CH 196

“Come here, tell me more.”

He had a face that looked almost as old as Hauzen at his age, and his eyes were narrow. His eyes narrowed, and he led Conrad and the others into another room, and when everyone was seated, Kelbrem exhaled again, and then opened his mouth.

“So, what did the Lord say ……?”

“The first time I went to negotiate, I was turned down, but now that the damage has increased, my request has been granted and the Lord has asked me to make a proposal to the Guildmaster for personnel, as he will pay for it. “

“…… I see, so you’ve got your backup. I have no objection to forming a strike force. It’s true that the recent Treant fiasco has reached an alarming level. Even the most opportunistic of lords will notice.”

“Mu ……”

In response to Kelbrem’s words, Borozov raised his eyebrows, grunted briefly, and spoke a little more forcefully in response to Kelbrem.

“With all due respect, Kelbrem-san, it seems that our lord was threatened by someone. That’s why he was reluctant. That’s why I guess they have no choice?”

“A threat letter ……? I didn’t know there was such a thing …… but what good would it do the blackmailer not to get rid of the Treants? “

When Kelbrem tilted his head and muttered, Samo, one of the party’s less assertive members, opened his mouth.

“…… Only they can know that …… isn’t that right? Instead of their objective, it’s how you’re going to get rid of the Treants, right? And how to catch the blackmailer is more important. I’m sure it’ll help the guild’s financial situation if the lord is willing to pay for the risk.”

“I guess so. But, I understand what you’re saying. I’ll take care of the manpower, and do you have any leads about the blackmailer?”

“No, not at all. That’s why I want you to get people you can trust. Can you make sure that the threat letter is not leaked? We don’t know what they’ll do if they find out what we know.”

When Conrad said this with a stern face, Kelbrem nodded, looked around at the four faces, put his hand on his chin and said 

“Hmm, then it’ll be hard to find the blackmailer …… Well, that’s fine, First of all, the four of you is decided to join, okay? ?”

“Yeah.”

“Kavanya …… you finally spoke up …….”

“N-No, I talk too, you know!? I just don’t have the time to say it! Of course, I’m coming.”

“Ha-ha-ha, okay, okay. We’ll try to find out who the blackmailer is. If you guys find out anything, let me know.”

“Alright, well, If the blackmailer doesn’t get wind of it, we’ll just tell him that we took out the Treants on our own and we’ll be able to cover it up! Well, we’ll be at our usual rented house, so let me know when you decide to leave. I’ll go talk to the lord once.”

As Borzov stood up from his chair with satisfaction, Kelbrem asked the four of them as if he had just remembered.

“…… By the way, It looks like you were with an unfamiliar woman, who was that?”

“Oh? You saw it. Well, listen, It’s just that it’s a rare woman who comes on to Conrad, and she took a liking to him when he was in their territory.”

“……”

“Oh, wait, Conrad!”

Conrad looked at Borzov with a complicated look on his face, and then quickly left the room. The other three also left, leaving only Kelbrem behind.

Kelbrem stared at the door as the four left, but eventually got up and walked into his room.

Then–

“Hey, what’s it about?”

“You don’t look so good, is there a problem?”

“Kuku, Guildmaster’s have it hard too.”

“Hmm, there’s no doubt its trouble. Retzel, it looks like it’s your useless ass’ turn?”

When he entered the room, the three elegant tea drinkers each open their mouths and Kelbrem says in a troublesome tone. There were Retzel, Irumi, and Reiss.

Retzel shrugged his shoulders at being called useless, took a sip of his tea, and smiled with his palms up, seemingly unconcerned. 

“Haha, are you still referring to the incident six years ago? I explained to you that it was unavoidable. Well, that’s all right, what are you talking about?”

“It’s about the Treant. Apparently, the lord wants to organize a strike force.”

“Heh~, I wonder who was it that said the lord was a coward? Didn’t he say he sent out threat letters too. Kuku, I don’t know who’s more useless. “

Kelbrem looks at Reiss, who chews on the tea cakes, and grabs Reiss’ hair and drags it down.

“Uwah!?”

