The day after I handed over the bandits to the Adventurer's Guild, I had a meeting with the guild leader.
"So the bandits will be slaves?"
"Yeah, Hamra, who was the head, and Mobdar, who took over, are guilty of death, and everyone else is a slave."
"Is Braham a slave, too?"
"Yeah, he's not the head, he's not the executive..."
From the look on the guild leader's face, it seems he knows about Braham's past.
"Does the guild leader know about Braham's past?"
"Yes, I know. If I had proof, I could destroy that rotten nobleman, but he's too cunning..."
If he had enough evidence to destroy the nobleman, Braham would have done so from the beginning, but unfortunately the nobleman doesn't seem to let him grab his tail.
"Is that nobleman still alive and well?"
"Oh, I'm afraid of the world. That's what I'm talking about."
I am deeply moved by the fact that the Japanese proverb is also used in this world.
Regardless of my feelings, you don't need me to tell you what will happen to Braham if he's captured and enslaved after his failed attempt to avenge the corrupt nobleman who's still alive and well.
Even a man who can fight as well as Lethia can't stand against his master once he's a slave. I don't like it. I don't want to imagine it.
"Braham will be sold at the upcoming auction. He's a slave who was able to defeat a rank 4 demon single-handedly, and even though he has old wounds that limit his ability to fight to the fullest, his bid price will exceed 100 million."
Why would the guild leader say such a thing to me? ...I don't know what you expect from me. Don't look at me like that.
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It's been a long time since I've had a chance to relax.
So I'm going to think about something that I asked Ins about before, but he was vague about it.
That administrator-san said that 10 people could return to Earth. When I first asked Ins, he refused to give me an answer, and when I asked him after he upgraded, he told me to find the 10 in this world.
Then, how do we find 10? It seems that there are many researchers and scholars who study the dungeon of the Red Tower in the city of the Red Tower, and they have a library. It seems that there are many books in the library, so I'll try to find the number 10 in the library.
The inside of this world library seems to be not so different from that of Japanese libraries. The temperature is controlled and it is quiet, so it is a good environment for taking a nap.
I'll ask the librarian, just as a courtesy.
"Excuse me, does the number 10 mean anything to you?"
"Yes? ...Is it ten?"
A female librarian in her twenties with beautiful blonde hair pulled up short and wearing dark glasses, who appears to be an intellectual, looks at me like what the hell is she talking about.
"There isn't, you know, a book that has anything to do with 10..."
"...There is."
Oh, you do?
"Look on the fifth shelf from the top of shelf 22 in the black area . There is a book called Ancient Dungeons."
"An ancient dungeon...is it?"
I rummaged through the designated bookshelf and found a black book as thick as the Six Laws, with the words Ancient Dungeon on the spine, so I picked it up.
I flipped through a few pages and found a word that caught my attention.
"There are eight ancient dungeons above ground and two in the air, sacred places where ancient gods are worshipped... I never thought I'd find something related to 1 0 so easily."
[Ins, can we get back to Earth by going through the ancient dungeon?]
[Master, I'm sorry, I can neither confirm nor deny.]
Neither confirm nor deny... or the response is clearly different from the previous answers. I see a high possibility of a correct answer!
After that, I read that the Red Tower is one of the ancient dungeons. Well, it's good that we were planning to use the Red Tower as our base for the time being, but we have to consider that people from Earth will gather in the Red Tower in the future... Those three girls will eventually visit here, so we have to be careful.
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Well, now that I've got a good idea about 10, I'll make arrangements to solve the latest problem.
I've got three problems to solve now.
First, I need to get the money to bid for Braham at the auction. If you ask me why I'm bidding for Braham, I can't allow a corrupt nobleman to bid for Braham after hearing such a story.
I'm going to spend every penny I have on this, but I'm going to bid on Braham.
The second was a proposal from Catherine San of the Commercial Guild to distribute 300 million yen worth of goods to the Commercial Guild as a condition of special membership.
This is related to the first point, but I'm optimistic that if we can get the commercial guilds to wholesales to the point of screaming, we'll be able to get not only 300 million yen, but whatever we need to get the money for Braham's bid.
The third is to explore the Red Tower. There is no doubt that the ancient dungeon is the key to return to the earth for 1000 people who were sent to this world.
However, the problem is that I don't understand whether it's just a matter of defeating the dungeon master in an ancient dungeon, or whether there are some action requirements for the dungeon.
However, we cannot just leave it because we don't know what it is, and we should proceed with the search as much as possible.
And if someone returns to Earth, will that information be passed on to us? If someone has fulfilled the conditions to return to Earth in the Red Tower, it is unlikely that others will know about it.
I don't think that administrator would be so naive.
In other words, I think the early bird needs to meet the requirements.
I don't have to go back to Earth... so I can help someone else go back to Earth... but I don't think that kind of naive thinking will go over well with that administrator... so I'll hold off on thinking about it.
Let's explore the Red Tower for now, and then we'll see what happens.
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I've been going to the Commercial Guild every day and I've already delivered 300 million yen worth of merchandise.
They are now bringing in large quantities of silk and other fabrics to the commercial guilds for further funding.
Catherine san, who is the deputy head of the commercial guild and exudes a strong personality, is also the general manager of the sewing department, and she is very happy when I sell her fabrics.
She told me that Catherine had designed her own brand of gothic lolita clothes, and she liked the soft silk fabric.
So when I brought in the silk lace, they were dancing, or rather, really dancing.
"Unmo~, if you have something so good, Grosechan, you should tell me soon~"
"I'm glad you like it."
"Do you have anything else interesting for me? I'm getting wet because I'm sure Glose-chan will come up with more."
As a merchant and a business partner, I'm fine with it, but please don't give me this wink that makes a crackling sound when you wiggle. I can hear my spirit being chipped away at: ....
I finish my business meeting with Katherine and go back to the shop. And since the corpses of the demons I bought yesterday are piled up in the warehouse, I'll collect them in storage and sell them through [[Mail Order]].
Since then, I have increased the purchase price of rank 1 and rank 2 demons by 30% in order to obtain funds for the auction. This is a so-called "buyback enhancement period".
Profits will decrease, but the number of demon corpses will increase, so the amount of transactions through [[mail order]] will increase.