The Tin Knight-Chapter 50: The Tin Knight and The City of Clockwork (9)

Kumara, a silver-ranked adventurer of the Imperial Adventurers Guild, received a peculiar request from the guild one day.

“...So, you’re telling me to give a false testimony now?”

“False testimony? No, our guild merely wishes to correct your ‘misunderstanding’.”

Despite Kumara’s gruff, irritated voice, the guild employee maintained a businesslike attitude without showing any emotion.

“Silver-ranked adventurer Castor and his three party members, along with the same-ranked adventurer Peledos and his two party members, were killed in the Taros Labyrinth. It was undoubtedly a crime targeting the treasures they possessed. Our guild has decided to respond strictly to protect the safety and honor of our affiliated adventurers, and after a thorough investigation, we also uncovered the crime process and the culprits’ identities.”

The employee continued speaking with an unchanging expression and tone, as if reading from a predetermined manual, “The culprits are the exclusive explorers employed by the Halder Company. They ambushed the two parties aiming for financial gain and stole the treasures they had discovered. They quickly handed over the treasures to the company and fled after securing immediate compensation, fearing their crime would be discovered. Considering that they ignored repeated requests from the Halder Company to accompany them, they might have intended to shift all responsibility to the company.”

“You crazy bastards.”

Kumara’s patience finally reached its limit.

“I personally saw those Castor and Peledos guys alive and wandering around here and there even after those so-called Halder Company explorers had left. How the hell could people who had already left kill those who were in the labyrinth? Huh? If you’re going to do an investigation, do it properly!!”

“You must be mistaken.”

It was a rebuttal full of certainty—no, beyond certainly lied something else.

It was a firmness that seemed to leave no room for considering other possibilities.

Kumara’s face twisted grotesquely.

It was as if it wasn’t that “the Halder Company explorers are the culprits”, but rather “the Halder Company explorers must be the culprits”...

...Wait a moment.

Kumara’s spine chilled at a possibility that arose in his mind.

“Labyrinth exploration is an extreme endeavor. It involves tremendous physical and mental exhaustion, and since you can’t see the sun for a long time, your sense of time becomes vague. It’s not uncommon for memories to get mixed up. It’s such a common occurrence, a trivial mistake if you will.”

The employee’s empty eyes stared at Kumara.

“We’re not asking for anything grand. We simply want to prevent confusion in the investigation. After leaving this room, Kumara, you just need to say one thing to the adventurers asking about the situation: ‘I’m sorry. Thinking about it carefully, I seem to have confused the dates a bit.’ Then everything will be resolved. The curious adventurers will laugh it off saying ‘Oh, so that’s what it was’, and our guild will take care of the rest.”

Kumara realized.

This wasn’t a request for cooperation or consultation.

It was a threat to shut up and go along with the guild’s fabricated story.

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“Ha.”

A hollow laugh escaped Kumara’s lips.

He wasn’t particularly a righteous person.

Honestly speaking, it wasn’t his business whether explorers he had only briefly passed by in the labyrinth were falsely accused or not.

But there was one possibility he simply couldn’t ignore...

“Don’t tell me, those guys. Did you bury them?”

He couldn’t forgive the act of the Adventurers Guild murdering their own affiliated adventurers and then using them as political fodder.

Kumara himself was an adventurer, after all.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Haa, right. Of course, you don’t. Sure, let’s go with that—I don’t know either.”

Kumara got up from his chair.

He didn’t want to stay here any longer.

As Kumara was about to leave, the employee’s voice was heard from behind.

“You’ll regret it.”

Kumara left the room without answering.

***The first thing Kumara did after escaping the guild was to explain the situation to his party members—the mage Magia and the warrior Sitar—and apologize.

“I’m sorry. For deciding on my own.”

Magia and Sitar exchanged glances.

“Haa, it’s fine. What’s done is done.”

“You should have punched them once before coming back.”

