XCII

Less than ten seconds later, he exits, only to invite me in. I take up this invitation, finding myself inside a nicely furnished room. Illuminated by numerous candles, the various tables, chairs, rugs, and bookshelves unveil their forms before me.

"Honored adventurer," the guard says to me, "this is my lord, the village's governor, Lord Hetfield."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, dear lord."

"No, no, the pleasure is mine. Please, call me Hetfield. Now, I hear that you have taken on the quest to deal with our monster issue, but you need to discuss some of the details?"

"Yes, that is the case."

"Very well, then, please, take a seat."

Never one to show good interpersonal skills, I take what I assume to be the lord's personal chair, a veritable throne, made of shaped silver and padded with velvet cushions. Perhaps this chair is not his favored one, or perhaps he is too well-mannered to get worked up over something so minor, as he shows no visible reaction.

However, based on the grinding of that dimwitted guard's teeth that is audible to my enhanced hearing, I assume the latter.

I then take things one step further, throwing my legs over one of the chair's arms, laying down in such a way that I am sandwiched between the arms. Not a very comfortable position but certainly an informal one.

Having assumed the look I desire, I say to Hetfield "Now, shall we have our discussion, dear Hetfield?"

At this the grinding of the guard's teeth becomes so loud that Hetfield is forced to address him. "Jameson, please leave us. If I am not safe with one of the guild's finest, does safety even exist in this world? Return to the wall, fend of the current wave. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," the guard, Jameson, reluctantly answers.

"Good," is Hetfield's only response as Jameson makes his way out.

Once he has left, I focus my gaze on Hetfield. "Now, may we finally begin?"

"Yes, we may, my apologies for the holdup, I will see to it that that guard is appropriately punished."

"Good. Now, for the main issue. I agreed to the posting in the guild, which stated that there were thousands of monsters that were to be killed for a reward of three gold. However, when I arrive after a long journey, I find many tens of thousands of monsters outside the village, far more than I agreed to. Now, I am bound to complete this contract. However, it specifies that there are thousands of monsters that must be killed, so I would kill two thousand, not even a twentieth of the total number of monsters, take the three gold I am owed, and leave, my job done, the request fulfilled. You did not say that there were tens of thousands of monsters here, this is far more than 'thousands' would lead one to believe, unless the price is raised I will not wipe out any more than the minimum number of two thousand."

"Oh my. I would like to first say, I apologize for the misunderstanding, I looked and saw more than a thousand and less than a million monsters, I figured that 'thousands' was an appropriate number, I am sorry that there has been an incorrect interpretation that has led us to this position. So, I must ask, how much are you thinking, price wise?"

"There are at least fifty thousand monsters out there, perhaps many more, and they don't have any value as corpses for the most part. Perhaps I could sell the deer, but the majority of slimes are useless to me as they are unable to be sold as materials. So, then, perhaps fifty gold?"

"Fifty? That sounds a bit excessive. Please keep in mind, though there are many monsters, they are very weak. For a B-ranked adventurer such as yourself, surely there wouldn't be much difficulty? Perhaps five gold coins would be acceptable?"

"Hmm… Perhaps it would have, had the details of the quantity of monsters been made available upfront. Please understand, the remaining forty five gold serves as recompense for lying to me, an adventurer of great esteem. Besides, if the guild were to learn that you were utilizing your political power to make misleading guild requests, who's to say that the guild won't disallow you from making requests in the future? Then, you would be left only with your guards to carry out your orders, and they honestly don't seem fit for such a task. So, either we deal with this issue now or I turn it over to the guild; I assure you, in a world where adventurer's are in such high demand, the guild will investigate your actions. When that is kept in mind, I don't think that a mere forty five gold is at all excessive, do you?"

"Are you trying to blackmail me? Pay you forty five gold coins, or you report me to the guild over a misunderstanding, leveraging your power as a B-ranked adventurer to cut off myself and my village from the services of the only real force around?"

"Well, the gold coins are negotiable, of course. If you would let me choose an item out of your personal armory, for instance…"

"No, you will be paid in gold. However, forty five is still too much, I can give you ten, in addition to the five that you will receive for completing the mission, how does that sound?"

"Too low, too low! Think about the consequences! Even if the guild sided with you, for a noble such as yourself, surely just giving me the gold would be far less painful. Fine, how about twenty gold, in addition to five for the mission, for a total of twenty five gold?"

After thinking for a moment, the noble sighs. "Fine, you will get twenty five gold. But! If you fail to wipe out even a single monster, you get none. Understood?"

"Heh heh, do you really think I would fall for such a trap? Absolutely not. However, I promise that there will be no monster left within this cleared out valley, but I will not hunt down fleeing monsters just to meet your impossible requirement, it would be a waste of time and some would be guaranteed to escape."

"Fine, that is fine, there was never any trap, I assure you. However, you still aren't going to be paid until after the job is complete. Understood?"

"Yes, that is fine. Well, I'll be off, I have some monsters to kill."

As I leave, I briefly look over the demeanor I had held over our brief meeting, and I must admit that I think I did a good job of portraying a certain attitude. [Oh! I just came up with a valid-sounding excuse for my seemingly self-sabotaging attitude! Simply put, by having my name Lector can hunt me down and take my powers at any time. However, once I get a name change that will no longer be the case. When Lector comes to look for me, he will easily be able to find details of my activities based on the reputation that is sure to spread as a result of my demeanor. However, I will be able to take up a vastly different, albeit less interesting demeanor afterwards, alongside a new name and maybe a new appearance, I shall be untraceable! Therefore, my current demeanor should be viewed as putting on a persona such that my more authentic behavior would be so different from how I currently carry myself that nobody would suspect me! Yes, yes, that was the thought process all along, clearly I wouldn't just try to make other people's live miserable just for my own amusement, obviously not! Previous me simply hadn't fully realized this plan, thus he falsely implicated himself! Yes, yes, that is certainly the case!]

My impeccable reasoning fully fleshed out within my maddened mind, I make my way out of the city with great haste.