“The crimes are grave. Attempted murder, kidnapping, theft, and arson. Not one of them is something that can be taken lightly.”
I sat facing the Guard Captain of Luminac, with the captured prisoners seated beside me.
The guard headquarters. If one lived as a mercenary, it was a place one could not help but visit often, for good or ill.
And a skilled mercenary also had to know how to deal with guards.
“Hmm…….”
The Guard Captain looked at my prisoners with an uneasy expression.
“There seems to be sufficient evidence, but…… the timing is not good. Is the ‘Sentence of Enslavement’ you are demanding not too severe?”
“Then are you saying you will simply release these criminals into society?”
“Are you not fellow mercenaries?”
“We are different. I am a mercenary who has not committed a crime, while those bastards are mercenaries who have clearly committed crimes.”
The contest of wills continued. I had expected this much.
‘Slaves are expensive. He probably wants to keep them all for himself…….’
In this world, slaves were luxury goods. Not only was it difficult to obtain them legally, but their convenience was considerable as well.
They were no different from robots fitted with human-level AI that could never legally betray their masters.
Their food, clothing, and housing did cost money, but their usefulness could not be called small.
They made money. And wherever money could be made, conflict was bound to follow.
At present, the right to dispose of them belonged to me. I was the one who found them, subdued them, and discovered the evidence.
Even if the other party was the Guard Captain, he had to pay appropriate compensation to take custody of these captured criminals from me.
“This is not something I can decide lightly.”
“Then what more do you need?”
“Hmm…….”
But the person who could turn them into legal slaves was the Guard Captain sitting there.
A deadlock had formed.
I was not an actual slave trader, and nothing good would come of dragging illegal prisoners around for long.
It was against the law.
Even if the bastards escaped, I had no way to catch them, and other mercenaries or adventurers trying to do good might attack my company.
“For now, put them in prison. Regardless of the nature of their crimes, they are certainly dangerous men.”
“We can watch them ourselves.”
The guards would want to secure custody of the criminals somehow.
Once they put them in prison, all they would have to do was shamelessly take them from then on.
If a judgment was later passed that ‘their crimes are grave, so they have no choice but to perform slave labor,’ they would secure six free slaves.
But for now, they had to watch my reaction too.
If we said, ‘They are men we captured, so we will kill them ourselves for revenge,’ and cut off their heads, we would gain nothing, but neither would they.
Conversely, I also had to watch the Guard Captain’s mood. If he decided, ‘I would rather give up the money than yield to the likes of a mercenary captain,’ that would end the deal.
Then the guards would never recognize them as slaves whose crimes were grave enough to merit a Sentence of Enslavement. I would not be able to profit from these living people either.
“It is not only the arson and kidnapping this time. We have confirmed that they were also involved in the merchant murder case from before.”
“You only obtained testimony, did you not?”
“……Yes.”
We could not exhume the dead merchant’s grave. That exceeded the rights granted to a mercenary.
If we analyzed the wounds left on the corpse, we could discover that this mercenary company was the true culprit, but even that was impossible for the moment.
“I need more time. Time to thoroughly determine the nature of their crimes.”
I shook my head. I had no intention of wasting time here.
“There have been confessions, and there is evidence. A person died, and a building burned down…… Let us not say that an investigation needs time.”
“Ahem! Watch your words!”
“I will not make this complicated. Let us be frank with each other.”
For mercenaries, time was life. Mercenaries who could not move starved to death.
They had to take assignments, move to places with assignments, or, if neither was possible, at least work. Money was needed to maintain a mercenary company.
“I will give you the value of two people. Give us the value of the remaining four.”
“This is not about money!”
“Then what is it about?!”
“Honor!”
The Guard Captain fumed as he restrained his anger. I looked at him without yielding an inch.
A cold silence fell. Perhaps the Guard Captain realized that he could not intimidate me, because he relaxed and let out an empty sigh.
“Come with me for a moment. I have something to say somewhere without people around.”
“……Yes.”
He did not look very strong. He could not kill me by himself and erase my whole family.
After moving somewhere without the other prisoners or guards, the Guard Captain let out a deep sigh.
“My father is the head of this village.”
“I see.”
Judging by the village’s size, he was probably not the eldest son, but the third son or the child of a concubine.
“There are many people who doubt my ability. I am doing my best too, but…… in this situation, I cannot spread the fact that a merchant was attacked by mercenaries.”
“Hmm…… Is that not unavoidable?”
“Had that mercenary not walked around our village as though nothing had happened and burned down a blacksmith’s home, it would have been unavoidable. I am sorry to you.”
The guards had failed to arrest the criminals early on. The matter had not ended there; it had led to the damage of a fire. It would be difficult to avoid criticism.
This differed from what I had expected. He had been making unreasonable demands before me for the sake of ‘honor.’
It was not because he did not want to hand the slaves over to me, but because he did not want people to find out that the guards had failed to stop this horrible crime.
And because he did not want it spread around that a passing mercenary had resolved it.
“Then how do you intend to resolve this?”
“Wait just two months. By then, the situation will have stabilized somewhat. I will conclude the trial then, turn the six men you captured into slaves, and give them to you.”
‘Oh?’
It was a fairly acceptable solution. I simply could not accept it.
Still, the Guard Captain had presented a fair solution. It seemed that his claim to want honor rather than money was not a lie.
“You truly pursue honor.”
“I love this village. And…… if possible, I would like this village to love me too.”
“Then rather than simply waiting, how about changing the situation more actively?”
This was a good situation. A situation where what I needed and what the other party needed were different. In that case, it could be changed.
“Change the situation?”
“From the beginning, let us change all of this into something I did under your orders, Guard Captain.”
