DD 202 Ch 13 (Patreon)

Chapter 13

Over the next few days, we went back to training. And Felin was working far closer with Des and Fayeth than she had been before we had gone off hunting together.

It made me happy to see her accepted into the party more fully.

“What’s got you all smiling?” Bellaire sat down next to the agility ladders.

“Watching my party grow closer.” I let out a breath and started working the ladders, weaving my feet in and out. Sadly, I couldn’t always spar. And if I was going to continue to be in full control of my body, I needed to do some simple exercises to make sure I was used to my constantly changing stats and their effect on my body.

“So, do you think I could get you and Felin in front of a camera?” She asked, casually slipping a small camera onto her thigh and tapping a few buttons to record me.

Apparently we still needed to record more of the ‘organic content’. It really seemed like she had to have enough at this point.

“Maybe. I was able to get her in a pretty good mood the other night and I think in that state, she’d make for some good interviews.”

Bellaire raised an eyebrow. “What exactly did you do to get her in such a good mood state?” She asked suggestively.

“Not that!” I rolled my eyes. “We went on a date.” I picked at my damp shirt, and then glanced at the camera, deciding I should keep the shirt on despite my desire to take it off.

“Don’t mind the camera. Just do what’s natural. You can take the shirt off.” Bellaire pursed her lips like she was upset with me.

I shrugged and peeled the wet shirt off. “We went on a Nekorian date, which was more like a hunt, and then ate barbecue after.” I recalled Felin’s comments about Bellaire being useless and had to school my face.

“Interesting. So she was in a good mood after a hunt. She’s quite aggressive, isn’t she?” The social media star continued to probe.

“She’s a Nekorian and their culture puts a finer point on being able to fight. After all, they seem to spend a lot more time in the dungeon than humans and nearly everyone seems to dive the dungeon.” I shrugged.

Bellaire pursed her lips, but before she could grill me more, I was saved by my butler.

“I’ve finished.” Ami came to a stop next to me, hands behind her back in a stiff posture.

My eyes flitted to Bellaire and I jerked my head to the side for Ami to follow me. The conversation we were about to have wasn’t for Bellaire, and it certainly was not for her camera.

Ami followed along with her arms crossed behind her back until we got to the tent. “Would you like me to prepare you tea?”

“That would be lovely. While you are at it, tell me who you managed to look up.” I sat down, self conscious about my sweaty body on the chair. But I sat anyway, deciding it wasn’t worth the hassle to do any different.

“Heinrich, Ray, that female guard on the wall and two faces I recalled from passing nobles. Sadly, we didn’t see enough of the people in the village for me to do much with them.” Ami reported as she deftly put out a tray and started to prepare a pot of tea. “Trish was an enigma. I couldn’t find anything on her.”

I grunted, not surprised. The way she handled the money, I had to wonder if she was really the one in charge.

“Ray used to work for a taxi service in the dungeon. When they were shut down, she presumably went to the unregulated side of that business. I dug a bit more, and there are several reports to that fact.” Ami clearly laid it out. “She’s been seen multiple times at UG facilities in the last month.”

“So, she’s the one moving the goods.” I nodded, knowing there had to be someone.

“On the other hand, Trish and Brandon Sayer appear to have not entered UG territory or the surface in quite some time.” Ami continued.

“What about Heinrich?” I asked.

“Massive gambling debt before he disappeared. He owned the vast majority to the SJS Financial Group.” She glanced up from her tea to see my confusion. “It’s a conglomerate bank from several of the wealthy middle eastern countries. In fact, it’s the main sponsor of the Royal Academy.”

“Fuck.” I cursed and closed my eyes. The Royal Academy was one of the big four dungeon colleges. That in of itself wasn’t a problem, but all four were extremely connected to the greater organizations that entered the dungeon.

After all, the elites were largely made up of their graduates.

“The others? Were they in debt?” I asked.

Ami pulled out several manila folders and slapped them down in front of me.

I opened the first and saw the guard who’d been on the castle wall. She had eight loans from SJS Financial Group; all of the debt was weighed against her potential income as an adventurer. “Well, it’s the bank’s problem if they give her so much in a loan.”

