Bravado
Bravado
Adventurers and the adventurer’s guild weren’t that big a deal. If I had to compare, it was about like a temp agency and the day laborers who worked there.
Although there were some outstanding pros among adventurers, in the end when you looked at the percentage, they were a tiny minority, so it was a bit of a stretch to say the whole group was special, and the same went for the guild.
The existence of adventurers brought beneficial functions to the continent, so support, investments, and requests poured in from all sides, giving it a plausible appearance, but from one to ten it was a group that was obligatorily formed according to national policy and need.
It was nothing more than looking like a coalition and seeming massive just because there was one in every city where conditions were right, making it seem like the guild master had accomplished it all, but in reality it was close to a sinecure where even if you sat still, half the work would do itself.
Of course, how well you handled the other half was what made a guild master’s ability. If you threw around reckless bravado to prove it, you’d end up like Geuronzel, and a new guild master would be appointed.
The position of baronet, too, was similar to that of an adventurer guild master when you looked at it.
These were ambiguous nobles who were included in the royal family’s list of nobles, but legally commoners. On top of that, Itisel had been selling baronetcies quite diligently to secure war funds, so their value had fallen even further.
It was a position where you could strut around with your shoulders squared in society, with treatment and status above knights but below barons, yet before the law a bleakly humble reality awaited. Because by strict legal classification they were commoners, nobles’ immunity privileges didn’t properly apply to them, and since any money they coughed up from crimes was confiscated to the state coffers without exception, they tended to get beaten down by the law even more sensitively and meticulously.
If the royal authority had been weak it might have been different, but from what I had experienced in the capital, the royal family would definitely have pounced with fire in their eyes and sucked you dry to the marrow. This time they’d even overstepped their authority as if it were their own front yard, so it wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Still, from my standpoint, there was nothing bad about it. Thanks to Baronet Bwyngseu butting in half-assedly, my actions got gilded.
If Bwyngseu hadn’t interfered, the lord of the gate city would have been inwardly uncomfortable but, lacking justification, would have had to reluctantly acquit me. But now that he had been implicated, they were busy identifying and evaluating all the corruption and problems that had arisen, and it had turned into a situation where they had to give me a reward.
How did I know that? Because on the morning of my second day of lounging in the by-now familiar temporary detention center, an unexpected visitor had appeared and told me everything.
“...So I realized. Indeed, what moved you was patriotism!”
The name of the visitor, who was utterly random in her appearance, in the words she spoke, and in the way she misconstrued my intentions, was Mesina Bans Da Itisel. She was the Princess.
Thanks to her, I had to desperately hold onto my facial muscles that were about to twist on their own and force myself to be polite.
“I, El…dmia Ega… a s-subject of the kingdom… am… at a loss… for the Princess’s praise…”
“‘I, Eldmia Ega, a subject of the kingdom, am at a loss for the Princess’s praise’—is that what you said? Are you injured somewhere? I’ll call for a priest right away…”
“Hah… I’m fine…”
Princess Mesina clearly had the perceptiveness to plainly recognize the discomfort and dissatisfaction I was openly showing, but she didn’t care in the slightest about my attitude, which could be called insolent, and held her ground firmly. No, she not only held her ground but went on to continue the conversation on her own.
“I never imagined I would meet you here. My older brother was busy, so I merely came in his place, but it wasn’t a bad choice. A pleasure!”
“In my view, it was a very bad choice.”
“Isn’t the appreciation of the results brought about by choices and decisions inherently relative? Besides, the review of a reward for the courage and loyalty you proved by punishing Envelde has been delayed too long, so I wanted to have at least one official meeting in person!”
“It seems to me that this is a plan to blatantly ignore the request I made last time.”
“That can’t be. Eldmia, at that time you said you hoped there wouldn’t be ‘such encounters,’ didn’t you? So I didn’t seek you out in secret. That promise will be kept going forward.”
Back then I’d thought she’d been rebuffed in one go and we’d never meet again, but as expected of royalty, her skill at wielding words was sharp.
“…That is a most just point. I’ve learned a lesson. But what business brings Your Highness to such a shabby place?”
“Since there is a traitor who has committed lèse-majesté, shouldn’t a member of the royal family pass judgment in person?”
Shiiit. There had certainly been such a practice, but it was nothing more than an excuse no matter how you looked at it.
“I understand it has become a dead letter.”
