Surviving on the Northern Front with Gukbap

Chapter 91 : Calm Before the Storm (2)

Calm Before the Storm (2)

Jeros showed me the Duchy Knight Order's unique swordsmanship, "White Fang".

This was clear proof that Jeros was an apprentice knight of the White Fang, but at the same time, it intentionally left traces that could have led to suspicion of being Heroni's spy.

That was why I came to this conclusion.

'Jeros deliberately took on the false charge of being a spy as part of a White Fang mission.'

Of course, this doesn't make much sense, logically speaking.

Why would the knight order, charged with protecting the Duchy, deliberately sow confusion within their own military unit?

There were more than a few suspicious points.

So, I decided to dig into Jeros's traces,

intending to collect and analyze more information about Jeros and then report it to the battalion commander.

And as it happened, a connection to Derek emerged because of the mess Naba made.

I seized the chance and stormed in here.

"I want to know everything about what happened between you and Jeros."

In response to my question, Derek crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair as he answered.

"You sure are curious about the most trivial things. Geez, what a buzzkill."

Whether he mocked me or not, I kept my stern expression.

The nuance was: just answer the question, stop with the pointless chatter.

"It's not hard to tell you what happened between us and that guy. But... why do you care? Especially now that Jeros is gone."

Candlelight reflected and flickered in his eyes.

But there was no need for me to say something like, 'I'm tracking Jeros.'

"Why do adventurers talk so much? Just answer the damn question."

At my words, Captain Hook curled his lips in a sneering laugh.

"What happened between us and Jeros, huh? You must mean that, right?"

"Probably."

In the past, Jeros had said that "Even if there's a clash with adventurers while protecting Naba, I can't step up."

He'd also said, "Of Derek's underlings, the useful ones were all killed by me."

"Looking back, quite a bit of time has passed."

Apparently, it was two years ago that Jeros first appeared in Granfen as a guard.

From the very start, they said, he came off as crazy.

"I've never seen a guard more money-obsessed than an adventurer."

Still, Jeros wasn't as cocky as he is now.

He was much more restrained than the side of him we know.

'So he hid his true nature at first.'

As expected.

Jeros was secretly planted as an apprentice knight by the knight order of the Duchy.

There was no reason for him to go around bragging, 'I'm an apprentice knight!'

"Jeros sent money through us every month. An amount way too large for a guard's salary. He probably sent it to an orphanage in the capital. What was the name again...?"

When Derek trailed off, another underling cut in.

"Dagnes."

"That's right! It was Dagnes. Jeros's surname was Dagnes, too, I think?"

I frowned.

He sent money to an orphanage?

"How much did he send?"

"Anything from 10 shillings to 15 at the most. Recently, he's gotten hold of more money, so it's gone up several times."

Considering a private's monthly pay is 2 shillings, that's a massive sum.

Also, if it's increased recently by several times, that means he sent all the money I earned for him directly to the orphanage.

'Why would he do that?'

If you thought about it normally, it just seemed like donations—

But since he kept sending such large amounts ceaselessly, suspicion was natural.

"In any case, it was about half a year after Jeros showed up in Granfen that something happened."

Derek's face suddenly twisted, perhaps recalling a bad memory.

"One of my underlings... that bastard siphoned off his money, damn it!!"

Finally, Derek slammed the chair's armrest down hard.

With a crack, wood chips scattered to the floor.

"It wasn't just once. He siphoned off the money three months in a row, and when Jeros found out, he barged in."

Totally believable for money-crazed Jeros, but hmm.

"So what happened?"

"Zbaum. You were there, why don't you explain from here."

Next, a tough-looking guy who'd been standing behind Derek spoke up.

"That day, Jeros was just like you are today."

Huh? What the hell does that mean?

"He kicked the door in and stormed inside. We replaced the door with something much stronger after that. Hmph."

No wonder my foot hurt when I tried kicking it with mana.

"That guy with the slit eyes demanded, without warning, 'Who stole my money?'"

At that moment, the adventurers said they thought Jeros must be drunk.

No matter how much of a military village this was,

an ordinary guard, just a private, couldn't just storm in by himself.

Someone said, then:

― You dumbass guard. If you can't trust an adventurer, make the delivery yourself. Why bust down our door and act up? You got a death wish or something?

While everyone laughed hysterically at the remark,

suddenly the heavy scent of blood filled the air.

seok. pwaak. thud.

"That was the start."

One, two, three, four—

Heads lopped off at a speed you couldn't even see, bodies collapsing to the ground.

"In no time, it was a sea of blood, and I realized I survived purely because I wasn't laughing. Then he spoke again."

"......"

"'Where's my money? Bring it. Now.'"

It was so unmistakably Jeros that I almost laughed out loud,

but Zbaum stayed deadly serious.

"But at that time, we didn't have enough spare cash to pay him back. In the end, he went to find the big bosses—and killed them all."

"See this?"

Derek raised his hook, where his wrist should be.

"That's the handiwork of that bastard Jeros."

"... But he didn't kill you? Why'd he spare you?"

Derek chuckled as he answered my question.

"An outsider's always an outsider. You didn't even know which guild I'm under, or about our 'guild of widow-plunderers' father."

What kind of guild backs this punk that he can act so high and mighty?

"Ever heard of 'Scarlet Sand Blade'?"

Huh? What did he just say?

"Kuh! Of course. Even an outsider like you must have heard of Scarlet Sand Blade. Ha ha ha!"

Goddammit, obviously.

