Debt Repayment (3)
A few days earlier. Back when Allen was still staying in Hamilton. In a small village not far from Goldfield, inside the office of a notorious loan shark, the telephone began to ring.
The moment Dave picked up the receiver, a frantic voice exploded through the line.
"What rumor? What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?"
'The lord of Goldfield… that would be Baron Goldman.' Dave remembered visiting that mansion once before. He hadn't gotten anything out of it, though.
"Oh, Baron Goldman? Yeah, I know him. That worthless piece of shit who already owes us tens of thousands of gold in overdue interest. What'd he do this time?" Dave replied in a bored tone.
Then Jake screamed in pure despair.
"What? Disappeared? What the fuck are you saying?!" Dave shot up from his chair in shock.
"Three… three million gold?! Wait, you don't mean…!"
"God damn it! He pulled a midnight run?!"
Bang! Dave slammed his palm down on the desk.
"Oh? So I'm the only one who knows about this so far?"
"Heh heh, how generous of you."
Click! The call ended.
Dave set the receiver down, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long sigh.
"Haa…"
Unlike Jake, who had been losing his mind, Dave remained completely calm. He looked almost disappointed as he licked his lips.
'There goes a nice little cash cow.'
In truth, it didn't really matter if Allen had run away. Dave had already squeezed out more than the principal a long time ago. Everything he'd collected by hounding the baron had been nothing but exorbitant interest that cleverly skirted the edges of the law. The man had been a wonderfully stupid money printer for years.
'Well, lately he'd only been paying pocket change, so it was getting boring anyway.'
"So the great and honorable baron finally ran off, huh~?"
Humming a little tune, Dave picked up the expensive whiskey bottle on his desk and poured himself a glass.
Glug.
Savoring the bitter burn of the liquor, he began to curse the runaway baron.
'I knew it would come to this eventually.'
Even if he was technically a lord, the land was nothing but a backwater village. The only taxes that came in were from selling vegetables and lumber. There weren't any decent factories, so how was he supposed to pay back the debts and interest with that? The cost of simply maintaining the territory was already enormous. While the previous baron had piled up debts trying to help everyone around him, there had been zero ways to actually repay what he owed.
'And on top of that, that kid of his is completely useless.'
The whole family was a set of idiots. The parents were pushovers, and the son was incompetent.
"Heh heh."
Sipping his whiskey, Dave imagined the pathetic baron's face as he fled. Chuckling to himself, he called for one of his men.
"Hey! Go get the tools ready!"
One of the burly subordinates blinked in confusion.
"Huh? Boss, which district are we shaking down this time?"
"You stupid bastard! Not the beating tools, I mean real tools! Saws, axes, crowbars, that kind of shit!"
"Ah, y-yes! Right away, boss!"
The subordinate hurried out of the office.
The mansion was probably empty, so there wouldn't be any expensive decorations or furniture left. But even if they ripped out the doors or iron window bars and sold them, it would still be decent money. Dave smiled as he lifted his glass again, already planning how to strip the Goldman mansion down to its bones.
* * *
A few days later, the caravan of carriages led by Jake arrived in front of Dave's office. Behind the lead carriage, several more followed, each packed with rough-looking thugs.
Dave climbed into Jake's carriage.
"Alright, let's get moving!" Dave shouted excitedly.
After racing for several more days, they finally arrived in front of the desolate, rundown gates of the Goldman mansion in Goldfield.
Tap, tap.
Dave stepped down from the carriage and walked up to the gate, grabbing the rusted iron bars and shaking them hard.
Clang, clatter!
"Well, I'll be damned. He locked the gate properly even while running away in the middle of the night. What a pain in the ass."
When Dave grumbled in annoyance, Jake, who had gotten out after him, gestured with his hand.
"I figured this might happen, so I brought ladders. Hey, take them out and set them up!"
The subordinates poured out of the carriages, pulled out the ladders, and leaned them against the mansion wall.
"Hurry up and climb!"
The men scrambled up the ladders. Once at the top of the wall, they tied ropes to the other side and threw them down, then climbed over one by one into the inner courtyard.
At that moment, one of the higher-ranking subordinates who had been waiting outside approached Dave and Jake hesitantly.
