The Madness Awakens (12)
“Arthur. What will you do with that man?” Tirsi asked, pointing at the bandit leader—the only survivor of the gang.
I knew exactly what she meant. The leader was a major lead that could trace us. It was the same unspoken rule that always played out in wuxia novels. An unknown assassin suddenly appears in the prison cell of a captured bandit! Those kinds of killers interrogate the bandit for information, then silence him and flee. The entire scene is told from a third-person perspective until the final line: “The next day, the only thing the jailer found was the bandit leader’s cold corpse……”
If we wanted to eliminate any future trouble, handing him over to the guards wasn’t the best idea. Those guards would sell the bastard’s personal details to a stranger for a single copper coin, let alone thirty silver. He wasn’t the Messiah, after all.
“I have some questions for him. Could you wait a moment?”
“Should I have the children cover their ears?”
We quickly read each other’s thoughts. The sound of screaming would damage the children’s developing sensibilities.
“I’ll take him somewhere farther away.”
I set down my pack, grabbed the unconscious leader, and headed into a secluded spot. Even if he screamed, the distance would keep it from reaching the children’s ears.
Quite some time passed, yet the leader showed no sign of waking.
“Water Creation.”
Chaaah—
A stream of magically created water splashed across his face. Water shot up his nose and the leader woke up thrashing.
“Huuuuurgh!!”
He sat up coughing, took one look at my face while bound hand and foot, and seemed to grasp the situation. He lowered his head, watching my expression carefully.
“Y-you……?”
“Forgotten me already?”
Was this bastard going to claim short-term memory loss? Sorry, but the laws of Nord don’t grant leniency for mental impairment. Then again, thanks to the mask, he might not even realize I was the one who raided the hideout.
Should I keep pretending to be Tabula?
It wasn’t a bad plan. Even if he figured out I was fake, the power gap between us was overwhelming. All I needed was for him to answer my questions.
“From now on, answer every question I ask. Every time you argue, I’ll break one of your fingers.”
“Y-yes!!”
I grabbed one of the leader’s tightly bound fingers. The bandit, who clearly understood the rules, nodded frantically like he was headbanging.
“Is kidnapping and selling children your main source of income?”
“N-no, sir. We steal anything that turns a profit.”
“Where did you get the children?”
“From Heisvent. We grabbed kids wandering around at night.”
“There’s a city wall, isn’t there? Did you find some kind of hole? Where?”
“Y-yes. There’s a closed-down general store in the northwest district of Heisvent……”
I started with questions the guards might ask. The leader didn’t even wonder why I was asking these things. The fact that he was spilling every detail of his operation told me he was a complete coward.
I threw in a few interrogation tricks I’d picked up from movies—rephrasing earlier questions to check for lies. His answers stayed consistent and logical.
He’s spilling everything without resistance.
Time for the main event. I pulled out one of the bandits’ daggers and spun it between my fingers—a clear threat.
“Do you know what happens to the hostages after they’re sold?”
His eyes darted around, searching for the intent behind the question. I kicked him in the stomach before he could come up with an excuse.
—Thud!
“Guhk!!”
“Stop rolling your eyes and answer. Every three seconds you take, I cut off another finger. I’ll ask again—do you know what happens to the hostages after they’re sold?”
“I-I don’t know!! We were just told that someone would buy the hostages for a higher price, so we came to Sargadis!!”
It matched what I’d overheard while wiping out the gang. They really had come here blindly, lured only by money. In that case, further questioning was pointless.
I sheathed the dagger and asked, “Who was the original buyer?”
“Th-that is…… They were men wearing robes. The one who made the deal looked like the leader, and behind him were two guards—one fat, one skinny.”
“What kind of people were they?”
“Uh, well…… Their speech was a bit awkward, so I think they were foreigners. B-but the man who handled the transaction was full of confidence. He seemed like a merchant who was used to this kind of business.”
They were probably illegal slave traders. Their skill at hiding their identities was better than mine, so grilling this guy wouldn’t yield anything useful.
