CHAPTER 54: IT’S HARD TO KEEP TRACK OF THE TOPIC WHEN YOU’RE ALL OUT DRINKING
“? If Jericho and everyone are considered the best at guarding, why aren’t you guys the one with the commission?”
Since they’re all a little tipsy, I decide I can step on this topic without anyone feeling offended.
I mean, isn’t it strange? The Valor of Arms Brigade is all human except for Miina, and they’re all more or less polite people, right? I can’t imagine that they would be easily provoked by a Noble-sama… Uwaaa, Jericho’s face looks so dark.
“It’s fine, you guys can take it.”
Jericho growls. His voice sounds so menacing.
Niera quickly cuts in.
“Aaah, that’s, Jun-chan, see … Jericho’s a former member of the Carnus militia, see, and he especially dislikes having to work with people from Nobles’ houses…”
T-trauma? Is it that bad?
“So Jericho won’t guard Nobles?”
“No no, that’s not it. He hates dealing with those arrogant second sons and the like who think they can pull status in the military. He’d hate to work with the Noble-sama’s selected guards from Carnus.”
“The captain of this time’s squad is an especially arrogant guy, even though he’s completely incompetent. Aaah, I really don’t want to meet him…”
Jericho sighed, leaning his head on his hand.
Leaving the arrogance aside, I still don’t get why they’d have an all-important Noble-sama be guarded by someone incompetent.
“Why would they have a guy like that be in charge…”
“Prestige, bribery, probably the kid’s high-ranking Viscount-sama father is hoping that the second son’s accomplishments might be worth something in the end…”
Hm… Jericho sounds kind-of-a-lot bitter. Has he had direct involvement in something like this before?
“Well, we probably would have taken it if Sir Knight Captain had nominated us though, Jun. Don’t get it wrong, it’s not a nasty commission, it just has some troublesome parts.”
Thanks Kristaf, but that follow up doesn’t really make me feel better about it.
“The other members of the Noble-sama’s guard aside, is Sir Knight Captain at least dependable?”
“Oh, yes. Aah, I see, Jun-dono doesn’t know. Sir Knight Captain is a Noble-sama from Carnus whose duty is to keep the Carnus citizens in line and sort out disputes among them in Nyl City. Since we Unaffiliateds don’t have a public-order force or anything, see. If problems come up, he helps by putting in commissions or arbitrating between the Guild and other Carnus citizens. Sometimes he arrests the Carnus trouble-makers, things like that.”
LeeAnne said that so care-freely, but … Is it ok for a Noble-sama to be some sort of out-of-town policeman?
“Sir Ilyos also one of those rare Nobles who worked his way up from being a commoner with his own military achievements, so he’s easier for the Guild to deal with, and he seems to get along with Adventurers … well, he’s the kind that’s stupid with politics, so if he ever had to go back to Carnus, he’d be in trouble!”
Port said with a laugh.
… He wasn’t chased out of Carnus right? Well, that doesn’t really seem to be the case, but … I see. He has a more or less close relationship with Adventurers and the Guild. I now understand why it was so easy for Dobin to “accidentally” let him hear about the sword shipment…
“But, maa, as for the reason Sir Knight Captain didn’t pick us … it’s that, right?”
“…Yeah. It is. That’s the reason we’re all here to discuss that.”
? ?? ??? The mood of the 9 adults drinking happily got serious really quick.
Ignoring the me with question marks flying all over my head, the discussion continued.
“Ragnall was chosen because he reliably escorts Lady Filessa, right?”
“Undoubtedly.”
“Of course.”
“… So it was like that after all…. haaah…”
Ragnall buries his face in his hands.
“… Lady Filessa?”
Who’s that? I don’t know who that is.
“The loli-hime, the loli-hime.”
Binno whispered to me.
Ahhh… that one. I see, Sir Knight Captain is the father of that loli-hime, so he knows Ragnall can keep someone safe in the Labyrinth. Yes, I see. That makes sense.
