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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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Guild Master Shakof couldn’t say he had lived an honorable life, even as a polite euphemism.
That was just the nature of being a merchant.
Living honestly always led to losses.
And suffering losses made one vulnerable.
The moment money was involved, being seen as vulnerable was practically the same as death, so Shakov had designed his life to ensure he was never underestimated by anyone.
Learning even minor magic, though still strictly classified as combat magic, was part of that effort.
Of course, there was plenty of potential for problems with the national system where one could be forcibly conscripted the moment they manifested mana…
But evading the conscription officer was easier than expected. Bribing them was even easier.
Even if someone, envious of his talent, reported him, and a conscription officer came looking.
Shakov could easily wash his hands clean by simply handing over a hefty gold pouch.
Naturally, he didn’t forget to track down whoever had reported him and hold them accountable.
As time passed, and he moved beyond thirty, approaching forty years of age.
Shakov became the respectable Guild Master of a trading city, and it could be said he had effectively become the city’s true power.
Of course… he had been subdued by an even more powerful force.
Guard Captain Lamur.
The twin brother of Lauro, the action leader of Cherno City’s criminal organization, ‘Gavial’.
Furthermore, he was a man who wielded real power, mobilizing his forces in place of the aging and corrupt city lord who was looking towards retirement.
Shakov had also recognized his true worth and successfully contacted him, establishing a ‘cooperative relationship’, but.
The result that came back was imprisonment, meant to frame him against the National Military Police.
‘I knew he was a bad seed from the start… but he’s ruthless.’
Shakov, slumped on the cold prison floor, smiled bitterly.
However, Shakov was also a tenacious man who had proudly seized the honor of Guild Master amidst the cutthroat world of merchants.
Unlike the foolish Guard Captain who just stuck with criminal organizations, he hadn’t grasped Shakov’s true intentions.
Because Shakov was closer to ‘allowing himself to be captured’.
When they suddenly pointed a gun at him, he had entered the prison intending to preserve his life for the time being.
Shakov knew very well that Lamur would never kill him.
He had to be alive, at least, to have the blame pinned on him when the National Military Police arrived, didn’t he?
‘He probably thought it was a perfect crime in his own way… well, we’ll see.’
Even when Lamur had his garrison soldiers set fire to the Guild Master’s building and burn down the ledger archive, he had been flustered, but not despairing.
Shakov was a merchant.
And merchants always kept a back door open.
There was a reason why he had only frozen the transport ledgers out of the many ledgers.
As soon as Shakov heard that the artifacts stolen from the fortress had been transported through the Cherno Merchant Guild, he had ordered a massive transcription of the transport ledgers.
Therefore, the ledgers left in the burned archive were all copies.
The reason for deliberately freezing the ledgers was because they couldn’t show copies, not originals, to anyone who requested to see the ledgers.
In other words, the original ledgers remained perfectly safe.
‘He should have at least handled real money properly his whole life. A guy who can’t even distinguish between copies and originals, trying to stab me in the back.’
In any case, all the merchants attached to Shakof had already coordinated their stories.
Watching the downfall of those bastards who dared to stab him in the back was now just a matter of time.
On top of that, he also had a list meticulously recording all the corruption and embezzlement that Guard Captain Lamur had committed so far.
In fact, the one holding the trump card was not Lamur, but Guild Master Shakov.
Now, he too, just needed to wait for the National Military Police to arrive, as Lamur desired.
“If you don’t want to be falsely accused and dragged off to the capital, tell me only the truth.”
Much faster than Shakov had expected, the National Military Police had arrived.
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“Are you really Military Police?”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
I threatened, lowering my voice.
In truth, this action right now was undeniably exceeding my authority. In reality, I wasn’t affiliated with the Military Police, just a squad leader of a simple cooperative dispatch unit.
No, even if I were actually affiliated with the National Military Police, ‘infiltrating’ a detention cell without permission and talking to a detained ‘criminal’ was frankly unreasonable.
I could threaten Guard Captain Lamur by showing the Military Police insignia.
But if he were to strongly protest later, it would only end up tarnishing the name of the Military Police.
So, this was a gamble.
A bet I had placed, thinking Shakov definitely held a hidden card.
Since I was taking the risk, I had to get a return of equal value.
“I’ll give you just one chance. Tell me what Lamur is hiding. If you do, I’ll release you as early as tomorrow.”
“…I understand. As rumored, you truly are terrifying people, even infiltrating this secretly.”
Shakov exhaled, then answered in a quiet voice.
“Lamur knew about the existence of the artifacts stolen from Belgo Fortress this time. It was circumstantial, hinted to me as if in passing… but perhaps even information leakage.”
“Wait a moment.”
I cut off Shakov’s words.
“Information leakage?”
“Yes.”
His eyes, as he spoke calmly, were genuine. Well, there was no reason to lie in a situation where his life was on the line.
There was a non-zero chance that he might be giving false information to solidify his innocence, but Shakov was convinced that I was affiliated with the National Military Police.
Why would he deliberately stir up trouble by fabricating content that would be revealed anyway if investigated?
A man who had risen to the position of Guild Master wouldn’t dig his own grave like that.
If so, then this was…
‘Jackpot.’
An unexpected achievement had dropped right in my lap. If Lamur had actually sold information, it would be more than enough to trace back the insider involved in the Empire’s fortress attack.
“Aside from circumstantial evidence, do you have any solid proof to substantiate it?”
