Imperial Guard - Chapter 12



Only Noblemtl

Episode 12

butterfly effect

Gulp- Gulp-

In the empty space inside the special guard post, two figures were sitting.

“Whoa. Hoo. Gent. Are you bitter? I find alcohol sweeter than soft drinks, perhaps because life is bitter.”

Reina took off her outerwear and picked up the bottle of alcohol.

Her blank expression made it obvious to anyone that she was drunk.

“Reina. Now that Rael is out of the guard post, you can stop pretending to be drunk.”

Ghent, sitting in front of her, dismissed the nonsense and sipped his wine.

Reina put down the wine she was blowing on with an embarrassed smile.

“··· Did you know?”

“There’s no way an elf with longevity would be this drunk.”

Jangseongjong is strong against alcohol.

Reina was sometimes unaware of such common sense.

Ghent looked at her and said.

“You said things would be awkward between you and Rael, but it seems like he doesn’t care. Reina.”

“··· I’m the only weird elf again. Haaaaaah.”

It was definitely supposed to be awkward… That person was so different from what Reina thought.

He saved my life yesterday by destroying seven elves, and now he’s treating me the same way. Isn’t that strange?

It’s normal for there to be a bit of an awkward atmosphere.

Reina asked Ghent, her lips licking.

“··· Ghent. What do you think about me betraying the elves?”

“Everyone has their own circumstances. You are my colleague and Yuri’s colleague. That’s enough.”

Gent sipped his wine, admiring it.

The liquor with the taste of nature was the best.

‘That fool who only knows nature···.’

Reina sighed and pushed the wine aside.

The alcohol is delicious, but I don’t feel like drinking it with Gent.

Because those stupid giants are only interested in improving grapes and making delicious wine.

‘Ghent is nice too, but···.’

Ghent treats himself as a colleague.

The same goes for Yuri. They don’t look at Reina with disdain even though she’s a traitor to the elves.

But Rael was different.

He didn’t believe in Reina’s betrayal itself.

‘There’s no way an elf like you would betray me. You’re talking like you’re something.’

Reina bowed her head as she recalled the memory of that time.

The look on my face that said, “There’s no way you would do that,” was very awkward, but also… I was happy.

Because it means that someone sees you that way.

“This wine has aged well. I should give a bottle to Rael too. Is that okay? Reina?”

“Huh? Oh. Okay. Let me have a bottle!”

“··· How amazing.”

Gent looked at Reina intently and said.

“What? I can give you a bottle of wine or something.”

“I didn’t give even a single bottle to Zelin, who had been here for six months. I said that the reason the fruit grows well in this area is because of the elves’ ability.”

“Is that so…? Ahem. No, well. Rael is good at his job as the Demon King. And he’s honest. Isn’t he?”

Reina avoided Ghent’s gaze and picked up the wine she had pushed far away.

For some reason, I felt like I had to have a drink.

Ghent, who was watching the scene, asked with a curious look.

“··· Reina. Surely you don’t feel a rational excitement towards Rael?”

“If you say anything stupid, I’ll kill you, Gent.”

“If not, then that’s good. I don’t want to see you and Rael fighting and then awkwardly running into each other the next day.”

“If you’re going to talk nonsense, then get to work quickly. I should probably go too.”

“Wasn’t today a day off?”

“I told you I had something to do at night.”

Reina needed money.

She is doing a job that allows her to make money as long as she has the power, without having to belong to any organization.

That’s right… a bounty hunter.

*

A remote corner of District 5, quite far from the Special Guard.

I stepped into the beggars’ hole, seeing the number of beggars increasing.

I tried not to come back again, but somehow I ended up coming back soon.

“La, Lael!”

“Don’t get up, just lie there.”

It was really annoying that every beggar who made eye contact with me would jump up.

I waved my hand roughly and went into the building.

And naturally, I was guided to the captain’s office.

“Bennett must have said that he would send his agents as soon as he got the information… Why did you come in person?”

