The Truth Room

Short, plump, and blessed with a genial face, Bingo bustled briskly through the streets of the Imperial Capital.

He had once been a mere low-ranking clerk in the administration of the Imperial Guard Knights. Despite the unmatched prestige of the order itself, the treatment dealt out to its lowest administrative paper-pushers had been notoriously miserable. Over the past few months, however, Bingo's life had transformed beyond all recognition.

For starters, he had moved to the prestigious 3rd District. His new home was a pleasant single-story residence boasting a modest garden and terrace. While relatively compact by the lavish standards of the 3rd District, it was beyond comparison to the cramped, hive-like tenement he had once inhabited. Just yesterday, he had even treated himself to several pairs of elevator shoes designed to offset his diminutive height. They were a miraculous make, boosting his stature by nearly eight centimeters without making walking the least bit awkward.

Some might argue that height hardly mattered when a man was sitting on more than three billion liras, but to Bingo, it remained a matter of profound personal importance.

Then again, being able to fret over such trivial nonsense is a luxury in itself, he mused with a quiet smile.

Bingo had never dreamed a day would come when he could spend money with such carefree abandon. Back when the market crashed in successive, sickening waves, he had genuinely feared for his life. No matter how deep his pockets were, a commoner was still a commoner. To make matters infinitely worse, the sucker who had ended up holding his dumped Kodana coins was a prince of the imperial bloodline.

During those terrifying days, Bingo had racked his brain trying to concoct every conceivable scheme to guarantee his survival. He had pulled his hats down past his brow whenever he ventured outside and had even taken to wearing a glued-on fake beard. Terrified of being murdered in his sleep by cutthroats, he had spent weeks drifting between anonymous inns. Unlike Eric, who could effortlessly butcher an assassin with naked steel, Bingo was completely defenseless.

Now, however, he strutted through the Imperial Capital with what little remained of his thinning hair fluttering in the breeze. His stride was bold and proud—literally marching without a single shred of fear in his heart.

Today, he even crossed paths with an old administrative colleague who had made his life miserable back in the day. Far from avoiding him, Bingo offered a cheery greeting without the slightest hesitation.

"Derik! Heading out to buy hay for the warhorses? That's still your department, isn't it?"

"Heading out... to buy hay?"

His former coworker received Bingo's radiant greeting with a sour grimace, looking as though he had just heard something entirely forbidden.

"What's with the face? It's been a while, so I just wanted to say hello."

"...Hey, punk. I was your senior."

"Well, you aren't anymore. It's been ages since I quit."

Derik let out a dumbfounded scoff at Bingo's breezy retort. He wasn't acting this way without reason; he came from quasi-noble stock. More specifically, his family had held quasi-noble status up through his father's generation, only for Derik to slip back into commoner status—there were limits to passing down quasi-nobility without an actual hereditary title. In the end, he was just another commoner, but mentally, he still carried himself like an entrenched aristocrat. During his time as a clerk, Bingo had dutifully humored him. But times had changed.

"Just because you stumbled into a little coin... I'll have you know I'm still a senior clerk in the Imperial Guard."

"It's not just the money. I guess you haven't heard, but I landed a new job recently."

"...What?"

"I'm a retainer of the Wellesley Barony now. Chief treasurer, to be exact."

At those words, Derik's face twisted into an unsettled, conflicted scowl. Serving as a retainer to a baron—and a landless one at that—was honestly nothing glamorous on paper. Calling oneself a vassal didn't make one remotely noble. But when that baron happened to be Baron Wellesley, the story was entirely different. The man had frequented the Imperial Palace of late and was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠currently serving as the frontier inspector. While Bingo hadn't ascended into the imperial high nobility, he was certainly not someone a clerk on horse-feed duty could afford to look down on.

"...Oh. Right."

"I'm on official duty right now, actually. You know that relief shelter in the 18th District, don't you? The one feeding hundreds of refugees every single day. Well, it's just received official budget support from the Imperial Palace. There's a limit to how much Baron Wellesley can feed those poor kids out of his own pocket, after all."

"A guy with that kind of money... I mean, an esteemed lord with such wealth..."

"It just goes to show how deeply the palace trusts him."

"Though at the end of the day, I'm just on my way to buy groceries for the orphans," Bingo added with a warm, disarming smile.

Rubbing an old colleague's nose in it was hardly dignified, but thankfully, Bingo was in a position where he didn't have to give a damn about dignity.

A man needs a little satisfaction in life every now and then, he thought.

Getting back at a coworker who had sneered and harassed him back when Kodana first surged gave him a peculiar rush of pleasure. The bitter memories of being forced into unpaid overtime and having stacks of paperwork slapped across his face felt as though they were finally washing away.

"...Right. Well, keep up the hard work, Bingo."

"No, you're the one suffering. Dealing with those prickly knights all day is no small feat."

"..."

His former colleague scurried off with a thoroughly deflated expression, and Bingo didn't bother to press him any further. He had a far more important task at hand.

It was a confidential assignment delivered by an official from the Court Department who had paid him a late-night visit yesterday. Bingo hadn't been chosen because he held any high rank, but purely because of his close connection to Eric Wellesley.

The directive was aimed at dampening the coming storm that would batter the Kodana market the moment the Hero was brought back in chains. Bingo wasn't the only one; several others seemed to have received similar orders. The palace was desperately trying to keep retail investors from pouring any more money down the drain.

