Volume 5 - CH 12

Chapter 12 – Stupid Choice

Eto returned to the basement with two swords for Gaios and himself. After knocking the door of the room and telling the ones inside who he was, Eto saw Gaios’ face through the thin gap of the door.

“Eto-san, you’re done with the ‘cleaning’!”

Gaios then opened the door vigorously.

“Ee, it’s mostly done. Let’s hurry to the carry-in entrance.”

“Oi, Eto-san did it!”

Hearing Gaios’ shout, the children responded with cheers. Apparently they’ve already developed a mutual understanding in this short time.

As they passed through the Sleipnirs’ prison, one of them screamed at Eto’s group. And according to Gaios, it seems it wanted to be taken with them.

“Do you understand the words of monsters?”

“No, I don’t. It’s just intuition. But I’ve indeed been familiar with horses since I was little. I think at least both of them don’t think of us as enemies. And they want to get out of this prison.”

If that’s the case, there is no way they can leave them alone, that’s what Eto thought. Thinking that, Eto unlocked the prison and left the two Sleipnir to Gaios.

“Isn’t this Mouthless-san?”

From near the stairs, Eto heard a voice calling him. And as he turned his body, Tulle, who was his boss until just before, stood there.

“I see, so this is the reason. As expected it’s all about Kabs. So the joint business with Tamara-san was also a lie, huh….”, said Tulle regrettably.

“Tulle-san, I’m Eto, a B-rank adventurer. You’re right, I was infiltrating the firm to investigate about the slave trader Kabs.”

“Eto… I see. That elf archer, I think her name was Sorano-san, right? Looks like I made a terrible person into an enemy. However, I really didn’t notice anything since I didn’t detect any sign of a spy at all.”

“Ee. This is my first time, after all. In the end, I didn’t get any useful information.”

“Fufufu, then it’s not weird you didn’t get any.”

No emotions such as impatience or anger were seen from Tulle. He still normally talks with Eto as if he was just talking about work, allowing Eto to ask for his reason.

“Why did you do this?”

“Do you mean becoming an accomplice of Kabs and doing an illegal slave trading?”

“That’s right.”

“Because to be successful in the royal capital, where the competition is intense, doing things the proper way is not enough.”

“Isn’t your business profitable enough even before you got that impatient?”

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“I have so many goals in the royal capital, after all. Take for example, Tamara-san. It will probably take another hundred years for me to become a merchant like him. And that hundred years could only happen if I continue to work as I do now, having luck on my side, and bringing in reliable comrades.”

Hearing that, Eto thought that being quick-witted and having sharp eyes to see things might not always be good. Even Tulle, an excellent merchant, saw his limits because of that. Which also made the hundred years that he assumed he needed to catch up with Tamara seemed unbearable for him.

“I think that thought has been in my mind in the last few years when my business has been stable. I know this sounds selfish, but I wouldn’t let the servants working in my factory do kidnapping or illegal trafficking. However, I think it would be fine if I just received some profit if the one who did that was a powerful person and in the Margrave territory, a place far from the royal capital. Even if it’s not us, someone else can get that profit anyway, so I thought why not use it to have our firm grow.”

Saying that, Tulle sighed deeply. And his face suddenly looks older than before.

“Looks like it was naive thinking. Now that it’s all over, it seems so.”

It is certainly a very naive thought. Because there is no doubt that it was thanks to Tulle that Kabs could get a way to sell those slaves, increasing the scale of illegal trafficking. And that sin would be as heavy as Kabs.

However, Eto couldn’t bring himself to expose Tulle’s sin here. Because although he only worked in Tulle’s firm for two weeks, Eto knew very well that Tulle was a boss who was good to his subordinates.

Thus, with an unbearable feeling, Eto holds up his sword, then stunned Tulle with thunder magic. Then, as he receives the collapsed body of Tulle, Eto muttered, “You made a stupid choice.”