Chapter 68: The Tin Knight and The City of Clockwork — Act 4 (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 68: The Tin Knight and The City of Clockwork — Act 4 (2)
Telling a good story is harder than you might think.
The same plot, the same characters, the same lines—the atmosphere can change completely depending on how they're delivered.
In that sense, Sophia was a masterful storyteller.
Her clever use of eye contact, her tone that shifted with the situation, and her skill at keeping her audience in suspense.
The more they listened, the more vividly the scene unfolded before their eyes, and the adventurers became so engrossed in her tale that they even stifled their coughs.
“—And that is all.”
Only after Sophia finished her long story with a soft sigh did they begin to move, as if released from petrification.
“So, they're trying to frame innocent people just to snatch the treasure from the ruins, is that it?”
“And they even killed their own adventurers to do it? Have you ever seen such sons of bitches!”
“Those bastards from the Schwartz branch! I knew they had a bad reputation, but I never thought they were that rotten!”
Sophia's story was shocking.
It was one thing to try and steal the treasure by fabricating issues with a perfectly valid contract, but everyone was filled with rage and astonishment at the part where they murdered adventurers from their own branch to do it.
No, in fact, the latter was the main point.
Sophia had intentionally emphasized ‘the tragedy of an adventurer betrayed by their own organization’ and ‘the unfortunate plight of a fellow adventurer who was nearly assassinated for trying to clear the names of the dead.’ It was incredibly effective.
If the story had centered on Dorothea's party and the false accusations against the Halder Company, the adventurers would have seen it as someone else's problem.
They might have clicked their tongues or felt a moment of pity, but it was the kind of story they'd forget by the next morning after a few drinks.
But when the story was about a fellow adventurer, they, as adventurers of the intermediary office, couldn't just let it slide.
The thought that they too could be betrayed and discarded in the same way sent a shiver down their spines and made the hairs on the back of their necks stand up.
Sophia drove the final nail in.
“I'm still hesitating, to be honest. What if the quest I post is simply ignored? Since it's the same Adventurers Guild, what if they cover it all up, saying they must hide a colleague's shame? This great ‘evil’ that festers within the Adventurers Guild… I'm so very afraid of it.”
Looking at Sophia and her melancholic eyes, the adventurers, puffed up with bravado, declared,
“Don't you worry, milady! The Weiss branch, which works with our office, would never take part in such a filthy scheme!”
“That's right! The branch manager of the Weiss branch was an adventurer himself! He understands and sympathizes with our plight better than anyone! If he learns of this, he'll never let it go!”
“Everyone….”
Sophia's voice trailed off as if choked with emotion. She then raised her glass, wet her lips, and spoke.
“Thank you. You've given me courage. …Master. May I post a quest?”
“Rest assured. I'll make sure it's delivered.”
The manager, a man with impressive bronze skin and a shiny bald head, nodded with a gravitas that made him look like he'd stepped right out of a movie.
It was an unbelievable transformation from the man who, just moments before, had been trading insults and jokes with the adventurers.
Sophia began to write out the quest request so that all the adventurers in the office could see.
A few of the adventurers who could read were impressed when they saw the first line Sophia wrote.
「Show them the will and romance of an adventurer.」
The eyes of the already-drunk adventurers grew even more hazy.
They felt a thrill, as if they had become characters in an epic saga.
After finishing the request, Sophia whispered to them.
“You must all keep this a secret, alright?”
The adventurers nodded.
And so.
“Hey, keep this between us. It's important, so don't go blabbing about it!”
“I heard something incredible. I'm only telling you guys, so don't you dare repeat it anywhere else.”
“Huh? Where did you hear that story? Tsk. Well, if it's already out, I guess it can't be helped. So, what happened was…”
It didn't take long for the story of ‘the evil conspiracy of the Schwartz branch and the righteous adventurers fighting against it’ to spread throughout the entire city.
*
Ranger Kumara said:
“Oh, that? It's all true. The guild called me in and tried to threaten me into giving false testimony, can you believe it? But I'm an adventurer, damn it. I can't just bow to unreasonable authority, so I refused them outright.”
