Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“Ugh, how many times do I have to say it? We’re not thieves!”

“That’s right! We didn’t steal anything here!”

“Please, just shut your mouth…”

There were three voices in all. In order: a man, a woman, a man. All three sounded middle-aged.

Having counted her opponents out of habit, Kiri worked out that their business had nothing to do with this carriage, and she eased her tension.

“It seems a thief has broken into the auction house. That must be what caused the commotion.”

“…Why are those people here?”

Irenea, who had poked her head out the window, murmured as she looked toward the main gate. Kiri widened her eyes slightly in surprise.

“Could they be people you know?”

“Not yet. Hmm, I never thought they’d be in the capital too. Did they come because they were worried about Ray?”

At Irenea’s voice, which trailed on as if to herself, Kiri was seized by an odd sensation.

“Not yet.”

Every so often, Irenea spoke that way. How to put it, as if she knew in advance what was going to happen.

It was a different thing from having a keen eye for business. Each time, Kiri brushed it off, telling herself she was being oversensitive, but whenever something like this happened again, the thought came back to her.

‘They say that in the age of magic, now long set, there were great mages who foresaw the future.’

Could it be that our Marchioness is a descendant of a mage? Is that why she sees the future in her dreams whenever she sleeps at night?

‘Oh, come on, as if.’

“Kiri, I need to go over there for a moment.”

“What? You, yourself, Marchioness? But my brother has already gone…”

“If we leave it alone, I think those people will be dragged off by the guards.”

Seeing Irenea rise from her seat, Kiri hurriedly tapped the carriage wall. The guard knight, who had dismounted and been standing watch over Irenea’s carriage, opened the door at once.

Having stepped down from the carriage first, Kiri assisted Irenea and headed toward the main gate, where the bickering was in full swing.

“No, but these people, honestly! Cal! Send word to the capital guard and have them haul every last one of these people away…”

“What is all this commotion?”

“Gah, oh dear, Marchioness Blair.”

The guard captain, who had been bellowing at three men and women in long robes with hoods pulled low, recognized Irenea and quickly bowed his head.

“I apologize for the inconvenience to your passage. We are about to take these ruffians into custody, so if you would kindly wait just a little…”

“Gasp, that’s Raise Mes…! Mmph!”

The mouth of the woman, who had been pointing at Irenea after recognizing the sword in her arms, was clapped shut by a hand as big as a pot lid.

That hand, with an enormous scar carved into the center of its back, belonged to the largest of the three.

“You idiot, what are you doing pointing at a noble?”

“But…”

Their faces were hidden in the shadows of their hoods and hard to see. But their faces were not what mattered.

To Kiri, who had spent half her life in the fighting pits, the bodies under those robes had all been honed by long real combat.

‘If these people had been serious…’

Counting the captain, the eight guards present here would not have lasted ten minutes before falling.

Why were such skilled people loitering near the auction house entrance with their faces hidden by hoods?

Honestly, even to Kiri’s eyes they were outrageously suspicious. She whispered to Hawk, who stood at her side, or rather had stepped in front of Irenea.

“Who are these people?”

“I don’t know.”

Judging by the glances they kept sending this way, they seemed interested in Raise Messer, but they didn’t appear to hold any hostility toward Irenea, who held it.

Still, Hawk did not lower his guard. Glancing at one of the three, he spoke in a slightly bewildered voice.

“That man gave the guard captain a three-copper coin.”

“A three-copper?”

The large copper coin stamped with three ears of wheat was worth one thousand lark.

‘If it had at least been silver, I could understand it, they’d be slipping him a bribe. But why a three-copper?’

With that sum, he could buy a few loaves of bread at best. Taking it as a bribe would only feel like being teased.

Yet from behind them, a gasp burst from Irenea’s mouth.

“A three-copper? He gave that much money as a bribe?”

“Pardon?”

Not only Kiri and Hawk but even the guard captain stared at her in astonishment.

On the captain’s face in particular there was even a trace of indignation, and when a voice from afar called out, “See!”, his indignation deepened.

“As expected of a famous businesswoman. A three-copper is a lot of money, after all. What are they even asking for, are they highway robbers?!”

The lanky man who had shouted it, meaning to be heard, came walking over. At his approach, Kiri and Hawk tensed at the same moment.

As if he understood why they were wary, the man did not approach Irenea but stopped in front of the two. Then he took something from his pocket and pressed it into Hawk’s hand.

“We are by no means suspicious people. We’re just ordinary folk who came to see the auction, and we didn’t know a catalog was needed to get in. We’d like to go back quietly, so please let us be on our way.”

“What…!”

