◇

"Kuro-sama, welcome back."

Even though I moved into the main office without any sound, Tifaliza greets me in no time at all, and then she pushes the b.u.t.ton to call the manager.
Sound of footsteps, "dadada", that aren"t fit for a lady are reverberating from the corridor.

The footsteps stop right before the door, and then someone knocks the door after enough time for a few deep breathes.

"Enter."
"Please excuse me."

There wasn"t any trace of going full throttle at the corridor on the manager who opened the door.

"Kuro-sama, besides the matter about the auction, there is a report regarding the boy and the orphanage from before. Which shall I report first?"
"Start from the auction."

The latter is probably about the encounter with us during the day, so leaving it for later should be fine.

"Yes, all of the magic arms that were exhibited in the first day have all been bid as planned. Furthermore, n.o.bles, military officers, and merchants who couldn"t bid have made reservations. Total income from the successful bid is--"
"It"s 30.713 gold coins. The details is in this copy."

Tifaliza"s calm and melodius voice takes over the manager"s triumphant report.

"We"ve got quite a lot for only 100 exhibited items."
"The effect from the incident where demons and monsters appeared in the Royal Capital was quite impactful. I heard that magic arms that were exhibited by other people had also been sold for three times the price."

....I see.

I guess it"s not improbable for the sudden price hike since the red-rope pattern monsters can"t be hurt by normal weapons that haven"t been enchanted at least.

"Fumu, check the applicants levels, and prioritize the ones who are level 30 and above and have magic edge skills."

Giving magic swords to people with 1-digit level is meaningless after all.

"Certainly. And also, a special request for a magic sword has come from Sir Heim of s.h.i.+ga Eight Swords."
"A made-to-order magic sword huh..."

It sounds quite interesting.
After getting the chant orb, making a one-of-kind magic sword without burdening Arisa and Mia sounds fun too.

"I can"t do it right now, but inform him that we will consider about it positively."
"--Yes, understood."

Looks like she didn"t think that I would receive it, the manager"s response was slightly delayed.
The manager pulls herself together, rolls up the list on her hand and then continues talking.

"The prime minister requested that we don"t sell magic arms to merchants who deal with foreign countries. This is the list of them."

I receive the list from the manager.
The house of Souya boy I met today is in that list. It"s no wonder that they"re in the list since it seems they have dealings with the weaselkin empire and the continent west.

The prime minister probably sent the sales control request because he wanted to prevent powerful weapons getting to foreign countries.

"It should be natural for us to think about the national defense."
"Then we will handle it as is. Kuro-sama, I"m thinking of asking for tax concession from the prime minister for undertaking the request, would you permit it?"
"Do it."

The manager is shrewd unlike me.

◇

Next, I receive the report about s.h.i.+n boy.

"--Thus, the kidnapped orphans were saved by Viscount Pendragon and his Mithril explorer retainers. May I ask if the orphanage directors were really arrested by Kuro-sama?"

I reply, "It"s the truth", to the manager.

"Then I"ll omit the matter about the orphanage directors. The details are described in this report, Kuro-sama can look at it on later time."

I take the report from the manager and toss it into the black hole of the item box.

"The majority of the missing children were found in the slum."
"Is that so--"

--Good.

It seems not all of the missing children were sacrificed for the demon summoning.

"The watchmen reported that social welfare bureau had dispatched junior officers to the orphanages that had lost their directors."

I thought the replacements for the directors wouldn"t come for a while, but the public office worked unexpectedly fast.

"Lastly, s.h.i.+n boy has sold his black bandana to a weaselkin merchant."
"When was it?"
"It was right before the kidnapping incident."

I didn"t notice it at that time, so he wasn"t wearing the recognition inhibition bandana huh.
That explains Arisa finding out s.h.i.+n boy"s hero t.i.tle.

Even if I give s.h.i.+n boy another recognition inhibition item, he will just sell it again if he doesn"t understand its importance.
I"ll talk to him about the reason properly before giving it next time.

"Who is that merchant?"
"I am very sorry. It"s not described in the report."
"Then investigate it, just the name is fine."
"Understood. I"ll arrange it so that it"ll be ready by tomorrow morning."

I had searched for the bandana on the map, but I couldn"t find it. It"s probably stored inside Item Box.
I tried searching the weaselkin, but there were more than 1000 of them in the Royal Capital, so I gave up.
Being annoying was one of the reason, but there was simply no information to narrow them down.

"Kuro-sama, you might be not interested in it, but--"

With that preface, the manager talked about how thieves appeared in two venues of the auctions.
They were all amateur thieves, so all of them seemed to have been arrested by the venue guards and soldiers, but the story continues.

"--The G.o.ddess statue has disappeared?"
"Yes, the inside of the box that had been carried into the venue was changed into another stone statue."

Fumu, it"s probably unrelated to the matter about orbs, but it kinda bothers me.

"It"s bothering me a bit. Inquire the detail about the incident."
"Certainly."

Next, I received report about the decrease of burglary of the merchant houses in the Royal Capital.

"That"s pleasing to hear and all but...."

I feel puzzled inside my mind since I don"t know how it relates to me.

"This is the result of Kuro-sama"s actions."

Did I do anything?

"Thanks to Kuro-sama smas.h.i.+ng thief hideouts one after another, the number of thieves in the metropolitan area and night burglars have decreased sharply."

