Protagonist Knows Everything - Chapter 19

Sain was confused.

“Yeah? But… but I have to do this.”

‘Isn’t that great?!’

Sain understands her responsibilities as the boss. Unlike the boss in my previous life who dumped all his responsibilities on me.

‘But right now isn’t the time.’

Just letting Hans walk away would be waste.

“He and I were friends, so let me relieve him of his post.”

Sain’s demeanor changed. She couldn’t help it and replied in a relieved voice, “Mr. Tay is usually so uptight. But it seems even you have your soft spots.”

‘Yeah… soft spots.’

“It’s okay, you do it.”

“Thank you. Boss.”

I walked away from her and approached Hans and just led him to the conference room without saying a single word.

[Bang]

As soon as I closed the door, Hans spoke up in his unbearable voice.

“What’s with all this?”

“You should know that better than anyone else.”

“What?”

“If you don’t know then I can’t make out whether you’re naive or just plain stupid. Wait maybe you are stupid.”

Fortunately he wasn’t that stupid.

‘This saved me a lot of time.’

Hans spoke while clenching his fist, “Before….that newbiefreshman. I she……”

“Yeah. Your replacement.”

“Fuck!”

[Bang]

Hans hit the table really hard with his fist. It was quite funny to see him agitated. There were many cases where the person being fired would lash out and stir up trouble.

“I shouldn’t have contacted the Wyverns.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Tch. Dirk already said that you figured out his plan about the mole.”

“You weren’t very discrete either. You should’ve been more cautious. You were acting very weird from the get go,, anyway.”

“…”

Hans was staring at me with a really really angry look.

“You… you are the problem.”

“Huh?”

“You just came in and changed everything! Until then, people respected me too! You ruined everything!”

“I do remember the old days.” My nonchalant answer left Hans’ face in doubt. “You were the one who got me this job to start with.”

“……”

“Well, sit down for now.”

I sat down. Hans followed afterwards and took the seat across me.

[Sigh]

“I’ll help you a little. We were friends after all.”

Hans looked even more surprised.

“Help?”

“Yeah.”

“What? Will you pay me a few months’ salary?”

That’s just crazy.

“Why would I pay your severance pay? I’ll let you know right now, we don’t have a Standard Labour Law here.”

“Severance Labour law?”

“Yeah. Never mind.”

“Anyway, I’ll help you now…”

“But I’m not just going to let you walk away… you’ll have to do a bit of work for me.”

“What?”

I smiled and said, “Or I can just send you to the hospital. Your choice.”

Hans’ face was noteworthy, I wish I could capture that.

“What kind of help is that?!”

“Maybe you haven’t caught up to it yet but Hans, you’re a traitor.”

“……”

“Do you think traitors just get to leave without any consequences?”

He kept his mouth shut. And I kept speaking.

“Sain is very kind, too kind. She said she wanted to end it just by firing you. Isn’t that nice? You should be grateful that you have a boss like her.”

“……”

“But I am not Sain. Sending you to the hospital will be really easy if I just gave the word to some of my adventurers. Unlike me they’ll show you no mercy.”

Hans trembled with fear. But he still had the audacity to speak as if he wasn’t at fault.

“Huh… What I did is common practice among guilds.”

[Sigh]

“It would’ve been common if you were Wyvern Guild’s member to start with. Doing shady things like this is 2nd nature to them.”

“……”

“Even if it is common, you want me to just forgive you?”

His face was still sweating. I am not a sadist. But I am surely enjoying this situation.

“Can’t we work something out?”

“……”

“Don’t be too hasty. As I said before, I don’t intend to put you in the hospital. If you help me with a few things.”

Hans, who was angry a while ago, was now trembling with fear.

“What do you want?”

“First of all, how much money do you have saved?”

Hans’ face distorted.

“Huh? Why?”

“Lend me 300 gold. I will pay you back soon.”

“300 gold? Why do you need that much money?”

“I’m not going to use it for fun.”

I have an operation in my mind. I need money for it. That said, I don’t want to use my saved up money.

Hans rolled his eyes and said, “Go ahead, you’ll pay it back right?”

“Yeah for sure.”

If you stay in a position good enough to be repaid. Hans remained silent. I understood that silence affirmatively and spoke.

“Secondly, you know an A-class adventurer named Burns Iai in the Wyvern Guild right?”

“That’s it…”

“Go to Dirk at the date and time I tell you. Go and say this, ‘Taylor just entered Burns’ house a while ago.’”

“Why?”

“Because I want Burns here.”

His skills are good, but above all, he seems to be easy to ask for messy things in the future as he has done a lot of work behind the scenes for the guild.

Then Hans replied, “Are you trying to get the Burns out? That’s a stupid idea. ”

He is really stupid and doubts his skills a lot.

“It’s like poking a lion with a stick. You shouldn’t do that.”

“……”

“You don’t know who the guild master is right? If that guy gets upset…”

“Oh, I should have said that from the beginning.”

Soon Hans stopped talking.

“Huh?”

“So, it seems like you’re done blabbering. Now just answer. Do you want to do it or not?”

Hans clenched his fists and kept his silence. I waited leisurely.

After some time he replied, “I’ll do it.”

“That’s fortunate.”

***

A few days later.

Dirk stared at Hans, who found himself in his office in the middle of the night.

“So, you mean that Tay has entered Burns’ house? Now?”

“Yeah.”

