As soon as Hess returned to the hideout, he noticed someone secretly watching him.
'...What is that crybaby doing?'
Da Vinci was peeking at Hess from behind one of the stone pillars supporting the hideout.
'...He's playing secret missions.'
Regardless, Hess began by speaking to Saya.
"It seems impossible to teach Aike combat...."
Saya had completely lost the will to teach Aike.
'And she seems quite disappointed in Aike too. This is a problem.'
If Hess wanted to prevent Saya from killing Aike as she had in the novel, he could not let her remain disappointed in him.
He had to make Saya acknowledge him. If Aike could gain combat ability in addition to that brain of his, the problem would be easily solved. Why was nothing going as planned?
"Understood for now. Rest until you receive your next directive."
"Understood."
Even until Saya left, Da Vinci continued to watch Hess from behind the stone pillar.
Hess let out a quiet huff through his nose as though tired, then headed toward the pillar while pretending not to know anything.
"Lord Hess! Lord Hess!"
Da Vinci called out in a low voice.
"I'm sorry for startling you!"
Da Vinci covered his mouth with one hand and pretended to check his surroundings.
'I can't bring myself to pretend that I'm surprised, even out of basic human decency.'
Hess leaned slightly to one side and lowered his ear to the height of the short Da Vinci.
"I have completely erased every trace of the commission involving Intelligence Agent Henrik!"
"Good. You must not tell anyone about this. If any similar commissions arrive in the future, inform me and erase all traces of them."
"Yes!"
With an excited face, Da Vinci returned to his position.
'...He's certainly trustworthy. But he's far too obvious.'
It was true of anyone, but Hess felt that he especially should not let Da Vinci learn any truly important secrets.
Hess returned to his room and packed a thick pouch of gold coins. It was money for buying Lloyd a set of weapons and armor.
'Even wooden swords vary in quality. I should not spare any support I can give Lloyd.'
Lloyd's second Fortuitous Opportunity happened to be someone who ran a weapon shop.
In particular, the training equipment he carved from wood himself was renowned for its quality, as high as its price.
'Since I'm going to buy equipment, I should also check whether his second mentor is doing well.'
With his purse replenished, Hess left his room to depart from the hideout at once.
The sun was about to rise, and all the members of the organization had gone to sleep with the moon.
Except for one.
"Aike?"
"Ah, Lord Hess. Are you heading out again?"
Aike, who had been sitting in a remote corner of the hideout, staring blankly into space, radiated an air of embarrassment at being seen like this.
Judging by the documents in his hands, he seemed to have been working until just a moment ago.
"Why haven't you gone to bed?"
"I've had insomnia lately."
"Is it really insomnia, or combat-aptitude loss syndrome?"
"...You can't lose something you never had."
What he had lost was confidence.
Aike had lacked combat ability until the very end, even in the novel. Seeing him, the original Hess had thought,
'His mind is sharp, but his flaw is far too fatal.'
Then what Hess had to do was clear.
'I'll accomplish what the original Hess could not and surpass him.'
Aike would definitely gain combat ability as well.
'I'm a man meant to become the true number one.'
Hess looked at the documents in Aike's hands and asked,
"What are you holding?"
"They're copies of a commission form that came in a few days ago. Lady Saya told me to devise an operational plan."
"Let me take a look too."
The copy Aike handed over was already densely filled with an operational plan.
'An assassination commission.'
The target was a vicious moneylender who had added interest beyond the contract under one excuse or another.
The client had eventually been driven into a position where they could barely repay the debt only by selling a treasure passed down through their family for generations.
In any case, they would be able to repay the debt that way, but
"They realized that if they had enough money to repay the debt, they could hire us for an assassination commission."
"That's right. Since the money had to go out anyway, it seems they thought it would be better to kill him than fatten that bastard's purse."
The commission form contained an unusual detail concerning payment.
The client did not want to sell their family's treasure.
So they offered to pay part of the fee first with the gold coins they had, on the condition that they would certainly raise the rest within a year.
'The Dark Order is fairly willing to accept terms like that. In the first place, no one has the nerve to owe us money and run away.'
The operation itself was straightforward.
Through an Informant, Aike had learned the target's movements and discovered the time when his guard would be at its loosest.
The goal was to dispatch members of the organization there, eliminate both the man and all his security personnel, and leave no witnesses.
"Three security guards attached to him...."
"They're merely neighborhood thugs."
"Because they're insignificant, you didn't ask for additional compensation?"
The operation required killing at least three more people with combat ability besides the target. At this level, demanding additional compensation was the industry standard.
"That isn't the only reason."
"Then what's the reason?"
"At sunrise, I will visit the client and propose a renegotiation. In exchange for us removing the security personnel at no charge, we will ask to receive the family's treasure as payment."
At those words, Hess pulled up another document from beneath the commission form.
It was a document about the family treasure the client possessed. Aike had investigated it separately.
'That Aike is thorough, as expected.'
The treasure was likely worth more than the appraised value known to the client.
Furthermore, if it was an old treasure, it could often have uses that went beyond simple monetary value.
Clearly, it would be more advantageous to receive the treasure rather than gold coins.
"Are you going to negotiate with the client yourself?"
"Yes."
"It might not be easy to make them hand over the treasure."
"That's why I'm going in person."
Aike spoke as though handling matters himself was a trump card.
'That's why I need him.'
Hess opened the last page of the document.
"You've already decided on the team for the operation too."
