Chapter 339: Sneaking into the Mayor’s Residence

　The day after gathering information at the “Salt Lake Pavilion,” Tauro and his team set out to gather evidence of the town mayor’s embezzlement.

　The majority of the work, however, was done by Tauro himself.

　Tauro used “magic manipulation (extreme)” and his newly learned ability of “multiple chanting” to realize the legendary invisibility magic that assimilates one’s own appearance into nature, which was made possible by using three different types of magic simultaneously and with precision, and he used this to easily break into the mayor’s residence.

　He also possesses the ability to “block out signs of life,” so most people do not notice him.

　In this way, Tauro went in and out of his office and the rooms where the accounting officials worked, searching for the ledgers.

“ ……. (I still think he’s hiding it somewhere. …….)”

　Tauro was thinking that there must be a secret ledger, but he couldn’t find it.

“……. (Hmmm, ……, for someone who is known to be so incompetent, does he have a good place to hide it?)”

Tauro hides himself in the empty office room, tilting his head to the side, confused.

Then, from the reception room next to the office,

“It’s a good thing that the overpopulated Flame Crabs have been reduced, but if they’re all exterminated, there will be no excuse for paying less taxes to the lord. It’s about time for those adventurers to leave. This is why I hired you people! for times like this. Prove that your C+ rank is not just for show!”

　Said the voice of a man, probably the town mayor, Baron Colon.

“Sir, do you have any idea how hard we are working? While putting pressure on the adventurers in the local guild, and at the same time, we have the deputy branch chief hold the money and do all kinds of things to keep outside adventurers from approaching. It costs a lot of money. If we want to get rid of these outsiders, we’ll have to get the deputy branch chief to take the money again.”

　It seems that the person he is talking to is a member of the “Gray Vultures,” a C+ team, the highest rank of adventurers in this city.

“Hmph! The other party is a D+ team, aren’t they? You guys can just threaten them directly. Don’t think I don’t know anything about this. The deputy branch chief has informed me!”

“Heheheh, I’m in a bind. It’s not very nice of you to be in direct communication with the deputy branch chief. ─ ─okay, I understand. That D+ team …… “Black Golden Wings”, right? I will threaten them at our house. However, since we have hired a bunch of thugs to breed the flaming crabs, we’ll ask you to pay for that, okay?”

“Those outsiders came to take down the monsters because those thugs increased their numbers too much! All the salt production factories around the salt lake have been burned down by the monsters, causing heavy damage and people complaining about me, and what goes into my pockets goes out the window. What are you going to do about it!”

“Mayor-sama, your boss was the one who originally suggested it, right? we just brought monsters from elsewhere and released them into the salt lake to multiply under your orders.──I understand. This time I’ll be working as a service, but we will have to use the thugs, so please take care of that”**

　As if the conversation was over, the door to the reception room opened and the men came out.

　Tauro held on to their faces.

　The leader is a dark-eyed man with a skinhead and a scar on his brow.

　He is probably a bandit by the way he stands.**I wonder if it’s a bandit job from the get-go.

　He is a C+ adventurer, after all, and has a certain air about him.

　There were four other members: a warrior, a swordsman, a wizard, and a baggage carrier..

　But they don’t look as strong as I thought they would ……. No, no, no. We have to be on our guard because if we underestimate our enemies, they will catch us flat-footed.

　After saying this to himself, Tauro temporarily leaves the mayor’s residence and meets up with Ragune and Ankh, who were waiting nearby.

“Oh? Looks like the leader has returned.”

Ankh recognizes Tauro, who is supposed to be invisible due to invisibility magic, and informs Ragune.

“Tauro? Where is he?”

Ragune doesn’t see him at all, and a question mark pops into her head.

“Over Here.”

She thought she heard a voice from the space next to Ankh, and then Tauro appeared.

“Waa! …… Tauro’s invisibility magic is Bad for the heart. ……”

Ragune made a pretense of pressing her chest.

“ sorry, sorry.──But how did you know Ankh?”

Tauro was impressed with Ankh’s visual skills.

“Well. This “eye” allows me to deal with visual disruption abilities quite well. ……, but as for the leader’s invisibility magic, I don’t really have a clear view of it either. To be honest, I only caught a vague outline. It’s probably a level of magic beyond my capabilities.”

Ankh, who had confidence in his eyes, seemed somewhat frustrated. 

“I see. Then, from now on, I’ll have to think about how I can use it, taking into account that there may be enemies with similar abilities.”

Tauro was self-conscious after listening to Ankh’s words.

“By the way, did you find any evidence?”

Ragune went straight to the point.

“It didn’t work, but…But I did accomplish something else. Let’s talk about the rest when we get back to the inn.”

Tauro replied to them and turned back to the inn.

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