Another sunny spring day just as usual. On the street outside the door, children in the neighborhood were flocking around and chitchatting. It seemed they’re playing some kind of ball game. A horse-powered air conditioner which I recently bought with a lot of money was buzzing and emitting cool air to every corner in the office.
In the second-floor bathroom, I could hear the sound of a horse-powered laundry machine running. Shura must be doing laundry. After morning training, I took a shower quickly. Then I changed into clean clothes and left the office.
Armida was snoring on the counter again today. She was surely living a carefree life. Not long ago, she told me that she came down to this world to find someone. But now, she’s so relaxed and busy hanging out as if she got nothing to worry about.
I drank a cup of fruit juice in the refrigerator, opened the door, and went outside. I got some business to take care of in a hurry.
“Phew, it’s hot.”
It’s still late in the spring but downtown Kara was hot. Desert climate was not all that hot but it was particularly hot today.
Suddenly, a group of children was running ahead of me. Shortly after, a small ball rolled over to me. Some kid must have made a mistake and kicked the ball towards me. Then the kids came to me with innocent smiles on their faces.
“Hey, mister. Pass the ball please.”
I gently smiled at them and kicked the ball hard towards the west gate in the far distance. Since I fully used mana when I kicked it, the ball flew over the castle wall and disappeared.
“Hey, kids! It’s too noisy. I’ve told you guys to play somewhere else, haven’t I?”
With their tearful faces, the kids went after the ball which was no longer to be found. And one brave kid showed me his middle finger and yelled.
“Hey, you! I am gonna ask my dad to kick your ass!”
“Sure. Just bring him here. I’ll cut off his head with one stroke in a fair and honorable one-on-one dual.”
Once the kids left, it was much quieter. It was still hot but somewhat pleasant. Just like any other day, I tried hard to keep my life pleasant.
After taking care of my business, I hummed to myself and headed to my office. At that moment, I could hear an old man’s small voice from behind.
“Excuse me.”
“Huh?”
He was from the Continent and wore a long robe with ornaments of jewelry. His back was bent due to his old age and his hand was on a long cane. Yet, his eyes were very keen.
And he was not alone. Some warriors who looked like his personal guards were lining up behind him. Certainly, they’re neither normal soldiers nor mercenaries. They seemed like warriors who belonged to some kind of organization.
The old man greeted me politely.
“Hello. I’m Robert Verbe. Are you Mr. Kaoyan, the White Mask?”
I tilted my head to the side.
“I am Kaoyan. But why are you calling me the White Mask?”
“Mr. Kaoyan, nowadays people call you the White Mask.”
Perhaps it’s my new nickname. ‘Kaoyan, the White Mask’? It’s better than the one I had in my past life. My nickname in my past life was a ‘Beggarly Grand Prince’.
I got this white mask for free and it made me very famous. What a huge luck for me.
“Really? So what’s up?”
“Actually, I came here because I’ve got an urgent favor.”
“Oh, I see. Then let’s go inside and talk.”
As soon as I quickly walked inside the office, I saw Armida drooling and sleeping so I tapped her with my heel.
“Hey sis, wake up. We’ve got a client.”
She wiped off her saliva and woke up with her bewildered eyes. At that moment, Verbe came inside the office while leaving his guards outside.
“Wow~ your sister is a gorgeous woman.”
Armida started at Verbe.
“Who is this old man?”
“Our client. So please bring us some drinks.”
“Me? Hey, little bro. You know who I am, don’t you?”
As she’s whining, I glowered at her.
“Then should I bring them? The client needs to consult with me. You should make yourself useful if you want to live off here.”
“Okay, okay.
She grumbled and left. I let Verbe take a seat on a reception sofa.
Verbe looked around and nodded his head.
“The office is very nice.”
“Well, recently we did spend some money to make it better.”
I spent quite a lot of money lately. It cost me 24 riffs of gold to buy a horse-powered air conditioner, refrigerator, laundry machine, and magic lighting equipment. Moreover, I spent 253 riffs of gold for a middle-class Essence which could supply mana in magic houseware, energy supply system, construction costs, and magician labor costs. So, the total was 277 riffs of gold.
