Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 32. Eastern Knight Order (9)
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“Damn it... what a hassle. What the hell is going on?”
Luper yawned as he climbed into the carriage.
He then looked down indifferently at the Torman man who had come to find him.
“Hey, I told you not to come looking for me today since I’m with my father. And showing up looking like that filthy mess...”
At those words, his father, Sir Dwyer, scolded his son in a stern voice.
“Your tone is too frivolous. Maintain your dignity no matter where you are.”
“I’m sorry, Father...”
The Northern lord, Count Dwyer.
As the closest aide to the Grand Duke of the North, he wielded tremendous influence even in Noston.
“Very well. I’ll observe how you handle mediating this incident and see what you’ve learned at the Security Bureau.”
His father seemed to trust and expect much from his son.
Luper smirked confidently in response.
“Of course. Even if it doesn’t look like it, after I was assigned to Noston, the crime rate has dropped to near zero, you know?”
The count was impressed by his son’s bold demeanor.
To think the son who had only eaten and lazed about until now had grown this capable.
“I hope that’s true.”
“If I resolve this incident too, you’ll recommend me for the Imperial Knight Order, right?”
“Of course. Once I review this quarter’s performance, I’ll personally recommend you to Her Highness the Second Imperial Princess’s Verdant Knight Order.”
The Verdant Knight Order.
Though newly formed, it was drawing a flood of applicants thanks to Allen’s recent standout exploits.
To think even someone with his mediocre skills could join such a place.
Luper’s shoulders rose higher as he lost himself in happy imaginings.
The count and his son leisurely stepped down from the carriage.
However, their leisure vanished in an instant.
Nobles wouldn’t even glance at the rundown pizza joint.
Yet there were six Eastern Knights on its terrace.
At their center sat a girl wearing a hat.
Judging by her academy uniform and black hair, she seemed to be a young lady out for lunch.
Luper stared fixedly at the girl.
Her plain attire contrasted sharply with her beautiful face, which was captivating.
“That’s the wench. She preemptively bought the building we were negotiating for and jacked up the price threefold.”
The Torman man spoke urgently to Luper and the count.
The security knight smirked and replied nonchalantly.
“Yeah, I know a lady like that well enough.”
Before approaching her, Luper straightened his face in the carriage’s reflection.
Sure, he was a bit plump, but a bit of flesh was a symbol of wealth.
He figured he had nothing to envy in other knights.
“Father, I’ll handle this quickly and come back.”
Count Dwyer smiled in satisfaction at his son’s confident stride.
He watched from afar as Luper headed toward the young lady.
However, the count soon tilted his head.
The academy young lady’s face in the distance looked oddly familiar.
“Hello there?”
Lydia, who had been twirling her hair alone.
She furrowed her brows at the rotund knight approaching from the entrance.
“Who are you?”
“Oh, the ‘elite’ knight of the Security Bureau. Luper Dwyer.”
He bowed his head with an unusually sly tone, different from his norm.
Lydia was dumbfounded by his ridiculous manner of speaking.
“So?”
The young lady’s resolute expression.
Luper faltered a bit but assumed she was dismissing him because he was a security knight.
“Oh, don’t worry. My current post may be in a lowly place like this, but I’m a scion of a count’s house. And soon, I’ll be joining the Imperial Knight Order...”
“So what’s your business?”
Lydia cut him off irritably as he rambled on.
“Th-that is... there was a problem with the building deal...”
Normally, people would gasp in shy awe upon hearing of House Dwyer.
That was how immense his father’s influence was in the North.
However, the pretty girl before him was different.
She looked down at him arrogantly, as if he were a bug, and demanded his purpose.
“Oh, so you’re the senior they called.”
You bastard.
Hearing “bastard” from a girl who looked younger than him made Luper’s lip twitch.
Senior, on top of that?
Luper had only heard from Luca that a problem arose during the plaza deal.
He scowled at the thought that his junior had arrived first to handle it.
“Go inside and get a report directly. They’re waiting for you, after all.”
“Ahem... then I’ll see you after it’s done.”
Luper shot her a sleazy glance.
Then he sauntered leisurely toward the firmly shut door.
Yeah, handle the incident reliably.
Then the young lady’s gaze toward him would change.
The plump security knight thought that as he pulled the door open.
And he bellowed loudly enough for her to hear.
“What did you screw up that they had to call me all the way here—?”
He entered the restaurant with an arrogant shout.
However, his leisurely face soon drained of color.
Orun, who had been buddying up to him and offering bribes.
He was kneeling on the shop floor, head bowed.
His other underlings were the same.
The only one seated in the restaurant was a single person.
Someone he never wanted to see again, someone he’d avoided even nearing...
Vail Mikhail.
“Senior, you’re here?”
I greeted him with a bright smile.
Then I rose from my seat and approached him warmly.
“Sorry. There was a scuffle in my patrol area, so I tried to mediate...”
I placed a hand on Luper’s shoulder.
At the familiar touch, the bastard flinched.
“These guys insisted on calling my senior. Said if you came, they could boot out trash like me right away.”
I sat him down across the table.
Then I asked flatly.
“Senior, did you take bribes from these scum?”
My direct gaze.
Under it, Luper’s pupils darted about.
Then his eyes met Orun’s face.
The Torman clan head stared at Luper like he was a savior.
