"Now then, it's time for some torture… I mean, some punishment. Of course, you two are joining in, right?"
"Obviously."
"…I'll participate too."
The two of them were clearly still irritated by the burglars' attitudes, so they agreed to my proposal in a flash. Amur didn't seem particularly interested, but she didn't want to be left behind either. After pretending to think it over for a moment, she said she'd join as well.
Since doing it right here would inconvenience Amy and the others, I reluctantly decided to head to the Guild and borrow the training facility. Besides, with other adventurers and staff around at the Guild, someone would stop us if we went too far… in theory. Whether anyone could actually stop us was another matter, but still.
"Alright, Amur, go ahead and secure a spot for us. We'll transport these guys by wagon."
"Got it."
Amur replied and trotted off toward the Guild. Since we were technically doing something illegal, we needed advance permission from the Guild Master. Well, in this world, criminals' rights were practically nonexistent, so it was unlikely we'd be refused. But having the Guild Master's approval versus not having it made a world of difference if things went south. Of course, if he did refuse, we'd just use our secret base inside the dungeon instead, so it wasn't a big deal either way.
"Taking them by wagon is fine, but it bugs me that they look so comfortable about it."
"Don't worry about that. I've got a plan."
"What are you going to do?"
When I explained my idea, the two of them blinked in confusion for a moment before putting on wicked grins. I thought it was quite fitting for them, though I was probably making the same expression myself as the one who'd come up with it.
We quickly made our preparations and headed for the Guild.
"Hey, look at that over there."
"What is that?"
"Pfft!"
"Are they idiots?"
People we'd been passing since a while ago were pointing and laughing at us mockingly. To be more precise, they were pointing at the wagon behind us—an open, canopy-less one—and the ones being laughed at were the burglars.
We'd loaded the burglars onto the wagon bound with rope and wearing gags, with wooden plaques hanging from their necks. The plaques listed why they'd been caught, how they'd been apprehended, and a personal statement from each one—fabricated, of course. Amy and I had come up with it. Surprisingly, Amy's messages had been even more merciless than mine. She must have had quite a lot of pent-up frustration toward those burglars.
Riding along as Shiromaru pulled the wagon, the burglars slowly became the laughingstock of the long, roundabout route to the Guild. Even if they were eventually released, they'd never be able to operate in Seigen again.
"Guild Master, I'll be borrowing the training facility."
"Go ahead. But I'll be supervising, just in case. If someone dies during a torture session in there, the Guild's reputation would take a hit and the Royal Capital would send inspectors."
Even though I'd heard this from Amur beforehand, having him agree so readily felt a bit anticlimactic. Well, I figured I might as well think of him as an accomplice if things went wrong.
With that in mind, I placed the burglars right in the center of the training facility. This was where newcomers usually received intensive training, but today there wasn't a soul around. Apparently, the Guild Master had arranged a private booking using his authority.
"Even if it's obvious to everyone nearby, it's better to have no witnesses when you're doing something illegal," he'd said.
While I was tying the burglars to chairs, Grandpa and the others started preparing large pliers and saw-like tools… It wasn't clear where they'd gotten these things, but just showing them off seemed effective. The previously defiant faces of the burglars all turned pale at once.
One of the burglars looked like he wanted to say something, so I removed his gag. He immediately began shouting in a trembling voice.
"We—we're acquainted with the executives of the 'Shadow Crimson'! Don't think you can get away with doing this to us!"
His shout seemed to steady the other burglars a little, but the Guild Master's expression grew darker by contrast.
I knew I'd heard the name 'Shadow Crimson' somewhere before—it was the name of the corrupt party Jin and the others had told me about back in the Royal Capital.
"So you dare bring up that name in front of me… You don't actually think you're going to get off scot-free, do you?"
When the Guild Master said that to the man, I felt an illusion that the temperature around us had dropped. As expected of someone who ran the Guild in a Dungeon City, his presence was first-rate.