Come to think of it, I remember arresting around 400 people recently.

"Excellent."

I replied so and urged the manager for the next report.

◇

"Kuro-sama, there is a little something I need to talk about Sir Pendragon--"

After finis.h.i.+ng the report, the manager wanted to consult with a serious face, so we change places from Kuro"s office where Tifaliza is working to the manager"s room.

"What is it about?"

Don"t tell me, has she realized that Kuro and Satou are the same person?

"Y-yes. Actually the main head of the earl house that"s related to me--"
"Manager, this is bad!"

The manager was finally going to talk, but then a light blond executive girl rushed in so it got interrupted.

"Viscount Pendragon has come for a meeting!"

--What?

"Moreover, he said that he was Manager"s fiance!"

I suppress my surprise with [Poker Face] skill, and search the map in order to find out the ident.i.ty of the fake Sir Pendragon.

◇

"Nice to meet you, fiancee-dono. I want to talk with just the two of us without other people interfering if possible. Sorry but could you please leave?"

That guy talked while having the exact face of Satou.
Unfortunately the voice is slightly different from my natural voice. It sounds like he"s forcing higher pitched voice to sound lower.

I confirmed just in case, but he"s not a mock body (avatar) of the green demon.

"--Don"t mind it."

I cut off Fake Satou"s talk.

"And, what"s your business for coming here?"

Fake Satou shrugs off his shoulders to my pressing, he"s putting the expression of "can"t be helped then".
His att.i.tude is quite aggravating, though it"s probably his aim.

"I received her marriage proposal, so I thought of meeting her here and having some talk with her. We"re neighbors after all."

Fake Satou smiles refres.h.i.+ngly towards the manager.
The manager isn"t looking at Fake Satou, but to me, she tells me the reason why he"s insisting that he"s her fiance.

"actually, the head of an earl house related to ours had colluded with my father to propose a marriage to Viscount Pendragon."

I see, so it was among the many marriage proposals that had arrived in the mansion.

I had told the butler to write letters of refusal if the other parties were lower n.o.bles, but I have to write the letters myself if it"s for the upper n.o.bles, so it"s been put on hold.
It looks like it"ll become troublesome if I don"t write my replies soon.

Now then, leaving that aside, let"s find out Fake Satou"s motive.

"Apparently an annoying bug won"t go away today, so let"s deepen our love in another day."

The manager lifts her eyebrows in anger toward Fake Satou"s joke.
She muttered in low voice, "He dared to insult Kuro-sama."

However, it seems because the other party is an upper n.o.ble, she endures herself not to raise her hands against him.

"This is a commemoration for our meeting."

Fake Satou takes out a necklace wrapped in cloth from his chest and presents it to the manager.
It"s an expensive looking necklace that has a glittering vermilion drop on the top.

The detailed information is displayed beside the necklace on the AR reading--

"I want you to at least take this."

The manager who wants Fake Satou to go away is going to take the necklace without even looking at it.
I grab her arm and stop her.

"....Wait."
"Kuro-sama?"

The manager smiles broadly from my restraint.

"You are really boorish--"

Fake Satou disappeared before he finished speaking.

He didn"t run away, he was sunk into the wall after receiving my front kick.
I didn"t kill him of course, but he probably won"t wake up for now.

I leave the surprised manager and put the necklace dropped by him into my storage.
This necklace is a cursed item, it"s a dangerous item that makes the wearer unconsciously obeys the order of the one who has the other pair.

"Ku-Kuro-sama?! He"s still tentatively an upper n.o.ble. From the standpoint of Kuro-sama and Hero Nanas.h.i.+-sama...."
"I don"t care. It"s an impostor."

Long blond hair flows down from Fake Satou"s black hair.
I get close to the impostor and strip off his disguise.

"--A woman?"
"That"s right."

This person was the female phantom thief whom I met when we first arrived at the Royal Capital.

I had noticed that the Fake Satou was the phantom thief from the beginning, but she didn"t do any offense, so I a.s.sumed a wait-and-see stance.

I tied the phantom thief with Thorn Foot"s ivy, gave her the minimum treatment with a diluted low magic potion, and interrogated her.

"--Then you wanted to manipulate the manager in order to steal the orbs in the underground vault?"
"That"s right."

This one wanted orbs too huh--.

Organized thievery has decreased, but now an individual phantom thief has appeared.
I"m getting tired of eliminating them, it"s about the time they should stop.

"Is that all you want to ask? Then just quickly hand me over to the guards. Or maybe you want my body?"

The female phantom thief pushes out her b.r.e.a.s.t.s while being tied up, provoking me.
It"s the manager who reacts instead of me.

"Be silent."

The manager hits the phantom thief with a horseback-riding whip.
A red mark is engraved on the phantom thief"s cheek.

"Leave it at that."

I take out a sleeping magic potion from my storage and force the female phantom thief to drink it.
The female phantom thief twists her body, trying to resist it, but she quickly loses her consciousness, turning to [Coma] condition.

She was probably going to try escaping before the imprisonment, but now she should sleep for a whole day.

"Send her to the prison as she wants--"

As if waiting for me to finish dealing with the fake, the ring tone from [Telephone] rings.

The caller is Arisa.
Did anything happen in the royal castle?

While recalling a slight irritation, I put the Telephone reception to ON.