But it was just a drop in the bucket. I spent a huge sum of money to buy a Magic Lantern which was inside of my Subspace Pocket right now. Its length was about 30cm and handbreadth wide. Usually, Magic Lanterns were not that expensive but mine was really expensive because it had a highest-class Essence. Not only I used all of the Chaos Pieces which I got during Fraker hunt but also I had to spend 465 riffs of gold to buy extra Chaos Pieces to make this highest-class Essence. But money didn’t matter.
This lantern was my survival kit item number two, along with the Zet-Black Crescent Horse.
At night, this lantern could brighten up clearly the surrounding area within 100m. Besides, it’s durable so I could use it for a very long period of time if I used this in only night hours. It’s an essential survival item during night fighting against demons or an escape under the cover of darkness.
“I can tell.”
“So, tell me. What brings you here?”
Verbe made a gloomy face.
“Actually… I know it would be a lot of trouble for you but I want to ask you to save my unworthy son’s life.”
“Your son is about to lose his life? Why?”
Armida put two glasses of juice on the table. Verbe thanked her and drank the juice. Then he gently opened his mouth.
“Actually…”
Verve was in charge of the Verbe Merchant Guild, an intercontinental merchant guild which was one of the most famous merchant guilds in the Kingdom of Robros. They sold various kinds of magic items to the Azenka Continent and Eastern Continent while importing silk, tea, spices from them.
His business was thriving but Verbe had a concern which was his foolhardy heir. His name was Fiat Verbe, the only son in the Verbe family.
“So?”
“My reckless son went to a trade mission recently but was attacked by the Great Desert bandits and he’s held hostage right now.”
I couldn’t understand what he said. I understood his story yet I still didn’t get what his point was.
The Great Desert bandits raided merchants all because of money. If someone’s held hostage, he or she could just pay ransom to get released in most cases. There’s no reason for Verbe to hire me by paying a large sum of money.
Of course, some bandits only took ransom without releasing hostages but that’s a very rare case. If they didn’t keep their promise, they would lose their credibility and thus have a hard time negotiating their next hostage deal with other people.
“Hostage? Then you don’t need to hire me, do you? You don’t want to negotiate a deal with them?”
“Yes, I already tried to negotiate with them… However, an unexpected incident happened so I failed to make a deal with them.”
“What unexpected incident?”
Once he heard his son being held hostage, Verbe went looking for an intermediate broker to negotiate a deal. Since those who had acquaintance with bandits were better at mediating between two parties, it was common practice.
So Verbe chose a leader of a mercenary guild as a mediator not long ago. The mercenary guild’s leader had been around the Great Desert Trade Route for a long time and built relationships with the Great Desert bandits as well. He was a veteran mercenary who had quite a good credibility from others.
“Mercenaries and bandits got along well? I thought they were enemies to each other, weren’t they?”
“Superficially, they are enemies to each other. But if they keep fighting against each other, both of them would suffer too much damage. So, some wise mercenaries pay a certain amount of toll to safely cross the Devil’s Trade Route. And most of the Great Desert bandits take the mercenaries’ offer because they also don’t want to suffer too many casualties in battles against mercenaries.”
Basically, they were in a truly symbiotic relationship. There’s no doubt that they would suffer a huge number of casualties if they kept fighting against each other. Both mercenaries and bandits should strive for symbiosis to survive for a long time.
“I got it. After being in a symbiotic relationship for some time, they became friendly with each other. And?”
“The thing is that the mercenary guild’s leader ran away with ransom money in the middle of negotiation. So, the Great Desert bandits were really pissed off because the deal was broken at the last moment. I contacted them after a few days but they threatened to kill my son instead to set an example.”
“Threat? So your son is not dead yet?”
“Yes, he’s still alive.”
I chuckled. They said they would set an example but didn’t kill Verbe’s son yet. And just threatening to kill him? It’s so obvious that they wanted more money.
“It means they want more money then.”
“Yes. I also agree with you. But in the middle of our second negotiation, they added another condition to our deal.”
“Another condition?”
“They demanded me to capture and bring that mercenary guild’s leader alive.”
“Oh, I see. They want to take revenge by themselves? Hmm… then my job is to capture and bring that mercenary guild’s leader, right?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Who is that mercenary guild’s leader?”
“I bet you also know him very well. His name is Alon.”
