The Correct Way to Deal with Betrayal

At the city gates, where we had agreed to meet at, were Walter and the unshaven man and his party. They had rented fast horses from the livery stables. It looked like everything had been prepared.

「…Noel, can you fight against Lloyd and Tania?」

Walter asked me with a serious expression, after I had finished my errand and rejoined with them.

He was still having doubts after things had gone so far.
Well, it"s not like I can"t sympathize with him. It"s only been one year, but in that one year, Blue Beyond had been through thick and thin together.
　
But, so what? A betrayal was a betrayal.
If we didn"t fight and get the money back, we"ll have no choice but to suffer it in silence. And we would have had to live with the hatred from the betrayal haunting us from then on.

That"s why, even if they were allies, it was important to properly punish them. Once punishment was dealt, the problem would be settled and it would be possible to take a new step forward.
　
「I"ll be able to fight. Without a shred of mercy」

「…Even if it means killing them?」

「Of course. If it becomes a fight to the death, then all the more you need to beat them down mercilessly」

It wasn"t a resolve that was all words. If necessary, I"ll kill anyone, no matter who they were.

In the first place, Seeker was one of the professions that took the lives of others. Be it Beasts or bounties, I"ve ended numerous lives already.

It"s too late to hesitate just because they were former allies. I had lost that convenient kind of naivety when the tears of sorrow I shed at Grandfather"s death had dried up.

「Are you heartless?」

I laughed as Walter was totally off the mark.

「Walter, I"m always antic.i.p.ating what will happen when I get betrayed by my allies. Because it"s easy for people to stray from the straight and narrow. Especially in a profession like Seeker or Yakuza. So when I learned of Lloyd and Tania"s betrayal, I wasn"t surprised. I simply thought, that time had come」

「It"s your allies, you know!? Are you saying you never trusted your allies!?」

「Trust, does not mean blind faith. It is necessary to doubt. Moreover, to be allies, the condition needed is simply whether or not you can lean on each other」

And, those two betrayed us. It was what it was.
　
Walter looked like he still had something to say, but was in no mood to continue. I turned away and climbed onto the horse that was rented from the livery stables.
　
「If you can"t fight against the two of them, it"s ok to wait here. I"ll take back your money for you」

A Warrior who can"t fight is just a hindrance. Our fighting strength would drop drastically without Walter, but it"ll probably be ok. There were many strategies that could be used.

「…Don"t look down on me. I haven"t become so fair-weathered」

Walter got on his own horse and went out the city doors first. The unshaven man and his party, who were a distance away, followed him.

「Naive, too naive」

I couldn"t help but mutter.

「As long as you keep taking half-measures, you"re only making things tough for yourself」

†
†

It"s been three hours since we started pursuing Lloyd and Tania.

The location where they were found was the Carnot Village that the unshaven man had talked about. It was a quiet, rural village, half a day"s walk from the imperial capital. When we saw the two of them leave the village"s eating house, we started our capture operation.
　
With that said, it"s not like we did anything special. Observing them from a distance, we could tell that they had let their guard down.

「Hey, having a date in such a rural village? What a tasteful hobby」

When I called out from behind them, they turned around with a start.

「N, Noel!」

With his face twisted in shock, Lloyd reached for the sword on his waist just as I had expected.

But, it was too late.

「Don"t move!!」

Talk Skill: Stun Howl

The instant the two of them were stunned, the unshaven man, who had been hiding in the shadows, attacked Tania and pinned her down. Her scream distracted Lloyd and that opening gave Walter and the others, who were also hiding nearby, the chance to surround both of them.

The effect of the stun on the two of them lasted only two seconds. Despair clouded their faces as they realised that they had been completely suppressed within those two seconds.

If it was only the unshaven man"s party, there were still many ways to turn the tables.

For example, Lloyd could throw the knife he usually hides in his sleeve at the unshaven man"s head, then have the freed Tania blind everyone with her Light skill. Lloyd would then be able to cut everyone down in that instant. It was questionable whether they could have come up with that strategy in an instant, but they definitely had the ability to execute it.

But as long as Walter and me were there, there was no chance for them to try anything.

Lloyd gauged the difference between our respective fighting strengths and realised there was nothing he could do. He dropped his sword and surrendered silently.
　
And so, the two of them were captured successfully, and were now hanging their heads in front of me.
　
In order to capture them, I had antic.i.p.ated numerous patterns of attack and defense but to think they would be caught so easily. They had thought that we weren"t going to pursue them after all. They also would not have expected that when we did pursue them, we would have the help of other Seekers as well. Serves you right for being so full of yourselves.
　
「Lloyddd!!」

At the limit of his patience, Walter grabbed Lloyd"s shirt by the collar.

「Why!? Why did you betray us!?」

「…Sorry」

「Don"t tell me you"re sorry!!」

I restrained Walter, who looked like he was going to hit Lloyd.

