Chapter 27

Piled up on the table were worn copper coins, silver coins, and a small number of gold coins.

There were also a quill pen and ink, and on a sheet with the names of all the guild members written in a long list, the amounts of their interest payments had been recorded.

This was the regular task of men who kept on repaying debts they would never finish repaying.

Here was a life with no hope for the future, one in which they were forced to keep working only so that someone like Nodon could grow fat.

Perhaps mocking a little girl lord with no real power had been the only comfort they had for venting their frustrations.

“This is the interest payment to the Nodon Company, correct?”

Without denying it, Venner sat down in a chair and offered chairs to us as well. In the back of the room, I could see the thin middle-aged man who seemed to be the deputy head drawing liquor from a barrel into a pitcher.

“If you know that, then why is someone from the Nodon Company with the great magician-sama?”

It seemed the disguise had been meaningless, but more than that, Venner kept sneaking glances at Kururu’s hands.

It was probably the knowledge that if magic were to be cast, it would come from there that made him do so.

“We were wondering whether we might be able to assume your debts.”

The wooden mug that had been about to be set in front of me hit the table with a sharp clack. The deputy head’s eyes went perfectly round, and he froze in place with the mug still in his hand on the table.

Even Guild Head Venner, who had been trying somehow to maintain his dignity, was left speechless with surprise.

“W-what did you say?”

“I said we would like to assume your debts to Nodon. By ‘we,’ I mean Iiria-sama.”

It seemed confronting Eder first had indeed been the right choice.

For now, I was still able to keep calm and proceed through the exchange I had anticipated.

“In return, we would like you to take on the processing of magic stones.”

The deputy head looked at Venner, while Venner continued staring at me as if entranced. Then he glanced at Kururu, who was playing the role of the magician.

“Of course, we do not mean merely transferring your debts from Nodon over to us. We intend to reduce them to a proper rate of interest, and we will also pay your processing fees without delay. We intend to arrange matters so that all of you can remain independent craftsmen.”

Perhaps he thought the offer sounded too good to be true, and therefore must have some hidden catch.

“W-what could you possibly want that for?”

After saying that, Venner shut his mouth.

“We are asking the craftsmen to raise the banner of revolt against Nodon. I think that is fair compensation.”

When the structure of authority that is lordship does not function, then the one who controls the town’s economy becomes the ruler.

And when people have been oppressed for many years, eventually even if the collar is removed from their necks, they no longer have the idea of resisting. It is the same as chickens at a poultry farm refusing to leave even when the lid of the cage is opened. In fact, Iiria herself had nearly become like that.

It was Kururu, grinding her teeth and growling on, who was extraordinary.

And the magic stone craftsmen had quite clearly sunk into becoming dogs that had lost the spirit to resist.

That was why Venner’s eyes, after hearing what I said, were plainly unsettled and darting about.

I would not have been surprised if, inside his head, the question was flying around: Shouldn’t we ask Nodon for his permission first?

“Venner-sama.”

When I called his name, Venner’s eyes returned to reality.

“Our proposal does not end there.”

“…”

His mouth moved soundlessly, but no words came out.

Nodding vaguely as though I understood, I signaled to Kururu beside me, then said,

“When you process magic stones, you have the magician arranged for you by Nodon inspect them, correct? And for a rather outrageous fee as well.”

In order to wring profit out of every part of the magic stone trade, Nodon had secured every stage from production to distribution. One such stage was the testing needed to confirm whether the magic circle engraved into a magic stone was appropriate. Only a magician could test whether it was truly correct as a magic circle. That was why a magician’s hand was always required before delivery to the Bax Company, and that magician too was someone under Nodon’s influence.

“That inspection can also be handled at a very low price by Dorasutel-sama here.”

It was similar to how Kururu had reduced the prospecting costs by making use of synthetic magic stones.

Kururu could not activate powerful magic unless the stone was around third-grade size, but to confirm whether a magic circle had been engraved correctly, even an existing small magic stone would suffice.

For the craftsmen, this was a favorable deal that would not cost them a single thing.

And yet, they still faltered and said this.

“B-but, that would mean—”

It would mean making enemies not only of Nodon, but also of the magician Nodon had arranged for them.

If they had ever seen magical power with their own eyes, they would immediately understand that this was not something human strength could do anything about.

And if they had been thoroughly trained by years of subjugation, then what they imagined would not be the freedom that came with liberation from restraint, but the punishment for rebellion.

What if, by some chance, that rebellion plan failed? What kind of punishment would Nodon inflict on them then?

That was why I said calmly, without rushing,

“You have surely heard of Dorasutel-sama’s power from the matter of the prospecting work.”

Venner’s gaze very clearly fixed on Kururu’s hands.

He kept checking again and again to make sure there was no magic stone in them.

By the time he finally looked back at me, his face looked ready to break into tears.

“But we…”

“Guild Head.”

The one who said that was the deputy head, who had hurried around the table to Venner’s side.

“Is this not an opportunity that will never come again?”

“W-what…?”

“You know the stories, do you not? About the various weak merchant houses and craftsmen’s guilds that were oppressed by Nodon now making pilgrimages to the lady lord’s mansion. If we reject the lady lord’s offer here and now, will any place remain for us?”

With his shoulders being shaken by the deputy head, Venner helplessly let himself be moved.

His gaze was not directed at anyone, but at the pile of coins on the table.

