Dream Life

I should have retired from the Adventurer.

Five years ago, when I was thirty, I stepped on Doji in the mountains. That's when I lost my right toe and almost lost my powers as a swordsman.

If this city, other than Doctus, could have been fed by a good, drinker father, bad, wife. No, if I sucked, my wife would have dumped me, and I could have drowned wild.

But I, Cy Furman, still live as an adventurer in Doctus.

Why detain yourself to adventurers?

It's a question that is often asked.

But the answer is simple. Yes, adventurers have low taxes. It is deducted on its own from the remuneration, so in substance, the client will be paying taxes.

The young guy says it's just a tax, but you have to lose it.

So what happens when you retire from the Adventurer?

If you start a drinker or something, the store will be taxed, and if you have a child (kid), you will be taxed. Something like that, they take more than half of their annual income in taxes.

If you ask so much, most people realize that adventurers are a good business.

And my job as an informant is even better.

The reward ranges from fifty to one hundred C (krona) (= fifty thousand to one hundred thousand yen) at a time. I have a minimum income of 200 C or more because I have four or five requests a month.

At this level of income, it's very much the same as a Class VII or lower rush, but my job is not to spend money on weapons and protective equipment. A little expense will be incurred when listening, but the full amount will be handled.

Especially since the requests from the college professors are well paid and equal to no deadline, so it's a good job. Professor Elbain, who is a good customer - Lydiane's old friend, Kitty Elbain - has a good reward for the simple job of listening to the commercial guild handler Once Upon a Time.

And on the morning of September 24th, I was taught at the guild that I had a request to introduce that Professor Erbain.

When I spoke at the receptionist, he said it was at the request of a student at the Tilia School of Magic, who was only given a schematic and wanted the student to hear the details.

I was interested in the student, Zacharias Lockhart.

Before I went to him for more information, I looked into my client. That's what clients always do when they're first opponents. If you don't know who they are, you don't know what they want.

First of all, the name Zacharias Lockhart sounded familiar. Because I was the head of this year's college admissions student and I had heard from Professor Erbain that (...) Professor Lionel Raspade praised me.

We don't talk about it with that degree of knowledge, but we don't have much time. Tina at the reception told me that I would go to my client in the morning because I would show my face to the guild every morning.

I rushed to gather information.

Speaking to a handful of college officials, he found out that he was from the frontier of the Caerm Empire, the village of Rasmore, that Sharon Jakes and his deputy lived together in childhood training, and that the magic level was already over twenty and higher than that of a practical instructor.

But that doesn't make any sense. At a time like this, the most I want to know is who my client is. If you know that, it's easy to know what information they really want to know.

After a college official I knew, I went to see Professor Erbain on that leg. So it is heard that he is the godson of the professor's old friend, Lydiane Dupree, and a very good magician.

In Professor Erbain's story,

"He's amazing. I have all the attributes, but I'm not proud of them at all. Besides, the comprehension of knowing ten is amazing. I know very well that Dr. Raspade would love to be your assistant."

"So, what does that genius want me to look into?

The professor says, "If I hear that from him," but if I can, I want to know first, the professor told me a story about when he introduced me to him.

"I'm a kid named Sharon with that kid, but he's bullied in class. Maybe Senator Worgman's son took the lead. That's not all. I hear Bennett's class teacher is part of it."

I leaked a slightly discouraged voice, "Are you a bully?" 'Cause you will. When I hear about the extent of child bullying, I can't help but think it won't clog up.

But the professor laughed a little when he heard a similar word in my sigh.

"Are you disappointed? But I'd be surprised if you heard the reasoning that kid had in mind. I don't have a lot of information about it, but I don't know why I can think of it so far..."

Here's what the professor said.

It was not the classmates who were trying to kick them out, but the forces that were trying to drive down Senator Worgman, who was headed by the next candidate for Speaker, and the reasoning was that the two of them were being used for that stock.

The reasoning was logical, and although there was no evidence at all, it was so convincing that whoever heard it had to be convinced.

I didn't think, "Is it true what a ten-year-old thought?" I heard.

After I put it in my mouth, I thought it was gone, but I quickly reopened that this was something I had no choice about.

That would be so.

Because a ten-year-old calmly analyzed the dirtiest part of politics, too. What is even more frightening is that we have expressed enough thoughts about our standing to be said to be ruthless.

