Things have been going pretty well all things considered. With the fifteen million valis we earned from my supporters I was able to purchase a rather decent home with four million vals left over. Two stories, six bedrooms with a decent sized kitchen and common room. Hestia seemed to calm down a bit after I purchased the home and then actually followed through on my promise to avoid danger for some time.
It was a nice week. I got a house, studied magic and even went on another date with Lili. It was a slow process, but she was starting to come out of her shell. She would start talking to Bell, Medior and Hestia more often. I had learned a few nifty spells, Ice Storm, Secret Chest, Fly, and Fireball. I would have had more, but I had to spend the majority of the week dealing with an influx of familias wanting supporters.
Yeah, word got out about my business a lot faster than I thought it would. Once the Loki familia went on their expedition, everyone in Orario wanted to try them. I suppose it shouldn't have been a surprise, the other adventurers were probably already curious what I was doing with so many monsters. Medior and I had to establish a going rate for my undead that wouldn't be too unfair to smaller familias but would still give us a decent profit. It also needed to be in line with what we charged Finn. Simply wouldn't do for us to have scammed a familia we're so close to. We ended up deciding that we would end up renting supporters on a monthly basis and by batch. A single supporter wouldn't cost a familia much however the more supporters they wanted the higher the price would be. Something that could be useful both to familias doing simple dungeon runs and those going on expeditions. One familia however didn't seem to understand the purpose of my business.
"I don't care how much you're offering me, I am not going to create undead harpies." I told the white haired amazoness with a frown. This woman was really testing my patience.
"Why not?" The girl snapped grumpily. See, this amazoness was from the Ishtar familia and as I've come to learn, that particular goddess ran the red light district. I was NOT going to facilitate necrophilia with monsters.
"Listen, I don't care what business your goddess runs, but I don't want my business associated with that." I groaned. I know that telling an amazoness proustite that I wanted nothing to do with her or her familia probably wasn't the best for my health, but the idea of sleeping with monsters was gross enough on its own. Zombie monsters though? Yeah, I wasn't going to touch that with an eighty foot pole.
"I don't know what you're talking about, we need these monsters for an expedition." She lied. You know. If she wasn't trying to get me to make zombie prostitutes, I would have respected the boldness to make that lie. Medior even found it amusing given her snirk.
"Please leave." I said calmly. The amazoness snarled, but did leave without further incident. Thankfully that was the only incident with my business so far. Well there was also Demeter who wanted to use my undead to help with her familia's farm work, but they couldn't afford it due to them not being an exploration familia. That was an easy fix with a price adjustment however.
"Moh Matthew-kun, you can't just antagonize big familia like Ishtar's" Hestia moaned. I would have taken her more seriously if she wasn't strewn across the couch with a content look on her face.
"So you want me to make monster prostitutes?" I asked amused. As I have come to learn, Hestia was one of the virgin goddess'. I couldn't really imagine it would be good for her reputation to green-light that kind of thing. She seemed to agree as she shot up from her lazy pose instantly.
"Wait w-what?!" She stuttered.
"She wanted me to make undead harpies. I'm sure you know why." I laughed. Hestia laid back down moaning.
"What happens now? We can't fight them." Hestia groaned.
"We don't have to. What are they going to do? Declare a war game on us. You said yourself the other familias in Orario won't stand for that. And even if they did..." I had to stop midway through my sentence causing Hestia to look at me with concern. Racking my brain for a response I just had to give her something. "I'll figure something out."
To be realistic I don't think I could take the Ishtar familia. I mean I wasn't super familiar with her familia, but I did know they had a level five and multiple level three members. Yeah if they come after us, it would be a total roll. I mean I could use Crown of Madness on their captain, but what happens after their captain team wipes all of her own familia? We can't fight a level five.
"Knock knock." An unknown voice accompanied by a knock at the door was heard. Getting up to answer it I was greeted by an unfamiliar face.
