IHBWAT 10

Chapter 10

Bingo. I Knew You’d Come Here

After raising the military category, a quest appeared.

And within it was a criminal organization.

From the moment he saw that, Cliff knew there was something that needed even more attention than recruitment.

Before he began serious training, it was just a time when he let the soldiers eat to their heart’s content.

Cliff called one of them separately.

“You’re the most senior among the soldiers?”

“Ah, yes. Acting Lord. I am indeed the most senior soldier in this territory.”

No matter how disorganized it was, it was still a military force.

If there was a criminal organization in the territory, there was no way they would not know about it. Cliff decided to test him.

“Is there anyone in this territory who is hated by the people?”

“Huh?”

“What do you think? Is there?”

“May I ask why you are asking such a thing…?”

The veteran soldier looked at Cliff in confusion.

At that, Nigel, who was standing nearby, barked out in anger.

“How dare you question the acting lord’s words? Do you think you are qualified to understand what the acting lord is doing?”

“Eek, s-sorry!”

Nigel was something like the territory’s second-in-command.

And he had held authority in the territory longer than Cliff had.

Naturally, the veteran soldier was frightened by his rebuke.

“I still haven’t gotten an answer.”

“Well… among the people the villagers dislike, there is a man named Beluman.”

“Beluman? What does he do?”

“He’s a loan shark. He lends money, so people are resentful of him.”

Cliff narrowed his eyes.

Loan-sharking was not illegal in this world.

So that alone was not enough to justify calling it a “criminal organization” in the quest. However, there was something odd.

‘Everyone here is poor one way or another…’

If he was a loan shark, that meant he was essentially a merchant.

And merchants had to turn a profit somehow. But in this territory, loan-sharking would not yield much.

If there was any value to be had, there was only one thing.

“You mean he lends food, and if they can’t repay it, he takes their children as slaves?”

“That is… yes, that’s correct.”

There was nothing in this territory that could make money except people.

So this Beluman guy was not dealing in money—he was dealing in people.

‘That’s definitely bad… but even so, that alone doesn’t quite make it a criminal organization.’

There was something more.

The quest he had received.

It might be harder than he had expected.

If they were trafficking people, that meant—

‘They’ve got outside connections, don’t they?’

There was an outside faction in collusion with them.

A group that received slaves from them and sold them.

Perhaps they were the criminal organization the quest referred to.

‘But if the organization is outside the territory, that’s not something I can handle at my level…’

Cliff asked Nigel,

“Is there anyone under Beluman that should be watched closely?”

“Beluman has hired a few sword-wielders. They don’t seem like anything special from the outside, but there really is no one in this territory who can stand against them.”

Sword-wielders.

Cliff stored that information away.

‘How should I handle this?’

As he trained the territory’s soldiers, Cliff also thought about that.

And then an incident happened.

Beluman was displeased with Cliff, who was gradually building up strength.

Naturally.

In order to sell the territory’s people outside, they needed to remain poor. The villagers had to become desperate enough to borrow food by pledging their children as collateral.

But with Cliff’s arrival, that was changing.

‘So the lord is releasing food, huh.’

What Cliff was doing was obvious.

First, he had exempted taxes.

That gave each household a little breathing room.

Then he started providing food by assigning work to the families.

And now—

He was building a military force.

“Apparently a hundred soldiers are patrolling the territory together…”

Cliff’s so-called training runs were, in fact, patrols.

And several of Beluman’s men who had caused trouble in front of them had been thrown in prison.

So their activities inevitably shrank.

“First, we need to get our boys out.”

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean? We bribe the prison warden. Damn it. Looks like we’re going to have to spend real money.”

It was nothing new.

Beluman thought he could once again bribe his way into getting his men back.

This had happened before—his men had been arrested a few times.

Each time, Beluman paid to get them released, and that was why those men had acted fearlessly in the territory.

‘I don’t like it, but if I abandon that loyalty, they’ll stop being loyal to me too.’

So he tried to bribe them.

However, this time, the result was different.

“What? He won’t take it?”

“Th-that’s what he said.”

The prison guard refused the bribe.

That wasn’t all.

“That old Nigel keeps coming to the prison.”

“Damn it. I don’t care about the others, but that rigid old man who’s annoyingly perceptive…”

Now Beluman understood why the guard had refused the bribe.

He was watching the fierce supervisor’s mood.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason.

Maybe Nigel was just an excuse.

These days, the soldiers really were different from before.

