Chapter 67
“Arthur. What are we going to do with that man?”
Tirsi asked, pointing to the bandit leader, the gang’s sole survivor.
I knew what Tirsi was getting at. The bandit leader was a major lead that could help someone track us down. Wasn’t this one of those unspoken rules that kept coming up in wuxia novels and the like?
A mysterious assassin suddenly appears before a bandit locked in prison!
Assassins of that sort would interrogate bandits for information, then kill them to silence them before making their escape.
The whole scene would be narrated from a third-person perspective instead of the protagonist’s, only for it to end with something like, ‘The next day, all the jailer found was the bandit chief’s cold corpse…….’
To prevent trouble later, it would be better not to hand this guy over to the guards.
The guards seemed like the kind who’d sell this bastard’s personal information to a stranger for a single silver coin, let alone thirty. That bandit wasn’t the Messiah, after all.
“I have something to ask him. Would you mind waiting a moment?”
“Should I cover the children’s ears?”
We quickly shared our thoughts without needing to say much. The screams would be bad for the children’s emotional development.
“I’ll take him over there and do it.”
I set down the luggage and took the unconscious leader to a secluded spot. Even if he screamed, he’d be far enough away that the children wouldn’t hear as long as I made him shut up.
Quite some time passed, but the leader showed no sign of waking.
“<Water Creation>.”
Splaasssh─.
I poured a stream of water conjured by magic over his face. When water got up his nose, the leader woke with a lot of thrashing.
“Huuuuuuuh!!”
The leader coughed as he sat up, then seemed to take in the situation while bound hand and foot. He lowered his head, watching me warily.
“Y-you, you are……?”
“Have you forgotten me?”
Was this bastard planning to claim temporary amnesia or something? Sorry, but the Nord Constitution doesn’t allow reduced sentences on grounds of diminished capacity.
But now that I thought about it, the mask’s effects might have kept him from realizing I was the one who attacked their hideout.
‘Should I keep pretending to be Tabula?’
It was a decent idea. Even if he figured out I was a fake, there was an overwhelming power gap between us. I just had to make the leader answer my questions.
“From now on, answer every question I ask. Every time you object, I’ll break one of your fingers.”
“Y-yes!!”
I pointed at the bound leader’s fingers. The bandit understood and nodded vigorously in obedience.
“Is kidnapping and selling children your main source of income?”
“N-no. We steal anything that’ll make money.”
“Where did you get the children?”
“We picked them up in Haysvent. The ones, uh, wandering around at night.”
“There are walls around the city, aren’t there? Did you find some hole in the wall? Where is it?”
“Y-yes. Well, there’s a closed general store on the northwest side of Haysvent…….”
I started with the sort of questions the guards were likely to ask. The leader didn’t wonder why I wanted to know any of this. Judging by the way he was spilling even his business methods, he seemed pretty scared.
I then tried out some interrogation techniques I’d picked up from movies. I rephrased questions I’d already asked to check whether the bastard had lied, but his answers were consistent and logical.
‘He’s talking pretty readily.’
Now for the main point. I took out a dagger the bandits had used and spun it around. It was a threat meant to tell him to choose his words carefully.
“Do you know how the hostages are treated after they’re sold?”
The bastard rolled his eyes as if trying to figure out what I meant. I kicked him in the stomach so he wouldn’t have time to come up with an excuse.
─Thud!
“Ghk!!”
“Quit rolling your eyes and answer. Every time you take more than three seconds to answer, I’ll cut off one of your fingers. I’ll ask again. Do you know how the hostages are treated after they’re sold?”
“I-I don’t know!! We only came to Sargadis because you said you’d buy the hostages from us for more money!!”
That was something I’d heard while clearing out the bandits. Had he just been lured here by money without knowing anything? If so, there was no point interrogating him any further. I put the dagger away and asked,
“Who was supposed to buy them?”
“Th-that was… men wearing robes. The one who dealt with us looked like their leader, and behind him were two bodyguards, one fat and one thin.”
“What were they like?”
“Uh, th-that… Their way of speaking was a little awkward, so I thought they were probably foreigners. B-but the man who handled the deal spoke with a lot of confidence. I thought he might be a merchant accustomed to this kind of business.”
They were probably illegal slave traders. They’d be better at hiding their identities than I was, so there was no point pressing this bastard for more.
