Chapter 10Ā
** Bingo. I Knew You’d Come Here.**
The quest that appeared after raising the Military category.
Inside it was a criminal organization.
From the moment he saw this, there was something that needed even more attention than recruitment.
It was back when Cliff, before starting full-scale training, was simply letting the soldiers eat their fill.
Cliff had separately called one of them.
“You’re the most senior soldier?”
“Ah, yes, Acting Lord. This humble one is the most senior soldier in this territory.”
No matter how messy, an army is an army.
It was impossible that he wouldn’t know if there was a criminal organization in the territory. Cliff decided to sound him out.
“Is there anyone in this territory who is hated by the people?”
“Eh?”
“What do you think? Is there?”
“Why would you ask such a thing…?”
The senior soldier looked at Cliff with a puzzled expression.
At his counter-question, Nigel, who was beside him, shouted.
“How dare you talk back to the Acting Lord! Do you think you are qualified to know the Acting Lord’s business?”
“Eek! I-I apologize.”
Nigel was something like the second-in-command in this territory.
And he was someone who had wielded authority here longer than Cliff.
Naturally, the senior soldier was terrified of his roar.
“I haven’t heard an answer yet.”
“W-well… Among those the commoners dislike, there is a man named B-Beluman.”
“Beluman? What does he do?”
“He’s a loan shark. Since he deals in money lending, he… tends to attract a lot of resentment from those around him.”
Cliff’s eyes narrowed.
In this world, loan sharking is not illegal.
So this alone wouldn’t be reason enough for the quest to call it a ‘criminal organization.’ However, something was odd.
*’Everyone here is in more or less the same situation, aren’t they…?’*
The fact that he runs a loan sharking business means he’s a merchant.
And a merchant needs to see some kind of profit. But in this territory, there was nothing to gain from loan sharking.
If there was one thing, only one thing.
“He lends out food, and if they can’t pay it back, he takes their children as slaves?”
“That’s… yes, that’s correct.”
In this territory, the only thing that could be turned into money was people.
So this man Beluman isn’t in the money business; he’s in the people business.
*’That’s certainly bad, but… still, with just this, it’s hard to call it a criminal organization.’*
There must be something else.
The quest he received.
Perhaps it might be more difficult than he thought.
The fact that they are in the people business means…
*’They have connections outside, don’t they?’*
There is an outside force colluding with them.
A force that receives slaves from them and sells them.
Perhaps that was the true criminal organization the quest spoke of.
*’But if it’s an organization outside the territory, it’s beyond my level to handle…’*
Cliff looked at Nigel and asked.
“Does Beluman have any men worth watching out for?”
“He does have a few swordsmen under his employ. From an outside perspective, they’re not a formidable level, but in this territory, there’s no one who can oppose them.”
So he had swordsmen.
Cliff stored that information.
*’How should I handle this?’*
While training the territory’s military force, Cliff also pondered that method.
Then an incident occurred.
—
* * *
Beluman didn’t like Cliff, who was gradually growing in power.
It was only natural.
For him to sell off the people of this territory to the outside, they had to be poor. The commoners had to be desperate for food to take out loans using their children as collateral.
But since Cliff arrived, this was changing.
*’They say the lord is distributing food.’*
Cliff’s actions.
First, Cliff had exempted taxes.
This gave each household some breathing room. Next, Cliff was giving households work and distributing food.
That was why.
And now, he was building an army.
“It seems about a hundred soldiers are patrolling the territory together…”
The morning runs Cliff conducted under the guise of training.
They effectively became patrols. A few of his subordinates who had caused trouble in front of them were thrown in jail.
So the organization’s activities had inevitably shrunk.
“We need to get our boys out first.”
“What should we do?”
“What else? We need to bribe the jail warden. Damn. Looks like we’ll have to shell out some cash.”
This was a common occurrence.
Beluman thought he could easily get his subordinates back this time too by giving a bribe. In the past, his men had been imprisoned like this several times.
Each time, Beluman had used money to get them released, so his men acted fearlessly in the territory.
*’I don’t like it, but the moment I betray that loyalty, they won’t be faithful to me either.’*
Thus, he attempted the bribe.
But this time, the result was different.
“What? He won’t take it?”
“Th-that’s what he says.”
The jail warden had refused the bribe.
And that wasn’t all.
“They say that old man Nigel always visits the jail now.”
“Damn. That rigid and sharp-witted old man of all people…”
He understood why the warden refused the bribe.
He was watching his scary supervisor. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason.
Perhaps Nigel was just an excuse.
The soldiers these days were truly different from before.
