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“Then I shall go ahead in asking you a question, guild master. I’ve heard a rumor that you recently had purchased the Merlin’s Staff, is that true?”

Merlin’s Staff, huh? As the staff was something I had directly given to her, of course I would have an interest in this conversation.

“Yes. I’ve purchased it.”

There wasn’t any need to hide the fact, anyway. The word about the purchase had already spread far and wide, so it was hard for me to figure out why he would bring up this question. Actually, at his position and rank in the guild, he could have easily checked the validity of the purchase by using backdoor information. Seeing as how he was being specific in his questioning, he must be aiming for something.

“I see. Actually, that ‌staff was put up for bidding at an auction website and was reaching up to 1.9 million euros before being canceled. If you purchased the staff, then it must have been from Miss Artoria, who is sitting next to you. From the information I’ve gathered, I wasn’t able to confirm any evidence that there was any large amount of cash being withdrawn from your bank account, and I’ve also confirmed that the government had not received any tax amount for a purchase of that item.”

I thought I was going lightheaded for a moment. Isn’t this a level of accusation that you’d only see at the National Assembly? To think ‌I’d see something like this happen at a guild meeting!

“Hmph, interesting. Please continue.”

Katalina smirked as she spoke.

“Ahem. So assuming that you had purchased that item with the amount of 2 million euros with the premium added to it, doesn’t that mean ‌you had used the guild’s capital to purchase it without going through a meeting about it first? As director of this guild committee, I would like to confirm if that is true with you.”

Looks like he had thought quite hard about this, but he definitely made a mistake in his assumption. Of course, since he doesn’t know the relationship that I have with Katalina, it’s a likely hypothesis he arrived at. He even went through the trouble of combing through her bank account’s transactions, after all…

“Are you demanding I confirm the rumors, as the director of the committee?”

Katalina asked back to him, with her characteristic smile still on her face.

“That’s right.”

The director of the committee didn’t flinch at all and answered with a firm expression still on his face.

Murmur murmur…

Many officers became nervous about the situation. Even I could tell that a person at a position of Director of Committee is at a level where they’re practically at second in command to the guild master. They probably all understand just how dangerous it is for actual internal authority dispute to be surfacing in front of everyone like this.

“You are really pushing me into the corner, aren’t you, director? Even though I’ve brought a guest with me.”
“I apologize that our first meeting had turned out like this, Miss Artoria.”

He tries to make sure he looks serious towards me, but it seemed more greedy than anything, bringing up bad memories that made me turn my gaze away from him.

It seemed that this ‘Vega’¹ person also didn’t want to have much to do with me, so he said nothing in particular to my action.

“If you ‌go that far, then I suppose there’s no helping it. What would you like me to do?”

Hearing Katalina’s reply, Director Vega opened his mouth with a very opportunist expression on his face.

“I would like to request the opening of the guild’s public fund storage, and a list of receipts for both deposits and withdrawals. Also, if this incident proves to be true, then I would like the rights of all withdrawals and deposits of the guild’s public fund to be given to the committee.”

It meant that he was aiming to increase the authority that the committee has over her. It will evidently give way for the committee to end up with more power and authority over the guild master internally within the guild. If the guild was something, just made between friends, this kind of thing wouldn’t have been possible, but because it’s more of a business operating guild, it could happen. Once again, I felt I dodged a bullet by not joining a guild.

“All right. However, if what you claim is not true, what will you do instead?”

Of course, it’s a ‘Give and Take’ situation. They’re forcing her to give them the rights to the management of the guild’s public funds, meaning they ‌don’t trust the guild master at all. Of course, they should offer ‌an equivalent level of authority to match what they are requesting.

“Hm…”

The committee director thought seriously for a moment. But he soon opened his mouth again, as if he had made up his mind.

“I will resign from the position of being the director of the committee. On top of that, I promise to give up every authority I have over the guild itself‌.”

Murmur murmur.

Yet again, the crowd became agitated and concerned. Someone at the top of the committee definitely has quite a lot of power over others. To completely give up all his authority just for this single situation? It looked like it wasn’t a simple decision for him to make, but I, as someone that knows what the outcome of his risky bet would turn out to be, couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

Then again, who would make that kind of bet if they already knew what the outcome would be like…

“You have strong determination, don’t you? All right, then. Let us go right now.”

Seeing Katalina’s confident expression, the director of the committee’s expression soured a bit. However, he soon shook his head to get rid of any anxiety he had and put up a brave face which made me feel sorry for him even more.

“For security reasons, only me, the committee director and the advisor of finance ‘Utopia’ shall enter the guild treasury. For all the officers here at the meeting, you will all see the scene of what happens inside through the video stream that Utopia will put up. Please keep your focus on the video screen that shall begin once we enter.”

Soon after, the 3 of them disappeared down the hallway while I and the officers all looked down at the hallway with blank expressions on our faces. The screen didn’t show anything yet.

