After delivering the potions to the Knights Station, Soma headed to the restaurant he went to previously and spent his time drinking tea and reading his book as always, and when the sun started to set Soma headed to his meeting place with Marina, but she was not there yet.

Soma sat down on the rim of the water fountain and started reading from his book again and after nearly 30 minutes Ren came out of the mercenary guild with Ito behind him and walked towards Soma and called out to him.

“Soma! Once again, I am really sorry about what happened this morning and if there is anything I can do to make it up for you Just say it and I’ll do it without hesitation as long it’s not anything illegal!”(Ren)

“If there is anything I’ll let you know”(Soma)

“Soma! You ought to take full advantage of him to make it up!”(Ito)

“Ito, you are going dark again!”(Soma)

“Ito has been always like this! He would go dark from time to time and it always gets scary!”(Ren)

“Just this mor-…!”(Soma)

“Captain Rendoulf!! What are you doing talking with that murderer without any care in the world?!!”(Souk)

“Here comes the fish running after the bait…”(Ito)

“Haaaah… As I told you before, you have no proof to support your claims, no solid evidence, no eyewitnesses, and it’s not even known whether your guys are dead or not, there are no bodies, no blood, you have nothing at all”(Ren)

“What is the need for such things!! I said he murdered them and that means he did it!! There is no need for any proof or eyewitnesses!! So do your job and put an end to his life!!”(Souk)

“It doesn’t work that way! If you want to accuse someone of something you need evidence, and that’s the law”(Ren)

“What Law?!! Don’t you know who am I!! I am Souk the Adventurers guild’s master in this town!! Don’t you know with whom I have connections!! Do-…!”(Souk)

“Your connections mean absolutely nothing in the eye of the law! Even if you have a connection with the king himself, that would never make you above the law!”(Ren)

“Tsk….. Don’t you see that you are leaving this murderer to walk around the town freely would only endanger people's lives! And what’s more, without those adventurers he killed the town is doomed once the flood begins! I’m sure he is plotting to have the town destroyed by the flood monsters!!”(Souk)

“Ahh, so you were talking about your weak-ass adventurers who escaped from the town once they saw what happened to their fellow adventurers who attacked Soma some days ago in front of everyone in town! I see, and now you are here to accuse Soma of murdering them as an excuse to cover their cowardness”(Ito)

“Shut up!! As if my ‘Blessed’ adventurers would lose to some random guy like this mercenary!!”(Souk)

“And here you are saying that he killed 11 of those ‘Blessed’ guys alone, there is something strange indeed…”(Ito)

“… No ..that’s….”(Souk)

“What’s going on here?”(Dolan)

“Oh! Dolan-dono, it’s just that the guild master of the adventures guild is falsely accusing Soma of killing 11 adventurers from the ‘Blessed’ alone while at the same time claiming that his adventurers are the strongest there is, it’s as if he only wants to get rid of him for some unknown agenda”(Ito)

“What?! That’s something I can’t ignore! You want to get rid of him just for some personal gain!”(Dolan)

“What does that have to do with you?! And what is your connection to him anyway? You are nothing but an outsider, so stay out of it!”(Souk)

“Oh! I almost forgot! Soma here! These are the keys to your new house, map, and ownership certificate of the house, and this is your membership card and this your brand paper, draw your brand mark on it and give it back to me to establish your brand, and finally, welcome to the craftsmen guild! Head of Alchemy department, Soma!”(Dolan)

“… What?!...”(Souk)

“And as the leader of the Craftsmen guild, the government managed institute, I would like to call for a full-scale investigation on the claims presented about our Alchemy department head and if there is actually someone who finds Soma’s existence in the way of their hidden agenda”(Dolan)

“There is certainly something going on here, and so humoring both sides’ wishes, I will launch a full-scale investigation on the man named Soma and both the adventurers guild and the craftsmen guild and all of their so-called connections in the case of the adventurers guild and the mercenary guild in the case of craftsmen guild given their connection through Soma, we would check for all the recent events that involved Soma and all three guilds, is that fine with all of you?”(Ren)

“Of course!”(Dolan)

“I’m fine with that”(Ito)

“I see no problem with that”(Soma)

