Chapter 428: An Unexpected Connection

　Tauro and the village chief had made a verbal contract, but the chief said that he would provide assistance to Tauro and his group from his side as well.

　That’s a good way to keep an eye on things, isn’t it?

　Tauro could see that the village chief did not believe him at all, and he quickly came up with a reason to refuse.

“I don’t mean to put it this way, but it’s honestly annoying to be followed by someone who is not one of our own. If it was our own fault, we could give up and accept it, but if it was the fault of the person following us and we had to abandon the project, we would be blindsided. That’s the last thing we’d want to do.”

“Of course, we will assign the best people to the job.”

“If they are really that good, then it would be fine if they could obtain the information themselves, and I don’t think we would be necessary. If they can’t do that, then that’s what it is, isn’t it?”

“That’s true… Okay, I understand. We won’t give you any surveil… help.”

　You almost said “surveillance” just now, didn’t you?

　Tauro didn’t miss what the village chief said, but of course, he didn’t cut into it.

“Well then, we will return to the adventurer’s guild and report the completion of this quest. After that, we will gather the information you requested. Is that okay?”

“go ahead. I’m sorry to keep reminding you, but I ask that you never speak of this.”*

　The village chief kept mentioning this in between intervals.

　It was clear that he was thinking of something that required extreme caution.

　Tauro and his party were already sick of hearing this, so they simply agreed and left the hidden village.

　It took them a whole day returning to the territorial capital.

“We’re back ……, but that village chief is surely following us.”

　Tauro has ‘presence detection,’ so he had noticed that someone was supposedly tailing him from the village.

　At first two people were following him, but when they reached the territorial capital, one of them disappeared to call someone.

　Tauro and his friends arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild without paying attention to them, completed their quest procedure, and left the guild, only to find that they were being followed by someone else.

　Could the people who had been following them from the village have friends in the capital? Tauro noticed like they said something to the two strangers as if they were switching roles, and the two who had originally been following him reunited and left.*

　The remaining two newcomers followed Tauro and the others with a feel of familiarity, but not only Tauro but also Ankh noticed them.

“…… Leader. The people tailing you from the village have disappeared, but you have someone new on your tail, right?”

“…… Yeah. Apparently, that village has more friends over here than we thought.”

　Tauro pondered as they made their way back to the inn.

　It was a question of whether to shake off the trail, get rid of them, or leave them alone.

　We could try to shake off the tail along the way, but that wouldn’t solve the problem in the first place, so we’ll put this on hold.

　So, let’s get rid of it.

　Is this an option?

　If we got rid of the tail from the village, it would cause some trouble since we know they are from the client’s side, but if it is a pair of people we don’t know, we could just pretend we didn’t know and do whatever we wanted.

　I’ll leave the rest alone, but if this continues, I won’t be able to warn my father, Count Graunewald, about this mysterious incident.*

“Well then, should we just take down those two tailing us?”

　Ankh grinned.

“No, when you get back to the inn, I’ll go down to the lord’s castle and give a report.”

“oi, leader. If we do that, the village chief will find out that we’re involved.”

　Ankh whispers to Tauro.

“What is it, you two? What have you been whispering about for a while now?”

　Ragune, who was walking around talking with zion, noticed Tauro and Ankh’s situation and called out to them.

“Oh, I’ll tell you when we get to the inn.”

　Tauro replied to Ragune and Zion and returned to the inn.

“So, what is it?”

　Rsgune asked as soon as they arrived at the inn and joined Tauro and Ankh in their room.

“…… didn’t you notice that we were being followed?”

“Oh that…! Was that us? We lost them at the guild so I thought that wasn’t it…”

“I noticed that, too. Ragune-san and I were talking about it on the way here.”

　Zion, like Ragune, seemed to have noticed the initial tailing.

　But after that, they did not notice.

“Since then, different people have been following us.”

“……! Is that right? So that means we’re dealing with the village chief?”

“That’s right. I don’t know what we’ll do, but everyone else, please wait here. I’ll go and meet my father in the meantime.”

“What about the tail?”

“I’d like to try something.”

“What do you want to try?”

“Well, I just want to eliminate one possibility. I’ll let you know how it goes later.”

　After saying that, Tauro decided to leave the room alone.

　At first, Zion raised her hand to accompany him, but Tauro persuaded her to let him leave the inn alone, saying that it would be more convenient for him to go alone.

　When Tauro walked out of the inn, one of them followed him.

　The other one must have stayed behind at the inn.

　One followed frantically on the trail as Tauro strolled through the front and back streets of the city.

“lets get to it, let’s check this out ……”

　Tauro turned onto a familiar back road.

　It was a dead end. 

　It was the location of a hidden doorway through which a man from an organization that dealt in dangerous drugs had previously used to sneak underground and avoid being followed.

　The man believed to be the boss and the man responsible for that incident have yet to be caught.

　As soon as Tauro entered that cul-de-sac, he hid himself with “invisibility magic”.

　The man on his tail followed Tauro around the corner and turned the corner himself.

　And when the man who had been following Tauro realized that he had disappeared, he looked surprised and, as if he had an idea, ran over to the dead end wall and pressed a switch that should have been hidden by inhibition magic, then opened the door to the sewer and looked inside.

“…He’s not here?! If he’s not here then where did that brat disappear to?!”

　The man who had been following Tauro, startled and panicked, turned back to the road, looking left and right several times before running off in the wrong direction in search of Tauro.

“…If someone related to the village chief knows about this hidden door… I never thought that the village was connected to the mysterious organization… I thought it was just a possibility, but it was unlikely…”

　The actuality that the low probability of the prediction came true.

　Tauro grimaced, wondering if his “great luck” had put his unlikely prediction to work, and he headed to the castle, hiding his presence with magic, to meet his father, Count Graunewald, once again.

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