Chapter 27 - Information Asymmetry
Information Asymmetry
Translator : Elizabeth
Chapter 27. Information Asymmetry
"Hmm, so…… I can only bring exactly two guards with me to this banquet directly."
Lorraine's calm voice echoed in the office.
Her gaze naturally headed toward two people.
10-year veteran mercenary Danel, and family vassal Kailey who now realized the wind Aura.
"Of course Danel and Kailey will go with me. So we are going to get outfits fitted now."
At those words, the man who was waiting while snorting heavily next to them suddenly intervened.
It was Lars Bahat, Ashuhalt's formal knight who had now become 'Danel's dog.'
"E, excuse me! Lady! I must go too! No, I have to go!"
Danel narrowed one eye and looked at him.
"Hey, you're officially Lady Rose's faction. And she said only two guards?"
"W, what does that matter! I'm also a body who lost a bet to you for now, and thinking of Lady Lorraine's safety, it is right for me to follow even to downtown where the dress shop is!!"
Danel was dumbfounded.
"Ah… dress shop, not banquet? No… since when did you care so much about Lady Lorraine…."
Lars couldn't bring himself to say his true feeling 'I want to see Kailey in a dress up closest' out loud and only clenched his fists tight.
But Danel noticed such inner thoughts of Lars and chuckled.
'This Retriever-like bastard, really single-minded. I support you, cheer up kiddo.'
Shaking his rich golden-brown hair, Lars looked exactly like a large dog, a Golden Retriever itself, begging its owner for a walk.
"Fine, Sir Lars can come too."
As Lorraine's permission fell, color returned to Lars's face.
"Yes! I will do my best to serve you safely!"
Leaving the Duke's residence for the city after a long time.
A huge 3-story stone building. It was a high-end dress shop patronized by the Duke's family as well as influential nobles.
However, did they say every day is not a market day.
"Danel!! No, it's Danel Oppa!!"
A clear and refreshing voice ringing in high tone.
It was Arisa.
"Right! Danel would come to the banquet too! Came to pick clothes?!"
"Hello, Lady Arisa. You look strong today too."
"Puhahahaha!! As expected Danel Oppa is funny."
To Arisa who only heard words like beautiful and cute every day, Danel's greeting was a fresh shock.
And Arisa quite liked that greeting. Because she liked looking strong more than pretty.
"Sister Lorraine! Sister came too?! Just in time! Pick some clothes for me! Something Danel Oppa would fall completely for!"
Lorraine hesitated with a flustered face.
"S, something Danel would fall completely for…?"
"Yeah!!"
"By the way… Arisa, did you just call Danel Op…pa…?"
"Yeah, why? Danel Oppa is older too! And because I want to look good to Danel Oppa?"
Though dumbfounded, Lorraine chuckled seeing bright Arisa.
To be able to see such a cute and honest sister's appearance. It was all thanks to Danel.
'I envy that honesty. Arisa.'
A while later, as the full-scale 'formal wear fitting' began, the situation flowed in a completely unexpected direction.
"They say clothes make the man, everyone looks no joke."
In front of Danel's eyes stood three people dressed in perfect outfits.
Arisa of cuteness, Lorraine of purity, and even Kailey of haughty charm which was most unexpected.
Ro-pan effects stabbed Danel's eyes mercilessly.
'Today it's three so it's more excessive… damn it….'
Arisa shouted brightly.
"How is it, Danel Oppa? I look quite decent dressed up too, right!?"
Danel nodded and clapped honestly.
"Yes, I think I might. Just. Fall. For. You."
"What! That tone reading a textbook!"
Lorraine smiled brightly and led Danel's arm.
"Fufu, now it's Danel's turn."
Danel scratched the back of his head as if bothered and headed to the fitting room behind the dress shop.
There, several assistants were already waiting to help Danel's 'transformation.'
'Living in luxury, this…….'
He usually wore dusty mercenary clothes or crude training clothes.
A middle-aged man in a stylish suit bowed politely to Danel.
"Do you have a style you want separately?"
"No. Can you just take care of it? Just enough not to cause trouble is fine."
The middle-aged tailor picked up a measuring tape with shining eyes.
"Hoh, understood. Then please leave it to me."
"Please."
A while later.
Swish—
The curtain was pulled back and Danel revealed himself.
"…Ah… this is incredibly uncomfortable to move in……."
Instantly, the chattering sounds of three women inside the dress shop stopped dead.
Danel was fidgeting with his collar as if awkward.
But his appearance, overlaid with the neatness of formal wear instead of his usual sly expression, was truly a 'wild noble scion' itself.
Roughly swept back black hair, sharp jawline, and the solid muscle curves revealed subtly over the formal wear were majestic enough to crush most noble scions.
The first to react was Arisa.
"Wooooow!! Danel Oppa! Crazy? Why are you so cool?! This is foul play!!"
She ran to Danel with sparkling eyes and linked arms.
Kailey turned her head away abruptly and blushed.
"Well…… just watchable. Not a waste of clothes."
Though she spat it out indifferently, her gaze kept lingering on Danel's sharp jawline.
And Lorraine.
She stared blankly at Danel like a person who forgot how to breathe, then when her eyes met his, she was startled and fanned herself with her hand.
"R, really…… cool, Danel. You shine more…… than any noble scion in the North."
Was that word the trigger.
'???'
That strange 'sparkling effect' seen from the three women began to rise around Danel too.