'Master that's Chandra'
"Mathers, I had trouble finding you." Chandra said gruffly.
Pretending not to know who he was I answered with a smile, "Sorry, we moved recently. Are you here for business?"
"Chandra, from the Soma familia. I'm here about your debt... And I need to talk to you about somethin. Mind if I come inside?" He said solemnly. If the tone in his voice was any indicator he was about to deliver bad news.
'Pride, tell Hestia to grab that bottle of Soma' I commanded mentally as I walked Chandra to the common room where Medior was sitting and Hestia had just left from. "So before we talk business could I interest you in a drink."
'You said Chandra hated Zanis right?'
'Correct'
Hestia made it back to the common room with the bottle of Soma wine and two cups. Chandra immediately recognized the bottle and eyed the cups hungrily as the drink was poured. So fixated on the drink that he didn't seem to notice me casting Protection from Good and Evil. I was going to raise my cup for a toast, but Chandra took his drink as soon as Hestia finished pouring and started drinking.
"So Mathers. I didn't exactly come with good news." Chandra started not that it was a surprise, "Zanis caught wind of this little operation you're running. He's increasing your debt."
"That's pretty bold seeing as my captain is level two now." I told him. Chandra sighed deeply.
"I know, but what am I going to do bout it?" He said drinking the rest of his wine as I signaled for Hestia to pour him another.
"I'm sure you could do more than shrug and follow Zanis' orders." I taunted.
"And what am I supposed to do huh? Zanis controls everything." He snapped angrily.
"Everything? And how's everything going for your familia." I asked.
Chandra looked confused by my question but continued regardless. "I wouldn't know. Each member of the Soma familia operates independently, only owing our due at the end of each month. Zanis controls the familia funds."
Ah so Zanis controlled the Soma familia funds huh? "And you have no idea what the treasury looks like? What about the Soma you sell?"
Chandra seemed to bee deep in thought for a few moments whilst muttering a few numbers. "Yeah I have a log of the Soma we sell, but I got no clue what the treasury looks like."
As Chandra continued to drink from his cup I mulled over what he said. Zanis controlled all of the Soma's familia funds huh? I wonder if he pays his taxes. Yeah I doubt it, and if I could get the guild on his ass then that would help solve the Soma familia problem. "What is he trying to charge me this month then?"
Chandra visibly cringed evidently not wanting to be the bearer of bad news. "A million."
A million huh? Zanis you greedy fucker. "I'll need to speak with my goddess about this for a moment. Would you mind staying here for a moment?"
Leaving with Medior and Hestia we entered I began, "So I'm thinking our best way to deal with this is to get Zanis in trouble with the guild for tax fraud. I highly doubt his accounting is accurate. That or we can act more passively. Problem with that is he's more likely to keep pushing us for more money."
"We could also give him more than originally agreed, but less than the million. Sort of a middle ground." Medior piped up.
"And what about the tax fraud uh? Even if Soma is lying about his funds how could we prove it?" Hestia asked.
'I'm right here Hestia' Pride cawed at her. He might have been a little excited at the prospect of corporate espionage.
"Oh yeah, sorry. But wouldn't you be a little bit conspicuous in a building?" She responded.
"I can turn him into a rat."
Medior and Hestia looked to pride before snickering much to Pride's horror.
'No please, I'll do anything!'
"It would only be for tonight Pride, I would just need you to confirm my suspicions." I tried to calm my familiar down.
"Do you think you can really get away with that?" Hestia asked. I mean as long as my presumption was right then it shouldn't be too difficult. Yeah there was that one time Zanis knew where I was despite Invisibility, but he was already expecting me and this time I could just wait until he was distracted with something else.
"Shouldn't be a problem."
"And how should we deal with Chandra?" Medior asked, "Zanis will probably be suspicious if we give him the full amount without resistance."
"And antagonistic if we don't fork over enough. Does seven hundred sound like a good compromise?" I asked looking to Medior, whos face was completely deadpan. "Thousand. Seven hundred thousand."
