A gang of fraudsters
Kel was sitting in a rocking chair in front of a bar in District 4.
Even though it was called a bar, it was no different from a restaurant.
Due to the nature of the Sun Church, which regards diligence and sincerity as virtues and laziness as a sin, most work was done while the sun was out, so there was only Kel in front of the bar.
“···You really wear things like this.”
Kel muttered with a weary look in his eyes, sipping the beer in his hand.
“what?”
“I said you look good together. So you came here to beat me up?”
“Education.”
“Captain, please wipe the blood off the back of your hand.”
He roughly wiped the blood on the back of his hand onto Kel’s shoulder.
“Ouch! Really!”
Kel threw his hand away in a fit of rage, but it was already wiped away. Kel sighed softly and gulped down his beer.
“You drink during work hours… tsk.”
“Oh! Aaron! Long time no see! Would you like a drink?”
“Yeah, with apple cider.”
Charlotte, an attractive brown-haired woman, greeted me warmly. I took out the water bottle from my bosom and handed it to Charlotte.
If the uncivilized and ignorant medieval men got drunk, nine out of ten of them would turn into debauchers disguised as gentlemen.
And since the bar’s customers were mostly those kinds of people, most of them had close relationships with the security guards.
“Ha… Why are you saying that when you’re going to drink it too?”
I ignored Kel, who was laughing in vain, and sat down on the rocking chair next to him. It was quite fun to rock back and forth.
“I’m the leader and I’m going to drink. The leader can drink.”
“Where is such nonsense coming from? You have to be reasonable.”
“I told you, if you keep nagging me, I’ll encourage you.”
“Oh my… I should stop talking….”
“Oh, right. Have you heard about the scammer?”
“A fraudulent gambler? Isn’t that encouraging?”
“···That wasn’t a scam.”
Kel asked with wide eyes, as if he really didn’t know. He sighed slightly and waved his hand. He explained several times that he was just lucky, but no one believed him.
“Anyway, have you heard anything related to dice games lately?”
“Um… I don’t know. Isn’t our group working during the day this week? Usually, such cases happen at night, so I don’t know.”
“Aaron! Here you are.”
“Oh, thank you Charlotte.”
I quickly brought the water bottle to my mouth, which was so full that it would overflow with just a slight shake. It was lukewarm, but the strong apple scent and rough taste were quite good. Since I barely mixed it with water, the heat rose immediately.
‘···It would be nice if I could drink it a little more refreshingly.’
The most disappointing thing about Cassidy Castle was that, being a castle in the outskirts, there was no cold beer or drinks. The beer was either warm or lukewarm, like urine.
When I went to the capital or the city, there were cases where the ragtag wizards who had given up on books would sell me alcohol cold, and that was what I missed the most. Even if it cost twenty times the price of a plain beer, it was worth it.
“I’ve heard of it.”
Charlotte leaned back against the wall, then lowered her eyes as if receiving some secret order and muttered in a very serious voice.
‘···Are all waitresses similar in personality?’
It felt different from Hannah’s, but the liveliness was similar.
“Oh! How are you, Hannah? I haven’t seen you in a while because you’ve had so many guests lately.”
“Hannah?”
“Yes! Didn’t Hannah tell you? She talked about Aaron a lot.”
“Not really.”
“Anyway! I’ve heard stories about scam gamblers.”
Charlotte, who had returned to her serious expression, put her index finger to her lips and hissed.
As I looked at him, I was convinced that there was something odd about all the waitresses.
“Recently, Rayson and Emote got hit! They both got drunk at our bar and were screaming, so I know. Oh, Brick helped them out back then… Is there a woman Brick meets?”
Suddenly, Charlotte, who was walking down a different path, asked, wrapping her left hand around him and passing him through with her right index finger.
‘···Where do these guys learn things like that?’
I suspected that there might be a hidden community of female servants. A few months ago, a few city thugs came into the castle and started to deceive the residents by forming a guild or something, so I thought I should look into it.
“Brick? He’s so docile it’s not funny. Are you okay, Miss Charlotte?”
“Ahhh… What the… Kel! How old are you to speak like that! It’s disgusting!”
“What…what? What’s wrong with my speech! This is the speech style that’s popular in high society!”
