Episode 76: The Side That Attacks
“They’re starting to throw caution to the wind,” I muttered.
“Perhaps we should send reinforcements as well…”
“That’s a last resort.”
“Muu.”
Thanks to the Mimic incident, I returned from the academy and reported to Master and the Knights Order Commander. I’m currently taking a break from my escort duties. Back in my room, I was racking my brain, wondering if there was anything useful I could do.
“Guess I’ll have to get involved too…”
“Is there something you have in mind?”
“Sort of.”
I have a lot of ridiculously advanced technology, after all.
However, I can’t do anything unless I narrow down the suspects to some extent. Right now, we don’t know who’s targeting the Cybarossa House. Well, Master and the Knights Order Commander probably have a good idea, but unfortunately, that information hasn’t reached me.
Though, even if they told me the names of nobles, I wouldn’t recognize most of them anyway.
“Ah, right. If Master knows, I’ll just eavesdrop on him.”
“Huh?”
“I can’t think of anyone else who would know.”
So, I immediately set about planting a listening device in Master’s room. Of course, I wouldn’t just waltz in and plant it. I used my telekinesis to place it near the window outside the room, and that was that.
The Knights Order Commander reports to Master whenever something happens, so if the name of the culprit comes up in their conversations, I can shift my focus to investigating them.
There’s no end to it if I keep listening myself, so I’ll have the Support Drone check the conversation and report if any suspicious words come up. These guys have mastered the language thanks to their language studies in the village, so they can fully understand what we’re saying.
The academy is closed for the next two days as well. They’re apparently checking every item to make sure it’s not a Mimic, so it’s going to take a considerable amount of time.
“Eefan Company and Marquis Glauber Estate, huh?”
The academy is closed, and Young Lady isn’t going out. With Young Lady wanting to relax at home, there wasn’t much need for escort duty. That’s when I got the information from Master.
The Marquis Glauber Estate is located southwest of the Royal Capital, relatively close to the city, and is an old, established house.
The Eefan Company seems to be their designated merchant.
I don’t know how we became their target, but Master seems almost certain that the attack is coming from them.
“Will you retaliate?”
“First, we need to confirm.”
Master may be convinced, but I’m only relying on information from him. I need to confirm it with my own eyes and ears.
Eefan Company… I need information to investigate them.
“But it’s hard to leave the mansion… troublesome.”
Currently, the mansion is completely guarded by the Royal Knights Order. On the contrary, trying to leave would attract attention. Besides, I can’t just leave without going through a lot of procedures. It’s a huge pain.
“If necessary, I can investigate for you.”
“It’s best to have someone with information do this kind of thing.”
I hope no one’s there, I thought as I opened a small Spatial Jump to a certain room in the Adventurer’s Guild.
I peeked into the room and confirmed that no one was there. I opened the portal wide and stepped inside.
I opened the door slightly to check around. Is Iserina-san… here?
Ah, there she is. With a huge smile. Huh? Is that a weapon…? Murderous intent? Towards me? Me?!
“Wait, wait! Iserina-san! It’s me!”
“Eh? Oh, Claffy-kun. You suddenly appeared, so I thought an assassin had come for me after a long time.”
“You don’t sound like someone who’s expecting an assassin after a long time.”
She seemed strangely happy. I grabbed her hand and moved to the room from earlier.
“So? Why are you sneaking around like this?”
“I need some information… I’d be happy if you could listen to my problem while eating some sweets.”
“A souvenir?”
“I’ll prepare one!”
“Very well. I’ll listen.”
“But I kind of snuck out, so is it okay if we go here?”
I said, opening a Spatial Jump to my room.
“…That transfer you mentioned before? It’s fine, but wait a moment. I need to tell them I’m going out.”
“Ah, sorry.”
After this, I negotiated with Iserina-san to gather information.
Sweets and various drinks… and alcohol, made by the Support Drone. And some rare Monster Material as hush money for the Guild members.
The information I’m looking for this time is the location of the Eefan Company, the representative’s house, warehouses, and other related facilities. There might be some unknown warehouses, so she’ll use informants to find out.
When I asked her to tell me about the Marquis Glauber Estate, she knew about it, so she told me. She apparently knew about the Duke families, Marquis families, Margrave families, and powerful Count families from the start.
I also gave her a tablet-type Communicator so we could contact each other without meeting in person.
“A long-distance communication function in this size? Even the Guild’s is bigger than this!?”
“Ah, the Guild has one too?”
