Serial Post #4
When we got off the carriage and headed toward the gate, the familiar gatekeeper who already knew us was there.
"I know it's about time to close the gate, but could you wait just a little longer?"
"No matter how promising a newcomer the Adventurers' Guild considers you, the rules can't be bent."
Despite his words, his face was smiling.
"Yeah, I know that. But the village we took a request from yesterday was attacked by a bandit group of around a hundred."
When I briefly explained the situation, the gatekeeper called over his companions and immediately sent messengers to the relevant departments.
"Sorry, but could you have evidence or witnesses ready that can verify this?"
"Got it. Also, could you send a messenger to the Adventurers' Guild?"
When I made that request, I was told they'd already sent someone.
I went back to the carriage and relayed everything to Lily and the others, and it was decided that Serna would serve as the witness, while Banza and the captured bandits would serve as evidence.
Since Serna had relatives in this village, I informed the gatekeeper and had them bring her over.
After about ten minutes, the first to arrive was the Vice Guild Master from the Adventurers' Guild, sprinting over at an incredible pace.
She was a small, baby-faced human woman named Flute.
"Is everyone alright?!"
She was out of breath as she checked each of us to confirm our safety. It seemed she'd only been told that we'd been attacked by bandits, so she'd been in a panic.
Later, I heard she'd cornered the gatekeeper and demanded that accurate information be relayed from now on.
"I did think it was strange. With Tenma there, there's no way you'd be outmatched by some mere bandits... but..."
She said this while giving a strangely high assessment of us, wearing a wry smile.
We gave Flute a simple rundown of what had happened, and asked her especially about the weapons in the storeroom, the women who'd been enslaved, and the bandits led by Banza.
As it turned out, we had rights to the food, gemstones, and weapons — though for the gemstones and weapons specifically, if their original owners were clearly identified, they would likely be returned in exchange for an equivalent sum of money.
The women would undergo screening — identity confirmation and checks for lies, among other things — and those found to have no issues would be released one by one. In their case, we couldn't claim ownership, but the city or guild would pay out some amount of compensation money, and if any of them weren't released, then rights would be established, apparently.
As for the bandits, the capture bounty and any posted reward (if one existed) would definitely be paid out, plus we'd receive half the sale price if the prisoners were sold as slaves.
"Quite the haul, isn't it?" Flute said with a smile.
Just then, five knights arrived, bringing along a slave merchant, a female inspector (someone who could use inspection magic), and about fifteen soldiers.
"Adventurers who captured the bandits — report here immediately!"
One of the knights called out in a rather high-handed tone, but I stepped forward without letting it bother me.
"I'm Tenma, leader of the party that captured the bandits."
When I introduced myself, the knights took on mocking expressions—
"Don't lie to us! False declarations are a serious offense. Tell us the truth!"
"I have no reason or need to lie. We captured them."
"Don't be ridiculous! Banza over there is the one we couldn't manage to capture! He's not the kind of opponent some brats and little girls could take down!"
They started shouting like that. Every knight except one was acting the same way. I was getting increasingly fed up, so—
"If he's someone that brats and little girls could handle, then the fact that you were struggling with him means you're all incompetent, doesn't it?"
I told them. The knights' faces turned bright red, but before they could stop me—
"We're not handing the bandits over to you. We'll take them to another city, explain the situation there, and have them taken in by the appropriate authorities. Sorry for your wasted effort. By all means, feel free to return to your duties."
I said this with a mocking tone and turned on my heel.
"Don't screw with us! Do you want to die?!"
"Could someone who was struggling against the likes of Banza even manage that?"
When I turned around to provoke them, one of the knights drew his sword and lunged at me—but
"Stop it!
How disgraceful!
Have you no shame as a knight?!"
One of the knights who had been silent until now raised her voice. From the pitch, it sounded like a woman.
"So..."
"The Captain..."
"...has finally..."
"...shown herself?"
When I said that, I could feel a wave of unease pass through the knights, the woman included.
"You knew? I thought I was concealing it well enough."
"Yes, I figured it out right away. Your presence was far too different from the rest."
I stated this flatly, without letting on that it had been mostly a guess.
"Is that so. My subordinate was rude. But please, don't provoke people without reason."
"That depends on who I'm dealing with."
I deflected with a vague answer.
"Well, that's fine. But even if not to the same degree as him, I'm also curious—did you really destroy an entire bandit gang with just the four of you?"