"Hey! You there! Gather everyone from back then—now!"
"Yes, sir!"
The Guild Master barked orders toward the entrance, and replies came from behind the door, followed by the sound of several people scrambling away.
"Sorry about that, but I had staff on standby just in case. I don't think you'll need them, but if the worst happens, we have to put up at least some resistance."
The Guild Master had prepared enough of an alibi to cover himself if something went wrong. He wanted to be able to pretend he'd tried to stop us if we accidentally killed a burglar, maintaining plausible deniability. Well, I'd noticed several staff members waiting outside the door, so I'd more or less figured that was the case.
After waiting for a while, listening to the burglars' continued tirade, we heard the sound of many footsteps approaching, and the door was flung open roughly.
"Guild Master, is it true that the Crimson remnant was captured?!"
The man at the front shouted at the Guild Master. I'd seen him around the Guild a few times before. Behind him followed a group of men with similarly stern expressions. They looked like the members who'd fought Shadow Crimson, the ones Jin had mentioned earlier. The man at the front seemed to be their leader.
After exchanging a few words with the Guild Master, the men approached the burglars with furious expressions—but—
"I'd prefer it if you didn't try to steal someone else's prey."
Before they could reach them, Branca and I stepped in to block the way. Grandpa casually circled behind the men, staff at the ready, serving as a deterrent.
"…My apologies about that."
Surprisingly, the man at the front admitted his mistake and apologized immediately. The men behind him didn't look convinced, but they quickly realized they were boxed in from both sides and decided to behave.
"I understand your situation to some degree, but that doesn't give you the right to barge in and steal someone else's catch. As adventurers, that's a bit much, don't you think?"
My provocative words irritated everyone except the leader to the point where veins were bulging on their foreheads. But they were calm enough to recognize that I had a point. Well, it was also possible they simply couldn't move since they had us at their backs.
"However, depending on the conditions, I could hand these guys over… No, that's not quite right. I could share the rights to these guys with you."
"Huh?"
The man's jaw practically dropped at my change of tune. I suppose a sudden reversal like that would catch anyone off guard, but for me, this was all going according to plan.
"You want to extract information from these guys, right? And I want to make sure they never even think about bothering my acquaintances again. So what are you getting at?"
The man was suspicious of my words. But I ignored that and pressed on.
"Basically, I'm saying we could cooperate. I'm not looking to charge you anything, so there's no loss on your end. Although, if you don't like that either, I'll just hand them over after I'm done with them… as silent corpses, that is."
I let a bit of menace show to make it clear I wasn't bluffing. From my perspective, I didn't need any information about Shadow Crimson. If push came to shove, I could take these guys somewhere else and dispose of them. That might make the Seigen Adventurer's Guild an enemy—plus the city guards—but killing criminals who'd tried to harm us wouldn't be considered a serious offense. If it came to it, we could just leave the city. Besides, Amy and the onlookers had all heard the burglars threatening revenge, so self-defense was a very likely judgment. More importantly, since it was the guards who'd caught them and the promise to bring them in later was just a verbal agreement at the scene, there was no obligation to follow through. So these burglars were essentially already in my possession… What a sad world it was where human lives—especially criminals'—were treated so cheaply.
"That's certainly a generous offer on your end… But it's almost too good. Isn't there a catch?"
Just as I'd expected, he wasn't about to believe me so easily. But whether he believed me or not, the men had no choice but to go along with my proposal. They conferred for a moment and ultimately agreed to cooperate.
"Don't overthink it. We were planning to teach these guys a lesson so they'd never cause trouble again. While we're at it, we can extract the information you want too. Simple, right?"
The men stared at me blankly for about ten seconds after hearing my words, then gradually caught on and busily set about preparing for my style of education. When I say preparing, it just meant filling a bucket with water and bringing some foul-smelling liquid to use as smelling salts along with some cloth, so it didn't take long.