"Oh! Yes that sounds acceptable."
With the vals soon gathered I sent Chandra on his way while Pride begrudgingly followed in the form of a rat. While Pride was tailing the drunk I made my way to the guild. I was sure they had kept financial records and tax statements there. What I was about to do might be slightly illegal, but I'm sure the guild would be willing to overlook it. If they had even caught me in the first place.
Casting Invisibility on myself as I walked into the guild I found my way into the employees only section rather easily. What wasn't so easy was finding what I was looking for. It wasn't like I could just ask for them so I had to search around a seemingly endless sea of of filing cabinets. At first I thought to look for general files they had on the Soma familia, but even after I did find them there was no useful information to be gleamed. All it had was the stats, skills and magic of the members. Only one of them had a skill and it was just a resistance to poison. After half an hour of searching around with no results I was going to contact Pride to see if he had found anything useful. That was before I noticed the presence of necrotic energy behind me.
Turning around I witnessed a rather gaunt figure covered entirely in a black cloak and it's face covered by an ornate silver mask. I was ready to cast fireball at a moments noticed, but instead I just waited. Moments passed as I remained as quite as possible and the undead stared at me with it's faceless mask.
"You've been caught you know. It would only be proper for you to reveal yourself now." The cloaked undead spoke out in a harsh raspy voice. An intelligent undead!? That has the potential to be really really bad. Hopefully conflict could be avoided for now until I figure out how in the fuck an intelligent undead came to be.
"It's rude to stare." I quipped not quite sure what else I could even say in this situation.
"Mathew M. Mathers. Hestia familia vice-captain, accomplished spellcaster, armature businessman, aiding in the Loki familia's investigation... Necromancer." The undead began causing my heart to stop. This thing knew way too much about me. "Do you need help finding whatever it is you're looking for?"
"What?"
"Perhaps an introduction is in order. I am Fels, sole member of the Ouranos familia." The undead greeted cordially.
"And why would a child of Ouranos want to help me snoop around the guild for?" I asked cautiously. I didn't want to give away that I knew this creature was undead quite yet.
"I have a favor to ask of you. In return I will aid you in your secret war with the Soma familia." Fels replied ominously.
"A favor is quite the vague way of putting it. Besides, I'm only really concerned with one of the members of Soma." I told the thing. It remained quite for some time as if choosing it's next words carefully.
"And you think the answer to your problem can be found in the guild?" Fels asked rather than telling me what kind of favor it wanted.
'Pride, quick have you found anything?' I asked through our mental connection. I wanted at least some proof before I started throwing around accusations.
'I'm in the Soma familia's vault right now. Master there is a ton of gold in here.'
'And the logs Zanis mentioned, what of them?'
'I couldn't find those, not even in the wine cellar.'
'Did you see anything else in the wine cellar?'
'No. It was just filled with wine'
That's at least something to go off of. 'Thank you. Keep looking'
"I have reason to believe Zanis is withholding his dues to the guild."
"Is that so? If you could provide proof of this claim then the guild could have Zanis arrested." Fels said before pointing it's hand in the direction of a column of filing cabinet. "And I presume that your reason for being here is our tax records then?"
"Thank you, but what was that favor you were asking about? I'm not sure I'm comfortable agreeing to something I know nothing about." I told it. The undead waited there without speaking for an uncomfortable amount of time it postured.
"Mathers, what would you say if intelligent monsters existed?"
"Intelligent monsters like you?" I said finally deciding to drop the bomb. Whatever Fels 'favor' included had to be connected to intelligent monsters. Monsters which I knew would be much older and more powerful than any other monsters from the dungeon. If I wanted to know the monster's true intention then I needed to throw it off guard.
"I.. hmm. Will you do anything about it?" The undead asked.
Would I do anything about it? An intelligent undead is dangerous yes, but not any more dangerous than Ottar or any of the Loki executives. There was also the fact that this undead was a follower of Ouranos, meaning that the god in charge of the guild really was evil all along or that Fels could be trusted... to a degree. "Are you going to give me a reason to?"