Alon was the guy who gave wrong advice to Commande Adan during the Fraker hunt not long ago. I made a lot of money thanks to his stupid advice. At that time, I had a little conflict with him but I let him live so I could steal his money later in the future.
Blessings came to good people indeed. I spared his life out of mercy and then I got another job because of him.
“Really? He’s my nest egg and I know him very well. By the way, why the hell did he run away with the ransom money?”
“I have done some research and found out that he’s no longer able to work as a mercenary in the Great Desert so he was trying to leave for his home country. And then this incident happened.”
“Did he get hurt severely?”
“No. He got some death threats.”
I tilted my head on the side. The Alon Mercenary Guild was pretty big so not many people could threaten them.
“It’s weird. They usually threaten other people instead of being threatened.”
“······.”
He couldn’t dare to answer and just kept staring at me. At that moment, I found out who threatened him and pointed at myself with my index finger.
“Is it me?”
“Yes. Basically, all the people in Kara are talking about the rumor that Zenbe, the Holy Meteor and you were going to kill Alon and all his underlings.”
I recalled the conversation between me and Alon, then scratched my head awkwardly. Perhaps one of his underlings nearby overheard the conversation between me and Zenbe.
Then it’s all uncle Zenbe’s fault.
To be honest, uncle Zenbe’s voice was too loud. He yelled in his baritone and husky voice so obviously everyone near us could hear what he said.
“Well, I didn’t really say I would kill him for sure. I said I would kill him if he tried to attack me. I thought Alon was a despicable man but actually, he’s just a dirty coward. Hmm~.”
“Master. I didn’t mean to blame you. It’s my fault that I chose him as my broker. I just want to tell you I need to capture Alon alive to save my son’s life.”
I kind of felt embarrassed and folded my arms in silence.
“But the problem is that we need to find where he is.”
“He’s at the Polkin Gateway with his underlings right now. And I quickly contacted and asked my acquaintance who’s in charge of the gateway via Magic Communication to stop him from passing through.”
The Polkin Gateway was the only passageway through the Ipozium Mountains which cut across the Great Desert and Prosia. If he couldn’t pass through the gateway, there’s no way he could escape. First of all, there were only dangerous cliffs around the mountains in all directions. Secondly, there were guard troops everywhere.
Also when the herd of demons invaded, the Polkin Gateway didn’t fall for more than a year. No one could pass through it without permission.
“You know the person who’s in charge of the gateway? Then why don’t you capture him by yourself?”
“Actually, that’s not possible.”
“Why?”
“The act of paying ransom to the bandits in the Great Desert is forbidden by the laws of the Kingdom of Robros. If Alon gets arrested and tells everything about the deal between me and bandits, my Merchant Guild would be in huge trouble.”
The Kingdom of Robros despised the Great Desert bandits who frequently raided its merchant guilds. Their trade profits and tax income shrunk significantly due to those bandits. Thus, it strictly prevented its people from having any relationships with them.
“So, you want me to go to that fortress in secret and capture him?”
“Yes. But you should not cause a major disturbance there. The current commanding officer of the Polkin Fortress is very fastidious.”
The job seemed pretty simple but the difficulty level was quite high. In fact, it’s more difficult to save one’s life than to kill. Also, I had to take Alon out of the most impregnable fortress in the world after evading the strict surveillance network of guard troops while not causing any disturbance. There were too many conditions so it’s very troublesome.
But it still seemed there’s a possible way.
“How much is the compensation?”
“I will pay you 200 riffs of gold.”
I didn’t even flinch. It’s too little for the difficulty level of the job. I wouldn’t be able to have any profits after paying all the necessary expenses to complete the job.
“Pff~ it’s too little.”
“You can get the rest from Alon. He took 600 riffs of gold from me. So, I bet the compensation would be enough.”
Alon surely stole a lot of money. 600 riffs of gold could cover my entertainment expenses for two months.
“But what if Alon doesn’t have 600 riffs of gold? That kind of thing happens pretty often.”
“If that’s the case, I will make you whole.”
It was not a bad job. 800 riffs of gold was quite a lot of money anyway.
Actually, I had to see Alon after all so it’s not bad for me to take this job. It seemed he told everyone that I was some kind of a heinous murderer. I certainly had some bones to pick with him.
To express my consent to take the job he offered, I took the bag of money he handed me over and put it inside my pocket.