Even though I never cared about the world or the background—

'There's no way I wouldn't know the continent's largest adventurer guild, at least at the start of the game.'

In the game, they would fade away in the middle or late stages when crushed by my character,

but in this world, it must've been easy to survive.

'The Mercenary King Gardoc is dead, but that old man is still alive? Seriously, how old is he?'

Also, if Captain Hook called Scarlet Sand Blade his father's guild—

"That's right! I am Derek Rednap, 48th son of the Blade Emperor Rednap!"

So that's why, even in this remote village, he strutted around as leader of the adventurer's guild.

So he's Blade Emperor's son?

'No matter what happens, I must not kill Derek.'

The Blade Emperor pursued vengeance to the ends of hell if anyone killed his blood.

Even if it's his 48th son, it's no exception.

But hey, as long as I don't kill him, it's fine.

"Must be nice having so many siblings. Anyway, what I'm getting is—you guys intercepted the money, Jeros lost it and exploded, and this incident's the reason you made a non-aggression deal with him. Right?"

"... Y-yes, that's it."

With this, I managed to piece a few things together.

Originally, Jeros didn't want to reveal his abilities,

but ended up doing so unintentionally.

But does that make sense?

'And yet, Jeros wasn't pulled out of his infiltration mission, and stayed in Granfen all along. Hmm.'

Why could that be?

Why stick around Granfen until now, only to disappear at this point?

"All right, onto my second question."

"Fire away."

I grasped at straws and asked,

"Not the stuff Jeros sent, but what he received? Any secret pigeons or objects sent to him through you?"

Derek signaled to that Zbaum guy, who slipped out and returned to say,

"In total, there were just two secret pigeons addressed to Jeros, one in January this year and another in March two years ago."

Only two, huh.

And a huge gap between them.

Did he deliberately leave no traces?

"You don't know what was in them, right?"

"By principle, we never look at them, and even if we did with someone else's, we wanted nothing to do with Jeros's secret pigeons."

I agree, honestly.

"Anything besides pigeons that came in or out?"

"Nothing except for the money he sent."

So much for my second question.

Turns out there were just two secret pigeons over the past two years.

'If only I knew the contents. Frustrating.'

As I was lost in thought, the door suddenly banged open.

"!!"

Everyone's gaze, including mine, turned to the door,

and when I saw Evan panting heavily in the doorway, my nostrils flared.

'He woke up quicker than I thought. He can really take a beating.'

Evan, blood spitting from his mouth, shouted in garbled words.

"Don' be fooled, boss!"

"... What?"

"That bastard—he... he said he'd spare me, that was a blatant lie! He was going to kill me!!"

By now, other adventurers had clustered around Evan.

All of them glared at me like they wanted me dead.

Naturally, Derek was getting swept up in the mood too.

"That outsider punk... you're gonna mock me with your filthy tongue?"

Captain Hook slowly stood up from his seat,

and I too found it impossibly hard to stay seated and leaped up, shouting back.

"Unbelievable, this ungrateful bastard. Evan, you jerk! At least tell the truth! I stopped Naba from killing you, didn't I?!"

I snapped at Evan with the facts,

but the reply came from Derek, not Evan.

"That traitor brat tried to kill my kid? How dare he?"

"Huh? Kid?"

I looked back and forth between Evan and Derek.

'Now that I think about it, they kind of do look alike. Even like the Blade Emperor Rednap, too.'

Up until now, I'd kept my cool,

but the absurdity of this situation made me mutter a word.

"Guess it was a good thing I didn't kill him."

If I had, I'd have set off a real death flag. Huh?

"... That was a mistake. Just pretend you didn't hear it."

Maybe because I was surrounded by weaklings, my mouth was running off.

Still, I couldn't take back what was already said.

"Y-you-you-you..."

Derek, eyes bloodshot, trembled as he shouted at me at the top of his lungs.

"That crazy outsider bastard! Subdue him, now!! Drag him before me!!!"

No sooner had Derek's roar ended than the adventurers drew their weapons,

but they didn't rush in at me—only edged closer, slowly.

Even as boss's orders, charging at a 3rd-rank is almost suicide.

'Still, there are so many of them, it won't be easy for me either.'

I might survive, but I could get hurt.

Doing my best to stay calm, I proposed more negotiation.

"Hey, Derek. I won't go quietly, y'know. I'll at least bring 10 of you down. No, 15? Don't throw away your valuable men's lives for nothing."

But Derek just sneered and ignored me.

"That's a long last will."

Already about twenty adventurers had crammed into this tiny room, and there were more waiting outside.

Phew. Looks like there's no choice.

"You touch me, the battalion commander won't let this slide, y'know? You know how big I am in Granfen."

It was my last gambit,

but Derek's eyes were already glazed over.

"Screw that! Whoever knocks out that arrogant bastard gets 50 shillings, cash in hand!!"

The adventurers' eyes changed immediately at Derek's crazed yell.

Unlike me, for these two-bit thug adventurers, 50 shillings was more than years of their earnings.

'My life sure is cheap, huh.'

Diplomacy won't work anymore.

I drew out my kitchen knife from my belt and checked my status.

'Good.'

The rice ball buff was still active.

Sure, at best it'd only last a few more minutes, but that's a world of difference.

'Fine, I'll force my way through.'

It's my first time taking on so many at once,

but with adrenaline surging, I'll just trust my instincts!

I gripped the kitchen knife tighter and grinned.

"If you don't listen to words, you'll listen to fists, you low-class medieval bastards."

No sooner had I spoken than curved swords, spears, and chakrams thrust at my legs, neck, and chest.