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Chapter 2 – 5 (part 2)

Venting of Anger

A man who described himself as Serna's uncle showed up. He seemed to be an accounting a.s.sistant to the city's government, and the verification of ident.i.ties was very quickly finished.

The examiners had no problems during their investigation of everyone, so the slave merchant released them from their slave collars. The women were taken to a place where they could receive medical attention right away, with only Sernsan remaining behind to act as a witness.

“Well then, how should we hand over the thieves?”

I asked, but before the knight captain could answer, Flute said,

“As for Banza, that's 200,000G, and there were 2 others with a bounty on their heads for 50,000G each, so just those three alone would be over 300,000G. Then since we have the 23 captured men who will become slaves, if the market price for selling just one of them off is 100,000G then, hmm… half of 2,300,000G is 1,150,000G, and then adding in the bounty reward from before, the very lowest amount owed you is 1,450,000G.”

“Flute-san, I also have the bodies of 75 of the thieves that were killed, what should I do with those?”

I asked, and Flute seemed surprised.

“If you can prove that they were part of Banza's band of thieves, each dead body would be awarded a bonus of 10,000G for bringing them in.”

I chuckled, as adding the dead thieves would be worth at least 2,200,000G.

In contrast, the knights had a sour expression on their faces, as if they had been forced to eat an extremely bitter bug. It was because the money would usually come directly out of the knight's own budget. Even if it was only temporary, it would take months for them to replenish their coffers. It would be tough, but they would be forced to make do somehow in the meantime.

“There are also the boxes of jewels and weapons and such, what should I do with those?”

Seeing the knights in such a state, I got a bit carried away, and asked Flute for more details. Flute-san pondered for a moment and crossed her arms.

“There were 2 small boxes of jewels, 146 swords, 132 spears, 130 bows and 12,200 arrows, I believe? So then roughly estimating the total, the jewels alone would be 20,000,000G or more. The weapons were in an okay state of repair, so if one sword was worth 5,000G that would be 730,000G total, the spears going for 8,000G each would total 1,056,000G. The bows worth 2,000G each would be 260,000G, and the arrows going for 20G individually would come to 244,000G for a grand total of 2,290,000G. However, if the jewels were put up for auction in the capital, that total would be pushed even higher.”

I wondered if she had memorized all that, she answered with the price estimate so smoothly.

“Wwait a minute.”

“Something wrong?”

I asked the knight captain who had cut in, whether there was a problem.

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“As you might expect, we can't pay that kind of huge sum right away. We want to give it to you in installments.” She said.

“Just the amount for the thieves is fine. I'll take the weapons and other things to a place that'll buy them.”

I tried to show that I would only accept it in a lump sum.

“Don't you understand what kind of blow that would deal to us, the 『Knights of Gunjo City』?!”

“What about it? It doesn't concern us, now does it?”

I knew I was just venting my anger. I clearly knew these guys were totally unrelated to the soldiers from three years ago, but still from the att.i.tude they took on when they first saw me, I couldn't keep my feelings in check and saw them as the soldiers who had abandoned us and fled from Kukuri village.

When I calmed down a little and took a good look around, I saw that Lilly and her sisters standing near me had scared expressions on their faces.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, and then started to speak.

“First off, let me make this clear. Regarding this incident, you're not in a position equal to ours. Naturally, we have the upper hand.”

“Quit s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around!"

“Silence!”

The knight captain held back one of the knights who spoke out.

“Sorry. Please, continue.”

“While it was never our intention to do so, it's turned out that we've covered your a.s.ses.”

I paused, and looked around at the knights.

“Banza and his band of thieves seem to have been in that village for 3 weeks, during which time most of the villagers were killed. All because you guys were unable to capture them. We happened to come along and eliminated most of them, and arrested some. But even still, you mocked and looked down on us. Why would we be forced to do business with people like that? We have the right to choose and have zero obligation to you.”

―~――~―――~―――~――~― This chapter was translated by Refulgent for [ FourSlimes . com ―~――~―――~―――~――~―

I finished by saying ‘We're clear now?', and without another word the conversation ended.

Right after I said that, the knights finally realized why I was angry… Though they became aware, they still didn't improve their att.i.tudes.

“Isn't it obvious that you should cooperate with the knights that protect the city?!”

“But then, if they can't actually pay, you wouldn't force business with ‘the person paying out', is what I'm trying to say.”

I explained it simply to the knight who still wouldn't drop his same oppressive att.i.tude.

“What is your goal?” The knight captain asked me.

“There is no goal, I just don't do one sided deals with people I can't trust.”

“How would we gain your trust?”

I was a little taken aback. This knight captain was probably a decent young lady, but I didn't know if she was leaving out something important. I let out a sigh.

“First of all, who are you?”

I asked the most basic question I could.

“…….Huh?”

The utterance that leaked out came from the knight captain's lips.

“Meaning your name, your affiliation, your rank and what kind of authority do you hold? You haven't told me a single thing.”

For there to be a successful transaction, you had to give the right information.

“If it's just that then…”

Not responding during a business deal? It seems she wasn't even going to reply. To clam up here would be a big mistake.

“Of course it's not just that. The reason why you looked down on us and treated us like fools is another thing. There's also the part about ‘we're knights, so trade with us unconditionally', even if the other side suffers losses.”

The knight captain was still looking at me with a shocked face, but I continued.

“Furthermore, asking to pay us later on without showing us your own social status, doing business with someone constantly saying ‘quit s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around' among other things… if we were taken advantage of it would be unbearable.”

―~――~―――~―――~――~― This chapter was translated by Refulgent for [ FourSlimes . com ―~――~―――~―――~――~―

It looked like I really got to her, and the knight captain's face became red.

“There's absolutely no way I would pull a scam like that though!” She shouted at me but I paid it no mind.

“If it's this 『 I 』 we're dealing with, then won't you please tell me your lineage, so we can finally trade.”

After I said that, she finally seemed to realize what I was trying to get at, the fact that 『this kind of behavior is the same as scammers』. Seeing it differently, her face turned red and she hung her head in shame.

“You get it now? With both a lousy att.i.tude and doubts that you might be scammers… n.o.body would choose to do business in that situation, right?”

As usual, the knight captain remained looking downward quietly, but the other knights wouldn't shut up.

“b.a.s.t.a.r.d, this is treason! I'll chop off your head for that!”

He unsheathed the sword at his hip.

“Wait! Wait I said! We've made a mistake here! Even if you deal with this mess by hurting them, we'll only make an enemy of the Adventurer's guild!”

She held back the knight who drew his sword. Seeing this, Flute-san said,

“That's right. Doing something on the level of injuring 『Our Guilds Highly Antic.i.p.ated New Member』 would mean that a report about it would go out to the other guilds all throughout the continent in the blink of an eye. If it came to that, each guild would stop dispatching adventurers to this city, and someone would stop by to give you a warning, right?”

She was saying, ‘You know what that means, don't you?'. In truth, if adventurers stopped coming to this city, their business would no longer be standing, and there would be concerns over maintaining the public order.

Adventurers were widely known to play the part of “Jack of all Trades”, in both the positive and negative sense. They shouldered a big part of maintaining a city's public order and economy. The knights who understood this all too well, rather pathetically turned pale.

And if he had been serious about cutting off my head, I wouldn't have just let it roll off, too.

“I'm going to ask you again. Who are you?”

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