Chapter 199
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 199
Chapter Title: Kingmaker (3)
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The next morning.
In front of Tegea's grand gates, countless people bustled about, hurriedly constructing something.
Behind the firmly locked gates—barred early upon news of Atalanta's approach—and the walls crammed with every soldier they could scrape together, a crowd had gathered, bewildered by the sudden curfew.
"What in the world is going on?"
"My brother-in-law's in the guard, and he said Atalanta's already crossed the Taygetus Mountains."
"Huh? Aren't the mountains crawling with soldiers right now?"
"I went to my relatives in Messenia last time and got chewed out bad. They took every vegetable and even the seed boar I brought as a gift..."
"Those rotten bastards. Atalanta or whatever, they're just using this as an excuse to swarm out and make a quick buck."
"I heard the king said he'll make the legion commander who captures her his own son-in-law."
"Hah, these are the end times... A father abandons his daughter and curses the kingdom, and now that daughter returns for revenge. But the father's still using his daughter—who hasn't even come back yet—to line his pockets."
Merchants heading out early for trade, farmers needing to tend their fields, soldiers who'd slipped away rather than join the king's vile schemes.
As those gathered before the abruptly sealed gates exchanged the latest news, someone suddenly uncorked a wineskin and passed it around.
"Eh, my throat's parched anyway. Have a drink, everyone."
"Hey? Who're you?"
"Damn it all, I need to get to Corinth by tonight to sell this wine at a fair price. Looks like we're all screwed today. Might as well drink it before it goes bad—here you go."
Where in all of Greece could you find a man who'd turn down free wine!
One by one, they gathered around the fellow, taking the wine from his hand as they vented their frustrations.
"What a generous young lad! Cheers!"
"Kuh~ Fine vintage. I'll have to order some myself later."
"Straight liquor on an empty stomach's rough. Here, try these too. Smoked pork legs, whole hindquarters..."
"Kyaa! This guy's got taste!"
With snacks to boot from the traveling merchant youth, the area turned into a morning drinking party.
Everyone praised the young merchant's generosity, figuring their day's work was shot anyway, and plopped down right there to clink cups.
"But... have you all heard? About Atalanta, I mean."
"All I heard was that she crossed the Taygetus Mountains."
"Eh? You don't know how?"
"Well, with the whole army spread across the mountains, she must've snuck through and got spotted."
"Sigh... Yesterday when I crossed, they were grabbing anyone without tolls or bribes and tying them up."
"Damn it, since when does the wild Taygetus Mountains charge tolls!"
"Forget the mountains—even the eastern Thespian barbarians are rampaging, and three villages have already been wiped out. That king..."
And so the drunken venting session began.
Merchants, farmers, soldiers—everyone railed against the king's tyranny, the crushing taxes, and above all, the thugs stuffing their faces by mobilizing the entire army just to catch one girl.
"...I saw it myself coming in yesterday. Some centurion said if you can't pay the toll, they'll sell your daughter or son into slavery."
"What?! Is that for real?"
"It wasn't just a rumor?"
"My wife and daughter went to the Messenia market last time, and they're overdue coming back..."
"N-no way. Even mad King Iasos wouldn't do that to his own people."
"I saw it with my own eyes. This doll... it belonged to a little girl they dragged off. She dropped it."
As the man pulled a doll from his bosom, the husband waiting for his wife and daughter let out a scream.
"Th-that's it!! The doll I made myself for Antepine!"
"Wh-what?!"
"Does that mean... the rumors are true?"
The shocking incident poured oil on the smoldering embers of anger already flickering among the crowd, and murmurs spread like wildfire.
-Oh my son, my son! If I'm to outlive you, I might as well die...! He went out to save this old bag of bones, and now he hasn't come back!
-Open the gates quick! Where's my daughter and wife!
-Soldiers selling the people into slavery, and the king fattening himself on the profits!
The pent-up resentment and fury ignited in an instant, and as the blade of tyranny cut into their own flesh, the Greek commoners began raising their voices one by one.
The soldiers who'd stayed in Tegea, unable to stomach joining their comrades in the king's outrageous crimes, squeezed their eyes shut, unable to bear the crowd's hatred.
