Encounter
Encounter
After finishing our deliberately slow meal, Asilie and I did a quick check of our equipment, then left the mansion and headed back out into the streets.
We'd dealt with the closest slave traders, so now it was time to find the next target. We decided to use the remaining time until evening to go see Zikmel.
"Setting up a shop in the capital like that, isn't that basically living proof of insane hard work? And didn't you say the vibe was that he didn't just wrap things up in his original city and move?"
"I brushed it off back then, but it was kind of impressive. Honestly, if that guy went around saying he was self-made, wouldn't everyone just have to acknowledge it? No question."
Again, my plan had been to go alone, but Asilie insisted on coming along, arguing that the more an information broker knows, the better.
The walk to the shop wasn't boring, thanks to Asilie comparing the capital as she last remembered it with the parts that had changed. Maybe she had a fair share of memories here, because she told me more stories than I expected, and in the middle of it all, she whispered perfectly naturally.
"Mm, it's confirmed. We've had a tail ever since we left the mansion."
"Already? I expected it, but this is faster than I thought."
Unlike me, who hadn't noticed a thing, Asilie seemed to have sensed something the moment we stepped out. Having finished her recon so cleanly and discreetly I couldn't even guess when she'd confirmed it, she linked her arm with mine and explained the situation.
"They're quite skilled. Looks like that provocation you aimed at Count Bosha this morning landed dead-on?"
"Are they just tailing us?"
"Hard to say? The only sure thing is that whoever's following us didn't show a single flicker of hesitation."
The provocation had been thrown out hoping exactly for a tail like this, but I still found myself a little surprised that they'd managed to issue orders and get someone moving in the brief time we were walking into the tribunal.
"Still, with this level of operational speed, no wonder they're cooking up a rebellion, I guess."
"You really do say the most outrageous things like they're nothing."
"It's gonna fail anyway, so whatever."
Once you've crossed me, it's over. Even if I can't stop their damned coup, I'll drop that bastard's head with my own two hands while he's still celebrating his success.
The effects of the spirit-powered moving walkway still hadn't worn off, so we arrived at Zikmel's jewelry shop feeling like we'd been walking for ages. As we opened the door, a clerk greeted us.
"Welco—...oh! Sir! What may I help you with!"
The clerk clearly remembered my face—there was the briefest moment of stiffness before he recovered his composure. If he remembered me, this would make things a lot simpler.
"The accessories I bought last time were quite to my liking. I stopped by to see if you had anything similar."
"Ah, I see! The manager is in as it happens, so I'll guide you to him immediately!"
Had Zikmel actually given his staff instructions specifically on how to handle me? The employee led me straight to the room where Zikmel was, without any hesitation even though Asilie was with me.
And Zikmel, matching the energy, greeted me without a hint of reserve.
"You've come, Eldmia! I had a feeling you'd visit, so I've been waiting!"
As expected, Zikmel bowed a full ninety degrees in greeting, but with Asilie there, I felt strangely embarrassed.
"You had a feeling I'd come? Why?"
"I heard the news this morning. They said you completely smashed a slave merchant group to pieces?"
For a split second I wondered how the hell this guy had ID'd me, even thinking about whether Krul or others had sold the info, but I quickly realized the conclusion was so simple you could barely call it deduction.
"Right. The moment you hear a merchant group got wrecked right after I bought information from you, of course you'd assume it was me."
"Hahaha. Indeed. To be honest it happened so fast I was half-wondering if it was just a coincidence."
Zikmel smoothly gestured for us to sit, even setting out prepared teacups and tea. He looked at Asilie but asked no questions, as if her presence was the most natural thing in the world.
It seemed almost like he was putting on a display to show that information about me would never leak to anyone through him, which was oddly amusing, but I decided to play along for now.
"If you already know everything, no need for a long conversation. Which one's closest?"
"Truth is, at this stage, 'close' is a bit of a misnomer in terms of distance. Unlike the slave merchant group, this one will also be somewhat more capable in a fight."
His claim of waiting hadn't been just talk. Unlike last time, Zikmel produced documents and showed them to me immediately.
"An indoctrination facility for newly hired private soldiers...?"
There it was, front and center, with a title that sounded like something from a dodgy-as-hell presentation.
"Ostensibly, it was established for the purpose of providing educational benefits to private soldiers hired by nobles... Should I say it's a hastily thrown-up building? Anyway, it's what people commonly call a training camp. The pretext is that in this prolonged war, skilled people keep getting pulled to the front lines, but with humans alone split into several kingdoms, one must watch their backs."
"Sounds incredibly legal to me?"
"On the surface, it is legal. The important part is on the next page—the personnel who dropped out midway."
