Chapter 6: The Worst Kind of People (Shifa’s Perspective)
Since then, I’ve been going around confirming things with various parties.
There’s no doubt that my older sister, Jekyll, and Claire are in cahoots. Using the fact of Lux-san’s estimated death and my sister’s authority as the acting lord, they had Lux-san officially declared dead and transferred his assets to my sister, who was his fiancée. Moreover, due to the death declaration by the acting lord, the engagement was automatically dissolved, and afterwards, my sister formally became engaged to Jekyll.
The nausea won’t go away. It’s too cruel.
In the first place, Lux-san’s assets, accumulated from continuously exploring the lower levels of the dungeon for three years, must have been substantial. One could live comfortably just by delving into the middle levels once a week.
And yet, he was in the lower levels… Moreover, in addition to his once-a-month lower level explorations as “Senko,” Lux-san also led other adventurers on explorations to train them. Almost every day.
What did they do with all those assets?
Curious, I used my position as the lord’s daughter to investigate, but their whereabouts are unknown.
I know that my sister was the inheritor of the assets and that several items went to Claire, but there’s no other information. And as I investigated, I noticed something even stranger.
There are no records of my sister’s assets.
As the lord’s daughter, my sister had always received an annual budget, and she should have been paid for some of her work as the acting lord. Despite that, no records remain.
Furthermore, even though she supposedly inherited Lux-san’s assets, there’s no record of that either. Naturally, there’s also no record of what has become of those assets now.
What is going on?
Unable to pursue my sister’s assets any further, I decided to investigate what happened to Lux-san’s assets that had been entrusted to the Guild.
To begin with, what assets did Lux-san even have?
Fortunately, I’m a Guild employee. As the lord’s daughter, I had broader authority than a regular employee. I used that to search the archives where past documents were stored.
The assets recorded there at the time of Lux-san’s estimated death were staggering. 1,000 gold coins. Enough to live a life of leisure until death.
And this was supposed to be only what he had accumulated since coming to this town.
I wondered how he could save so much and looked into the breakdown, but it wasn’t that complicated.
First, it seemed that one exploration of the lower levels could yield nearly 100 gold coins in assets, even after keeping some useful items.
The main reasons for this are that very few people can delve there, and the items that drop there are highly valuable.
Most of the drop items from the lower levels were bought by the Guild and sold to surrounding nobles, and in some cases, royalty, for more than double the price. Well, this isn’t an investigation into how the Guild makes its profits, so I’ll set that aside.
The important thing is, assuming he earned 100 gold coins per expedition, he apparently divided it into five parts: one part for party assets, and the rest shared among the members. Over 100 expeditions in two and a half years, that calculates to 2,000 gold coins earned.
Then, even in the middle levels, he could earn several gold coins per expedition. Over three years, this amounted to an unbelievable 800 expeditions. Despite this, Lux-san didn’t take any income from these. He gave it all as the share for the participating adventurers.
It seems the only things he accepted were items with low cash value.
So, his total income, even with some margin of error, was 2,000 gold coins. It seems he spent a few gold coins on daily living expenses, but that’s negligible. He wasn’t the type to live extravagantly in the first place, and his equipment consisted of drop items he didn’t sell. The Riophendal viscounty didn’t host parties citing reconstruction, so he probably didn’t spend large sums of money.
Next, I investigated the expenditure side.
As I mentioned earlier, the gold coins my sister inherited amounted to about 1,000. So, where did the remaining 1,000 go?
Their whereabouts were quickly found.
To my surprise, Lux-san had contributed 1,000 gold coins to establish a fund within the Guild. The purpose was to support adventurers.
If dungeon monsters aren’t subjugated, they accumulate. And if they accumulate beyond a certain point, a Stampede occurs.
That’s why adventurers have to thin out the monsters, but that comes with mortal danger. If something happens to an adventurer, not only they themselves but also their families will be in trouble. Those who live off that adventurer’s income suddenly lose it.
Lux-san’s fund was used for monster subjugation rewards and to pay pensions to the bereaved families if something happened to an adventurer. A total of 500 gold coins.
I was awestruck by Lux-san’s magnificence, and at the same time, I turned pale thinking about how they had driven out such a person.
Did my sister know?
She must have known. That’s why she reduced the budget.
Originally, monster subjugation rewards were supposed to be paid by the town. But for these past three years, that hadn’t been used even once.
Lux-san had created the fund and contributed money to supplement those rewards, yet the town’s expenditure dropped to zero, meaning payments were only coming from Lux-san’s fund. This completely undermined his intentions, didn’t it?
It was hard to tell from the ledgers in the archives, but when I cross-referenced them with documents in the Guild Master’s room, it was crystal clear.
It’s undoubtedly malicious fraud. After all, according to the town’s financial records, monster subjugation rewards were being paid out.
That means the money disappeared somewhere.
My sister was in charge of accounting.
And this fund was dissolved upon Lux-san’s estimated death declaration. The 500 gold coins remaining in the fund had vanished without a trace.
Since my sister deliberately didn’t inherit it, that means it remained with the Guild. I can only think the Guild Master stole it. Probably hush money. No, a cooperation fee.
They’re the worst kind of people.
What do they think Lux-san’s goodwill is?
I suppose “being left utterly speechless” is the perfect way to describe how I feel right now.
But something bothers me.
Why did my sister gather so much money?
And why did she recently restore the monster subjugation rewards to their original state?
She couldn’t have known Lux-san was alive, of course.
So why?
There must be something I still don’t know. I need to investigate further.
Just as I was thinking that, a loud voice reached me.
“This is terrible! It’s a Stampede!”
Those words awakened unpleasant memories.