I looked at the secretary with worried eyes.
"You seem to be in pretty bad shape. Do you need medical attention? I can 'fix' you right up."
The Sword Emperor was coming. Possibly as soon as today.
So, as much as I hated to rush, I needed to hurry the negotiation. The secretary's cooperation was essential.
"You'll feel better in no time, I'm sure."
If she was hurting, I'd find someone to cast a healing spell on her.
I extended that goodwill to my negotiation partner, but.
She screamed in absolute terror.
"I-I'm fine! P-please don't 'fix' me! I don't want to be treated! I-I promise I'll make wise decisions without treatment, so please......!"
She honestly looked like she needed treatment urgently.
Her face was pale enough that fainting on the spot wouldn't be surprising.
But...... forcing treatment on someone who refused wasn't right either. It wasn't as if I were a professional healer.
"If my treatment makes you uncomfortable, I won't force it, but you should be careful. There's no downside to looking after your health. You never know when or how you might die."
The secretary's gaze drifted toward the old man.
"I might end up like the b-branch chief too......"
Trembling, saying she didn't want to end up like the branch chief.
I'd only mentioned she should take care of her health because she kept refusing treatment. Maybe that was a bit too effective.
I changed the subject and moved on.
"Shall we begin the negotiation in earnest, then?"
My earlier conversation with the branch chief had ended in failure.
This damn caste-obsessed Empire.
A country someone truly needed to tear apart.
I'd been refused a fair deal solely because I was a commoner, but now I had another chance. I wasn't letting it go.
I started my pitch carefully.
"What we want is, as I mentioned, for you to renovate our workshop. In exchange, we'll--"
"Those terms! I-I'll accept!"
The pitch was complete.
......My face went blank for a moment.
I mean, if she was accepting, that was great for me.
"You haven't even heard the terms yet."
I hadn't mentioned how much we'd pay.
Without needing to employ a single negotiation tactic, she'd just grabbed my hand and declared the deal done.
Confused, I looked at her, and the secretary rushed to explain.
"Th-the compensation doesn't matter! How could I demand payment for helping someone in need? The satisfaction of helping someone is reward enough!"
......I did understand the satisfaction of helping others.
When I'd pulled a child from a burning building and watched the family embrace, the pain from the burns hadn't registered at all.
But...... wasn't this woman a businessperson?
Was it really okay to run a business like this?
"You should at least accept a commission fee. Making you work for free doesn't sit right. I've brought silver coins and information worth money, so let me......"
I was mid-sentence when I realized.
"......Oh no, I did bring money, but I left it with Rang. I should probably go get it."
Rang claimed to know how to hide silver coins discreetly to avoid theft, so I'd been letting her manage the funds.
It seemed I'd need to call Rang over.
That was my conclusion, but.
"Oh, you don't have to pay! We'll cover all additional costs and material expenses ourselves!"
"Pardon? Aren't material costs normally on the client's side? Alchemy materials are expensive -- it should come to around thirty gold coins."
"Consider it a service!"
"......How does that make any sense?"
My expression hardened.
No matter how you sliced it, this was too good to be true. It felt like negotiating with a con artist, and suspicion was creeping in.
And the secretary saw my expression harden.
Her already-white face turned corpse-like.
"Y-you're right! I was talking nonsense! How great an honor it is to take your commission. If anything, we should be paying you!"
She desperately dug through her pockets, gathering the silver coins tucked into her waistband, and pressed them into my hands.
Suddenly my hands were full of silver coins.
"I-I'll go convince the others right now. D-don't worry. I won't try anything funny. Just give me a moment!"
She shouted this and rushed off.
Gone before I could stop her, moving at a frantic pace.
I was left alone, staring blankly at the silver coins.
......What in the world just happened?
***
An emergency assembly of the Alchemy Guild.
The members of the Wizton Branch gathered in one place, buzzing with chatter.
"The branch chief was taken down? Our branch chief?"
"You're joking, right? With his staff, the man could flatten an entire city. How does someone like that......"
A call to assembly that defied comprehension.
But the strangeness didn't end there.
"Wait, if the branch chief was taken out, shouldn't we be requesting backup from the main headquarters? What are we doing?"
They hadn't contacted headquarters for reinforcements.
In fact, they'd prostrated themselves before the enemy.
"Unconditionally obey the intruder's demands? Instead of attacking, you want us to bow our heads to the enemy alongside you?"
There was a limit to how absurd things could get.
An enemy had struck their boss.
What needed to be done was blindingly simple.
The most hot-blooded among them, a red-haired man.
The young alchemist shouted in a bold voice.
"If we've been hit, we hit right back! Surrender, my ass."
The secretary who'd summoned them would probably argue, but no matter what she said, he would never budge.
