Chapter 34
――【Bright Night】.
It was the name of a massive dark guild that would rule the Lyon region more than a decade from now.
Its leader was Gregorio, the mayor, making it a truly splendid dark guild with a sitting public official at its helm.
What's more, astonishingly, no one discovered that Lyon's mayor was the leader of a dark guild until all his crimes were exposed by protagonist Sieg-kun in the latter half of the original.
It was so meticulously planned, it almost brought me to tears.
No doubt about it.
It was all connected after all.
"Haaah..."
A sigh escaped me before I knew it.
...What a truly troublesome mayor.
I wanted to tell him to do his job. Just do his job.
In public, he apparently handled all the practical affairs flawlessly in place of the unreliable lords (Ultos's parents), while behind the scenes, he was happily growing a dark guild.
I understood that he was capable, but I wished he'd put that ability to use elsewhere.
Seriously.
And as I stood there, feeling drained and thinking, So it was him after all—
"Ah, you'll understand soon enough, too. There's a part of the world you shouldn't stick your nose into just because you think you know everything!!!!" Bandit A shouted.
"You think you can mess with me and get away with it???? 【Bright Night】 may be a new guild, but nobody who's ever crossed us has lived to tell the tale!!!"
"……I see."
Having already ordered Enrique to beat up more than ten people on the way here, I had no idea how to respond, so I listened to Bandit A's madly laughing speech with an awkward look.
...And if we're being honest, I'm planning to send Enrique charging into Hafen Village after this, so the casualties on the 【Bright Night】 side will probably multiply several times over.
"Kukuku, it's too late to regret it now, Masked Bastard!!!!"
Seeing me fall silent, Bandit A seemed to think I'd been intimidated.
He continued, looking absolutely delighted.
"I've got a wonderful present for you!!! Want to know how we're different from other dark guilds??? Listen up! Nobody knows who runs this guild!!"
"What?"
The man, sneering at me as if to say, "Impressive, right?" kept going.
"Nobody knows his name!! Everyone who's tried to find out the boss's name has been eliminated!!! Have you ever heard of a guild this terrifying???? And yet we've infiltrated deep into Lyon!!! That's right, we're monsters!!! Have you ever heard our boss's name?!?! You haven't!!!"
"Get lost!" Bandit A spat at me, looking utterly triumphant.
"...I see."
I understood how it worked. Gregorio seemed to have taken great care in running the guild.
Can't be helped.
I decided to drop a bombshell on the triumphant man.
"Ah, Mayor Gregorio."
"That's right!!! Alongside Mayor Gregorio, we're going to rule all of Lyon!!!! There's no way I'd tell you where our hideout is!!!"
"Oh, really?"
"Our plan is perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!"
――――――――――――――Huh???
"Huh?"
"Huh??"
A moment of silence.
――The bandit's face, which had been so animated as he spoke, froze for the first time.
"..."
"..."
"M-Mayor Gregorio...????"
"That's right."
The man looked utterly unable to understand.
He'd just been hit with the astonishing spoiler of a truth that wouldn't be revealed until more than a decade from now, and was completely dumbfounded.
"W-Wait a minute. You're joking, right? Gregorio's the mayor of Lyon, isn't he?"
"Yeah."
"The same Gregorio who's so charming and handsome, and popular with the ladies of Lyon...?"
"That's right."
"..."
"..."
A brief silence followed.
A distinctly awkward atmosphere settled between us.
A gentle breeze drifted by.
The night breeze felt wonderful.
It was a lovely night.
Unfortunately, though, I was fully intent on making him talk for the sake of my future.
"I-I mean, I don't think that's possible... Masked Bastard—no, Masked Sir. Why would a mayor have his own town attacked?"
"..."
I get how you feel.
From an outsider's perspective, it makes no sense.
"..."
But I silently urged Bandit A to continue.
"Huh? Well, now that you mention it, the knights' patrols that should've been going around were postponed quite a bit because there was a nobles' meeting in Lyon... And somehow, our guild's the only one that's managed to avoid getting raided..."
The man seemed to remember something; as he spoke, he grew paler by the moment.
"W-Wait, our boss... is Mayor Gregorio...????"
Bandit A's stunned voice rang out around us—
"By the way, a little farther up ahead, that son of Rain's is laid up after being beaten to a pulp."
"Rain's son?! What the hell are you talking about?! Who would do something that insane?!"
"You were supposed to, but I did it."
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH?!?!?!?!?!?!"
Bandit A screamed, looking utterly consumed by fear.
"Y-You said your name was Genesis, right?? What the hell are you trying to do?!?!"
"This makes no sense!" the trembling man cried.
I gave Bandit A a breezy reply.
What am I trying to do?
That's obvious.
Of course, what I want is—
"A life as a background character."
"…Huh????"
And so.
In the end, from the completely terrified man,
I got him to say, "I-I get it. Just don't do anything else to me. I'll tell you where the hideout is, everything, so please, just never get involved in my life again," and then I took off toward the enemy's hideout.
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
Bandit A, terrified by the masked man's incomprehensible behavior—casually naming the leader of a guild whose boss's name nobody knew and beating up the son of a famous knight commander—spills the location of the hideout.