"So, what did you tell them?"
Leaving the still-stunned man aside for the moment, I turned to Zoe.
"I accepted. I figured Master would want to take advantage of it."
"Mm."
As expected of someone who had served me for so long, Zoe understood me perfectly.
In this situation, especially with the entire storefront having vanished into thin air, the most troublesome outcome would be if they went underground and refused to surface.
The fact that they had tried to bribe Zoe—meaning they had surfaced as close to the open as possible—was something I could only be grateful for.
A fine play on Zoe's part.
"What did you tell them regarding our true identities?"
"I replied that we came to investigate under the secret orders of His Majesty the Emperor."
"Huh?"
The man was even more astonished.
"I see. Well done, Zoe. That was a near-flawless response."
"W-What does that even mean...?"
The man was baffled to the point of near speechlessness, and Zoe similarly showed a slight hint of curiosity.
If it were just the man, I would have ignored him, but I decided to explain it for Zoe's sake.
"When deceiving someone, stringing together a bunch of lies is what third-raters do."
The man made a face like I see, while Zoe wore an expression of Yes, that makes sense.
"Second-raters tell the truth, only telling a lie when the critical moment comes."
"W-What about first-raters?"
"They speak nothing but the truth."
"Nothing but the truth...?"
The man carefully turned my words over in his mind, as if rolling them over his tongue.
Meanwhile, Zoe, who caught on slightly faster, spoke up.
"As expected of Master."
"Your response was quite good, too," I said. "As of right now, there's no lie in it. From their perspective, it will only seem natural that things unfolded that way, and they'll accept it."
"What should I do moving forward?"
"Pass along all of my movements without holding anything back. Since they were kind enough to step out into the open, we'll let them swim freely for the time being."
"Understood."
Zoe nodded.
She could handle something of this level with no trouble.
I gave it some thought.
My other objective on this trip—the very reason I brought Zoe along—was to nurture and further train her.
What should I do to achieve that? How can I make better use of this golden opportunity? I turned the gears in my head at full speed.
Zoe did not disturb my train of thought; she remained quietly standing, waiting for my next words.
During that time, I hammered out a plan and asked her a question.
"Can you get in touch with those guys?"
"Yes, they gave me a way to contact them in an emergency."
"Good, then go meet them. Ah, give that three thousand Rien to Kate. Once we return to the capital, I'll reimburse you."
"If it is for Master's sake, three thousand Rien is nothing... but why?"
"Tell them about it and demand even more money. The reason will be just as I said: you used the three thousand Rien to bribe Kate."
"..."
"W-Why would you do such a thing?"
While Zoe pressed her lips into a tight line and sank into thought, the man voiced the question that had popped into his head.
"What do you think, Zoe?"
"...Is it to ingratiate myself with them further?"
"Half right."
I smiled, reaching out to pat Zoe on the head.
If she understood that much, it was enough for now.
"Right. Demanding more at a time like this has the effect of reassuring the other party and earning their trust. However, if you simply demand it out of pure greed, they'll look down on you at the same time."
"To avoid being looked down on, you bribe Kate...?"
Zoe's train of thought seemed to connect properly, but she had not quite reached the conclusion beyond that.
I had no intention of being mean, so I revealed the trick.
"At the same time, you're measuring the other party's caliber. If they're someone of reasonable competence, learning that you first used such a large sum of money to accomplish your mission will make them evaluate you accordingly."
"Evaluate."
"Money is ultimately nothing more than a tool. Only those who can wield that tool effectively can acquire greater wealth."
"...Yes."
Zoe nodded quietly with a serious expression.
"In other words, whether they hand over additional money to you or not will measure their caliber."
"I see... As expected of Master!"
"Honestly, it's the exact same logic as before, you know."
"Huh?"
"You reported to me that you were offered a bribe of three thousand Rien, and I gave you thirty thousand."
"Ah..."
"The essence is identical. Only the fine details and the way the money flows are slightly different."
"I understand now!"
Zoe seemed completely convinced.
Well, since this was the second time she had informed me of a bribery attempt, it was probably easy to grasp.
And with that, Zoe suddenly became fired up.
She felt energized to make contact with the enemy and squeeze even more bribe money out of them.
To be honest, it involved a fair amount of danger.
What I was asking Zoe to do was essentially act as a double agent.
It was completely different from anything up until now, and high risks accompanied her personally.
Even so, I had her do it.
The reason I brought Zoe here was to help her grow further.
I sincerely hoped that by stepping into a bit of danger, she would achieve even greater growth through this incident.
The next day, I took Zoe out of the inn and strolled through the city.
Naturally, I leaked the information to the other party in advance via Zoe and Kate: the time we would set out to investigate, and our route.
We fed those details directly to them.
"Man... business has been totally dead lately."
"We're barely managing to scrape by and eat, ourselves."
"If only the economy would recover..."
Everywhere we went, the townspeople were lamenting the terrible economy.
The clothes the residents wore had become modest, and the goods displayed in the shops had grown sparse.
Overnight, the city had completely transformed.
It felt completely different from the city Huwawa had scouted out last night.
"Heh... They overdid it."
"They overdid it?"
Zoe tilted her head and asked.
"You remember what it was like when we entered this city, right? And now it's suddenly like this. Even if they're trying to hide something, they've overdone it."
Saying so, I shot Zoe a glance so that no third party would notice.
It was an unspoken signal to convey this exchange to the other side as well.
Without nodding or shaking her head, Zoe simply met my gaze and silently signaled her understanding.
The main building of the Gabel Salt Guild.
In its reception room, Zoe stood facing two men.
Both of them were clad in opulent attire.
Even in Zoe's eyes, their clothes were of such high quality that they rivaled the garments worn by the Emperor himself.
Despite holding the title of grand merchants, both were quite young; one appeared to be in his mid-thirties, and the other looked to have just turned thirty.
Zoe relayed Noah's words to the two of them exactly as they were.
"Master said that you 'overdid it.'"
"We overdid it?"
"Yes. I clearly remember the night we arrived in Ducel; even though it was nighttime, the city was prosperous and bustling. For it to suddenly fall into a recession like this... It can't be helped that Master saw through it as an overreaction."
"...Thought so. You overdid it, you idiot."
"An idiot, you say?!"
The younger man snapped back.
So this man was the one who carried it out, Zoe gathered.
"Didn't you hear what she just said? I saw it with my own eyes, too. Anyone who had seen the city in its normal state even once would notice such a sudden, drastic change. What else could it be but overdoing it?"
"Guh..."
"Ease up on it a bit. And... let's see. Let a tiny bit of smuggling through."
"What?!"
"At this point, they won't believe it if there's zero illicit trade. Prepare a sacrificial lamb and pin the crime on them."
"...I see."
Zoe watched as the two men hammered out their strategy.
She secretly marveled at it.
(As expected of Master... Just by conveying a natural reaction, he lowered the enemy's guard.)
Zoe was certain of it.
Noah had deliberately orchestrated this.
After all, Noah had told her to "tell them everything."
And Noah himself had said that a first-rater "speaks nothing but the truth."
Noah never gave voice to things he could not accomplish.
In other words, there were things Noah was "planning to achieve without speaking of them" to Zoe as well.
This was surely one of them, and there were probably many more.
(Master is... incredible...)
Zoe was thoroughly convinced of that fact.