Chapter 34 : Chapter 34
Chapter 34
After finishing his work and leaving the merchant guild, Ian stood in an alley and looked up at the sky.
Countless stars illuminated the pitch-black sky, where not a single ray of sunlight could be seen.
“It's almost over.”
I had plundered the food from the three merchant guilds and gathered a stockpile.
I had attempted to drive a wedge between the guilds, creating a fine crack in the unity of the three domains.
The seeds I had sown here and there would ignite and dig into that crack.
“Now, all I need is the military force to wage a war.”
I had already thought of a method.
A way to train the Black Noble Troop and the newly hired slaves from the merchant guilds for a short period and wage guerrilla warfare without moving the Security Department and the domain's army.
A way to send a letter to the royal family and threaten to start a domain war if they did not mediate immediately.
If all else failed, going on an assassination spree with Lina was also a good option.
And finally.
“What do you think?”
Ian's indifferent gaze, which had been fixed on the sky, turned toward a corner of a roof in the darkness.
“You'll have a lot to report to your master today.”
I had noticed that Count Mogul had put a tail on me from the moment I left the meeting hall.
No matter what anyone said, the [Dark Emperor] I had obtained was the trait of a monarch who ruled the darkness.
There was no way I would not feel the pursuit of those who had trained to become knights, not assassins.
“Go and tell him.
That the master of an unhinged dog wants to give a chance to the dog that couldn't even protect its own home.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the presence he had felt on the building disappeared.
The final method.
To teach the dog that did not even recognize its own master who its master was.
In this world, a knight's loyalty was a solid and noble belief that could never be understood from a modern perspective.
Fools who considered it a virtue to follow their master unconditionally without questioning whatever he did.
Even if I could not gain Mogul's loyalty, it was enough to just lay the foundation for it.
In the end, even if they distrusted, cursed, and doubted me, as long as I could turn them into knights who would follow my words, into loyal dogs, the investment was well worth it.
“Ugh, it's cold.”
Perhaps because it was conscious of the quietly approaching war, the night sky felt colder than usual.
* * *
The next day, at dawn.
Ian raided the market with the Auditor's Department and the Black Noble Troop.
“Arrest them all!
You there!
Check the ledgers first!”
“The Black Noble Troop will arrest the distributors listed in the ledgers!
Not a single exception!”
“Merchants who did not mix sand, cut open your wheat sacks and show us!
Don't listen to whatever the merchants say!
If there's anything other than wheat in the sacks, arrest them immediately!”
The merchants and the Merchants’ Association staff resisted the sudden arrests, but Ian's command was resolute.
“Beat anyone who resists half-dead and bring them in!
There will be no mercy for those who have been gnawing away at my domain!”
Ian had no intention of blaming the merchants being dragged away.
They too had only made an unavoidable decision to survive.
They were not the ones who supplied the sand-mixed wheat.
However, it was necessary to show firmness in this place.
“If you don't want to be the next Roberto, cooperate with the Auditor's Department obediently!”
At the Head of the Auditor's Department's shout, the merchants' gazes turned to the side of the market where Administrator Roberto was tied up.
Roberto, who was still tied up, not yet dead, with the help of the Security Department and clerics.
“Yo-Young Lord… please, please kill……”
Seeing him plead with his parched lips, the merchants began to cooperate obediently with the Auditor's Department.
* * *
“What in the world is going on!”
At the top floor of the Merchants’ Association, Manager Rojin had a horrified expression as he watched the Auditor's Department and the Black Noble Troop surge towards the association like a wave.
“Does that damn ruffian really want to starve to death!”
To think he would decide to be on bad terms with the Merchants’ Association in this land.
Manager Rojin looked at the two men representing the Lyt and Merchen domains and said.
“They won't last more than a few days.
We must never, ever bend our will.”
He did not know what gave him the guts to act so radically.
But it would be impossible to run a domain without food.
No matter what pretext they used to arrest them, he believed they would have no choice but to release them in the end.
“Let's leave for now.
While the association staff hold them off, we must report this news to our respective domains as quickly as possible……”
The moment Manager Rojin was about to speak to the other two, the Auditor's Department, which had already stormed the merchant guild, looked up at the top floor of the association and shouted.
“Rojin of the Centaur Merchant Guild!
Singleoll of the Merchen domain!
You are under arrest for breaking the domain law and distributing substandard food!”