However, he ignored the clan’s pleading looks as best he could.
“Bribes? Not at all. These are all faces I’ve never seen before.”
“I see.”
The Torman clan went slack-jawed as their lifeline was severed.
I nodded roughly at their reaction.
“Then, since you’re here, I’ll make the arrest right in front of you.”
I rose from the chair.
And I moved to bind their arms with the rope I’d prepared in advance.
However, I abruptly halted.
When I tilted my head, I saw Luper’s riding boots.
Even the leather gloves tucked into his back pocket.
Items from the Northern luxury brand that no security knight’s salary could afford.
“But this is really strange.”
I fiddled with the rope as I straightened up again.
Then I looked at Luper’s chubby wrist and asked.
“I heard during their interrogation earlier that among the bribes they offered were riding gear.”
“Hah, you don’t even know my house? Junk like this is pocket change to me!”
Luper scoffed brazenly.
But his scoff soon turned to pallor.
“Sure, but what if that gear is traditional Torman clan equipment unavailable anywhere in the capital?”
I slowly approached the senior with the rope in hand.
“The one-of-a-kind bribe in the Empire, and here you are wearing it openly, Senior.”
My boots echoed through the enclosed restaurant.
Luper began backing away from the approaching sound.
“Hey, Vail. You’re not suspecting me right now, are you?”
“No need to suspect. I already got everything from the bastard.”
“Damn...”
Luper squeezed his eyes shut.
Then he sighed deeply and muttered.
“Can’t you let this slide? If I get through this, I’m joining the Imperial Knight Order...”
“Congrats.”
“It’s Her Highness the Second Imperial Princess’s order. New, but with Allen, the prospects are bright.”
At the mention of the Second Imperial Princess, I halted in my tracks.
And I fixed him with dead, unfocused eyes.
“What do you say? Look the other way just once, and I’ll bring you along. Not as a grunt like at the ceremony, but mid-rank.”
The bastard made an offer tempting enough on the surface.
However, that was a mistake.
To dare try guarding Irina’s side with that skill and character.
Luper had only stoked my anger.
“We’ll talk details at the knight order.”
I channeled mana into my arm.
Just as I was about to arrest him.
Mana surged in Luper’s chest.
“I don’t think so.”
He stealthily slipped a hand into his bosom.
And he injected mana into the necklace he wore, shattering it.
*A summoning stone.*
“Luper!”
Sir Dwyer with an urgent expression.
And the coachman, who doubled as a guard knight, rushed into the restaurant.
“Shattering a summoning stone—what in the world is happening?”
“Ah, Father...”
Luper’s face crumpled into a pout.
He began making an exaggerated aggrieved expression.
*Slippery weasel.*
Was bringing his father along for contingencies like this?
“I greet you, Count.”
I bowed my head to his father in response.
Then I calmly explained the situation.
“Your son took bribes from Noston’s criminal syndicate.”
I gestured to the Torman group kneeling on the floor.
“And he turned a blind eye to all the harm they caused.”
I pointed next to the empty shop.
“Thanks to that, the emboldened thugs ramped up their villainy. When their deal with that Eastern young lady today didn’t go their way, they tried resorting to violence.”
Finally, I indicated Lydia, who was staring fixedly at me from the terrace.
“Didn’t your son ride worse than usual today? Like the horse was more dog than horse?”
“Y-yeah. The gear felt heavy; the horse couldn’t muster any strength.”
“But it wasn’t gear you bought yourself, right?”
At my question, Count Dwyer nodded with a reluctant expression.
“Right. All unfamiliar gear.”
“And those items are one of the bribes he took from them.”
Stunned by the word “bribes,” the father.
He stared fixedly at the gear his son wore.
“Luper, is everything this knight says true...?”
His father looked flustered.
But Luper brazenly declared, unperturbed.
“It was just a token of admiration as a fellow knight, like what you’ve received from other nobles, Father.”
“Do you really think your situation is the same as mine?”
Luper was stunned by the count’s roar.
He’d assumed his father would take his side and now looked terrified.
“You took bribes from criminals and abandoned your knightly duty!”
Fortunately, the count was a man befitting his station.
He’d merely failed at raising his child.
I thought this would wrap up smoothly.
However, I’d overlooked one fact.
“Uh, Sir Vail, was it? I’ll apologize on his behalf for this!”
Even the fairest noble couldn’t overcome paternal instinct.
“Couldn’t you let it slide just once?”
The great count approached a common knight and bowed at the waist.
“I beg you. A criminal record on our house’s sole heir is as good as a death sentence.”
He looked up at me impassively.
However, I soon sensed it.
*‘What can you do if I don’t accept the apology?’*
A commoner getting a count’s apology was life achievement enough—now quit strutting.
He was certainly better than his son.
Showing willingness to shelve the issue to defuse the situation.
He knew it too.
A proper apology like this left me with few options.
However, after forcing this apology, he’d surely retaliate from behind the scenes.
“Well, honestly, I don’t care what happens to my senior. Not particularly invested.”
I glanced sideways at Lydia.
Then I quietly told the count.
“But I wouldn’t know about the young lady who suffered direct harm.”
I pointed to Lydia on the terrace, yawning with her canines bared.
“Go talk to her. If she forgives, so will I.”
And I returned the count’s feigned smile right back at him.