LEGEND

Chapter 205

「Wait, wait, wait. What the hell are you carrying!?」

At night, with the snow floating down, Rei and Set were walking down the streets of Gilm. Of course, if they were just walking normally meant that the guards and knights on patrol would ignore them.

However, the reason they were hailed down by three guards was probably because Rei was carrying the woman on his shoulder while Set carried the two men on his back.

Moreover, one of the men had a strong smell of blood on him, it was natural for the guards to stop Rei and Set.

「You, aren’t you the adventurer with the Griffon, Rei? Please give me the details of the situation. Who are those three?」

「Yes. I don’t mind, but could I ask you to do something? Of course it’s related to this matter.」

「……Yes? I can’t guarantee I will be able to do it, but just say it.」

It was a winter night and there were few people in the city. But even so, they couldn’t just agree. Was he heading for a bar or a brothel? As it was, the two people on Set’s back were both unconscious and there was a woman on Rei’s shoulder. They looked at Rei and frowned subtly wondering what incident had occurred.

Because of the current situation, Rei handed over the woman he was carrying to one of the guards before approaching one of the other guards so that curious spectators in the surroundings couldn’t hear him.

「Go to the lord’s residence and bring the knights over. These guys are something like spies for the Bestir Empire.」

「-!?」

The guard took a sharp breath at Rei’s words.

Normally……if this had happened a few months ago, he probably would have just snorted at that. However, it was different now. Sometime ago, a Bestir Empire alchemist had gotten into the city and it had been revealed that he had been acting secretly for a long time.

And the adventurer in front of him had been the one involved in the disturbance of catching him. The guards who participated in the investigation of Azoth Firm naturally knew about it. Because of that.

「I understand. I will call one immediately. However, I still can’t leave you here as you are. Could you come to the guard station. Wouldn’t it be better for you than waiting for the knights in the cold? In addition, to be honest, what you said places a huge responsibility on me.」

Rei thought for a few seconds at the guards words before nodding.

Rei was wearing the Dragon Robe and Set wasn’t bothered by this degree of cold at all. However, he still didn’t want to stand outside on a winter night. If he could sit somewhere to wait, he decided that that would be better.

「I see, then I’ll leave it to you.」

「Thanks. ……Hey, call for the knights.」

One of the guards nodded in response to the guard talking with Rei. After all, one of them had to carry the woman while the other had to guide Rei to the guard station. It was clear who was free to call the knights.

「I’ll return soon.」

The guard said that briefly before running towards the lord’s residence.

Seeing him off, Rei was guided to the guard station near the downtown area.

「It’s a small place but please enter.」

Saying that, Rei and the other guards entered the guard station. After handing over the two men that were on his back to the guards, Set went to lie in the shadow of the building as usual. However, he wasn’t relaxing or sleeping like he usually did. Bestir Empire spies had infiltrated the city of Gilm. He was vigilant of his surroundings to detect if they would try to rescue or silence the three people they had captured.

Set’s behaviour was all from Rei glancing at him. Rei decided that he would give set plenty of meat as gratitude once this was all done.

「Wait here for a moment. We’ll tie them up so they can’t escape even those three wake up.」

A guard said that as he placed a cup of tea on the table where Rei was sitting.

「Ahh, no problem. Rather, let’s just stop them escaping quietly. They are part of the so called underworld. It would be normal for them to dislocate their joints to release the ropes binding their hands.」

「……I understand. I’ll keep that in mind.」

Saying that, the two guards descended into the basement of the building.

(I see. I thought this wasn’t big enough for a guard station, are there rooms prepared for prisoners underground? But……)

Rei nodded to himself.

Because of the existence of magic, if earth magic was used, wouldn’t it be easy for them to escape? Although Rei considered that, basically, important offenders would not be kept at the guard station. It was mainly a prison for people who made a fuss in downtown. It wasn’t necessary to build such a secure prison here, and above all, it was difficult to build such a facility since land around this area was limited.

If this wasn’t the frontier, expanding the wall surrounding the city wouldn’t be too difficult. But, here was the frontier. If they messed up demolishing the wall, they didn’t know what kind of monsters would appear to take advantage of that opportunity. Considering the possibility of stimulating monster by adding more walls as well, it wasn’t easy to expand the city.

Bringing the tea to his mouth while thinking that, he frowned involuntarily at the taste.

「As expected of tea from the guard station.」

「Hahaha. Well, budget is budget. I can’t prepare such expensive tea leaves. Even so, you’re lucky that tea leaves are available.」

As the guards coming out from the underground prison smiled, they sat down opposite Rei.

「By the way, I would like to hear the situation……well, after the knights from comes from the lord’s residence. You would want to avoid having to repeat it a second time wouldn’t you?」

「Yes, I would appreciate it if we could wait.」

While thanking the guards, Rei brought his tea to his mouth.

Rather than calling it tea, it was more like coloured hot water. While sipping his drink, he turned to look around the room.

「Mm? What’s wrong?」

The guards asked with anxious eyes, but Rei just gave a small shrug of his shoulders.

「No, it’s just that the guard station is near the down town area. I thought it would be noisier. But, as far as I can see, it doesn’t look too busy?」

At Rei’s words, the guards shook their heads while sighing.

「It’s too early in the evening. It’s going to get busy quickly from now. ……Well, still.」

The guards kept talking while turning to look outside.