“… M-Me too, I’m fine with that”(Souk)

“Okay then, I’ll hold the investigation for the next three days and after the three days, I’ll hold a public questioning were I’ll check if the information I gained during my investigation are correct and after that, I’ll pass down my judgment on this matter, and since the claims, the adventurers guild master forwarded have murder in them then my judgment would be execution for Soma if he is proven guilty or also execution for Souk for framing Soma to satisfy a hidden agenda, and as for the supporters of both sides they would be punished once their side is found guilty and the punishment will be in line with their crimes”(Ren)

“Well then, I am tired, so I’ll head home for today!”(Dolan)

“Me too, I still have some work to finish”(Ito)

“…Hrmph”(Souk)

Dolan, Ito, and Souk left leaving Soma and Ren alone, Ren heaved a long sigh and looked at Soma with tired eyes.

“This country is going from bad to worse very rapidly to the point of me not being able to catch up with everything that is happening. By the way Ito told me about everything that happened to you since your arrival in this town, I know about the adventurers guild attacking you some days ago, and I know that the mentioned 11 adventurers attacked you outside the town and that you killed all of them in self-defense and some other things, I tried to stop Souk from going down this road but it was in vain, and now I’ll have to investigate all of his backers and it’s going to be a huge pain as all of them are nobles who are extremely good at hiding their involvement in any crimes”(Ren)

“Why don’t you use the Silver Scale?”(Soma)

The Silver Scale is a magic item that is used in the countries of Valc and Millis, this item is capable of exposing lies but it has the down effect of needing a huge amount of mana to work, that’s why light attribute mana crystals are used to fuel it.

“I don’t have nearly enough money to buy the light crystals to fuel it, I wish I had the money and I would have used the Silver Scale without any hesitation”(Ren)

“If it’s light crystals then I have a lot of them, want me to provide you with them?”(Soma)

“What?...”(Ren)

Soma placed his hand inside his pocket and used {Inventory} to take out a mana crystal and then poured some Light attribute mana into it causing it to turn into Light crystal, and then presented it to Ren.

“Here”(Soma)

“Wait?!! What?! You have them? How? Only Royal families are allowed to buy light crystals from Vitos! And there is no other country that is able to process mana crystals other than Vitos! How did you obtain them?!”(Ren)

“I am the head of Alchemy department of the craftsmen guild, which means that I am able to use Alchemy, and using Alchemy I can make potions, you even bought 500 of them this morning, and I can use Alchemy to process mana crystals as well, here see…”(Soma)

Soma took another mana crystal from his pocket and poured light attribute mana into it turning it into a light crystal in front of Ren.

“…Are you telling me that processing mana crystal is done through Alchemy?”(Ren)

“Not exactly, but something close to it”(Soma)

“Are you sure you want to sell those crystals to me? If you do that the church will come after you”(Ren)

“I am already selling healing potions which makes me a target for the church, and I was originally going to sell processed mana crystals through the craftsmen guild after the flood anyways”(Soma)

“You are right, but what is your price for one crystal, I hate to say it but I don’t have that much money on me…”(Ren)

“1 silver for 1 light crystal, the same price for the intermediate healing potion”(Soma)

“What?! Isn’t that way too cheap?”(Ren)

“You saw me process one just now in front of you, it’s very easy for me to process mana crystals and that’s why the price is that cheap”(Soma)

“I see, I’ll buy them from you, and in the future, I’m going to convince the king to buy them from you instead of Vitos!”(Ren)

“Ren, could you stay with me here for some time?”(Soma)

“Did you need anything from me?”(Ren)

“The truth is, I was going to meet with a friend of mine here, but she did not come and I think that she is in trouble”(Soma)

“What’s makes you think that she is in trouble? She might be just late or busy”(Ren)

“You see, I am able to use a special magic called {search} that enables me to find things or people I know of over a wide area, and when I used it to find her it showed her location in the slaves market”(Soma)

“She might have gone there as a customer”(Ren)

“She doesn’t have that kind of money and from what I could tell she is in one corner of the slave market and didn’t move from there for some time now”(Soma)

“I see, that’s worrying for sure, so what do you want me to do?”(Ren)

“I want you to just be there with me, and then you can call us even”(Soma)

“Even?”(Ren)

“What happened this morning”(Soma)

“Ah, I see… if that’s the case then I’ll come with you”(Ren)

“Then let's go!”(Soma)

Soma and Ren started walking towards the slaves market and on the way, Soma took out his book and…

【Book Of Knowledge: Book Creation (Story Of Marian)】

The content of the book in Soma’s hand changed into Marian’s life story, and Soma started reading through it at a great speed and once he reached the end he closed the book.

