Ch.5Chapter 5 – Meeting the Branch Manager of the Black Feather Information Broker Organization (1)

I left the inn early in the morning, leaving behind the small commotion that had occurred there.

Since breakfast hours had ended, I noticed people walking through the streets.

Seeing them moving after mealtime, they were probably heading to their workplaces.

I thought it would be extremely rude to stop someone heading to work and question them.

So instead of approaching people walking to work, I needed to find a place where people who had finished their work or visitors from outside would share various stories.

Let’s think from the perspective of someone who has finished a hard day’s labor.

Imagine working from morning until sunset under the blazing sun, holding farming tools or other implements.

After working hard all day, my body would naturally seek some reward.

In that case, where would the footsteps of someone who worked hard through such hardship lead?

It would be a place that sells something to wash away the day’s fatigue.

In fantasy novels and various games, this place is often called:

‘Skywind Tavern.’

That’s right, a place that sells alcohol—a tavern.

Taverns are places where various information is exchanged, and also where all sorts of events occur due to intoxicated patrons.

Naturally, since hardly anyone drinks alcohol early in the morning, the tavern looked quite empty inside.

The first thing that caught my eye upon entering was a middle-aged man with a mustache cleaning glass beer mugs with a clean cloth.

He appeared to be the owner of this tavern.

“A customer so early in the morning. That’s unexpected.”

“I’m not here to drink this early. I’m looking around for some information.”

“Hmm?”

The mustached middle-aged man reacted to my answer while wiping the beer mug with his cloth.

He had a somewhat surprised expression on his face.

“You came to a tavern looking for information?”

“Isn’t it obvious that if you want to find information, you should come to a tavern first?”

He seemed surprised by the fact that I came to the tavern looking for information.

Wait, isn’t it natural to come to a tavern to get information circulating among people, since taverns are likely to have many people gathered?

And as far as I knew, in the world of Erasto Chronicle, taverns also served as a kind of restaurant.

During the day, they sold meals to people, and at night, they sold snacks and alcohol instead of meals.

So I thought there would be quite a few people coming for breakfast in the morning, but it seems I was mistaken.

“Hmm. I see. So you’re saying you came looking for information?”

He stopped wiping the beer mug and placed it on the counter.

For some reason, the aura I felt from him changed significantly.

Until just a moment ago, he seemed like an ordinary tavern keeper, but now he started to feel like someone who lived in back alleys and engaged in some kind of illegal activities.

Uh, wait. Could he be angry that I said I came looking for information rather than to buy drinks?

This could be troublesome…

◈◇◈◇◈◇◈◇◈◇◈

A man with an impressively groomed mustache.

His name was Justin.

On the surface, he was the owner of the Skywind Tavern, but his true identity was one of the branch managers of the “Black Feather,” considered the continent’s finest information broker organization.

Originally, he had been stationed in Belsalem, a large city about a three-day walk from Oak Tree Village where the Skywind Tavern did business.

The city of Belsalem was where merchants supplying goods to Glesius Academy would replenish their depleted supplies and rest before departing for their destination at the academy.

It was also where merchants returning from delivering supplies to the academy would take time to reorganize, making it the place where the most information about Glesius Academy circulated.

There was a reason why someone in the important position of branch manager responsible for such a crucial location had come to this small village.

Long ago, there was an incident where the “Black Feather” was driven to the brink of annihilation.

What drove this massive information broker organization to near destruction was the Demon Cult.

They were worshippers of demons who granted the ability to handle “magi,” rather than gods who bestowed “abilities.”

The Demon Cult’s goal was for demons to rule the entire world.

Therefore, their biggest obstacle was information brokers.

The Demon Cult had suffered significant damage due to information sold by these brokers, and in response, they launched a massive attack against information brokers to ensure the cult’s survival.

As a result, the Black Feather was nearly annihilated, but conversely, the Demon Cult also suffered enormous damage due to the intervention of “ability users” and disappeared without a trace somewhere on the continent.

From that day forward, all information brokers, including the Black Feather, prioritized any information related to the Demon Cult, and branch manager-level personnel were dispatched to places where traces of the cult appeared to collect information.

Recently, news arrived that traces of what appeared to be the Demon Cult had been discovered near Oak Tree Village.

Justin was dispatched to Oak Tree Village and was gathering information while running the tavern business from the Black Feather hideout disguised as a pub.

But today, an interesting person visited the place.

Black hair and black eyes. He appeared to be from the Eastern Continent, but his clothes and manner of speaking were unmistakably those of someone from this continent.

‘Come to think of it, I heard someone from the Eastern Continent arrived yesterday?’

Justin had established connections with the vigilante group captain who guarded this village by offering a few drinks as bribes. The captain had mentioned that someone from the Eastern Continent had entered the village late yesterday evening.

According to Hans, the vigilante member on duty that day, the man had the ability to repair objects.

As proof, the man from the Eastern Continent had perfectly repaired a keepsake left by Hans’s brother.

Justin was familiar with the keepsake left by Hans’s brother.

It was an item Hans had been using during a monster hunt, which had been dented while blocking a monster’s attack. Justin remembered its appearance in detail.

But the brother’s keepsake that Hans showed him was no longer dented—it looked brand new.

Knowing that the vigilante member Hans was not financially well-off, Justin had no choice but to believe his story.

Recalling this memory, Justin spoke to the Eastern Continent man who appeared at the tavern door, wondering if it might be the same person.

“A customer so early in the morning. That’s unexpected.”

“I’m not here to drink this early. I’m looking around for some information.”

“Hmm?”

Justin was puzzled by the mention of looking for information.

Why would someone looking for information come to a tavern early in the morning?

It didn’t make sense according to Justin’s common sense.

He believed that if one wanted information, they should go to an information broker.

However, Justin had often seen people in taverns divulge information they alone knew when under the influence of alcohol.

So he began to wonder if this person was trying to extract information from intoxicated patrons.

“You came to a tavern looking for information?”

“Isn’t it obvious that if you want to find information, you should come to a tavern first?”

But listening to the Eastern Continent man’s response, it seemed he already knew this place dealt in information.

This was strange. How did he discover that this tavern was one of the hideouts of the Black Feather information broker organization?

Justin began to be wary of the Eastern Continent man who had openly stated he came to the tavern looking for information.

“Hmm. I see. So you’re saying you came looking for information?”

He was convinced. That person knew this place was a hideout of the Black Feather, the finest information broker organization, and had come looking for it.

If that was the case, there was no need to continue his act as a pleasant middle-aged man.

So Justin quietly began to release the power he had been suppressing.

He noticed the Eastern man breaking into a cold sweat and looking flustered.

And that’s when Justin sensed something odd.

‘Why is he pretending to be scared? If he knew this was Black Feather, he would never show such a reaction.’

It was too naive a response for someone who knew this was a Black Feather hideout.

Justin’s mind raced through various hypotheses before reaching a conclusion.

‘Is he disguising himself as an innocent person?’

He concluded that the Eastern Continent man was pretending to be naive to deceive him.

So Justin’s aura grew stronger, and the man standing before him appeared increasingly flustered.

‘I can’t let my guard down with this man. He’s truly frightening. To be so thorough in concealing his strength! He must be a master of great skill.’

Justin finally gave up testing him.

This decision came from the belief that the man was not weak, but rather a powerful individual hiding his energy and pretending to be weak.

‘Indeed, he’s a master concealing tremendous skill. If I had pushed further, something terrible might have happened.’

When the man standing before him let out a sigh of relief, Justin’s misunderstanding only deepened.