Dinner was served in courses rather than all at once, so it took a while to finish it. During the meal, I was asked about different things that I've experienced, mainly by Amelia. Occasionally one of the adults would have something to add or ask about as well, but mainly, it seemed like Amelia hadn't gotten out much, and was trying to find out about commoner life. Unfortunately, I'm not an average child, so the information I could give her was very unique.

By the time the after-meal tea was served, my summon was almost back with the response from Revna. Because I knew that the Sonic Eagle would arrive before we finished tea, I asked the maid who served it to open a window. Sure enough, about halfway through my cup of tea, my summon flew through the open window, causing a bit of a ruckus in the room.

"Sorry, I should have mentioned that this was why I wanted the window opened," I said as I held out my arm for the eagle to land on.

Once the Sonic Eagle had landed, I unfastened the letter tube before feeding it some fish that I pulled from my item box. When I was going to open the tube to pull out the response, I noticed that Amelia looked like she wanted to ask or say something, so I stopped and looked at her waiting for her to speak up.

"Um… Is that bird safe?" She eventually asked me.

"Yes, despite being a B-rank monster, as a summon, this Sonic Eagle won't attack anyone without my command, except in self-defense. Why? Would you like to pet her?" I answered in a detailed manner to prevent any misunderstandings.

"Really? Can I?" She sounded a bit excited.

"Sure, I don't mind," I answered after glancing toward her parents and receiving a small nod. I then directed the bird to move to the arm of the couch next to Amelia, so she could pet her. I also pulled some bread out of my item box and told Amelia that she could tear pieces off to give to the eagle.

I then removed the paper from the letter tube and checked it to make sure it was addressed to me and not the duke. I then unrolled the paper and read through it, there was nothing in it that I was worried about someone else seeing, so once I finished reading it, I passed it over without saying anything.

I watched Amelia play with the eagle while waiting for the duke to read the letter, it seemed that she either liked birds a lot or just animals in general. I didn't mind keeping the eagle summoned longer, but I was wondering if it wouldn't be better just to get her a pet or have her tame a monster if she can use the magic. While I was thinking about that, the duke seemed to have finished reading the letter.

"I'm not too sure what to do, I appreciate her input, and I now understand how important it is to get someone experienced and capable here as soon as possible, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of options at the moment, and I'm not even sure which guild branch would be able to send someone." He looked like he was getting a headache from the situation.

"I don't know enough to give you an answer, I was kind of hoping that Revna would know who to have take over the position, but that didn't quite work out. Do you know where the Guildmaster is, and what they are doing? If they could just come back quickly and take over, it would solve a lot of problems." I replied, still mostly watching Amelia and the eagle, wondering if there is someone else I should contact.

"The Guildmaster was needed for something, and is near the royal capital, I wouldn't even be able to contact him if I wanted to. Even if I could, he wouldn't be able to come back right away, so that wouldn't help at all." He sighed as he finished saying that.

"That is a bit of a problem. You can't ask for a Guildmaster or vice Guildmaster to come from a nearby branch if it would cause that branch to not function properly, and it sounds like most guild branches have either one or the other that is good at paperwork. The best I can do is contact the Reginston Guildmaster and see if her vice Guildmaster is capable of doing the job and getting here quickly.

I could always summon a Wyvern or Griffin and go pick up someone myself if necessary, but that would still require knowing someone who could take over the position temporarily with relative ease. The biggest roadblock is that promotions to that position, even temporarily, require permission from the guild." I gave the only options I knew of.

"You can summon a Wyvern or Griffin?" Reinhardt looked at me, blinking over and over like he couldn't comprehend what I just said.

"I haven't tried, but it shouldn't be an issue. Thanks to that unexpected Cockatrice subjugation, my level has risen enough that summoning A-rank monsters with less intelligence, or highly intelligent monsters that aren't overly aggressive should prove to be a simple task. Worst case scenario, I would have to un-summon it, and summon a Pegasus instead." I shrugged as I answered.

"… I feel like my common sense is breaking more and more, the more I converse with you," Reinhardt mumbled.

"Can you really summon a Pegasus? Could I ride one?" Amelia asked me, though I wasn't even aware that she was paying attention to us. I guess this means she likes animals in general I mused.

"Perhaps another time if your parents agree, it will be dark soon," I replied to her before turning back to the duke. "Did you want me to contact Alisha, the Guildmaster of Reginston, and ask about her vice Guildmaster? He seemed capable enough from what I saw of him when I was there."

"I don't have a better plan at the moment, so go ahead and send the letter, tomorrow morning I will have to send letters to the nearby guilds." Saying that he looked towards his butler and nodded. The butler, having seemingly understood, left to do something, probably prepare for writing the letters he spoke of.

"Alright, I'll send the letter after I get back to the inn, I doubt we'll get a response tonight anyway. Are we going to go see Otto tonight? I have something I'd like to ask him, seeing as how I'm the attempted victim." I hadn't given up on being a part of Otto's interrogation.

"Hah… I don't know why you want to be a part of that so badly, but it probably isn't going to be like what you think it will be. People rarely confess to their crimes, even when faced with execution or becoming a mine slave." He sighed before responding without answering.