Since he was asking me whether it was true, I said—
"Well, I'm not sure it'll count as proof, but allow me to demonstrate my combat strength."
The moment I said that, the knights tensed up—
"Oh, don't worry. I won't do anything to harm you."
With that, I pulled the Golem cores from my bag, tossed them into an empty spot, and summoned them.
The summoned Golems consisted of about 10 large ones, 30 medium ones, and 30 small ones. I could still summon more, but that should be enough.
From another bag, I brought out Shiromaru.
The knights froze in awe at the sight of the Golems, then panicked when they saw Shiromaru.
"This is my fighting force. By the way, Shiromaru… this wolf is currently a Monsters with A-rank-level power."
The moment they heard Shiromaru's rank, one of the knights drew his sword. It was probably a reflexive action, but Shiromaru interpreted it as a hostile move and lunged forward — except I grabbed his tail and pulled him back.
"Kyaaa!"
Shiromaru let out a little yelp. I gave him a light scolding and then looked toward the knights. Every last one of them except their captain had gone weak in the knees.
Can't really blame them. Even setting aside the A-rank part, having a wolf nearly three meters tall leap at you would be terrifying enough for even a knight — especially one without much combat experience.
"Y-you bastard! That was a clear act of hostility! Do you have any idea what you've done!"
The knight who had collapsed shouted from the ground.
"You've got it wrong. You were the ones who drew your swords and pointed them at me first. And besides, we're not in the middle of the city. This is textbook self-defense!"
Reacting to my anger, Shiromaru let out a low growl. The whole thing sounded like the kind of thuggish posturing you'd hear from some street punk — 'Try me, I dare you' — but I decided to ignore it.
"Both of you, enough! You were wrong to suspect him in the first place, so would you please recall that wolf?"
It came across as more of a command than a request, but I agreed. I put Shiromaru back into the bag and retrieved the Golem cores.
Watching Shiromaru disappear back into the bag, the knights stood there with their mouths hanging open in utter disbelief.
It was around that time that a man claiming to be Miss Serna's uncle showed up. He turned out to be an accounting assistant at the city council, so his identity was verified without delay.
From there, the examiner went through each person one by one. Since nobody had any issues, the slavers began removing the collars one at a time. The women were promptly taken to the medical clinic, but Miss Serna alone remained as a witness.
"So, how shall we handle the handover of the thieves?"
Before the captain could answer, Fruito-san spoke up.
"Banza had 200,000 G, plus two bounties of 50,000 G each, so those three alone exceed 300,000 G. On top of that, there are 23 male captives who'll be sold as slaves. At a market price of 100,000 G per person… that's 2,300,000 G, and half of that is 1,150,000 G. Combined with the bounties, the minimum payout comes to 1,450,000 G."
"Fruito-san, we've got 75 corpses of the bandits we killed. What should we do with them?"
When I asked that, Fruito-san looked surprised for a moment—
"If you can prove they belonged to Banza's bandit gang, 10,000 G per corpse is paid out as subjugation compensation."
"Just from the bandits alone, that's at least 2,200,000 G," she said with a smile.
In contrast, the knights looked as though they were chewing on bitter worms. That was because the payment had been decided to come temporarily from the knights' order budget. Even calling it temporary, the order's funds wouldn't be replenished for several months, making it extremely difficult to manage during that time.
"What about the other gems and weapons?"
Seeing the knights' reactions, I got a little carried away and asked Fruito-san once more. Fruito-san crossed her arms and went "Hmm…"
"There are two small boxes of gemstones, 146 swords, 132 spears, 130 bows, and 12,200 arrows. Going by a rough calculation, the gems are worth at least 20,000,000 G. The weapons were of decent quality, so the swords at 5,000 G each come to 730,000 G, the spears at 8,000 G each to 1,056,000 G, the bows at 2,000 G each to 260,000 G, and the arrows at 20 G each to 244,000 G — totaling 2,290,000 G. The gems would fetch even more if put up for auction at the Royal Capital, though."
She must have had it all memorized, because she rattled off the price estimates without hesitation.
"W-wait a moment."
"What is it?"
I looked back at the captain, who had interjected, with an expression that asked whether there was some problem—
"We obviously can't pay such a large sum all at once. We'd like to arrange a deferred payment."
That was what he said.
"Just the bandits is fine. We'll take the weapons somewhere else that's willing to buy them."
I made it clear that I would only accept payment as a lump sum.
"Do you have any idea how much of a blow that is to us, the 'Gunjou City Knights'!"
