91
Chapter 91
"W-wait, hold on a moment! Please, hear me out!"
He's as quick to catch on as ever.
Realizing that the opponent in front of him wasn't someone he could beat, Rob cried out desperately.
Lucy looks my way.
Her gaze seems to ask what we should do.
I pondered for a moment... then nodded.
I had enough time to listen to a single excuse. I figured I might as well hear what he had to say.
"I know there's an Ancient Dragon there, but there's a mine too!"
Rob shouted with an expression that said he felt deeply wronged.
"In the first place, Adamantium is a mineral formed from the mana that flows from an Ancient Dragon!"
As if expressing his frustration, he thumped his chest while speaking.
Rob even tried to prove his innocence by invoking a Mana Oath.
Given the current situation.
There was only one thing I could say.
"I see. It seems I was a bit mistaken."
Definitely.
It seemed I had been making one mistake regarding Rob.
"R-right?"
Looking as if he was finally relieved by my words, Rob deactivated his defensive Artifact.
I smiled at him and said,
"Not only your forging skills, but your scamming skills have improved by leaps and bounds."
I thought his habit of trying to rip off customers was the same as ten years ago, but seeing him now, it's actually evolved even further.
"If it weren't for me, everyone would have been completely fooled, you know?"
There would certainly be Adamantium there.
He had asserted it to the point of invoking a Mana Oath, and it matched the lore I remembered, so it was certain.
However... even if it was there, saying it could repair the Holy Sword was pure nonsense.
The Holy Sword is a blade composed entirely of mystery.
The kind of mystery you'd only expect to find in an Artifact.
No matter how excellent a material Adamantium is, to the Holy Sword, which is made of pure mystery, it's nothing more than a simple impurity.
And Rob, who had managed to repair the Holy Sword even just a little, couldn't possibly be ignorant of this fact.
'Indeed, trash is still trash.'
The weight of a Mana Oath is never light.
In this world, the only ones who know the true material of the Holy Sword would be me and that Dwarf.
If he spoke like that, most people would have been fooled by Rob.
Because the lie itself was incredibly plausible.
So, once the client became food for the Ancient Dragon? He could just keep this obviously precious-looking sword for himself.
And if by some chance they succeeded in bringing back real Adamantium? He would just pocket the precious metal for profit and wash his hands of it, claiming the repair was a failure.
Either way, it was almost certain that Rob would walk away with the profit.
He didn't become wealthy enough to own a mansion like this for nothing.
"My guest... it seems there is some kind of misunderstanding."
"Misunderstanding, my foot."
Unfortunately for Rob, however.
I was a true hardcore gamer who had invested over 5,000 hours into Bone and Blood.
The moment he tried to pull a scam using the game's lore, his defeat was already sealed.
I sent a signal to Lucy.
She immediately drew her sword with a murderous glare and pointed it at Rob.
"I-I'm truly innocent! On what grounds are you treating me like a swindler! Miss, please, put away your sword!"
...This guy was truly relentless.
He was even squeezing out fake tears by force.
Did he still think he had a chance?
Well... the fact that the Holy Sword couldn't be repaired with Adamantium, or that Rob was a notoriously cunning swindler with quite a history, was information I had obtained from the previous game.
It would be hard to explain that out loud.
From Lucy and Rob's perspective, I was nothing more than a troublemaking customer trying to frame someone as a fraud without any proof.
That was probably why he believed he could persuade Lucy.
But if there was one thing he was mistaken about.......
"...A misunderstanding? Are you saying my Lord lied just now?"
It was the fact that the girl standing before him was a true-blue lunatic who could make even me recoil in horror sometimes.
Lucy trudged heavily toward Rob.
My Lord is always right. It is utterly repulsive to doubt his noble will.
She spoke those words, a fierce light shining in her eyes.
The atmosphere turned murderous in an instant.
It was a good thing my trait blocked out her Bloodlust, otherwise I would have collapsed on the floor helplessly just like that Dwarf.
"My Lord, may I take charge of this insolent man's 'education'?"
Lucy asked me that.
She added that she didn't want to show me an unpleasant sight, suggesting I step away for a moment.
Rob looked at me.
With the most mournful eyes in the world.
His quick wittedness really was top-notch.
It made me think that if I used him as a subordinate, he could be quite useful for things other than just blacksmithing.
He had guessed that something truly terrible would happen if I left.
However....
It wasn't like I was a pushover.
I had no reason to insist on humane methods for a guy who had tried to rip me off.
'If he didn't like it, he shouldn't have tried to scam me in the first place.'
It wasn't like I paid him little, either. No matter how good the sword looked, his greed was his mistake.
I leisurely walked out of the room.
