Chapter 34
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Secretly and Greatly (4)
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Cherno City's Guild Chairman Shakov and Guard Captain Ramur were having a private meeting in the VIP room within the guild.
On the table, teacups with steam rising from them were placed, but the only person savoring the tea was Shakov.
"Aren't you going to have some?"
"No. Let's just get to the point."
Tsk, Ramur clicked his tongue and spoke.
"What were you thinking, freezing the transport ledger?"
"It's simple. Insurance."
"......You."
"Did you think I wouldn't know? The basic qualities of a merchant are the information-gathering ability to quickly grasp the situation and the judgment to make a decision."
Shakov, who had been wearing a relaxed expression, narrowed his eyes. Feeling the obvious killing intent directed at him, Ramur took a slight step back.
"I'm disappointed if you thought I was on the same level as those merchants who would blindly follow the Guard Captain's every word."
Originally, the two had a symbiotic relationship where they looked out for each other's interests.
The public security forces of Cherno City were corrupt.
From the start, the man in charge of overseeing the city’s law enforcement, Guard Captain Ramur, was on close terms with Gavial, the leader of the delinquent organization.
It wasn’t as if the law enforcement would actively intervene, even when criminal organizations committed their crimes
The city's merchant, 'Anatoli,' was also at a point where he was old and sick, wishing to retire. The only way for the merchants to survive was to form a powerful force centered around the guild.
The reason the city seemed stable on the surface was also because the merchant guild and the guards were in an equal cooperative relationship.
In any case, there was nothing to be gained for the guards or the criminal organizations by forcibly threatening the merchants.
Even if they made the guards their allies, if the National military police were to be dispatched, the criminal organizations settled in this border city would be wiped out in an instant.
That was their position.
The merchants colluded with the guards to skim a few percent in fees from outsiders.
The criminal organizations were deeply involved with the merchant guilds, committing various corrupt and illegal acts.
Strictly speaking, neither side was in a completely righteous position, but.
A few days ago, all the circumstances changed when Belgorod Fortress was attacked by a band of thieves that had crossed the border.
A fortress raid by thieves was something that happened at least once or twice a year, so that was understandable.
The problem was that an artifact, which was being specially transported from the center, had been stored in that fortress.
And the company that had transported that artifact to the fortress was none other than the Cherno City Merchant Guild.
Of course, Shakov and the relevant merchants didn't even know that an artifact was hidden in that shipment.
If things stayed as they were, they would be left with no choice but to take the fall for it.
As long as the military police investigating the related incident weren't fools, they would surely come to the guild and kick up a fuss.
"If this gets revealed, Shakov, you and I are both dead."
"I'd prefer that. Better than me dying alone, unfairly."
"Fuck, fine. So that's how you want to play it?"
"The inspection of the supplies heading to the fortress was under your guards' jurisdiction, wasn't it? Don't try to wriggle out of it alone."
The reason Shakov had only frozen the transport ledger was because of this.
If the ledger were to be destroyed, the responsibility for the artifact theft incident would fall solely on the Merchant Guild.
The National military police had a terrifying reputation for fabricating crimes to punish people even if they were innocent.
If the guards cut their losses and ran, Shakov knew all too well that he, just a mere guild chairman, would never survive.
"And why do you think the only way is for us both to die? There's a way for us all to live."
Shakov, who had emptied his cup in the meantime, set it down and spoke.
"The guards' mistake is nothing more than a bit of dereliction of duty, isn't it? If we bribe the National military police appropriately, it'll just end with a light disciplinary action. Wouldn't it?"
Though they were corrupt, there was room for it to be considered an understandable mistake.
If the city guards and the merchant guild joined forces and claimed it was a pure accident, even the National military police would find it impossible to find any unusual suspicions.
However, Guard Captain Ramur's expression was not good. His tightly clenched fist was trembling.
"Captain?"
"Shakov, I have no choice now either."
The guard captain stood up from his seat and walked over to the window of the VIP room. And then, he opened the window and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Execute!!!"
At the same time, a loud commotion began to be heard from the floor below. The sound of things breaking, the screams of familiar people.
In an instant, the entire guild chairman's building was filled with the sound of the guards' footsteps. In the end, it was an attitude of seizing the ledger by force, even if it meant using violence.
'They're being unreasonable.'
But arresting him wouldn't unfreeze the transport ledger.
Shakov knew exactly what kind of person Ramur was.
That's why he had even placed a special magical barrier on the archive where the ledgers were stored.
A barrier that could not be physically breached unless the entire guild chairman's building was set on fire.
However.
Shakov's expression twisted as the acrid smoke rising from below reached him.
"You don't mean!! You set the building on fire?!"
"Kuhuhu... We already knew you'd put a barrier on the ledger archive. A cautious man like you wouldn't have failed to prepare for that."
Guard Captain Ramur sneered at Shakov. The smoke was now even thicker, beginning to drift into the second-floor VIP room.
"You should have just complied with our demands quietly. You could have sacrificed yourself to keep the merchant guild and your family safe, couldn't you?"
"Just what is the reason for going this far?!"
This was going too far. Setting fire to the merchant guild's building in broad daylight?