It was a law that had been enacted when the kingdom was tiny and in dire need of strengthening royal authority; even if you flew on a wyvern, it took days to reach the kingdom’s edge, so busy royalty couldn’t be absent every time for such trivial matters, could they?
Of course, Princess Mesina couldn’t possibly not know that.
“That’s right. Around the 100th anniversary of Itisel’s founding. But still, the law is the law, isn’t it?”
Seeing as she’d dug up such dusty old content and come all the way here, it was clear she’d come with determination. If it were someone else’s business it wouldn’t have mattered, but unfortunately, the fact that she’d come with such resolve didn’t seem unrelated to me.
“I simply didn’t want to miss an opportunity to extend goodwill. Because I already missed one once.”
“…As you already know, it was a matter that would have ended without Your Highness’s help.”
“Sadly, that was the case! So, making it an excuse to at least greet someone who helped the royal family, I visited!”
Watching Princess Mesina reply immediately as if truly regretful, I let out one more sigh and decided to first correct the most fundamental misunderstanding.
“Setting everything else aside, what was that about patriotism you mentioned earlier?”
And I had to talk hard to correct the grossly twisted interpretation and distortion.
Fortunately, as befitting someone perceptive and intelligent, Mesina’s misunderstandings were easily resolved.
Princess Mesina, who left coolly while saying it wasn’t the outcome she’d expected but there was a harvest, and then as if passing the baton, it was guild receptionist Kunz who visited. At first I thought he had come simply to handle the payment of quest fees and the loss of my spoils, but the story Kunz brought was an apology for having been forcibly entangled in the city’s affairs.
“I should have acted before you, Eldmia, got dragged in… My decision was too late. I’m ashamed.”
I’d wondered how word could have gotten to the capital so fast, but it seemed that from the moment I entered the waterway, unable to tolerate the guild master’s arbitrariness, he had begun filing charges. So that was why I hadn’t seen him even when I made a scene at the guild.
As a guild member, he couldn’t not have known about the guild master’s corruption, but he was also someone who had to make a living in the city, so he’d been turning a blind eye and keeping quiet. Having lived as a cog in modern society, I didn’t fail to understand his feelings and circumstances, so I wasn’t particularly angry. Of course, the fact that the follow-up handling explanation that came after that was very much to my liking also played a part.
“The personal assets Geuronzel embezzled and hid have already been discovered. There was no mention of it, but fortunately, your spoils, Eldmia, seemed to be intact. Here is a document that records the spoils, the estimated damages, and an additional reward fee before they are reclaimed by the state treasury.”
“…Quite fast, wasn’t it?”
“That was the reason I couldn’t come to see you right away. The staff had to gather and work for two days straight overnight.”
No wonder the dark circles under his eyes were no joke. I’d thought he’d suffered a lot mentally, but it seemed he’d prioritized it, not knowing when I might explode again. Anyway, since it was good news for me, after suitably managing my expression and nodding, I slowly examined the document Kunz handed over.
The contents were quite extensive but concisely organized. The plan to purchase my spoils at 1.5 times the price as an apology, the fact that Englem would provide a horse to replace the dead warhorse and that the lord himself was in conference to apologize to the Ogatorf family and pay appropriate compensation through proper procedures, and the amount appended not only as reward for handling the waterway bandits but also in recognition of my great contribution to the city’s stability were all at a level where it wouldn’t be lacking to say I was satisfied.
But what I liked most was the content that officially declared, in the lord’s name, that my self-defense was acknowledged and that I was innocent of any crime.
“I’m glad the lord is a reasonable person.”
“He is a good person. He’s also someone who sees this incident as an opportunity to reflect on his own shortcomings.”
I couldn’t know how sincere that was, but if the city’s people said so, then that was that. Those who were leaving just had to receive what they were owed properly and leave.
“Separately from the reward, the Englem Adventurer’s Guild will not forget the help you have given, Eldmia. If there is ever anything you need our help with, we will assist you at any time.”
Help, they said. I had done nothing but beat, break, and kill, and hearing such words was truly laughable.
“Well, I won’t refuse. When can I expect to receive the things listed in the document?”
“They are already being moved to the inn where you are staying. I merely came to convey that your detention is now over and to hand over the document.”
Those were the most pleasing words I had heard all day.
I walked out of the detention center with the feeling of a reservist getting an early discharge.