“…… You’re still the same cheeky little mouth, huh. You’re sixteen years old now, right? Shall I sell you to a slave trader in the south? You have a poor body, but it’s more useful than mine, right?”

“Ow ow ……. I’m used to being sold, you should try it. I’m not so easily won over, though?”

“You little ……!”

Just as Kelbrem was about to raise his fist in frustration at Reiss’ swearing while grabbing her by the hair.

“Okay, that’s enough. Reiss is one of us, isn’t she? I don’t want to be diminished for something so trivial. Why don’t talk about something more productive.”

“Damn it ……!”

“Right?” Retzel said while laughing. The arm that he tried to shake off didn’t move at all, and the Kelbrem let go of Reiss. Then Retzel asks again as he gets Reiss to her feet.

“So, what are you going to do? According to your plan, you were almost ready to pull the lord down, weren’t you?”

Kelbrem folds his arms against the wall and clicks his tongue back at Retzel.

“…… Ahhh. He was a reluctant lord to begin with, so I knew that if I issued a threat letter, he would be even more reluctant to move. A lord who does nothing about the increasing number of Treants …… I can create enough material to drag down. After that, we’ll install someone we can control as the lord. That was supposed to be the scenario.”

“But what made you change your mind?”

Irumi trims Reiss’ hair and says so, Kelbrem shrugs his shoulders and replies.

“I think the adventurer who came earlier persuaded him. I don’t think the lord would ignore a threat letter to start something.”

“Who knows? There are lords who lost all their money when their sons almost died. I don’t know what kind of person this lord is, but I don’t think he would leave his people alone. I think that’s why he’s the lord.”

“It’s not your place to tell me when you had almost all of Gust territory in your hands and failed …… In the meantime, I’ll ask you guys to track down the strike team. In fact, we have a rough idea of where the Treants are coming from. I’m going to use it to lead it …… I leave the clean up to you guys. Reiss, why don’t you do your [Experiment]?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have any interesting experiments. I’ll take care of it as I see fit.”

“…… Hmm, you have to work really hard not to get sold.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Retzel, I’m going back to my hideout first.”

“Oh, be careful. Don’t let Lars-kun and the others find out about it …… Well, it won’t matter if it’s Reese. If they find you, cover it up skillfully, okay.”

Reiss glanced at Retzel, then left the room without a word. Thereupon, Irumi spoke up.

“Lars ……? Who’s that?”

“It doesn’t matter who it is. More importantly, don’t get too rattled, Kelbrem. Reiss was sold by her parents to join our organization. She’s a bit of a brat, though.”

“She’s in a similar situation to me, having been picked up by Retzel, after all. What, you feel sorry for me?”

“No, of course not. I’m just saying that it’s pointless to have petty fights between members of the same organization. Doctor, I’m going too.”

“Yeah, be careful.”

Irumi also puffed up her cheeks and left the room, leaving Retzel and Kelbrem alone with a cup of tea. He takes another sip of his tea–

“……!?”

“Well, I failed, that’s for sure. But I have found the people for my purpose, the ‘Kamiyado Kamiyadori’. I don’t care what you say, but if you try to do anything to my people, I will not tolerate it.”

(T/N: I think the meaning of “Kamiyado Kamiyadori” is “The person that the god will dwell in”. I couldn’t translate it in the translators site that I use but translated it based on what I understand by the word. I hope that the meaning’s close to it, and I’m sorry if it’s not.)

–It was a blink of an eye. In that moment of time, Retzel was laughing as he put a dagger to the neck of Kelbrem, who was standing by the wall.

“…… Tch, the plan starts in three days. At the same time, we need to make sure that the lords understand. You’ll be busy.”

“Well, I’ll do what I have to do. See you later.”

Retzel put away his dagger and left the room. Kelbrem remembered that he had been holding his breath, exhaled, took a deep breath, and said

“…… You monster ……”

He muttered to himself.

A little bit of Reiss’ past? There seems to be a lot of things going on with the trio ……?

Thank you for reading!

[Afterword Theater]

“An Organization …… It smells like the Black Organization!”

That’s because it’s the kind that kills a lot of people, right!? Just like Beika Town!?