Following Zikmel's small hand gesture urging me to turn the page, I looked at the next sheet and saw names crammed in quite densely.
"All of these are dropouts?"
"Yes. This is a summary I condensed, so it only has names and a rough set of performance scores. The original had personnel details recorded in quite thorough detail."
I skimmed lightly over the page packed full of names and the contents laid out like some kind of report card, then turned to the next page. This time, there was a list of successful candidates and their scores.
"...Look at this?"
But those 'scores'—the ones who passed had worse records than the ones who failed. Hell, every quarter, like clockwork, a reliable ten to twenty percent of them dropped out, as if by some kind of agreement.
And only the ones showing scores in the top ten percent 'drop out,' huh.
"You're showing me this because the pass list and the fail list aren't just printed backward, right?"
Zikmel, who I looked at after lifting my eyes from the document, answered with a confident smile and a nod.
"You've seen it precisely. By the most remarkable coincidence, those on the dropout list all go on to form mercenary bands and travel together. They earn money by roaming around resolving disputes between nobles... and what's this? They fight between fellow Noble Faction members? Occasionally they also join disputes against Royal Faction members or nobles who aren't part of any faction, but the fun part is, they always participate under the Noble Faction's banner."
"They've put their heads to work in the most disgustingly clever way. See, this is why you don't get tangled up with politicians."
Asilie was sending me a look of such open distrust it was rare to see, her eyes narrowed, and I had to grit my teeth and ignore it. Zikmel was starting to look puzzled by her reaction, so I hurriedly spoke up.
"What's their skill level? And numbers?"
"I've only heard that they have someone who could be called an officer and that he's an aura user. I couldn't obtain information on exactly what level he's at. The mercenary band averages forty members. Roughly fifteen of them have been permanent members for years, while the rest are constantly cycled out."
"And the ones cycled out get hired as private soldiers for the Noble Faction bastards?"
"You caught on immediately. That's correct."
They probably go into the private forces of those classified as the New Noble Faction. The fact that they're all on the younger side suggests Count Bosha's rebellion is a very long-term plan. They wouldn't want to pour big money into raising someone only for them to get old and useless.
"You happen to know when the most recent rotation was?"
"About a year ago. They've been hired for three minor disputes since then."
The head count was high, but the situation wasn't that unlucky. It meant all forty of them weren't hard-bitten veterans.
Even the fact that they were mercenaries was to my liking. If these bastards had even dabbled in adventurer work, I would've had no choice but to leave them alone.
"Would the royal household know about this?"
"Well... hard to say? It's also the kind of thing that, if no one's paying attention, could easily be overlooked. Even for a kingdom, they can't possibly track every single mercenary band down to the last one. And besides, it's a tiny band, not even a hundred-man unit, right?"
The kingdom's smallest military formation was sixty men. Below that, a unit was considered to have lost combat functionality and was treated as having zero effective strength. If the royal household viewed these guys the same way Zikmel did, there was a good chance they'd been overlooked entirely.
Even if I went on a rampage, all I could break was the mercenary band at most. To smash Count Bosha's boot camp, I'd need the force of public authority.
"Ha. And I really didn't want to see that old man a second time, he gives me the creeps."
"Pardon? Who are you referring to?"
"Duke Lesrom."
Waiting for the trial to end and then asking Sir Ekaf for advice was an option, but... thanks to the Gies incident, my trust in the royal household wasn't in great shape.
To be blunt, it was about the same as my trust in Duke Lesrom. In cases like this, the correct move was to check the cards you could actually hold right now.
"No, why on earth such a person... never mind. It's better for me to just not know this time as well."
He really had gotten smarter, this guy. His sense of when to pry and when to back off was an art form.
"So where are these bastards now?"
"The last confirmation I received said they exited through the southern gate of Ribiel, a gate city to the west. I couldn't determine where exactly they were heading, but knowing they went out the south gate let me narrow down a few likely spots."
Saying this, Zikmel spread out a map. It lacked detail, but the city locations were marked accurately, and he pointed to sections shaded in red ink.
"However, as I mentioned first, the distance is considerable. Even riding a horse at a gallop, it would take three days."
Asilie and I naturally looked to the forests first, but unfortunately, there were no connecting woods in sight. And this was supposed to be the 'close' one. In reality, unless something else blew up, this would be my last rampage, but three days was just too damn far.
As I racked my brain for some way to break the deadlock, a thought flickered through my mind: Gies.
"...By wyvern?"
"Pardon?"
"How long would it take by wyvern?"
At my flat, matter-of-fact question, Zikmel scratched his cheek with a spaced-out expression and answered.
"A wyvern? Well, wouldn't it get there in maybe half a day?"
Now I can't even say "So you were there, you son of a bitch."
God exists. For real.