“Adventuring as a job is hard to measure. So, income is measured by your level and average stats. After all, if a level thirty really put in the effort they could make millions a year.” Ami explained.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, knowing the other folders that were on the table likely told a similar story. “So if you got this far, I’m assuming you looked into missing persons related to debt to the SJS?”

She flopped down another thick folder. “Three hundred and twenty-seven. All missing after owing over ten million to SJS. Over level twenty and below thirty five. I figured anything outside of that range couldn’t do much there. Though, we know that number isn’t close to what’s down there.”

“Some could have died.” I answered quickly, knowing that was likely the case. It didn’t seem like Brandon Sayer would have let any dissidents live, and people died in the dungeon every day, especially those without proper gear. “Any line on those who’ve disappeared? What about the group that contracted the hit?”

“They do not have any debt that I could find.” Ami indicated. “From all intents and purposes, it does appear that they stumbled on Brandon Sayer’s little kingdom and potentially angered him. Those that disappear have yet to ever return to the surface. Judging by their debts and the rate they could acquire mana crystals around that place, they wouldn’t make a dent in their principal and it would continue to expand.”

“Are there payments on those debts?” I asked.

“None recorded.” She had been thorough. “They’ve disappeared. Any payments at this point would indicate that SJS knew their location.”

“Any evidence that SJS runs this? Beyond the relation of the debt. For all we know, Brandon could be targeting high debt individuals because they won’t be missed.”

Ami shook her head and laid out a cup to pour the tea. “No.” She paused while focusing on filling my cup. “It’s extremely clean. We can find no flow of money back to SJS.”

I drummed my fingers on the table before picking up the cup of tea and using it as an excuse to think through what I had just been told.

As I had suspected, someone was using the situation as a way to generate money. Except if it really was the SJS Financial Group, then I had ended up catching a much larger fish than I was expecting.

Possibly a much larger one than I could handle.

What was happening at the castle was certainly wrong. That part was easy to decide.

No one should be forced into that sort of situation. Frankly, it’s the banks problem, forcing these people into what amounts to slavery to get their money back isn’t the answer.

Yet, if I went through with stopping them, I would open up The Nagato Clan and the Silver Fangs Guild to retaliation. The large financial group wasn’t exactly a soft target.

“There’s always the chance that they claim no involvement and wash their hands of it.” Ami offered, sensing my hesitation.

I snorted. “A place like that? They’d happily pretend it never happened. Maybe they would even give me a reward while plotting a way to cut me off at the knees. No, we can expect if this is at all sanctioned by SJS, they’ll play nice on the surface and put serpents into our bed when we aren’t looking.”

I was glad that I had Crimson and several other trump cards to play. But that was a last resort.

This was the first job my grandparents had given me to do my own diligence and execution.

Calling in Crimson, Heather or anyone else at that level to help would be the same as me admitting defeat.

My pride and the need to be a true leader of our clan did not allow me to make that move lightly.

“What would you have me do then, Master?” Ami asked, pouring herself a cup of tea but not drinking.

I covered my face, peering between my fingers as I contemplated what I would say next. “Ensure the client won’t ever speak of this. There needs to be an absolute surety that they won’t gossip and let this get back to SJS.”

“Would you like me to kill them?” Ami asked so calmly it was eerie.

“No. Killing clients is not a good look. Simply, if we are going to do this, we need to do it quietly. It needs to be so perfect that SJS can’t trace it back to us. That means no talking clients and no witnesses.

I’d prefer to not kill any of the debtors that haven’t become those nobles. So we will need to have the client or someone else alert the UG to pick the people up. Maybe we can do a small smear on SJS Financial Group from the shadows.” I didn’t like what they’d done at all, and a little bad press would be satisfying as long as I could do it safely.

“Tie their tongues and accept the contract. I’ll handle the rest. When you come back, we’ll begin planning our strategy.” I said as the tent flap parted and Des stepped in, wearing a workout outfit that matched her purple hair.

Her lips twisted up into a smile. “A little birdie told me that Ami came back and you went away with her. I hope you weren’t planning anything without us.”

“You are firmly part of the plan.” I promised her. “In fact, I’m glad you are here because the decision is going to affect all of the Nagato clan and probably the Silver Fangs.”

Des’ smile turned into a sultry grin. “Perfect. She plopped down next to me and I immediately found myself scooting to close the small gap between us.”