“Miss Artoria! It looks like this is the second time we meet. My name is Joker.”
“Ah. It’s nice to meet you.”

The user named Joker snuck up on me before I realized it and stretched his hand out to me. I smiled back at him as I shook his hand.

“Ah, it’s a shame that you had to see this when you’ve been invited as an honored guest to our guild’s meeting. I hope nothing too bad happens.”

Joker looked a bit worried.

“Who are you talking about? You mean Katalina?”
“Katalina? Ah! You’re calling the guild master by her real name. Yes, that’s correct.”
“It won’t be anything bad. I guarantee it.”
“Oh? Does that mean you are sure that the guild master had not used the guild’s fund in any way?”

The officers that were all whispering to each other with interested expressions all turned towards the two of us. Since the person who knows the most truth out of everyone is right in front of them, it’s obvious that their interest would be on me.

They probably were also desperate to ask me the same question, but to ask me such a question out of the blue with no introduction or relationship beforehand could lead to a disaster and rudeness, so they probably held themselves back instead. Since I ‌had some relation with Joker, he naturally became the person they are relying on to extract the information from me.

Joker asking me about the circumstance did not differ from every officer here asking me for an answer‌.

Instead of answering, I pointed at the screen that started showing a video.

“The truth will be revealed now. It would be much better to see for yourself rather than hear me try to explain it a hundred times.”

Using a Korean proverb, I directed their attention to the screen. Soon, it showed the revealing of finance ledger book records being shown to the committee director, who showed an expression of absolute despair as opposed to Katalina, who was smiling standing next to him.

He desperately, even madly, tried to search through every record to find any trace of funds being taken out of the treasury, but there was no way that such money could be taken out when the transaction didn’t take place‌.

“No way. Then how did the guild master buy the Merlin’s Staff?”
“I sold it.”
“???”

Even more confusion and curiosity went over everyone.

“Was it done on a monthly payment scheme? Or trading guild rights and interests for it?”

I wasn’t sure who had asked it, but someone from amongst the officers asked out loud to me.

“No. I am going to be repeating myself here, but I had simply sold it to her.”
“Simply?”

Hearing my confident voice, all the officers flinch in surprise. As their expressions looked funny to me, I couldn’t help but make a smirk before quickly fixing my expression and ending the conversation.

“I’ve sold it for 10 million Euros². She said she will pay for the cost of cancelling the auction‌.”
“Hoho…?”
“Just 10 million Euros?”
“No way.”

The officers all looked dejected. They all finally accepted the situation and soon they all insulted the committee director before talking amongst themselves.

A few of the officers tried to advance and come towards me, but once they saw that Katalina was walking into the room, they all immediately turned back to return to their seats.

Finally, Katalina stood back up at the podium while the committee director sat back in his seat with a completely flabbergasted expression on his face. It looked like a few of the officers next to him were trying to console him, but it didn’t seem like it would be effective.

“Officers, everyone. As you can see, results have come out. From today on, I will strip all public standing of Committee Director Vega. However, since he had contributed so much for the guild in the past, I will let him keep ownership of all the wealth he had built up so far that’s not related to the public funds of the guild.”
“Guild master, you are being too lenient!”
“That’s right!”

A few officers yelled out, but Katalina stopped them with a wave of her hand.

“I have already made my decision. Former director Vega, do you have anything to say?”

No longer having any smile on his face, he asked a question to Katalina with a slightly bitter look on him.

“No, I do not. I ‌am thankful for your leniency. But could you tell me one thing?”

He replied to Katalina with dejected and tired expression on his voice, then ended with a question unexpectedly.

“What is your question?”
“I’ve just heard from my management next to me that Miss Artoria had sold the Merlin’s Staff to you for 10 million Euros. Did you really buy it from her just for 10 million Euros?”

His voice was noticeably filled with distrust.

“Yes. Without any doubt, that is the truth. If that turns out to be false, then I shall give my position as the guild master to you. Now, is that all?”
“Hoho, I see. As expected, you’d never make such bets unless you are absolutely sure about your knowledge…”
“Are you satisfied with that now?”
“Perfectly so.”

Director Vega replied, with a completely serene voice in his tone that made it hard to believe that they were fighting against each other just a moment ago.

“Very well. With this, the guild meeting will be over, and the next meeting shall have the topic of electing the next committee director to be the main focus. The meeting is over.”

Clap clap clap.

The Volcano guild’s meeting had ended with applause ringing out.³

1. Silva: A little correction from last chapter, Governor Tegar has been changed to Director Vega.
   Robinxen: This confused me so much when I was scheduling last weeks chapter. I kept flipping between them trying to work out if they were different people or the same person with a name change. I thought they were different in the end based on context but it looks like I was wrong indeed.
2. Robinxen: I still find it amusing that they use euros here
3. Robinxen: Pachi pachi pachi