CH 57

[Shady Dealing]

“So, you are here to inquire about the sighting of Abyss Walker in this territory… This is quite troublesome…”

““Troublesome?””

Mine and Noelia’s voices were in harmony.

“Yes, as you can see, there are no protective walls in this territory, so the damage caused by the Abyss Walkers in the Great Invasion 20 years ago was enormous. That’s why the residents are worried about them like they’re worried about monsters.”

Certainly, after the uprising, this city did not have protective walls built so that the beastmen couldn’t hole up in it, so the damage should have been enormous at the time of the Great Invasion.

Hearing Gidion’s words, I felt the depth of the scars left by the Great Invasion here.

“So, if there was a report of a sighting of an Abyss Walker, the Adventurer’s Guild would voluntarily investigate it, but… Radcliffe family’s Gile-sama who became the lord of this city said that searching for Abyss Walker is a waste of time and money, and he wouldn’t hand down any kind of permission with the lord’s authority. Even when we said that we would voluntarily investigate it, he didn’t permit it.”

On the way to Inbahanes, I heard it from Suzana, the usual Adventurer’s Guilds are organizations that are independent from the lord, unlike the one in Youg Hannotes.

However, even though they are independent organization, it seems difficult to completely ignore the intention of the lord due to various issues.

On the contrary, it also seems difficult for the lord to ignore the intention of the Adventurer’s Guild which has great authority in the city.

It seems that it is normal for each other to respect each other’s intentions, and it seems that the one-sided attitude of the lord as Gidion said is rare.

“You can’t get permission to investigate from the lord’s side?”

I couldn’t believe it and asked Gidion as if to confirm it.

“Yes, even though there should be a strict directive from the Kingdom to the nobles who own a territory in regard to Abyss Walker; they don’t give the permission.”

With a troubled face, Gidion nodded to my question.

In case of other problems, the lord may refuse, but I could not understand their intention of not issuing a search permit even though there was a reported sighting of Abyss Walker.

There are many nobles in the Royal Capital who have forgotten about the Great Invasion and are relaxed, but the more remote the territory, the more this kind of problem is――

When I was thinking that far, I remembered that the lord of this territory was Gile, the commander of the Royal Guard Knight.

If I remember correctly, Alfine had said it before, that Gile while being the commander of the Royal Guard Knight together with his father the Prime Minister have been strongly appealing to the King to reduce the war preparation against the Abyss Walkers.

If that Gile was the lord, it is reasonable that he said that it is useless to spend money and human resource on Abyss Walkers.

“I also couldn’t afford to abandon the investigation of Abyss Walker that made the residents worried, so I threw it to the Vigilante Corps who was in charge of maintaining public order, but they only replied with ‘It is not under our juridction’… That is why I became very troubled about it.”

In short, at present, no one is working on the investigation of the Abyss Walker that was reported to be sighted in Inbahanes.

Moreover, the Vigilante Corps may also be ignoring the proposal offered by the Adventurer’s Guild in consideration of the lord’s intention.

“Well then, what about the statement ‘Young adventurers’ misjudgment’ that Arnold heard at the guild general meeting half a year ago?”

Having listened to Gidion’s story, Noelia asked about the exchange at the general meeting.

According to the story we heard from Arnold, due to his words at the gathering, the report of the sighting of Abyss Walker here and that of the other cities were taken as ‘Young adventurers’ misjudgment’.

According to the story we just heard, he doesn’t seem to be investigating about the Abyss Walker, so there is nothing backing Gidion’s utterances at all.

“That is—”

Gidion’s gaze swims at the question from Noelia.

“I suppose you were directly asked to say so by the Magistrate-sama, perhaps according to the Lord-sama’s intention.”

Having been listening silently to the story, Suzana spoke the words for Gidion.

“Hah, it is exactly as what the woman said. I was supposed to hide it, but before attending the general meeting, the Magistrate-sama told me if Abyss Walker come up on the topic of discussion, I have to put an end to it.”

