Chapter 241 |
There was no way the Demon Knight would’ve run away for no reason. Anyone who knew him even a little would agree with that statement, and Deathbringer was no exception.
However, that he wouldn’t run without reason also meant that he would run if given the right reason.
But this was the Demon Knight. How substantial would such a reason have to be for him to actually escape?
What kind of justification would someone have to give to make him choose to disappear?
“It was you, right?
At the very least, he wouldn’t have come up with it while quietly sitting behind bars. That guy wasn’t the type to change his mind for survival, and if there’d been a reason strong enough for him to change his stubborn mind—if something like that even existed—he’d have acted on it long ago.
“What?”
“You’re the one who influenced him, right?”
So, it had to have been an external influence, a third party who’d given the Demon Knight some new perspective.
When he followed that line of reasoning, it didn’t take him long to reach a conclusion.
The adventurer who’d caused a scene in front of the Demon Knight’s prison before he escaped. Meister, who happened to be talking to the Demon, received a package at that moment, claiming it was something he’d ordered.
For someone like Deathbringer, who’d dealt with information for a long time, that was enough to raise suspicion.
“Seriously. So you just show up and suddenly start accusing people…”
But just knowing this much didn’t mean that things would go smoothly.
“Listen, kid. In this line of work, the polite thing to do is pretend not to know each other.”
Unfortunately, the adventurer Deathbringer had confronted, who was also a member of the Information Guild, gripped Deathbringer by the collar and pulled their faces incredibly close together. To anyone watching, it probably looked like they were fighting, but in reality, it was a trick to convey messages covertly.
Deathbringer could feel his breath against his skin with each word the adventurer spoke.
“I have nothing to say to you, so back off.”
Dealing with a fellow member of the Information Guild was a double-edged sword. If he won the negotiation, he’d gain far more than he would from a normal person, but if he failed, he’d be left with neither a clue nor a trace.
This guy didn’t have much time to clean up, so he’d been able to find his tail, but… that was it. The Temple had definitely investigated him since he’d caused that commotion, but for him to still be walking around freely meant just one thing.
He and Meister had made their stories airtight. So airtight, in fact, that even the Temple had no choice but to let them go.
“Maybe you have nothing to say, but I do.”
With that, Deathbringer reciprocated and grabbed the adventurer’s collar as well. The man who’d just loosened his own grip was now left awkwardly caught.
His plain face twisted into a deep frown.
“Hey, Green Ears. I don’t know what you’re up to, but I have business with that adventurer. So how about you let go?”
In the midst of all that, someone unexpected intervened. It was Meister.
“You…?”
“Huh, aren’t you the one who was suppo—?”
While Deathbringer briefly wondered why Meister was here, he decided just to be glad about it. He’d already planned to track him down and question him about what the adventurer had given him.
Meister had saved him quite some time, seeing as he’d come here on his own feet.
“There you are.”
But perhaps it was too soon for him to feel relieved.
Another unexpected variable had arrived. A variable he would’ve never asked for, needed, or liked. The feeling seemed to be mutual.
“…What, the Temple? Why again?”
Apparently, Meister felt the same way. He glared at the newcomer, Inquisitor Daniel, with disgust.
Meister probably wasn’t acquainted with Daniel, so his reaction was likely based on his affiliation with the Temple.
“What is it this time, Inquisitor? Have we officially been declared heretics yet?”
“…Huh? No, I’m here to speak with this person.”
Great, make it worse. Keep going!
Still gripping the adventurer’s collar, Deathbringer watched the events playing out before him. Unfortunately, the misunderstanding didn’t last very long.
He’d hoped things would spiral out of control to the point where they were too distracted to look his way.
“What? Why are you here again?”
And just like that, the attention had shifted back onto him.
Deathbringer spoke bluntly, still keeping a tight grip on the adventurer so he wouldn’t run away. Daniel naturally furrowed his brows.
“I came here because I have some questions to ask you… but more importantly, why are you grabbing that man by the collar? I don’t really know what’s happening, so I won’t make any assumptions, but wouldn’t it be better to let go and talk this out?”
Despite saying he wouldn’t make any assumptions, didn’t he immediately do just that?
Deathbringer pouted his lips slightly, internally mocking Daniel. He knew that when Daniel said he wouldn’t make assumptions, he’d meant that he wouldn’t judge him too harshly.
“That’s just how you see it. Don’t butt into my personal business and get lost.”
But there wasn’t anything he could do. He just hated the guy so much. When Daniel learned about the Demon Knight’s escape, he’d spit out insults again, but this time, Deathbringer knew he couldn’t properly refute him anymore.
Absolutely the worst.
