A Trick

「All right. I’m counting on you.」

「…Right.」she nodded, her expression resolute.

「I want you to tell them you killed the Raid Boss, the Heaven-Rending Lightning Dragon. 」

「…What?」

She looked every bit confused. She probably wasn’t expecting this at all.

「Wait, what do you mean?」

「I mean exactly what I said. I want you to take the credit in the killing of the Raid Boss. I’ll teach you what to say, of course.」

「Do you gain anything from this?」

「Of course.」I said, showing the horn.

「If you say you gave this to me, I can sell it. If I brought it to the guild for no reason at all, I might get handed to the authorities.」

「But can’t you just tell them you killed the monster yourself?」

「I don’t think they’ll believe me. But they might believe you.」

Mylia is a rank B adventurer trusted by the people of this world. If she said “I killed an S-rank monster” and showed the horn, they probably won’t question her. It seems no one’s killed an S-rank monster before, but she’s still popular enough that people will believe her.

「Perhaps… But if you just want to sell the part, I can do it for you. I’m sure it’ll work out somehow.」

「Maybe. But my real motive lies somewhere else.」

「…Real motive?」she asked, puzzled.

「Yeah. You said you wanted to accomplish a lot of feats as an adventurer so you could become a noble, right?」

「That’s right. That’s why I became an adventurer.」

「There’s your answer. I want you to become a noble. It would be a lot easier to move around if I have a noble as a friend, don’t you agree?」

I have no interest in becoming a noble. But it would be useful to have a noble as a backer. Collecting information, for example, would be a lot easier for one of nobility than a D-ranked civilian.

「I understand your motive. It’s a sweet deal for me as well. But I don’t feel right about submitting a false report to the guild.」

「You said you’d do anything, right?」

「…All right. I’ll report to the guild and take credit for this. But this still isn’t enough for me to become a noble.」

Figures. According to the regulations, only A-ranked adventurers who have accomplished a great deed can become a noble.

Mylia is only rank B, so she has to get promoted to rank A first. This achievement should be enough to earn her that promotion.

Actually, her current abilities should put her above rank A. Even before she configured her Skillset I evaluated her to be A-ranked. If ten Mylias from back then challenged the Mylia now, they can’t win. She should be more than qualified for the promotion to rank A.

「You can help me out once you’ve become a noble. Present this horn as proof of your kill and return it to me.」I said, handing her the horn of the Heaven-Rending Lightning Dragon.

「Thanks. I’ll do my best to become a noble fast.」

「Aight. I’m counting on you.」

We started walking towards town.

◇

A few hours later.
We arrived at the town of Desire where its residents have evacuated.

「Do you remember what you’re gonna say to the guild?」

「Yup. Down to the last word.」

I told Mylia of a legit-sounding method that was used to kill the Heaven-Rending Lightning Dragon. That way, she could explain how she took it down and convince the guild. The real method I took is so at odds with the battle style the guild knows, they might not be able to wrap their heads around it. So I told her something that’s easy to understand. In truth, what I taught her can’t kill the dragon, but I’m sure they’ll never know.

「Well then. Let’s split up for now.」

「See you at the guild.」

We parted ways and I headed to a different entrance. The story is that she defeated the Dragon alone. If we came back together, people might suspect something.