After passing through the Eastern Third Gate, we walked for several tens of minutes with the stagnant air of the slums at our backs.

  Eventually, the muddy path turned into cobblestones, and as the road widened, magnificent reddish-brown brick buildings began to line both sides.

  "Hoh..."

  I couldn't help but let out a sigh of admiration.

  The sight of the main street was exactly that of a classic fantasy world. Wagons came and went, and the pungent aromas of roasted meat and spices drifted from the rows of stalls. Among the passing crowds, there were beastmen with dog and cat ears, sturdy dwarves, and even figures with long ears who looked like elves.

  My gamer blood was boiling. The NPC townscapes I had only ever seen through a screen were now spreading out before my eyes with overwhelming reality and energy.

  "...Young Master. Please do not cast your gaze so much upon such lower lifeforms."

  Walking beside me, Lily furrowed her brows in deep displeasure and tilted the parasol she had pulled from her inventory down low.

  "Such a filthy, chaotic space is not fit for the Young Master's noble feet to tread upon. Shall I make a rain of blood fall upon this town right now and physically cleanse it for you, even at this late stage?"

  "I told you not to be hasty, Lily. This very chaos will become the perfect nourishment for us to take root from the shadows."

  "...! Nourishment. I see. Even this seemingly chaotic bustle is already a part of the game board the Young Master controls...!"

  Soothing Lily, who had independently convinced herself and was letting out feverish sighs, we headed toward the center of town.

  Before long, we arrived in front of a building that was exceptionally large and exceptionally loud.

  A rugged wooden signboard depicting crossed swords and a shield. Even though it was broad daylight, the smell of cheap booze and the roaring, suffocatingly loud voices and laughter of roughnecks spilled out from the wide-open double doors.

  Adventurer's Guild - Karuka Branch.

  "...What a horrendous stench. Young Master, it is swarming with pigs possessing crude and violent auras inside. Allow me to at least blow away the entrance doors and bring a wind of purification..."

  "Stop. I told you I don't want to stand out. Just follow me quietly."

  With the sighing Lily in tow, I passed through the guild doors.

  —Instantly.

  The clamor inside the guild smoothly died down, like a receding tide.

  The warriors who had been drinking, the scouts looking at request boards, the mages maintaining their equipment. The gazes of dozens of adventurers all turned toward us standing at the entrance.

  It was no wonder. In a dingy Adventurer's Guild, a mysterious young noble in a high-class coat and a peerlessly beautiful maid had casually appeared. We were out of place to the extreme.

  Calculating, or perhaps mocking gazes pierced us. However, the moment Lily, waiting behind me, "glanced" at them with her cold obsidian eyes, the adventurers must have felt an instinctual chill of death. They hurriedly averted their eyes and unnaturally returned to their previous clamor.

  Ignoring them, I walked toward the reception counters lined up at the back of the guild.

  There were several receptionists at the counter, but my eyes were glued to an amiable woman with chestnut hair sitting at the window on the far end.

  Bingo. That woman is 'Marie'.

  The memories extracted from the greedy scout Zack's brain perfectly matched her appearance.

  On the surface, she was an amiable and excellent guild receptionist. But behind the scenes, she was a hotbed of corruption, her hands dirty from accepting bribes from crooked adventurers, offering priority quest mediation, and forging identification.

  I headed straight for her window, floated a magnanimous smile, and called out.

  "Excuse me. I'd like to register with the guild, and discuss a somewhat special matter."

  "Yes! Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild! Registration, is it? We welcome you, Sir Noble!"

  Marie floated a flawless business smile and offered a piece of parchment.

  "However, what might this special matter be? If it is a personal request, you will need to go through the proper procedures..."

  "Ah, there's no problem with the procedures. I have a letter of introduction."

  I didn't take the parchment, but instead leaned forward with both hands on the counter and whispered in a minuscule voice so that only Marie could hear.

  "—The black cat's tail sways to the right three times."

  "Eh...?"

  Marie's flawless business smile froze and cracked.

  "...I've also heard that The silver moon sinks into the back alley well. Does that make things clear?"

  Those were the hidden passphrases from Zack's memories used to request underground work from Marie.

  The color completely drained from Marie's face, and her chestnut eyes widened in shock and vigilance.

  Why did an unknown noble know the hidden face of a mere receptionist in a frontier town? I could practically see the intense confusion and calculations swirling inside her head.

  "......!"

  After a few seconds of silence. Marie somehow managed to paste a strained, fake smile onto her face and lowered her voice, mindful of the surrounding eyes.

  "...Sir. Registration procedures sometimes require some 'complicated confirmations'. If you wouldn't mind, shall I guide you to the reception room in the back?"

  "Yes, I would greatly appreciate that."

  I nodded with a beaming smile.

  Sensing Lily faintly scoffing behind me, we stepped into the soundproofed reception room at the back of the guild under Marie's guidance.

  ***

  The heavy wooden door closed behind us, and the sound of a lock clicking into place echoed from the inside.