“As I just said, I came to ask you something. And honestly, this situation doesn’t look personal enough for me not to interfere in…”
“Look, you two can argue all you want for all I care, but let go of the adventurer first. Just as you have business with each other, I have business with that person, too.”
“Yes, yes. Please leave me alone. I haven’t done anything wrong, so why am I being manhandled like that, huh? Sir Priest.”
So Daniel hadn’t heard much about the Demon Knight’s escape yet… But now Meister was desperate to take that adventure away.
Whether he was just trying to cover their tracks again or for some other reason, Deathbringer couldn’t just sit back and let it happen. If those two decided to keep their mouths shut, all he’d be left with was a headache.
“You didn’t do anything wrong…?”
“I was just walking down this road, and this guy picked a fight with me.”
“Is that true?”
“No, ugh. I can explain, okay…?”
He could just twist the facts to make it seem like this guy was at fault, but then, this hard-headed inquisitor would want to settle this fairly and drag them all to a room full of priests. That was something he absolutely had to avoid.
Deathbringer clenched his teeth as both those damn people pressured him at once.
“Please clarify your actions. Regardless of your status, intimidating an innocent person is…”
“Damn it! I told you there are circumstances!”
“Then if you just explain…”
“Ahh, you priests sure love wasting people’s time. Is this how a priest who’s supposed to serve the people should act? Here you are, holding us up, wasting time, and interfering?”
Surprisingly, it was Meister who came to his rescue.
“Ah, my apologies…”
“You think words are enough? Shouldn’t you show your sincerity through actions?”
“…Erm, then what exactly should I do?”
“You don’t seem to have a prior appointment, so how about you just go away? I’ll settle this matter between the adventurer and that idiot. You can talk to them after we’re done.”
“I suppose that’d be fine, but the problem still remains…”
“That’s for the parties involved to sort out, so shoo. You’re dragging this out and making it harder for them to reach a compromise.”
Strictly speaking, Meister probably stepped forward because he just didn’t want to waste any more time rather than help him, but it was the result that mattered, right?
Completely overwhelmed by Meister’s overbearing speech, Daniel was left awkwardly scratching his head.
“Understood. I’ll come find you at your accommodations tonight.”
So he shouldn’t go back to his accommodations later. Deathbringer quickly came to a clear conclusion. Meanwhile, Daniel had finally left.
“Alright then, shall we have a chat?”
Now, the only ones left were those who actually had information.
* * *
* * *
“We’ve wasted enough time, so let’s be honest here. First off, why did you come here?”
They moved to a different place to reduce the chances of being overheard. Even if Meister pulled out one of those sound-absorbing devices, standing in the middle of the street without doing anything would still draw quite a lot of attention.
So, they intentionally sought out some work to do to blend in. Fortunately, a house repair job was happening not too far away. Thanks to Meister being with them, it didn’t seem strange for the three of them to join in.
“You two were involved with the Demon Knight’s escape, right?”
“What? Are you going to start accusing me of heresy, too?”
“No. I just want to know why Mister Knight left.”
He’d really jumped straight to the most important question.
Meister fell silent for a moment at Deathbringer’s words. The memory of a certain man faithfully guarding the Demon Knight before he’d awoken flashed through his mind.
That couldn’t possibly have been a lie.
“I didn’t help him directly.”
“Then what was the trigger?”
Meister came to a quick decision. Since Green Ears had known the Demon Knight for far longer, maybe he had some clues he didn’t have.
“That’s what we’re about to find out.”
“…?”
“Hey, Adventurer. Do you know what the item you delivered back then was?”
“How would I know? The request didn’t say I was allowed to look inside.”
However, the first clue still seemed to be going nowhere. The adventurer was nothing but a courier.
That meant he had nothing concrete to go on. Meister felt troubled.
“…Wait, you don’t know what was in it either? Didn’t you take it from him and give it to the Demon Knight?”
He tried to escape.
“Yeah, it’s true I gave it to him. But all I know is that it was a bundle of papers. I didn’t see their contents. I didn’t think they were that important at the time.”
When he’d first asked if it was anything important, the Demon Knight didn’t exactly say yes, after all. What he’d shown wasn’t a pretense that it wasn’t, but genuine hesitation.
How could Meister have guessed its value in that situation? If he’d known those papers would lead to the Demon Knight escaping, he would’ve asked more questions.
“A bundle of papers?”
“Yeah. A pretty thick one at that.”
At the time, he’d just thought it was some sort of research. The papers weren’t bound like a book, so it probably wasn’t anything official.
“What kind of information did you sell?”
At that moment, Green Ears suddenly turned his head to the adventurer. To Meister, who’d never doubted this man was just an adventurer, that question sounded quite unexpected.
“Like I just said, the request didn’t allow me to read them, so I don’t know…”
“Both you and I know that’s nonsense.”