The Guard Captain’s eyes widened.
“B-but…… Then your honor!”
Certainly, it was something that could build a considerable reputation for a mercenary company to carry out an assignment well, find kidnappers, and rescue a hostage.
But money was more important to me right now. There would be no problem even if I shared this honor with the Guard Captain.
“I fought for money. What I should receive is money. I think the guards, who devote themselves to honor, should receive honor.”
“But…….”
The Guard Captain bit his lip tightly.
“Was it not your achievement that prevented the sacrifice of innocent people?”
“Think again.”
This was the time to gild him. I needed to build up the Guard Captain’s pride.
“When I arrived at the smithy, it was already on fire. If the guards had not arrived just in time, my mercenary company and I would have had to put out that fire first.”
“…….”
“Time would have been delayed, and in the meantime, the criminals would have escaped outside the village. Though there may be some distortion, it can be said that the guards made a great contribution to arresting them.”
“Th-that…… is that how it works?”
He seemed to have a rather rigid personality. Or perhaps he feared lying.
“I have traveled here and there and seen and heard things, so I know a little about the guards’ circumstances.”
I needed to comfort him. To achieve my objective.
“Even if the guards mistook those who attacked the merchant for goblins, the guards who investigated it must have been suffering from overwork.”
“Ahem…….”
“The same goes for what those criminals did. How could the guards know that those bastards would commit a crime and prevent the kidnapping in advance?”
Through an act that contained sincerity, I was declaring, ‘It is unjust for the Guard Captain to be doubted and attacked for such reasons.’
“The very fact that the Guard Captain is being attacked over that does not accord with reason.”
The Guard Captain was wavering. He would soon accept my proposal.
“We will hand over the six people we captured to the guards as they are. You only need to pay us the value calculated for them.”
“Then…… you will gain nothing.”
That was true in common sense, but not in reality. The Guard Captain had the authority to prevent me from receiving that profit.
‘Does he not know how to use his authority?’
When dealing with this kind of person, it was better to simply be honest. Rather than diligently using the information gap to turn it into Gold, it was better to leave it as a moderate, intangible profit called favor.
“Just think of it as my gift.”
“That…….”
“Just as it is not strange for me, a mercenary who succeeded at an assignment, to receive appropriate money, it is not strange for you, Guard Captain, to receive honor as a soldier who knows honor.”
The Guard Captain looked at me with moved eyes. I was lucky.
If other guards had been beside him, they would have reminded him that this was not actually such a great benefit to the Guard Captain.
“I have never met a mercenary like you…… Then I will accept it gratefully.”
“Yes. Then let us agree in advance on ‘what happened before.’”
I smiled villainously. After that, I continued speaking without pause.
“The guards had suspected those criminals of heinous crimes, but were troubled because they could not find clear evidence.
So they ordered me to raid the goblin den suspected to be the true culprit behind the merchant attack. But there was no evidence there either.
To make matters worse, those criminals bared their teeth. But the guards had completed their preparations.
They sent me to arrest the criminals and put out the fire for the citizens’ safety…….
This should produce a conclusion sufficiently satisfying to both the citizens and you, Guard Captain.”
The Guard Captain bowed deeply before me.
“I will never forget the justice and devotion burning in your heart.”
“Could it not be that the flame of justice in your heart, Guard Captain, has spread to my parched heart?”
“Ha…… You have a poet’s talent. Thank you truly. I will pay the money at once. How much will it be?”
“2400 Gold. Is that acceptable?”
It was a scam.
The price of a healthy adult male slave without flaws was roughly 400~800 Gold. But that was the retail price. Unless I miraculously found someone in this village who needed these slaves, it would be impossible for me to gain that much profit.
As long as they were people, their maintenance costs were considerable. Their clothing and food were necessary; shackles and enclosed facilities were necessary to prevent them from escaping; and specialized combat personnel were necessary to control and watch them.
Slave traders took on all this trouble and difficulty and bought from primary suppliers. Naturally, at half the price or less.
If I tried to sell these people to a passing slave trader, I would have received at most 200 Gold per head. I would not even have received that for slaves missing an arm or a leg.
The very fact that I could sell them without any additional expenditure was an enormously great profit.
“You are considering our circumstances…… I would like to give you even more, but I am sorry. The guards’ circumstances are not good.”
But he did not know that. He seemed to know how much slaves sold for in the slave market, but not how much primary suppliers sold slaves for.
“Your thought alone is enough. If you could buy even one more piece of bread for the guards who worked hard, that would be enough too.”
“Ah…….”
The Guard Captain looked at me with eyes of respect, as though he had been deeply moved.
The deal was done. The other guards could not hide their bewilderment as they watched the Guard Captain and me return with sudden smiles.
I collected 2400 Gold on the spot. Then the Guard Captain called to me.
“Wait a moment.”
“Was there something else to discuss?”
With a bright smile, he wrote something down on paper.
“It is not much, but it is my letter of recommendation. My name is not widely known, but it should still be enough to gain a little trust around here.”
“I will accept it gratefully.”
It was an unexpected gain. The letter of recommendation itself was not a great thing, but it was helpful to have even one more person in an official position whose name I could invoke when I suffered an injustice.
If I was lucky, I might be able to use this letter of recommendation as a foothold to receive an assignment from someone of higher standing.
‘Let us see…….’
After leaving the guard headquarters, I fell into thought for a moment.
I had earned enough money. It was enormous luck in itself to be able to sell adult male slaves by working with a kind-hearted guard force at this timing.
But this was not all the reward I could receive.
‘Melinda…….’
The warrior I had planned as the ‘true objective’ of this battle from midway through.
It was time to obtain her.