"Alright, shall we begin?"
Once everything was set up, I started the burglars' education. First, I presented them with a condition: either sincerely repent or provide information about Shadow Crimson, and they'd be released. Since I rotated the educator for each burglar roughly every minute, and they were blindfolded and gagged outside of their turn, they had no real opportunity to talk. Besides, the whole point was for them to suffer, so whenever one looked like they might start talking, I'd rough them up to shut them up, and if they reached their turn early, I'd seal their mouths with the gag. By the time the first burglar was released, about fifteen rounds had passed.
Once one was released, the rest followed quickly. After getting information from all of them, we learned that the burglars had merely name-dropped Shadow Crimson. Apparently, they didn't actually know much about the group and had just used the name hoping it would scare me.
The released burglars all wore expressions of relief, but whenever there was even a small sound in their blind spot, they'd cry out in panic. It seemed that during their education, while they'd been blindfolded and gagged, their ears had been left uncovered, making them hypersensitive to noise… I honestly might have gone too far.
But paying no heed to my mild remorse, the men who'd participated in the education were furious about having wasted their time on Shadow Crimson. Before leaving the Guild, the leader approached the burglars and whispered something to them. Hearing his words, the burglars turned even paler and fell into a panic, but the man ignored them and came over to me, apologizing once more for their initial rudeness.
I accepted the apology, and the men bowed once more before leaving the training facility.
"Tenma, what did he whisper to them?"
"I'm curious too."
"Me too! Me too!"
Grandpa could tell from the burglars' near-hysterical fear that the men were responsible, but he couldn't make out what had been said. Branca and Amur, who were beastkin with excellent hearing, hadn't caught it either. They looked intrigued.
"Oh, the burglars were told this… 'From now on, you'd better watch out not only for us, but for the real Shadow Crimson too.'"
Even though I'd destroyed their operation, since I'd let the executives escape, there was a possibility that a new Shadow Crimson was being assembled in secret. If that happened, and they learned that their name had been used in some petty crime that ended in failure and capture, they'd undoubtedly take revenge for the damage to their reputation. And these were the kind of people who'd made it into the nation's criminal history. Their retaliation wouldn't be half-hearted. They could very well do something so terrible that death would seem like a mercy.
The burglars had been told this, and that was what had triggered their panic. Their spirits already broken and weakened by our education, their minds couldn't endure any further fear—not even an invisible one.
After that, the burglars were handed over to the city guards who'd been summoned by the Guild staff. The guards were the same ones who'd clashed with me earlier. They kept shaking their heads at the burglars' transformation, but the Guild Master explained that they'd simply learned they might be targeted by Shadow Crimson. The guards accepted this with some skepticism but didn't press for more details.
"Well, that wraps this up. Let's head home."
Now that the immediate business was taken care of, we headed back to the apartment to explain everything to Amy. The Guild Master and the others looked like they had something to say, but with no reason to stop us, they simply saw us off.
"It's getting late. Want to grab something to eat before we go?"
"Yeah… but I don't really know what shops are around here, so you decide, Tenma."
Branca said this, and Grandpa and Amur nodded in agreement. The problem was, I didn't really know the area well either. Since I was usually with Slarin and the others, I almost never ate at restaurants. Instead, I'd buy something from a street stall or cook for myself.
"I don't know much either, so let's just pick a place at random."
The three of them looked surprised at my words, but when I explained about Slarin and the others, they understood. This was actually a pretty common occurrence among Tamers—Agri and the others had said the same thing before.
Incidentally, the restaurant we ended up going to was mediocre at best. The salt-grilled meat I'd prepared for Slarin and the others was probably better.
"They were safely taken into custody, weren't they?" Amy asked the next day.
When I reported to Amy about the burglars from the day before, she looked oddly relieved. I couldn't tell whether that "safely" referred to the burglars' lives being spared or to the fact that they'd been apprehended without any further incident.