That was the resolution with which he'd spoken, but.......
"Then go ahead."
The secretary didn't argue at all.
"But I'm not going. I'm not fighting."
Her voice was quiet and shaking.
But that small, trembling voice carried an unmistakable sense of dread, a raw intensity of emotion that could not be ignored.
"I saw it...... The power to decide life and death. Crushing the heart of a former Tower Master with incomprehensible force, then looking down at the body with the most dispassionate face."
Every mouth in the room clamped shut at once.
"There was not a single scratch on him. All that was in his eyes was disappointment. Yet another opponent not worth the fight -- eyes drowning in boredom."
......Not a scratch, and a total victory?
He'd gone beyond winning and felt boredom?
Against a former Tower Master?
"And I heard it. The offer to 'fix' me. To pry open my brain, turn it inside out, remodel it as he pleased. The threat to turn me into a puppet that obeyed only his words."
What came next was even more outrageous.
Possessing the martial might to overwhelm a Tower Master, and on top of that, the technical ability to manipulate a human mind like a toy?
No human could be capable of both.
"When he said it, he was smiling. The kindest smile you ever saw! The words about cracking open a person's skull and stripping away their very identity to make them a puppet. Said with the purest face......"
But no one could voice that objection.
Because everyone in the room had seen it.
"I can say this with certainty. Th-that...... that was not a person. A monster wearing human skin, mimicking a human being. An existence that cannot be understood and must not be."
The secretary's face, drained of every drop of color.
The aftermath of contact with an incomprehensible monster.
"......If you want to go, I won't stop you. But I will never fight. What you do is your own business."
The secretary looked at the hot-blooded alchemist and warned him.
The red-haired alchemist glanced around nervously, then.
"Well, I mean. Th-there's no real need to fight, is there? That old geezer never did anything for us besides riding us hard. Never liked him in the first place. Not worth avenging."
He suddenly began managing his anger.
Come to think of it, revenge might have been a bit much.
The old man had been neck-deep in every dirty dealing, killing people on a whim. He'd simply gotten what he deserved.
"......Anyone who wants to leave, leave now."
At the secretary's words, not a single person moved.
"I mean, it's not like he's telling us to die. All he wants is for us to do some work, and in return he'll let us live. That much, we can......"
"If any of you bastards even thinks about reporting this to headquarters, you're dead. That intruder is obviously a heavyweight you don't want to cross. If someone betrays us, we'll all get swept up in the retaliation."
A mage was supposed to hold wisdom as the highest virtue.
Everyone present made the wise choice.
You didn't fight a natural disaster.
......Pride and dignity could wait -- surviving came first, didn't it?
***
Stepping out of the guild, people rushed to welcome me.
"Saint! How did the negotiation go?"
The slum folk came running toward me.
Asking about the results. And Rang, facing them, spoke in a smug voice.
"You all clearly don't know Boss as well as I do yet. The result of the negotiation? There's no need to even ask that. Everything will have gone exactly according to Boss's plan."
Rang smiled with utter confidence.
"So, Boss. With the fifty silver coins we prepared and the brilliant business plan your genius mind devised, you closed a deal with the Alchemy Guild, yes?"
Boss's plans never failed.
The world was nothing more than his chessboard. Everyone was manipulated according to his intent, and this Empire lay in the palm of his hand.
Such was the theory Rang put forward with complete sincerity.
......This was a serious condition. I couldn't even begin to fathom what kind of existence I'd become inside her head.
But someone outdid even her.
"......Little miss, you still don't know the Saint well enough."
Mr. Rockwood spoke in a dignified voice.
"They would have been so moved by the Saint's nobility that they accepted the commission for the bare minimum. Probably just basic material costs."
"......I agree that Boss defies common sense. But you do know how obsessed the Alchemy Guild is with money, don't you?"
"Even so, this is the Saint! Who in this world could remain unmoved before the Saint's nobility?"
Rang and Mr. Rockwood.
The two were debating something absurd.
What started as a light discussion gradually grew heated.
I've known and admired the Saint longer than some kid like you. I understand Boss better than you do.
Fighting over something ridiculous.
"Saint!"
"Boss!"
After bickering, the two finally looked at me.
"Please settle this! Which of us is right? Who knows the Saint best? We need the Saint's judgment."
I sighed and answered.
"......I received money."
"Just as I said, sir. The Alchemy Guild is obsessed with money. They're thorough in their deals. They probably took every last one of our silver coins with no discount."
"I'm the one who received money. They said it was an honor just to help me, and they offered up silver coins."
A beat.
Everyone's mouths fell open in blank shock.
"......Pardon?"
"Oh, and the branch chief is gone now. He's dead."
"......What???"