In that instant, Rojin and Singleoll's gazes turned to Demded, whose name had not been called.
“N-no way……”
Demded, who turned his head to avoid their gazes, opened the window and shouted.
“They're both here!”
Swoosh!
Thud!
“Thanks.
I thought it would be a hassle to find you.”
As soon as Demded shouted, Lina, who had jumped from the first floor to the upper floor in a single leap, smiled and entered through the open window.
“Demded!
How dare you!
Do you think the Obsol and Merchen domains will let this slide!”
Rojin, unable to contain his anger at the betrayal of a colleague he trusted, contorted his face and shouted, but Demded only looked at him with a sad expression.
“If you knew what I know, you would have made the same decision.”
No matter how this turned out, with the unity of the three domains already wavering when they needed to stick together, there was no way they could ever overcome the Empire's scheme.
“This was the best choice.”
Along with Demded's trembling voice as he bleakly patted Rojin's shoulder, the two executives of the Merchants’ Association were anticlimactically arrested without even being able to report to their domain.
* * *
Around the time a large-scale arrest operation was being carried out in the Lord's Castle, merchant guilds in a half-dead state began to arrive one by one in Moner's rear city, ‘Lier’.
Volturtle and its guild master, Thierre, the third son of the Merchen domain, were the first to arrive in Lier and reported the news to the Merchen domain through a crystal ball.
“…There must not be a single lie in your words.”
“I definitely saw it with my own two eyes, Father.
The one who seemed to be the leader of the attackers had the crest of the Centaur Knightly Order on his chest.”
Count Merchen looked at his still-young son through the crystal ball.
His reliable son, who had contacted him first without even treating his blood-stained leg.
“Did it seem like they wanted war?”
“…They didn't kill me even though they knew that I knew their identity.”
Grit.
Thierre ground his teeth as he recalled Rick, who had shamelessly introduced himself as a bandit.
“I think they plan to deny it since there is no evidence.
If they wanted war, they would have killed me to silence me.”
“So the Obsol domain planned such a thing to monopolize the Moner family……”
At the same time.
The situation was similar for the Lyt merchant guild, which had also arrived in Lier in a state no different from a corpse.
“What?!
Who did what and what?!
Is Snail, is my youngest daughter alright!”
Snail, with a somewhat dazed expression, answered Count Lyt, who came rushing after receiving the report.
“Yes, Dad.
I'm fine.
A knight… saved me.”
“My lady, as I've told you several times, that knight was the one who attacked us.
Here, he even cut my thigh.”
Ilyeong, with a displeased expression, even showed her wound to correct her, but Snail did not even look at her wound and covered her face with her hands.
“But he saved me.
He said, ‘How can I possibly cut down such a beautiful woman!’”
At that sight, Ilyeong, who had contorted her face as if she had eaten shit, said.
“To be precise, he said, ‘Do we really have to cut down such a young child?’
To be honest, he didn't even look like a knight.”
“No, he definitely had the Centaur crest!
He was definitely a knight!”
For a moment, silence fell in the communication room.
“Ah, no, that's not what I mean……”
“What!
How dare those horse-heads attack our merchant guild?!”
Snail tried to hastily mumble her words, but the Count could not hide his anger at the news that a knight from the Centaur Knightly Order had attacked the merchant guild led by his youngest daughter.
Meanwhile.
“I-I see it!
It's Lier!
I see Lier!”
At the adjutant's words, Treci neurotically whipped the porters who were pulling the makeshift palanquin.
“You beggars!
Move faster!”
“Yo-Young Master… I can't go on any longer……”
Plop, thud!
“Agh!
That hurts!
You bastard!”
Swish!
Swish!
Treci, who was relentlessly whipping the worker who had made him fall from the palanquin, looked around.
They had started with over 30 people, but one by one, they had collapsed while pulling the palanquin with their injured legs, and now only four remained, including himself and his adjutant.
Realizing that there was no one left to carry the palanquin, Treci, sitting in the palanquin, shouted at the remaining workers.
“Pull!”
For a moment, the workers glared at him, but that was all.
They had to move, if only for the sake of their families remaining in the domain.
“Adjutant!
You too!”
At those words, the adjutant's expression hardened as he grabbed one side of the palanquin, and Treci, clutching the whip, shouted.
“Let's go!”
* * *
At that time.
Ian, who had sent Lina and the Black Noble Troop to the Lier domain, headed to the Auditor's Department.
