Chapter 129

Fundraising Countermeasures

The saintess had written a letter. What should I do...?

When I took a peek, it looked like the contents were saying that I would hand them the dungeon core's destruction rights, along with requesting financial support, but... thinking about just how much DP and funds she was getting us, I can't say that it's much of a bad thing.

However, it'd be a seriously bad thing if the Holy Kingdom started watching me.

A dungeon that gains attention from the Holy Kingdom, whose doctrine says to smash dungeons... it'll have a lowered lifespan. Literally.

Because of that, I called Rokuko to make some countermeasures.

"Kehma, peeping into a room with a girl staying in it, is that sort of thing your hobby?"

She was looking at me with considerably cold eyes though. Vexing. It's enemy inspection, you know?

Yep, it's because she's an enemy. It's not like I wanted to obverse her well-shaped legs and shoeless, defenseless feet or anything. If I really wanted to, I could indulge in Meat or Ichika's, so it's not like I'm starving.

"So, a plan for what? To not let them get funds?"

"Good guess, Rokuko. That's right. Wait... no way, are you an impostor?"

"No, I'd obviously know that... the question is how we can stop them from getting the money. Replace the letters? Or maybe we stop their delivery?"

"Are you alright? Are you feeling sick!?"

Rokuko was being unusually bright. I placed the back of my hand against her forehead to make sure whether she was feverish or not.

"Hey, I'm not sick! Don't look down on me so much!"

"You were a little hot..."

"It's in your head!"

"That so? It's fine then. I was worried because you'd suddenly turned smart."

"I'm happy you were concerned though. Fufun, you could praise me more though you know?"

Alright, she's back to Rokuko now.

"So, what will you do? Outside of the dungeon, it'd be hard stopping the adventurers' deliveries after they took the commission. Right, we could take them when they are given to the adventurer guild."

"Giving the guild liability issues sound like it'd be troublesome in various ways. Even if we replaced them, the letters are sealed with wax stamps..."

When she put the letters into their envelopes, the saintess stamped them with her seal. It'd be obvious that they were tampered with.

"For that, wouldn't it be fine if Kehma's magic fixed the seal? You could just break the seal then mend it after right? Ah, but if there is a magical effect on the sealing wax you can't show your technique, we'll need another one as well won't we?"

"Oi Rokuko."

"What? Did you rekindle your love?"

"You... ... ... are you the real Rokuko?"

"I am though!? So rude, even I think so!"

"Got it, well then show me your foot and I'll confirm it."

"You can confirm it with that!? Well, I don't really know why you need my foot though... H-here."

Taking off one of her stockings, Rokuko exposed her foot... Fuuu. I took my time validating it, but she's the real one. In truth, Rokuko's feet don't have any beauty marks at all, but I know she's her. To be accurate, I confirmed it by looking at the menu's map function.

Well, I'd be in trouble if she were an imitator though. Did she eat something that appeared from the gacha, like a fruit of wisdom or something?

"No doubting it, you're the real Rokuko."

"That's what I've been saying... so, does Kehma have a plan?"

"... Yeah, I do. I'll put in a complaint."

My plan was exceedingly simple.

We would also write five letters, mailing them to the same address as the saintess.

Because they'd be the same address, adventurers taking the commission for hers would naturally take ours as well for the profits. The guild might even recommend people to accept them as a pair.

This way we won't have to obstruct the saintess' letters at all.

If it turns into a situation where none of the saintess' letters arrive, neither will our complaints, but in that case there's no problem at all.

"Heeh, Kehma's plan is different after all."

"But who would read a letter from a figurehead village chief whose village doesn't even have a name? That's the only hole in it. And so, Rokuko, you will do it."

"Me?"

"You're Haku-san's younger sister. That is, the younger sister of Haku Raverio, the empire's ancestor."

"Oh, I can borrow Haku Ane-sama's influence huh!"

Particularly since this is Haku-san's favorite place. There'd probably be no problem using her name for this... Rather, Haku-san's younger sister might be a more influential title than untactful saintess.

And because of that, using Rokuko's name, we prepared five letters to match the saintess'.

Its contents: [We are troubled by the saintess' wolfish devouring of our winter rations, paying no heed to the costs. We are selling things to her because it is business, but there is a limit to such things. Could you please tell it to her indirectly, as her country?] It was a petition, one written somewhat grandly.

We'll seal it with wax and stamp it with the imperial seal.

In truth, it's something Haku-san gave us for when Rokuko write [Request] letters to her. Though we're using it to directly communicate with Haku-san through writing letters... borrowing something used to talk directly with Haku-san is very scary.

Then again, even if we'll be borrowing this empire's seal, I get the feeling it'd be fine since Haku-san said, "This seal is for Rokuko to use however she wants."

... If we send Haku-san a thank-you note from Rokuko afterwards, she'll definitely be happy. Definitely. Yep. She'd definitely take advantage of it if I show weakness here, so I'll end it with a one-sided thanks.

Looks like the letters were finished being written while I was thinking that, all five are completed.

"They're perfect. Writing five letters with the same things in them is tiring though."

"Good work. Well, these will do something about the saintess' letters... I'll hurry out to make sure they are accepted with hers."

"Un, please."

The attendant had just left the guild, leaving the saintess' letters with it. I hurried to the guild, carrying the letters that Rokuko wrote.

The commission easily went through the guild's Receptionist-san, who requested the fee for the five letters... along with delivering them to another country, the fee was a little pricey due to getting the option for me wanting them to be taken along with another commission's, five silver coins in all. Five silver doesn't feel like much of an expenditure at this point, huh.

After that, the commission chart was affixed to the bulletin board. It was placed nearby the one for the saintess' letters, a bit above it to be exact. Like this, they'll probably be taken together.

Also, the task of getting to where the saintess' letters were being kept in the guild would have been a failure... They were put away in the guild's safe, so I wasn't able to retrieve them. Rather, there's a restriction making it so that I can't collect other people's things whenever I want huh... Well, if I were able to, I'd be able to go with the savage strategy of just doing something like taking a warrior's armor and weapon mid-combat.

Preparing letters ourselves was the right call.

"Fufufu, Kehma's plan was correct as expected!"

"Y-yeah."

I wasn't able to use her plan of tampering with the letters though... Rokuko seemed happy for some reason?

... But even so, out of money huh. How much longer will the saintess' funds last?

Maybe it'd be better to make a move in exploiting her.