“All right. That’s everything I wanted to ask.”
“Th-then──”
─Thwack!!
I activated Beast Regression without an incantation, strengthening only my right arm, and smashed the crown of the leader’s head. Since I’d shaved him bald beforehand, it was easy to land the blow.
─Flop.
I untied the leader’s corpse, which had crumpled over, and left it there. This would make it look like a bandit who’d died while escaping the hideout.
Shwooo─.
I didn’t feel any change in the Beast Regression activated in my right arm. Had absorbing Tabula’s mana not changed much after all?
‘──No.’
There had been a change. I sensed it instinctively.
─Shing!
When I focused my attention, something changed at my fingertips.
The green mana that had covered my body like thick leather gathered sharply at my fingertips. The green mana had changed shape into claws, like an animal’s. It seemed I could extend them like a cat.
I picked up a pebble from the ground and scratched at it with my claws.
─Kagagagak!
Even with a light scratch, the pebble was gouged deeply with an unpleasant sound.
Damn, these things are sharp as hell. Are they sharper than my sword? They were short, so I probably wouldn’t use them often, but it was a gain to have another trump card.
‘Shall I head back?’
Now that I’d killed the leader, I’d eliminated all potential trouble. I crushed the pebble I’d scratched with my claws, scattered the pieces, and rejoined the others.
***
The first place we stopped after returning to the city was the Transport Guild.
“Father!!”
“Son!!”
We went to the guild’s back door and watched the emotional reunion between father and son. Wearing my mask, I waited until their tearful reunion had calmed down, then said,
“As promised, I took down the bandit gang and rescued your son. I’m sorry to interrupt this touching moment, but could you pay me my reward?”
“Yes! I’ll pay you! Of course!”
The bald merchant brought me the money, sobbing. Exactly ten silver, as promised.
“Ten silver. I’ve received it in full.”
Returning the contract after completing the job, I spoke seriously.
“However, Guildmaster, there’s something the two of you need to know about this incident.”
“Yes? What is it?”
The bald merchant, who had taken the contract and was folding it, listened to me. He’d naturally be concerned about what the person who rescued his son had to say.
Looking him straight in the eye, I said the words I’d prepared beforehand.
“After interrogating the bandit chief, I learned that someone was behind your son’s kidnapping.”
“S-someone behind it?! You mean there’s someone who targeted my son?!”
The bald man was thunderstruck. I folded my arms and nodded solemnly.
“The chief confessed that they’d been acting on someone’s orders, kidnapping children—including your son. The three people behind it concealed their identities, and the one who proposed the deal was apparently a man who seemed like a merchant.”
“A merchant…….”
“That’s right. It means someone whose identity is unknown was targeting your son. The bandits were just acting as their lackeys.”
You think I’m lying? No, I’m not. We don’t know who they were, but there really were people trying to buy hostages after making a deal with the bandits.
So I’m not lying. I left out the whole bit about Tabula’s secret organization, but this is 100 percent true.
If Tabula hadn’t been there, the one-armed young man and the children would have been sold to them.
“Thank you for warning us. We’ll be sure to take precautions.”
The merchant father and son took my words seriously.
I didn’t feel guilty at all. I had saved their lives, and it was good for them to be cautious anyway. I hadn’t done a single bad thing. If you disagree, I’m right.
“I’m glad you understand. By the way, would you be willing to handle the stolen goods we recovered from the bandits and decide what to do with the children?”
I asked as I patted the heads of the children we’d rescued together.
“I’m sure these children will trust your son over strangers like us or the guards, since they barely know us.”
“Yes. Leave it to us──no, leave it to me.”
At my words, the one-armed young man thumped his chest and declared confidently,
“I’ll hand the stolen goods over to the guards, and I’ll make sure these children get home. We were all trapped in that bandit hideout, trembling with fear together. I’ll treat them like my own children and take full responsibility for them!”
“Uncle!!”
The children rushed toward the young man, overcome with emotion. He embraced the three of them as tears streamed down his face.
Though he had only one arm, there was nothing to stop him from embracing the children in his heart.
“There, there. I told you in the cave, didn’t I? Uncle will make sure you see your moms and dads.”
“Waaaaaaaah!!”
The children and the one-armed young man clung to each other and cried. This time, it really was a touching scene, and my nose started to sting a little, too.
