Editing Skill Tree Goddess:Volume1 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 7===

Gilbezos returned to the capital and held a planning meeting.

More adventurers would be wiped out if the reckless dragon hunt job at the guild wasn’t eliminated somehow, but how exactly could he do that?

He decided to discuss it with Shirayuri in her mysterious shop that had again changed location.

The shop was shaped like a 10-metora square, but a wall ran along the diagonal. Half the space was lined with products and the other half contained the counter/workshop. The idea was probably to show off as much of the interior as possible in panorama, but nothing could be placed in the triangular corners, meaning less usable area.

Shirayuri was rummaging around in the workshop beyond the wall. Apparently she was too busy to stop. With her smithing, alchemy, and synthesis, fire was often seen in the shop.

“Vwahhh!”

A muscular macho made of stone stood in a corner of the shop. Was that the Hyper Golem gatekeeper? She seemed smaller than when he fought her outside, but…yeah, he found this a lot less concerning. It didn’t bother him as much as the naked statue.

While waiting for Shirayuri to finish her work, the goddess laughed and spoke.

“Interesting that the first one you go to is 10-year-old Shirayuri.”

“Yeah, I know I can’t do anything on my own… Damn that S-rank Lindworm-form dragon. Why couldn’t I defeat it? Then all those people wouldn’t have gotten hur-”

“Goddess Skill: ☆Special☆ Low-Level Guys Just Need a Good Sitting On.”

“Hwahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

…How he ended up squashed face down on the floor will be left unsaid. You can probably guess!

“Th-that is not a real skill. What are you doing, Lady Seliphenia?”

“You weren’t hinting you wanted that? Oh, Gilbezos, I thought you were making a show of how needy you were feeling. Rub, rub.”

…He couldn’t deny that, but could she at least find a different method? Or at least not cross her legs so elegantly on his back?

Then, he noticed the Hyper Golem tilting her head.

She approached and did something. The exact same something the goddess had done.

“Vwahhh.”

“Hey, wait, stop, Goly, I’ll literally be crushed if you do thaaaaaaat!!”

“Stop taking advantage of the Hyper Golem’s inability say no for your experimentation, Gilbezos.”

Finished with her work, Shirayuri poked her head out with despair on her face.

…She had the worst timing.

Gilbezos was worn down in body and mind. He hoped to at least get down to business.

“Combat guild jobs can only be canceled by the person who initially posted them.”

“So in this case the king?”

It was best to assume they couldn’t just ask the king to cancel it. Gilbezos was a homeless drifter and a short one at that. Knowing the systems of the grownups, he wouldn’t be allowed an audience with the king or even onto the castle grounds at all. Which meant…

“I think it would be easier to lie and say you have a message from the king.”

Completed jobs, like gathering healing herbs in the mountains, could be reposted, but jobs canceled before completion, like the defeat of a powerful enemy, could not be reposted. Because there would be doubts if it was possible at all.

“Would that work? Since it was a job from the king, wouldn’t the cancelation message either need his signature or his royal seal?”

A handwritten signature could be forged with practice. With the Manuscript skill used a lot by priests, you could get quite close to the real thing. Because that was so common, there were professional contract appraisers who always carried a loupe with them.

That meant Gilbezos would need the seal that proved a message was from the king. It was undoubtedly highly complex, but…

“”You’re good at crafting skills, Shirayuri, so can’t you forge it for me?”

“Tremble, tremble. You might as well be asking me to get executed for treason. Forging royal documents is punishable by ''at least'' a group beating to shatter all your bones followed by publicly burning you alive at the stake. But it wouldn’t reach that point because the instant my knight sister got wind I was planning it, she would give me a spanking. Tremble tremble.”

“She’s barely ever in the capital, so she probably won’t have the chance.”

Apparently this was a fairly serious crime. He did note that Shirayuri never said she didn’t have the skills to do it. But maybe it was better not to get the younger girl involved.

He had made a promise. To end the cruel chain.

But he couldn’t bring trouble to anyone else.

“Well, if I can’t forge the seal, there’s only one option left.”

“Hm? What else is there?”

“''Sneak into the royal castle and steal the real one.''”