After breakfast, Liam tossed a couple of gold chunks into his pocket and traveled to the nearest store that buys and sells gold. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t get waylaid by guards, all dreams aside. Although, Liam was technically a summoned hero, of sorts. It was possible his dreams were actually an indication of something based on a divine or magical influence. Probably not.

In fact, the whole experience was practically a letdown. The staff didn’t seem to find his gold suspicious at all. They appraised his gold, had him fill out some forms, and sent him on his way. The money would apparently get deposited directly into his account, so he wouldn’t need to carry thousands of dollars around with him.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he walked through the front door back into the house. Out of habit, he looked behind him to make sure nobody was following, then he shut the door. Turning back toward the interior of the house, he noticed someone sitting on the couch—someone he didn’t recognize, causing him to recoil backwards in surprise.

Normally, Liam would assume the visitor and/or intruder was from outside the house, rather than from the other world. After all, he’d installed a security system which notifies him via his phone app if any motion is detected around the invisible door. He hadn’t received any alerts since he left for his trip.

However, Liam was forced to assume that the person sitting in his house was from across the portal. After all, he had horns quite similar to Lilith’s. He looked older than her, although still quite fit below his dark sneaking suit, or whatever it was.

“Hmph. Hero Liam, I presume?”

“Y–Yes, I’m Liam…”

The horned man looked Liam up and down, a frown on his face. He stood up and turned to face Liam. “I’m known as the Spymaster. You’ve met my daughter.”

“Oh, Lilith did say her father was the Spymaster. Uh, welcome to my home, I guess. How did you get in here without triggering the alarm?”

“Lilith told me everything that happened while she was on this side of that invisible door. Including your countermeasures. Impressive, but insufficient.”

Liam’s pulse quickened slightly but he tried not to show it. “She was a good guest.”

The Spymaster looked like he wanted to say something in response to that, but he kept his lips sealed. Instead, he turned to look at the kitchen table and gestured with one arm. “Shall we?”

“Sure.” Liam walked into the kitchen. “Can I offer you a drink?”

“No.”

“Oh, uh, okay.” Liam clicked the button to brew himself a cup of coffee. He spoke to the seated Spymaster while waiting for his drink. “I hope you don’t mind if I have something myself.”

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“I don’t care.”

Yikes. Liam grabbed his mug and seated himself at the table. “I’m very happy you didn’t attack me, but may I ask why you are here?”

“Lilith told me about your intent not to oppose us. She said you are not choosing a side in our world’s conflict. Was she correct?”

Liam couldn’t think of a reason to object. “That’s right. I’m hoping to be friendly with both sides and find a way to stop the violence and establish peace… somehow…”

“Are you serious?”

Liam wasn’t sure exactly how to read that question. Was this guy just finding Liam’s plan hard to believe and seeking confirmation? Was he sarcastically bashing Liam’s naiveté? “Yeah, that’s really what I want to happen.”

“Hero, did you not assault one of my agents? How can you sue for peace while defeating my subordinates?”

Liam’s pulse quickened again. “There was a very good reason for that. I’d rather not fight with anyone, but I’ll still try to defend myself if endangered.”

“How benevolent of you.”

“Honestly, don’t take this the wrong way, but if one of your subordinates gets defeated by me, of all people, they probably need more training.”

The Spymaster raised an eyebrow. “Gat is weakling and a fool, but he has his uses. Attacking him undermines your efforts to ingratiate yourself with us. As does having secret dealings with the humans…”

“Uh, all I’ve really done is have them explain to me their side of what’s going on and give me some gold so I can cover the cost of feeding them when they visit. I’m on a limited food budget here.”

Now the Spymaster narrowed his eyes. “How much gold?”

Liam removed his phone from his pocket. “About this much, broken into several pieces.”

The spymaster stared at the phone. “That’s all?”

“Yeah, at least for now. Keep in mind, part of my food costs were covering Lilith’s share as well…”

The Spymaster’s face twitched. “I won’t allow the enemy to finance my daughter’s upkeep. Here.” He removed a coin from his pocket. “This should be worth about as much as the gold you already received.”

Liam accepted the coin. Unlike the gold he’d received recently, this coin was minted, complete with symbols of some type. He couldn’t recognize the writing. “Uh, what’s it made out of?” Its color was different from the gold he’d already received. It was somewhere between copper and silver.

“Mythril.”

Just what should Liam do with a mythril coin? “Oh, I couldn’t possibly accept a coin made from such a valuable material. We don’t even have mythril in this world, I don’t think. The coin could cause some problems, despite your good intentions. I must return it.” Liam slid the coin in front of the Spymaster.

“If you won’t accept our coins, then how am I to get out of your debt? Shall I send for gold as well?”

Obtaining gold would probably be much less problematic than coins minted in magic metal, but he didn’t want to receive too much gold, either. Perhaps he could leverage this situation to obtain something other than some commodity. “Oh, now that I think about it, Lilith repaid me in other ways while she was here. There’s really no need for payment. Instead, I wonder if we could establish—“

“How exactly did my daughter repay you?”

“Huh?” Liam was caught off guard by having his great idea get interrupted. “Oh, no, I just mean she was helpful, like, she was willing to hear me out instead of immediately assassinating me, and she kept me safe from threats while she was here.”

“Lilith is quite talented, so if she wanted you to remain alive during her visit, there wouldn’t be much that could take you out. Did she actually do anything to protect you, though? Her mere presence isn’t enough to nullify this debt.”

“No, seriously, she went above and beyond. She literally slept next to me to guard me from any other intruders through the invisible doo—“

“What!?” The Spymaster stood up. “You… bedded… my daughter?”

Apparently, Lilith hadn’t actually told her father everything…