CH 147

Chapter 147 – New Enemy

Entering the room was Ivan-san, the captain of the town guard of Sarz, and his deputy… I think it was Sembeck-san. The rest were two subordinate soldiers. They wear light armor under their winter coats and have swords hanging from their waists. One of the young subordinates was carrying a number of hand spears, so he was probably on his way back from or on his way to a mission somewhere.

“What in the world is going on? It’s early in the morning; what’s all the racket?”

“…No, it’s almost noon.”

“I don’t care about that. What do you want?”

“I’d like you and the young lady to come down to the station if you can.”

I don’t know what this is about, but Sembeck-san looked at us with a look of dismay and nodded his head at Ivan-san.

“By the looks of him, I’d say it’s a mistake.”

“I still don’t get it.”

I looked at Myrril and tilted my head. The situation is unknown, but as far as I can see, there seems to be no hostile intent toward us.

Fortunately or unfortunately, all the firearms and equipment, including Myrril’s, have been stowed away. The supplies taken from the hideout are also in there. There is nothing that would make us suspicious if someone were to enter our room.

The only problem was the adventurer from last night who saw our faces, albeit in the dark.

We are willing to let that one go if any problems arise for us as a result of his survival.

That guard was foolishly struggling to protect his client until the very end. It’s a pity that he was tricked by that client, and he himself is not to blame, so I couldn’t bring myself to kill him just to keep him quiet after he had survived. Although I don’t even know his name.

“It’s Calmon, I think.”

“Huh?”

“The name of the adventurer who was guarding them. That’s what that dim-witted gang who came to help him called him.”

“Dim-witted gang? Do you mean battlecry? You should rather learn that one.”

As usual, I decided not to worry about the fact that my thoughts had been read (or rather, written on my face). Myrril-san takes the winter coat that was hanging on the chair and hands it to me.

“Then, landlady, we’ll be out in a while.”

“Oh, yes.”

“Don’t worry, Sandra, we just want to talk to them. They’ll be right back.”

…I wonder about that.

We changed out of our indoor clothes and into warmer clothes and headed to the guard station, where we were shown to the underground cell.

Of course, we were not told to go in there, but there was a person in the cell in the first place.

A small man with a terrible look in his eyes was tied up tightly and rolled around. He was gagged and bound up to his mouth, so he seemed unable to protest, let alone resist.

“Do you recognize him?”

“…No.”

“I don’t know him.”

“His name is Helgin. He’s an exclusive observer hired by the Thieves’ Guild of Sarz.”

Oh, yeah. Ivan-san, I don’t have anything to comment on your reaction with such a smug look on your face.

“I don’t know if we have stalkers over here, either. I mean, there are even thieves’ guilds in the Republic.”

Apparently, this was not the reaction he expected. Ivan-san put his hand on his forehead and let out a sigh, while Sembeck-san turned his face away from me and held back his laughter.

“I don’t think there are any!”

No, I don’t know. You said it yourself.

“The Thieves’ Guild is a slang term, or rather, an unofficial name. In reality, it is merely an illegal organization. We call it that because it functions like a mutual aid society of criminals.”

Sembeck-san explained. And a stalker is not a psycho who follows someone around for love, but an exclusive observer of a criminal organization, according to him.

…Hmm? I’m getting a bad feeling about this, aren’t I?

When I casually look at Ivan-san, he is trying to read my reaction with all his might.

What is that?

If the issue at hand is last night’s attack on the hideout, I can’t react badly if I don’t know who and how he’s talking about it.

“In the last few days, criminal organizations around Sarz’s have been destroyed one by one.”

There you go. That’s last night’s story and… Is that it?

“There’s a gang of thieves headed by a mage named Meig and another headed by a Dwarf woman named Coffina. Both of them had their own personal observers who were on the watch in a covert way to make sure they got the job done.”

“…Huh?”

“In both cases, in his testimony, he said they were crushed by a young Dwarf woman and a middle-aged human man with a big wolf.”

So, he was hiding, huh? Do you mean he was hiding in camouflage? Like ninjas.