If you're a kid that old, it's not strange to think you're the center of the world. But he was out saying that if we didn't even get involved in politics, it wouldn't be a big problem for us. You asked me to gather information just to see if my reasoning was correct.

Professor Erbain heard me whine and said, "It's normal for you to think so. That's what I thought when I first met him, too," he laughed.

"This is also a favor from me. It's a terrible loss for the college to lose her now. That's why I need you to help her stay in college."

I was a little confused. I was wondering if I could help such a genius.

"Is there anything you can do to help me? I almost feel like I've got an answer."

The professor smiled at my unsure words,

"You'd think so, too. That's what I thought. But she's not. I'm thinking of hitting something further after making sure my reasoning is correct. So I want you to do whatever you can to find out what he wants to know."

I followed the professor's lab and interviewed him even closer to his house.

Listening to them in the neighborhood, they say they often go into the woods, and they had a very good reputation for sharing meat from demons they caught in the woods.

The lady in the house named Novello next door,

"I've come to greet you politely since you moved in. Besides, even if I could just tell you a little something about that restaurant's bread being delicious and when the city was going to open, you'd be well thankful. At first, I was thrilled. My neighbor Littlef was in the affairs of the School of Magic, and Zach told me just a little bit about you, but I was worried about how arrogant a kid was coming because he said he was born a knight's house for everything, and I heard he passed the college as chief. Whatever, because we have three little girls... yes, we have an interesting story..."

You like to talk, a few stories derailed me along the way, but I heard about when I rented a house and I doubted my ears.

Speaking of McCloud, it's his real estate agent. I know him because I know a lot of commercial guilds, but he's very cynical when it comes to business. The story of him giving away a fairly expensive table for free to beg his children to teach was incredible to Russia.

I don't know what it is, but she also went to the McCloud store to teach it, so I guess it really helps. I checked later and they said it was a calculation about advanced commerce, but it was too difficult for me and I had no idea.

I could understand him to some extent. Even so, I was pretty confused. Because the more I asked, the less I thought I was a ten-year-old.

Maybe Lydiane, the guardian, thought of greeting the neighborhood, etc., but I don't understand that noble children are low back to civilians. As far as Mrs. Novello's story was concerned, it only felt like she was listening to the dealer's merchant.

I headed to his house, tidying up my confused head.

The first impression I had of him was that he was burning a little on the day, but with a neat appearance, just like the son of a nobleman.

I make a smile, as usual, after a brief greeting,

"Zacharias Lockhart told me to ask for more information. So, what kind of information do you want to collect?

He said in a calm, calm narrative,

"What I want you to gather is information about Councilman Wargman. Become a member of parliament, policies, creeds and connections. What matters is who his political enemies are. Hopefully, you'll want results from multiple sources."

I don't understand the meaning of the word multiple sources, "multiple sources? What's that supposed to mean?" I heard.

He apologized for omitting to explain,

"It means those who support him and those who do not. If possible, I wish I had total third-party information, because it can be monetary. No problem if you do what you can."

In the meantime, tell him I'll take the request because I know I'll do it.

"Expect one gold coin (hundred C (krona) = 100,000 yen). Besides, I'd like you to meet Professor Erbain. I'll get as much information as I can."

That's what I said, I've given him my right hand.

He took my hand with his right hand, hardened with his sword Dako, and he held it back firmly.

I felt uncomfortable with that right hand. I was wondering why the chief of the School of Magic would be so restrained in swordsmanship as to make sword dakos. Though it was more surprising what I received in chief while doing my magic and sword training in parallel.

He looked me in the eye and started talking about the deadline as I thought about it a little bit.

"The deadline is October 4, ten days later. What is your progress on September 29th in five days? On top of that, I might look into it and add the information I want. And of course, in that case, as it is in the contract, we are going to offer additional rewards."

Afterwards, he explained the request in a calm narrative more easily.

On his way home, he said, "Why don't you wonder if I talk like this? I've heard."

I almost laughed unwittingly.

Surely anyone would be surprised if the first ten year old to meet talked like this.

I've been doing a lot of research on him, but when I said that, I didn't think it would make a very good impression, and I just told him I heard it from Professor Erbain.