I sat down and looked at Janice with a trembling expression.

“I came here today because I have something to tell you. By the way, is there a way to get information? I couldn’t trust those beggars, so I was going to run around on my own.”

“I thought about it seriously after hearing what you said. Using beggars to get information… When I think about it, it’s a pretty good idea.”

“Oh, you’re thinking of starting an information guild business?”

In this day and age, it’s okay to treat beggars well.

The doctrine of God to help the weak is spread throughout the continent, so on days when there is a party, leftover food is given to beggars, and on days of celebration, beggars are called and money is given to them.

Although this may be an incomprehensible behavior from a modern perspective, it is natural in this world where divine powers actually exist.

When you can actually see the power of God, your faith becomes stronger.

Even if ordinary people have a chance to help the weak, it is only beggars who are there.

“Yes. I already made those who were confident in their skills settle down around the Information Guild.”

“The beggars are finally starting to get things going. Now that it’s come to this, let’s change the organization’s name to Open.”

“It’s a bagger.”

“Open. You are an open person. Or a king.”

“Baggers! Baggers is my organization that I dedicated my youth to! Even if dirt gets in my eyes, I can’t give in on this one thing!”

“Tsk.”

Unfortunately, it seems we will have to give up the romance of openness.

It wasn’t hard to put dirt in Zenith’s eyes, but I didn’t like seeing a middle-aged man cry over dirt in his eyes.

“So what do you want to say? The investigation is going smoothly. We’ll get good results soon.”

“I’m thinking about getting back into the bounty hunting business.”

“Rael! Is that true?!”

“Yes. Actually, I need some money too.”

Now that I’ve been cut off from my job as captain, I need money to feed the orphanage.

“By the way, where is my mask? You still haven’t thrown it away, have you?”

“Of course. It’ll be in the warehouse.”

I headed to the warehouse under Zenith’s guidance.

In a corner of the warehouse where dust was rising, there was a half-broken Gaksital mask.

“Hey, why is this broken?”

“No one broke it. It just looks like it’s cracked because it’s old.”

I nodded, looking at the mask here and there.

I was trying to discipline the beggars for the first time in a long time in case someone broke it, but luckily the culprit was the sky.

“There’s no way you’d touch my stuff in Baggers, Rael.”

“But sir, there must be someone managing the warehouse. Why don’t you call that guy over?”

Zenith’s expression hardened at my words.

“··· Don’t kill.”

“Hey. What do you mean kill me? If someone saw me, they’d think I was a psychopath.”

“Wasn’t it?”

“?”

“Here it is.”

Janice turned and grabbed the beggar at the door by the scruff of his neck.

A beggar who had been trembling while listening to our conversation in front of the warehouse fell before my eyes.

As soon as the beggar saw me, he put his hands together and started begging.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I managed it wrong···.”

No, if someone saw me, they would think I was really killing someone.

I walked up to the trembling beggar and tapped him on the shoulder.

“It’s okay, Inma. They say that even the king curses in places where he is not present, so now you can’t even look at things you don’t use properly. Right?”

“I’m so sorry···.”

“Haha. That could be true. Relax your expression.”

“haha···.”

The beggar looked around and smiled sheepishly.

“Hahaha! Yeah, yeah. It’s nice to see you laughing.”

“Hahahahahaha!”

“Is that funny?”

Ugh-!

I hit the back of the head of the beggar who was laughing badly.

“The beggar’s hole is really well-run. Huh? How did you manage to beg when you have no sense? Huh? I worked so hard to make this mask, and you’re destroying it and eating it?!”

This is a mask that I commissioned from a magician with the money I saved while I was a bounty hunter.

Since I am a body that cannot receive blessings, I put a magic spell on the mask.

Although it looks strange, it is an advanced magical tool that reduces movement and noise.

I grabbed the beggar by the collar and pulled him up.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry···.”