Mage Magia said:
“It's a lie that the Halder Company's explorers backstabbed the adventurers. We clearly confirmed that the adventurers were still alive after they left.”
Warrior Sitar said:
“When we defied their will, they sent assassins after us. …Are they connected to the unidentified corpses that have been showing up recently? Who knows. Maybe your guess is right.”
The former assassin, who had once defiantly told them to ‘kill me if you can’ only to nearly have his head taken off by the Tin Knight, was especially talkative.
It was a law of the world that those who switch sides are always the most zealous.
“There was a vile order from the higher-ups. They threatened that if we didn't obey, we wouldn't be left alone either. Though I couldn't withstand the threat at first, I hesitated at the last moment. Was this truly right? Could I turn a blind eye to such injustice? I made my choice. I chose to fight alongside justice, without bowing to evil!”
It was a fabricated testimony that would have made his former comrades clutch the back of their necks and collapse, but the dead tell no tales.
To be precise, there was a certain necromancer who could make it happen, but she wasn't kind enough to clear the names of those who had tried to kill her.
With a string of testimonies from those involved and the circumstantial evidence lining up, there was no one left in Tik-Tok who denied the ‘dirty conspiracy’ of the Schwartz branch.
Tik-Tok was a major city in the northern part of the Empire, and its influence extended deep into the surrounding territories.
One day, as the related rumors continued to spread one after another…
The response from the Adventurers Guild's Weiss branch arrived in Tik-Tok.
However, it didn't come by messenger bird.
“Hey, get the person in charge out here.”
One morning, the adventurers reacted with a mixture of confusion and displeasure toward a strange visitor who spoke commandingly the moment he opened the front door of the intermediary office.
“Hey, if you're looking for the owner, he just stepped out to the market. If you're here to post a quest, you'll have to wait.”
“Hm? That guy went to the market? Hah. He's really become a full-fledged shopkeeper. What a surprise.”
“…Are you by any chance a noble?”
The adventurer who had stepped forward asked cautiously, his face scrunched in a frown.
It was hardly a good look for a man who looked to be in his early-to-mid-twenties at most to be calling the owner, who was over fifty, ‘that guy.’
Still, he checked just in case he was a noble, but the visitor shook his head.
“I'm no noble. Why do you ask?”
“Then what the hell. You're not even a noble, yet a young punk like you has a filthy mouth. Is the owner your friend or something? Huh?”
“Hm?”
The visitor blinked for a moment as if he didn't understand, then burst into hearty laughter.
“Well now, looks like Baldy's good at managing his people. Seems he's well-liked, too. He grumbled like crazy when I first gave him the job.”
“Hey, what the hell are you going on about—”
Just as the adventurer was about to complain further, the front door opened and the owner returned.
The visitor's face brightened.
“Oh, Baldy! Good to see you, it's been a while!”
“What? Which bastard dares…”
The owner, who had scowled at the word ‘Baldy’, saw the visitor's face and dropped the groceries in his hands to the floor with a thud.
Then he muttered blankly, as if he couldn't believe his eyes.
“…Sir? What are you doing here?”
“Why else? You sent me an interesting quest, didn't you?”
The visitor said, pulling a neatly rolled piece of paper from his coat and unfurling it.
It was the quest request Sophia had written herself not long ago, which the owner had sent to the Weiss branch.
The branch manager of the Adventurers Guild, Weiss branch.
One of only three gold-grade adventurers in the entire guild.
And the man who had just earned himself the new title of ‘young punk with a filthy mouth.’
Platinum Peter grinned, baring his teeth.
“I want to meet the client, so prepare a room. Baldy.”
*
The meeting was arranged relatively quickly.
This was partly due to the desperate efforts of the poor, bullied owner, and partly because the Tin Knight was relatively free after his duels with the Lennart instructors and the opening ceremony for the Smith & Sinc Doll Workshop.
In the reception room in the deepest part of the intermediary office.
The faces gathered for the meeting were as follows:
The Tin Knight and Sophia.