"I'm hearing it from Professor Erbain. And that (...) professor Raspade says he's one genius a thousand years. Whatever happens, you don't deserve surprise."

Now he smiled bitterly. Again, I'm glad I didn't mention anything else I looked into.

To be honest, this was my first request like this one.

The usual request was because I had a lot of work just asking merchants and mercenaries passing through this city to contact me if there was a merchant with a rare book or to look for information on newly excavated sites.

It's certainly a job to say gather rumors, so it's not that different from usual. But this time it's about the power of the city, the magician's guild, so I can't listen to you cheaply.

Commercial and mercenary guilds and, of course, Adventurer's guilds have many handouts, "Once upon a time," but not so many handouts in Mage's guilds.

I only know Professor Erbain and a man who admits to communicating secretarial information as far as the college goes. Later there are private school lecturers who make the same requests as professors, but private school officials don't have much information about the guild.

So, first of all, he decided to contact the young officials of the Mage's Guild, pretending to have been requested by Professor Erbain.

Many officials go to the dining room near the guild to dine.

The headquarters of the Mage Guild will be at night, but if you don't mind, many officials work even by the time the 8 p.m. bell rings.

For this reason, there were many who would do a cup nearby after work.

I staked out in a nearby cafeteria and tavern and came into contact with a young employee.

Enjoying a glass of ale, Professor Erbain of the College was looking for a new book, so he approached with a fake information-gathering that said he didn't know a new dealer.

And I take it to talk about the reform of the college, feeling that the professor cared about the increase or decrease in research spending.

"Rumor has it, I heard that we're going to go through the reform of the College all at once. I wonder what the truth is?

When I turned to the water like that, a mid twenties employee who liked to talk started talking.

"That's Senator Worgman's policy. If he were to chair, the college would change at once. I want Worgman to reform every guild."

One of the other officials rebels against it.

"Wargman's reform is too radical. If they cut a policy like that, the Alliance's finances will collapse all at once."

"No, no, nothing will change if Forsyth, who says fiscal austerity, is in the chair. That bee conservative is just going to end up in the precedent. More than that, the intervention of conservatives in human resources is too harsh. Purge the good guys and distribute posts only to the people you breathe in."

It heats up the debate step by step.

My impression is that basically everyone who's in the sorcerer's guild likes to argue. If he's not like that, I don't know what it is because I can't do my job in the guild, but I feel like there's a lot of airs on the desk even when I'm listening.

"... That said, Wargman would not be as clean or clean as advertised. I heard you gobbled up a new supplier because you wanted the support of a commercial guild..."

That's how I collected Senator Worgman's rumors.

His rumors are diverse and clear to those who support him and those who do not. However, it is popular among young people.

Zacharias asked me to be a person, about policies, connections, and political enemies.

Information gathered quickly about superficial people and policies, but there were conflicting stories about connections, and I was pretty confused.

Worgman has allies. The man was a counselor named Miles Isherwood, a classmate of his college days.

That rumor about Isherwood is what's causing my confusion.

Wargman's supporting mother or major faction is the Board of Education and Research. Isherwood also belongs there now, but originally the HR Committee, that is, where current Speakers Seberg and Wargman rivals, Senator Ibbetson, are cowing.

It's not uncommon to cross the committee when you were in your twenties, but it was surprising that Isherwood, who was on the birth course, changed the faction to which he belonged.

And it's a Isherwood rumor, but it wasn't like Wargman to have a lot of stories. His assessment was, in a nutshell, “a man of no alarm”. And there are few bad rumors for Worgman, but Isherwood had all sorts of rumors. Many were that they banished those who were likely to be their enemies from the Alliance by various means.

This was the biggest cause of the confusion.

Wargman with a clean image and Isherwood with a number of rights technicians say they are working hand in hand. Is that true?

No, the fact is, Wargman and Isherwood are acting so closely that they can be described as two tripods. But the image is too different. I couldn't figure out why Worgman would use Isherwood more than that.

I got hooked on it and started gathering information about it.

Interestingly enough, a lot of rumors came together when I started looking into it.

Isherwood is heartbroken by him after reconciling with Wargman and is defiling his own hands to bury his political enemies. And Worgman's reluctance but condoning it, too, was the result of sorting out rumors flowing into the guild.

I often organize the facts chronologically and report them to the client. If you don't know when and where you heard the information, it's because the customer gets confused, but this was surprisingly popular.