“Kh! Sniff……!”
Looking closer, the bald merchant was also crying, watching his son as if wondering when he’d grown up so much.
That was right. Sons and daughters who seemed like they’d be children forever would one day grow up and become the ones taking care of children themselves.
“Thank you for granting my request. I’ll pray that these children can look forward to a bright future, too.”
I said, holding back tears. The only people I could let my heart’s precum flow in front of were the ones I loved.
“Yes!! Have a safe trip home!!”
And so I left the guild, taking as part of my reward some of the goods the Transport Guild had bought for its customers──things like mana potions.
For the record, the Transport Guild also bought the bandits’ dropped loot.
Including the promised reward, I had a whopping fourteen silver and thirty copper in cash.
“Ahem, Ash. Here, as promised, this is thirty percent of the reward. Take it.”
I split the reward with Tirsi. Tirsi and I divided it three to seven, giving her five silver and thirty copper, and me nine silver.
Tirsi smiled faintly without even checking the envelope. It was probably because she’d watched me hold back tears as I left.
“If we split fourteen silver and thirty copper seven to three, shouldn’t my share be four silver and twenty-nine copper? At this rate, I’m getting an extra one silver and one copper.”
“Ahem. Well, the extra is for the wound-healing potion I drank.”
“Oh my. Does a potion that wasn’t even fifty milliliters cost one silver? That’s quite a profitable business.”
“You should account for the broken potions, too. Including those, Ash is at a loss.”
So I gave Tirsi one more mana potion as well.
Since I’d left the stolen goods that weren’t worth anything with the Transport Guild, the only extra spoils were eight mana potions. There’d been ten, but I’d used two while fighting.
We split those evenly, four each. I heard they sold for about one silver apiece, but I planned to carry mine around as spares.
“Arthur? Perhaps after we change clothes, would you like to have dinner with me?”
Then Tirsi invited me to a meal.
Ah, right. Now that she’d seen my real face, we could eat together. But Fran would be waiting for me, so it was hard to accept.
“That’s a lovely offer, but maybe another time. Someone’s waiting for me.”
So I turned her down. If it had felt like she was seducing me, it would have been hard to refuse, but she’d sounded like she really was just inviting me to dinner, so I could decline without feeling awkward.
“That’s too bad.”
Tirsi accepted my rejection without seeming particularly sad.
Or so I thought.
“Aaaah~. Lucy went out to meet her boyfriend today, too. I guess I’ll be eating bread with jam alone in the dorm and going to bed again tonight~.”
“Ahem, ahem.”
Not knowing what to say, I could only clear my throat.
I felt bad, since Tirsi had nearly died because of me, and now she was complaining openly, no longer bothering to keep up her disguise.
All Tirsi had gotten out of following me to the bandit hideout was a reward of roughly ten million won. Ten silver was a lot of money even for a mage, but if you asked whether it was worth risking your life for, well? Probably not.
“Um, doesn’t the guild have a restaurant?”
“Heh heh. I was just joking, so don’t panic like that.”
When I didn’t know what to do, Tirsi said it as if she’d been teasing me.
“Let’s count that joke as part of my compensation. I made some money today, so I’ll go have a nice meal at a restaurant.”
“Haha. Please do. Next time, I’ll be the one to invite you first.”
“Thank you. I’ll look forward to it?”
Tirsi leaned forward with her hands clasped behind her back. She tugged down the scarf beneath her hood, revealing a little of her face as she spoke.
“Arthur. When we meet next time, call me by my real name instead of Ash. And drop the honorific, too.”
“If you do the same for me.”
“All right. It’s a deal.”
Tirsi hurried into a back alley. Was she planning to take off her scarf and hood there, like I would, before returning to the guild?
“Then goodbye. See you again, my knight.”
Tirsi stepped into the alley, then poked her head out from around the corner of the building and winked at me. Then she vanished from in front of me in an instant, as if embarrassed.
‘My knight?’
Ah, when I beat the shit out of Earthslate, had I said something about chivalry then, too?
Romania had a lot of libraries, so maybe Tirsi liked those kinds of stories.
After seeing Tirsi off, I trudged home with the weary steps of an office worker heading back after work.
Then I realized something.
“Ah.”
Fuck. I forgot to leave the recovered thesis with the Transport Guild.