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Chapter 2 – 12 (part 1)
Confession
After the duel, we made our way to the Knight Headquarters. It was me, the Duke, Primera and the Guild Leader together. But there was another, someone secretly following a little bit behind us.
At the Knight Headquarters, we borrowed a conference room, and started discussion on the matters at hand.
“Well, let"s get started then. First, let"s talk about how to deal with Geese and his group…”
The Duke started the discussion.
“Duke-sama, before we get into the conversation, isn"t there someone you should to introduce to all of us?”
I said, then looked in the direction of the door. The duke replied, ‘Yes, there is." and then said,
“Come in.”
After his call, from behind the door appeared…
“Why is one of Regil"s men here!?”
…the hooded man. Primera was cautious and immediately reached for her sword.
“The reason I"m here, is that I am the Duke"s subordinate.”
He said, as I held Primera"s hand back.
“Huh? What do you mean?! Father!” Primera said, quite confused.
“Basically, he just said he was a spy sent by the Duke, made to stay close to Regil.”
‘That"s right" the Duke and the man turned toward me and both confirmed it.
“Isn"t it great? You should understand what"s happened up until now, then. It"s just as he said, he is my subordinate and mostly gathered intelligence secretly.”
he confessed, easily. The man replied, a bit agitated,
“Duke-sama! Telling them about this is going to get in the way of future plans!”
The man replied as if it was of the utmost importance.
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“Well, it can"t be helped. It"s already been leaked to Tenmkun, Primera is my daughter, and the Guild Leader… is a man who doesn"t bother getting into trouble.”
We all agreed while listening, and the Guild Leader nodded.
“Well, if the Duke talks about all of you like that, I"ll trust you as well.”
He said. He then turned to face all of us,
“I was on the enemy"s (Regil) side before, but only temporarily supporting them. I am unable to divulge the name.”
“Stiyl, it"s fine. Greet them properly.”
The Duke seemed to trouble this man… Stiyl, to no end.
“……I am Stiyl. I am working for the Duke.”
He gave his self introduction with a touch of disdain. According to Appraisal:
Name: Stiyl
Age: 29
Race: Human
t.i.tle: Intelligence Agent ・ a.s.sa.s.sin
HP: 17,000
MP: 10,000
Strength: B
Defense: B-
Speed: A
Magic: B-
Mind: A
Growth: C+
Luck: B-
He had considerable strength.
“Just as I thought, you weren"t just an ordinary man.”
After I said that, a bitter expression came over his face.
“If I were to fight you head on, probably 9 times out of 10… no, maybe some odds even higher than that… I would"ve probably lost.” He said.
“Yet you"re confident you would win if you attacked from behind?”
I tried asking him a mean spirited question, but Stiyl"s expression didn"t change.
“From behind it"s a little more likely than head on.” he said indifferently.
In manga set in the past, it was said that ninjas were the ultimate realists, with a firm grip on reality. Stiyl seemed similar to that type.
“We"ve gone off topic. Let"s get back on track. I will sell the rights to Geese and his group to you, as we previously agreed upon. That"s alright with you?”
“Very well. Speaking of Regil, please deal with him as we mentioned in our previous meeting.”
And with that, the negotiations were over for the most part.
“What will become of Geese and Regil in the future?”
“Geese"s crimes will be investigated, and the sentence could be as light as forced labor in a mine, or all the way down to the death penalty. Regil will most likely receive the death penalty. They will be transferred to the Royal Capital during the deliberation, but only to investigate the possibility of treason. Much of the decision making power lies with me. If they are found guilty of treason, Regil"s entire family could face the death penalty. Otherwise only Regil alone would be sentenced to death.”
said the Duke. He paused for a moment,
“Well, even if there was some kind of interference and he escaped the death penalty somehow, he would at least be stripped of his n.o.ble rank and his personal a.s.sets would be confiscated. Additionally, he would probably become a slave.”
Despite my better discretion, I laughed and said,
“Then after this is all over, will you be giving me a reward?”
I asked. The Duke scratched his head while he replied,
“Hm, about that. He owns a lot of hidden a.s.sets, and it could take over a year for his crimes to be decided upon and all the calculations to be made. So I"ll give you your portion of the obvious a.s.sets first, and then afterwards the hidden a.s.sets portion, after they"ve been calculated. How"s that?” he proposed.