“…Wait a second. How are you so sure?”
“What do you mean?”
“That this adventurer knows what was inside, and what was inside the package was information.”
“…Because that guy’s not an adventurer but an information dealer?”
“What?”
The rope Meister was tightening around a wooden beam went slack as he looked at the adventurer. He’d thought this guy was just an ordinary adventurer and nothing more.
“If that guy says it was thick, it sounds like you really sold something big, so what the hell did you sell?”
While he was trying to process his shock, Deathbringer focused on the adventurer or information dealer. Once again, the guy scrunched up his face.
“Look here… Now that you all know I’m an information dealer, I won’t deny it anymore, but nondisclosure clauses don’t just apply to adventurers, okay…?”
“A secret so big that I can’t hear about it even with my authority?”
“Your authority… Fuck, are you Deathbringer?”
“If you know, just tell me already.”
“…I still can’t. I really can’t.”
Considering his rank in the Information Guild, he had the right to access most information, even more so when considering his special relationship with the Hero.
However, the information dealer still refused to share even as Deathbringer impatiently snapped his fingers.
Was this information seriously that classified? Really?
“Then how did the Demon Knight manage to buy it?”
If even Deathbringer couldn’t get this information, how did the Demon Knight manage to? It shouldn’t have been that easy, even considering how much he’d contributed to the guild.
“…I’ll report this to the guild.”
“What?”
“If Mister Knight could buy information I can’t get, something shady must be going on. Probably something close to corruption.”
Deathbringer knew that if someone of his position couldn’t obtain this information, it had to be something only the guild’s highest-ranking executives shared among themselves. There were only two reasons why the guild would share such information with an outsider—no matter who the Demon Knight was, he wasn’t a member of the Information Guild.
Either the outsider had some kind of connections—be it owed favors or anything similar—or a member had gotten greedy and sold high-tier information for money.
And the latter was something the guild would never tolerate. If it were trivial information, maybe it’d be fine, but something only guild executives were meant to share was an entirely different story.
“The branch here is practically dead, so it’ll take some time to report it, but… I have a good feeling that I’ll be the one laughing in the end.”
In that case, the guild might also hold some serious antipathy toward the Demon Knight, but he figured he could cover for him somehow. With that in mind, Deathbringer looked the information dealer dead in the eye.
“Won’t that take too long? Let’s just hand him over to the Temple.”
At that moment, Meister suddenly spoke up after having gathered his thoughts.
“What?”
“If he were just a courier, no amount of torture would get anything out of him… But if he’s an information dealer, that’s different. It means there’s something to dig up by interrogating him.”
“That’s…”
“So let’s hand him over to the Temple. Let’s see how this little rat holds out under their judgment.”
Even Deathbringer thought selling out a fellow Information Guild member to those fanatics was going a bit too far. Just as he was about to step in, Meister turned to look straight at him.
His violet eyes shone bright and clear.
“…Wouldn’t that get you in trouble?”
“I’ll just turn myself in then. With my skill set, the Temple won’t even be able to punish me properly. At most, maybe ten years of forced service or something. Besides, you said reporting this to the guild would take a long time, right? I’m not that patient.”
That kind of punishment was probably something Meister hated from the bottom of his heart, though. Deathbringer also knew that but pretended to agree. Now, the only one cornered here was that information dealer.
“What fortune. That Inquisitor from earlier is rumored to be very skilled. He also hates Mister Knight… I mean, the Demon Knight, so I’m sure he’ll be quite happy to squeeze you dry.”
“…Wait, wait. Really? You’re not actually going to hand me over, right?”
“If you talk, we won’t.”
“Are you crazy? That would be betraying the guild…!”
“And if no one finds out, it never happened. You know this very well, right?”
Deathbringer lowered his voice.
“The Bemurchen Information Guild branch is essentially wiped out. In other words, there’s no one around to notice if I hand you over.”
Something like manipulating public perception was a piece of cake. Even the Temple couldn’t do anything, not with the Hero backing him.
He considered each of these points and easily cornered the information dealer. It was only possible because the city was a complete mess, though.
“On the other hand, if you get caught by the Temple and start revealing high-level information that even I can’t access… especially the kind that’s already been sold to an outsider at least once, what do you think the guild will do to you then?”
He didn’t know which branch this guy came from, but it definitely wouldn’t end well.
“Shit!”
Having realized he’d been completely cornered, the information dealer finally let out a curse. It was a clear sign of surrender.
“Fine. I’ll tell you. But you have to promise me something first.”
“What?”
“You can’t tell the guild I said anything. And this will stay only between the two of you!”
At his words, Deathbringer and Meister looked at each other.
“Alright, we’ll compromise.”
“Then tell us straight.”
It was finally time for them to hear the truth.
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