As we talked, it turned out that several burglary incidents had occurred at inns in this neighborhood, so those burglars might have been responsible. It'd be great if the burglaries stopped, but if similar crimes continued, it might point to a copycat. Still, word of burglars being caught at this apartment would spread fast, so unless they were complete idiots or supremely confident in their skills, no one would dare target this place.
After parting ways with Amy, I visited the usual street stalls as always, searching for mithril, but I couldn't find any no matter how many places I checked.
"Tenma, let's go to the dungeon."
Amur had been following me around, eating a skewer, and suggested we go to the dungeon. But I'd just gotten back and wasn't in the mood. When I refused, Amur pouted but didn't seem inclined to go alone, so she silently fell into step behind me.
"Oh, if it isn't Tenma!"
I was startled by a voice calling from behind and turned to find Master Gants there. One of his apprentices was behind him carrying supplies, so they'd apparently come to do some shopping.
"I hear you've gathered quite a bit of mithril. How do you plan to make the horse?"
Without even exchanging proper greetings, the Master launched into questions about how to make the Tanikaze.
"Master, isn't that supposed to be a secret? Wouldn't they normally keep something that special under wraps?"
The apprentice tried to stop him, and the Master conceded with "Well, that's true," but since I'd been wanting someone's opinion anyway, I decided to consult with him. When I told him that, the Master's excitement skyrocketed and he grabbed my arm, heading toward his workshop. I was taken aback by the suddenness, but the most shocked person was his apprentice, who'd been left behind as the Master darted off at a jog. Amur, on the other hand, had no trouble keeping up with us.
Feeling bad for the apprentice, I stopped the Master halfway and went back to fetch him. The Master complained about his apprentice even though it was his own fault, but he did seem to feel a little guilty, grumbling all the way as he followed along. In the end, I carried the supplies in my Magic Bag, and we took a wagon to the workshop, but the Master's excitement remained high throughout the ride. He at least had the sense not to try prying the Tanikaze's construction details out of me with other passengers around, but the other riders had clearly written him off as a weirdo and avoided making eye contact.
"Alright, let's hear it."
The moment we entered the workshop, the Master pulled me to a desk and said this. The desk was covered with various documents and ore samples, which the Master swept aside without ceremony.
"First, I'll explain how the broken Tanikaze was made. In short, I divided it into parts at each joint, then poured molten magitek iron into molds like castings and connected them with ball joints. The advantage was that it was easy to produce and resulted in a sturdy product. The disadvantage was that it used a massive amount of magitek iron and was far too heavy."
"You said it was sturdy, but I heard it shattered when hit by a Bicorn's lightning. Based on what you're describing, wouldn't it have melted before breaking?"
The Master had a point, but that was due to my own inexperience at the time. Basically, the molten magitek iron had too many impurities mixed in, and when pouring it into the molds, I hadn't been able to fully remove all the air. When I explained this, the Master nodded in understanding.
"So, this time I was thinking of trying a new method, but—"
"Before that… If the method you're about to use is something I don't know about, I promise I won't tell anyone, and I won't try it without your permission. If you want, I'll even write a sworn oath."
The Master had one of his apprentices bring paper, and on it he'd written his name, the contents of the oath, and even the penalty for breaking it. I naturally refused, but the Master was insistent, so I was compelled to sign. Apparently, some clients who came to the Master brought requests they couldn't discuss publicly, so he was accustomed to situations like this. The penalty section read: "Upon violation of this oath, I shall become a slave."
"Now then, the new method. First, I reinforce the Bicorn's bones with metal. Then, I cover that with an outer shell of mithril armor—"
"So if even a tiny gap forms between the core metal and the mithril armor, that's a problem."
The Master immediately understood the flaw in my proposed method. If a gap formed between the core and the armor, the repeated stress of movement would cause warping and damage.