The National military police would surely have caught a whiff of this. However, Shakov's theory was that they could always avoid responsibility if they tried.
Wasn't this an incident that occurred while neither the guards nor the merchant guild knew about it?
As long as no one knew the artifact was being transported, and they didn't intentionally fail to report it or leak the information to others...
At that moment.
The worst-case scenario flashed through Shakov's mind.
"Ramur, you... Did you know that artifact was on that shipment? And not only that, did you leak the information-?"
"Hah, I only realized it was a poisoned chalice after I'd already drunk from it. I shouldn't have done it."
It was Ramur's voice, speaking as if in despair, but it was laced with definite madness at the end.
"......Dammit."
Shakov had no choice but to raise his hands in surrender.
He was a mage who could use simple magic as he had a moment ago, but there was nothing he could do in the face of a gun pointed at him.
They had even burned down the guild chairman's building. If things went wrong, he would surely put a hole in Shakov's forehead without hesitation.
"Damn it."
"I have to live too. Right? Chairman."
Thwack! Pow!!
Ramur, holding the revolver, struck Shakov's neck hard with the metal handle. Without even a chance to resist, Shakov collapsed to the floor.
Ramur then hoisted the unconscious chairman onto his back and quickly exited the VIP room.
It didn't take long for the raging flames to completely devour the guild chairman's building.
The transport ledger, which involved the guards, would also be engulfed in the flames and turn to ash.
Now, according to the scenario he had prepared in advance, if they shifted all the responsibility onto the merchant guild...
"It's a perfect crime."
Ramur laughed with a vile smile.
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"Bring water! Hurry!!"
"We can't let it spread to the Central Market! Stop it by any means!"
The moment they stepped out of the restaurant, they saw thick black smoke rising high into the sky. They quickly reached the guild building, and the scene was completely polarized.
Merchants, on the verge of panic, running around with buckets, and the guards, who were at the center of the fire, watching as if they had almost abandoned it.
The moment he saw that, along with the events from earlier, the calculation was made in an instant.
'These bastards set the fire the moment negotiations broke down?'
Looking at the guild members who were in a state of despair, it was clear that at least Shakov hadn't done this.
"Sir, what do we do now?"
"Let's put out the fire first! Lumia, evacuate any citizens who might be around!"
Lumia was reluctant to use magic. If she could avoid using magic even for extinguishing the fire...
"No, I'll help too!!"
"Huh? Lumia? Are you sure?"
"I-I'll be fine if I'm with you...!"
Lumia grabbed my sleeve tightly and let out a deep breath.
"Besides, for something like putting out a fire!!"
The magic core that had been sleeping within her awakened. Blue mana mixed with her breath and slowly spread through the air.
Following that, the scattered water vapor turned into droplets and moved along Lumia's hand.
"I can do this much!!"
Whoosh!!
A massive cluster of water droplets burst above the guild building, pouring down as thick rain.
A初级 blue magic, Heavy Rainfall.
It was a magic that simply gathered the water vapor in the air to create a temporary shower.
But it was enough to dampen the势头 of the flames climbing up the outer walls.
"Ooh!! The mage has come to help!"
"Now's the chance, pour the water quickly!"
The merchants, who had been hopping anxiously, let out exclamations of admiration for a moment.
"But the fire inside is still incredibly fierce...!!"
While they could control the external flames to some extent, it was beyond their capabilities to control the fire that had spread inside the building.
In fact, the most important thing right now was the existence of the ledger. Guild Chairman Shakov and Guard Captain Ramur. They needed to find out what the two were trying to hide so desperately.
Perhaps this ledger right now had a high chance of becoming the 'evidence' the National military police wanted.
"Lumia, please continue to stop the fire from spreading to the other side from here."
"And you, Sir!?"
"I have to extinguish the fire inside."
Saying that, I stepped boldly into the guild building, engulfed in crimson flames.
The inside of the guild was covered in thick smoke so dense you couldn't see a foot in front of you. It was mostly made of wood, so the fire was too much to handle with just pouring a little water.
"Cough, cough!"
Coughing acridly, I spread my hands towards the gaping maw of the raging flames. The ignition of my magic core had already been set long ago.
"It's useless with half-baked magic...!"
I recalled the image of the magic Bell Mayer had used during the previous battle at Belgorod Fortress.
She called it 'Water Burst' (수폭).
It conjured an image of a massive torrent of water crashing down like an explosion. Adding blue on top of pure mana, and shaping the condensed magical power.
Kiiing-
The moment the magic was successfully activated, the water droplets Lumia was pouring from outside the building were quickly sucked in through the gaps in the charred walls.
In the blink of an eye, a sphere swelled up like a giant water balloon. Staring straight at the water sphere that was wriggling as if it could burst at any moment, I clenched my fist.
"Water Burst!"
Boooom!!!
The moment I finished the incantation, the intensely condensed blue mana exploded, and the water current surged like a whirlpool. The wave swallowed the fiercely burning flames in an instant.
"That's it!"
At the moment I clenched my fist, about to cry out in triumph for having extinguished the fire in an instant.
Crrrrack-
A very unpleasant sound was heard.
"?"
The wooden floor collapsed and gave way.