Published: March 21, 2026
I slipped into the Adventurer Guild without being noticed and first looked around the room.
Most of the time, anything truly dangerous to be found or anything people want to hide is placed where human eyes can't see.
Since I was in the attic, there was a chance whatever I sought would be here.
The place was full of junk—brooms with broken handles and the like—but that only made it more worth searching.
Gram apparently left his information unguarded, so I might find it sooner than I thought.
When you want to find something hidden, being in the form of a cat is convenient.
I can squeeze into any narrow space as long as my head fits, and my keen sense of smell lets me distinguish scents.
Of course, turning into a slime with transformation would let me pass through even the tiniest gaps, but that's a last resort.
A single transformation eats up an enormous amount of magical power, and the slimes I remember tend to be garishly colored—if someone walked in and saw me, I'd be exposed instantly.
I haven't seen the black slime Lord Ria mentioned, so I can't transform.
Dogs are also known for their keen noses, but I can't stand them on a visceral level, so I don't want to transform into one either.
So, in my usual familiar cat form, I sniffed the dusty attic.
"...This place hasn't been used recently. Damn it, there's not a single human scent."
Dust had piled up thick because it hadn't even been cleaned.
It's safe to say it isn't here.
I was about to go down to the floor below and looked for a ladder or something leading down when, all of a sudden, a section of the floor opened up.
Startled, I darted behind a shadow.
The opening was probably where the ladder down to the lower room was.
Someone muttered to themselves as they climbed up.
"Seriously, why do I have to come to a place this dusty? Making your subordinates hide your misconduct—it's like he doesn't even try to hide it. What was the king thinking making a guy like that guild master? ...Well, with that Incompetent King, I guess there's nothing to be done."
I held my breath to catch every complaint. Fortunately, the human came close to the desk where I was hiding.
"If only the king and Gram would just die—world would be better off."
My masters said they met King Igusamu today; I wondered what kind of man a king was to be spoken of like this by his own people.
"Incompetent King" sounded like a common slur, used casually.
"...Why leave these documents? They could be used against you."
He muttered complaints, but he carried out what he was told, so he was probably a straightforward sort of man. Right now, that was to my advantage.
If what he said was true, those documents might contain the information my master wanted.
Luckily, without noticing me under the desk, he descended the ladder and left the room.
"This is the easiest job I've had in ages!"
Crow's intel had been accurate.
Gram had bought a Human woman who was a pharmacist as a slave and forced her to create enhancement drugs.
The pharmacist's name was Amaryllis Cluster.
Apparently she had won that contest held in Mari a few years ago.
When I first heard it I half-believed it, but I never imagined human trafficking would be happening in Beastmen territory.
In Miss Amelia's case it was organ trafficking; so Gram was into slave trading as well.
If the royal family was implicated publicly, the crown's reputation would plummet.
"Alright. If I bring this to my master, my mission will be over. I can finally get back to his side."
We'd only spoken by telepathy since Mari, so it had been a while.
I folded the papers detailing Gram's misdeeds and clamped them in my mouth.
I slipped back out through the skylight gap the same way I came in.
I hadn't been inside long, but the sky was already beginning to lighten.
By morning my master would be awake, so I'd have to ask by telepathy which inn he was staying at.
But first I should meet up with Lord Lattice Nail.
"Hey! Good work~"
As expected, when I went to the hill on the outskirts that overlooks the town, Lord Lattice Nail was there.