(So that’s how it is…)(Soma)

Once they reached the slaves market they both entered the building and an obese man came to talk to them while rubbing his hand.

“Welcome to my humble market, I am the slave trader Hols, this the first time you come to visit us right Rendoulf-sama?”(Hols)

“Yeah, but I’m here today to accompany my friend here, and he is interested in one of your slaves”(Ren)

“Well, isn’t that great news for me, well then, dear customer who is the lucky Slave you are here to buy?”(Hols)

“Dogmen girl named Marian, and she was brought here today"(Soma)

“Wha?! …Ehem, I am afraid there is no one with that description in here”(Hols)

“Your reaction there was strange, are you hiding anything by any chance?”(Ren)

“N-N-No there i-is nothing to h-h-hide from you Rendoulf-sama!”(Hols)

“You are getting nervous, are you sure you are alright?”(Ren)

“I’m f-fine, no need to worry about me”(Hols)

“Then could you let us look through all your slaves? The girl we are looking for might be amongst your slaves”(Soma)

“T-T-That’s…..”(Hols)

“Are you sure everything is alright? Your reaction seems suspicious to me, I might call for a full-scale investigation on this slaves market and that would require you to stop operating for the whole next week, is that alright with you?”(Ren)

“A-Anything but that…….Ahh! I now remember a girl being brought here today, one of my employees handled her enslavement, that’s why I know nothing about her, follow me I’ll take you to her!”(Hols)

The man named Hols went back on his previous words and guided them towards the cell Marian is held in, she was asleep on the bed in the cell while wearing a one-piece dress that resembles a potato bag that has two holes for the head and hands cut in it.

“Yes, this is her, how much is her price?”(Soma)

“… It’s 1 gold coin”(Hols)

“Isn’t that way too cheap? Are you sure that’s the right price?”(Ren)

“…Yeah, the one who sold her to us placed the condition that we sell her at that price in the contract, that’s why her price is 1 gold only”(Hols)

“Okay then let’s sign the contract”(Soma)

“… Right…”(Hols)

Hols went and brought the contract and Soma signed it immediately, and she was handed to him, Soma tried to wake her up, but she didn’t, and when they asked Hols for the reason he panicked and told them she was sold to him that way.

“Now then, before I go I want you to hand over her belongings to me”(Soma)

“…I don’t k-know what are you t-t-talking about..”(Hols)

“Do you want us to hold this conversation from the start one more time?”(Ren)

“..N-No… I’ll bring them right away”(Hols)

Soma carrying Marian prince's style while placing her belongings on her lap and Ren went out of the slave market and started walking towards Soma’s new house leaving Hols alone looking towards them with a very troubled face.

“That was extremely suspicious, I think I need to launch an investigation on this as well….. Haah, why does corruption keeps increasing in this country?”(Ren)

“For now, just leave them alone, and they will become either paranoid and will act by themselves and then all you have to do is lead them to self-destruction, or they will become more prideful and will push their luck and involve themselves in a bigger crime and then all you’ll have to do is to expose them and annihilate them once and for all, if you do this your job will become easier”(Soma)

“that seems to be a better plan than just going at them right now when I have little evidence…”(Ren)

“And if you need any help just come to me”(Soma)

“I’ll do just that, thank you”(Ren)

“Oh! My new house should be just around this corner…..! Oi Oi Oi! Isn’t this a bit much?!”(Soma)

“Ohhh! What a splendid mansion! So this is Soma’s new house!”(Ren)

“…Well then, I’ll go in and wait for her to wake up and then I’ll explain the situation to her, come visit me tomorrow afternoon and I’ll give you all the light crystals you need”(Soma)

“Yeah, well then, good night!”(Ren)

“Good night!”(Soma)