Chapter 154 : Chapter 154
Chapter 154 : Guar
Of course, I had no intention of finding out what was happening in the Eastern Mountains.
There wasn’t much time left to go digging into things like that one by one.
Whether it was misfortune or fortune, after that, we didn’t run into orcs in the Forest of Silence again.
Afterward, at the end of about a two-day journey, we finally escaped the Forest of Silence and could at last face a clear sky.
“……Finally, this forest is over.”
“Damn mosquitoes.”
The Forest of Silence had almost no animals, and barely even any demonic beasts, but insects were the exception.
Among them, the most common were mosquitoes, and the special task force members who had spent more than two days in the Forest of Silence had been bitten all over.
“For all that, Vell looks totally fine?”
“Yeah.”
After all, with the Orb of Water and demonic energy always protecting my body, there was no way mosquitoes could breach it.
Of course, the special task force members who didn’t know that just looked at me like I was some kind of monster.
“That place is Biarritz.”
The cityscape finally revealed beyond the horizon as we left the Forest of Silence.
The trade city of Biarritz.
A city with a blue sea and romance.
At last, its scenery came into view.
***
Because the trade city of Biarritz was a trade city, entry inspections weren’t that strict.
No, there wasn’t any inspection to begin with.
I even wondered if it was really okay to run a territory like this, but since they’d operated like this without any major issues so far, it wasn’t as if you could say the method was outright wrong.
“It’s easier to get through than I expected?”
At Conlan’s words, Albino said,
“It’s that kind of city to begin with.”
“What do you mean?”
“Thousands of merchants come and go every day—who has time to inspect each and every one? If that gets delayed, it leads directly to losses for the city.”
“Ah, is that how it is?”
As if something had occurred to him, Conlan said,
“But if the city runs like that, can they maintain public safety? Even in Bernhardt, where they controlled entry pretty hard, there was all kinds of trash.”
“That’s why Biarritz’s guard has considerable authority and strength. To the point people even say they’re the strongest guard in the Eastern Union. And the related laws are fairly strict, too.”
“Hm, I see.”
“To the point there’s even a story that in Biarritz, they invest all the money they earn from taxes into the guard.”
“That much?”
“Among Biarritz’s guards, there are probably a few monsters like our captain.”
“……That’s hard to believe.”
It was true Albino was exaggerating a bit, but it was also true that Biarritz’s average guard level was very high.
In the case of a few special guard captains, they even surpassed level 7.
‘Well, I do have some doubts about whether they’re stronger than Edric, though.’
From what I’d watched up to now, Edric still looked like he had a hidden card up his sleeve.
“Alright, then you guys go to the inn first.”
“What about Vell?”
“I have someone I need to meet here. It’s fine if you come with me, but if things go wrong, your heads will get lopped off together with mine.”
“……We’ll behave and go to the inn.”
Conlan and Albino headed toward the inn and Alicia also seemed to understand my words as ‘don’t follow,’ and obediently went to the inn.
‘Then…….’
I headed straight for the mansion where Biarritz’s lord resided.
It wasn’t hard to find.
Guar, the lord of Biarritz, enjoyed authority greater than a king, and to put it another way, it meant that the most lavish mansion in Biarritz was Guar’s mansion.
‘That’s the place.’
Having found the lord’s mansion without much difficulty, I immediately moved my feet.
“This is where Biarritz’s lord resides. What business brings you here?”
“I came to see the lord.”
Normally, if you said that, the guards would draw their swords and tell you not to insult the lord, but as expected of guards at the lord’s mansion, their reaction was different.
“You mean the lord? Excuse me, but may I ask your name and what business you have with the lord?”
That, of course, was already decided.
“Tell him Cain is here.”
***
As the lord of Biarritz, today as well, staring at the mountain of documents piled up, Guar pressed down on his temples.
To be sure, running a territory was an enjoyable thing.
The territory grew, the people expressed gratitude to their lord, and that made him feel proud.
But everything had its proper measure.
Back when World of Justice Online had been a game, when Guar ran a territory, there were many system conveniences.
However, running a territory directly in this world demanded grueling heavy labor more than he’d expected.
Starting with the biggest part—establishing and enforcing laws within the territory to protect the rights of the people—then acting as a judge who punished criminals and mediated disputes.
Collecting taxes, deciding how they would be used, and managing the territory’s finances.
The coordination work with trade and massive merchant guilds, which could be said to be the most important thing in Biarritz.
And so on…….
If Guar himself hadn’t been a player with a body that surpassed human limits, he would have been buried somewhere in Biarritz’s public cemetery long ago.
Even while he’d been enduring days that were hard, Biarritz had one more problem.
“A war with the Empire…… Have they finally gone crazy as a group?”
Biarritz was a city whose main income was trade with foreign lands across the sea and other territories.
If war broke out in such a situation, there might be short-term gains from war supplies such as weapons and armor, but in the end, if the economies of the Empire and the Eastern Union were devastated by war, the damage would appear immediately as a trade deficit.
And the damage from that would be borne entirely by Biarritz’s people.
“A war…….”
Guar knew it too.
In a world like this, in territory management, war could sometimes become a pretty decent business item.
