The Result of the Discussion

The tone was polite. But the voice was neither high nor low. It could have belonged to a man or a woman.

Of course, I couldn't determine their gender from their voice, or even from their demeanor. They probably had the same effect as my mask.

No-Name was a person whose face, name, gender, age—everything about them—was unknown.

"Is this about your business? You already know why I'm here, don't you?"

"You make it sound as if I orchestrated this. I had nothing to do with your inquiry. The Guild Council members simply succumbed to pressure from foreign countries."

"You're referring to the inquiry?"

"Yes. As you likely guessed, when the Spirit Tortoise appeared, I complained to the Guild Council. Something along the lines of, 'Is it really appropriate for you to take all the credit?'"

"So it was you after all."

"Personally, I had envisioned a scenario in which you grew tired of the Empire, I slew the Spirit Tortoise the S-rank adventurers had failed to defeat, and I became the Empire's new SS-rank adventurer. But you completely overturned it."

I suppose that's what you'd expect of an SS-rank adventurer...