"It's fine, I'm not expecting him to confess to trying to have me killed, or even for him to explain why he did it. I just want to ask about the party he supposedly sent to investigate the potential dungeon, seeing as how he didn't even bother contacting the Gale branch that is closest to the place I guessed it to be." I responded, telling only a partial truth.

"Fine, we can go, but what do you mean by 'supposedly'? Do you doubt he sent a party to investigate?" He finally relented but wanted clarification on what I meant.

"Well, if you were wanting to get as much out of this situation as possible, wouldn't you wait to send a party that was willing to enter an unknown dungeon, only reporting the truth of the situation to you while making a false official statement initially? That way you could have them collect materials to discretely sell off before the dungeon officially opens to other adventurers?" I replied with a sound argument.

"True, there wouldn't be much harm in doing that, and it would be almost impossible to find out the truth if done right." He replied while stroking his chin.

"I wouldn't say that there isn't much harm in it, I mean, the whole reason it needed to be quickly investigated is that we don't know when it will stampede. We know it has been letting out stray monsters for a least 4 years, but we don't know if strays had come out before and simply headed toward the Dark Forest instead. If that happened, a stampede could even happen this year if the monster numbers inside aren't culled." I replied, not understanding why he would say that.

"What? The report I read said that there were multiple instances in recent years, but it was not thought to be near to causing a stampede. Are you saying that part was a lie as well?" He asked in disbelief.

"That would have most definitely been a lie. I have personally been involved with 3 of those instances over the past 4 years, so I can say undoubtedly that a stampede could happen soon if not dealt with. I don't know if they found more instances in their records after Otto said that he'd handle the rest, or if they even bothered to look." I answered bluntly.

"Alright, let's go talk to Otto, we need those answers sooner than I thought." Without waiting for confirmation, he stood up and began walking out of the dining room.

I quickly followed behind, asking Amelia to take care of the eagle for now. A servant ran ahead, likely to prepare the carriage so that the duke wouldn't have to wait. He led me out through the front door and into an awaiting carriage which immediately took off towards the nearby knight's station. We arrived soon and were led into the station where the duke explained why we were there and had us led to Otto.

As we entered the area with the prison cells and neared Otto, I couldn't help but shake my head while looking at him. He still looked tired, but also calm, like there wasn't any reason for him to fear being found guilty.

"I believe I said enough when we met for you to understand that it isn't a good idea to target me, but you did it anyway, not even bothering to ask the Gale branch about me," I said to Otto, looking at him like the idiot he is.

"Cero, they told me an assassin was following you, I'm glad you're unhurt. Surely you don't believe an assassin over me? It takes a lot of trust to obtain my position, you know?" He calmly state, or at least he appeared calm.

"I'm well aware of the requirements to obtain your position thanks to Revna. I'm also aware that you only appear calm on the outside, your heart, however, started beating quite fast when you saw me and the duke walk in. However, I don't think that is what you should be worried about right now, and I didn't come here to discuss your attempt to have me assassinated anyway… Did you actually send a party to investigate the potential dungeon?" I had to wait a little bit for his heart to calm down somewhat before asking that question.

"What are you saying? Of course, I sent a party to investigate. And what should I be worried about then?" He was still acting like he is innocent.

"So you really did send someone to investigate?" I asked in confirmation.

"Yes, as I said, of course, I did. What is this all about anyway? Are you just unhappy that I didn't mention you in the report, I was just doing you a favor, not getting you involved with the nobility." He had a friendly smile while saying this BS to me.

"Am I the first person you sent an assassin after? Have you had others killed before or even assassinated others yourself?" I asked, keeping my tone even and facial expression flat.

"I've never sent an assassin after anyone, much less killed them myself." He seemed aghast at the implication.

"I see, well aside from all the lies you just spoke, the thing that you should really be worried about is treason. Reporting to the duke that the potential dungeon was not thought to be near stampeding when you know that there were multiple instances over the past 4 years showing high-rank monsters coming from the same general direction, is intentionally lying about the potential for a stampede that could destroy the duchy.

Even if you had sent adventurers to investigate like you were supposed to, and those adventurers didn't find a dungeon, you would still be guilty of treason for lying about the possibility. You being a guild employee does not exempt you from following the laws of the kingdom. You not only withheld information about a potential dungeon stampede but actually said it was not a potential. There's no longer anything or anyone that can save you.

Since you don't want to cooperate though, I did have an interesting idea. How about we promise the first person to tell us about every assassination you have ordered or committed, that they won't become a mine slave? Let's start with the assassin that I captured since he has been more forthcoming." I said the last part to the duke, as I turned to walk away.

"Hmph, you won't get anything out of him, and the guild will protect me from this injustice," Otto said, giving up on his nice guy act.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you. I bet he will talk immediately, giving us all the dirty details, and the guild won't be protecting you. I already got a response from Revna, she has already sent a report about your misdeeds to the guild higher-ups. As I said before, nobody and nothing can save you now." I said, looking at him over my shoulder, before walking out.