'W, what is this?!'
Flower of Ro-pan, Shalala Effect!
It was shining behind Danel's back like a halo.
Danel was dumbfounded.
'Why is this on me……?'
Meanwhile, Lars, watching all this spectacle, was stiffened like a stone in the corner.
He also dressed up in top-class formal wear staking his family honor, but not even 0.1 second of the three women's gaze stayed on him.
"Excuse me… I wore it too… Kailey, how am I……?"
"Yeah, suits you."
Kailey answered perfunctorily without even looking at Lars.
"……."
Lars quietly touched the wall and wiped his tears.
Finishing the noisy dress shop routine, Danel's eyes turned cold upon returning to his quarters.
Danel had one routine he had been doing steadily since entering the Duke's residence.
Monitoring and grasping the people around Lorraine.
Senses of a 10-year veteran mercenary who experienced all sorts of hardships, and 'Trace'.
At the end of that persistent tracking, Danel discovered 'one suspicious person.'
One of the maids in charge of organizing Lady Lorraine's office.
Danel had already confirmed she was a spy planted by Julia Helmon.
Because he witnessed her secretly feeding a note to a rat and sending it down the sewer.
When Danel caught that rat and cut open its stomach to check the note, Lady Lorraine's trivial daily life or schedule were written densely.
Instead of catching and torturing her right away, Danel decided to choose a more efficient method.
In his head, the voice of Spio, the negotiator of the mercenary corps, rang like an auditory hallucination.
'Danel, visiting first is a low move. Have to make the opponent crawl on their own feet.'
'How?'
'Information Asymmetry. That comes first.'
Danel wore a despicable smile on his lips.
He took out a copy of the Helmon family letter seized from the Kelek Bandit Group from his bosom.
And pushed it under the bed of the maid's private quarters, in a clever location that could be found if looked for but 'looked like someone hid it.'
Added a short note there.
[Ashuhalt knows what you did]
'Kuhuhuhuhu, now, Julia Helmon. Now your head will become hell.'
The fear of not knowing who is behind.
The moment this report goes up, Julia will go crazy.
The moment it becomes unknown whether the eye watching her is Veron, Lien, or Lorraine whom she really believed to be 'incompetent', all her plans are bound to be tangled.
And, the tightening fear will force another action from her.
'Hey, f… not to use for tormenting people like that….'
Spio's auditory hallucination bitched again, but Danel listened with the back of his ear and answered brazenly.
'This is what I learned though?'
Walking down the dark hallway leaving the spy's quarters, Danel suddenly stopped his steps.
Woom―
"!!!?"
Strange Aura wave making hair all over the body stand on end.
It was aiming only at Danel inside the quiet Duke's residence.
'What is this energy?! It is calling me.'
Is it a trap? Or another variable?
Who is strong enough to be this level here? Veron? Lien? Or a hidden elder of Ashuhalt?
But for Ashuhalt, the momentum was too rough and wild.
Danel intuitively recalled one person's name.
A person with skills to enter and leave the Duke's residence like his own home.
'Mercenary King Dayrolls!!'
Danel headed to the top of the tower outside the castle wall where the energy was felt.
There, a giant man was sitting on the railing with his back to the moonlight.
"Puhahaha! You really came? You, learned Aura? Good, let's go together for a bit."
Dayrolls turned his head and laughed heartily.
"What business is it. What should I trust to follow you at this late night?"
No matter how I look, he looks like a good-natured and fit neighborhood uncle, but instinct was warning that was more dangerous.
"Kuhuhu, mercenaries should always doubt like that. Good, I like it."
Dayrolls lightly landed on the floor. Not even a thud sound was heard.
It was a bizarre sight as if a giant rock landed like a feather.
"Still, it would be better to follow."
"What is your purpose exactly? Why pay attention to a drifter mercenary like me?"
At Danel's question, Dayrolls stopped and asked low.
"You brat… weren't you Barkas's disciple?"
"!!!!"
Instantly Danel's heart seemed to stop.
A spiritual pillar more than a father, and a man who created his foundation as a mercenary.
Barkas, the leader of the Acies Mercenary Corps massacred 10 years ago.
White Aura rose murderously from Danel's body.
"How do you… know that name?"
Because the name of a precious person came out of a stranger's mouth, an instinctive rejection reaction occurred.
Dayrolls received that killing intent head-on and chuckled.
"As if I wouldn't know my disciple bastard's name?"
"……What?"
Danel's thinking stopped.
Mercenary King Dayrolls, the legend of the East Continent… is Barkas's master?
"Barkas that stupid guy sent a letter before dying. That he's raising a quite talented kid. That must be you. Right?"
Dayrolls tapped Danel's shoulder. At that light touch, Danel's body shook greatly.
"How is it, feel like following now?"
Danel looked at the Mercenary King with confused eyes.
Barkas's past, and the secret history of the mercenary corps he didn't know. All that seemed to be in this man's head.
'Damn it.'
Danel doesn't know and the Mercenary King knows.
Information Asymmetry. This was really shitty.
Spio's auditory hallucination was heard.
'See, bastard. I knew you'd get hit the same way.'
"……Lead the way."
Dayrolls laughed and flicked his finger.
"Booze, okay right?"
"If only a little."
Danel adjusted his grip on Hayang and followed behind Dayrolls.
Night one day before the noble family's banquet, a banquet only for mercenaries was waiting for Danel first.