Like a mountainside blaze consuming everything in a flash, like prairie fire sweeping all directions in the blink of an eye.
Watching the people rise from his own quiet whispers, the traveling merchant smiled faintly.
"What about you? Did they take anything from you? You hurt anywhere... hey?"
The man who'd taken the first cup from him urgently asked after the youth.
But the young man had vanished without a trace.
Peleus, who had built the Peleus Merchant House into its current prosperity in his lifetime, had never once doubted his own eyes.
He'd once spotted a meticulously forged Athenian gold coin and received a reward from the Athens citadel, and he'd weeded out multiple instances of the scam known as "sack-cloth fraud," boasting his keen eye across Messenia and Arcadia.
Thus, his moniker: the Eye of Hermes.
Yet now, that Eye of Hermes was utterly useless—Peleus couldn't tell if what he saw was a dream or reality.
"Th-this... unbelievable. I can't believe my eyes...!"
Tegea, sealed tight without a single gap.
And within Tegea, the royal palace under the strictest ironclad security.
Peleus was now inside that Tegea palace's scriptorium.
It had started just a short while ago, late at night.
A companion of Lady Atalanta had suddenly summoned him, saying there was work for him near the Tegea walls.
Wondering what it was, he'd cautiously met the man, and before Peleus could even react, they were already at the palace.
Landmarks like walls and cityscapes had whizzed by, but his mind was too dazed to process how.
"I figured he wasn't ordinary, but to have such otherworldly power..."
His heart, already leaning toward Atalanta amid her feud with King Iasos, now fully committed to her side.
"Let's see... Ah, here it is!"
The task entrusted to him: unearth every detail of the Arcadian royal ledgers and national treasury records.
Thanks to his merchant's sharp eye and familiarity with ledgers from his trade, Peleus swiftly plucked scroll after scroll and stuffed them into his sack.
Fortunately, Iasos hadn't posted guards even in a mere scriptorium, and the patrolling soldiers were passed out drunk, posing no threat.
-Step, step, step.
"Eep!?"
At the sudden sound of footsteps, Peleus startled and held his breath.
He felt like a mouse hiding in the kitchen. Praying to the Olympian gods to let them pass by.
But coldly, the footsteps headed straight for the scriptorium and kicked the door open decisively.
'Eek!'
Word was, Iasos's madness had peaked—he'd brutally executed starving children for sneaking into the kitchens to beg scraps.
If caught here, Peleus's fate was sealed.
'I'm a rat, I'm a rat... No, I'm a cabinet. A chair under the table...!'
Peleus held his breath, chanting silently nonstop.
Still, the footsteps thudded closer, stopping right before the table where he hid.
'...It's over!'
This is how I die. As Peleus squeezed his eyes shut.
-Knock knock knock!
"Peleus. Found everything I asked for?"
"H-heh?!"
A familiar face peered under the table, and Peleus jolted, banging his head on it.
"Urk?! D-Dianes, sir?"
"Yes. Time to go soon, so I came to check. Any luck?"
The black-haired, black-eyed hero kindly extended a hand to help him up—the very one who'd dragged him here.
Compared to Atalanta and Heracles who'd come with him, this soft-featured young man seemed milder.
But having witnessed the youth's bottomless power, Peleus feared him more than the other two.
"Y-yes! Just as you said, I gathered all the ledgers and records from after King Iasos's recent disasters!"
"Hm... Good. Very good."
Dianes patted his shoulder approvingly, but commotion stirred behind him for some reason.
-Intruders!
-Intruders spotted!!
-Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
The uproar sounded far from ordinary.
Peleus's face drained of color.
"Noisy, huh?"
"Y-yes? D-did they find us...?"
"Come on, found us? What are you talking about."
Peleus sighed in relief at Dianes's smiling reassurance, as if to say he wasn't that sloppy.
"We got caught on purpose. Loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear."
"...Pardon?"
Grin.
The soft Apollo-like smile vanished; in its place, Dianes grinned wickedly, as if thrilled beyond measure.
"What are you waiting for? Grab the goods."
"Ha, hahaha..."
The Eye of Hermes, head of the Peleus Merchant House.
For the first time in his life, he wondered if his judgment had failed him.
Well, it was all too late by then.