Suddenly, Dirk’s brilliant brain was ringing the alarm.

‘This information was intentionally distributed by him.’

So he’s using Hans as a double agentbackwards,. tThe same way he did during the frit mission.

‘But I can’t just ignore this.’

A-class adventurers are the guild’s core property. Other guilds contacting those adventurers is risky. Then, if Tay really succeeds in recruiting Burns… the guild leader will not forgive me.

“I understand for now.” Dirk rose up. “You wait here.”

“Uh, till when?”

“Until I come back.”

Dirk went to the Guild Master’s office.

“Taylor himself went to Burns’ house.”

The guild leader of the Wyvern Guild. Von Lebeck stroked his face after hearing that. Although Dirk has been working for him for many years, he was nervous before him.

He struggled to add his thoughts.

“This information must’ve been delivered on purpose.”

“Dirk.”

“Yes, Guild Master.”

“I thought you were a smart guy.”

Dirk stepped back and gulped once.

“But you’ve been making a lot of mistakes recently. I am sorry.”

“You can’t do that. What’s your excuse for the loss of Kasha, for the Hagnut Guild to be able to complete the A-class quest, or for making the Siris upset?”

“……”

“The most stupid mistake is in what you’re saying right now.”

Von Lebeck slowly got up from his seat.

And he said, looking straight into Dirk’s eyes, “It must’ve been delivered on purpose.”

“……”

“As if you’re still unsure. It’s really unpleasant.”

[Tak Tak]

Von was tapping on Dirk’s shoulder. The tapping got stronger and stronger to the point where he was just straight up hitting Dirk.

“Sorry, I’m really sorry. It won’t happen again.”

The hits didn’t stop.

[Crack]

Dirk wondered if his bones were cracked.

Von withdrew his hand and spoke, “Well, that information was deliberately distributed. But I can’t help but check.”

“Yes yes. I’m heading to Burns’ house right now.”

“No. I will go there myself.”

‘Shit.’

Dirk’s face grew pale.

“Guild Master……”

“……”

“Your opponent is an important Class A adventurer!!”

Dirk raised his voice without realizing. However, all he received was a cold glare from the Guild Master.

“Hey. Deputy guild master Dirk.”

‘The only time he refers to someone with their title is when he’s really angry.’

“Yeah.”

“How many A-class adventurers are there in our guild?”

“Thirty-two.”

“How many ‘Burns’ are there?”

“…… there’s only one.”

“The one who’s about to retire.”

Von said that and then opened the office’s door and went out. Just outside he found Hans standing aimlessly.

Von asked while looking at him, “So, is this guy your informant?”

“Yeah.”

“Our guild’s hygiene is not up to par, clean up the trash before I return.”

Dirk sighed. Hans, who didn’t understand anything just tilted his head.

After Lebeck left the guild, Dirk spoke to a receptionist, “Close the door.”

“Yes.”

Only then, Hans noticed the atmosphere, and began to drag his feet.

“Well, where are you going?”

“Sit down. What’s with the hurry?”

[Thud]

The guild door was closed. Expressionless male employees who seemed quite familiar with this kind of thing stood near the door.

Dirk said with a grim voice, “It’s nothing personal.”

***

I was standing in front of Burns’ house. I was staring at the personnel records then Dirk’s information was updated.

[Currently: Reporting Hans’ information to the guild leader von Lebeck.]

‘Did he get caught?’

Actually, I didn’t expect much to start with. It’s good if he gets caught, and even if it doesn’t happen, me just being in front of Burns’ house is a success.

I grabbed the heavy knocker at Burns’ door and struck it. As I waited for a moment, I heard a whispering voice from the inside.

“Yes! Who?”

It seemed a bit out of place, it was a child’s voice. Much more unpleasant than Kasha’s voice.

‘Ah, Burns had four children.’

‘Let’s just answer the question for now.’

“It’s Taylor from the Hagnut Guild.”

“What is a tayord?”

“My name…”

Then Burns’ voice was heard from the inside, “Merry? Who is this?”

“It’s a man named Tayord!”

“Tayord?… Is it that the guy?”

After a while, the door opened. Burns was holding a kid who seemed to be his son. On both arms, two kids were hanging like some kind of fruit.

The moment I saw the picture, I decided.

‘I will never, I’ll limit it to one. First of all, I’ll need to get married.’

Then Burns bluntly asked, “What is it?”

“Hi. It sure is a pleasant night.”

“What is going on?”

“I just want to talk, Mr. Burns Iai.”

Burns warned me without even opening the door completely.

“I don’t hear anything from you.”

“It’s a good business for you.”

“Don’t mess with me, go back. And why are you so respectful all of a sudden? It feels weird.”

He tried to close the door.

“Wait.” I lifted the bag of money and shook it lightly. “You may want to reconsider.

“As I said, I just want to talk.”

“……”

“Reconsider.”

Burns hesitated for a while, and then he dropped his son on his ahorse. And the children of both arms gently loosened their grip.

“Hey. It’s time for everyone to sleep. You promised to play with daddy for only 30 minutes, right?”

“Okay…”

“Go to the room. Mom will put you to sleep.”

“Okay good night!”

He opened the door only after sending all the kids to the room, and then led me straight to his room.

As soon as I sat down, I laid the bag on the floor and said, “It’s 300 gold.”

“……”

“My arms are in pain after carrying it. Can I leave it here?”