“It’s only in the big Guilds in major cities like the Royal Capital. They use Magic Stones as big as the Barrier device that surrounds the city.”
That size, huh.
“Amazing Magic Item… eh? What’s this? I don’t feel any Magical Power? It’s not a Magic Item? In this size!?”
“Well, don’t worry about it.”
“I’m worried! What is this!?”
“Ahahaha.”
From that day on, I contacted Iserina-san several times, and we went around placing listening devices in places where important conversations seemed to be happening within the Eefan Company and the Marquis Glauber Estate.
The Communicator and Iserina-san are a dangerous combination… she just talks too much. And when you try to end the conversation, she starts talking about something else. There are people like that now and in the past.
Well, I couldn’t leave the mansion for long periods of time, so I left it to Ryuga, but thanks to that, I was able to get a lot of information.
In conclusion, there’s no doubt that the Eefan Company and the Marquis Glauber Estate are interfering with us.
They want to involve the Eefan Company in the sales channels for Hair Cleansing Liquid in the western part of the kingdom, or rather, they don’t want to let any other company in.
However, they can’t control the entire Knights Order, so they seem to be biding their time.
“We’ll start a counterattack now.”
““““ Yes! ””””
I reluctantly, really reluctantly, summoned the Onmitsu. Including Ryuga, there are a total of seven people. Houryuu is waiting at the base as the village chief’s proxy.
The others are Onmitsu who have been treated for injuries and had their bodies enhanced.
“Your job is to go to the assigned stores and mansions and collect everything that catches your eye.”
““““ Yes! ””””
This is the result of various considerations. We were attacked, and some of our Escort Knights were injured. There were naturally opinions that we should annihilate the enemy since they used force.
However, this time, I’m making them accompany me on my mission. Unlike the last time we dealt with the thieves, where we could unconditionally borrow their strength because the opponents were villains, this time is different.
Marquis Glauber is giving specific instructions, and the chairman of the Eefan Company is commissioning people who make a living from underworld jobs. Everyone else is unaware of the situation. Well, there might be some people who have noticed something shady going on.
Anyway, that’s the situation, so I feel like it’s wrong to inflict human casualties on the other side. If we were going to do it, it would be retaliation against the underworld people, but that wouldn’t directly damage Marquis Glauber or the Eefan Company.
So, I shifted my thinking to a direction that would damage the company.
“I thought His Majesty’s castle had too few furnishings.”
“Ah, yeah. I guess so.”
That castle is only magnificent on the outside.
“Anyway, make sure you don’t get caught and don’t kill anyone.”
It was Ryuga who came up with the idea. Or rather, he saw a lot of things when he went to plant the listening devices and thought, “I want that, I want this.”
It’s impossible if you think about it normally, but this Onmitsu group is as strong as the adults in our village. On top of that, they’re a group specializing in covert operations, so they’re terrifying.
“The Marquis family will become shabby, and it will cost a lot of money to replace them. And the company would normally be responsible for providing those things, but the company will be too busy dealing with the disappearance of their products.”
“And furniture and furnishings will be brought into His Majesty’s castle, making it even more magnificent!”
“Since we’re at it, we want to increase the number of items in the treasury! I thought the money and goods we stole from the thieves were too little!”
“That’s right! How about taking them from that castle!?”
“That’s not the target, so it’s no good.”
“Steal as much as you can! They’re His Majesty’s enemies anyway, so don’t hold back!”
““““ Yeahーーーーー! ””””
Be quiet, you Onmitsu. Be more stealthy. A group of thieves with dog ears or cat ears has been born here.
These guys received both physical and Magical Power enhancements when they were healed. Moreover, it seems they’ve all mastered ‘Shadow Magic,’ perhaps because they all belong to the same clan.
It’s a pretty rare magic, just like my Spatial Magic.
Like Ryuga, their enhanced shadow space is apparently quite large. They don’t have time stop, but they can still store a considerable amount of items. They say the capacity is enough to hold all the items from an entire mansion.
“Alright. Everyone, commence operations.”
“Roger!”
With my signal, the Onmitsu scattered. Ryuga is also out and about this time.
“King-sama, are you returning to the mansion?”
“Yeah.”
The only one who remained was Asahi. She’s my bodyguard in place of Ryuga.
“To King-sama’s room?”
“That’s right.”
I opened a Spatial Jump and returned to my room. Now, all that’s left is to wait for them to return… Please, just don’t cause any problems.