Chapter 528: Which One Is the Real One?

That day—

A male staff member at the Mandek Branch of the Adventurers’ Guild quietly asked Tauro at the reception desk to come to a room in the back.

“?”

Tauro wondered if there had been some problem with the quest report he had submitted that day. But if that were the case, they would normally explain it verbally at the counter, wouldn’t they? Puzzled, he followed the staff member.

“—Actually, this concerns the account freeze request that you submitted a few days ago, Lord Tauro…”

The staff member hesitated, clearly uncomfortable, and continued while watching Tauro’s expression.

“It seems that at another branch, Lord Tauro submitted a request to withdraw the freeze request and have his tag reissued—and that guild branch accepted it.”

“…What? What do you mean?”

Tauro asked back, unable to make sense of the explanation.

Tauro was right there, and he hadn’t visited any other branches in the past several days.

There was no way he would have withdrawn the freeze request, either.

“I also thought it must be some kind of mistake, and we’re currently making inquiries. But the magical communication device only allows very simple exchanges, so all we know is that the freeze request was withdrawn, Lord Tauro’s tag was reissued, and your current tag was therefore invalidated.”

“““““WHAT!?”””””

Not only Tauro, but all of his friends were surprised.

That meant that, as things stood now, Tauro was no longer recognized as a member of the Adventurers’ Guild.

“Please wait a moment. You know that I’ve been here in Mandek this whole time, working together with everyone for the past several days, right?”

“Yes… That’s why we also believe this must be some kind of mistake and are still investigating. It appears that there’s another adventurer at a different branch claiming to be Lord Tauro.”

The staff member replied apologetically.

“But Tauro is right here!—Tauro, take out your insignia. Look—this honorary viscount insignia is real too!”

Aeris had Tauro take the insignia out of [Magic Storage] and pointed to it.

“…Yes, it certainly looks genuine. Appraisal also confirms it as such, but… to be honest, there are actually loopholes in appraisal, so it’s hard to say definitively…”

The staff member shook his head, unable to make a firm judgment.

“What do you mean, loopholes!?”

“If the material and craftsmanship of the insignia are exactly the same as the real thing, and it was made by a government-employed craftsman, then it’ll be treated as genuine.”

“? Well, that’s only natural, isn’t it?”

“For example, even if it’s a different country—if it was produced with that country’s official authorization, it would still be almost indistinguishable from the real thing.”

“A different country?”

“Yes. It’s an old technique, but when another nation, as part of state policy, produces identification documents for other countries, it’s impossible to tell them apart without a very high-level appraisal skill. Both Lord Tauro’s insignia and tag appear genuine to my appraisal skill—but someone with more advanced appraisal might determine them to be fake.”

“Hey! Tauro is the real one!” Aeris protested.

“That’s right! Lord Tauro is absolutely the real deal!” Zion added.

“O-of course, I also believe he’s the real one. First of all, there’s no reason for an impostor using forged insignia and a forged tag to calmly clear difficult quests in the B-rank band in a remote city like Mandek. And as for the account freeze—if he were an impostor, it would make more sense to withdraw all the money and run rather than freeze the account.”

The staff member answered, holding up both hands as he tried to calm Aeris and the others.

“…Do you know which branch accepted the freeze withdrawal request?” Tauro asked, knowing it was probably a long shot.

“That information isn’t shared with us… Communication between branches is kept to a minimum. However, I believe it’s a nearby branch. The response—from when the information about the freeze request was shared across the national guild network to when it was revoked—was very fast, so it must be somewhere close. In other words, probably within the same northern region.”

The staff member offered this as a likely possibility.

“Even within the same northern region, that still covers an enormous area,” Ankh pointed out.

“That being said, what will happen to Tauro’s status as an adventurer here? If the tag he’s currently wearing is invalid, he has no way to prove who he’s,” Ragune added sharply.

“That’s exactly why I was thinking of explaining the situation to the branch chief next…”

Judging that this was beyond his authority, the staff member went to fetch his superior.

Tauro and the others were made to wait in the room for a while.

That was only natural; it would take some time for the staff member to explain the entire situation to the branch chief.

“We finally come back after so long, and this happens,” Aeris sighed.

“To think an impostor of Lord Tauro would appear—we can’t let this stand!” Zion fumed.

“I don’t get it. An impostor shows up just as we return,” Ankh muttered, exasperated by the timing.

“But forging an Adventurers’ Guild tag—that takes quite a bit of technical skill, doesn’t it?” Ragune remarked casually, but perceptively.

“…That’s true. They probably didn’t expect us to return after being missing for over a year… So they felt safe forging the tag and the honorary viscount insignia.”

Tauro considered the situation carefully.

Just then, the male staff member returned, accompanied by the branch chief.

“…I’m Kai, the branch chief of the Mandek Branch. Nice to meet you. You must be Black-Gold Wings, the team that recently resumed activity. I’d read your reports and confirmed your achievements, but I was surprised to learn you were led by an honorary viscount. That kind of information isn’t shared across the guild.”

After shaking Tauro’s hand, Kai took a seat and continued.

“There’s no doubt your abilities are real, and as far as I can see, the insignia looks genuine as well. …May I check your tag as well?”

Branch Chief Kai took Tauro’s tag and examined it.

“…This also looks genuine. By the way, why did you stop adventuring for an entire year? There doesn’t seem to be any activity record in the guild.”

Kai asked to confirm the circumstances.

“We completely stopped adventuring and trained to grow stronger in our friend’s hometown,” Tauro replied—telling no lies, but offering no details.

“Training…? Judging from your reports, I can certainly tell that your abilities are above the B-minus level. There isn’t much detail about the circumstances of your promotion, but I have confirmed that you were specially promoted from D-plus to B-minus. Was that promotion why you spent a year training?”

“Not exactly, but it’s true that we felt we were lacking in strength,” Tauro answered smoothly, again without elaborating.

“…There’s nothing particularly suspicious, so we’ll reissue your tag here as well. However, even this tag will only remain valid for about a month. If the other ‘Lord Tauro’ acts again and files another request, this tag may be suspended too. About a week west of here is Swen, one of the largest cities along the northern border. Go to the Adventurers’ Guild there, formally report the situation, and have a high-level appraisal determine whether you’re the real Tauro. That’s about the limit of what a small branch like ours can advise.”

With that, Branch Chief Kai had the male staff member reissue a tag and handed it to Tauro.