"Um… bosses… no matter how you look at it, isn't breaking into a noble's mansion a crime? If people like us get caught, they won't even leave our bones intact…"
At the frightened voice, Dave gave him a look of utter contempt.
"Hey. Don't be such a coward. It's an empty house anyway. There are no guards or police around."
Dave snickered.
"Besides, we're not here to steal. We're here to legitimately collect what's owed. It's that baron's fault for running away because he didn't want to pay. What did we do wrong? We're the ones getting screwed out of our money."
Jake slapped Dave on the shoulder.
"Let's go in too!"
Dave and Jake climbed the ladders and stepped into the mansion's inner courtyard.
* * *
At the same time, inside the quiet Goldman mansion, Mariel was cleaning the study all by herself.
Swish, swish.
Her hand, which had been dusting the shelves with a feather duster, suddenly froze.
"……"
Her gaze had landed on a small framed photograph of Allen sitting on one corner of the shelf.
Click.
Mariel carefully picked up the frame. She stared into Allen's eyes in the photo.
—As expected, only Mariel will do.
The words he had left her before departing echoed in her ears, and her cheeks flushed bright red like apples.
"Hehe…"
She smiled shyly and hugged the frame tightly to her chest.
That was when it happened.
Thud. Crash!
A loud impact echoed from the floor below.
"…Did Brother Allen come back?"
Her heart swelling with joy, Mariel hurried down the stairs. She approached the entrance with anticipation in every step.
—Damn it, why won't this door open?
—Move aside! I'll break it down!
Mariel's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
"…?"
The voices coming from beyond the front door belonged to unfamiliar men.
Before she could even react, there was a deafening—
Boom!
The old lock on the front door shattered, and the door burst open with a screech.
Creeeeak!
Jake, Dave, and their subordinates poured into the mansion. The moment they spotted Mariel standing in the entrance hall, they all froze.
"What the—fuck! I thought it was empty?!"
"This wasn't part of the plan…?!"
They had been certain the place was abandoned after the midnight escape. But now a maid was standing there with her eyes wide open. Not only Dave and Jake, but every single one of their men was thrown into confusion.
In this situation, Mariel—who should have been the most terrified of all—was strangely calm. Instead, a flame of anger flickered in her eyes.
In a cold voice, she spoke.
"…You people. You're the creditors who came looking for my master before."
Mariel glared at them and hissed,
"Get out immediately. Before I report you to the territory guards."
"W-wait! We know the baron ran off with the loan money! This is… that's right, debt collection! We're collecting a debt!"
"Yeah! We're the victims here! We're going crazy because he skipped out on the money, so we have to do something, don't we?!"
"No matter what your reasons are, this is private noble property. Do you not realize that breaking and entering is a serious crime?"
Dave and Jake ground their teeth.
The situation had become annoyingly complicated. Dave tried to coax her.
"Look, miss. Be honest. Are you even getting paid by that beggar? The guy didn't even have money to pay interest and ran away. Where would he get the money to take care of a maid?"
"Just look the other way. We'll sell whatever's left and give you a fair share. How about it?"
"…I told you to leave."
Even in the face of such a sleazy offer, Mariel's answer was firm.
The tension in the air was thick enough to cut. Dave's eyes slowly traveled up and down Mariel's body.
'Now that I look at her… she's got a pretty face and a nice rack.'
There was only one servant left in the Goldman mansion. When they had come to collect before, it had only been this woman. Which meant there was no one nearby who would come to her aid.
'If we sell her off to the red-light district… we could make some decent money.'
Having reached that conclusion, Dave exchanged a glance with Jake. Jake seemed to be thinking the exact same thing. He grinned and nodded.
Jake jerked his chin toward his men.
"Go grab her."
"Y-yes? But is that really—"
"Are you idiots deaf?!"
"Y-yes, boss!"
At Jake's roar, several burly men strode toward Mariel.
At that moment, Mariel swiftly reached behind her back.
Click—
She drew the magitech pistol and aimed it straight at them.
"Ugh!"
The instant they stared down the barrel of the gun, not only the men who had been about to seize her, but even Dave and Jake froze solid.