“You guys...!”

The warm moment of confirming their camaraderie was brief.

The three soon began to act.

The first place they visited was the Halder Company.

***Coincidentally, the Halder Company had just received the following “notification” from the guild:

‎ ‎ The explorers hired by the Halder Company murder adventurers of the Adventurer’s Guild. Therefore, all treasures possessed by the Halder Company are stolen goods obtained through illegitimate means.

‎ ‎ The investigation concluded that this incident was the explorers’ independent action, and it appears the Halder Company was merely exploited by their intentional deception.

‎ ‎ Even if it wasn’t intentional, they can’t avoid responsibility for causing an incident by hiring people of unclear identity. However, in consideration of the Halder Company’s long-standing sincerity with the guild thus far, leniency may be extended.

‎ ‎ If the Halder Company issues a statement denouncing the wrongdoings of these explorers, we will conclude the matter with the full return of the treasures, and won’t demand additional compensation.

‎ ‎ The guild expresses deep regret that such an incident occurred, and hope that the two groups will maintain an amicable relationship in the future.

Lorentz, the head of the Halder Company, interpreted the guild’s notification like this:

‎ ‎ Hand over all the treasures you have. We’re just recovering stolen goods, so of course we won’t pay.

‎ ‎ We’ll announce that you hired a strange group of killers and killed our people. You should admit that you did wrong too.

‎ ‎ Your reputation will be ruined, but that’s not our concern. If you’re upset, you shouldn’t have hired strange people.

‎ ‎ Take responsibility for this okay? As long as you give us the treasures and sell out those guys you hired, we can go on our merry ways.

‎ ‎ Honestly, we should have beaten you up more but we’re being nice in consideration of you. Aren’t you so grateful? You should treat your big brother well from now on.

“They’re fucking with us.”

Lorentz Halder felt like he could understand what it meant for blood to flow backward.

There were two reasons he didn’t immediately declare all-out war:

One, the guild was an immensely powerful force.

Two, he still had reservations regarding the validity of the guild’s claims.

Lorentz’s judgment told him that Dorothea’s group wasn’t the type to commit such acts, but the time Lorentz had spent with Dorothea’s group was too short to stake the company’s fate on a once-in-a-lifetime battle.

To Lorentz, who was troubled by this dilemma, unable to acknowledge that Dorothea’s group was the culprit as the guild requested, nor able to give the guild the middle finger, Kumara’s party’s testimony was as precious as a treasure.

“We need to quickly inform the group we hired from our company about this fact. If the guild is set on fabricating this incident, they won’t leave the supposed ‘culprits’ roam free. They’ll try to silence them no matter what. The problem is that we don’t know their exact location...”

“Do you perhaps know what kind of carriage they were using?”

“It would be a carriage provided by our company. Why?”

“Then it should bear your company’s crest. I’ve seen the group’s appearance in person, so that should be enough to track them.”

“...I see. I’ll prepare the fastest horse. I’ll also give you a special herb. It’s an herb that shows tremendous stamina and endurance when fed to horses. Even while pulling a carriage, it moved at a speed similar to a person running, so riding bareback without a carriage should be even faster.”

After dividing roles, Kumara and his two companions began tracking Dorothea’s group.

Their goal was to inform the group about the guild’s scheme and bring them to a city where the Halder Company’s influence reached.

Kumara, who had been taught by his father who was in the Empire’s special forces, and Magia, who was from a fallen noble family, originally had horse-riding skills, and Sitar endured the forced march by clinging to the horse with his brute strength and endurance.

The problem came next.

“Damn it. It looks like there are already others following beside us?”

Seeing traces of the target carriage and traces of someone pursuing that carriage, Kumara gritted his teeth.

At this rate, the target might be caught before they could make contact.

Displaying abilities that would make an imperial general exclaim, “Why, why were talents like you rotting away as mere adventurers? Enlist immediately!”, Kumara’s party hastened their steps.