"It isn't a particularly difficult mission."
This was certainly not a difficult commission. The team Aike had designated consisted of rookies, but if they were Dark Order rookies, there was no problem.
'But... I see this operation as an entirely different opportunity.'
Hess's eyes flashed.
"Bring Saya."
"...Yes."
Aike hesitated briefly, curious about the reason, but thinking he would find out soon enough, he bowed his head and went straight to Saya.
A little later, Saya appeared with Aike. She had just been awakened after falling asleep and wore pajamas, her face puffy.
"What is it?"
"Saya, accompany Aike when he goes to meet the client today."
"Pardon?"
"Hear the details from Aike."
Saya and Aike blinked their eyes.
'Saya has accumulated disappointment while watching Aike fail to keep up with proper combat training.'
Aike's attempt to renegotiate, aided by his eloquence, would succeed. Hess would let Saya watch it happen.
What Saya lacked most was eloquence. He would make her clearly see with her own eyes Aike displaying a talent she did not possess.
That would dispel the disappointment she had accumulated toward Aike.
Once he had made Saya able to support Aike....
"And Aike."
"Yes."
"Keep the operation as planned, but change the deployment team."
"Yes, if you tell me how, I'll change it immediately."
"You two will go."
Saya and Aike looked at one another for a moment, then turned back toward Hess.
"I shouldn't need to say more, but Team Leader Saya will lead the deployment team. It will consist of four combatants under her: the Three Idiots and Aike."
"Lord Hess, Aike isn't ready to enter combat yet...."
"I will make that judgment."
Immediately after Aike had bolstered his prestige through the renegotiation with the client, Hess would deploy him in a combat operation as well.
'Aike is a proud man. If he succeeds brilliantly in the negotiation, he won't be able to back down in any situation.'
He would not want to look inept again so soon afterward, even if it was a combat situation.
'He'll struggle to do something, at least.'
And Saya, having seen Aike in a new light through the negotiation, would actively help him.
It happened to be a low-difficulty operation. On top of that, it would be safe with the best combat agents in the hideout. If he accepted a little risk, it would be a valuable experience for Aike.
'Live combat is the best training.'
Hess met Saya's eyes. The sharpness in his gaze, which seemed greater than usual, took her breath away.
"Saya, take good care of Aike. I expect to see the qualities of a true leader."
"...! Yes!"
Positive motivation for Saya. And then,
"Aike."
"Yes."
"You only need to fight as much as you can, so do not overexert yourself."
"...Yes."
Words that would lightly scrape at Aike's pride.
'The picture is complete. Let's see you show what you can do.'
Hess headed straight for the door leading outside the hideout. Saya and Aike bowed deeply to him.
Once Hess left the hideout carrying a basket, the two immediately straightened up.
And without either needing to be first, they headed off to wake the Three Idiots.
The two hearts that had started pounding some time ago showed no sign of calming down.
***
Henrik tightly gripped the handle of the basket that would serve as Lucy's bed and traveled outside the hideout along a route different from his usual one.
'Before going to the village, let's stop by the weapon shop where Lloyd's second Fortuitous Opportunity is. I'll buy wooden swords and check how he is doing.'
He would not begin wooden-sword training right away, but if Lloyd saw swords in person, he would want to hold them sooner and train even harder.
Henrik arrived at a small town reached by taking a side road off his usual route.
It was a place where many artisans gathered. Adventurers seeking equipment and nobles seeking works of art mingled there.
'There it is. The weapon shop of a woodcraft artisan.'
It was a unique weapon shop that specialized in equipment made of wood.
Its hottest item was the bow.
'Lloyd's second mentor will teach him archery.'
Lloyd would later put a bow to good use as a secondary weapon.
"Excuse me."
As Henrik entered the weapon shop, a faint scent of all kinds of wood wafted through the air.
There were also a few pieces of equipment not made of wood mixed in. Those were items the owner had acquired through his treasure-hunting hobby and put on display.
"What are you looking for?"
There was no need to buy a bow for Lloyd right away. During the course of teaching him, his mentor would give one to Lloyd as a gift himself.
"I'm here to buy two wooden swords. They're for training, but I want the finest quality."
"Then you've come to the right place."
But the owner's face seemed younger than Henrik remembered.
'Was he originally this young?'
The owner soon appeared carrying two wooden swords.
"These are the last ones. You're lucky, sir."
"The last ones?"
"These two are the last wooden swords my father made."
"Pardon?"
"He passed away. We're sold out of bows for actual combat too, and only training bows are barely left."
...What?
The owner's son pointed at a spot marked on the large map attached to the wall.
"He went treasure hunting as usual, but... then...."
Henrik recognized the location as well.
'That place....'
Soon, Henrik recalled his conversation with Saya.
*― "How much are the treasures those guys brought worth? Not counting that gem-studded sword."*
*"I will not know for certain until we try to dispose of them, but they seem to be worth at least seventy gold coins."*
*"That's quite a lot, isn't it?"*
*"There was a treasure hunter already in the cave. They killed him too and looted everything he had." ―*
'...That's where they sent the Three Idiots to die.'
Henrik stared blankly at the map.
"Sir?"
"......."
"Um... Sir?"
Speechless, Henrik barely parted his lips while still wearing a vacant expression.
"...I'll take those too."
"Pardon?"
Feeling dizzy, Henrik closed his eyes and continued.
"...Please give me two training bows as well."