"If you're that worried about gaps, why not just make it all gaps? Make the metal around the bones thinner and the armor a bit thicker. When assembled, instead of having the bones support the structure, the armor does the supporting."
The Master's suggestion suddenly reminded me of a plastic model robot. Those had hollow interiors yet could stand perfectly well and even hold dynamic poses.
"That might actually be better… If that's the case, then rather than treating the bones as a structural core, it might be easier to think of them as channels for magic power flow. Plus, it would save on mithril."
"If that's the direction, then the rest is just hammering out the details."
After that, the Master and I discussed things at length. He'd contributed an idea and was now fully committed to the project. I was grateful for his help, but his apprentices looked rather conflicted. When I asked later, it turned out they had several rush jobs in progress, and the Golem project meant they'd be pulling all-nighters for the next several days. I'd expected them to resent me, but they were apparently interested in the fabrication process too, so it wasn't a problem.
We continued our discussion until evening, confirmed the general workflow, and then headed back to the apartment. Work was set to begin one week later, and in the meantime, we'd gather the necessary materials. The Master had wanted to start as early as tomorrow, but his apprentices managed to convince him to grant a one-week grace period. I'd supported their case by explaining that I also needed time to collect materials, which earned me quite a bit of gratitude afterward.
And now, exactly one week after our meeting, I was visiting the Master's workshop once again.
The past week had been spent dashing around collecting the remaining materials. What I was collecting, as always, was mithril, and I'd even flown all the way to the Royal Capital in my enthusiasm. The result was an additional two hundred kilograms of mithril, but things had gotten quite complicated. While searching for mithril in the Royal Capital, I'd been spotted by the Knights, who reported to the King and the others that I was in the city. I was then summoned to the royal castle. Fortunately, Maria and the others arrived just in time to stop the King, Lyle, and Luna from going on another rampage, so I was released quickly. But until Maria showed up, the King and the others had been dead set on following me back to Seigen and were even trying to rearrange their schedules. I'd been sitting there desperately figuring out how to escape. Even if I had gotten away from the castle, those types would probably just show up in Seigen and unilaterally join the Golem project, completely without regard for anyone else's convenience.
Now that the King and the others knew about the new Tanikaze, they'd definitely get on my case if I didn't show it to them eventually.
"Alright, Tenma. Let's get started."
At the Master's words, I set aside my Royal Capital troubles for now and took the mithril out of my Magic Bag, handing it to the Master. We were about to begin the process of melting and forging the mithril. I'd had the Master and his apprentices prepare casting molds based on the original Tanikaze parts. We'd pour mithril into these molds and then hammer and forge them into shape, little by little. The silver needed for forging mithril had been prepared in large quantities.
"Now that I think about it, I was really lucky to have the Master's help. There's no way I could have forged mithril armor without distorting its shape on my own."
If it were a simple shape, I was confident I could forge it to a usable standard through practice. But trying to forge something from a cast mold like this would have been impossible. At best, I could have produced armor with a smooth surface and nothing more.
"Yeah, be grateful! This is the first time I've taken on something this large-scale too, but I've made armor using the same method multiple times, so just sit back and ride the big ship!"
The Master picked up on my muttered words and said this with a confident grin. I gave a wry smile at his demeanor and set about the work assigned to me.
My task was to coat the core bones with mithril. The bones were carved with the circuits used for physical enhancement and similar purposes, and I needed to carefully fill those grooves with mithril. If I messed this up, it could result in something like three legs being enhanced while one remained normal, causing it to suddenly buckle while running. To prevent that, I sketched the design multiple times before carving, tested on wooden dowels of the same size beforehand, and had Grandpa do the final check. Thanks to all this, I was now severely sleep-deprived.
"Alright, let's begin! Don't lose focus!"
"Right!"
The Master's shout prompted me to respond along with the apprentices without thinking. Amur, who'd been watching from a corner of the workshop, later remarked that "Tenma looked like he was apprenticing under the Master."