Chapter 533: The Real One and the Impostor (1)

Tauro’s appraisal was carried out by a senior appraiser stationed at the Swen Branch of the Adventurers’ Guild, under the supervision of the branch chief.

Besides several guild staff members, there were also multiple teams of high-ranking adventurers present, all clearly ready to capture Tauro and his companions at a moment’s notice if they turned out to be impostors.

“W-what!? This is…!?”

Just like at the military facility, the senior appraiser was left speechless by the sheer number of Tauro’s titles.

“What’s wrong? Is he an impostor after all?”

The branch chief prepared to signal the surrounding high-ranking adventurers, ready to respond immediately if Tauro and the others made any suspicious move.

“…I, I think he’s probably the real one. But… does a child who’s not even fifteen yet really exist with this many titles…?”

To the appraiser, Tauro’s results were hard to believe—but facts were facts.

As a test, the appraiser tried to appraise Aeris, who stood beside Tauro, but the appraisal was blocked.

“My advanced appraisal was blocked!?”

“Hey, would you mind not appraising me without my permission? ──Well, fine. Go ahead.”

Aeris removed the necklace that blocked appraisal and allowed the appraiser to examine her.

“…The daughter of Marquis Van Dyne!? M-my apologies! ──Branch Chief, these people are genuine. Thinking back, the group calling themselves Tauro Giro Sugar who had been operating out of this branch were never appraised by me. Given these results, it’s highly likely that they were the impostors…”

Sweating profusely, the senior appraiser reported to the branch chief, as though there was nothing left to prove after seeing Tauro’s and Aeris’s appraisal results.

“That’s impossible…!? ──So that means we’ve been deceived this whole time…? You’re saying that something that should’ve been nearly impossible—counterfeit Adventurers’ Guild tags—were used…!?”

The shock was enormous for the branch chief, who had treated the impostor group with great respect as high-ranking adventurers and honorary viscounts.

“Come to think of it, Tauro-sama—no, the impostor group’s tags always took a little longer than usual to verify with the magic device. I thought the device was acting up, but maybe the problem was with the tags themselves…”

The receptionist, who had supported the impostor group, finally began to notice all the things that had never added up now that Tauro had removed the [Charm] affecting her.

“…Now that you mention it, some of the companions under that man were from the Empire. Why didn’t we question that…?”

The branch chief, too, began recalling suspicious details.

The other staff members and the high-ranking adventurers who were present also started voicing things they’d previously brushed aside without a second thought, and the room grew noisy.

All of this was likely due to the impostor Tauro’s [Charm] ability.

Those affected by [Charm] had formed an idealized image of the impostor Tauro, conveniently interpreting minor discrepancies and doubts in his favor in order to preserve that image.

“Now that it’s clear we’re the real ones, Branch Chief—will you take appropriate action?”

“O-of course! We’ll immediately disable the impostor group’s tags and issue an urgent alert to all Adventurers’ Guild branches in the northern region. They’re to be detained on sight! ──Forging guild tags is a grave crime. We’ll inform the territorial lords as well and have them take action!”

The branch chief ordered his staff to carry out the necessary procedures immediately.

The guild was thrown into an uproar by the sudden revelation of such a serious problem.

“I think this will solve the problem… but what should we do next?”

Watching the chaos around them, Tauro asked Aeris and the others about their plans.

“Obviously, the best thing would be for us to find the impostor group and capture them ourselves, don’t you think?”

Aeris replied quietly, exuding an aura of anger.

Aeris looks really angry…!

Tauro realized this and was inwardly shocked.

“We should find them fast and make an example of them,” Ankh said with a sharp grin.

“It’s best if we deal with the fakes ourselves,” Ragune agreed enthusiastically.

“Anyone who impersonates Tauro-sama is absolutely unforgivable!” Zion declared, clenching her fists.

That impostor group is done for…

Seeing everyone’s overwhelming motivation, Tauro felt a twinge of pity for the people who had impersonated him.

Meanwhile—

“Everyone, by the way… when exactly are we going back north?”

Tauro (the fake) asked the other five members of his group.

They were in a fortress near the border of Swen County.

After entering the Kingdom of Sart, Tauro (the fake) and his party had been inspecting everything from the border security systems of each lord to even royal military facilities, all while clearing quests as adventurers.

“Lord Tauro. We’re exploring the northern region while carrying out a noble mission, are we not? We don’t have time for that. Besides, once we have complete information on the border, it goes without saying that we’ll need to inspect the military facilities in other regions as well.”

One hooded companion replied, lecturing the fake Tauro.

“But… isn’t it dangerous to keep this up any longer? We never know when we’ll be exposed…”

The fake Tauro answered anxiously.

“It’s fine. Thanks to your Charm ability, people interpret even their doubts favorably, guided by goodwill. There’s virtually no chance they’ll notice.”

“But what if the real one shows up…?”

The fake Tauro’s unease couldn’t be dispelled by his companion’s words.

“Hahaha! That won’t be a problem. The real Tauro—including the entire Black-Gold Wings—disappeared in the Royal Capital and hasn’t been seen for over a year. We investigated their movements, and their trail vanished so completely that it was hard to imagine anything except that they were dead. That’s precisely why we used the Empire’s finest technology to forge the tags and insignia. We infiltrated like this because we judged there was no chance they would show up.”

The hooded man replied confidently.

“But the guild account was almost frozen, wasn’t it?”

“That was likely because someone in the capital found it suspicious that an account which had been dormant for so long suddenly became active. But they wouldn’t go out of their way to come all the way to the north to check it out. In fact, once we handled the procedures here, it stopped completely, didn’t it? Now all that money in the account is entirely yours. Use it however you like.”

Since it wasn’t the Empire’s own money, the man encouraged the fake Tauro to treat it as his reward.

“I-I guess so…? Well, if you say so…”

Finally reassured, the fake Tauro thought of the massive sum in the account and brightened up—completely unaware that the real one was already closing in.