As he entered the Auditor's Department, Manager Rojin, who had been waiting, jumped up and shouted.
“How dare you!
Do you think our domain will stand by idly!”
At those words, Ian let out a smirk.
“Didn't you say the Centaur Merchant Guild and the Obsol domain are separate?
Didn't you say that mixing sand into the wheat sacks was the Centaur Merchant Guild's unilateral decision?”
There was no way the Moner family had not sent warnings to each domain to stop the atrocities of the Merchant's Association.
At that time, all three domains had clearly stated that it was the unilateral decision of each merchant guild.
“…Our Centaur Merchant Guild will no longer do business with the Moner family……!”
“Ah, your guild is banned from doing business in our domain.
We plan to behead the person in charge and hang their head on the castle gates.”
Saying that the merchant guild had no relation to the domain was the same as saying that it was okay to break the guild down to the nano-level.
“I'm talking about you.
You're dead now.”
Ian, who drew a line across his neck with his finger, spat out the words at Rojin as if growling.
“How long did you think you could gnaw away at my domain?
You, your family, your guild, and every person who benefited from you will be kicked out of my domain penniless.
I have no intention of giving you a single thing.”
At the murderous intent overflowing from Ian's body, Rojin, whose face had turned pale, stuttered and pleaded.
“W-wait!
Young Lord!
Do you think you can run a domain without food?!
F-first, calm down and… Kgh, kugh?”
Ian grabbed the blabbering bastard's mouth to shut him up and glared at him.
“Alright, now let's do the last thing we have to do.”
At Ian's gesture, Reina entered the room with a communication-specialized mage holding a crystal ball.
“I heard your guild master still hasn't arrived in Lier yet.
Still, you should deliver a message before you die, right?
If you leave a video, I'll deliver it.”
Gold Crow of Lyt and Volturtle of Merchen had already arrived in Lier.
There was a high probability that they thought the bandits who attacked them were the Centaur Knightly Order of the Obsol domain.
They would not immediately start a domain war with just a simple suspicion, but it was enough to shake their solidarity.
“Now, if you have anything you want to say to your master, leave it.”
“…What message do you want me to deliver.”
“What do you mean, what message.
To pay back the money.
Even if you die, someone has to pay back the money, right?
150 million gold within three months.”
“Kugh……”
Rojin, who had lowered his head for a moment, seemed to have made a decision as he raised his head and spoke.
“Fine.
But, contact the Lord, not the guild master.”
“There's no reason I can't.”
Ian, who had wanted that from the beginning, nodded willingly and gestured, and a call was made to the Obsol domain.
“What is it?”
Rojin seemed to be in a higher position in Obsol than expected, as he attempted to contact Count Obsol directly.
“Co-Count, it's been a while.”
“Rojin?
I told you not to use this crystal ball unless it's an emergency……”
Before Count Obsol could finish his words, Ian stepped in between Rojin and Obsol.
“Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you, Count.
I am Ian of the Moner family.”
He continued speaking to the Count, who was narrowing his brows in displeasure.
“It's nothing else, but the Centaur Merchant Guild owes me a large debt.
I thought they would work hard to pay it back, but what do you know, they're selling wheat sacks mixed with sand.”
“……”
Obsol, who had not grasped the situation accurately, glared at the impertinent young lord and remained silent, as if telling him to explain further.
“So I decided to catch them all on this occasion.
I plan to kill every single person involved in this incident without exception and make an example of them.”
Ian grinned and made a circle with his hand as he said.
“So please tell your second son over there.
If he doesn't pay back the money on time, he's dead too.”
“You bastard!”
As soon as the enraged Count rose to his feet, Rojin, who was behind Ian, screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Count!
Lyt, Lyt is collaborating with Moner!
Watch your back……”
At the sudden shout, Ian turned around and grabbed Rojin by the collar, and at the same time, the surprised mage's mana got tangled, and the video cut off.
“Ha!
Did you think I wouldn't know of your and Lyt's dirty scheme!
Obsol and Merchen will never stand by idly!”
Rojin had not forgotten Demded's betrayal for a single moment while he was imprisoned.
Now that he had informed Count Obsol of Lyt's betrayal, they would never be safe.
He shouted with a triumphant smile even as he was being held by the collar.
Ian, who had been watching him quietly, smiled, showing his teeth.
“Really.
You don't deviate from my expectations at all.
Well done.”