“Jun-chan is …”
“Hmm.”
“Let’s see…”
Right, I know. I don’t know why he would choose me either.
“It’s because he met her face to face, no?”
Stolen story; please report.
“Yeah, that has to be it. I mean, everything else Jun’s done has been amazing and all, but they’re not really things you use to judge the ability to guard people with.”
“Though, the rumors of her Barriers probably help.”
“Ah, yeah, that’s true.”
“So then, it’s really like that?”
“Yeah.”
“… I am so confused right now.”
I finally blurt that out. They all seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion that I have no idea about.
“Ah, sorry sorry. Sir Knight Captain only chose people he’s met face to face before.”
Niera laughed a little.
“Ok, but what does that mean? And he never met you guys before?”
“Ah, you probably didn’t notice, since Miina was bed ridden for a while, and then you were shut up in Helward’s forge for a while, but we’re actually usually out on escort commissions, so we’ve never run into Sir Knight Captain himself at the Guild.”
Kristaf responded.
Ok… but still, why does it matter if Sir Knight Captain met us or not?
“Because he has ‘Spy Detect’.”
“Mmhmm, because of that, we North Wind Troupe weren’t accepted as the hidden guards … even though we aren’t going to try to invade Carnus or anything, that Spy Detect is too sensitive.”
“But you’d take the opportunity to try to fish out all sorts of secret information, right Jip?”
“Of course!”
… There’s too much to comment on, but …
“There’s a ‘Spy Detect’ spell? What the heck kind of thing is that?”
I can’t even begin to visualize a spell like that.
“It’s a spell bestowed by a City Core onto Knight Captains when they receive their peerage, enabling them to detect people with malicious intent towards their country.”
Whoa, what’s that? So, like, a Noble-sama actually gets their title with magic or something? There are a lot of things in this world that I still don’t know about.
“But to pass up the good reputation of the Valor of Arms Brigade in favor of people he’s seen directly … mnaa, how should I put it … it gives off the vibe of being careful of conspiracies, right?”
Binno said casually.
“Aaah, yeah, Sir Knight Captain’s worried about the unrest in town too, as expected.”
LeeAnne leaned forwards, ears twitching as she talked.
“Unrest in town?”
“Just the things YOU’VE been mixed up in are strange enough, Jun-san. Be somewhat aware of that. That cowardly minor Fernett Noble aside, someone spent a lot of money to try to disrupt the supply of Mana Pots, which would have caused quite a few people to be bedridden even if they don’t die, someone spent a lot of money or high connections to have Rank A-like people come to trash a brothel, even if it is the best one in town, and someone spent a fortune in slaves to instigate a Rank A-3 monster to try to tear down the Guild Hall.”
Ooookay, yeah, when you put it that way, that sounds kind of bad, but in my defense, it’s not like I have a good grasp on money even now. I’ve definitely got better at it, but it’s still difficult to convert my sense of money so quickly.
By the way, with monsters, Rank A is a monster that a Rank A Adventurer can fight. Rank A-1 is a monster that requires a 4-6 person party made up of Rank A Adventurers to fight. Rank A-3 requires 3 parties of Rank A Adventurers to fight. Yeah.
Me aside, Ragnall is definitely above Rank A in terms of strength, but as I thought, because he can barely use magic they dropped his ranking down.
LeeAnne continued when she saw I understood the dangers.
“Someone or some group slinging around that much money and influence … it’d be strange if they were all completely separate cases, right? It totally feels like there’s one main culprit. And if it’s cutting supplies, putting in bases, and then taking out the Guild Hall… a takeover, huh?”
Jip nodded and agreed, saying,
“Yeah, I can’t see it any other way. Next would be cutting allies and reducing order … which means targeting Carnus.”
“Ah, yeah, there were always some guys tailing Lady Filessa in the Labyrinth, by the way, using some kind of magic. Probably scouts.”
Ragnall butted in.
“… Oi oi, Ragnall, that’s important information! Have you told Sir Knight Captain?!”
