Protagonist Knows Everything - Chapter 32

Viscount Kelk’s eyes twitched a little.

I didn’t care and kept on saying, “I know your second wife, Amelia Von Kelk, has a 12-year-old son. He must be a half brother to Somel-sama.”

I leaned back on the chair making myself comfortable.

“The 12-year-old has one year left for the coming-of-age ceremony.”

In this world, surprisingly enough, the coming of age ceremony is held at the age of thirteen.

No wonder Kasha jumped into adventuring right at that age.

“If the first son isn’t well by then, then he will be deemed ineligible of inheriting the estate.”

“……”

“That’s why they are keeping him sick without just killing him.”

“……”

“I see it as a smart choice. If the first son dies, then the doctor will be interrogated and there’s a chance that the perpetrator may get caught, so it’s just better to keep Master Somel alive.”

[Bang]

Viscount Kelk hit the table with his fist.

“You sure don’t know how to hold your tongue.”

“I thought it would come to this so I came prepared.”

I pulled out the papers I took from Curin, reports made by doctors Curin was acquainted with.

“I hope you read these carefully.”

Kelk slowly made his way through the papers. Ron was just sitting there, with cold sweat on his forehead.

A few minutes later Kelk spoke up, “Is this the actual cure?”

I glanced at Ron. He noticed it, took a deep breath and started speaking.

“Young master Somel didn’t have any incurable disease to start with. There are many cures for it.”

“……”

“But in case of efficiency, this one would be the most efficient one.”

Ron took out the medicine bag from his pocket and put it on the table.

“This is the new drug developed by us, it’s in powdered form so it’s easy to consume. You just have to consume it with water two times a day.”

“……”

Just removing Zen wasn’t enough, after preparing this much to get the viscount out here I was going to use this opportunity to its fullest.

“So now you are going to use my son’s sickness to promote your products?”

“Son? We’re talking about Young Master Somel Von Kelk the heir of this estate.”

“Cocky bunch.”

“We just provided one of the medicines. If you don’t accept it, it’s fine. There are other medicines as well.”

Kelfk’s eyes turned to the bag.  From his point of view, we were surely using this situation to promote our product, but his son would surely benefit from the medicine, so he couldn’t just refuse.

“What is this made of?”

“Frits. They are mushrooms that only grow in the lost territory”

“Frits…I see. I do remember approving the manufacturing papers and giving the right to the eternity tower.”

“The potency of this drug was verified ages ago. You can check the records in the tower itself.”

Kelk pushed the bag towards me.

“Try it.”

“Sure.”

I poured a spoonful of powder from the bag to my cup, mixed it with water and then drank it.  I could see Kelk’s face loosen up as he saw me do that.

“Hmm.”

I coughed once and said.

“You certainly don’t like us.”

“……”

“But Ron here is a merchant and I am a guild receptionist, our goals are fundamentally based around profit. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Kelk crossed his arms and sat there in silence.  After a while he reached for the medicine bag and carefully put it inside his pockets.

“Do you have any wishes?”

Ron answered first with a sincere voice, “When we start mass production and distribution of medicine in the market we’d like to start rumours about how Young master Somel got treated with it.”

“……I accept.”

“Is that it?”

“Yes. It’s Eenough. I wish for nothing more than that.”

Viscount Kelk nodded, then turned his gaze to me.

“And you?”

“I just have one request.”

“Tell me.”

“You must have noticed that Mr. Zen is deeply involved in this matter. I will not say too much because you’ll be disposing of him anyway but….that’s not it.”

I swallowed one gulp and spoke, “He borrows your name and is very domineering on guilds.”

“……”

“Especially a certain guild is his favourite…”

“You mean the Wyvern Guild.”

I nodded without even realizing it.

Kelk once again stroked his chin and said, “I knew about it from the start. However I didn’t think that I’d need to get involved in matters involving the guild, so I entrusted all of it to Zen.”

“……”

“Zen was a loyal person back then. But I believe everyone changes with time.”

“That’s inevitable.”

“It’s a little late, but I’ll have to get rid of the rotten fruits before the whole basket is gone.”

Viscount Kelk looked straight into my eyes.

“I heard that there’s a guild with reasonable commision rates who contributed a lot to the last S-class quest and have a contract with an A-plus class adventurer.”

“……”

“I see no reason to commission the Wyvern guild in their place.”

‘Done’

“Thank you.”, I said in a serious voice and bowed my head in gratitude.

“Do you have anything else to say?”

“No.”

“It was an unpleasant meeting. I don’t want to see you, ever again.”

With that the Viscount rose up and made his way to the door.  The attendants rose up in a hurry and followed him like soldiers. And they went out while thumping their feet behind the viscount.

“Whew.”

Ron leaned back on his chair and lent out a sigh or relief.

Then he said, while fanning his hand, “Was all of it according to your plan?”

“Yeah everything was perfect.”

“I won’t be so sure. We might have achieved our goals but Viscount Kelk must’ve seen us as sleazy businessmen like a normal person would.”

“……”

“The nobles aren’t this simple. We’ll need to be on the lookout in case they try to get back at us.”

