Chapter 10
Aha.
I turned my head toward the pub’s entrance and asked,
“Is that so?”
No one was standing there.
Right after bewilderment clouded the bartender’s eyes, the quiet door was pushed open, and a person I’d never seen before appeared.
He entered silently like a shadow, cloaked from head to toe in a long robe.
“What’s the <Buried Rat>?”
He was the one living a new life as a butler—the butler assassin.
My guess was that the robe he wore had been makeshift from an unused blackout curtain he’d modified himself.
Considering his professional expertise, it was a pretty plausible guess.
The butler assassin kindly answered my question.
“It’s an information guild that grew rapidly before and after the Mado War. They’re huge, dangerous, and ruthless enough to use any means for their goals.”
His unwavering voice held not a shred of deception. I nodded.
This was the role I’d hoped for and demanded from him.
Before rushing to the pub, I’d gone to find the butler assassin.
True to his former assassin instincts, he immediately sensed my presence and came out the back door to ask my business.
“It’s not even the agreed-upon day. What is it?”
“I’m looking out for a way to survive.”
“And?”
“Let’s do it together.”
At my concise and proactive temptation, the butler assassin gave me a suspicious look.
“Why should I?”
“Because I have to go looking for one, just like you.”
“Looking for what, exactly?”
“A way to survive.”
To gain cooperation, you have to show your cards first.
I explained to him that I needed to gather information to find the necessary item, and briefly outlined my future plans.
His expressionless face began to perk up at the word “information.”
It was only natural.
For someone like him, being hunted by the Assassination Guild, having Midwintree in the palm of his hand was crucial to shaking off the experts’ pursuit.
Starting with the Merchant Union that dominated this area, we could slowly take over the city, which would benefit us both.
“It’s not a bad proposal. ……All right. But when it comes to the Merchant Union you mentioned, it might be better to revise the plan a bit.”
“How so?”
“From what I’ve heard, they’re unusually well-organized and expanding quickly for a bunch of local thugs. In cases like this, there’s usually a backer behind them. If we move carelessly, we could get hit back.”
The butler assassin demanded we investigate the Merchant Union’s backers before acting. It was a judgment call that sometimes the wise choice was to steer clear, depending on their background.
But my thinking was a little different.
The reason was simple.
If the Merchant Union stayed as it was, the Potato Old Man would have to vanish from the alleys.
‘I did well promising to pull out if their backers turned out to be too much.’
But who would’ve thought it was connected to a major guild.
“<Buried Rat>? I’ve never heard of them.”
“It’s an underworld guild. No surprise ordinary folk wouldn’t know.”
“Ordinary folk?”
I see. So I’m ordinary now.
The butler assassin seemed to realize something was terribly off with his own words and subtly furrowed his brow.
“Of course, that’s not always the case. But <Buried Rat> has roots throughout the 13 nations of the former Mado Alliance, centered in the Pen Rota Empire. Their guild master is so shadowy that not even their name is known, and they never do anything that could give them away.”
As he explained, the butler assassin eyed the bartender suspiciously.
“But they wouldn’t ally with crude thugs like these, would they?”
At those words, the bartender frantically rummaged through the inner drawer of the display cabinet. Soon, a golden round coin popped out from the drawer.
“No! W-We are indeed under the <Buried Rat>’s protection! Look, here’s the guild coin.”
A guild coin is essentially a certificate proving affiliation or collaboration with a specific guild.
After scrutinizing the coin’s every detail, the butler assassin nodded gravely.
“It’s real.”
“So you see! You’re all making a huge mistake. This guy seems to know the <Buried Rat>’s fearsomeness very well…….”
I snatched the guild coin from the now even more smug bartender.
“It’s real? Then it’s mine starting now.”
The bartender gnashed his teeth.
“You’ve got some guts—or maybe you’re insane! Didn’t you hear me? If word gets to the <Buried Rat> that we’ve been attacked…….”
“That only happens if you wag your tongue too loosely.”
I tapped the bartender’s lips with the guild coin as a warning.
“Be smart about this, bartender. Ever heard ‘blood is thicker than water’? No? How about ‘the law is far, but the fist is close’? The <Buried Rat>’s law is far away, but your neighbor’s fist—mine—is right here. Remember, your lives hang by a thread on my mood.”
The pub interior fell silent as if doused with cold water.
While that sank in, the butler assassin, who’d been racking his brains, spoke up with his usual serious expression.
“If it’s the <Buried Rat>, it’s too dangerous. The rumor that they repay attacks tenfold isn’t exaggerated. Information guilds expand through trust and money at their core. Even a small, shabby branch like this is still a branch—better not to touch it.”
He seemed inclined to back out of today’s business. Considering the opponent was a major underworld guild, it was understandable.
“Is it more dangerous than your master?”
But I needed the butler assassin.
They say the one who’s tasted the meat knows how to eat it best, and he was perfect to lead a new Merchant Union.
Information and assassination were inextricably linked from the start.
After all, an assassin’s second most important—or equally vital—task after killing was theft and intelligence gathering.
“They’re different. A master is one person. The <Buried Rat> has no single form—it’s like a small nation.”
“Just don’t get caught. We move without them knowing.”
I tossed him a small glass vial from my inner pocket.
“This is…….”
“The <Merciful One Bite> I took from you. The world’s most dangerous pill—one that sends you straight to the grave.”
“Didn’t expect you to keep it.”
“It’s hard to come by. Can’t just toss it. Especially since it’s the most precious.”
I touched my earlobe lightly and said,
“Though the most valuable is probably that magic tool you swore your oath on.”
The butler assassin still had the oath-binding magic tool he’d failed to use on me. With that, we could forcibly seal their mouths.
Grasping my intent, the butler assassin’s expression grew even more serious.
In the meantime, I locked eyes with each of the Merchant Union executives one by one.
“If anyone gets in the way, kill them with the <Merciful One Bite>. If you can’t trust them, just kill them all. They might notice like these thieves wanted, per <Buried Rat>. But even if they do, all they’ll find are corpses.”
Tell your superiors if you want. But if you do, you die too.
Without a trace, in one fell swoop.
The bartender, revived under the <Buried Rat>’s protection, paled dramatically as he got the message.
“……Did you have to spell it out like that?”
“I just learned today myself.”
I waited leisurely for the butler assassin’s decision. Fortunately, his deliberation didn’t last long.
“Understood. I’ll take charge of this from now on. But I have a condition.”
“Name it.”
“I’ll handle this my way. I’ll only take your input if it makes sense to me. Do we have a deal?”
Music to my ears. Less hassle for me.
Instead of words, I tossed him the <Buried Rat>’s guild coin as my answer.
“To commemorate the new Merchant Union’s formation, let’s carry out our first mission.”
“Mission? ……You mean that item you said you needed.”
I nodded in response.
“We need to find Dian Ket’s Legacy, hidden in Midwintree.”
“……If it’s the legendary Dian Ket’s Legacy from city folklore, you mean the Eyeball?”
“That’s right.”
In that instant, the butler assassin’s eyes changed. If I wasn’t mistaken, his face showed a flicker of brief conflict.
Does he know something? I approached and whispered softly,
“Why?”
He stared at the floor for a moment before meeting my eyes and answering.
“It might just be coincidence. But if my guess is right, it seems your master is looking for that item too.”
