Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!-Chapter 57: The Grand Duke’s Summons

"Night Guild Master. I received a tip that you’re harboring criminals here."

"Harboring criminals? Our guild is a legitimate guild formally appointed by the government!"

"To prove that, we’ll need to conduct a search—can I count on your cooperation?"

I applied subtle pressure. The guild was most accustomed to pressure from the Finance Department, but the problem was that the duchy troops and I belonged to the Military Department, which was at odds with Finance. Meaning, tactics like passing the buck by telling us to get Finance’s permission didn’t work on us.

If he refused my request?

It would go from a polite recommendation to a forced execution.

"You’re aware the slum organization disappeared overnight, aren’t you?"

"Who doesn’t know that?"

"Is there any guarantee the prostitution guild won’t meet the same fate?"

It was a bit heavy-handed to surround and threaten them, but if it had been my father-in-law or Michael, they’d have turned the place upside down before a single word was exchanged. I was the most gentlemanly member of the Military faction. The guild master, who’d introduced himself as Münster, looked around at the troops encircling him and seemed to accept that he had no choice.

During that time, I was able to check Münster’s personal information through the scouter.

He was a noble from a Kösfeldt duchy knight family, but as the third son, he’d fallen to commoner status without entering the knight class. I didn’t know how he’d ended up as Night Guild Master, but to reach that position, he must have had considerable ability.

He drew a firm line, insisting that his dealings with Rafel had been strictly business.

Well, he would say that. If the guild were actually in league with Rafel, I wouldn’t be handling this so diplomatically.

We’d already reduced Rafel’s headquarters and territory to rubble.

"Sir Knight, in exchange for our cooperation, please promise there will be no looting."

"If you hand over those I point to without complaint, that promise will hold."

With the guild master’s cooperation, I had all the staff and associated people inside the guild come out. They moved at my instruction, trembling with anxiety. I hadn’t yet discovered anyone directly connected to Rafel. But I was certain that someone among them was the man disguised as Loki.

While I was screening them one by one, screams suddenly erupted from the rear.

"Block him!"

"Aaargh!"

It seemed the person presumed to be Loki had tried to flee. If I’d brought the full complement of duchy troops, the encirclement would have been airtight, but fifty men had their limits. I immediately mounted Schatten and led a detachment to the back of the building. The man presumed to be Loki was running for his life with an arrow lodged in his back.

Since learning to ride from Hilda, my proficiency had improved markedly. I hadn’t fully completed Stage 1 yet, but I was confident at a canter. Even so, it was difficult to catch a man sprinting for his life at a mere canter. Worse, he was heading for an alley. I had to catch him before he reached it.

"Yah! Yah!"

"Sir Wolfgang?!"

I pushed Schatten to a gallop despite the risk.

I ignored Hans’s startled shout. Hans knew my riding skills all too well.

Naturally the recoil intensified and my center of gravity pitched forward, but I somehow held my posture.

If Loki ducked into that narrow alley, I’d lose him.

Of course, I could continue tracking with the scouter, but I wanted to take him now if at all possible.

So I drew my longsword—but at that moment I nearly lost my balance.

Fortunately, I was still working through the Horsemanship Manual, so posture correction kicked in at the critical moment, saving me from a fall. However, posture correction wasn’t absolute protection; I could easily be thrown the instant I let my guard down.

Calmly steadying myself, I held the reins in one hand and gripped the longsword reversed in the other. Since I was clad in plate armor and wearing gauntlets, there was no risk of the blade cutting me even with a reversed grip.

A longsword held in reverse makes an excellent blunt weapon.

Timing it right, I struck the fleeing Loki across the back of the head with the crossguard.

Thwack!

"Ack!"

I hit with the flat side, of course.

If I’d struck with the pointed end, it would have punched a hole through his skull.

I still hadn’t properly learned mounted combat, so the technique was fairly crude, but regardless, I managed to take him alive. The soldiers who caught up behind me bound the unconscious fugitive. I’d been in such a rush during the chase that I hadn’t had time to identify him with the scouter. Checking now, this was indeed the man operating under the alias Loki.

His real name was Kurut Biro, and he’d been active as both a Rafel executive and a Night Guild executive. He appeared to have served as the middleman between the two. Because I had the scouter, I could breathe life into an investigation that had hit a dead end from lack of leads. Münster was stunned when he saw the captured Kurut Biro.

"What the hell did Hansen do?"

"Hansen? This man’s name is Kurut Biro."

"What? This man is Hansen Wittman—he’s in charge of the guild’s finances."

That was probably another alias.

If Münster had trusted him enough to put him in charge of the finances, he must have had considerable faith in the man.

Unfortunately, Kurut Biro was a parasite that had burrowed deep inside the host.

With this, I had finally managed to arrest a Rafel executive.

Interrogation was Michael’s forte, so I handed Biro over to him.

"Brother-in-law, what exactly are you? How can you catch them this easily?"

"Let’s just say I have a sharp eye and good instincts. You know that."

"Damn it, why don’t I have a sharp eye and good instincts!"

"Calm down, brother-in-law."

Ahem—in any case, Michael seemed to envy my abilities.

In truth, it was the system’s achievement more than my own. Well, ultimately the system was a tool at my disposal, so using it well was what mattered. That was how you survived in this brutal world.

Now that the man behind the alias had been caught, the other hiding executives and the boss must have been in a panic. Night Guild Master Münster couldn’t believe that Kurut Biro had been the middleman connecting the guild to Rafel. But in a hidden compartment in Biro’s room, I found documents written on linen paper.

They were transaction records for women.

Not legitimate transactions—Biro had been skimming considerable sums by manipulating the books. In other words, Rafel sold women at inflated prices and the Night Guild purchased them at inflated prices, but the ledgers recorded everything at standard rates, so money was hemorrhaging into Biro’s pockets. Münster, comparing the official accounts against the hidden transaction records, was livid. He’d been stabbed in the back without ever suspecting it.

So Münster seized everyone who had worked under Kurut Biro and turned them over to the Military Department. Naturally, Michael’s interrogation sessions grew longer and longer. I sent the seriously wounded soldiers to the hospital and gave each of them one silver coin as consolation, since they’d been injured in the line of duty. They were overjoyed. Nothing motivates quite like coin. I’d simply bill Michael for it later. This would probably end up charged to Finance as operational expenses too.

The picture was gradually coming into focus.

Just a bit more and I could deal the Finance Department a decisive blow.

The outcome Adelbert wanted would be realized.

But out of nowhere, an envoy arrived from the royal palace.

And now I found myself standing in the audience hall, under the scrutinizing gaze of Grand Duke Karlus.