Chapter 224

“You’re taking on the request?”

“Yes. To be precise, it’s not me but my junior who wants to make the request. Ah, let me introduce her to you.”

Yuri stepped back and introduced her junior.

“This is my junior, Mina Silverheart.”

“Ah, hello…”

The girl who greeted me was small in stature and had a timid impression.

She wore glasses, likely due to poor eyesight, and faint freckles were visible on her face.

The glasses she wore were the large, round type often called “round glasses,” similar to the ones worn by Seiri, an alchemist I once met in the ruins of the Ancient Empire.

Due to the limitations of lens-shaping technology in this world, most glasses looked like that.

However, compared to Seiri, who also wore round glasses but gave off a somewhat careless and unreliable impression, Mina, despite her timid appearance, didn’t seem unreliable.

Her light brown short hair was neatly trimmed, forming even horizontal layers, and her overall attire and posture, while not flashy, gave off a meticulous and careful impression despite her timid demeanor.

Come to think of it, what has Seiri been up to lately?

She said she’d give me the translated version of the journal we found in the ruins of the Ancient Empire once she finished deciphering it.

Maybe I should visit her soon.

But for now, I should focus on the conversation at hand.

“You’re taking on the request?”

“Yes, yes. I’ve been having some concerns lately, so I consulted Yuri-senpai, and she suggested that since she knows the Adventurer Guild well, I should make a request.”

“Ah. Come to think of it, Kurt-san doesn’t seem to have any special requests at the moment. How about you take on the request, Kurt-san?”

“Me?”

“That’s right.”

Mina looked at Yuri, flustered by her words.

“Y-Yuri-senpai?”

“Don’t worry. This person is an adventurer I respect, and his skills are something to be proud of.”

“If Yuri-senpai says so…”

Mina quickly nodded in agreement.

Wait. What about my opinion?

The two of them were proceeding with the conversation as if my acceptance of the request was a foregone conclusion, without even hearing my opinion.

…Well, it’s not like I don’t know them, so maybe I should at least hear them out.

“So, let’s hear the details of the request. What kind of request brought you to the Adventurer Guild?”

As I said that, I looked at Mina, Yuri’s junior.

Yuri herself was only in her late teens, and Mina, being her junior, was even younger.

At most, she was around sixteen or seventeen.

What business could a girl of that age have to come to the Adventurer Guild to make a request?

“W-well, as you can tell from my name, I’m the only daughter of the Silverheart Company.”

Silverheart Company?

The Silverheart Company was the most famous trading company in Astram.

Mina is the only daughter of that company?

I thought there might be some connection, but I didn’t expect her to be the only daughter.

Well, thinking about it, it’s not that strange.

If she’s attending the academy, it’s natural that she’s either from a noble family or at least a fairly wealthy one.

“So, what kind of request does the only daughter of the Silverheart Company want to make?”

“You may or may not know, but have you heard that a new company has recently entered Astram?”

“Hmm… I haven’t been to the market in a while, so I didn’t know. But is that something special? In a city like Astram, several companies are born or go bankrupt every year, right?”

“You sound just like my father…”

Mina’s shoulders slumped in response to my question.

“So, you’re saying this company is different?”

“Of course! The thing is, the company is run by a goblin!”

“A goblin?”

Even though Astram is a city where various races gather, goblins and orcs, who mainly live in the western part of the continent, are still quite rare.

They’re so rare that their numbers are even fewer than my own race, the Lizardmen.

Given their history as minions of demons, even in a city like Astram where many races coexist, they couldn’t be accepted without prejudice.

Because of that, they faced subtle discrimination within Astram, and knowing this, they tended to form their own communities in the western part of the continent.

And now, a goblin suddenly appears and runs a company?

Are they selling something special?

“That’s certainly unusual.”

I was interested in what kind of ingredients the goblin company might be dealing with, but Mina, perhaps interpreting my interest as agreement with her opinion, continued with sparkling eyes.

“Right? So I thought! The company led by that goblin is definitely not an ordinary company!”

“…If it’s not an ordinary company, then what?”

“On the surface, they seem to deal with ordinary items, but they must be selling something extraordinary! No, what they’re dealing with isn’t important! What’s certain is that they didn’t come to Astram with good intentions!”

“…For example?”

“For example, they might be trying to distribute forbidden psychoactive substances like pink hallucinogenic sheep’s wool in the black market! Or they might be excavating artifacts from the recently discovered ruins of the Ancient Empire and smuggling them! Or maybe they’ve obtained the artifacts themselves and are planning to misuse them! They definitely don’t have good intentions!”

“So, what kind of request do you want? For that goblin company to leave Astram?”

“No, I don’t expect that much. I don’t have enough money to pay for that kind of request. All I want is for you to find some clues that the goblin company is doing something illegal. If you can find those clues, I can just pass them on to the guards of Astram, and that will be the end of it.”

Hmm.

Well…

It seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

Seeing that I wasn’t particularly interested, Mina pleaded with a desperate expression.

“Please! I’m not a full-fledged merchant yet, but as a prospective merchant trained under my father, I can tell that the goblin company is definitely suspicious! When I followed them last time, I saw the goblin plotting something sinister and greedy!”

“That’s right, Kurt-san. There’s no evidence yet, but the company led by the goblin is definitely suspicious. It’s even written in history books. Goblins are very greedy and despicable creatures!”

“Even if you say that…”

Even if the goblin company is suspicious, isn’t that the job of the guards, not an adventurer?

Besides, if it’s not a request to hunt monsters, I can’t even get the side income from monster meat, so I’m not really interested.

Speaking of income, can Mina, being an academy student, even afford to pay the reward?

Her family is wealthy, but it seems like she’s acting on her own without much support from her family…

Even if she has enough money to pay the reward, I’m not particularly greedy for money except for buying ingredients.

I was trying to be friendly since it’s someone I know, but it doesn’t seem like a good fit for me.

Even if she’s Yuri’s junior, there are times when you can’t help even people you know.

Should I decline?

Just as I was about to reach that conclusion internally, Mina, sensing my lack of enthusiasm, pleaded with a desperate voice.

“Please! I’m not making this request just because the other company is a threat to our Silverheart Company. Our Silverheart Company isn’t so small that we’d be affected by a new company set up by a goblin. But as a merchant, I can’t stand by and watch the goblin company abandon the right path of a merchant and disrupt the market order! Although I don’t have much personal money to offer a large reward, I can use my connections to give you a VIP pass to the Silverheart Company!”

“…What?”

“I’m making this request as a merchant…”

“No, not that. The next part.”

“A VIP pass to the Silverheart Company…”

The Silverheart Company is undoubtedly the largest trading company in Astram.

A VIP pass to that company?

“If they’re dealing with hallucinogenic substances in the black market or smuggling and misusing ancient artifacts, it could lead to a major incident. As a citizen of Astram, I can’t just ignore such a dangerous situation.”

“S-so, does that mean…?”

“I’ll take on the request.”

Yeah.

She’s not a stranger, and she’s Yuri’s junior.

How could I just ignore her?