Charlotte was startled when Kel furrowed his eyebrows and spoke in a husky voice. Kel made a face like his world was falling apart, but Charlotte pretended not to notice.
“Huh? Aaron. You changed your armor? It’s so colorful and pretty. You look just like Lexibel!”
Kel’s eyes must have been wrong. He looked at such a perfect and practical color combination and thought it was tacky.
“Right? It’s Charlotte after all. But Lexibel?”
“There is something like that! It’s pretty.”
I guessed that perhaps it was a very cool thing to say in another kingdom language.
“Anyway, so… Rayson and Emote, who work at the carpentry shop, know about it?”
“Yeah yeah! Since you told me, tell me too! About Bricks!”
I pondered Charlotte’s question for a moment.
Brick, the epitome of upright living, was the ideal guard. The only problem was the damn fish bread, but if you could stand that, he wasn’t a bad marriage partner. Charlotte was also a woman who didn’t gossip. They were a good match in their own way.
“I don’t think so. He’s so old.”
“Is it a kimchi stew?! Ahahaha! It suits you well!”
“What’s so good about such a tough guy… Since ancient times, men have been known to be soft like wool, and sometimes hard like steel….”
“Then I should write that!”
Charlotte cut Kel off, clapping her hands.
“that?”
“I learned something from that older sister! A technique that makes men fall for you no matter what!”
“What is that?”
“Bibigi!”
Charlotte suddenly arched her back and stuck her chest out. I watched her strange movements and imagined Brick’s reaction.
“I guess it will work.”
“Really? Wow!”
Brick guy was flustered and probably going to froze, but he nodded, thinking it would be fun to hear the story. Charlotte smiled and clapped her hands.
After taking another sip of cider, I put the stopper back into the water bottle and got up from my seat. The rocking chair rocked back and forth as if to bid me farewell.
“Speak nicely to Brick!”
Charlotte waved her hand.
“···promotion.”
“why.”
Kel suddenly called me with a serious face.
“Rosa is bigger than that.”
“Yeah. That sounds good.”
Of course, I didn’t really pay attention.
Since the carpenter’s shop was outside the city gate, I headed toward the gate. Today’s checkpoint was the quarter and snake eye grass.
“···Chief,”
Quarter, who had been leaning against the gate and dozing off, lowered his head slightly and closed his eyes again. It was always amazing to see him sleep standing up.
Next to it, a grass that looked like a snake had eaten a man and was struggling with a cart driver.
“No, I already gave it to you.”
“Ugh. I heard prices have gone up these days. And who would put 50 Coopers in their nose?”
“Please be a little more considerate. I already have a lot of money to spend because of the many carriage drivers…”
“Hey! This guy! God said, ‘Do not lie! Don’t you know?! I know that the last time you left, the carriage was empty!”
The opponent seemed formidable, but there was no way he could beat the snake eye grass. The grass was so poisonous that he would wake up at dawn and check for outgoing carriages even when he wasn’t working.
Poole set his own standards and collected appropriate tips from the cartmen. He was a worthy candidate for a tax collector, but unfortunately he was blind.
The boy calculated the amount of money he would receive from the carriage drivers by writing notes on yellow paper with strange drawings that only he could read.
“That… how is that….”
The carriage driver opened his eyes wide, unable to hide his surprised expression. Then he slowly crossed his arms, as if he had been properly taken in.
‘I told you he’s a great guy.’
At that moment, the grass beckoned to me. I could tell what signal it was just by looking at its eyes.
“Who just now told you that you lied?! God told you not to lie!! As a devout believer of the Sun Church, my hands are shaking!!”
I pretended to puff out my back like an animal and scrunched my face with all my might. As I scrunched up my face, which was full of the marks of a manly man, the carriage driver’s face immediately turned pale.
“Ah···no···that’s not what I meant··· uh···please calm down!!”
“Besides, the Inquisitor is in the castle! I’ve been blessed by the Inquisitor! I’ve greeted him! We have such a special relationship, and today I have to prove my faith once again!”
“Oh my, please be patient, Captain! You dragged me like that last time too… Ahem….”