「It might be because it’s winter. If it was summer, the number of idiots on the road would be much higher and gets so busy it’s no joke.」

「……I see.」

Suddenly, Rei remembered a special feature he had seen on TV about the police before coming to Elgin. He remembered seeing in the program that police stations in downtown were busy in various ways during summer. Fortunately, Rei had lived in a rural area that could be called the back of a mountain, so he had never experienced it himself.

(If I think about that, being a guard isn’t that easy either.)

After all, there were many adventurers in Gilm. That is to say, people who’s real occupation was fighting would often get violent when drunk. If he considered that, the guards before him had a harder job to do than policemen.

「Rather than that, you’re were the one, weren’t you? Delivering medicinal ingredients to the city with an epidemic.」

「Mm? Ah. The city of Baar.」

「The city of Baar, was it? ……It’s not close, but it’s not too far either. What’s the danger of the epidemic spreading to here?」

Being guards, they were probably worried about this city. While thinking like that, Rei nodded to reassure the person sitting in front of him.

「No Problem. The epidemic was an illness called Magic Fever, they had to seal off the city of Baar because of that. The illness itself was cured from the medicine I brought. There’s no danger of it spreading. 」

(But, if a dungeon core was formed here like in Baar, that would be a different story.)

Rei kept talking with the guards without showing his thoughts on his face even though he was thinking that.

After that, as they talked about udon, which had recently become popular, as well as the larger amount of Gamelion meat that was on the market compared with the the previous year, they heard a knock on the door of the guard station.

「They’ve come.」

They knew who had come from the sound of the knock. A guard opened the door and welcomed their visitors.

Outside the door were, as expected, knights wearing suits of armour, the knights of Gilm. There were five of them in total.

「We received your message.」

「Yes. Rei over there is the main person involved in this incident.」

The guards replied to the knight standing in front of the others, probably the head knight.

(The main person……that sounds like I’ve caused more trouble.)

In a way that was true, but the knights naturally didn’t care. The head knight glanced towards Rei.

「I saw Set outside, so I thought it might be……but it’s you after all.」

Rei didn’t remember him, but the knight knew Rei and Set. Nodding in agreement, the knight turned to look at the others.

「Move the three captured people to a carriage. They’re the so called underworld people. The will have much useful information for the Mireana Kingdom. We will extract that information by any means.」

「I understand.」

The knights that followed the head knight here gave a brief nod and immediately followed the guards down to the underground prison. The head knight then approached Rei.

「I would like to hear the details, but there’s a bit of a problem.」

「Just a moment. What do you mean by there’s a problem?」

The guards turned towards the knight, wondering if he was ridiculing them.

However, the knight shook his head slightly and spoke without worrying about it.

「It’s regrettable, but there are now people in the city like the ones that Rei caught. I can’t say that all the members involved would have been caught. Because of that, there’s a possibility of getting eavesdropped if we talk here.」

「Please wait. As long as Set is out there, you can be reassured.」

「……I see. I wanted to hear it in the Knight Headquarters if it were possible, but there are certainly no fools who would try to listen in on a place with a high ranked monster like a Griffon nearby. All right then, let’s hear it out here.」

Trusting Rei’s words……rather, trusting in the Griffon’s ability, the knight sat down on the couch facing Rei.

Although he wasn’t wearing his helmet, probably because of the platemail breastplate he was wearing to cover his chest, his waist sank down into the couch.

Not caring about that, he took out two magic items, a pen and paper, before turning to look at Rei.

「Well then, Tell the events in the order they happened.」

「I see. First of all, I had felt someone watching me during the day. I was out of the city for a subjugation request to hunt Blue Caterpillars, during that time I tried to look for where it was coming from but it disappeared right away.」

Saying that, he explained the situation briefly. He moved to a deserted area in the city and lured them out. He was then invited by the Bestir Empire, which turned into a fight after he refused, so he defeated and captured them with Set. He was found by the guards carrying them out, leading up to now.

「……I see. For an underling of the Bestir Empire, it would be natural to think of bringing you in.」

The face of the alchemist who had stretched his hands to Azoth Firm passed through the knight’s mind.

The alchemist and Demon Soldiers had already be transferred to the Imperial Capital and he had heard from his superior that they were currently being interrogated. After that happened, it was natural that they had squeezed out a lot of information regarding the Bestir Empire that had been hard to obtain until now. Looking at the person sitting in front of him that was the cause of everything, Rei just looked like a delicate apprentice mage, so it made sense for the Bestir Empire to try to pull him in.

(The Bestir Empire has placed a huge emphasis on alchemy, they probably wanted the adventurer with the Griffon in order to exchange back their alchemist. I can’t feel it, but I’ve heard that he has a huge amount of magic power.)

Even though the guards who were listening in on the story with the knight didn’t think that it was a big deal, they still frowned slightly. The knight glanced at Rei before looking back down at the piece of paper where he had written down the story he had heard from Rei.

After that, after hearing all the details, Rei was finally released an hour later.

「Well then, we’ll take over the handling of those three from the Bestir Empire from here. They will probably be escorted to the Imperial Capital like with Postguerra after we extract information from them. ……Possibly, there might be further contact from their side. If that happens, we would be grateful if you could catch them like this time and hand them over.」

「I’m not too happy about this though. There aren’t any particular benefits for me.」

「Well, that can’t be helped. After all, you’re the cause of all this turmoil.」

The guards slapped Rei on his shoulder to cheer him up while the knights smiled wryly at Rei and the guards before before boarding the carriage they had to escort.

Seeing them off, Rei finally returned to the inn with Set.