Countermeasures for the Money Problem

The Saintess was writing letters. What should I do about this…?

When I peeked at them, the contents appeared to be requesting financial aid while asking them to have me hand over the dungeon core destruction rights… Considering how much money and DP we could squeeze out of her, it might not actually be a bad thing.

But if we go too far and end up on the Holy Kingdom's radar, that would be very bad.

A dungeon that's being watched by the Holy Kingdom, whose doctrine is all about destroying dungeons… its lifespan would be shortened. Literally.

So I called Rokuko over to come up with countermeasures.

"Also Kehma, peeking into a room where a girl is staying—is that your hobby or something?"

She was looking at me with rather cold eyes. How offensive. This is reconnaissance on the enemy, you know?

Yeah, she's the enemy. It's not like I wanted to admire her nice legs or observe her defenseless shoeless feet in her room. I wasn't peeping from the floor either. If I wanted to, I could indulge in Niku's or Ichika's feet all I want, so it's not like I'm starving.

"So, what countermeasures are we taking? Stopping them from bringing in money?"

"Good guess, Rokuko. That's right. Wait… what? Are you an impostor?"

"No, obviously I'd figure that out… The problem is how we stop them from getting money. Swap out the letters? Or maybe intercept the delivery?"

"Are you okay? Do you have a fever?!"

Rokuko was being unusually sharp. I put my hand on her forehead to check for a fever.

"I-I don't have a fever! Don't mock me so much!"

"You feel a bit warm though…"

"You're imagining it!"

"Is that so? That's good then. I was worried because you suddenly got smart."

"I'm happy you're worried about me though. Fufun, you could praise me more, you know?"

Right, getting full of herself like this is very Rokuko.

"So, what will you do? It's outside the dungeon, so it would be hard to interfere with the delivery once adventurers accept the quest. Oh, I know—we could take them right after they're deposited at the Adventurer Guild."

"That would cause liability issues for the Guild and make things troublesome. Even if we swapped them out, the letters are properly sealed with wax…"

The letters had been placed in envelopes, sealed with candle wax, and then pressed with the Saintess's seal. Obviously, opening them without permission would be noticed.

"Something like that, couldn't you just reattach it with your magic and they'd never know? Or just cut it open somewhere other than the wax seal, then fix it afterward? Oh, but if there's a magical effect on the seal, we might not be able to touch it, so we'd need another plan too."

"Hey Rokuko."

"What? Did you fall for me again?"

"You… are you really the real one?"

"I am?! How rude—even I can think of things like this!"

"Got it, then show me your foot so I can confirm."

"You can confirm with that?! Well, I don't really mind showing my foot… H-here."

She removed her sock and showed me her foot… Phew. I examined it thoroughly, and she's the real deal. It's not like Rokuko's foot has any distinguishing moles, but I know she's genuine. Specifically, I confirmed it by checking the map function in the menu.

Well, I'd be in trouble if she were a fake though. Did she eat a Fruit of Wisdom or something from gacha?

"Sorry for doubting you. You're the real thing."

"I've been saying that… So, what's your plan, Kehma?"

"… Yeah, I have one. We file a complaint."

My plan was extremely straightforward and simple.

We would also write five letters and send them to the same destination as the Saintess.

Since they'd be going to the same place, any adventurer who accepts the Saintess's delivery quest could take ours too for extra profit. Of course they'd take both. We could even have the Guild encourage them to accept both together.

This way, we don't need to interfere with the Saintess's letters at all.

If it turns out that none of the Saintess's letters arrive, our complaints won't arrive either, but that's not a problem at all.

"Heh, Kehma's plans really are different."

"But there's one hole: who would read a letter from a nameless village's figurehead chief? That's where you come in, Rokuko."

"Me?"

"You're Haku-san's younger sister. In other words, the younger sister of Haku Raverio, the founder of the Empire."

"Oh, I get to borrow Haku-nee-sama's influence!"

This place is especially favored by Haku-san. Using her name for something like this should be fine… Actually, Haku-san's younger sister might carry more weight than some random Saintess.

So we prepared five letters in Rokuko's name to match the Saintess's.

The contents: "We are troubled because the Saintess is devouring our winter stockpile without regard for the cost. We are selling to her since it's business, but there's a limit. Could you perhaps say something to her at the national level?" A petition. I wrote it somewhat assertively.

Finally, we sealed it with wax and pressed the Imperial seal onto it.

Actually, this is something Haku-san left for when Rokuko writes "request" letters to her. It's originally meant for writing letters directly to Haku-san, but… borrowing something used for direct communication with Haku-san to avoid owing her a favor is quite scary.

Still, since we're using this Imperial seal, I think it'll be fine since Haku-san said something like, "This seal is exclusively for Rokuko to use however she likes."

… If we have Rokuko send a thank-you letter afterward, Haku-san will definitely be pleased. Definitely. Yeah. If I show any weakness here she'd exploit it to the fullest, so I want to end it with a one-sided thank-you.

While I was thinking about this, the writing seemed to have finished. Five letters were completed.

"This should be perfect. Writing five letters with the same content was tiring though."

"Good work. Well, I'll try tampering with the Saintess's letters too if I can… I need to hurry and submit these so they're taken together with hers."

"Yeah, please."

The Saintess's letters had been taken to the Guild by her attendant, who was just leaving. I hurried to the Guild with the letters Rokuko had written.

The request went through smoothly with the Guild's receptionist, and I paid the fee for five letters… Since it was a delivery to another country, plus the special option of having them picked up together with another request, it was a bit pricey—five silver coins. Five silver doesn't feel like much of an expense anymore.

Afterward, the request form was posted on the bulletin board. Considerately placed right next to the Saintess's letters—actually, slightly overlapping above them. This way they should definitely be taken together.

As for tampering with the Saintess's letters stored at the Guild, that was a failure… Because they'd been put in the Guild's safe, I couldn't retrieve them. Or rather, I think there's a restriction preventing me from collecting other people's belongings without permission… Well, if I could take others' things, I could use brutal tactics like snatching a warrior's shoes or armor mid-combat.

Let's just consider it fortunate that we prepared our own letters.

"Fufufu, Kehma's plan was the right call after all!"

"Y-yeah."

I couldn't use the plan to tamper with the letters, but Rokuko seemed happy for some reason.

… Even so, money troubles, huh. How much longer will the Saintess's funds last?

Maybe it's time to start making moves to squeeze more out of her.