To meet Dorothea’s group before the guild’s pursuers.

They made contact.

Not Dorothea’s group, but the guild’s minions who were pursuing Dorothea’s group.

“Magia! Sitar! It’s them! Prepare for battle!”

“So you’re the ones who’ve been sneaking up behind us!”

In a strange situation where the two pursuing groups clashed and started fighting while the actual target, Dorothea’s group, was unaware they were being chased, Kumara’s party and the guild’s pursuers clashed with the night-stained Tik-Tok sky as the backdrop.

Slash! Boom!

Proving that they weren’t ranked among the top in the silver rank for nothing, Sitar’s axe and Magia’s magic knocked down the pursuers one after another.

As he plunged the dagger he usually used against magic beasts into an enemy’s neck, Kumara thought.

This is disadvantageous!

Individually, Kumara’s party was far superior, but they were heavily outnumbered.

Combined with the fatigue accumulated from the forced march, he could feel his movements becoming increasingly disorderly.

Damn it, if only we were a little, just a little faster...!

In fact, for Kumara’s party, who had started several days later, to arrive in the same city as Dorothea’s group with less than a day’s gap, their mobility was already at a level that would put most professional couriers to shame, but that was of no comfort to Kumara now.

Sitar, who was taking the vanguard, accumulated wounds on his body and Magia was gasping for breath.

Just as Kumara, judging that they couldn’t go on any longer, was about to order a retreat.

Clank.

It was in the midst of battle.

With weapons clashing against weapons, and the added explosions from magic, normally small noises from the surroundings wouldn’t be audible.

But why?

Clank.

That footstep treading on the ground in the darkness of night vividly resounded in Kumara’s ears.

Forgetting that they were in the middle of a battle, Kumara reflexively turned his gaze.

The heaviness of metal revealed its presence in the darkness.

Blue eye-lights glowed like will-o’-wisps.

The figure of a terrifying knight with someone slung over his shoulder like a sack...!

Huh?

Didn’t I just see something strange?

After blinking a few times, Kumara examined the intruder’s appearance again.

A knight in armor.

No, a magic doll.

It was good that the one they had been searching for so desperately was here.

He was so glad that he wanted to give a hug even though they weren’t particularly close.

If only the Tin Knight wasn’t carrying a person.

It wasn’t like the princess carry that people generally thought of.

Rather, it was more like carelessly slung over the shoulder or to put it more bluntly, it looked like the posture when forcibly dragging someone during a kidnapping.

At this bizarre sight, even those who were in the midst of battle unconsciously stopped their swords and blinked.

“Have we arrived? If so, I’d like you to put me down now. This position is pressing on my stomach, and blood is rushing to my head a bit.”

A calm voice rang out.

As the knight tilted one shoulder to the side, the woman hanging there slid down and fell to the ground with a light thud.

While everyone watching was dumbfounded, the woman who had tumbled to the ground got up as if nothing had happened.

And she said, “Nice to meet you all. We’re a pair of a wandering knight and a curious scholar. Could you perhaps tell us why you’re fighting?”

Silence fell.

The beautiful woman with green hair and pink eyes tilted her head, and then suddenly looked at the knight beside her.

“Ah, that’s right. Knowledge requires compensation.”

After nodding her head up and down for a moment, the beautiful woman spoke again, “I’ll offer a small reward to whoever tells me. Does anyone need gold coins?”

Kumara thought.

She’s insane.

The pursuers seemed to have reached a similar conclusion.

“The hell is this crazy woman saying? Kill them too!!”

Some of the pursuers rushed towards the beautiful woman.

The woman stared at them blankly, then said one thing, “Ah, I’ll convey the message.”

Thud!!

With a swing of the Tin Knight’s shield, the charging pursuers were knocked down.

The beautiful woman, smiling, said, “Sir Tin says if you don’t like money, he’ll be more than happy to settle it with fists.”