When Gidion stopped the movement of his eyes, which had been moving about, he dropped his gazes on his hand and sighed.

It felt as if they don’t want it to be a topic of discussion in the Adventurer’s Guild.

I wonder if it is because it will delay the reduction of the war preparations against Abyss Walker that they proposed.

Getting into contact with the information from Gidion, various thoughts were circulating in me.

However, we can’t keep going without investigating like this, as there is a miniscule chance that the report was true.

Just two of those monsters(bakemono) can deal with hundreds of skilled knights.

I don’t know how strong the Vigilante Corps is, but if even just one of those got in, a catastrophe would hit such a wall-less city.

“So that is the case. I’m grateful that you are being honest. Well then, it seems there is no problem with us investigating without permission, right?”

“Haa?”

Gidion had an expression that seemed to say ‘Hey, I don’t understand what you’re saying’

So, once again, I explain it in an easy to understand manner.

“So, is there a problem if anyone investigates the Abyss Walker without going through this Inbahanes Adventurer’s Guild?”

“…Ah, ahhh! So that’s what you meant! No, we are not related with individual investigation, so please feel free to do it. Also, the collected documents of Abyss Walker sighting report that I’ve got have been lost, rode upon the winds.”

Having understood what I was hinting at, Gidion intentionally dropped the documents on the office desk to the floor.

The Guild Master of this city sure is someone who listens to reason.

I picked up the documents that had fallen on the floor and bowed to Gidion without saying anything.

“Frick-sama, now that he had helped you with your ‘hobby’, so why don’t we thank the Guild Master by taking on some troublesome matter together?”

Without a moment’s delay, Noelia offered the most effective way to return the favor to Gidion.

Whichever Adventurer’s Guild it is, it is bound to have to some requests that have been turned into difficult matters which the adventurers wouldn’t want to accept.

She meant that we should complete them as a way to thank him.

I thought that it was a very adventurer-like way of showing gratitude.

“Ahh, that’s a good idea. I’d like to thank him for his help too. Gidion-dono, if there are any troublesome requests other than this ‘hobby’ matter, we will accept them.”

The moment that I said that we would accept the requests that had turned into a difficult matter, Gidion’s face shone.

“Is that true? Err, actually, we have many troublesome requests… The particularly troublesome one is the request to capture a war horse that we received from the Magistrate-sama. The capture request has been put out many times, but it always ended up in failure… The Magistrate-sama rushed us, but even yesterday, the adventurers returned, reporting their failure.”

Hearing about a war horse, I remembered the giant horse that we met on the highway.

If I remember correctly, the adventurers were putting their hands on its herd in order to capture it.

Is it the horse that Gidion was talking about?

Getting curious, I tell Gidion about the characteristics of that giant horse.

“Perhaps, is that war horse a giant horse full of scars with red mane and jet-black body like a Chaos Horse?”

“Oooh! That’s it! It was originally at the branch office of the Royal Guard Knight Order, but it seems that it ran away, and the request to capture it came around… If possible, I would like you to settle that request, then I can lift my face proudly.”

Gidion reservedly looked this way.

It surely seems like I have some kind of fate with that giant horse.

Gidion seems troubled by it too; if we’re talking in good faith with that guy, I have a feeling that it will let itself be captured temporarily in order to ensure the safety of its herd.

It will escape again after that though.

“I think I can accept that request for once, but is that okay? I have a feeling that it will escape again though.”

“I will not accept the second request either. That request was something that the Magistrate-sama forcibly made me accept, in case that it escapes next time, I will refuse and tell him that it is the work of Vigilante Corps or the Royal Guard Knight Order, so don’t worry.”

Gidion also seemed resentful that the troublesome request was imposed on him; he declared that he would not accept it next time.

In that case, if talk to that guy properly, it seems that it will play along with our story.

I thought so and decided to accept the request to capture the giant horse.

“Then we’ll take that request. It may take some time to persuade it, but I’ll definitely bring it.”

“W-what do you mean by persuade?”

There was a questioning expression on Gidion’s face, but I decided not to explain it in detail.