“While I don’t have recordings of the previous statement, evidence does exist that would place Lamur on the suspect list.”
Shakov rose to his feet and approached the iron bars.
Clang, the shackles on his ankles scraped the floor with a sharp metallic sound.
“Find the Chief Clerk of the Guild, Alpera. If you tell him ‘The fishmonger doesn’t lie,’ he will guide you to the secret archive.”
Secret archive.
Chief Clerk Alpera.
I understood clearly.
“Anything else?”
“Unfortunately, no. We aren’t exactly innocent ourselves…”
“Good. Your testimony will definitely be noted.”
I reconfirmed with Shakov, then exited into the corridor leading to the surface.
Fortunately, no situation arose where I had to hide in a storage room again.
The faint smell of smoke that had lingered had long since disappeared, covered by the damp basement air, so even traces that could cause problems later had been neatly dealt with.
Now, if I just met the clerk in question and secured the evidence Shakov had mentioned…
It would be over by returning to the unit and reporting the progress to Major Lanister.
The National Military Police main force could turn Cherno City upside down as early as tomorrow.
‘Not bad.’
Quickly reaching the surface, I rejoined Lumia who was waiting at the entrance.
“You came back faster than I expected…?!”
“Because we need to hurry. Let’s go back to the Guild again.”
“Yes? To the Guild?”
“I heard from Guild Master Shakov that there’s evidence to take down the Guard Captain in one go.”
The sun was slowly setting.
What the Battalion Commander had promised was only an outing, so I had to return to the unit by at least 9 PM.
Because of the sudden fire, I felt a hunger that hadn’t been satisfied yet, but…
What could I do?
That meager food was not worth more than the information we had just obtained.
“We need to find the Chief Clerk of the Merchant Guild. A person named Alpera.”
“Chief Clerk, Alpera…”
Lumia repeatedly recited my words, firmly imprinting the information in her mind.
“The Guild building is this way, Squad Leader!”
Following Lumia’s guidance, I ran towards the Merchant Guild once more.
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“The officer from the 3rd Battalion already left?”
“Yes, he only discovered the fire while he was eating lunch and immediately took action.”
“Good, did you make sure to keep their mouths shut?”
“Of course. I also subtly mentioned that Guild Master Shakov had been involved in corruption.”
“Well done.”
Guard Captain Lamur smiled contentedly. Everything was proceeding smoothly.
Even if it was the only trading city at the northernmost tip of Ukranian Principality, it was still just a backwater.
Just a little outside the city, and there were all sorts of dangers lurking, like monsters and bandits, so the protection of the city walls was essential for survival.
Even if the National Military Police came, there was no chance that the residents would report Lamur.
Instead, Guild Master Shakov, who would shoulder all the blame, was right there, so there was no reason to turn him into an enemy, was there?
Humans were more selfish than one might think.
“Once this incident is settled, I should hand over the Captain’s position and retire. This Guard Captain job is quite a headache, you know.”
Even if he retired, he would essentially just live luxuriously in the back alleys managed by his younger brother, Lauro.
Rather, that was much more comfortable for Lamur.
The side income he had obtained by leveraging his position as Guard Captain was considerable, but.
As long as he was confined within the framework of a ‘government official’, he never knew when a knife might be held to his throat, like now.
“In that case, Captain, why don’t you dye your hair after retirement too? I think red would suit you perfectly.”
“Dyeing? Why suddenly that?”
“It seems to be trending recently? One of my comrades from the neighboring company did it, and the officer from the 3rd Battalion who was investigated this time also dyed his hair.”
“Trends are something you never understand.”
Lamur chuckled dismissively, about to brush it off when a sense of unease swept through his body.
“…Wait a moment. What did you just say?”
“Yes? Ah, I said hair dyeing is trending.”
“No, not that. Who else dyed their hair?”
The Guard Captain’s instincts were kicking in.
He wasn’t as clever as Shakov, but the experience and expertise he had accumulated as Guard Captain could never be ignored.
Instead of a sharp mind, he possessed a kind of ‘intuition’ to sense danger.
“The officer from the 3rd Battalion. Wasn’t the reason we even brought him to the barracks because his hair color was different from the ID he presented?”
“Really? I wasn’t informed. What color was it originally?”
“Blonde, but he dyed it black.”
As soon as he heard those words.
Lamur felt a chill run down his spine.
The 3rd Magic Battalion.
A blonde-haired officer who had dyed his hair black.
It wasn’t just because he was presumed to be the person his twin brother Lauro was searching for.
Because when Belgo Fortress, the 3rd Fortress District, was attacked, the unit deployed as support was the 3rd Battalion.
‘Suddenly dyed his hair black? Why?’
It didn’t make sense to be afraid of thugs. If he was really afraid of thugs, why would he have even come to Cherno City in the first place?
‘And he coincidentally saw the fire that broke out at the Guild building and put it out…?’
Thinking about it again, there were suspicious points all over the place.
What if, just in case, that officer was a Military Police investigator disguised as being from the 3rd Battalion?
It was as good as a fuse lit on explosives. He had unknowingly let his guard down, being complacent in the fact that he had captured Shakov.
Lamur’s teeth chattered.
“Immediately broadcast to all garrison soldiers.”
“Yes? Broadcast what?”
“The officer who just left! Find him right now! Set up checkpoints everywhere and close the city gates!!!”
The pale-faced Guard Captain’s command resounded.
Not long after, the Cherno City garrison soldiers scattered all over the city at once.
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