Her eyes crinkled with how big she smiled and rested her head on my shoulder. “Catch me up, Ami.”

I got a nose full of her scent coming from the top of her head. Wrapping my arm around her, I relaxed. Only now did I realize how tense I’d been considering what we were about to take on.

Des’ eyes flit up to me and she cuddled in closer, making my heart feel like it was made of molten metal. “Uh huh.” She responded to Ami as the butler pointed at the folders for Des peruse as Ami continued with the brief explanation.

I really wanted to pick Des up and bring her to bed and relieve some of my stress.

I paused, deciding that as soon as we were done bringing Des up to speed, I was going to follow those thoughts.

“So it became a lot more complicated. A big company like that isn’t something you want to poke.” Des returned her focus to me. “But you were making plans?”

“Take the contract, be sure the client stays silent, and then we do it like we’re removing a tumor. Go in, cut out just what’s bad, and step back without anyone the wiser. After that we let it heal, maybe let someone go run to the UG and they can deal with relocating those people.” I laid out my plan.

“Hmm. So you’re going to need a small group to go in, kill them and come back. Probably while we also have an alibi.” Des tapped her lips, drawing my eyes to them.

“Using Crimson is out of the question.” I clarified.

“Of course, that would be cheating. My main concern is that woman… Trish was it?” Des waited for me to nod before continuing. “She handles the money, and we couldn’t find a thing on her. My woman’s intuition is screaming at me that she’s dangerous. Possibly more dangerous than the target.”

“I don’t see how we could do this without killing all three of them, and the nobles as he called them. Otherwise, it’ll just start back up.” Organizations like this would recover from anything but a fatal blow.

Des rubbed her face against me as she nodded. “True. Still, something is bugging me about this Trish.”

Ami nodded as she stared into her tea. “I can try again to find something. But she was a ghost when I looked. I went through lists of adventurers that had gone missing, SJS staff, as well as Brandon Sayer’s history.”

“She was careful not to let us touch her actual CID, and I would have been rude to scan her there.” I rubbed at my forehead. The thought of reaching out to the UG for more information was tempting, yet that just created more paperwork connecting me to this job.

I might have trust for the President and Director Amato, but they were both sticklers. Any information request would be logged. The UG was large enough that there was a good chance that SJS Financial would find that request.

“Perhaps we could use this job as a way to get more information out of her?” Des offered. “It would be a risk to take the time to interrogate them, but we could understand what we are up against then.”

I frowned at her. “It would be a large risk. Your techniques might not work on her.”

Des grinned. “Your delirious pleasure would work on her. You can just touch her cheek and make her drunk on it before asking questions. Then if she escapes, we can always tell Crimson and she’ll go find her and murder her out of jealousy. Really, it’s win-win.”

Ami stared at Des for a long moment. “Is it that good?”

“It’s fan-fucking-tastic.” Des sighed. “I’m hooked, if I’m honest. If we are not using Crimson for this, then there’s a very important training that I have to complete before then.”

I frowned, unsure if she was just fishing for time with me or if there was more.

“Mana. I think I’m close to the requirement for your portal spell. If we are going to be as careful as we are trying to be, then we need to portal.” Des grinned and slid out from under my arms. “Ami, thank you for the tea, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Des’ eyes were glowing a faint pink, the one often covered by her bangs had its pupil in a heart shape.

“Thank you Ami. Take the job. Go ahead and inform my grandparents of the plan. It’s a courtesy to inform them; we aren’t asking for help or additional feedback.” I wanted to give my grandparents that much.

Des was already having her hands roam over my chest and was playing with the hem of my shirt, just waiting for Ami to leave. There was an intense desire in her gaze.

Here I thought she was supposed to be the temptress, yet it seems that she was the one who couldn’t wait.

“Of course, Master. I’ll be back in a week at the most.”

“Well be ready to execute the plan and the person then.” Des called over her shoulder. “Lovely visit. Next time we should talk more. Sorry, but training comes first, right Ken?”

I wrapped an arm around her trim waist and pulled her firmly into my lap. “Training. Yup, lots of training. We’ll work on my stamina and then your mana.”

Des melted against me, her body hot. I didn’t see if Ami left because I couldn’t look away from the beauty in front of me.