A terrible scream echoed immediately after.
Along with it, bizarre sounds that resembled tearing, breaking, and ripping continued to ring out.
I waited like that for a full two hours.
"I-I was completely in the wrong!"
When I saw Rob again, he was a completely changed man.
The blonde Dwarf grabbed my pant legs, sobbing uncontrollably with tears and snot streaming down his face.
"I'll hand over all my Artifacts and the fortune I've gathered, so please, just spare my life!"
The bastard crawled on the floor, crying out pathetically.
...The effect was beyond imagination.
I naturally found myself looking at Lucy, wondering what on earth she had done.
"Do not worry, my Lord. I have healed his body completely, and I made sure his mind wasn't entirely broken. There won't be any hindrance to his future labor."
Lucy declared that proudly.
I decided it was best not to ask what kind of hell had broken loose here. With that thought, I simply told her she did a good job.
Lucy normally didn't show much emotion.
But the moment she heard my praise, a look of sheer pride immediately washed over her face.
How should I put it.
She was murderous, but easy to handle.
She went on a rampage often, but the results of her rampage weren't always that bad.
I wasn't entirely sure if I should call this competence; it was just incredibly ambiguous.
However, if there was one thing for certain....
'If I gave her the Inquisitor role, she would probably do a truly fantastic job.'
There was no better talent out there than one so highly specialized.
Well, it wasn't like I was the Cult Leader of some massive religious group. It was highly unlikely I'd ever have a need for an Inquisitor, anyway.
*****
With that massive commotion finally settled.
I left Blacksmith Street and began walking.
'I wonder if Lucy is doing okay on her way?'
Boarding a train back to the mansion with over a hundred Dwarves in tow...
It was practically confessing that we were the culprits behind the mass disappearance of Dwarves.
The Dwarves were sent to the hopeful recruits' encampment for Black Fang, led safely under Lucy's guidance.
They were likely still on the move right now, stealthily avoiding any prying eyes.
I left everything except the Holy Sword in her care, and as I walked the streets alone, all sorts of random thoughts naturally flooded my mind.
'......I definitely didn't come here planning for all this.'
The initial goal was just to retrieve the single item I had entrusted to him.
Before I knew it, I had acquired over a hundred Dwarf slaves, an enormous amount of gold coins, and even three precious Artifacts.
Robbery....
No, it went beyond simple robbery; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I had practically stripped an entire village bare.
I had made off with not only the residents' wealth but the very residents themselves. You'd be hard-pressed to find a greater Bandit than this.
When I thought about how all of this had happened so incidentally, my head started to spin a little.
As I walked with complicated feelings weighing on my mind, the Mana Train boarding station came into view.
'Come to think of it, this is a problem too.'
Since Lucy, a Noble, had left to guide the Dwarves to the encampment, boarding the Mana Train was impossible.
If I flew, it wouldn't take long to reach the mansion.
But that would draw an astronomical amount of aggro. If I didn't want to broadcast to the Empire to put a bounty on my head, it was best to avoid it.
Should I just walk normally, even if it takes a while? I was about to pass by the station with that thought in mind.
"......?"
How should I put it.
A strange intuition washed over me.
A bizarre feeling that I needed to return to the mansion quickly, that I absolutely had to. The Whispering Earrings had activated.
I hesitated for a moment... before dashing toward the Mana Train station.
My luxurious attire.
Thanks to my appearance, which made me look nothing like a Commoner, no one particularly stopped me as I wandered around the station.
It wasn't long before I spotted a familiar Mister.
"Ah! It's you. The one who took care of that Terrorist this morning...."
The Conductor from last time.
The man who told me he would remember my face and to come find him anytime if I needed help.
I made up a plausible story and asked him for his assistance.
Fortunately, his offer to let him know if I needed anything wasn't just empty words.
I was able to board the Mana Train under the guise of a staff member.
'Is this really something I need to go this far for?'
That doubt crossed my mind for a moment.
Riding the train naturally saved time and was better than walking all the way here.
But this was actually quite a risky move.
If that Conductor hadn't been a kind man, it wouldn't have been strange if I had been arrested.
Going to such lengths simply because of a gut feeling felt a bit excessive from a rational standpoint.
However... I soon erased that thought from my mind.
The accuracy of the Whispering Earrings had always been somewhat uncertain. But even setting the Earring aside, my intuition was telling me.
That something was ominous.
That something felt off.
The Mana Train arrived at its destination before long.
I thanked the Conductor and slipped out of the station.
I ran frantically toward the mansion.
Praying that my gut feeling was wrong, just like always.
And what appeared before my eyes was....
"......."
As if it had been smashed by someone,
It was the half-destroyed front gate of Rubia's mansion.