Episode 39.10

"Oh no no, not at all. So now I'd like to ask you something."

"What."

"Where is Sir Zoltan right now?"

"What? What do you mean."

"Well, y'see. I myself believed that Sir Zoltan would go ahead and cut up that Shitty Bastard for his act of kidnapping the innkeepers. Yet, Sir Zoltan instead wrote a letter, handed it to me and went in the dungeon."

"Yea."

"So then I went to see you and told you that the innkeepers had been kidnapped by Shitty Bastard. I mean you seemed like you got along well with Sir Zoltan. I was hoping you'd go and clean up that Shitty Bastard in his place, chief."

"I see."

"Yet, you also went in the dungeon. That's when I realized. Sir Zoltan must be partnering up with you to march into General Dungeon Administrative office as an insurance to keep the innkeeper couple from dying. That must be why he wrote that letter for you."

"And."

"So I prepared the finishing touch. I had already handed evidence of evil deed perpetrated by Shitty Bastard and Shittier Bastard who gave life to Shitty Bastard to the townlord's aide beforehand. So I told him again that I found a definite clue on the existence of conclusive evidence."

"Conclusive evidence?"

"Records of selling Grace Swords in the back channel illegally. Hidden wealth. And other stuff like documents with concerned parties' names."

"Ah, that hidden safe thing huh."

"Yes, that's it. I also reported how Shitty Bastard kidnapped the innkeepers to coerce Sir Zoltan into killing chief Lecan for <Comet Cutter>."

"Hm?"

"Disputes between nobles must be arbitrated by the townlord, see. It'd be a good excuse to conduct a search."

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"Hmph."

"That's when knight Baiad would make his entrance, yet both you and Sir Zoltan never showed up at the General Dungeon Administrative Office. So, knight Baiad ended up having to withdraw."

Which means knight Baiad was at the office while Lecan and Zoltan had their deathmatch in the dungeon.

"Then noon of the following day, you suddenly showed up and attacked the office. I hurried on and fetched knight Baiad who thankfully rushed there quickly."

Chubby shook his head sorrowfully.

"For some reason, Sir Zoltan was nowhere to be found. And you even went and declared that you killed Zoltan."

"What's wrong with that."

"As a noble and townlord-sama's retainer, Sir Zoltan must be the one testifying on the awful treatment that shitty bastard, a mere assistant of Chief Administrator, put him through. We could crack down on Benchara's house that way."

"I see."

"Knight Baiad was at a loss then, so he decided to let you slide for the time being, cleaned up knight Torog's body and interrogated all the witnesses."

"So that's how it went."

"I went and instigated Shittier Bastard then. How adventurer Lecan murdered knight Torog. And how that knight Baiad got his hands on proof of his corruptions."

It seems Chubby was quite busy behind the scenes.

"Shittier Bastard made a huge fuss and made a plan to have <Gwyntir Era Slupiner> kill adventurer Lecan in the dungeon and present <Comet Cutter> to townlord-sama."

Chubby must have induced that.

"After that, I went and informed townlord aide-sama. It would be our best chance to get Shittier Bastard out of his mansion."

"Why do you need to do that? Ah, I see. It's to keep him from hiding or destroying evidence."

"That's the point. Townlord aide-sama summoned Shittier Bastard and told him this. 'Knight Torog got himself killed after offending a dept-walking adventurer. Incidentally, I have heard rumors of knight Torog treating retainer Zoltan badly.'"

"Hou."

"Then that Shittier Bastard said this. 'Everything adventurer Lecan said is a lie. That thug kept the fact that he got his hands on <Comet Cutter> a secret and plotted on taking it out of town. I have come up with a plan to get <Comet Cutter> for Tsubolt lord-sama's sake. Adventurer Lecan will die during a scuffle between adventurers inside the dungeon. After which I shall present <Comet Cutter>.' he said."

They must have contacted <Gwyntir Era Slupiner> and made the arrangement for their duel with Lecan afterward. That explains the blank period of two days back then.

"Did you think I would win against <Gwyntir Era Slupiner>?"

"Would be amusing if you won, I thought. Well either way, I was going to expose Shittier Bastard's evil deed and cited Dungeon Law to conduct a compulsory search. The duel thing was outside my calculation. That really showed me townlord-sama's cleverness. I mean that took care of knight Orug without his family having a hand directly."

"You sure went through a lot of trouble. Couldn't you just assassinate Torog and Orug yourself."

"That wouldn't deprive those bastards of everything then. On top of that, I'd get hounded by both Benchara and Notz Houses. And besides. Killing Shitty Bastard would have been simple, but Shittier Bastard was quite a tough nut to crack, see."