"This is pretty bad, you know. Yurnero-san, the dignified second-in-command of the top guild, instead of devoting himself fully to the guild, is out here using public funds to feast with a beautiful young girl. If this gets out, it'll cause quite the uproar, wouldn't it?"
With her usual teasing, punchable tone, and the occasional smug hum, Argo openly began sweeping through the lavish spread of food on the table.
"Are you calling yourself the 'beautiful young girl'?" Satoru glanced at her oddly.
"Of course. Is there any reason to doubt it?"
"I thought you didn't care about that kind of thing. Otherwise, you wouldn't be walking around with those whisker marks like you're trying to pass for some kind of furry," Satoru said. "And you're still eating just as enthusiastically as ever."
"Food paid for by someone else always tastes mysteriously better. And when it's someone skimming public funds, it's even more irresistibly… corrupt," Argo replied without hesitation.
Satoru shook his head helplessly.
"Good thing it's public funds. Otherwise, I'd be eaten into bankruptcy."
"Pff. Wait, it really is public funds?!" Argo, who had been stuffing her face, suddenly choked. She slapped the table in a panic, forcing the cake down her throat, and stared at him in disbelief.
"Didn't you already know?"
"Know my ass! That was obviously a joke! Who would've thought you'd actually dip into the strategy fund everyone scraped together to splurge like this?!"
"That's a strange way to put it. I'm an officer now. They handed the money to me willingly. Why make it sound so immoral?"
"Th-then how are you going to cover the missing amount?!"
"Just say a batch of weapon upgrades failed and we lost everything. You can always come up with an excuse." Satoru remained completely calm.
"Th-this is a crime! A crime!" Argo clutched her chest in outrage.
"Alright, enough. Stop obsessing over it. Let's stick to the process. You've eaten and drunk your fill already." Satoru brushed off the embezzlement as if it were nothing, striking a match and lighting a cigarette with composed ease. "If you keep fixating on how corrupt I am, you won't finish investigating even in two days."
"Aren't you afraid this will get exposed?"
"Not really. Worst case, I take everything and disappear."
In Argo's eyes, he looked like a shameless pig grinning in boiling water, completely unfazed.
"N-no, that won't do. If you want me to keep quiet, you'll have to pay hush money." Argo's gaze wavered. "Yeah… twenty or thirty thousand Col should do."
"Done."
Satoru casually pulled up the interface and entered thirty thousand in one go.
Argo's face instantly turned pale.
Damn it… he really did embezzle it.
"I've always thought of you as a maggot, but I didn't expect you to actually be one…" The usually carefree information broker was momentarily speechless. She looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. "You're not someone who can't tell what matters. So why go this far?"
"What else would it be for besides strengthening myself?"
"Answer me seriously!" Argo snapped, frustrated.
"I am." Satoru's tone remained calm. "I've been quietly spending the guild's funds on myself."
"…Have you lost your mind?"
Argo stared straight at him.
"What you're doing is even worse than the weapon scams those so-called legendary heroes pulled back then. This isn't something that ends with just getting expelled."
"I've already considered that outcome. That's why I'm strengthening myself as much as I can. In the end, if no one can judge me, then I win."
"And Sheeta…? You're recklessly burning through the trust people placed in you."
"She's already integrated well into the guild under my arrangement. No one would do anything inappropriate to a girl that cute. And she's strong enough on her own. What I do won't affect her." Satoru spoke evenly. "Haven't you noticed? I've been deliberately keeping my distance from her lately. I'm basically acting solo now."
Argo frowned deeply.
"I've always known you care about profit, but if you put it like that, this is just short-sighted. If you stayed in the Divine Dragons Alliance, you'd gain far more than grabbing a quick chunk like this."
"That's true. Which is exactly why everything I'm doing is based on the assumption that I'll be forced to leave someday. Since I can already see that outcome, I'm not going to keep making selfless contributions like an idiot. If I'm going to face the consequences, I need to secure myself as much as possible."
"…"
"So even telling you all this face-to-face, like casual conversation, doesn't bother me." Satoru bit his cigarette and lifted his gaze slightly.
"Then why are you so sure you'll leave the Divine Dragons Alliance someday?"
"I can't say that yet."
The conversation stalled.
"I really will go report you right now, you know?" Argo said slowly after a while.
"I'd prefer to wait a bit longer, personally. After all, the more I take, the better." Satoru chuckled lightly, still completely unconcerned as he flicked ash from his cigarette. "But do whatever you want."
"Does this have something to do with you going down to the lower floors so often lately?" Argo refused to let it go and shifted to another angle.
"Stop trying to imagine some hidden reason. I'm not as complicated as you think. Sometimes people are more dramatic than stories, sure. But other times, they're frighteningly simple and childish. A bad person is just a bad person. There's no tragic past, no sympathetic angle, no twisted charm that makes them likable."
Satoru let out a quiet sigh.
"Looks like we can't have a proper information exchange today. Let's just treat this as me buying you a meal."
Without having taken a single bite, he stood up and walked past Argo. On a whim, he reached out toward her blond curly hair, only for her to smack his hand away with a sharp slap.
Satoru withdrew his hand awkwardly.
As he reached the door, he heard her voice from behind, laced with mixed emotions.
"I won't say anything for now… just for now."
Young people really do have vivid imaginations.
Satoru shook his head.
Just because they knew each other a little, they always assumed that if he did something bad, there had to be some hidden reason, something worth sympathizing with.
But in reality, it was that simple.