“Alright. That’s all I needed to know.”
“Th-then──”
—Thud!!
I activated Beast Regression through Shadowless Window, reinforcing only my right arm, and slammed my fist into the top of the leader’s head. I’d already shaved him bald earlier, so it was an easy target.
—Thump.
The leader collapsed, dead. I untied the ropes and left him there. To anyone who found him, it would look like he’d died while fleeing the hideout.
Shhhhh—
I felt no change in the Beast Regression still active on my right arm. Even after absorbing Tabula’s mana, nothing seemed different.
──No.
There was a change. I sensed it instinctively.
—Shing!
When I focused my will, something shifted at my fingertips. The thick green mana that had been covering my body gathered sharply at the ends of my fingers, reshaping into beast-like claws.
It seemed I could now extend and retract claws like a feline. I picked up a small rock from the ground and scratched it with one claw.
—Screeeech!
I barely grazed it, yet the rock split with an unpleasant sound. Holy shit, these things are sharp. Sharper than my own sword, maybe? The length was too short for frequent use, but having one more trump card was always a win.
Time to head back.
With the leader dead, every loose end was tied. I crushed the scratched rock and scattered the fragments, then returned to the others.
***
After returning to the city, the first place we visited was the Transport Guild.
“Father!!”
“Son!!”
We watched the emotional reunion between father and son through the guild’s back door. Still wearing the mask, I waited until their tearful embrace subsided before speaking.
“As promised, we eliminated the bandit group and rescued your son. I’m sorry to interrupt while you’re emotional, but could you pay the reward now?”
“Yes! Of course! Right away!”
The bald merchant, still sobbing, brought me the money. Exactly ten silver—just as agreed.
“Ten silver. Received in full.”
I handed back the signed contract and spoke seriously.
“But Guild Master, there’s something you and your son need to know about this incident.”
“Yes? What is it?”
The bald merchant, who had been folding the contract, looked up attentively. After all, the person who saved his son was speaking.
Meeting his eyes, I delivered the line I’d prepared.
“After interrogating the bandit leader, we learned that your son’s kidnapping was orchestrated by someone behind the scenes.”
“B-behind the scenes?! You mean someone was targeting my son?!”
The bald man looked thunderstruck. I folded my arms and nodded gravely.
“The leader confessed that he was acting under someone’s orders—including the other children. The clients were a trio who hid their faces. The one who proposed the deal was a man who looked like a merchant.”
“A merchant……”
“That’s right. It means someone unknown was targeting your son. The bandits were merely their tools.”
Was it a lie? No, it wasn’t. Even if we didn’t know their identities, there had definitely been people willing to buy the hostages from the bandits. So it wasn’t a lie. I left out everything about Tabula’s shadowy organization, but the rest was one hundred percent true. Without Tabula, the one-armed youth and the children would have been sold to those people.
“Thank you for the warning. I’ll be extremely careful.”
Both father and son took my words seriously. My conscience didn’t twinge at all. I had saved their lives, and being cautious would only benefit them. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Argue all you want—my words are correct.
“I’m glad you understand. By the way, may I leave the stolen goods we recovered and the children’s care to you?”
I asked while gently patting the heads of the rescued children.
“They’ll probably trust your son more than they trust us or the guards, since they barely know us.”
“Yes. Please leave them to me—no, to us.”
The one-armed youth thumped his chest and declared confidently.
“We’ll turn the stolen goods over to the guards and make sure these children get home safely. They trembled in fear together with me inside the bandit hideout. I’ll treat them like my own children and take full responsibility!”
“Mister!!”
The children rushed toward the youth in tears. He hugged the three of them tightly, tears streaming down his face. Even with only one arm, there was no problem embracing them with his heart.
“There, there. I told you back in the cave, didn’t I? Uncle will definitely reunite you with your moms and dads.”
“Waaaaah!!”
The children and the one-armed youth clung to each other, sobbing. This time it really was a moving scene—even I felt my nose sting a little.
“Sniff……!”