*’This is all because the Acting Lord’s storehouse is full.’*
Beluman believed that all power came from money.
Before, the Elimeas family had no money. But with Cliff’s arrival, that money appeared.
So the soldiers who used to subtly turn a blind eye for him had turned away.
*’As expected, that method is best.’*
His eyes took on a dangerous glint.
“What do we do now?”
“What else is there to do? We need to hit him hard so he can’t strut around anymore.”
Those around Beluman flinched at his words.
“No, boss. But if we attack a noble…”
“Of course we can’t attack the noble directly.”
If it were the previous Elimeas family, he might have touched them.
Because he had no connections with outside nobles. But Cliff now was different.
Didn’t Cliff himself say it?
He was a man of the Ducal family.
*’I don’t know if that’s true, but considering the carriage he rode when he came here and the level of his escorts…’*
And recalling Cliff’s words, it seemed those escorts were just running an errand for Cliff and might return.
If they were knights of the Ducal family, it wouldn’t matter how many of his own men he had; they wouldn’t stand a chance.
Even Beluman was aware of that much.
*’Damn. I might have to get out of this land sooner than I thought.’*
He had planned to play king here for life, but that might not work out.
But that wouldn’t last long either.
Beluman believed that Cliff would either leave this territory, or the Ducal family would abandon it.
After all, even Baron Elimeas, the original lord of this territory, had abandoned it and left. Cliff, who had lived prosperously in the capital, would only be interested in this territory for a moment.
He just needed to hold out a little longer.
“……Now listen carefully to my plan.”
He sent a man to the guard force.
The operation time was night.
At night, he set fire to the guard force.
“F-Fire!”
And those who had set the fire shouted, making a commotion.
“Ahhh! Thieves! Attack by thieves!”
The jail was close to the territorial guard force’s station.
With the commotion, the awakened guards would flock to the jail.
“The prisoners in the jail are escaping!”
The entire village became noisy.
Beluman heard all the commotion from his own house.
“Will this be enough of a warning?”
He had hired three swordsmen in total.
One of them tilted his head towards Beluman.
He couldn’t understand Beluman’s intention in stirring up the jail. It was a risky operation that could potentially be seen as treason against the lord. But what they would gain was minimal.
*’Even if they free their subordinates…’*
Even if they freed the gang members, if they incurred the wrath of the Acting Lord Cliff, the organization itself would be in danger.
“Of course, this alone is useless. So you, take three or four subordinates and go to the lord’s storehouse right now.”
From the beginning, Beluman had no interest in the jail situation.
He just wanted to draw the soldiers’ attention there.
“The reason the Acting Lord has power right now is because his storehouse is full. Directly harming the Acting Lord is out of the question, but an arsonist setting fire to the territory’s storehouse is not something outside nobles would get involved in.”
“But if we do that, the Acting Lord might get angry, wouldn’t he?”
“Heh heh. If the lord’s storehouse burns, the soldiers will have less reason to follow his orders. Their morale will drop. And the Acting Lord, though young, is quite clever.”
Beluman acknowledged Cliff.
That’s why he thought this operation would succeed.
“Since his storehouse burned, he’ll need a new one to replace it.”
To be precise, he would need a new source of funds to replace the grain in the storehouse.
*’In this territory, no one is more suited for that role than me.’*
Beluman considered it a stroke of luck.
He would use this opportunity to put a leash on the lord using his wealth.
Since Cliff was clever, the chances were high he would join hands with Beluman, who possessed wealth. Of course, Cliff might try to kill Beluman and confiscate his property.
But that would be difficult.
*’My wealth isn’t that kind of physical thing.’*
The lord wouldn’t be able to find his wealth.
Even more so if he killed him.
So Beluman decided to wait leisurely for Cliff’s visit.
*’The lord’s storehouse just needs to burn.’*
During that time, Beluman planned to create an alibi.
He intended to loudly proclaim that he had nothing to do with this commotion.
Thus, the swordsman, receiving Beluman’s orders, moved towards the storehouse.
*’So I just need to set fire here?’*
If the storehouse had been on high alert normally, such an operation would have been impossible.
But with the jail commotion, their attention was probably focused there.
As expected, he was able to easily approach the location of the territory’s storehouse.
Hiding in the darkness, slowly.
Crawling as he moved.
Dressed in black at night, moving like this, most people would have difficulty spotting him. Especially now, when attention was drawn towards the jail, it would be even harder to notice him approaching from the opposite side.
Unless his opponent was a mana user.
āā¦ā¦Bingo. I knew you’d come here.ā
