Chapter 298
In a way, it was Liberta's first private unit.Entertainers.
Their practical deployment came on the very next day, late at night.
"Damn it! Are you saying that ridiculous warning letter is real!?"
This was one of the leading major merchant houses in the northern territory.Outwardly, they amassed wealth through large-scale commerce, but behind the scenes, they dealt in drugs, human trafficking, and assassinations of rival merchant guilds. They were veterans of the underworld, having not just dabbled in evil but likely completed twenty rounds of it.
A single letter was suddenly delivered to such a house.If it had been delivered to a low-ranking member, it would have been disposed of without ever catching the guild master's eye. But when it was thrown, almost stabbed into the view right before his eyes, he couldn't help but see it.
The guild master's mood plummeted the moment he was shown this unpleasant thing first thing in the morning.He conducted a search for the main culprit of this ridiculous prank, almost like taking out his anger, but failed to find them.
Feeling mocked, he drank alcohol while still in a bad mood, slept with women, and just as his mood had settled a bit and he was about to sleep, it happened.
"What is it!?"
A sudden explosion echoed.Then, the angry shouts of the guards grew noisy.
"Hey! What's going on!!"
He couldn't go outside naked, so the guild master, wearing only a gown, confronted the guard outside his room.
"Yes! It seems to be intruders!""Intruders? Who's the fool?"
Information came quickly, but its contents made him frown.After all, any resident of this city understood that messing with this merchant house meant certain ruin.
But in reality, an assault was happening.
"I don't know!""You don't know? Are you joking?""No, I'm not joking! The report only says it's a group of suspicious masked figures."
For a moment, the guild master thought of a rival merchant house, but he was someone who made large donations to the Boldrinde Duke.They should know that if caught, retaliation was unavoidable.
Despite that, they launched an assault, which left him puzzled, but for now, resolving the situation took priority.
"Hey! Then deal with it quickly!!"
The guild master tried to send out his personal guard as well.
*'Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!'*"What now!?""Master Lezomen!! Over there!"
At that moment, a loud laugh echoed.Annoyed by the grating laughter, the guild master yelled, but a guard spotted the source and pointed out the window.
A masked man, with his hands raised, was on the roof of a warehouse, laughing loudly.That alone was ridiculous enough, but when the guild master looked at his feet, his eyes widened further.
"That is... it can't be."
The masked man, having gathered people with his laughter, picked up a large bag at his feet and opened it.A golden glimmer was visible inside, and he immediately realized it was gold coins.
*'Now! Receive it!!'*"My mooooney!?"
A large quantity of gold coins were scattered over the heads of the gathered soldiers.With gold coins falling from the sky, the soldiers began scrambling to pick them up.
"Don't pick them up!! That's my money!!"
Like ants swarming to sugar, greedy soldiers gathered under a greedy employer.They picked up the scattered coins as if they couldn't hear their employer's screams.
*'And now, farewell!!'*
Taking advantage of the distraction, the masked man ran off, with a bag clearly full of gold coins slung over his shoulder.
"Tch! Don't let him escape!!"
At that moment, the words from the warning letter he saw this morning flashed in the guild master's mind.
*'Tonight, we shall come for your gold. by Entertainer'*
He thought it was a prank with its ridiculous words, but they had truly come. The guild master shouted at the retreating back.Then, still in his gown and accompanied by his guards, the guild master also started running. But the speed of the man, who had already started fleeing outside the building, was faster than imagined. By the time the guild master, who never ran, got outside, the figure was nowhere to be seen.
"Damn it! Search! Find him and kill him!!"
If he gave up here, he wouldn't have climbed to this position.Barefoot, he kicked the rear of a soldier who had been picking up coins moments before and was about to send him into the night city when he heard footsteps from a certain direction.
Wondering if he had returned, the guild master looked that way.
"Hey! Lezomen! Hasn't some ridiculous woman come here!?""Viscount Blauzo, what on earth has happened to you?"
Both looked like they had been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, and they had brought soldiers.The scene felt familiar.
"No, I haven't seen her."
Even as a major merchant, the other party was a noble. He suppressed his anger for now and responded, but Viscount Blauzo, his head ruled by anger, looked at the guild master with suspicion, asking if it was true, before noticing the guild master's state of dress.
"Don't tell me... you also received such a ridiculous card?"
He showed the guild master a crumpled card he was clutching.
"Yes, it came to me as well.""Don't tell me... that woman came to your place too?""No, mine was a man laughing ridiculously loudly."**"......"**
He recognized the card. With two similar incidents, it was clear they had accomplices.
"Master Lezomen!!"
As he was thinking that, one of the subordinates he had sent to chase the man returned.
"Did you find him!?""Yes! They're scattering money in the residential district!!"**"Hah!?"**
The fact that only one person returned meant they probably hadn't caught him yet, but he seemed relieved they at least brought back information. However, upon hearing the report, the guild master and the Viscount opened their eyes wide in surprise.
"Stop them immediately!!""But, they're moving on the rooftops; we can't catch them!""Hey! This is absurd! You lot, come with me!!""We're coming too!!"