“If we do not submit ourselves to the lady lord here and now, then when our past misconduct is called to account, how do you intend to explain yourself?”

Even though they were both dogs that had tucked in their tails and lowered their heads the same way, perhaps the deputy head was able to be more realistic because he lacked the pride of personally bearing the entire guild on his shoulders.

“Once everything has been overturned, we will never again be offered such favorable terms!”

To betray the one who had until now wielded absolute control, and bow one’s head before the little girl one had always mocked.

Even if it made perfect sense, it was difficult to change one’s behavior all at once.

But it seemed Venner too was not so foolish and obstinate as to drive the entire body of craftsmen toward ruin.

Slowly, but surely, he lifted his gaze from the table and somehow managed to look at us.

“…You can… defeat Nodon-sama… defeat Nodon?”

Kururu’s hand clenched tightly.

“We can.”

When I answered, Venner closed his eyes.

As if understanding that if there was one step in life that he absolutely had to take, it was here, at this very moment.

“…Understood.”

From beneath the robe, I could tell that Kururu too let out a relieved breath.

“However.”

At that, Venner leaned forward over the table and said,

“If you fail—”

Venner stopped there, staring at me without continuing.

Hell if he went forward. Hell if he turned back.

Those who cannot hold their fate in their own hands are tossed about like this by the circumstances around them.

But Venner, as the head of the guild, seemed in the end to face reality.

“No… the time for this was bound to come someday…”

Looking at the pile of coins stacked on the table, he let out a sigh so thin that a flimsy copper coin might have blown away.

“At the very least… may God’s blessing be upon us…”

What would Venner think if he knew that Dorasutel’s true identity was Kururu, who carried beastfolk blood and had been conquered by the very magic power that God was said to have once bestowed upon humans?

But of course, we did not let the slightest hint of that show, and we took our leave.

When the door closed behind us, there was nothing there but the same quiet street in the night as before.

Who could possibly think that at this very moment, a great wedge had just been driven into the structure of power that ruled this land?

“Well then… ah.”

Kururu stretched broadly, then let out a breath as she lowered her arms.

We had made it this far without a hitch. Surely we could take down Nodon, the true stronghold, as well.

“With this much of the outer defenses buried, Nodon won’t have any choice but to pull back.”

Once the magic stone craftsmen turned against him in particular, Nodon would lose the magic stone trade, an important source of funds. When the people around Nodon, and those who had been forced to cooperate with him, saw that, they would surely leave him like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

If that happens, we should be able to wipe away Nodon’s tyranny.

“Who knows what will happen.”

But Kururu looked more downcast than I had expected. Perhaps because she had suffered through nothing but hardship, now that things were finally moving forward, anxiety instead came rushing in.

Even so, things were progressing smoothly, and before long Kururu would surely see that her worry had been needless.

Thinking that, I followed Kururu across the street, and the boy who had been sitting in the shadow of the alley tossed the last bit of bread into his mouth, licked his finger, and stood up.

“We’re heading back.”

At Kururu’s words, the boy nodded and started walking.

Perhaps from the sense of release after finishing one piece of work, Kururu was walking much more slowly than when we had come, and perhaps out of consideration for her, the boy kept glancing back and matching his pace to hers. I could not see Kururu’s expression because of the hood, but perhaps she was imagining the moment when she would report to Iiria that everything had gone well.

The moon had not risen yet, and the alleyways at night were very dark.

Kururu, with beastfolk blood, seemed to see well in the dark, and the boy who worked with Marks, perhaps because places like this were his natural haunt to begin with, moved through them as easily as if it were daytime.

Only I stumbled over wooden boxes left in the alley and sudden changes in level, somehow managing to keep up without falling behind.

Even so, after we had left the candlelight far behind and my eyes had finally begun to adjust to the darkness.

Kururu suddenly stopped.

“Huh? Was it around here?”

We were probably only halfway back, at most.

The instant I thought that.

“Get back.”

“Huh?”

The sun appeared in the road.

“Gah!?”

The back of my eyes was stabbed by a violent bundle of light. I curled up instinctively, and in that moment what I felt was the sensation of diving into the sea on my trip to Okinawa.

The ground vanished from under my feet, and I felt adrift, unable to tell up from down.

What I thought was someone slapping my shoulder was actually the shock of losing my balance and crashing to the ground.

There was no way I could get back up, and I could not even open my eyes.

But at the very core of my mind, I understood exactly what had happened.

The brief memory that remained before the flash burned into the backs of my eyelids was like a still image: a robed man blasting intense light from the raised hand, and thugs leaping out from the alley with their eyes shut tight, swords raised to strike.

“R-run… please run!”

That was all I could manage to shout.

I had underestimated Nodon. He was not a man who merely went on the defensive; he must have been properly on guard ever since the prospecting operation. He had investigated everything around Iiria in detail, detected our movements, and carefully laid his plans.

Before coming here, I had just been an ordinary, insignificant salaryman.

There was no way someone like that could succeed in a world this harsh.

The footsteps of multiple people, reaching my ears through the ground, were the sound of our fate being trampled underfoot.

“Die!”

I heard a voice unmistakably filled with hatred, and they had their swords raised high.

Kururu was a magician, but did she have a synthetic magic stone on her? No, even if she did, I could not imagine she would have been able to use magic after being ambushed like that. And even if the boy was used to rough situations, he was hopelessly outnumbered.

I was certain we were going to die.