  The reception room we were guided to had no windows, and it seemed the walls were lined with thick soundproofing material. The clamor of the guild outside was shut out as if it were a lie, and the room was enveloped in an eerie silence.

  "...Now then."

  Standing in front of the leather sofa in the center of the room, all emotion drained from the previously amiable face of the receptionist, Marie.

  Her business smile completely vanished, replaced by a cold, calculating gaze directed at Lily and me.

  "I do not know what noble house you are from, but... where did you hear that code? Was it an introduction from Zack? Or are you planning to threaten my underground business and suck up some sweet nectar?"

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  The moment she spat those words out in a cold voice, another door at the back of the room was violently thrown open.

  Trooping in were three roughnecks who looked exactly like 'underworld bouncers' - a large warrior covered in scars, and a thug-like man with a nasty glint in his eye, among others. Wearing vulgar smirks, they blocked our path, completely surrounding us.

  "Boss Marie. Are these the ones? The naive little rich boys poking their noses into the guild's underground business."

  "Yes. Please give them a little scolding. ...As long as you avoid the face, I don't mind if you rough them up a bit. They're probably just foolish nobles playing around with their parents' money, anyway."

  When Marie gestured with her chin, the bouncers cracked their knuckles or flashed their knives, slowly closing the distance.

  "Oh man. Wearing pretty clothes and bringing along a nice-smelling maid. This ain't a place for little rich boys like you."

  "Relax. We'll teach that gorgeous maid all about underworld etiquette."

  Vulgar provocations. Textbook thug behavior. Thoroughly exasperated, I let out a deep, deep sigh.

  "...Young Master."

  The voice of Lily, standing next to me, had frozen to absolute zero, sounding as if it were echoing from the depths of hell.

  Looking down, she was gripping the hem of her maid outfit tightly, and dense, crimson killing intent was leaking from her entire body with a crackling sound. Her eyes, disguised as obsidian, were already dyed a bright red, filled with a madness that looked ready to tear out the bouncers' throats right this second.

  "Permission. Allow me to dismantle these pigs who have spoken such filthy words into a thousand pieces right now, and turn them into wall decorations for this room."

  "Wait, Lily. I told you not to kill them."

  I placed a hand on Lily's shoulder, quietly restraining her.

  "But...!"

  "Listen. From here on, they are important pieces that will work as our hands and feet. There is no point in breaking them."

  When I declared that, one of the bouncers snorted with laughter.

  "Hah! What kind of sleep-talking is that?! Keep trembling behind your maid, you little shit!"

  The man raised his knife and lunged at me, trying to grab me by the collar.

  However, without even showing a sign of dodging, I simply retrieved a "certain object" from my inventory and casually tossed it onto the table in front of me.

  —Clunk.

  Rolling onto the wooden table with a heavy thud was a pitch-black, jewel-like object a size larger than an adult's fist.

  It was the [Magical Beast Magic Stone] that I had, out of my gamer's habit of material collection, stripped from the corpse of the leader of the wolf pack Lily had instantly killed in the forest last night, just in case.

  The lurching man's movements stopped dead in mid-air. It wasn't just him. The gazes of all the bouncers, and Marie's as well, were glued to the pitch-black core on the table.

  "Wha...?!"

  The warrior who seemed to be the leader of the bouncers peeled his eyes wide open as if seeing the impossible, and began to tremble violently.

  "N-No way... That shine, that size... don't tell me, a [Black Wolf] core...?! And of this size... from the Boss of a pack...?!"

  [Black Wolf]. The A-Rank class monsters with a recommended subjugation level of over 40, which the B-Rank adventurers like Gard had trembled in fear of, saying, "If we run into them, we'll be annihilated." A core from a boss individual of that species was an item that would prompt the border knight order to mobilize in full force for subjugation.

  "W-Who cares! It's probably just some prized collection piece you bought with your parents' money anyway!"

  The man with the knife shouted in a bluff, but his voice was cracking.

  I leisurely sat down on the sofa and crossed my legs. Then, keeping a cold smile on my lips, I released just a single drop of the valve on my [Intimidation] as an Archdemon.

  —VMMMMM!!

  "Ga...?!" "Hiiiek...!!"

  It wasn't physical gravity. An overwhelming presence of Death and Despair violently filled the sealed space of the soundproof room.

  As if an invisible giant hand were pressing down on their heads, the bouncers simultaneously prostrated themselves on the floor, letting out screams like crushed frogs. Forgetting even to breathe, they rolled their eyes back and convulsed violently.

  "A... a, aah...!"

  Marie, who was standing across the table, was no exception. She collapsed from the waist down, clinging to the edge of the table as she trembled. Her face turned as pale as a sheet, and tears of terror poured profusely from her beautiful chestnut eyes.

  It was forced upon them at a cellular level to understand that the elegant young noble sitting before them was not just some rich brat. He was a True Monster beyond human comprehension, capable of destroying a nation.