Thus, the guild master and the Viscount took as many soldiers as they could.
Shadows watched the figures of these men leading soldiers away.The shadows hid for a while, confirmed the guild master and the others weren't returning, and then several shadows slipped into the mansion.
Unaware of this, the guild master and the Viscount, led by the soldier who had returned with the report, arrived at a place where...
"Hahahahahahahaha!! Now, now!! Let us make it rain gold coins!!""Come on, everyone! Pick them up! Pick them up!"
...in a square in the residential district, money was being scattered, and soldiers were on their knees, scrambling to pick up the coins.
"What are you doing!!!!""Quickly, go catch that guy!!"
Seeing this, the guild master and the Viscount were furious, their anger reaching the heavens.Hearing their voices, the soldiers flinched, stuffed the coins they held into their pockets, and hurriedly went to find ladders to climb onto the roofs.Or they tried to make something like stairs by stacking nearby wooden boxes.Soldiers confident in their physical abilities tried to jump and grab the edges of the house roofs.
But before they could, the phantom thieves took action.
"Oh dear, Jack-san. They're climbing up here, you know?""That's right, Minerva-san. They are climbing up here, aren't they?"
A man called Jack exaggeratedly crossed his arms as if troubled, like a stage actor. A woman (?) called Minerva placed a hand on her forehead as if looking into the distance.Their every action was exaggerated, grating on the nerves of the guild master and the Viscount.
"Heeey!! You lot over there, find a way to get on the roof too!!""You too!! Contact the dark operatives!! Damn it, I pay hefty donations for situations like this!!"
Normally, if such a commotion occurred, the dark operatives would react and rush to the scene, but there was no sign of that.
'What on earth is going on?' they fumed. Then, other soldiers came running towards them.
"Reporting!!""What is it now!? No, you're from the Lawrence Guild...""Yes! An emergency has occurred! I urgently request backup!"
The soldier was one employed by a subordinate guild of Master Lezomen's merchant house.They managed a large warehouse and generated profits from it.Being a warehouse, various things were stored there.They didn't store money, of course, but things of equivalent value, as well as bulky, dangerous items that couldn't be shown publicly.
Naturally, they had posted lookouts and guard soldiers at that guild.Even so, in case of emergency, the guild master's private soldiers were supposed to provide backup.
"Don't tell me..."
He should have stationed enough personnel to buy time, but the soldier who came running said it was an urgent report.Hearing 'emergency' at this timing, it naturally overlapped with this uproar.
"Yes! Warehouse A-8 within the complex has been attacked!! The culprits are a group of over ten people! The... items are being stolen one after another!!""Viscount! I leave these scoundrels to you! I have an urgent matter!"
The worst-case scenario flashed through the guild master's mind.Warehouse A-8 stored the illegal drugs regulated by this country.But precisely because they were illegal, these drugs had a steady demand, both in the underworld and on the surface.Even a small bag of wheat-sized volume was worth ten gold coins.It was no exaggeration to say that items more valuable than the gold coins being scattered now were under attack.
Therefore, it was inevitable that he recalled his private soldiers from all over and rushed to the warehouse.
"And what might this 'urgent matter' be!?"
But a voice that seemed to cut off that course of action echoed throughout the area.It was an overreaction, clearly trying to gather even more attention.The gestures of the man called Jack stopped the guild master in his tracks.
"Is it this, perhaps!?"
Then, a new man appeared from nowhere, illuminated by a Light magic spell, pointing at a bag the man was holding.
"What!?"
Recognizing it, the guild master's eyes widened, and he froze on the spot.As a seasoned merchant, he should maintain a poker face, but with abnormalities happening repeatedly, his emotional control became vague, and he inadvertently reacted.
"Huh? Oh my? How strange."
The woman (?) called Minerva examined the goods carefully, as if appraising them.
"This is... illegal drugs, isn't it? Jack-san.""You bet!! They're absolutely illegal druuugs!!""And where were these stolen from?""Why, from the warehouse of that guild master's subordinate!!"
It was terribly hammy acting.By causing such a commotion, the residents here had started waking up and peeking through their windows.And the exposure came at this timing.
"I don't know them! I know nothing of such things!!"
If this became public, he would, of course, not escape severe punishment.If it became a rumor, it wouldn't be strange for the central judiciary to come for an inspection.That's how heavy the crime of drug use was.Even the Viscount, who had come along, started trying to distance himself.
"Oh my? He says that, but what do you think, Minerva-san?""Guilty! Because here we have a custody certificate for the goods with that guild master's signature on it!!"
And his denial was irrelevant.In a cheerful voice that sounded like a secondary audio track saying 'Go to hell,' the woman (?) called Minerva took out a single document.
"Th-that's a fake!! You won't get away with framing me!! Hey! Catch him! Catch them!!"
That document was also properly illuminated by the Light spell, made clearly visible.
"There's still more to cooome!!"
And so, watching this scene, the man and the woman (?) thought to themselves:
Exposing evil deeds is fun.