Before long, Bingo made contact with several merchants he regularly dealt with for shelter supplies. Sure enough, plenty of them were actively dabbling in Kodana.

"Oh, Bingo! You've got your hands full feeding those beggars."

"Beggars? Please. My lord used to beg for food in his younger days. ...By the way, uncle, you aren't trading Kodana, are you?"

"Huh? Of course I am."

"...Wait, why? What are you trying to squeeze ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of a market that's already in ruins?"

"Come on, you can still safely scalp a few hundred thousand liras if you're quick! It's not like my principal is shrinking all that much, so isn't it worth a shot? I've only lost six hundred thousand liras so far."

In other words, he had lost money.

Bingo stared blankly at the merchant's face before speaking up again.

"Uh, have you heard ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the news? Rumor has it the Hero's been captured. If that's true, Kodana is completely finished."

"Isn't it the opposite? All the Emperor has to do is talk some sense into the Hero and send him back out to fight the Demon King's army."

"I don't know about that. Kwon Hee-jin seems completely hopeless. People say he's been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crippled, and word has it he even lost in a one-on-one duel against an ordinary knight."

"Well, they just need to patch him up and put him to work! ...And watch your mouth, Bingo. No matter what happened, you shouldn't speak so disrespectfully of the Hero. It's fine in front of me, but you could get into serious trouble."

"..."

Something was seriously wrong.

Yet Bingo was no fool, and it didn't take long for him to realize the root of the problem.

An information asymmetry.

And a profound disparity in how people viewed the Hero.

Commoner though he was, Bingo had haunted the exchange since Kodana's inception and possessed an intelligence network rivaling that of high nobility. Serving in the knight order had granted him easy access to gazettes and up-to-date reports on provincial affairs. By contrast, the merchants flocking into the market now were, frankly, financially illiterate. While they knew far more than peasants living beyond the crown lands, their social standing barred them from accessing high-level intelligence.

Above all, their perception of the Hero differed vastly from the aristocracy's. Back when the bubble was soaring to astronomical heights, ordinary commoners couldn't even dream of touching the coin.

So they're thinking, 'He's still the Hero, what else can we do?' Even after hearing he's been crippled?

An ingrained perception like that wasn't going to vanish overnight. Pressuring them on why they had jumped into a dead market would fall on deaf ears. After all, they had bought in convinced they weren't greedy—just picking up a little pocket money on the swings.

"Look, uncle. If Kodana crashes out of nowhere, tens of millions of liras could vanish into thin air in an instant."

"Didn't it already peak at three hundred eighty or ninety million before plunging? Say what you want, but it can hardly drop any further from here."

"..."

"Don't worry about me. I'm not greedy. I'll be happy if it just bounces back to thirty million."

Bingo nodded in a daze, realizing the sheer gravity of the situation. He spoke to several more traders after that, but out of all of them, only one scoffed, "You're right. I heard the Hero is an absolute scumbag. I'm staying far away."

One merchant even went so far as to say:

"If Kodana falls too low, won't the Imperial Palace step in to bail us out? I heard they're handing out hundreds of millions to the nobles from the Second Prince's confiscated assets."

Bingo clamped his mouth shut. He understood then that capturing the Hero and shaking him down for every penny wouldn't magically resolve this mess.

Kodana had already poisoned the Imperial Capital down to its roots. Though Bingo had once prided himself on understanding the coin market, he felt like a complete fool standing before such bottomless delusion.

"We'll rest here for the night."

"Understood, Inspector."

Our party and our captives were currently en route back to the Imperial Capital. While we weren't riding with the frenzied desperation of our initial pursuit, our pace was still blistering. Even so, amidst this frantic march, there was one piece of business I had to settle. That was why we had decided to stop at an inn in a quiet hamlet along the road.

My task was simple: strip the Hero of everything he owned.

Though no official audit had taken place, everyone knew Kwon Hee-jin was the single greatest beneficiary of the Kodana craze. He hadn't orchestrated that cataclysm just to watch the world burn; he had to be sitting on a colossal fortune.

I had no intention of sitting him down politely and coaxing the answers out of him. At the same time, beating a man already reduced to a bloody rag was unnecessary. All I needed was a little preparation to ensure a smooth interrogation. I secured a private room and shoved the Hero onto an armless wooden chair.

Then, I pulled out a Geas Scroll.

It was an exorbitantly priced artifact that the mage Yuni happened to carry. I had confiscated it and compelled the Hero to bind himself to an oath, enlisting Professor Weber's magical expertise to seal the deal.

"Swear that you will speak nothing but the truth to me."

"Eric, come on, do you really have to go this far...?"

"Just do it."

The binding was completed shortly thereafter. The Hero slouched uncomfortably in his seat, nervously watching my expression. Having been beaten half to death and having his wrist severed, he looked thoroughly cowed, yet his eyes still darted restlessly about. He had a pretty good idea of what I was going to ask. Perhaps, even in this pathetic state, his mind was racing to figure out a way to protect whatever wealth he still possessed.

I silently placed a naked blade on the table right before his eyes. It was the very sword that had sliced through his wrist—a weapon I had borrowed from a senior knight.

Kwon Hee-jin's face instantly petrified.

"Hero. I have a few questions for you."

This was now the Truth Room, where not a single lie would be tolerated.