"And how does that concern us? It's not our problem, is it?"
I know this is close to taking my frustration out on them. These people—
Three
years
ago— I knew in my head that they had nothing to do with those soldiers, but when I saw that condescending attitude at first, it overlapped with the soldiers who had abandoned us and fled Kukuri Village, and I couldn't contain my emotions.
Calmly looking around, I caught sight of Lily and the others nearby, their expressions fearful.
I took several deep breaths to calm myself, then spoke.
"First of all, let me make one thing perfectly clear. When it comes to this matter, you and I are 'not on equal footing.' Of course, we're the ones on top."
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"Shut up!"
The captain restrains one of the knights who pushed back.
"Sorry about that. Please continue."
"We didn't intend to do it, but what we did was, in effect, cleaning up your mess."
I pause my words and look over the knights.
"Apparently, the Banzas had been in that village for about three weeks. In that time, most of the villagers were killed—because you failed to capture them. We just happened to be the ones who defeated and subjugated them. And yet you mocked us and looked down on us. Why should we have to make deals with people like you? We have the right to choose you—"
"Right-"
"-s—"
"we have, but no"
"obliga-"
"-tion."
"There isn't one."
Without saying it aloud, I ended the conversation with: "Are you perhaps mistaken about that?"
By this point, the knights finally understood why I was upset... though even understanding it wouldn't make them the type to change their attitude.
"It's only natural to cooperate with the knight order that protects the city!"
"So what I'm saying is, if you can't pay, there's no need to force it — we'll make a deal with someone who can pay."
I explained plainly to the knight who still wouldn't drop his high-handed attitude.
"What's your objective?"
the captain asked.
"Objective, nothing — I just don't want to make a one-sided deal with someone I can't trust."
"What would it take for you to trust us?"
I was starting to get a bit exasperated. This captain must be from some well-to-do family, and she hadn't even realized she hadn't shared the crucial information with me. I sighed,
"First of all, you are"
"Who"
"exactly?"
I asked the most basic of questions.
"...Huh?"
A bewildered voice leaked from the captain's mouth.
"So — your name, your affiliation, your rank, and what kind of authority do you hold? We haven't been told a single one of these things."
When it came to making a deal,
at minimum
about
the
fact that they had not presented the required information.
"So that's all there is to it..."
He didn't seem to voice the thought that the deal was refused over something so trivial. But from my perspective, it was a major issue.
"Of course, that's not the only reason. Looking down on me and treating me like an idiot was also part of it. But saying 'I'm a knight, so deal with me unconditionally'—even if I suffer a loss, there's nothing to be gained from that."
The captain was still staring at me with a dumbfounded expression, so I continued.
"Furthermore, going into business with someone who demands post-payment without even revealing their identity—how ridiculous is that? If I were to be swindled, it would be an utter disaster."
That one seemed to hit a nerve, because the captain's face turned red.
"As if I would ever pull some kind of scam!"
He shouted, but I couldn't have cared less.
"I haven't been told the identity of this so-called 'I' of yours, so I'm not making any deals."
When I said that, it finally seemed to dawn on him that what he had been attempting was, in fact, the same behavior as a con artist. His face turned red for an entirely different reason, and he looked away.
"Got it now, did you? Nobody in their right mind would willingly do business with someone who has a terrible attitude and might be a fraud."
The captain continued to look away, but the other knights weren't staying silent.
"You— that's lese-majeste! I'll have your head for this!"
One of them drew the sword at his hip.
"Stop! Hold it right there! This matter is entirely our fault! And if you were to harm this person over this, we'd end up making an enemy of the Adventurers' Guild!"
He restrained the knight who had drawn his sword. Seeing this, Flute nodded.
"Quite right. If word got out that our guild's 'most promising newcomer' was harmed over something this trivial, the news would spread to every guild across the continent in no time. And when that happened, every guild would halt the dispatch of adventurers to this city and issue warnings to stay away."
"You understand what that means, don't you?" she said. If adventurers were actually driven out of this city, the businesses that depend on them would crumble, and the deterioration of public safety would become a serious concern.
Whether in a good or a bad sense, adventurers known as "jacks-of-all-trades" play a huge role in the city's economy and in maintaining law and order.
Understanding all of this, the knights had gone so pale it was almost pitiful. If such a thing actually came to pass, it wouldn't just be their heads on the chopping block — and that was meant in the literal sense, too.
"Then, on that note, let me ask you once more. Who are you?"