Snake Eyes Poisoned his backstory, and glanced at the gate. On the top of the tall gate, there was a red mark at exactly the height where his face would touch if tied with a rope. The face of the carriage driver who discovered him was terrified.
“Hey! I’m not really broke~ That’s what I’m saying! It’s not a lie. It’s true! Oh my… Give me your arm….”
The coachman handed the thick pouch to Poole with trembling hands. Poole opened the pouch on the spot, checked the contents, took out one silver coin, and returned the rest. He was a strange man who followed the rules like a sword.
“I didn’t necessarily mean that. Anyway, you brought a lot of leather. I heard that District 4 needs a lot of leather to make some bags this time, so it would be good to go there.”
The herdsman patted the cartman on the shoulder and laughed heartily, and the cartman, who had been looking uncomfortable, laughed awkwardly. To fit the mood, I laughed too, but the cartman backed away in horror.
As Grass waved her hand, the carriage driver nodded and rode his horse into the castle.
“This is the leader’s share.”
“Uh. Is everything okay?”
He asked, putting the 50 coppers that Poole had handed him into his pocket.
“These days, the carriage drivers are getting more and more clever by the day, and it’s causing quite a stir. They think they won’t be able to see you because there are so many carriages coming and going… Tsk, I can barely sleep these days because I’m busy catching them.”
I also shook my head at the lament of the grass.
It was a sacred act of friendship for a carriage driver to be searched and give a small tip to the guard, but as the crowds grew, it seemed that there were more and more sly ones who did not observe this age-old tradition.
“It’s still a while until Young-ae’s birthday, but I don’t understand why so many people are flocking here. Accidents happen frequently because of this… We need to increase the number of guards at the outer wall by at least two.”
“There is no way they will give us reinforcements.”
“That’s true. Thanks to that, even if an accident happens, there’s not much interference… Oh, did you buy the captain’s armor?”
The grass narrowed its eyes even more and looked me up and down. In response, I placed my hands on my hips and puffed out my chest proudly.
“Oh, aren’t they all good items? If you stab this with a knife, the knife will break… Normally, the weight would be a problem, but if you’re a foreman, it doesn’t matter… Kiya- I’m jealous. Foreman.”
As the saying goes, the real knows the real, and unlike the other ignorant guys, the quick-witted and cool-headed Grass immediately recognized the true value of my armor.
The voice of the grass was so full of envy that it almost dripped down, causing the corners of my mouth to go up and my chin to drop.
Feeling better about that, I gave the 50 coppers back to Poole. Poole smiled brightly, and I smiled too. Kel frowned as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
“Anyway, we’re going to the woodworking shop.”
“Yes. Good luck.”
The grass waved its hand lightly and called the waiting carriage driver. Quarter was still nodding off.
The carpenter’s shop was located a little way from the castle, in front of a thick forest. Underneath a wooden roof, there were piles of logs, and shirtless men were busy pounding or carrying something.
‘···Tsk, the smell of sweat.’
“Huh?! Aaron! What’s wrong? Scar isn’t here, and he didn’t show up for work today.”
A pervert wearing a floppy hat spoke to me, even though he wasn’t wearing any clothes, revealing his muscle-less body.
“Oh, I didn’t come to see him, but didn’t that kid come to work again? This kid is out of his mind. Anyway, call Rayson and Emote.”
It seemed like the need for labor needed to be reaffirmed, as the Ska-nom was clearly still hanging around in the back alleys, creating a buzz in the old building.
“Raison and Emote? Okay. Okay… Will you keep it a secret from Scar that I told you?”
“Who are you?”
“Me? … Aha! I’ll call you right away!”
The pervert with the bread hat nodded and went inside the woodworking shop.
“That Scar… is that him? Jackson’s son.”
“Oh, Jackson said so, but he’s still playing the captain.”
“Hmm… what, is there a problem? He’s Jackson’s son.”
“That’s the problem.”
“aha.”
A moment later, two pale men came out. One was thin, the other was fat. The thin, bearded man was Rayson, and the fat, muscular man was Emote.
‘What’s wrong with these kids?’
The two had bruises all over them, as if they had been lynched somewhere.
“Ah··· Aaron!!”
“Please save us!”
