The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 243: Closed Contract

”Hey, guild master, can you get a room so I can meet the group I’m hiring?” I say to the man who thinks he’s well hidden with magic, he doesn’t respond, but points to a room and leaves.

”Looks like he’s mad at you, Grand Duchess” Carlk says with a smile, it seems he also saw the guild master.

”...” I don’t find anything funny about it, so I just ignore it and stare at Carlk, who doesn’t go get his team right away.

”I see you don’t like jokes...I’ll go call my team, I’ll meet you in the room to properly discuss the terms,” He says as he leaves, I use magic to clean the blood off my body.

It would be bad to try to negotiate while covered in blood, so it’s better to clean the blood and just try to negotiate.

”H-Here’s the f-form,” A receptionist hands me a clipboard to write the request on.

”Don’t be afraid, I only kill those who go beyond the limit,” I tell her as I start signing everything quickly and hand it back with the request and reward description.

Honestly, I don’t care about the guild, I’m just coming here to get someone to blame, and that I can quickly kill as a ”culprit” for a failure that shouldn’t have happened.

So the usefulness of the guild is very low for me, but even so, it’s a place with some pretty tough people by human standards, ignoring the various looks, I simply go to the room for the discussion as if nothing had happened.

I wait only 2 minutes and soon 3 people enter who are the ones I’m hiring at the moment.

”Hello. Grand Duchess, my name is Trix, I’m the mage of the team,” A short blue-haired girl with blue eyes says while wearing a black and red outfit that seems to have great mana absorption.

”I’m Rob, a swordsman like Carlk,” A tall, strong man with black hair and brown eyes responds, he’s wearing heavy armor and a large broadsword.

While Carlk is smaller and wearing light armor and a smaller sword, apparently focused on quick attacks, so I can already imagine roughly how this team fights together.

”The receptionist gave me the form, from what I see it’s an uncertain job, you didn’t specify the dungeon we’re going to,” Carlk says as he puts the clipboard he must sign on the table.

”We’re going to a Rank B dungeon that is currently under the academy’s control, it has hardly been explored, receiving only an evaluation made by the academy director herself,” I tell them the location we’re going to.

”...” Carlk and Trix seem uncertain about something.

”You can keep everything you find, whether treasure or rare monsters, as long as you’re the first to find it and it’s not something above value like a city,” I say as an incentive, which takes away their hesitation, probably the payment for this didn’t make up for it if they couldn’t take things from the dungeon.

”May I know why the academy is sending students to this dungeon?” Rob asks as he sits down in the chair.

”Intense training, after all the ’heroes’ need to be strong to...defend humanity with tooth and nail, or die trying,” They will die, I won’t let them get out alive.

And after killing them, I’ll lock them in my universe to be tortured in a very painful way.

”You know, Grand Duchess, we’re in this just for the money, will there be a bonus for discovery, or support you’ll give to your student group?” Carlk asks as he sits at the table with Trix.

”Well, since you asked, I’ll pay you an extra 30% for your ’help’ and the big discoveries you make will be delivered to the academy and you can receive between 5 to 10% of the profits.”

”What generous offers, Grand Duchess, is there any reason so much money is being moved in this transaction? Normally nobles don’t negotiate giving so many benefits,” Rob briefly questions the profits.

”...”

”I hope you understand, but when the alms are too much, the poor are suspicious, haha,” Carlk laughs.

”No, the reason for having so much money is just because the heroes are involved and they are the pillar for the demon king’s death,” What a joke, as if I would be killed by mere heroes.

I know a lot about them, I know them perfectly well to know how they will act in a fight against a being like me.

All that separates them from death is the lack of knowledge about the unique abilities of most and the fact that they have not yet reached their full power for me to crush them.

”I see, it makes sense, but why don’t you add the condition of personally helping? Why should we only help in case of necessity, and what is a case of necessity specifically?” Carlk, who apparently is the leader as he is the one negotiating with me, asks an interesting point.

”First, because they must be prepared, they must have already heard, but the world of heroes is ’peaceful’ where unlike ours, the safety of children is greater and there are no monsters or magic.”

”But here it doesn’t work that way, and these heroes need to understand that horrible things can happen if they don’t take it seriously,” In fact, I’m just going to hurt them on purpose.

I’m going to love throwing them from high places, putting them against monsters that will hurt them, among other things, in the end we have a saint with us, they won’t die after all, the title of saint of the saint is not in vain.

”And you should only help them in case of life or death, where they are really going to die, but since I’ll be there with the saint taking care of it most of the time, you can explore.”

”...But doesn’t that take away the purpose of going to defend them?” Rob asks, which is completely true, according to the written mission, they should focus more on defending the students.

However, now I’m telling them to do the opposite, to let them get hurt while they go explore the dungeon, leaving their protégés defenseless, and with that I can blame them for mistakes.

”No, the point is that the dungeon is quite unknown, so while you explore everything, it will be safer, you will know what is dangerous among other things,” It’s just a good excuse I’m giving at the moment.

”Hmm...you’re right, if that’s all, I think we can make it official,” Carlk says as he grabs the clipboard and tries to sign, but Trix holds his hand.

”Grand Duchess...”

”Any problem, Trix?” I question using the name she introduced herself with.

”If the mission is to explore the dungeon to ensure safety...why didn’t you put that on the guild form?”

”...”

’Smart, they seem to be a really good group.’ I thought tricking them would be easy, since I saw the leader fighting with a receptionist, but it seems the brain of the team is good.

”The answer is simple, the academy holds the monopoly on the dungeon we’ll be going to, only the director has explored this dungeon, and as such the Rank B classification is not official.”

”The guild has strict rules about teams and dungeons that each team can enter, a dungeon without an official classification would be restricted.”

”But since it belongs to the academy, what will be done with it is not under the control of the guild or the kingdom, but you adventurers are still bound by these rules.”

”If the mission was to explore a dungeon that is supposedly Rank B, even a Class S group like you could be barred, since exploration requires larger groups than 3.”

”After all, exploring a dungeon is different from conquering a dungeon.”

”So tell me, are you strong enough to explore a mere Rank B dungeon, or is the Class S ranking false?” I taunt slightly, Trix thinks for a moment.

”What you’re doing isn’t illegal, is it?” Rob enters the conversation now that Trix has raised the point and I’ve cited laws proposed by the guild and the kingdom.

”Actually, no, because the dungeon is under the private possession of the strongest mage in humanity, and as such the rules governing it are different.”

”As long as you enter there as a defense group, you can explore without complications with the guild, and besides, as I said, there’s a bonus for discovering various things to compensate for the different mission,” I conclude using the bonus as an excuse.

”...Trix, does it seem good to you?” Carlk asks, now wary of signing, it seems he’s not very smart and leaves the important decisions to Trix, who as a mage should be smart in decision-making.

”Well...I think there’s no mistake in what she said, and the guild is really strict with the rules...” Trix speaks, but still seems to be trying to find flaws in the contract, after all it has suspicious loopholes, but I always give a good reason for the loophole.

”Are you going to sign? I have a limited time, I need to return to the academy soon,” I say with a lack of interest, urging them to sign quickly.

”...Okay...” Carlk signs the paper, formalizing our business contract, I get up from the chair I’m in and extend my hand to him.

”It was good negotiating with you, I have to go now, you have 2 hours to get everything ready and show up in front of the academy...or you’ll be fined for being late,” I say with a smile as I go to the door.

All of this happened pretty much as I planned, Trix bothered me a bit, but in general I was able to keep everything under control, now I just need to go back to the academy and prepare the students’ material.