To sum things up, the day Reinhardt was taken to the Thieves' guilds headquarters on the day he was kidnaped. There, he got the opportunity to face all the key members of the guild.
Reinhardt hadn't done anything or even said anything.
He just stayed still.
'You crazy punk!'
-Punch! Punch! Punch!
'Are you crazy? Don't you know what'll happen if you kidnap a Temple student?'
'But… M-master!"
'You complete idiot! What's with your head? Do you want to blow up this place to catch a single rat?!"
-Punch!
The guy who said that he finally found a way to catch Irene's Wild Dog and had brought Reinhardt to that place while feeling triumphant was only rewarded by getting beaten half to death.
The Thieves' Guild Master was a surprisingly smart person.
The guy that wanted to take advantage of Reinhardt seemed to be the head of a branch, but in the end, he was just a small fry; he was so stupid that he couldn't even figure out what kind of consequences kidnapping a Temple student would have.
However, the Guild Master realized as soon as he saw what was going on. His subordinate was much too short-sighted. He had captured this man called Reinhardt, who was said to be the successor of the Rotary Gang, and had planned on using him as bait to kill off Irene's Wild Dog, who had been a huge thorn in their side.
But that was actually like burning a house down to remove a wasp's net.
The Thieves' Guild's headquarters was thrown into chaos because of what that crazy idiot did.
'What should we do…?'
'Let's get rid of him.'
'Shit, the place he disappeared at is also our turf. Their attention will definitely be on us.'
'But what else are we supposed to do in this situation…'
'Hey, you bastard! Take everyone that was around there at the time and torture them! Only a few people saw it, but one of them will definitely sing!'
If Reinhardt got kidnapped in a more neutral place, things would have been different.
However, the place he had disappeared from was the Wenster Market, the Thieves' Guild's turf.
Just by knowing where he got kidnapped, anyone who was aware of the conflict between the two organizations could easily infer that the Thieves' Guild was the culprit.
Silencing everyone involved was their best option, but it was only natural that the incident would get traced back to the Thieves' Guild
Although they could put a gag order on the members of the organization, there were already too many people who had witnessed it. The Thieves' Guild was too large for them to shut everyone up all at once.
They were still a criminal organization. If their members were to be interrogated and tortured, this fact would definitely come to light someday. The Guild Master was close to a heart attack because of this incident one of the lower level members caused.
In the end, the Guild Master did whatever he could.
He freed Reinhardt. He didn't completely release him, but he freed him from his bindings.
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He did it to avoid the accusation that they had treated him harshly later on.
'Hey, buddy. I'm really sorry. One of our members made a mistake… Okay? Understand? You saw it earlier, right? How I… Erm… scolded him?'
'Oh, well, mistakes happen. I get the situation.'
The Guild Master's lips spread into a wide smile; Reinhardt was very calm as if he knew things would happen the way they did.
'Could you return my belongings to me first?'
'Huh? Ah. Of course! Idiot! Where's his stuff?'
The Guild Master was acting extremely favorably to Reinhardt. He wanted to get rid of him as fast as he could, but he knew that if he got rid of him immediately, things would only grow bigger, so he was cautious of even touching even a hair on his body.
After Reinhardt got back his belongings, including the Fire of Tuesday, he stretched his body and slowly loosened his stiff muscles.
'What are you going to do about this? Are you going to dispel it, or…?'
Reinhardt handed over his student ID to the Guild Master.
'…This?'
'There's tracking magic on this, you know? If you keep this, they'll find me as soon as they realize I'm gone.'
'Whwhat…?'
"It's still the weekend, so they wouldn't have started searching for me yet. They would realize that I'm gone by Monday, that's when Temple will start looking for me.'
It was still Friday, so even if Reinhardt didn't return, they would just wonder where he went over the weekend.
The problems would start on Monday.
'Huh? E-erm… I see.'
The Guild Master only nodded blankly at Reinhardt's words. The situation had turned into a bizarre one in which the kidnapped person was actually helping his kidnappers.
'E-excuse me… Reinhardt? Why are you telling me that…?'
The Guards would rush into the place and rescue him if he just stood still and did nothing, so why was he doing this?
The Guild Master couldn't even begin to imagine what the intentions behind that strange boy's, Reinhardt's, actions were.
'We all just try to make a living. Do you think I really need to burn all the people here just to get by?'
His words seemed well-intentioned, but his smile was absurdly evil, so the Guild Master felt slightly numb.
* * *
The Guild Master couldn't release me that easily. If I went to the Guards and told them that I was kidnapped by the Thieves' Guild, that would be the end for them.
And if they were to kill me, the Thieves' Guild—which was a big group—would still get interrogated, so they were bound to get discovered.
In other words, the whole organization was facing annihilation because of the crazy actions of a single member, and they couldn't even do anything about it.
As they couldn't release me or silence me, I ended up receiving a fairly hospitable treatment in the Thieves' Guild. I couldn't go out, but they didn't threaten or torture me. I didn't really know how things might turn out, though.
Even when the search started, the Guild hadn't come to an answer.
'They started searching the Wenster Market. They're combing through the whole place.'
They just continued to stay silent. In times like that, there was a certain thing called precise timing.
As I spent my days in that not-quiet-captivity, it became Wednesday.
'Reinhardt…'
'Yes, what?'