The two men who spotted me suddenly knelt down and grabbed my legs and hung on. I kicked them away, fearing that their sweat would get on my knee pads, but they crawled back and hung on tenaciously.
“Stop talking nonsense and just tell me what happened.”
“Ugh… Ugh… This is really unfair!”
He still said, ‘It’s unfair.’ But when I repeated it and gave him a friendly punch, he stopped crying.
“I was playing a game of dice at the Sick Mermaid Bar when some little girl came and asked me to join her?”
“Yes, yes. A little girl like this!”
“So you were playing dice with him, and you guys kept winning?”
“That’s right! The guy doesn’t even know what a dice is, and he keeps spinning the cup and drawing only 1s. That’s definitely the kind of girl who does that! Isn’t she saying that she has to go now and let’s have one last big go?”
The eyes of the guys who couldn’t focus properly were filled with blazing anger. They were so angry that their bodies were shaking.
‘These kids got screwed.’
It was a common technique that could be called a textbook, but how could those who spent their entire lives cutting and trimming trees in this remote area know about it? Even without hearing the story, I had a rough idea of how it would have gone.
“But!! This girl suddenly picked 6?!”
“So after you lost all your money, you borrowed money from the guys next to you?”
“Yes! I feel sorry for you, so I suddenly offered to lend you something… Huh? How did you know?”
‘If they even have people lending money, then it’s bigger than I thought.’
A delicious smell came from somewhere. It was a very sweet and fragrant smell of silver coins, so strong that it made my nose numb.
“Since then, he has been pulling out 60,000?”
“Yes… yes! I thought I was lucky… but then I suddenly got to draw 64,000?! Only then did I realize something was wrong and get up, but then the guys next to me suddenly grabbed me… sob….”
The fat guy, Emote, showed bruises filling his eyes, and tears streamed down his face.
‘A gang of fraudsters and gamblers…’
There’s the guy who lends money, the big guys who prepare for emergencies, and the kid who rolls the dice.
‘There must be a wind catcher too.’
There were at least four. There were probably quite a few more.
There were quite a few people who would flock to a city where people were overflowing and money flowed in countless units, but there were quite a few of them who would flock to a remote area like this.
In the first place, rumors spread quickly in such a small castle, so we didn’t get to eat much.
‘I guess I just have to hit it a few times.’
I nodded at the neat plan.
“Ah… Aaron, please! He came to my house and took everything that could be of value!”
“Please! How did you get all that money…! You bastards!!”
The two of them rubbed my pointy shoes with their forearms and laughed.
“Huh? What?”
“···yes?”
Their faces turned blank at my question.
“Oh, you said you were scammed. Don’t worry. I’ll catch you and punish you.”
I waved my hand and knocked the two guys off my feet. The two guys looked at each other and tilted their heads, but soon smiled awkwardly and nodded.
“That’s right! As expected, the ruins of the Cassidy Castle… No, there’s only Aaron!”
I waved at the guys who were hitting my head so hard that I heard a bang and turned around.
“But, Captain. Didn’t the captain prohibit gambling?”
“This is patrol. It’s work. Distinguish between public and private.”
“···Aren’t they both public?”
“How dangerous is gambling.”
“That’s true… but it’s more dangerous for the leader to go… For now, wouldn’t it be better if I go first? I’ll take a few kids with me….”
“Why? Are you trying to eat such a delicious meal all by yourself?”
“···yes?”
Kel opened his eyes wide, and I opened my eyes slowly.
“···No. Well, they’re bad guys.”
“They are very bad guys.”
“The corners of your mouth went up, Captain.”
“Oh, I drank too much cider.”
“Anyway, don’t be so loud. Wasn’t there a lot of noise during the gambling house incident last time? Of course, thanks to that, we were able to chase those guys out of the castle… Are you listening? This guy, he’s not listening.”
Maybe it was because Rosarang was always around, but I was getting a headache from hearing that damn nagging.
“Sigh… It’s my fault for choosing the wrong team leader.”
A small voice, either a sigh or a groan, was heard from behind.
“Okay, come quickly. We have to go on patrol.”
“···Okay, I get it. Rosa’s going to scold me again.”
Kel followed right next to me, grumbling.