‘It’s all because the acting lord’s warehouse is so well stocked.’

Beluman believed all power came from money.

Before, House Elimis had had no money. But after Cliff arrived, they did.

That was why the soldiers, who had once quietly turned a blind eye to his actions, had now turned against him.

‘This is probably the best method.’

A dangerous light flashed in his eyes.

“What do we do now?”

“What do you mean, what do we do? We hit him hard enough that he can’t keep acting up.”

Beluman’s words made the men around him flinch.

“No, boss. But if we attack a noble—”

“Of course we can’t directly strike the noble.”

If it had still been the old House Elimis, he might have dared to touch them.

That man had no connections with outside nobles.

But Cliff was different.

Hadn’t Cliff himself said it?

That he was a man of the ducal house.

‘Whether that’s true or not, judging by the carriages and escorts he arrived with…’

And remembering Cliff’s words, it almost looked like those escorts had only been running errands for Cliff and would return again.

If they were knights of a duke’s house, then no matter how many men they had, they couldn’t stand against them.

Beluman knew that much.

‘Damn it. I may have to get out of this land sooner than expected.’

He had planned to play king here for life, but that might not work out.

Still, it wouldn’t be for long.

Beluman believed Cliff would either leave the territory, or the duke’s house would abandon it.

After all, even the original master of this territory, Baron Elimis, had abandoned it and left. Cliff, who had lived in luxury in the capital, would only be interested in the territory for a short while.

He just needed to hold out a little longer.

“…From here on, listen carefully.”

He sent people to the guards.

The operation time was night.

They set a fire in the guard post at night.

“F-fire!”

And the ones who had started the fire shouted and made a scene.

“AAAH! Bandits! A bandit attack!”

The prison was close to the territory guard’s barracks.

Once the chaos started, the guards who woke up would rush to the prison.

“The prisoners are escaping!”

The whole village became noisy.

Beluman heard all of it from his own house.

“Would this be enough as a warning?”

He had hired three sword-wielders.

One of them tilted his head toward Beluman.

He didn’t understand Beluman’s intention in specifically stirring up the prison. It was a dangerous plan that could be seen as rebellion against the lord. Yet what they gained from it would be too little.

‘Even if we rescue our men…’

Even if they rescued their organization members, if they incurred the wrath of Acting Lord Cliff, the organization would be in danger.

“Of course this alone won’t do anything. So right now, take three or four of your men and go to the lord’s warehouse.”

From the beginning, Beluman had not cared about the prison situation.

He just wanted to draw the soldiers’ attention there.

“The reason the acting lord has power right now is because his warehouse is full. It wouldn’t do to directly harm the acting lord, but an arsonist setting fire to the lord’s warehouse is not something outside nobles will get involved in.”

“But if we do that, wouldn’t the acting lord become furious?”

“Heh. If the lord’s warehouse burns, the soldiers will have less reason to follow his orders. Their morale will drop. And the acting lord, though young, is quite intelligent.”

Beluman acknowledged Cliff.

That was why he thought this plan would work.

“Since his warehouse burned down, he’ll need a new warehouse to replace it.”

To be exact, he would need someone to replace the grain in that warehouse—a sort of sponsor.

‘There’s no one in this territory more suitable for that role than me.’

Beluman thought this was rather good.

He would use this opportunity to put a leash on the lord with wealth.

As clever as Cliff was, there was a high chance he would cooperate with someone rich like Beluman.

Of course, Cliff might try to kill Beluman and seize his assets.

But that would be difficult.

‘My wealth isn’t the kind of thing you can easily find.’

The lord could never locate his real assets.

And if they killed him, it would be even worse.

So Beluman decided to wait calmly for Cliff’s visit.

‘As long as the lord’s warehouse burns, that’s enough.’

Meanwhile, he would prepare an alibi.

He planned to insist that this chaos had nothing to do with him.

After receiving Beluman’s order, the sword-wielder moved toward the warehouse.

‘So I just need to set this place on fire, huh?’

If the warehouse had been heavily guarded as usual, this plan would have been impossible.

But now, with the prison incident, their attention was probably directed elsewhere.

As expected, he was able to approach the territory warehouse without much trouble.

He concealed himself in the dark and moved slowly.

Crawling almost like a beast.

At night, wearing black clothes and moving like this made it hard for most people to notice him.

With everyone’s attention focused on the prison side, it would be even harder to detect someone approaching from the opposite direction.

Unless the opponent was a mana user.

“…Bingo. I knew you’d come here.”