BBYW Vol. 3 Chapter 21 (WN)
Chapter 21 – More a Scammer than a Diviner
“Don’t you have all the securities you want? All over this palace.”
Roh then pointed at one of the paintings hanging on the wall of the meeting room.
“You can’t mean…using the governor’s possessions as securities!?”
Randy shouted in disbelief.
The governor had turned tail and ran away, taking the town’s tax revenues and other finances stored in the palace, but had left behind antiques and works of art, too cumbersome to carry.
Among such leftovers there were vases worth thousands of gold coins on their own: any merchant with a good eye would be salivating to get them.
“B-But if word got out that we stole the governor’s possessions…”
The clearly unlawful proposal made Sephonne start to sweat waterfalls.
Roh, on the other hand, curved his lips in a crescent shape, like a devil trying to trick his opponent in signing away his soul.
“As long as they don’t know who did it…isn’t it fine? Just say the pirates raided the palace. The governor can’t really protest, after running away like that, and you can just sell it all abroad, so no one will suspect a thing, right?”
“That…might be so, but…”
Sephonne, unceasingly wiping his sweat, fell in deep thought.
He was probably running all sorts of calculations in his head.
His handkerchief had turned into a sloppy mess, barely fulfilling its original task anymore.
“Rather than dealing with untrustworthy pirates and hopefully gain safety, I think investing in yourself has a better chance of success, honestly…oh, but if Sir Sephonne still thinks it’s too risky, we should contact another trading company and… ”
“I-I have decided! We will take your proposal!”
After hearing Roh’s vaguely threatening words, Sephonne nodded fervently.
“I and a trading company I am well acquainted with will finance the mercenary guild. In exchange, we will retrieve some of the works of art in the governor’s palace. Well, that is…something we all should keep for ourselves…”
“No problem here~”
“Hmm, as long as we get paid, the mercenary guild has no objections. Even a thief can be a valuable customer, if they pay well enough.”
After Roh, Glen expressed his agreement too.
Randy glanced left and right for a few seconds, then eventually nodded firmly.
“…normally, I should prevent every act of thievery, but I have no duty to uphold towards a fleeing governor. Even if someone picked up the things they threw away, there is no one to be blamed.”
“Looks like we have reached an agreement. Excellent, excellent.”
I clapped my hands to celebrate the successful negotiations.
Now the mercenary guild will join the security guards as fighting power. Their numbers were still inferior to the pirates’, but were at least enough to put up a good fight.
“Although…even if we have more manpower, what can we do against that fearsome weapon?”
Glen, his hands clasped on the table, furrowed his brow.
“To protect the port against attacks too fast for the naked eye is a very difficult…no, an impossible task. No matter how much we are paid, there’s a difference between a losing battle and a battle you can’t win.”
“That’s right…if we could just find a weak point…”
Glen and Randy both started mulling and grumbling.
“Righto, righto, why don’t we ask big bro Dyngir about this? He must be a veteran of countless battlefields, and we all want to see what a true hero is made of, don’t we?”
Roh taunted me, the usual grin plastered on his lips.
I glared back at him and answered his taunt.
“You’re talking like you know me, Roh. But what do you know, I might know who you really are too.”
“My, what a coincidence! Like we were brothers, separated at birth?”
“Yeah, brothers, just not related by blood.”
“Erm…my apologies, but what are you talking about…?”
Unable to grasp the meaning behind my exchange with Roh, Sephonne looked at us puzzled.
“Never mind, it’s just something between us…anyway, I have a good way to handle that weapon, so leave it to me.”
“A good idea? What do you…”
I answered Randy’s question by pointing my index finger up.
“We don’t need to fight it at all. Let’s just abandon the port altogether.”