Uncollected Trade Taxes, Bribing Officials, Smuggling (5)
The Caldea's last recorded entry was from roughly a year and a half ago, yet the sailor had insisted the voyage was only five or six months past.
There had almost certainly been two or three more arrivals in between. They simply had never been written down.
That was enough to convince me. The officials' failure to log the Caldea was no mere oversight.
They had deliberately covered it up.
I had the trail by the tail, at least. From here on, I needed more solid evidence.
Putting the Caldea's crew on the stand as witnesses would be difficult. They were nothing more than laborers who had sailed in from a foreign land. Their testimony would carry little weight, and there was no guarantee they would speak truthfully in the first place.
Which meant I needed to go higher. I needed to meet someone with actual authority—someone whose word would hold real power when submitted as evidence in court.
I changed into a clean, well-cut suit and returned to the Caldea. Lydia grumbled as if the whole affair irritated her, but in the end she, too, reverted to her original attire.
"Lydia, excuse me a moment."
"H-hyaaah?!"
I scooped her up in my arms. She was remarkably light—light enough that I found myself a little worried about her health. She doesn't seem short on meals, though.
"W-wait a second, what are you doing?"
"We're going up."
"Up where? Onto the ship?"
"That's right."
I kicked off the ground and leapt. A body reinforced by aura produced strength that transcended ordinary human limits, and I shot upward into the air with startling speed.
"H-hyaaaaaah—!"
Lydia screamed and locked her arms tight around my neck. Unlike me, who had grown numb to just about everything after the events of my previous life, the sudden rush was clearly an unfamiliar shock for her.
When we finally landed on the deck, Lydia stood there huffing and puffing, trying to catch her breath.
"I-I thought I was going to die—!"
"You really think I'd let you die?"
"You could have warned me first!"
"I'll do that from now on."
While we were talking, a young man who had been scrubbing the deck stared at us with eyes as wide as saucers. I had been half-worried the ship might be empty. Finding someone here meant I wouldn't have to kick down every door just to check.
Leaving the still-grumbling Lydia behind me, I approached the youth.
"Would you kindly show me to the captain?"
"Y-yes...!"
Perhaps it was the clothes. The young man set off with a thoroughly frightened look on his face.
Lydia, who had somehow already drawn up beside me, muttered,
"If someone suddenly jumped onto the deck in front of you, would you look fine?"
"I couldn't exactly tell you to climb a ladder, could I?"
"Well, that's..."
In a skirt, Lydia couldn't climb a ladder—or rather, I refused to stand by and watch her try. And I wasn't particularly eager to climb one myself either.
"Enough. Let's go."
"W-wait for me—!"
We followed the young sailor as he led the way.
"This way, please."
He opened a hatch on the deck, revealing a staircase that descended below. Following it down brought us to a long corridor lined with tightly shut doors—crew quarters, by the look of them.
"So this is what a ship looks like on the inside..."
Lydia peered around with open curiosity. I was seeing a ship's layout for the first time myself, so my reaction wasn't much different from hers.
The young man shot us a sidelong glance as he spoke.
"Merchant ships are usually built like this. Warships are a bit different, though."
"You seem quite interested in ships."
"Yes. I became a sailor because I love them. I'm still the youngest, so for now all I do is scrub the deck, but..."
He scratched his head with an awkward little laugh.
And then, abruptly, his steps stopped. A firmly closed door stood before him.
"This is the captain's cabin. He should be inside. Let me check with him first."
"If you would."
The young man knocked and stepped through. In that brief moment, the gap in the door offered a fleeting glimpse of the room beyond.
"...Lydia, don't come in."
"Why? Am I in the way?"
"It's not that. There's just something I don't want you to see."
"Fine, whatever."
Lydia looked displeased, but she held her tongue. She was probably factoring in the fact that I was here on official business as an inspector. The real reason I didn't want her in that room had nothing to do with that, of course.
Then the door opened again, and the young man reappeared. His face had gone considerably red.
"H-he says to come in..."
I stepped through in his place.
"Aaah—, so you're the one? The finely dressed gentleman they mentioned?"
"Yes. I have business with you."
A middle-aged man with a thick, unkempt beard was hastily pulling on his trousers. He had to be the captain of the Caldea. Beside him, a flushed woman was straightening her clothes—there was no need to ask what the two of them had been doing.
That was precisely why I hadn't wanted Lydia in the room.
Once he had his shirt on as well, the captain spoke.