The bald owner and Peter.
Kumara's party and the former-assassin-turned-current-town-crier.
Ignoring the adventurers who were trembling in a corner at the appearance of a great senior in their field, Peter began to speak.
“I was checking out the mood on my way here. You've certainly made things interesting. The Schwartz Guild is the most villainous group to ever exist. So we, the ‘righteous’ adventurers, must help the poor souls and restore justice.”
Despite sitting on a leather sofa, Peter stared at Sophia in a crooked posture, sitting cross-legged with his chin propped on his hand.
“Good cause, good narrative, you even have witnesses. And best of all, far too many people know the story. At this rate, we'll get dirty looks if we don't make a move. To think you blew the situation up this big in just over a week. Hmm, you're talented. Very skillful. A natural at incitement.”
Sophia tilted her head.
“Is that a compliment?”
“It's a compliment. And a criticism.”
“So it's both. Then again, that's the nature of language.”
Seeing Sophia nod, Peter pouted as if something displeased him.
“You're too relaxed. Did you perhaps predict my visit as well?”
“Of course not. I only just heard about you today, Mr… Peter?”
“Oh? And what information was that?”
“That you're a branch manager who used to be an adventurer and are respected by your peers. That you're famous for various achievements, like taking down notorious wanted criminals and monstrous crocodiles. But that details about your personality and appearance are not well known, as those involved tend to keep quiet about them?”
“You know as much as you need to. As I thought, this is no fun. There's no joy in teasing you. This just kills my motivation.”
Peter slumped into the sofa as if genuinely bored, and the members of Kumara's party screamed silently at the sight of their respected senior's completely disheveled state.
“It's all just a means to an end, isn't it? Ride the wave of public opinion, beat the hell out of the Schwartz bastards, then join forces with the Halder Company to seize control within the guild. Something like that, right? The stage is certainly well-set, but that's all there is to it. I suppose I have to do it, given the circumstances, but there's no fun in it. I'm disappointed, truly disappointed. To speak of an adventurer's romance when you yourself don't know the first thing about it.”
“Oh my.”
Sophia placed a hand over her mouth, then blinked and said,
“What should I do, Sir Tin? It seems we're not a good match. If I'd known, I would have brought Lady Adelaide.”
[The 'Tin Knight' agrees that Adelaide certainly has better reactions!]
[The 'Tin Knight' suggests a second option, stating that Dorothea is just as satisfying to mess with!]
“Ah, indeed.”
[The 'Tin Knight' encourages Sophia, saying she has her own strengths and should make use of them!]
“Understood, Sir Tin. Then I shall proceed in my own way.”
Sophia cleared her throat, ahem.
And then.
“In that case, Sir Peter. As a reward for successfully completing this job, how about I introduce you to a magnificent adventure?”
“Hmm?”
Peter showed a reaction.
“An adventure, you say. I like it. Just hearing the word puts me in a good mood. But an adventure that could satisfy me won't be easy to find.”
“A ruined ancient nation of which almost no records remain.”
Peter's ears perked up.
“A civilization with a system different from other kingdoms, one that was buried as heresy for that very reason.”
“Hoh.”
“A monster that even such a civilization could not completely deal with and had to seal away.”
“Hooooh.”
“A magic beast that feeds on blood, possesses outstanding regenerative abilities, and is said in the legends to have immense combat power.”
“Oh, ooh, don't tell me, is it that! Is it that!? Are you talking about the one that only appears in fairy tales and legends!?”
“Yes, that's right.”
Sophia's eyes gleamed meaningfully.
“I will give you information on the legendary magic beast, the Vampire. Including its precise location!”
Peter shot to his feet.
“Excellent, excellent! I accept the quest! I'm going to go give that damn brat from Schwartz a swift kick, so don't you forget my reward!”
With that, Peter stormed out of the room.
His momentum was so fearsome that no one had a chance to stop him.
While everyone else was dumbfounded, Sophia looked at the Tin Knight.
“How was that?”
The Tin Knight pondered for a moment, then silently gave her a thumbs-up.