The next day, as soon as the sun began to set, Lambert visited the potato wholesale store.
After subduing the workers who tried to block his entry with one hand, he entered the store where an old woman greeted him.
“What brings you here?”
“I know there’s an information guild in the basement. I need to visit that place.”
“State the password.”
“I don’t know any password. But I still need to get in there.”
“Without the password, you cannot enter.”
Lambert couldn’t throw the old woman like he did with the workers, so he unleashed an intimidating aura at her instead.
She should definitely feel the crushing pressure on her shoulders, but the old woman’s face remained perfectly calm.
“I don’t want to use force on an old woman. Guide me while I’m asking nicely.”
“Still not possible. That’s the rule. If we don’t follow rules, what’s the point of having them?”
“Despite giving you a chance……”
Lambert finally drew one of his two swords.
Just as the sword tip was about to reach the old woman, a man who had approached without making a sound pushed away his sword with something.
“Violence is prohibited here, customer.”
The hooded man exuded confidence.
Lambert thought it must be due to some impressive weapon, but surprisingly, the man had pushed away his sword with the wooden part of a broom.
To face him with wood that would be helplessly cut if he applied force. Lambert’s face showed his bewilderment.
“Are you connected to the guild?”
“Please leave while I’m asking nicely, customer.”
“I need to meet this guild’s master.”
“You cannot meet without the password. You’re making me repeat myself, really.”
“If you’re going to be like that, I’ll have no choice but to use force.”
Going back to the Marquis residence to find out the password and returning here was too troublesome.
Lambert wanted to resolve all his questions right now.
The hand holding his sword loosely tensed up. His sword tip stood straight.
Seeing this, the man stepped back a couple of paces.
He must be intimidated by his sword despite acting confident earlier. How pathetic.
However, the man’s visible lips were curved upward.
‘……A smile?’
At that moment, the man’s voice, tinged with amusement, resonated lowly.
“Potato subspace.”
Potato… what?
Before Lambert could process those words, the man spoke again.
“Potato summon!”
As soon as those words ended, potatoes appeared from nowhere in masses, rushing forward like a wave.
“……!”
Lambert was buried in the potato heap and was pushed all the way outside the wholesale store.
Landing unceremoniously on his behind, an unpleasant sense of humiliation washed over him.
Though he had fought countless monsters until now, he had never fallen in such a ridiculous way.
To be swept away by potatoes?
“You…!”
Lambert jumped up at once and tried to rush back into the potato wholesale store.
However, he couldn’t cross the wide-open entrance. It was as if an invisible solid wall had appeared.
He struck it several times with his sword, but the result was the same.
He couldn’t take a single step into the potato wholesale store.
Then the man with the broom, who had cast that strange magic on him, walked over slowly.
“Congratulations! You’ve been selected for our blacklist. You can never enter this place again.”
“What trick did you use?”
The man smiled brightly and said what he wanted to say.
“Feeling powerless despite having strength, it sucks doesn’t it? Should’ve been polite from the start.”
“Shut up, you suspicious bastard.”
“Well then, have a safe trip back.”
The man closed the entrance after saying goodbye.
Standing there blankly, Lambert exhaled deeply. It seemed he had underestimated the task of entering the guild.
‘That man, is he an Esper? Is he affiliated with the Chelsea Center?’
All Espers whose abilities had manifested were reported to and drafted by the Imperial Palace.
Of course, not all of them worked at the Chelsea Center, and they were assigned to appropriate places according to their abilities.
Among the Espers Lambert knew, there was no one with the strange ability he had just experienced.
But at that moment, he suddenly remembered something his father had said long ago.
“One of the palace people used a strange ability.”
His father said he had witnessed that ability by chance while visiting the palace.
What else did his father say at that time?
“You won’t believe it. Things poured out of thin air, it was quite a sight.”
It seemed like the same ability that poured out potatoes from thin air.
His father might know the identity of the palace person who used that ability.
After finishing his thoughts, Lambert returned to the Marquis residence. His eyes were clouded with fighting spirit.
And several hours later, someone else began lurking around the potato wholesale store.
Smelling strongly of perfume that didn’t match the earthy scent of the potato wholesale store, it was Baron.
True to being the most fashion-conscious of the three men, he was even wearing stylish glasses.
The man who had driven Lambert away, that is, the Guildmaster, quietly observed Baron.
“Helen, what’s special about today? Why are there so many customers? Did we become famous?”
The old woman called Helen made a laughing sound.
“Hoho. More customers are always good, Master.”
“That’s true, but today’s customers are of poor quality. I don’t even want to sell information.”
The Guildmaster, while contemplating how to drive Baron away, thought that the three men must have noticed some connection between his guild and Yerena.
If not that, they might want to make a request related to Yerena.
‘As a last possibility, they might have followed customer Olivia.’
Either way, it seemed certain that the guild had been exposed.
Well, being exposed to people wasn’t necessarily bad for an information broker.
Even if the three men asked about Yerena, his only answer would be ‘She’s dead,’ so there wasn’t much to worry about.
It was just annoying. Having to deal with each of them.
If it weren’t for the barrier that the barrier ability user had installed in the guild, he would have had to fight Lambert for a long time.
“Master, what should we do?”
“What else? Let them in if they know the password, chase them out if they don’t. Follow our rules.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Ah, and send the bill for the damage Lambert caused earlier and the medical expenses for the injured people to Marquis Heidegger’s residence. Double the amount since I’m annoyed.”
“Yes, Master.”
When they had destroyed the Center fighting each other, how much had it cost him?
So this time, he intended to extract a huge sum from Lambert.
Soon after, Baron, who entered the wholesale store, surprisingly knew the guild’s password.
He had clearly investigated the guild more thoroughly than Lambert.
Thus, Baron was able to invade his study with great dignity.
‘Not bad?’
The Guildmaster smiled slightly while looking at Baron sitting across from him.
“So you’re the Guildmaster.”
Baron spoke in a condescending voice and glared at the Guildmaster with arrogant eyes.
“Welcome to the Honey Butter Guild, customer. Do you have any requests for our guild?”
“I do. Why would I, being as busy as I am, come all the way here otherwise?”
“Please tell me. Ah, before you do, I hope you’re aware that our guild’s request fees are quite expensive.”
“You think I, Baron, can’t afford that much?”
“Hahaha……”
“Don’t worry about money; just make sure you handle my request properly.”
“Hahahaha……”
“What’s with that annoying laugh?”
Look who started being annoying first. The Guildmaster considered driving Baron out even now.
But first, he needed to hear Baron’s request.
“What kind of request do you have?”
“There’s a guide named Yerena who was recently reported dead. She belonged to Chelsea Center. I know that before her incident, she came here several times.”
“……”
“I want to know if Yerena just stopped by the potato wholesale store, or if she came to the guild to make any requests.”
“……”
“Of course, my keen intuition suggests that Yerena did come to this guild.”
It was quite an unexpected request.
Instead of asking if Yerena was really dead, he wanted to investigate what she had been looking into.
He seemed to see a new side to Baron, whom he had thought was one-dimensional.
The Guildmaster leaned forward, sensing this conversation might become interesting.
“First, I’ll answer your request about ‘whether Guide Yerena stopped by the potato wholesale store or came to the guild.'”
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kendrahf
At this point, I’d just come clean with them and tell them she just doesn’t want anything to do with them anymore. What would they do about that? She bought her freedom. Just put all this to bed.