Volume 5 - CH 4

Chapter 4 – Emergency Contact

Having returned to the inn from the Adventurer’s Guild, Eto felt terribly tired. He wasn’t physically exhausted, but the suspicion of the large-scale crime led by the Acting Lord was something that Eto couldn’t handle.

The other members of his party were also the same, so they only said a few words during dinner. That night, Eto gathered everyone in the room and told them that since there might be additional reports from the investigators, Eto decided that their party will only take requests near the royal capital for a while.

Two days later, Eto’s party once again was gathered in the guild’s meeting room. When they entered the room, the party saw Slave Trader Tamara and a man wearing silver-rimmed round glasses sitting inside. The man seems to be about fifty years old. He had a calm atmosphere, and his eyes looked at Eto and his party, whom he met for the first time today, with great interest.

With the introduction of Tamara, the party and the man greeted each other. The man, in fact, is the Guild Master of the Royal Capital Commercial Guild, Nizel. And apparently, just like Eto’s party, Tamara and Nizel weren’t told why they were called this time.

At that moment, the door was knocked, and Sally, the receptionist, pushed in the wagon with the tea set. Following behind her was the Grand Master Trie, the Guild Master Sidrake and the Kingdom Knight’s Commander Musik.

The fact that some higher ups of the kingdom came together means the situation has become more serious. After Sally had served the tea and left the room, Trie thanked them for gathering here and promptly said he had received an emergency contact from the investigators in Margrave territory.

“Our investigators found that Kabs, the slave trader, is currently heading towards the Royal Capital bringing several slaves on his carriage. They left the Margrave territory twenty days ago and are expected to arrive two or three months after. So we decided to take this opportunity to confront Kabs in the royal capital.”

Kabs was suspected of selling the people he and his collaborator kidnapped in the Margrave as slaves. Hence, at this opportunity, the Adventurer’s Guild and the Knights of the Kingdom will send some intelligence agents to Kabs to check whether his slaves match the characteristics of the missing person sent by the investigators. And in case of the slaves that have already been sold, they also have to keep track of where they are sold to.

The kingdom also sent another division of knights to join the investigators to continue the secret investigation towards Acting Lord Riesenbolt, senior Judge Terrero, and Kabs’ slave firm. The kingdom ordered the knights to not make contact with the local adventurer guild and the commercial guild there as they still don’t know if they were allies at the moment. So, regarding contracts and books that require commercial expertise, it was decided that they will bring some staff members of the Royal Capital Commercial Guild to check them.

“The information obtained will be sent to the royal capital one by one and shared with those who gathered here. I will also cast a non-disclosure contract magic in order to prevent information leakage, but before that, if there are any of you who don’t want to participate in this operation, please tell me now.”

Sidrake said, while looking at the people gathered in the meeting room.

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By staying silent, everyone expressed their intention to participate in this operation. With this, a multi-objective operation will be launched to attack Kabs, who is heading for the royal capital, and Riesenbolt and Terrero in the Margrave of Erven.

“Very well, I’ll have everyone here work hard to catch the mice. Although we can’t reward you publicly, we intend to reward you all under the pretext of various things.”

Trie said with a pleasant smile.

“Grandmaster, please stop saying improper things in this kind of place. Please do not take it seriously everyone. Of course, we will reward you for your help.”

Sidrake immediately corrects the words that the Grandmaster said.

“I think you’re saying the same thing.”

“It’s about the way to say it.”

“Cough!”

Hearing such a barren exchange, The Knight’s Commander Musik decided to chide in.

Eto, who was able to release the tension thanks to their exchange, thought that these three people seemed to be quite compatible with each other. But in the middle of that, there was a person who raised his hand wanting to ask something, it was Nizel.

“May I ask something?”

In response to Nizel remarks, Trie nodded and expressed his confirmation.

“If we carry out a large-scale multi-objective operation, isn’t there a risk that it would be known by the enemy because of the magnitude of the movement? If you see a group of knights running around on the road, I’m pretty sure the merchants who do business while moving from town to town will try to gather information about what happened. As a result, the number of the knights and where they are headed will soon become a rumor, and people will start to talk about their purpose. Don’t you think it is safest to target only the Slave Trader Kabs first?”

As Trie turned his gaze on Musik, he unwound his arms and began to speak.

“Hero-sama and his party are currently conducting their activities in the frontier. And the Kingdom Knights are planning to send thirty fully armed knights to the frontier as replacements for the knights who accompany the Hero’s party. We will announce this to the public. I’m sure a bunch of armored knights could be a distraction. Around the same time, two to three units of knights wearing adventurer-like equipment will be sent to head for Kabs and the Margrave territory.”

Hearing that, Eto managed to avoid laughing, as Musik said he would use the heroes as a decoy or distraction for this operation. Looks like Musik, who has a muscular body and is one of the strongest in the kingdom, also has a flexible thinking.

“If they’re really conducting a crime, then it is the duty of knights to crack down on the culprit to protect the well-being of the people. That’s why the Kingdom Knights will fully cooperate in this operation.”

A strong feeling for this operation can be felt from Musik as he said that.