Volume 5 Chapter 9 At Lord's Mansion - Main Topic
The lord gave an instruction, "Shadowmira, bring those things." Then, Shadowmira, the golden Stealth Weapon Adventurer with an impression of darkness, placed wanted posters on the table.
The wanted poster with the highest bounty, featuring a brave middle-aged man, was placed at the top position from the perspective of the seat of honor. It was written, "Nightfather's Boss, Willy."
And then, 3 wanted posters below it. An unpleasant mask's sketch was labeled "Puppet Master." A sketch of a young man with tied hair was labeled "Swallow." And a sketch of a skinny, sickly white man was labeled "Protean."
"These are the important figures of Nightfather that we currently know of, who you must eliminate or capture. It will be a fierce battle. Their life or death doesn't matter."
Frain had told me about it beforehand, but it's spectacular to see them lined up like this.
"To put it simply, what I want you to do is to neutralize them, but that alone wouldn't justify setting up this meeting. Frain-dono, I'll leave it to you from here."
"Understood. Then, from now on, I'll take over the proceedings in place of Lord."
Surprisingly, Frain took over, showing the minimum courtesy to his superior.
"First, let's review what we've learned so far. The organization called Nightfather is divided into a direct unit led by the boss and several departments that serve as sources of income."
Frain looked at Shadowmira. Shadowmira immediately understood and prepared pen, ink, and paper on the spot.
Frain drew a square labeled "Boss's Direct Unit" in the middle and added various things below it.
"It would be too long to write everything, so I'll just write down the major departments, excluding the minor ones. First, the 'Financial Department.' In other words, they're money lenders. Next, the 'Drug Department,' 'Illegal Sl*ve Department,' 'Illegal Weapon Department,' 'Mercenary Department,' 'Casino Department,' 'Fraud and Robbery Department,' and 'Pro***tution Department.'"
That's extensive. I thought it was pretty detailed, but is it not?
"Out of those, the 'Financial Department', 'Drug Department', 'Illegal Sl*ve Department', and 'Illegal Weapons Department' have already been taken down. The Financial Department was especially crushed by Wade."
"That's old news," I said.
"It's recent news, you idiot."
That's true.
"The other 3, as I told you before, were taken down by us. So, what's left is the 'Mercenary Department', 'Casino Department', 'Fraud and Robbery Department', and 'Pro***tution Department'."
Frain looked at Lord. Lord smiled and said.
"Out of those, the 'Casino Department' will be taken over as a public gambling establishment. The 'Pro***tution Department' will be separated, protected, and then entrusted to ordinary citizens for operation."
"...I see."
This guy is really capable. He understands human filth very well.
"Disgusting..."
The one who said that and turned away was Sylvia, Frain's companion. But it seemed to be more of a monologue than a complaint to someone. No one took it seriously, and they moved on.
"Therefore, we would like you to proceed in such a way that the 'Mercenary Department' and the 'Fraud and Robbery Department' are completely destroyed, and the 'Casino Department' and the 'Pro***tution Department' are taken over. Of course, we will pay you extra for this."
"Just as Kadras said. That means we'll crush them all without mercy. It's just a matter of going half way. The extra fee is 5 big gold coins. The original commission is 1 platinum coin. It would be enough for us to split it half and half with me and Wade."
"What? You brat, you're splitting it in half?"
"Hey? Kadras, know your place. These guys look like rookies from the outside, but they're gold rank on the inside. If you get too fussy and they refuse, the whole deal might fall through."
"...Well, if you put it that way, I guess I'm weak."
I'm surprised. Frain is buying us more than I expected. And he's being more of a leader than I expected.
"That's it. There are only 2 of you, so that's enough of a share. Instead, work hard, gold rank teacher (???)."
"...Frain. Being praised by you makes me cringe."
"Hah."
Frain snorted sarcastically. He's in control of this situation. Very, very well.
Then, Frain tightened his expression and continued speaking.
"So, here's the deal. Since we're splitting the money in half, I want you the Gold-rank teachers to take on the more difficult tasks. The 'Mercenary Division' and the 'Fraud and Robbery Division.' One thing to note is that 'Swallow' will show up somewhere."
Swallow. I looked at the wanted poster. A young man with tied hair. Our first encounter with a Gold-rank enemy.
I looked at Toxy. Toxy was smiling bravely. I smiled back and nodded at Frain.
"Got it, no problem."
"Answering right away in the face of a Gold-rank enemy... You've grown, boy."
Kadras said, dripping with cold sweat. Well, yeah, I guess there's something wrong with Gold-rank. They're well-described as broken heroes.
"We'll be in charge of the 'Casino Division' and the 'Pros***ution Division,' but 'Puppet Master' will probably be here on a business trip. We'd appreciate your backup then. We don't want to die either."
"Frain, you're being humble..."
I said, and Frain shrugged.
"It's not humility. It's knowing your place, you know what I mean?"
Frain called out to the members. Everyone averted their eyes with a look of disgust. "Hahaha, you fools," Frain laughed.
I asked.
"...Maybe you challenged him and were defeated?"
"Don't remind me... We don't even know how we survived," Kadras said.
"Really traumatized... Oh, wow..." Silvia said.
The other members just grimaced in pain. They must have seen some real hell. Their reaction completely reminded me of our party members from Eiosnight.
"So, this 'Protean' is..."
Finally, I asked, and Frain threw up his hands and said.
"I don't know. I can only say that he'll probably show up somewhere before we secure the boss. He's a creepy skinny bastard, but apparently he's the most skilled."
I looked at the sketch. I couldn't quite make it out. It was an enemy shrouded in 'mystery,' just as I had heard before. When I looked at it that way, this sickly blue figure looked kind of terrifying.
"That's it."
Frain says.
"Meet money with money. We'll fight seriously, but we're not arrogant enough to think we can keep up with you guys. We'll leave the gold-rank fights to you. We've already crushed enough departments. That should be enough, right?"
"...Frain, I'm speechless at how much your negotiation skills have improved. I understand. We'll take care of the gold-rank enemies. Call us if you need us for anything else."
Frain grinned and offered his hand. I blinked and offered my hand back. We shook hands. I never thought I'd be shaking hands with Frain like this.
"So, can you give us some information about this 'Mercenary Department' and 'Fraud and Robbery Department'? We'll take care of them ourselves."
When I said that, Frain looked a little sheepish. "Well, about that," Frain said, pouting and closing one eye to look at the lord.
The lord spoke to us.
"Actually, I had my direct information agency investigate the information about that guy, but we're running into a bit of a problem. It seems that we know he's a lead, but he's a pretty important person, and we're having trouble attacking him."
In response to the lord's words, Shadowmira quietly placed a simple wanted poster, not a formal arrest warrant, on the table. Toxy and I were stunned at the face drawn on it.
"Wade, this guy..."
Toxy's words made me swallow hard. And then, I lost my words to an indescribable emotion.
"...Why is he here, you damn old man?"
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