I shrugged once, “I know what you’re trying to say but we are sleazy businessmen to begin with.”

“Huh?”

“No. Nothing.”

I poured a glass of water and drank it.

“Our guild will continue to grow even further.”

“……”

“This little Kelk estate will see some big changes. When it comes to that stage, our guild will still be the centerpiece of everyone’s attention.”

“……”

“In that case, it would be better if I know about it beforehand.”

Ron tilted his head.

“What?”

“We can’t afford to be careless.”, I said.

“……”

Ron pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead once then spoke.  “How far is Mr. Tay planning?”

“Huh?”

“My dream is to become independent from Siris. One day i’ll establish my own brand that’ll grow even bigger than the Siris.”

“……”

“I used to think that my plan was too ambitious, but Mr. Tay seems to be planning something that’ll put my plan to shame.”

I just smiled silently.

But Ron kept asking, “How far into the future are you looking?”

Well. Be it the previous one as a normal salaryman or this one as the receptionist, I never planned about my future.

But suddenly after Ron asked about it, I also wanted to find the answer.

‘What do I want? What are my goals?’

“I wonder.”, I replied.

“……”

“Rather than thinking about that, how about you hand me the thing you promised?”

Ron pulled out a heavy bag of money, I could see his face muscles twitching while doing it but he somehow managed to keep his smile intact like any proper merchant should.

“It’s 500 gold.”

“I asked only for 450. What’s with the extra money?”

“Please understand. I don’t want to get on Mr. Tay’s bad side.”

Then I received the bag while wearing a satisfied smile.

“I thought Mr. Tay wouldn’t be the greedy kind.”

“Yeah. I’m not greedy at all.”

“Then please return it.”

“I am not going to spend it on myself.”

Ron tilted his head in confusion.

“Then why do you need it?”

“To give my little one an incentive.”

Giving incentives with someone else’s money rather than the guild’s money is very thrilling.

“What are you talking about?”

“How about we stop now? I have to go somewhere.”

As I rose up, Ron also rose up from his seat in a hurry and said, “How about a meal? We didn’t even order any food and just took seats in this restaurant.”

“I feel sorry for the owner but I can’t stay right now.”

“Huh?”

“A prior engagementpromise?”

“Yes. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Saying that I left that place leaving Ron behind.

***

‘Are they still waiting?’ I wondered as I was walking down the dark roads.

It was already 9 but Kasha and Sain were still waiting.

“Where’s Elena?”

“I sent her home. Kids should go to bed early.”

‘Then why are you awake?’ I thought to myself.

Then while having that late night dinner I reported everything to them.  As soon as I finished talking, I heard a familiar voice.

[You acquired 700 HR evaluation points from Kasha.]

[You acquired 700 HR evaluation points from Sain.]

[The employee can be promoted to the third year. Would you like to be promoted?]

Of course.

[Level: Employee 3 years/Next level: Employee 4 years]

[Personnel points required until the next promotion: 180/5000]

[Professional Ability 1: Permit.]

[Trait 2: You can do that too.]

[Trait 3: Who can do this?]

[Newly information available: Health status.]

‘That’s something useful.’

I heard Sain’s voice as I was scrolling through the records, “I did expect that Mr. Tay would do something unexpected.”

“Really?”

“Yes. But what did you do that made Viscount Kelk visit you himself?”

I shrugged that off.

Then Kasha said with a bashful smile, “Well, I’m not surprised at all.”

“Huh?”

“It’s true that what he did was unexpected. But If it’s Tay then it’s nothing new.”

“Nothing is impossible for Tay.”

“You’re exaggerating it. I was actually nervous this time.”

Kasha looked at me with a weird smile as if she didn’t believe me.  The face was so unpleasant that it almost made me not want to give her the incentive.But it would be better to just hand it to her. I don’t have anything to spend it on in either way.

I said, putting the heavy money bag on the table, “This is the reward I received from the manager Ron.”

Both of their eyes widened.

Even though our guild was doing great, 500 gold was still a big sum of money.

“Only if Ms. Sain allows it, I would like to use this.”

Then Sain replied without hesitation, “No. Why would I allow it?”

“……”

“Mr. Tay earned it himself. There’s no need to ask for my permission.”

“Thank you.”

Her answer was unexpected but I kept my calm and replied.  Then I pushed the bag towards Kasha.

Kasha looked at us with confusion in her eyes.

“Huh?”

“It’s yours, take it.”

“What?! Why!?”

“That’s up to you.”

“You’re the only A-plus class adventurer in our guild. I’ll have you work extra hard after this.”

“Tay……”

Suddenly, Kasha’s nose and ears turned red, “Did you drink?”

She shook her head in denial and pushed the bag towards me. While looking the other way.

“I…I don’t need this.”

“There’s no one who doesn’t need money.”

“You know what I mean.”

“No. I really don’t.”

“The Hagnut Guild, Ms. Sain and Tay are already treating me well enough. Why would I need this?”

I was captivated by her answer.

‘Why is everyone in our guild so weird?’

“So Tay should use it.”

“Yes. That’s how it should be.”

Kasha and Sain said in unison.

I said, scratching my head, “Well. Can I really use it wherever I want?”