. A parchment was rolled up and tied to the bird’s leg.
“We’ve received contact from Neria.”