'Just… who are you…?'
The Guild Master stood before me, his face completely pale.
'Why… Are the Prince and Princess looking for you?'
'Ah…'
I laughed.
'Because they are my friends.'
At that point, the Guild Master seemed to seriously contemplate just committing suicide.
* * *
Wednesday evening was the perfect timing for what I wanted to do.
'Hmm.'
A group of people had entered the Thieves' Guild's headquarters. The guild members were so nervous that they couldn't even open their mouths properly.
The Guild Master was the same.
Only the group of people that arrived there and witnessed the whole place with everyone frozen in shock were calm.
All of them were wearing swords on their waist. Their clothes were plain, but just by looking at them, one could tell that they were either knights or something equivalent.
They weren't wearing uniforms of gauntlets or something, but they definitely were the Knights of Duke Salerian.
They immediately found me as soon as they started looking for me.
They had quickly found out that the culprit behind everything was the Thieves' Guild; they even found out where their headquarters were.
Their efficiency sure was terrifying.
'So, you aren't going back yet?'
'Yeah.'
'Weren't you kidnapped?'
'It's true that I got kidnapped, but…'
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'These people are just the scum of society. Is there really a need to keep them alive?'
They asked me if it would be okay if they killed everyone there. Their attitude showed that they could just kill them regardless of the law since those people lived outside the law, after all.
Duke Salerian's Knights in front of me were much crueler than the Thieves' Guild's guys.
They were talking about killing someone as if it was just a chore.
How did I even manage to survive their pursuit back when I was escaping from the Demon King's Castle?
'Even pests have their own use… Don't you think so? If you tell these words to His Majesty the Prince… He'll know what I mean.'
'…Hmm. Okay.'
'Can you keep my status as 'missing'?'
"…It seems like you're planning something. Understood.'
The knight, who appeared to be the group's commander, looked at me and then turned away.
'We'll go back.'
Bertus had confirmed that I was there.
After a slight delay, the personnel I believed to have been sent by Charlotte also arrived at that place—I said the same things to them as I had to Bertus's people and sent them back.
Although the Guards and Temple's forces weren't able to find me, Charlotte and Bertus managed to find me right away.
Both of their factions had so much information that the public authorities couldn't be compared to them anymore.
Both of them were intensely terrifying.
The Thieves' Guild thought that they were moving about sneakily, but, in fact, there were many people who knew what they were up to—they were just dancing on someone else's palm.
If Bertus and Charlotte understood what I was trying to tell them, then the Guards and Temple's forces would only pretend that they were still looking. They should be able to guess what I was trying to do.
All the powers trying to trace me would only keep up the image of looking for me.
With that, everything had been laid out as I wanted it to be.
* * *
Even if I confidently walked out of their front door after Wednesday, those guys wouldn't be able to stop me, but I didn't do that.
The Thieves' Guild had already been discovered by Bertus' and Charlotte's forces, and I asked them to leave for the moment and keep my status as 'missing' because I had some business with those guys.
The Thieves' Guild had already turned into an organization whose fate could be determined by a single word of mine. They couldn't even silence me anymore because people had already discovered my whereabouts.
Since then, I'd become the sole decider over those peoples' life and death.
I somewhat expected Loyar's arrival as well. Of course, it was a lot later than I expected. I explained the situation to her when she swung by and told her to step down for the moment, but she insisted on staying with me to see how things were getting organized.
"…Hah."
Loyar was stunned when she heard my explanation.
"Weren't you afraid?"
How could you even think of something like that in your situation
Loyar seemed slightly angry.
"I somewhat knew that things would turn out this way even if I stayed still."
The Thieves' Guild didn't really have anything to do with me at the start. Everything had only happened because I wandered around over there. The moment I got captured, I had thought that I had really been on the losing end of things, but—after I organized my thoughts—I realized that it was also an opportunity in a way.
Additionally, ever since I got the Flame of Tuesday back, I was rather confident that I would be able to run away if things went wrong, so I moved forward rather aggressively.
This obviously was quite the risky venture, but it still was a venture worth its risk.
Ever since the forces of the Prince and Princess had come visiting that place, it had practically turned into a mourning house. Was this what one called cutting off one's nose to spite one's face?
The entire organization was facing destruction because they tried dealing with a single unruly subordinated organization.
Loyar thought that I got kidnapped and rushed to where I was, but she seemed to have difficulties understanding how I managed to place the whole guild under my feet.
Yeah.
That was what power could do.
I thought that it was quite wise using others' power as my own.
Do you even know who I am?
Do you know who I know? I'll tell your mom everything you did to me!
It was basically just an extension of that.
It sure was good to have such great friends.
"Well… Since you're here, let's just wrap this up, now shall we?"
The Thieves' Guild executive seemed to find it difficult to accept that everything was about to get handed over to the Rotary Gang, who had been just a lowly subordinated organization before, especially the Guild Master.
"I'm just going to pretend that I have nothing to do with the Thieves' Guild after this is over with. Instead, how about we'll make big sis the next Guild Master?"
"Wha… What?!"
The one most shocked about hearing that wasn't the Guild Master but Loyar.
"Hey! No! I can't!"
'Hey, you punk,' I thought to myself.
'Is it so hard to just eat the meal I worked so hard to serve you?'