CHAPTER 1 STORY 6
Elaina’s Scam Course
“The reason why we have called you here today, Lady Witch, is none other than this: Recently, a gang of fraudsters in our country have started employing more advanced methods, and we would absolutely love to receive your counsel on this matter.”
Finding myself suddenly summoned by a government official of a certain country, I received this earnest request.
What can they possibly be expecting from a traveling witch? I’m just out here traveling. It’s not like I’m an authority on different scamming methods or anything like that, but—
“Ah, Lady Witch, we’ve heard the rumors about you. Recently, you’ve been earning money by palming off suspicious items to the residents in neighboring countries, isn’t that right?”
“……”
“We can expect your cooperation, yes?”
I see, so he’s trying to say they’ll throw me in jail if I don’t cooperate.
…So that means this is less of an appeal for my cooperation and more like simple blackmail?
“We’ve taken the liberty of looking into several of the fraudulent business practices you have been conducting in neighboring countries, Lady Witch.”
“Um, okay… You have, have you…?”
“For some reason, it seems you’ve been pushing sales of these sorts of documents at a high price, yes?”
The official placed a magazine on the table in between us. Written in large letters on the cover was the title Methods Even Idiots Can Use to Easily Make Big Profits! The handwriting was familiar. Because it was mine.
“Ah yes…I did distribute…such things… That’s right…” I averted my eyes.
“It seems you’ve made quite a tidy sum. About how much would you say you’ve made?”
“Um…I’m sorry, but I’ve forgotten the exact figure…”
“Oh! Then you’ve made so much, you can’t even remember? I see, I see.” For some reason, the official was scribbling away on a memo pad with a pen. “Ah, right, right. This is a change of subject, but these materials—how did you sell them? It couldn’t have been an easy feat to sell ordinary sheaves of paper for such a high price, could it?”
This has turned into some kind of interrogation…
“Um…that’s kind of a trade secret, you could say…”
I continued averting my eyes. All I could do was stay quiet about the things I couldn’t say. However—
“Oh, is that so?” The official cast a sharp glance in my direction. “We heard this by way of another rumor, but apparently, when you were selling these booklets, you were telling people, ‘If you can’t buy it for such a high price, no problem! There’s an arrangement where you get ten percent cash back if you get another person to buy one. In other words, if ten people buy this from you, you get all your money back,’ and other such things as you went around selling them everywhere.”
“……”
“In other words, the people who bought these from you had to get a further ten people to buy one from them, and then each of those ten people had to get more people to buy them, but…Lady Witch, do you have any comments regarding this situation?”
“…………Um, by any chance, is this an interrogation…?”
“Lady Witch.” The official looked at me with a broad smile on his face. “I can count on your cooperation in resolving this situation, yes?”
……
As I suspected, he seems to be trying to say they’ll throw me in jail if I don’t cooperate.
[Publication Information] Volume 6
Gamers Buyer’s Bonus
[Author Comments]
Seriously, isn’t that fraud?! I thought when I read back through this. The Elaina in this story is probably the version of her that is rotten to the core and appeared in the last chapter of Volume 3…probably… Around the time I was writing Volume 6, I wrote a fair number of stories in that vein, so I feel like I’ve gone all in on the fraud angle. Just like Elaina in this bonus story, I’ve come to feel a little bit embarrassed about the blunders made by my former self.
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