What ordinary people cover their faces this tightly on a night this dark?!

But before the guard captain could pound his stuffy chest with his fist, Irenea went to Hawk’s side and checked the item pressed into his hand.

Not one three-copper but two. Two thousand lark. At the sight of the two coins, Irenea burst into clear laughter.

“Very well! Having received so costly a request, there’s nothing for it!”

“What? Marchioness, do you truly mean that?”

“I’m in a very good mood today. I’ve successfully closed a long-awaited deal.”

Lifting the sword she held, as if to show it off, Irenea smiled at the guard captain.

“For the sake of my face, please just let these people go. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility. You know me, don’t you?”

“Well, that is… who in this capital doesn’t know Marchioness Blair…”

Glancing at the two three-copper coins in Hawk’s hand, the guard captain shook his head, unable to make sense of any of it.

He felt as though he’d been bewitched. Even so, he gave his men a casual wave.

“Just let them go.”

“But… is that really all right?”

“Didn’t the Marchioness say she’d take responsibility?”

Even setting aside the weight of the Blair name in the world, the amount Marchioness Blair spent at this auction house alone was staggering.

Hadn’t she entered as Customer Number 1 at today’s auction as well? That meant Marchioness Blair had spent the most money of anyone who attended today.

[ Do not offend our customers. In particular, for a VIP’s request, act first and report afterward. ]

Frankly speaking, whatever trouble those suspicious fellows might cause in the capital was no concern of the auction house’s guards.

On the contrary, if a VIP were offended and swore never to come to this auction house again, that would be the real disaster.

‘Still, I’ll probably get an earful…’

Having let go of men who might really have been thieves, he surely wouldn’t get away with it. The guard captain steeled himself and reported to his superiors, but what came back was praise.

“Well done! Marchioness Blair went home in good spirits, didn’t she?”

“What? Ah, yes. She said she was very pleased with today’s deal.”

“Ha ha! The Marchioness said that? Then, then it must have been a very satisfying deal! After all, it was a five-hundred-million deal!”

“What? H-how much?”

“Five hundred million, I said! Fifty million lark earned without even leaving one’s seat. Ha ha ha! Next time you run into the Marchioness, treat her with the utmost courtesy. Understood?”

Watching his employer, so overjoyed that he was dancing a jig, the guard captain could only blink blankly.

“Five hundred million… Good heavens.”

Before long, his whole face filled with bewilderment.

‘No, why would a tycoon who tosses out five hundred million for a single sword be won over by two coins?’

* * *

The auction house guards had told them they could go, but the three men and women could not relax until they returned to their inn.

Only after they had gone up to their room and shut the door did they feel safe.

The first to push back his hood was Bin, who roughly tousled his sweat-damp blue hair and muttered curses.

“Damn it, what the hell was all that? I nearly ended up in a cell!”

“I told you not to mention prison in front of me!”

Michelle, who had taken her hood off as well, spoke in a voice as edgy as a cat with its fur bristling.

She was forty-five this year. Not young, but not so old either, yet the hair that fell to her shoulders had turned white as an old woman’s.

What’s more, the right hand she used to unbutton her robe in a huff was missing its thumb and forefinger.

That marked her as a convicted thief. If the guards had seen her hand, hidden beneath the long sleeve, they might well have hauled her off long ago as an ex-convict.

“Having everyone throw hoods over their heads was overreaching after all.”

“Don’t say that now, will you? You agreed too. The priority is not getting caught by Ray.”

“Correction. I’d rather get caught by Ray. At least that boy wouldn’t throw us in prison.”

“I agree.”

As Heath nodded with those brief words, Bin spoke.

“Anyway, we got back safely thanks entirely to me. In that spirit, I’m deducting fifteen hundred lark from each of your shares.”

It was the solemn declaration of a man who had held the post of treasurer in this mercenary band for twenty-six years.

Heath, hardened by Bin’s past conduct, which made even the word “miser” sound cute, nodded as if to say, so be it. He knew that arguing wouldn’t change anything anyway.

But Michelle, today again unable to accept the unreasonable deduction, raged.

“Fifteen hundred each for the two of us is already three thousand lark! Why don’t you lose anything?”

“Because I already paid the price with my remarkable wit. I gave up on taking another thousand from each of you, so be grateful.”

“Yes, I’m grateful. Though I did see you hurry to pick up the three-copper the guard captain tossed away.”

“What? Then it should be only a thousand each!”

“Oh dear, when did you see that? All right, all right. A thousand each.”

Michelle, feeling victorious at Bin’s unusually ready nod, belatedly realized.

That in the end, Bin hadn’t lost a single thing!