Chapter 37
Chapter 37
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Traitor's Usefulness
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'Anyway, as expected, breaking things from the inside is a hundred times easier. Trying to destroy them with external force is why I've failed until now.'
Beonald immediately recalled the reason he hadn't been able to resolve this within the Callermain Earldom, where many knights were stationed.
These kinds of organizations, even if they fight to destroy each other normally, are the type to unite and cooperate when it comes to protecting their home turf—this place called the "Theal Slums."
Moreover, even if one were to sweep away the entire Theal Slums by sheer force, those who escaped would just create a new Theal Slums elsewhere. And if you wipe them out on an organizational level, other organizations would simply spring up in their place.
Because this market and city, the Callermain territory, is simply too attractive, there are only two ways to stop it: possess overwhelming administrative power and order maintenance capabilities, or, as he was doing now, cause an internal collapse and then install a puppet leader to control it.
'Anyway, the conclusion is finally approaching. I should keep working without letting my guard down until the finishing touch is complete.'
"Where are you going?"
"Well~ Just going for a patrol. Can't just eat and drink without doing something, right? Who knows what tricks they might try~"
And so, Beonald began his patrol, accompanied by subordinates from the Baalas organization who were essentially his watchers.
But this wasn't just a simple patrol. It was to plant the final bomb that would blow this conflict wide open.
Even though the Baalas organization's underlings were following him, they were just ignorant brutes. No one would be able to notice Beonald's trick.
"Hmm, that's Baalas's warehouse."
"Yes. It's like their heart, so it's managed most strictly. There's always the largest number of members stationed there, and they even have a magical barrier installed. Everything important is stored there, from various goods to collected funds."
"Heave-ho! Hey! Not putting any strength into it? Hurry up! There's more than one or two things to move!"
"Yes!"
Just then, while they were patrolling, they saw Baalas organization members moving money, weapons, and alcohol using carts.
It's common sense to gather important supplies and funds in a safer place before a war with the Agrasander Group. Watching the line of carts, Beonald subtly dropped three small pouches beneath them.
"Ah, hey there~ Did you drop these from the cart? Judging by the weight, they seem to have money in them."
"Huh? Eek! C-crisis averted! I'm really sorry!"
"You bastard! Can't you do your job properly? This is all our organization's operating funds!"
Fooled by Beonald's natural acting, the Baalas organization members accepted the items from him without any suspicion and loaded them onto the cart.
And the Baalas organization members watching from behind, also unaware of anything, mistakenly thought the pouches Beonald dropped were genuinely dropped, and scolded the underling pulling the cart.
Seeing this, Beonald suppressed a laugh that threatened to escape and continued his patrol performance, disappearing elsewhere.
A few days later, central alley of the Theal Slums.
Finally, the meeting of the three organizations was realized, and the meeting place was set at the central alley, which had the relatively widest space in this slum.
The total crowd gathered, combining the three organizations, mercenaries gathered from here and there, and slum residents who came to watch, amounted to about a thousand people. Even though it was considered wide, this alley had been packed with people for a long time, and even the surrounding buildings were full, making the place a chaotic mess like a maze filled with rats.
"Now, it seems all the organization representatives are gathered... Let's hear what you have to say~ Baal, and you 12345 folks~"
"Wasn't it you who tried to start this war in the first place? If anything, we should be the ones listening."
"Ha! How shameless! Who was it that decided to cut off someone else's livelihood? Baal, you bastard! You should've been satisfied with making money from liquor and women! You even have to eye someone else's rice bowl?"
"What nonsense are you spouting? You drug-dealing bastards, even if seeing you make money pissed us off, how could we make drugs overnight?"
"Cut the crap! Where's our new product and our alchemist?"
In the end, all these guys were fundamentally criminals and lawless. Malek and Baal began slandering each other with low-level vocabulary and expressions unfit for a meeting.
Seeing the situation devolve like this, the Darktis side just kept their mouths shut and watched them argue, while Beonald, standing as part of Baal's guard, barely suppressed the urge to swing his sword at the undignified and unintelligent conversation of these slum thugs.
'Hoo~ I'll endure. This isn't a meeting; it's essentially just thugs sizing each other up before a brawl. It was my mistake for expecting anything. Their level is so low that the trap I set might not even be necessary.'
He had expected the meeting to flow towards Baalas asserting their innocence and demanding verification of their warehouse and other locations, so he had subtly planted the fantasy flower drug he made in the Baalas organization's warehouse. But with this mess of a fight, it seemed like all that effort would end in vain.
"Hand over our alchemist now!"
"We don't have him, you stupid drug-dealing bastards! Why would we take him?"
"Or did you eliminate him and dump him in the river?"
"What kind of drug did you make to act so crazy, you drug dealer? Aren't all drugs basically the same?"
"What? Are you insulting our industry now? You bastard! You want a real taste of drugs (?)?"
"Drugs are all the same anyway."
Listening to the conversation that had degraded to the level of children bickering, Beonald felt a sense of despair, but he steeled his nerves and prepared for a fight nonetheless.
But at that moment, Malek suddenly stepped forward, dragging a slave, pulled a pouch of powder from his pocket, and shoved it directly into the slave's mouth.
A moment later, the slave began convulsing and screaming in ecstasy from the drug, the fantasy flower.
"Kyaaaaah! Hehehehehehehe! Ugh... Ooooh!"
"All the same? Does that look all the same to you?"
"...Wh-what is that?"
"Good heavens......"
Baal, of course, and even the executives of Darktis who were watching this crude fight were astonished.
Malek's shocking action was one thing, but the reaction caused by that white powdered drug surpassed the imagination of even those who had long reigned as criminal organizations in this Callermain territory.