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Since I wasn"t currently troubled by money, I replied,
“That plan sounds fine. Please notify the guild when we"re done here. I occasionally go there to check up on things.”
He agreed and we drafted the contract. Just the same as before, me, the Duke, and the guild all had a copy for safekeeping.
The contract stated that, in the unlikely event that the Duke suffered some misfortune, the contract would still be fulfilled and to ensure this, Primera signed as a witness.
“And that completes the contract! Now, Tenmkun. Here is 1,000,000G for Geese"s group, and then the 1,500,000G for Regil"s a.s.sets.”
He pa.s.sed me a bag totalling 2,500,000G.
“The preparations really went well. You didn"t think I would have any complaints?”
After hearing that, I was mildly annoyed that the Duke had prepared everything so well.
“For now, Will Tenmkun be staying around this area still?
Hearing the Duke"s question, I gave it a little thought.
“Soon, I think I"m going to leave this city.”
I said, as I had actually been considering it lately.
“Do you have some goal in mind?”
“Rather than a goal, it"s more like an objective. Eventually, I want to travel all throughout the Forest of the Elder.”
They were memories I didn"t really want to bring up again. But only after the words were out did I remember the reason I had stayed here.
“I have some emotional attachment to that forest. So that"s why I"d like to try to make my way through it.”
“That"s the forest where the Kukuri Village incident happened…?”
Right when the name of the Village was spoken, my body became tense for a moment. Unfortunately, the three people here wouldn"t miss a sign like that.
Each of their responses was different: one was intensely interested, another was overwhelmed with concern and the last annoyed.
“Is there any special reason in particular?”
After the Duke asked, I inwardly thought ‘d.a.m.nit!"
“Yes. I had heard that my relatives had been involved with that incident and they all died……”
I bent the truth a little, then the Duke replied,
“Didn"t you go to check?”
he asked. In order for my story to make sense, I rearranged it some,
“Yeah. At the time I was only 12, and I had been far away from the village. At the same time that my parents had died, other people who I had cherished pa.s.sed away as well, and I was too scared to go and confirm it all.”
I added, ‘but I really regret it now". The Duke seemed to be somewhat suspicious of the story.
“Is that so… if that"s the case, then nothing can be done. Kukiri Village is now abandoned but I"ve heard that many of the remaining survivors moved to Russel City or the royal capital. If you somehow get the chance to, you should go there and see if you can find out anything about your relatives.”
he said, not prying too deeply into it. Only then, did I realize that it would have been nice to let someone know, way back then, that I was alive and going out on my own journey.
After that, the atmosphere surrounding the discussion became a bit complicated, so we quickly finished our talk.
As I went back, I decided I"d stop by the guild to sort out my winnings from the bet.
“It"s Tenma~”
“Tenma, congrats!”
“I just knew Tenma would win~!”
“Congratulations. Tenmsan.”
After entering the guild, Lilly, her sisters and Flute greeted me warmly.
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“Were you guys waiting for me?”
I asked. The catgirls replied with ‘yeah!" while Flute said,
“I returned to my job after the duel. I received plenty of compensation for the time I was temporarily suspended.”
She put on an expression that said she was content. …it seems she really did get a considerable amount of money. As you"d expect of the vice Guild Leader, she overlooked nothing when it came to money.
“By the way, Tenmsan. Where is the Guild Leader?”
I checked behind me.
“He disappeared before I even realized it, I thought he said he was going to go back to the guild… but he hasn"t returned?”
After I finished, behind Flute a hannya appeared… or at least it looked like it.
“Fu fu fu, that old geezer really has some nerve. When he"s back, I"ll show him some h.e.l.l.”
…That was the moment when a messenger from h.e.l.l appeared in the guild. As an aside, later that evening in the city (mainly around the Guild) the screams of a man echoed far and wide, so loud that the knights were sent in.
“anyways, Flute-san aside from that, I came here about my money…”
After saying that, the hannya temporarily disappeared from behind Flute.
“Oh, right. Please show me your betting ticket…… Okay, looks good. Please wait for just a moment.”
she said, then went into a room in the back. Around 10 minutes later, Flute came back with a bag.
“I have here the 3,600,000G that you won from the bet. Please look it over.”
Looking inside the bag, there were 36 large gold coins.
“I"m very sorry, but we"re short on platinum coins so the payment is in large gold coins.”
she explained. Either way was fine with me, so as usual I took only the coins and gave the bag back to her.
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