This time I also tried to chronologically arrange the facts about Wargman and the rumors about Isherwood. Then we arrived at an interesting reasoning.

I was worried about what to do with this information, but I came up with something.

That's what Zacharias Lockhart wanted to hear about analyzing this information.

September 29th. It's the day of the interim report.

I told Zacharias and the others the information I had gathered.

And start talking about political enemies.

"... policies and creeds are just as I said. As far as your political enemies are concerned, none of the councillors are in clear conflict with him right now. Of course, there are senators who are hostile just because they have not made it clear. One is Senator Forsyth, chairman of the Finance Committee. The other is Senator Ibbetson, chairman of the HR committee......"

After I told you about Forsyth and Ibbetson, I went for dramatic effects.

"... and there's another enemy figure. Senator Worgman's college companion, Counselor Isherwood, who was supposed to be an ally."

I was hoping Zacharias would be surprised here. It's normal to be surprised if you point out that your college friend, and Isherwood, who has been in alliance for eight years, are political opponents.

But he didn't even look surprised by the dust, and he nodded small.

"You expected that face. Fine. You know Counselor Isherwood graduated in the next seat?

When I said that, I nodded clearly this time.

I don't know what kind of thought led me to that conclusion, but he had come to the same conclusion I had examined.

I was a little discouraged. For not being able to amaze this genius.

But there were facts he wouldn't have imagined. Now I thought I'd use that to surprise you.

I think it's childish, but I really wanted to see a surprised face.

And we're going to talk about Senator Worgman and Councillor Isherwood's college grades.

"... he said the difference between Senator Worgman and Councillor Isherwood was not that great. To be perfectly clear, it's no exaggeration to say that a certain person's rating has given him advantages or disadvantages."

After I said that, he said, "Is that Professor Raspade?," he asked. No, it feels more like I checked than I asked.

I didn't think, "You're a worthless surprise," and I did a trick to flatter my shoulder. And I decided to take my hat off to him and tell him everything I know.

Yes, not only the facts, but even my reasoning.

I've never received a request like this, but perhaps telling only the facts is the right way. Amateur reasoning like mine may not help just by giving preconceptions.

"... I don't know if it's true because my guess comes in from here. If that's okay with you, I'll let you hear it."

When I said that, I nodded quickly, without a single stray. I told him the reasoning, a little happy that you trusted my thoughts.

No one in the lower ranks of the Sorcerer's Guild pointed that out about the odd collusive relationship between Senator Worgman and Councillor Isherwood. But I told him the results of my analysis.

"... and Councillor Isherwood's next target is the councillor's chair. Four years from now, Senator Worgman will not necessarily nominate him when he retires. Perhaps there is an implicit understanding of the relationship we use between the two of us. Besides, I don't think Councillor Isherwood will inherit Senator Worgman's policy. When that happens, the councillor thinks... if Councillor Isherwood were to target the councilman's chair, it would be another councilman's chair. Normally, I would nominate a successor to my faction, but if I could be in the chair, I'd change my mind... for example, Senator Ibbetson might think so."

Zacharias, finished listening to me, didn't talk about anything for about ten seconds. I wonder if he's right about me in his head.

And I opened my mouth to Xu "Momouro" when I came to a conclusion.

"I will pay extra, so please collect the information a little differently"

I said, "What exactly do I do?" He smiled and told Bennett to give him the information that he was leaving the college to see his reactions.

I was more frightened than surprised.

And I insulted him as a ten-year-old and sympathized only a little with the teacher who said Bennett was helping to kick him out. A normal 10-year-old would have had nothing wrong and could have kicked him out easily. But the opponent he's hostile to is such a ruse that politicians and merchants there flee barefoot. It would only be unfortunate to have been hostile to such a man without knowing anything.

But soon the sympathy disappeared.

In the first place, if Bennett had given proper guidance, nothing would have gone wrong. If I couldn't, that's what I should have left with Professor Raspade. I reconsidered to Bennett, who could not do so, that I saw no reason to sympathize.

He's been asking me about the extra reward.

To be honest, it costs a lot of money just to get into and out of the old town. Since we collected information in the liquor store, the first reward, Hundred C (Krona) (= 100,000 yen), makes little money. If you think about the rest of this, it's a delicate place to make money even if you add 100C.

