Chapter 28 – Smoother Flow Than Expected
To put the worries of the first day to shame, the journey to the County of Fersen went much smoother than expected.
It was thanks to the special measures taken after much thought.
When the acting ability of my subordinates showed no signs of improving over time, I ordered them to stop acting that was not good at all.
Of course, I didn’t mean to just pretend to be desperate and act normally.
“Everyone, I’d rather not talk at all. I’d rather pretend to be barbarians. I think it’s better to just pretend that you can’t communicate because you don’t know the common language. Then your inexperienced acting won’t be noticed.”
“Yes, I understand!”
It is made to actively practice the old adage that if you keep your mouth shut, you must go somewhere in the middle.
“I don’t think this is something either. From now on, instead of answering, just let out a spirit. The current answer is useless for a savage, isn’t it?”
“Ooh! Ooh!”
“Yes. Exactly.”
No matter how much acting, it was truly heartbreaking to see the honorable knights’ personalities degenerate beyond savages to almost beast levels.
However, when there was a fight with rogues wearing mercenary masks, the choice finally came to fruition.
“If you want a place, pay? Do you guys put a price on Mother Earth’s skin? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ah~ this is won. I really can’t understand what you’re saying.”
After the imperial ruling system was in place.
Gangs of bandits operating from bases such as bandits or bandits were almost completely wiped out, except in remote border areas where the administrative power of the empire fell, and now they have become entities that can only be seen in history books.
“Listen up. Savage from the South. Here we paved the way first, and in return you have to pay the seat rent. Of course, you pay the toll when passing through.”
“Hmm…”
However, in this way, there were people who skillfully crossed the boundary between legal and illegal and did bad things.
Their tactic is to snag money from passers-by by blocking the road, pretending to be camping.
The authors are probably registered as legitimate mercenaries with no problems on paper.
However, their main job was not productive activities such as mercenary escort missions or monster subjugation, but the role of street captains, something that only children would do.
The role of the boys’ alley leader could be viewed as cute, but it was unacceptable for grown men to threaten innocent people by blocking innocent roads with arms.
“I don’t understand what you mean. I’ll just take it as a sign that I want to fight.”
“What, what? Disputes between mercenaries are prohibited by law…”
It was truly heinous to see him seek the law only when necessary for the subject of doing illegal things.
— Wooduk!
I doubled the number of arm bones for a guy who did something ridiculous.
Even if he was healed, he would probably never be able to hold a sword again, but he would be able to handle farming tools without any problems.
“Very, Captain! What the fuck…”
“Is it a challenge? It just happened that the brothers’ bodies were itching. Hit everyone.”
The small puppets, who had been watching the leader beheaded, hurriedly drew their swords and tried to resist, only belatedly, but they were no match for the knights.
“Ooh! Ooh!”
“Uhhhhh!”
The honorable knights, who were filled with anger and sadness from acting as savages without dignity, freely expressed their old emotions toward them.
I didn’t even have to draw a weapon to subdue those guys.
Afterwards, as I proceeded with the journey while responding to minor disputes in the same way, from some point on, nothing annoying ever happened again.
Rumors seemed to have spread.
However, as he passed through several territories, another serious problem occurred.
That is, the entry of a group of unidentified savages from the south into the gateway is controlled.
“Stop! You guys can’t come in!”
Just like now
However, it took more than twice as long to go around the circle, and it was impossible to break through by force, so I had to somehow boil the guards.
In this case, the clergy of the Catholic Church usually came forward first.
“The conference schedule is urgent, so how can we get them through?
“Umm… I understand the situation.”
The disguised identities of the priests of the Celestial Church and the Heretic Questioners are very prestigious scholars.
From the point of view of the common people, they were people who had no choice but to deal with them, so if they were evasive in moderation, they somehow managed to get through.
“Even so, it’s difficult to pass it. As you know, barbarians are very likely to cause trouble, aren’t they?”
However, in a place where the inspection was a bit strict like now, the vice-captain had no choice but to step in.
“Hey, what’s going on? Their identity is guaranteed by the name of the Sherwood Merchant Chamber, so please let them pass.”
“Ah, no matter how you do it, you can’t do it!”
“Are you going to take responsibility if I’m late?”
Although her acting was still a little disappointing, her innate beauty undoubtedly worked well in this situation. Her man is a sad beast that can only be weak to beauty.
If you’ve come this far and still can’t get through…
“Ehehe, hyung. There’s really no guidance.”
“This, this…”
—Peek
As a last resort, Sir Randolph smirked and forced a gold coin into the guard’s pocket.
