Agnia quietly entered the guild office, and showed the clerk something that looked like identification papers.

"I would like to meet with the guild master of this town, please."

The clerk scrunched up her face. "Understood. Please wait a moment." She ran off into the back of the building.

"Agnia, are you actually... someone really amazing?" I asked.

"Me? I'm just a public servant."

---

The clerk returned and led the three of us up a flight of stairs not visible from the reception counter to a room at the end of a hallway. In the room, there were two sofas, each on opposite sides of a table with what seemed like a map. On the sofa facing the entrance, a stout man with a well-developed beard sat broodingly.

When the clerk turned to leave, I pulled out the game bag with the direwolf meat in it and asked her to look into it. With that, only the three of us and the man on the sofa— probably the local guild master— were left in the room.

"Good afternoon, Guildmaster." Without awaiting his greeting, Agnia sat down on the opposite couch. Natsuki and I stood right next to the door, and did not dare to going any further.

"Why is someone from the IIB in my office?" The guild master, speaking violently, did not return her greeting.

"These two found a glowing cat while on a commission issued by the Guild."

"A glowing cat?" The guild master's eyes opened wide. "That sounds troublesome. But it doesn't answer my question. Why is someone from the IIB in my office?"

Agnia sat unperturbed.

"Due to the unexpected amount of danger, I think it would be appropriate for you to raise the level of the original commission they completed."

"Of course. But are you saying you forced your way in here just to say that? If that's all you have to say, then I'll have no choice but to file a complaint—"

"And in addition to that." Agnia beckoned us over. "Yuki, Natsuki, please mark the location you found the glowing cat on this map on the table."

I walked over to the table, and pressed my finger to an area southwest of the town. "The entrance to the underground passage was here. The glowing cat itself was a bit south."

"In that case..." Agnia stared down the guild master with a calm voice. "I would like you to close public access to everything between the western road and the southern road, as well as the southern road itself, in a three-kilometer radius from the edge of the town."

I could see the veins popping on the guild master's forehead. "Until when...?"

"Until I completely seal off the area with the glowing cat. It will take at least twenty hours. Thank you for your understanding."

The guild master snorted and turned his gaze to the door. "Closing roads is out of the Guild's jurisdiction. If you want to do that, then go talk to the mayor."

The atmosphere in the room suddenly cooled, as if an out-of-season winter wind had blown through it.

Then, Agnia leaned over the table and grabbed the guild master's collar.

—Well, perhaps it's inaccurate to say grabbed. One moment, her hands were by her side. The next moment, she had one hand on his collar. Though I was watching her, I did not see her perform the action of grabbing. It is as if you were looking at someone sitting before a plate of food, and then, in the span of a blink of the eye, the food disappeared from the plate. You would not say that they ate the food. To eat requires that you take the food in your hand and bring it to your mouth and chew it and swallow it. If the food simply disappears, even if it disappears into their stomach, that doesn't constitute eating. In the same way, because I could not see the action of grabbing take place, I am loathe to say grabbed.

"Who the fuck do you think I am?"

The tone of Agnia's voice was slightly less polite than before, and hearing that voice from only a few inches away, the guild master was helplessly flustered.

"Just what is the meaning of—"

"What you just said was obstruction of public duty." Agnia tightened her grasp of his collar, and shouted so loudly that no doubt even the God-Emperor could hear her from here. "It's because you bastards at the Guild treat people's lives so lightly that we have to go around wiping your damn ass every fucking time something happens! You're not content with that, so you feel the need to lie to me on top of that? Huh?! Why the fuck do you need to lie to me?! Do you want people to die?! Is that how you bastards at the Guild make decisions?!"

The guild master did not respond.

"Answer the question, you piece of shit! Or are you telling me that you're not even fucking aware of the damage you do by avoiding your damn responsibilities?!"

Agnia slammed her fist on the table, and it cracked cleanly in two.

Other than the creaking sound of the crumbling table, the room was enshrouded in silence. Agnia stared threateningly at the guild master, and the guild master stared back stoically.

In this situation, the first one to open their mouth loses. Agnia has set up an overwhelming argument, which means that she can only make her position weaker by saying anything further. On the other hand, there is nothing the guild master can say that would make his position any better. The only thing he can do is hope that Agnia doesn't have the guts to follow through on her request.

It took some time, but the guild master finally turned his eyes down and opened his mouth.

"I understand."

"...If you understand, then close the roads. Immediately." Agnia released her grip and stood up. "Do keep in mind that obstruction of public duty is a serious crime."

Agnia walked past us to the door. "Follow me. I'll show you what a real sorcerer's work looks like."