But this job was getting interesting to me.

I'll probably get a leg out of it. I decided to undertake it at 50C.

He knows this kind of work costs money, I'm sure, but I haven't enjoyed my job in a long time.

He hired three young adventurers to follow him after spreading false information to the Bennett teaching.

This is a complete deficit because it only took 30C, but it was still worth the hire. Because Bennett contacted the Worgman family and was further spotted in contact with Archie Croft, a Quentin tutor, son of Worgman.

And then when I started looking into Croft, a lot of interesting information came out. The relationship between Croft and Isherwood, the massive pull-out of college researchers a decade ago, the change in the chairmanship of the HR Committee of Time, Senator Seberg's council membership......

I started looking into what could be described as a coup d 'état ten years ago. But he hit the wall immediately.

Waving that story to the Alliance officials, they've turned a vigilant eye to distract them no matter how drunk they are.

I decided to change my approach.

Instead of the Alliance, he decided to speak to the other party, a private school official.

Officials from the private school side, one of the three largest private schools, and a lecturer I knew at Fortune School. I invited him to a tavern on the corner of Old Town to talk to him.

He's an early forties lecturer, but he doesn't look very talented from my eyes. He used to ask me to gather information to show his own existential value. Anything. He says that in school he seems to be known as an informant, and a young researcher goes to ask him questions. The question is not academic, but a lot of advice that I said where and how to investigate. And he'll have me investigate it.

I'll call the instructor, talk about the harvest festival, and make him drink. At a rather intoxicating time, I cut out a story about a decade ago incident.

Despite being quite drunk, he turned to me with the same vigilant eyes as the Alliance officials.

He said, "... what are we going to do about the old days?" That's what I've heard in my squeamish voice.

I had a full smile,

"I'm not going to use it for a big deal. I just really wanted to know about that. Of course, I won't tell you what my teacher told me."

Still reluctant, he tried to stand up, "So this is the end of your relationship with the teacher,"

"I'll tell you first. If you make this public, you will turn the people on your guild against the enemy. Which means we have to be prepared to stop living in this city."

Yeah, I prefaced it, and I reluctantly started talking about it 10 years ago.

The story was shocking.

I didn't think the guild councillors were saint princes, but I didn't think there was a drooling power struggle so far. Speaking of magician guilds, the general image would be of a magical research institute. I know I'd say that's not all if I were in this city, but I didn't think it was so secular.

I thought the current Speaker, Seberg, was an adjustable, livestock harmless politician, but he used to seem to do surprisingly nasty things, and it was the first time he had ever been able to take the back to say that Ibbetson and Isherwood were secretly connected. Looks like I could have gotten more serious information than I thought.

After hearing the story, I went to Professor Erbain at the college to pick up the back of the story. Because she also thought ten years ago that she could have been involved in a case.

When I spoke to the professor, it was exactly what I expected.

"... ten years ago... that's what happened. Yeah, I got a voice, too. I said no because I had a relationship with the library, but most of the faculty seemed to have a voice. Maybe it wasn't Dr. Raspade who didn't hang up."

Professor Erbain didn't seem to have any particular influence, but among the researchers who went to private school, those who returned to the college said they were under the influence of Speaker Seberg. As a result of this incident, the Human Resources Commission prevailed over the Board of Education and Research in factional strife within the College. He said it was because of things like the current Dean of the Academy that the bureaucrats of Nazism fit into the head of the best research institute in the world.

I went to his house the morning of October 2nd, the day after the festival, to give this information to Zacharias.

Zacharias had no doubt about Croft's background, either because I explained it quite fractured.

I was just a little upset. He said he was a normal person, too. You don't have to listen to my explanation to come up with everything.

I didn't think, and I said, "Finally, I could poke at your point." With a bitter smile that it's not very popular at all.

And when I told him what I looked into, he seemed worried about how we should use that information.

This is the end of my investigation, but I followed his actions.

He went to the Sorcerer's Guild headquarters that afternoon to meet with Senator Worgman, he said. We still don't know what conversation we had and what the outcome was.

But a young official told me that Senator Worgman was in a good mood all the time after Zacharias left the guild.

When I heard this story, I was convinced that Zacharias had succeeded in shaking off the firepowder that came down on me. And that the people who tried to kick him out would get that reward.