“Do you know how much this is? I just threw these bastards away today…”

“Stop! Stop it! Rael! Stop it! I’ll make you a mask as fast as I can!”

dump-

As soon as I heard Zenith’s words, I put the beggar down on the floor.

“I clearly said I would make it. If you don’t make it by tomorrow, you won’t be the leader of your baggers, you’ll be an open-source owner.”

“I said I’ll make it as fast as I can! Get out of my nest right now! You crazy bastard!”

Only then did my expression soften.

As expected, those bastards only come to their senses when threatened.

But I added a word because the way Zenith looked at me was so pitiful.

“It’s a joke, so take your time making the mask. You can do the bounty hunting later.”

“··· You’re not going to say it’s a joke and then come barging into the beggar’s den tomorrow and demanding that I hand it over, are you?”

I averted my eyes, passing by Zenith’s pitiful gaze.

*

After Rael returned.

The beggar’s den was restored to life like a grassland without lions.

“···Aren. Are you okay?”

Zenith approached the fallen warehouse manager, Aren, and helped him up.

“Captain. Ugh… The bones, the bones… Huh? That’s strange. It definitely hurt…”

“Hitting you so that you hurt at that moment has always been that guy’s specialty. You won’t get hurt, so get up.”

Aren looked around at his body and laughed in vain.

Does it make sense that the special skill of the captain of the Imperial Guard is to hit without leaving a wound?

Still, I was grateful that I wasn’t sick.

“Oh, my goodness. That crazy guy is so scary.”

“··· You endure it. That’s just the way he is. Can you curse the sky just because a typhoon is coming?”

In the beggar’s den, Rael was treated as a natural disaster.

The fact that rushing in with complaints only results in losses was similar to natural disasters.

“I don’t really understand. Why can’t you just show off your face? No one strong enough to touch that kid would hunt for a bounty anyways…”

“Don’t talk nonsense.. The name Gaksi-tal is extremely dangerous.”

“Is that all? You’re a bounty hunter anyway.”

“He’s different. He’s made a lot of enemies while hunting for bounties.”

To be precise, I should say that we have rooted out the criminals operating around the daycare center in District 4.

That guy’s obsession was so terrifying that he removed every single thing that could possibly cause damage to the orphanage.

Thanks to this, there are still more than a few organizations chasing after Gaksi-tal.

“It’s been several years since Gaksi-tal retired… Why can’t you just start hiding your face from now on?”

“Don’t you know about magic patterns? Someone as strong as Rael already has his own pattern firmly established. There’s a reason he covers his face. … And that’s what’s scary about Rael. There’s no other crazy guy who would join the Imperial Guard while hiding his magic power.”

If Rael had been an orphan and kept his magical powers a secret, he would have been quickly caught and torn apart if he had a family or clan.

That’s why he placed beggars around the orphanage.

Aren’s expression hardened after hearing the story.

“Then shouldn’t we get out now? If we get involved with that guy Rael, it’ll be dangerous for us too.”

“··· I would do that too if I could. That guy won’t let us go.”

“ah······.”

Only then did Aren nod.

Surprisingly, Rael thinks of Bagus as something like a friend of his.

A normal person wouldn’t beat up a friend for breaking a mask… so you should give up on predicting that bastard’s movements.

“All we can do is support them and hope that they don’t get into trouble as much as possible. But they’re not the kind of people who take your money.”

“If I think about it, I’ve been hit before, but I’ve never paid a bribe.”

“Okay. Just give him what he wants and we’ll get the beans. So don’t mess with him. Don’t do anything that will get you in trouble. Okay? Please. Managing a warehouse isn’t hard work!”

“No, I will try.”

“Oh, damn it. I bet that mask cost a lot of money…”

Zenith sighed as she picked up the pieces of the mask.

‘Your name was Bennett···.’

What has happened to those who have touched the dragon’s reverse scale so far?

I watched it with my own two eyes.

Zenith could easily predict that the result would be no different this time.