"Apologies for the unsightly display. Spend long enough on a ship and things... build up, if you take my meaning. You're a man yourself. You understand."
"I have no desire to understand that particular subject. Nor any interest in it."
"Fair enough. When you can reach out and have whatever you want whenever you want it, I suppose you wouldn't."
With that, the captain plucked a piece of fruit from the table. It was reddish and looked thoroughly ripe.
"Want some?"
"No."
"Shame. It's good."
Crunch—.
He bit into it savagely. Juice dripped onto the floor in thick drops.
"Judging by the look of you, you're someone high up even among the high and mighty. What business does a man like that have with me?"
"I'll be blunt. I'm here because you're guilty of a crime. You haven't been paying your trade tax properly."
"And what makes you think that?"
"Do I have to report every detail of my reasoning to you?"
"You're a terrifying fellow, aren't you."
Crunch—.
The captain took another bite of the fruit and let it fall to the floor. Then his hand drifted toward the small of his back. Using the fruit as a distraction while he went for a weapon—it was a practiced motion. Not his first time.
But if he had meant to take my head, he should have tried the moment I walked through the door.
I drew my sword from my hip in a single motion and set the blade against his throat. He hadn't even finished drawing his own weapon.
"Kyaa—! Kyaaaaah—!"
The woman beside him screamed and bolted from the room. Whether she stayed or fled made no difference to me. I continued what I was doing.
"I'll give you a choice. Cooperate with me, or die right here."
"...I'll cooperate. My life is rather expensive, after all. Though I was rather fond of that woman. A real shame."
"If you'd cooperated from the start, I wouldn't have had to draw my sword."
I lowered the blade. I had kindly demonstrated what choosing to draw a weapon would get him. He wouldn't make the same choice again. And if he was fool enough to try it a second time, well—regrettable as it would be, blood would have to be spilled.
The captain let out a long sigh and sat on the edge of the bed.
"What I said earlier was true. I've been colluding with Count Casian to avoid paying the trade tax."
"And what did the count take in return?"
"At first it was simple precious metals. Our country has particularly well-developed mines, so we produce gems of a quality superior to the Empire's. As far as I was concerned, if that was the price of skipping the trade tax, I couldn't ask for better."
Count Casian had been waiving the trade tax for select individuals in exchange for personal gain. The result was less tax revenue for the Empire—a clear crime.
But if my memory served, that wasn't the end of it. The count had been bringing in things that should never have crossed the border.
"Hasn't what he's been demanding changed recently?"
"I didn't expect you to know even that far... In any case, that's true as well. Somewhere he got wind of a plant used to make drugs, and he wanted it."
"And you provided it?"
"Well, it was cheaper than the precious metals. No reason to refuse."
"You knew it was a prohibited trade good."
The captain fell silent. Of course he had known. For a man who made his living by trade not to know something like that would have been an even greater problem.
In short: Count Casian had demanded drugs. The captain had known they were a prohibited item and supplied them anyway. Both of them were guilty.
"What you have done is a clear violation of the law. And the Empire applies imperial law to every act that takes place within its territory."
"W-wait... Are you actually going to do this?!"
"I didn't come here to negotiate with you. I came to expose the crimes you've committed. Bring me your logbooks and your records of trade goods. If you don't, I'll turn this entire ship upside down until I find them myself."
The captain looked resentful, but he began to move. I was grateful he was a sensible man. Otherwise I would have had to resort to violence.
Before long, a thick bundle of documents rested in my hands—papers the captain himself had handed over. Fortunately, they included records of the ship's entries into the Empire.
I spoke to the captain, who had his eyes squeezed shut.
"Don't worry too much. Unless the crime is especially grave, foreigners are usually released on bail."
"R-really...?"
"I do hope you've accumulated a substantial fortune back in your home country."
Of course, every last coin he had earned through these illicit dealings would be confiscated by the Empire.
I bound the captain of the Caldea and the two harbor officials and delivered them to the local knight order. I ordered them sent straight to the prison in the Imperial Capital and gave them my name, so they weren't likely to take any detours.
Anyone who heard the name Lichtenhouse and still tried something like that would essentially be asking to die.
It was immediately after that.
As we walked through the streets, Lydia's eyes went wide.
"Cain, it moved."
"What did?"
"The crate that had the drugs in it. It's moving right now."
"...We're going after it. Now."
It looked as though I would be able to add another charge to Count Casian's list.