"His heartbeat at least was honest. He did not send anyone to investigate, and I am not the first person he has sent someone to assassinate. I'll draw a map and send it along with another letter to Revna, to have Gale send someone to investigate." I told the duke as soon as we couldn't be overheard.

"How could you tell he was lying? What do you mean his heart was honest?" He asked in return.

"Typically when someone lies, their heart speeds up, sometimes sweat begins to bead on their brow, the pitch of their voice goes a little higher, pupils dilate, and there are other tells as well. I simply used enhanced my hearing and eyesight with magic and paid attention to these indicators. I noticed it because the Guildmaster of the Gale adventurer's guild is a bad liar." I replied.

"I see, so you didn't intend to get the truth out of him from the very beginning. As long as you asked the questions, you would at least know what is a lie, even if you don't know the exact truth." He sounded rather impressed by that.

"For the most part, yes. More importantly, you should send someone to discretely ask the guild staff if there are other people, particularly scouts, that visited the Guildmaster regularly. For the time being though, we should get all the information that the captured assassin has." I wanted to quickly finish my business here and write to Gale, even though I intended to send the letter most of the way via space-time magic.

Reinhardt had a knight sent to the guild in plain clothes to get information before having us led to the assassin I had captured. He turned out to be a very average-looking person, the type that could blend in anywhere. His height, looks, hair color, eye color, everything, was the most common… In a crowd, he would go completely unnoticed.

"I'll be blunt with you. Otto is saying that he has nothing to do with you following me, and did not order you to assassinate me. He is pinning everything on you, and even saying that he has been investigating you for assassinating other people before." I said to him coldly, I had warned the duke not to act surprised in advance, but if he couldn't then just close his eyes, smile, and nod along with what I said.

"What?! No! He's lying! He not only ordered me to assassinate you, but he also ordered me to do so before with other people. I swear that's the truth!" He replied, obviously feeling betrayed.

"If what you're saying is true, we can give you one chance, and the same deal we offered to Otto. If you tell us everything, everyone you were ordered to kill, follow, others he may have used as assassins, etc., you can avoid becoming a mine slave. That's the final offer though, take it or leave it." I used an underhanded method to get him to talk, but I was sure it wasn't a known method in a world with such terrible communication methods.

He immediately started talking, not hiding anything. I had to get paper and a pencil out of my item box for the knight to write down everything. Apparently, Otto would give promotions and other special perks to people he liked, and then blackmail them into doing his bidding. Some adventurers willingly followed his orders though, even acting more like bandits than adventurers.

After he finished telling us what he knew, and we walked out, I casually mentioned to the duke, that since he did not approve of my proposal to guarantee he wouldn't become a mine slave, I wouldn't hold him to it. I only asked him to consider having that guy work with his stealth corps to pay for his crimes, as it would be more beneficial and not make me a complete liar.

Upon exiting the knight's station, I split up with the duke, saying I would send those messages immediately after returning to the inn. I also told him that I would leave the first Sonic Eagle summoned until I next visited so that Amelia could continue playing with her. The carriage was too conspicuous, so I decided to walk to the inn from there. It wasn't very far, and I was planning to run with stealth activated anyway.

When I got back, I went to my room and quickly drew the map from memory, wrote the letter explaining the map and situation, and then wrote a letter to Alisha as well. Once I was done writing, I summoned two more Sonic Eagles, attached the letter tubes to them, and sent them each through a small portal I created with space-time magic, one led just outside of Gale, the other just outside of Reginston.

The birds quickly arrived at their destinations, which I could tell through the summoning connection. Now it was just a matter of waiting to see their responses. I would have to open portals for the Sonic Eagles again so that I could get their responses faster even though I planned to inform the duke in the morning. Surprisingly, it didn't take long before Alisha sent a reply, and I opened a portal as soon as the eagle was far enough from the city.

In the reply, she said she would have her vice Guildmaster take over for her for a while, and she would come to the capital herself, claiming that he was not experienced enough to handle this situation in the capital. Apparently, she would arrive here not long after the gates open in the morning, using a summons of hers to travel. I definitely needed to inform the duke of this.

For the time being, I sent the eagle out through the window headed toward Gale as a decoy to hide my space-time magic. I figured I would just wait an hour or so before having the eagle come back and then send a letter to the duke. A few minutes later, Revna sent a reply as well, so I followed the same process as before. Her letter said that she was sending out a party in the morning, and providing them with fast transport.

I was glad that she was able to work quickly, though I had no clue who in that town would be strong enough to go. Although he hasn't fought monsters in a long while, my dad should be the strongest in town, with the Guildmaster being right up there with him. After about an hour passed by, I had one eagle come back, and the second about 10 minutes after that. I then wrote a letter to the duke and used one of the eagles to send it.

I un-summoned both of the new Sonic Eagles after the letter tube was removed from the one I sent to the duke. I figured he didn't need to send a reply, and if he really felt like sending one, he would do it the normal way, not by B-rank monster. I also decided to stop by Livia's room to let her know that I had come back so that she would not worry. I neglected to mention anything about Otto though.