The bald merchant was also watching his son with moist eyes, as if wondering when his boy had grown up so much. Yeah. Children who seemed like they’d stay kids forever eventually became adults and found themselves in the position of protecting children of their own.
“Thank you for granting my request. I’ll pray that these children have bright futures ahead of them.”
I spoke while holding back tears. The only place I could shed my mental tears was in front of the people I loved.
“Yes!! Please be careful on your way back!!”
With that, I left the guild, taking the mana potions and other goods the Transport Guild had purchased as part of the reward. The bandits’ loot had also been bought by the guild. Adding the promised payment, the total came to fourteen silver and thirty copper in cash alone.
“Ahem, Ash. Here—this is thirty percent of the reward, as promised. Take it.”
I split the reward with Tirsi. We divided it seven to three—five silver and thirty copper for her, nine silver for me.
Tirsi smiled softly without even checking the envelope. She must have seen me holding back tears earlier.
“If we split fourteen silver and thirty copper seven to three, my share should be four silver and twenty-nine copper, right? At this rate I’m getting an extra silver and one copper.”
“Ahem. Well, consider the change payment for the healing potion I drank.”
“Oh my. A potion under fifty milliliters costs a whole silver? That’s quite the profitable business.”
“You have to factor in the broken potion bottle too. Including that, you’re actually at a loss.”
So I gave Tirsi one extra mana potion as well. Since the non-valuable stolen goods had been left at the Transport Guild, our only additional income was the eight mana potions. There had originally been ten, but I’d used two during the fight. We split them evenly—four each. I heard they sold for about one silver apiece, but I planned to keep mine as emergency supplies.
“Arthur? Would you like to change clothes and have dinner together later?”
Tirsi invited me to a meal. Ah, now that we’d seen each other’s real faces, eating together was possible. But Franc was waiting for me, so accepting wasn’t easy.
“It’s a tempting offer, but let’s save it for next time. There’s someone waiting for me.”
I turned down the invitation. If it had felt like seduction, it would’ve been harder to refuse, but her tone was genuinely just about sharing a meal, so I could decline without any discomfort.
“That’s a shame.”
Tirsi accepted my refusal without seeming particularly sad. Or so I thought.
“Aah~. Lucy said she was going out to meet her boyfriend today too. So I guess I’ll be eating bread with jam alone in the dorm again tonight~.”
“Ahem, ahem.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just cleared my throat. Tirsi was complaining even after nearly dying because of me and hiding her identity—it made me feel guilty.
All Tirsi had gained from following me to the bandit hideout was roughly ten million won’s worth of reward. Ten silver was a lot of money even for a mage, but was it worth risking her life? Probably not.
“Uh, doesn’t the guild have a restaurant?”
“Hehe. It was a joke, so don’t panic.”
When I looked flustered, Tirsi said it had been a joke after all.
“I’ll count that joke as part of the reward too. Since I earned some money today, I’ll go eat something nice at a restaurant.”
“Haha. Please do. Next time, I’ll be the one to invite you first.”
“Thank you for saying that. I’ll look forward to it?”
Tirsi clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward slightly, pulling her hood and scarf down just enough to show her face.
“Arthur. Next time we meet, call me by my real name instead of Ash. And drop the ‘Miss’ too.”
“Only if you do the same for me.”
“Good. Deal.”
Tirsi walked briskly into the back alley. She was probably planning to remove her scarf and hood there, just like me, before returning to the guild.
“Well then, goodbye. See you again, Sir Knight.”
With one foot in the alley, Tirsi peeked her head out from behind the building corner and winked. Then, as if embarrassed, she disappeared in an instant.
Sir Knight?
Ah, she’d mentioned chivalry back when I beat up the Earthlate too. Romania was a country with many libraries, so maybe Tirsi liked those kinds of stories.
After seeing Tirsi off, I dragged my tired feet toward home like a salaryman heading back after work. Then I realized something.
“Ah.”
Shit. I completely forgot to leave the recovered thesis at the Transport Guild.