“Pass!”
Fortunately, there had never been a single instance where the guards had been so zealous that they had to devise this next step.
After repeating this annoying thing several times, when we finally reached the vicinity of Count Fersen, a question suddenly raised its head.
“If this is going to be like this, wouldn’t it just be possible to insert a bribe from the beginning?”
“Uh huh. You don’t know what to do. If you do it right away, it’s rather wary. The human psychology has a strange corner, so you have to shake it up enough before illegal means like bribery work properly.”
I couldn’t help but nod my head at Sir Randolph’s plausible explanation.
As expected, even though he seemed to be a idioty person normally, when he exerted such subtle insight, he showed the meticulousness of an executive officer of the counterintelligence department.
As I was about to continue on toward my not-so-distant destination, Sir Randolph suddenly smiled and tapped me on the shoulder.
“Thanks to you and your men serving as barbarians, we were able to arrive much earlier than planned. We sincerely thank you.”
“What kind of a ruler are you all of a sudden? I’ve already completely forgotten that I was teased with a shot in your muzzle, so there’s no need to do that.”
The moment I was listening properly because I wanted to make a serious remark for some reason at the sight of him suddenly gaining weight.
Again, there was a story that could never be shed.
“Me and a few merchants must have entered the castle in advance to gather information.”
“Is this the preceding mission from that side you mentioned at the meeting?”
“As expected, you remember it clearly. Looking at it, you seem dull, but you have a sharp corner.”
I answered with a frown as I was reluctant to see his penetrating gaze.
Sir Randolph, too, was a very difficult sort of person to deal with.
“I agree. Good luck.”
“If there is an outcome, I will immediately send a merchant. Your side is also good luck.”
The sun had completely set, and night was coming.
A very brief moment that penetrates the gap of cognition.
The enforcer and two agents of the counterintelligence department disappeared from the group as if they were melting into the darkness.
* * *
“Huh? Captain. How come the number of people seems to be empty?”
“Nothing to worry about. Everyone, you went through a lot to get here, so let me buy you a drink today.”
We decided to stay in a decent sized village located outside the castle of Count Fersen.
According to the detailed operational plan, the role currently assigned to the Black Lion Knights is to stand by near their destination in case of emergency.
The time for me and my men to move is after the members of the counterintelligence department have collected certain clues or the priests of the Celestial Church have clearly detected the traces of the devil.
Then, unless something happened right away, it was only right to let the hard-working subordinates take a break.
Fortunately, there was a fairly large bar as the town was not small.
However, even so, the space almost burst when nearly 30 people entered the bar at once.
“Ooh! Ooh!”
“The owner. We’re all borrowing here. Is it okay?”
Now everyone plays the role of a barbarian quite naturally.
“Keeeeeg
“Alcohol! Meat! Alcohol! Meat!”
Some of the subordinates screamed sincerely and enjoyed the sense of liberation.
“Oh, no… I have other guests…”
“Hmm. Wait a bit.”
The host, who unexpectedly received a group of savages from the south as guests, looked as if he were crying.
“Here, this should be enough. These are the people I hired, so I won’t cause too much fuss.”
When the vice-captain, who got off the carriage, joined in and handed the entire bag of gold coins, the owner’s expression quickly turned into a smile.
“Yes! Yes! Guests from the South! Welcome! Now, y’all heard? Get that far and go away! You don’t have to pay!”
“Ah, damn…”
Shortly thereafter, a drinking party broke out, and the vice-captain, who was the only one of us with a sane appearance, sat quietly next to me.
—Sue
Like that, when the drinking party was ripe and the gaze of the subordinates stopped looking this way, the vice-captain grabbed my hand and gently placed it on my lower stomach.
I was about to take her hand off, wondering if she was already drunk, but she just leaned over to me and whispered a very short word in my ear.
“Mana Infusion…”
It seemed right that he was too drunk.
I had to sweat hard to stop the vice-captain from trying to do something outrageous without the knowledge of his subordinates by using his excellent physical abilities as a knight.
The moment I was thinking about how to deal with her, who was just wandering around with a glass of her drink, which was different from her appearance.
“Puhh…”
Wasn’t that a man who hadn’t left his seat and laughed badly as he watched the vice-captain cling to me?
— Jerrit!
“Hee, hee!”
When I tried to glar at him with a bit of momentum to see if he had any suspicious intentions, he hurriedly got up from his seat and jumped outside.
It must have been a civilian.
Fresh.
As I raised my glass with that thought in mind, I stared at the man’s back for some reason.