Seeing the reactions of those present, Beonald once again felt the limitations of a civilization that had regressed 500 years and the fact that, despite giving it a grandiose name, these were still just rural thugs.
"See? This innovative new product! Do you understand now why the alchemist who can make it is so important? Compared to those weeds that only brought lethargy, comfort, weakness, and addiction, this is a god-given drug!"
"No, you were planning to distribute such a dangerous thing here?"
"It's fine if diluted! Hahahahaha! And for such words to come from the mouth of a liquor seller, it's laughable! Anyway, where's our alchemist? Where is he, I say!"
"I said we don't have him! You crazy drug-dealing bastard! Looking at that reaction, don't you get it? I only realized how serious it was today!"
"Do you think I'd know! Anyway, pah! Let's have it out! Guys! Get them!"
Finally, after gathering for what was called a "meeting" and just exchanging nerve-wracking provocations, with Malek's outburst, the war in the Theal Slums began in earnest.
A chaotic mess erupted as mercenaries, organization members, and thugs began fighting each other with weapons in the narrow alleys and streets.
Beonald cut down organization members charging at him with his sword, putting on a show of earning his keep.
'Imperial Knight Order Derivative-Neumel First Form-Viper.'
"Wh-what! Keuk!"
A mercenary who raised his sword to defend, thinking it was an overhead slash, had his neck sliced clean off as the sword trajectory suddenly changed.
He could have cut through them with the sword, but to conserve energy as much as possible, Beonald efficiently dealt with those rushing at him while also deflecting the hidden weapons flying from all directions.
"Damn it! That lunatic drug dealer! He's really causing trouble! Sometimes I think even that bastard is on drugs!"
"Drug dealers usually don't do drugs, though?"
"It's a figure of speech, Sir Knight! Here, leave the defense to my subordinates! Sir Knight, please go and bring me Malek's head. Only with that bastard's head will this fight end!"
"Die! Die!"
"Uwaaaah! Waaaah!"
A chaotic battle unfolding from this alley to everywhere. For now, the combat situation favored the mercenaries, who were professional swordsmen with solid equipment.
And the Agrasander Group, who had spent a fortune hiring many of them, were overwhelmingly pushing forward on the battlefield.
The thugs working in the Theal Slums were mostly show-offs who bullied the weak and didn't invest well in equipment. Knowing they were outmatched, they either attacked thugs from other organizations or used ranged weapons like stones or bows.
"Keuk!"
"Damn it! You Darktis bastards!"
"Everyone, take the antidotes you brought!"
"Damn it! What kind of poison mixture is this!"
Originally, they should have been swept away like trash by the Agrasander Group's overwhelming force, but the reason they could put up any fight at all was thanks to Darktis's cooperation.
Thanks to their organization members, who made their living through various hidden weapons, poison, assassination, and theft, providing support from all sides, the mercenaries who valued their lives slowed their advance speed by forming shield formations.
'But ultimately, the flower of war is... the knight.'
'Imperial Knight Order Derivative-Neumel Second Form-Black Mamba.'
Beonald, clad in a purple aura, charged and swung his sword as he pleased.
This sword symbolized the violent nature of the black snake inhabiting the southern jungles, a nasty creature that attacks even corpses. It was a swordsmanship completely unsuited for a noble's dignity, the only brutal sword style among all the delicate and sharp techniques.
But in a chaotic battle like this, it was the optimal swordsmanship. The mercenaries' defensive formation crumbled like tofu before Beonald's aura-clad sword, and everything touched by his blade was mercilessly shredded like meat in a grinder.
"H-he's really knight-rank?"
"No way! Why is a knight-rank here?"
"He wasn't bluffing? Malek, you son of a bitch!"
Seeing the front-line mercenaries being shredded without even screaming, and the ominous purple aura approaching them, the rear-line mercenaries became certain this was a 'knight-rank' enemy they had often seen on battlefields.
Then there was nothing more they could do.
Knowing that continuing would only increase the corpses on the ground, they began to abandon their weapons and flee swiftly.
"Hey, hey you bastards! What are you doing?"
"How are we supposed to defeat a knight-rank? I'll pay the penalty later!"
"And that's not even a low-rank! He's easily mid-rank capability! Malek, you son of a bitch!"
"Baal, you bastard, where did you find that!"
'D-damn it! No! Damn bastard! How much money did I pay? And he's coming at us like this, slaughtering our mercenaries?'
Malek had paid a considerable price to Beonald to ease his anxiety, but it seemed the other had forgotten about it as he madly broke through. Seeing this, Malek suppressed his rage.
With the knight-rank's appearance confirmed as real, the tide of battle turned once again.
Even the battle-hardened mercenaries were fleeing, and the mere thugs had already run away in terror the moment they saw the purple aura.
"D-damn you! You! We paid you handsomely too...! Did you just take the money and run?"
Was it because he was a boss and had some dignity to maintain? Or had he realized that fleeing in this situation against a knight-rank was impossible?
Malek accused Beonald of cowardice, but he showed no sign of any pang of conscience.
"Why on earth~ should I keep faith with drug-dealing bastards? You addict people to drugs and suck them dry to the bone marrow, and you think it's unfair to be treated like that?"
"Damn bastard."
"Still, well, you moved exactly according to my plan. I should at least say thank you."
"What did you...?"
At the knight's incomprehensible words upon their first direct meeting today, Malek looked utterly confused and tried to ask a question, but the purple aura had long since passed before his eyes.
Feeling the sensation of 'death,' Malek's pupils reflected the slightly discolored leather skin held in Beonald's hand... and in his dying moment, he finally realized he had been played like a puppet in his palm before closing his eyes forever.