Well then, maybe we won’t know. Unless we were attacked, we wouldn’t go out of our way to find them and kill them.

Ivan-san’s eyes meet mine when I make a confused face. I can’t react to that kind of look.

“I’m not going to interfere in your affairs as a member of the guard. Personally, even more so. I don’t care how many scums die. I’m grateful for it, but the problem is, Takifu, you’re a target of the Thieves’ Guild.”

“Has information about me already been delivered to the guild?”

“As for what happened last night, probably not yet. This guy was taken into custody by the “Battlecry” when he came out of the hideout.”

Myrril-san looked at me, smiled softly and gently, and tilted her head slightly. You say a lot about how my thoughts are too much on my face, but Myrril-neesan, your face says what you’re thinking, too.

It’s like, “Okay, let’s kill this guy.”

The dwarf girl’s lips pout in frustration as I discreetly make eye contact with her and tell her, “No.” What is that? Is that a duck mouth? I pinch it.

Of course, it’s impossible to kill him under the circumstances. The “Battlecry” and the guards have already spread the word about this guy. It would be difficult to stop Tig and Ivan-san from talking about it now, and it’s out of the question to take them on as well.

Even if the conversation last night was just the beginning, the information this guy brought to the organization has probably already reached them.

Besides, even if he had not told them about what I did last night, they would have already gotten information about me from this guy, about us, about the gun, about the Snow White Wolf, and maybe even about my ability to teleport, if he saw us kill those mages’ bandits.

The question is how deep and detailed that information is… but whatever it is, killing him here won’t solve anything.

“…Hmm.”

Myrril looked at me with a face that had come up with something. I know what she wants to say with a big smile on her face. There is no need for such a twinkle in your eye, Mir-neesan. I mean, she’s not even trying to hide it anymore.

It’s as if to say, “If it comes to this, we’ll kill them all!”

I’m scared to death!

How many hundreds have you killed with your favorite .45, you maniac? No, I mean, I’ve saved their lives, they’re counting on me, and many of their kills have resulted from my involvement, but…

Don’t nod your head in satisfaction!

“But…”

Ivan-san, the captain of the guard, looks at me with a pained expression on his face. His expression, however, was not directed at me.

“Last night’s attack was not the end of the matter for the destroyed Cofina bandits alone. It seems to involve a large-scale criminal plot involving the major Sarz merchants Peyblois and Beynan, as well as the Thieves Guild…”

Do you know about it? He asked. The big, burly macho man looked at me with the face of a puppy looking for food, but I didn’t know anything about it.

When I shook my head, he was disappointed.

“Even just listening to this, it’s first-degree murder, conspiracy, treason, and mayhem. There are a lot of charges that are punishable by death on even one of them, but the guilty ones have disappeared. The merchant guild, of which Peyblois was a member, is in an uproar. I’m sure the adventurers’ guild will get word eventually, but at the moment, nothing is known.”

Our goal was to kill Coffina and the other dwarves, and we had nothing to do with the circumstances, the outcome, or the problems that arose from that.

I don’t want to get involved.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know much about that sort of thing.”

“I thought you were a merchant in the kingdom?”

“I’m a merchant on the flow, so I’m out of the loop when it comes to big crimes that involve brains. I’m an adventurer now.”

“Well, you have confidence in your skills, don’t you?”

He is probing me again. I’m sure you’ve heard from your personal observer that we destroyed two bandit gangs, one large and one small, with just the two of us.

“…Yeah. I had to protect myself in my peddling business to a point. Not so much by prowess as by the power of good tools.”

“That’s…”

“Hey, Captain Ivan.”

I doubt if it was a helping hand… but Myrril interrupts the conversation between the captain of the guard and me.

“I’d love to help you, to be honest. We only arrived here yesterday. We don’t have the slightest idea of the whole story… or even the outline of such a big deal.”

“…Right? Yes, we looked into it, and you guys were not involved. Not once, until last night. I’m asking you, why is this happening again?”

“I don’t know. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s fate.”

Although it was an honest comment in its own way, the guards in Sarz were once again disappointed to hear Mir-neesan’s words.