  "Haa... Truly, human creatures are all so quick to pull out their blades. Can we not conduct business negotiations more smartly?"

  I exaggeratedly shrugged my shoulders and immediately withdrew the aura completely.

  "Cough, cough...! Wheeze, wheeze...!"

  As if fresh air had returned to the room, Marie and the bouncers all choked and began to heave for breath simultaneously.

  While flicking the pitch-black core on the table with my fingertip, I looked down at Marie trembling on the floor and smiled at her in an extremely gentlemanly manner.

  "Now then. Shall we put an end to these pointless greetings... and discuss the details regarding my Guild Registration and Forged Identification, excellent Miss Receptionist?"

  …

  …

  Glancing at the bouncers groveling on the floor, I let out a quiet sigh.

  "Lily, these guys are a bit in the way. Tidy them up in the corner of the room. ...Don't kill them, alright?"

  "As you will. Please leave the disposal of the oversized garbage to me."

  Lily walked over elegantly, effortlessly lifted the large warrior by the scruff of his neck with one hand, and threw him into the corner of the room literally like a ragged dustcloth. A dull thud echoed, but the unconscious men didn't twitch.

  Witnessing that spectacle, Marie let out a short shriek of "Hii!" and hugged her own shoulders.

  "Now then, Marie. Shall we continue our business negotiations?"

  I sat deeply into the leather sofa and pointed at the [Black Wolf] Core on the table.

  "My demands are simple. Make guild cards for me and my maid with a completely blank history. However... I refuse to start from F-Rank hunting slimes and goblins. Using the subjugation record of this A-Rank class magical beast, issue us 'B-Rank' identification immediately as a special exception."

  Not an overly conspicuous A-Rank, but the exquisite line that guarantees a certain degree of freedom and authority while avoiding troublesome forced requests from the state. That is B-Rank.

  With a pale face, Marie desperately moved her trembling lips.

  "T-That's unreasonable...! No matter how much authority I have, issuing a B-Rank card out of nowhere... It requires the Guild Master's approval..."

  "You can do it, can't you? If you use the elaborate network and authority of the forged identification cards you've been issuing behind the scenes until now. Exploiting loopholes in the system should be your area of expertise."

  When I blocked her escape route using the information obtained from Zack's memories, Marie distorted her face in despair.

  "Of course, I won't make you work for free."

  I raised the corners of my mouth and dangled the ultimate 'bait'.

  "Cash in this Black Wolf core through the guild. The market price is around several hundred gold coins, I presume? ...Out of that exchange money, I shall give you thirty percent as a commission directly into your personal account."

  "...Eh?!"

  In Marie's terror-dyed eyes, a light of unbelievable greed dwelt for just a moment.

  Over a hundred gold coins. A massive fortune that a mere receptionist could live and play on for the rest of her life. The man before her eyes casually declared he would give it to her.

  "I do not favor violence. As long as you do not pry into my true identity, leak useful underground information about the town, and function as my loyal eyes and ears... I promise you the ultimate reward. How about it, it's not a bad deal, is it?"

  Domination through overwhelming terror, and an irresistible, massive profit. This is exactly the political negotiation tactic in human society that I learned on Earth.

  "...U-Understood, I will accept...! Sir... Dan...!"

  Despite trembling violently, Marie placed her hands on the table and bowed deeply. It was the moment she completely fell into being my piece.

  "A wonderful decision."

  At that point, Lily, who had been silent the whole time, softly stood behind Marie.

  "Hii...!"

  "If you do anything that betrays the Young Master... I will boil all the blood in your body, peel you from your fleshly vessel while you are still alive, and turn you into a beautiful objet d'art that screams in eternal agony. ...I look forward to a favorable reply."

  When Lily whispered into Marie's ear with a supreme smile, Marie let out a pathetic shriek of "Hiiieek!" and assumed a prostrating posture.

  Hey Lily, I went to all the trouble of smartly winning her over with the carrot, don't swing a supersized physical stick at the very end...!

  While making a massive internal retort, I deliberately didn't reprimand her and nodded magnanimously. Well, as a deterrent against betrayal, it's perfect, I suppose.

  ***

  Several tens of minutes later.

  From the magic tool Marie operated with trembling hands, two silver metal plates - Guild Cards proving them as B-Rank adventurers - were issued.

  Furthermore, as the purchase money for the Black Wolf core, a heavily weighty leather pouch, stuffed with large gold coins, was placed on the table. Even after deducting Marie's cut, it was an amount enough to live and play for a lifetime as immediate activity funds.

  "Well then, I look forward to working with you from now on, Marie."

  "Y-Yes...! Please instruct me in whatever you need, Sir Dan, Lady Lily...!"

  Seen off by the receptionist completely dominated by terror and greed, we opened the heavy doors of the soundproof room.

  The clamor outside washed over us once again.

  However, it was different from before. We were no longer suspicious outsiders from god-knows-where. We had obtained a rock-solid status in the town of Karuka, massive funds, and an excellent underground collaborator.