In fact, weren’t there countless territories within the Eastern Union that fought territory wars all the time?
But this war, no matter how he thought about it, wasn’t an exaggeration to say there was absolutely nothing to gain in profitability or practical benefit.
It was as if the war itself was the purpose.
“……Was it called the Supreme King?”
What in the world was he scheming…….
Up to now, Guar had rejected every invitation from the Supreme King, but now he felt it was time to meet this person called the Supreme King at least once.
After finding out what he was thinking, if the Supreme King wasn’t in his right mind, Guar was even considering leaving the Eastern Union.
Of course, if he did that, there was a high chance the Eastern Union would retaliate economically or militarily, but it was better than having the entire territory swept into the flames of war.
If Biarritz declared neutrality while the Eastern Union was at war with the Empire, they wouldn’t be eager to strike first at Biarritz, which had fairly strong military power, in the middle of a war.
‘Of course, if it’s that man called the Supreme King, it’s not impossible…… but I don’t know.’
In the end, the biggest problem was that Guar didn’t know anything at all about the person called the Supreme King.
He had looked on the Anonymous Bulletin Board too, but naturally, there wasn’t much information about the Supreme King.
‘There was even a rumor that the Supreme King was Cain.’
Of course, Guar didn’t believe that rumor at all.
If it was the Cain Guar knew, he would never do something as bothersome as becoming the head of the Eastern Union.
“Cain…….”
Was Cain in this world?
Guar was quite negative about that possibility.
If Cain were in this world, there would have been signs somehow, but across the entire Lagna Continent, there hadn’t been the slightest hint of it.
As if the very existence of Cain wasn’t in this world at all.
“If Cain were here, a guy like the Supreme King wouldn’t be running wild…….”
Guar knew very well what kind of person Cain was.
And also how much Cain hated people like the Supreme King, whose true intentions couldn’t be read, and how quickly he turned that hatred into action.
“Cain, my ass.”
Thinking about someone who didn’t exist wouldn’t produce an answer.
Guar intended to come up with Guar’s own answer to this war.
Just as Guar shifted his gaze back to the piles of documents stacked high.
Knock knock─
“Come in.”
The butler opened the door, came in, and greeted him politely.
“My lord, it seems a guest has come to the entrance of the mansion. What shall we do?”
“A guest? Was someone supposed to come? Who do they say they are?”
“They said they are Cain-nim.”
“……What?”
In World of Justice Online, the name Cain carried truly many meanings.
And for Guar as well, who had ties with Cain, it was the same.
“L-let him in immediately! No—! I’ll go out by myself!”
Cain had come here?
That Cain?
In a reality he couldn’t possibly believe, Guar hurriedly moved his feet.
And when he finally reached the entrance of the mansion in slippers, someone was waiting there.
“M-my lord?!”
Startled by the sudden appearance of the lord, the guards hurriedly saluted, but Guar lightly ignored them and faced the man standing before the guards.
“It’s been a while, Guar.”
“……Cain?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
The visit from Cain that he’d half-doubted.
Yet Guar couldn’t easily accept that the man before his eyes was Cain.
‘……He looks different?’
No matter how different it could be to see a character through a screen versus in reality, the man before him seemed quite different from Cain.
As the biggest evidence of that, the Divine Sword Levatein—almost Cain’s symbol—was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you really…… Cain?”
“Yeah. Because I’m me.”
“Proof?”
Guar couldn’t believe that the man before him was Cain.
So he demanded proof, but to be honest, no matter what proof was presented, Guar had no intention of believing it.
There was only one thing that mattered.
Why was this man trying to meet him while impersonating Cain?
“Proof. That’s easy enough.”
The man gave a small smirk and extended his right hand.
Tzzzt, tzzzt──!
With rough sparks, blue halos of light gathered into the man’s hand.
And the moment Guar saw the white-glowing blade reveal itself from the man’s right hand, he couldn’t close his gaping mouth.
Divine Sword Levatein.
The divine sword that symbolized Cain was held in the man’s hand.
“Is this enough?”
Fssst…….
Not long after that, Divine Sword Levatein vanished.
It wasn’t a simple trick.
If it were, it wouldn’t have been able to radiate that overwhelming presence, identical to the real divine sword.
“How in the world is this…….”
Guar had had no intention of believing any proof the man offered, but if that proof was Divine Sword Levatein, it was a different story.
Even if he couldn’t tell whether the man was truly Cain or not, it was more than enough to be worth having a conversation.
“……For now, come inside.”
“What’s with that tone? Being a lord for a while turned you into a real lord or something?”
“I am a real lord, though.”
“Ah, right, that too. My mistake.”
The man chuckled.
Whether he did or not, Guar’s mind spun quickly.
‘He clearly has a different appearance from Cain, yet he has the Divine Sword Levatein. No, considering how incomplete it looked, it’s hard to say he owns it fully. Then what method did he use to summon Divine Sword Levatein?’
‘But it’s also true that, in many circumstances, he looks very much like Cain himself.’
‘If this man really is Cain…….’
A ray of light was falling upon Biarritz’s fate, which had been shrouded in dark clouds.