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–––Karin’s viewpoint

“Feel free to sit anywhere. I don’t really do elegant stuff like serving tea, though I doubt you’d be willing to drink it anyway, right?”

He grinned after he said that, as if he had come up with the greatest joke in history. He was probably joking about spiked drinks, but I could not laugh. Ciel also refused to entertain him, sitting down at the closest chair to her. I remained standing, watching over the door leading out. I was ready to escape or bash his head in if he made any suspicious movements.

“Don’t worry about that, we’re here just to talk. Anyway, let’s get straight to the point.”

Without revealing our identities, Ciel told him we were trying to figure out what happened with Prince Magna, or anyone who worked with him and might know where he went. If we told him we were part of the hero’s party, it was possible he would sell us out later, so we had no choice but to remain anonymous until we could trust him. He did try asking who we were, but Ciel stuck to our made-up identities.

“And that’s the deal, do you think the Thieves’ guild might be able to help?”
“Hmm… I see what you want now. It’s true that we might be able to find Prince Magna through our information network. Though here’s the thing.”

His eyes turned sharp.

“Can you provide equally valuable information to us? As you probably know, we’re no saints or honest people. Even an easy job carries a cost that would make any normal person’s eyes pop out. And if you don’t pay, we’ll chase you to the ends of the world. Now finding the lost prince? That’s no easy task, ten or twenty gold coins aren’t nearly enough to cut it. Can you foot such a bill? Cuz I’d suggest you give up if you’re trying to swindle us. You may be crazy strong, but if you keep being targeted all twenty four hours of the day, eventually you’ll kick the bucket. Do you realize what you’re getting into?”

He seemed confident in the guild’s abilities. But he was right, fighting someone head-on was easy enough, but having to live in constant fear of being stabbed in the back at any moment was rough. I did not feel like I’d lose so easily, but we did not want to make enemies, so we had to agree to their prices. Ciel acted like she had not even heard the man’s warning, calmly crossing her legs without worry.

“If it’s money you want, no need to worry. I can’t go into much detail, but we have powerful allies. Powerful noble allies. We’re just working under their orders, so if you bring us to Prince Magna, you’ll get whatever reward you want.”
“Hehh…”

He seemed to largely understand what we meant, a sly smile on his lips. If we were looking for Prince Magna this badly, whoever was employing us had to be a noble on Magna’s side. And a noble that was still safe and on Magna’s side after everything that happened had to be a rather influential one. In other words, our funding was secure, and we could easily pay a hundred or two hundred gold coins.

“Do you want to sign a written agreement then? I’m sure a document sealed in blood could be reassuring for you.”
“No, we don’t need that. The existence of such a document could be harmful to our employer. We’ll exchange the money for Prince Magna, or his location when you find it. Sounds good?”
“…True, that’s a valid deal as well.”

If we paid in advance, it was easy for them to just skip town with the money. We had to take as many precautions as possible when dealing with the Thieves’ guild.

“So, what’s the price?”
“Hmm, let’s see. How about a thousand gold coins?”
“A thousand?!”

Ciel’s body leant forward on the table hearing that number. It was not even double our estimate, it was literally an order of magnitude different. A thousand gold coins were far more than any regular person could ever hope to amass in a lifetime. It was difficult to say if even Luvias could pay such a sum.

Ciel turned to look at me, wondering what we should do. I began scratching my head and took a deep breath.

“That sounds like an excessive amount no matter how I look at it.”
“It’s fine if you don’t want to pay. We don’t like to take risks, so we can all just forget we ever had this conversation.”

Not liking to take risks…coming from literally a criminal. But we had no other choice. We could not find any leads on our own, and we could worry about the money later.

“Alright, we’ll hire you.”
“Wait! Are you serious?”

It was rare to see Ciel this flustered, but I just shrugged.

“We don’t have other options. We’ll just…figure something out for the money.”
“Figure something out…that puts it lightly.”
“So, you’re in then?”

The man stood up and walked straight to the door, turning the knob. Before he left, he glanced at us one last time.

“Considering what this deal is worth, I’ll keep some lookouts around you. If you need me for anything just talk to them, they’ll pass on everything to me. As for who they’ll be…hmm, considering your strength you probably already know.”

With that, he left the room. We were alone in the room, looking at each other with an awkward smile.

“A thousand gold coins was way more than I expected.”
“But we might get somewhere thanks to that. In a way this was progress.”
“You really don’t seem worried at all. But yeah, you’re right, we really had no other leads.”

We decided to let Luvias worry about getting all that money, at least we had somehow succeeded in contacting the Thieves’ guild.