"I have no intention to. And as to my prior question?" Fels asked. That wasn't so easy. Ideally if there were intelligent monsters out there then it would be best to bring them to the surface where they could be monitored and couldn't grow as strong, as quickly. The problem is that there was no way to bring them to the surface. Every familia in Orario would be out to kill them immediately. That's not even mentioning the civilian reaction.
"That's a difficult question Fels. They would be powerful and unknown. In a perfect world these monsters would be monitored by the guild like powerful adventurers are, but that's not possible. Or at least not probable." I explained cautiously.
"And if there was a way?" It asked.
"I would still like to check with my goddess first."
"Very well, good luck with your search. I will return." The undead spoke once more before vanishing. Well that was weird. Can I even complain about weirdness anymore with all of the stupid things that have happened? As I was pondering the nature of weirdness I rummaged thought the filing cabinets Fels had pointed to earlier and sure enough the Soma familia tax statements were here. I would need to compare it to Zanis' treasury and sales, but this was looking good.
'Hey Pride where is Zanis right now?'
'He's asleep'
'Really? It's a bit early to be asleep'
'Master It's night-time'
Oh shit have I been gone that long? Quickly checking outside of the room I was in a single guild employee could be seen dosing off at the receptionist desk and not a single adventurer was in sight. Rather than use Invisibility I just walked out casually. The guild worker didn't even notice me as I left. A quick jaunt to the Soma familia's residence found me sneaking in without any resistance. With Zanis asleep, Chandra definitely drunk, and the rest likely following suit I probably didn't even need to cast Invisibility to sneak in.
With Pride mentally guiding me through the facility I soon found what I was looking for. Bingo. According to sales they've only managed to sell ten bottles of pure Soma and a hundred and three of the impure bottles this month. That should have netted them roughly fourteen million vals. With the guild tax of fifteen percent they would owe the guild... more than the five hundred thousand it says they payed. On top of that little inconsistency Zanis' treasury count said there was an income of twenty million this month which was way more than what they should have made. A quick trip to the wine cellar confirmed that there was actually less wine present then there should have been.
Based on how my luck has been ever since arriving in this world I immediately suspected something was about to go horribly wrong. I was jumpy the entire way back to the guild, but the only problem I ran into was almost getting caught by a random drunk taking a piss. Awaiting me at the guild was the creepy undead guy.
"I must admit, that was much faster than I expected." Fels said.
"I'll talk to Hestia."
"Zanis will be taken care of."
Fels started flipping through the logs as I turned to leave. To be entirely honest, I hadn't expected that to go so well. In fact it went too well.
'Pride, keep an eye on that undead.'
'But I'm still a rat'
'I'm sorry Pride, you know as well as I that we can't just trust this guy yet'
'But wouldn't it be nice if we could'
'Please just keep an eye on him Pride'
'You owe me for this'
'Whatever you want'
'I want to be a human'
'Really? Why?'
'Are you kidding? Loki would totally be into me if I was a human.'
The bystanders on the street must have looked at me like a madman in that moment because I burst into laughter. "Pride are you serious hahaha?"
'Absolutely'
'I'll see what I can do, but I'd probably have to make a whole new spell for that'
'Well, Loki is immortal so it's not like there's a time limit'
'Fair enough, but I'm not acting as wingman. You have to woo her on your own'
'Pfft that's the easy part'
'Whatever you say Pride'
Pft, at least it didn't take a month this time lol. Yeah, to be entirely honest I feel like the more I write the worse it gets and it's getting difficult to remain focused as I'm writing which I feel is affecting the quality. I am trying to make this a good story and I WILL see it through to completion so don't worry on that front. Despite that I really appreciate everyone who's taken the time to read this story thank you all. Also my traffic graph just seems to be broken so it's hard to tell how my story is doing now lol :p