“Isn’t it fine? I think he was just looking for an excuse to put her under house arrest after that Jeweled Beetle incident, so I guess he knows?”
“You are way too lax to be an escort. Change! Change guards!”
Kristaf seems to only get hot-headed when bickering with Ragnall. Maybe Ragnall brings out the aggressive side of competitive guys.
That’s something I hadn’t heard about, though, so I ask,
“Ah … that lolihime is under house arrest?”
“To reflect on her actions or something. Well, like Ragnall said, it’s probably just an excuse to keep her inside when there’s someone tailing her. If she’s shut in the house like that, it won’t be surprising if they start targeting this Noble-sama instead.”
Binno replied.
“And because it’s a potentially wealthy, potentially well-connected group we don’t know too much about, that will make this job more difficult.”
I’m not really asking, I’m commenting on it. I mean, all this information jumbled together just kind of sounds like a pain. I completely understand Ragnall’s reaction now.
“This … does the Guild know about all of this?”
“Hmm… probably. Well, they probably know more than we do…”
“Shouldn’t we report this to them to make sure?”
“Hahaaan, Jun-chan, aren’t you mistaking something? We Adventurers work WITH the Guild, we don’t work FOR the Guild. You need to keep that idea in mind, because other Labyrinths’ Guilds aren’t as gentle as this Nyl City’s Guild.”
“Even though the Guild is supposed to be the Adventurers’ ally?”
“Hm… how to explain. Look, in Nyl City, despite it being a lawless place where lots of Adventurers and people from different countries gather, it’s weirdly peaceful, right?”
Fumu fumu, that’s something I’ve noticed before, yes. There’s not much brawling in the streets, and though there are villainous types, they aren’t all that powerful and are easily taken down. The public order might be worse than Japan, but it’s at a degree where a common civilian here would expect to get through the day without any trouble worse than getting cheated at a store.
“The number one reason for that is because the Nyl Labyrinth is an underground mine-type, with the Guild Hall being built around the main entry point into the Labyrinth. That gives the Nyl branch Guild a lot of control over who gets in and out. Bandits are unable to set up base within the Labyrinth, and other than the Kobold community on level 7, there aren’t any towns within it. There’s also a lot less treasure and less important ruins in this Labyrinth. Basically, it’s just a Labyrinth for mining and collecting monster materials.”
“That’s right. For Adventurers, it’s Raun for treasure, Tren for freedom, Ploids for adventure, and Nyl for stability. Maa, the comfortable lifestyle gets attractive after you spend a month running from the Water Snakes in Ploids Labyrinth.”
… Somehow it sounds like there’s a story behind that, but Jericho doesn’t say anything else. But can you really say you Valor of Arms guys live comfortably and safely when you travel so much for escort missions?
“Anyway, the point is, for other branches of the Guild they have to watch out for the bad-types of Adventurers, so they usually prepare themselves to cut off relations in case you do something unwanted. Well, since the situation is so different here, Florian and Dobin are more focused on MAKING connections, though.”
“That’s right, keeping vital information until you have the upper hand is the basics in negotiations, and it’s no good to cut corners when negotiating with Guilds.”
Sorry Jip, I’m probably going to be 100% horrible with negotiations so your good advice is wasted on me. Because I’ve always been told I’m stupidly honest.
These 9 Adventurers’ drinking and rambling continued on for a while longer before Kristaf fell asleep in his chair and they decided to disband after finishing up discussions for various things that might happen when we meet the Noble-sama tomorrow afternoon.
Though for the Valor of Arms Brigade, they’re meeting up with Sir Knight Captain instead of the Noble-sama. I guess they’re Ragnall and my’s backup in emergencies, so they have to meet the Knight Captain first.
Oooh, we’re all working together for this commission. So THAT was why they were all together swapping information.
I felt kind of slow for only realizing their purpose now after we all disbanded.
As for what happened when I returned to The Queen Mary’s, I’m going to omit that.
It was really frightening to get cornered by those girls.