「Lloyd, I understand what happened by reading your letter. But what about the reward for the Lesser Vampire from two days ago? What about the money that was set aside for the party?」

「…Sorry, it"s already been used up」

「Investments again?」

「…No, to repay debts」

So, even though you betrayed and ran away from your allies, you still honestly repaid your debts. That"s weird. In that case, there was only one possibility.

「The bad investments were a lie, weren"t they? In reality, you gambled, didn"t you? Cards? Dice? Roulette? Colosseum? It doesn"t matter. You lost while gambling, borrowed money from bad people then laid your hands on the party funds, right?」
　
In the first place, if you were investing, you would know that the price of the materials for the Lesser Vampires was soaring. But from what I could remember, he showed no indication that he knew that.

Investing was like gambling, but if you had the right knowledge, you could make money. Therefore, there were many who became rich because they were successful as investors.

On the other hand, gambling was made so that the house always wins. In other words, the betting side were all suckers. Putting money there was the same as throwing it away.
　
「Answer, Lloyd. Did the money we left with you all disappear through gambling?」

「…Sorry」

「Don"t mess with me, you big idiot!!」

Walter lifted Lloyd off the ground as he screamed in rage.

「That money was something we had to risk our lives to earn!!! What were you thinking, using it to gamble!!!」

「Y, you guys have no idea how much pressure I was under as the leader!!!」

That was a surprise. It seemed that the cornered Lloyd had decided to take a defiant att.i.tude and snap back at us.
　
「I didn"t take the party funds just because I wanted to! My debts had piled up before I knew it, and there was nothing I could do about it… You can criticize me all you want. But do you really have the right to? You pushed all the responsibilities of a leader onto me and only a.s.serted your rights when it was convenient for you and… Gufwooo!」

I kicked his solar plexus as hard as I could and Lloyd flew out of Walter"s grasp and rolled across the ground. While he was suffering and writhing in agony, I added a kick to his side.
　
「Gugyaaa!」

「Do we have the right? Of course we obviously do. In the first place, the one that wanted to be the leader, was you!」

I aimed my third kick at his back, around where the kidneys would be.

「Gugyiii!」

Not heeding Lloyd"s screams of pain, I kept on kicking his body.

「The pressure you were under as leader? Did you think you"ll be forgiven as long as you had that excuse? Stop acting spoiled. The only reason you gambled and drowned in debt was because you"re a garbage, incompetent idiot!」
　
「Gahaaa! Gehooo, oeee…」

Looks like I got a good kick in, as Lloyd puked out b.l.o.o.d.y vomit.

「……I, I"m so sorry, so, so…… please stop……」

Lloyd"s face looked horrible, covered in mud, tears, snot and vomit, as he pleaded for forgiveness. If any of his fans saw that dirty face, they would surely faint.

「I beg of you…… I can"t take…… any more……Buberaaa!」

Oops, I kicked his face. Even though he dared to snap back at us, he ending up babbling about forgiveness, so my foot must have unconsciously slipped and kicked him in his face.

However, it wasn"t a problem if it was only to this extent. I was a Talker with barely any modifiers to my physical strength. On the other hand was Lloyd, who was a Swordsman, a job tied with Warrior as being the best vanguard Job.
　
He won"t die from being kicked by someone like me. So it was fine.

「Don"t conveniently pretend to have a weak body, you piece of s.h.i.t. If you really want forgiveness, endure another thousand kicks. If you do that, I"ll listen to your apologies」

「Hiii, hiiiii!」

As I moved to kick the frightened Lloyd, Walter grabbed my shoulder.

「Let"s leave it at that…」

「Why?」

「Why, you say…」

「I, too, beg of you! Please forgive Lloyd already!」

So it"s only at this point that Tania spoke out. It"s fine to defend Lloyd but did this woman even realize her own position? No, probably not.

「Then will you take his place to be kicked? I believe in gender equality. I"m not going to add an ounce of consideration just because you are female」

「Eh? …W, wait, that"s not my intention!」

「I"ll say it clearly because you don"t seem to understand your position. Tania, you are just as guilty. You were also gambling with Lloyd using the party funds, right? Otherwise, you wouldn"t have needed to run away together」

「You"re wrong! I just thought that it would be bad to leave Lloyd alone…」

So she was sticking to her claim of innocence till the end. Idiot.

「I"ll ask you one more time. Did you gamble together with Lloyd? Confess everything」

「Yes, I did. But, the one at fault is that idiot, Lloyd. I told him I would definitely win if he would lend me more money. But it"s because he kept gambling by himself, that things ended up this way」

Tania, who had confessed everything in one breath, grew red with anger once she returned to her senses.

「Noel! You used a skill on me!」

「Yes, I did. What of it?」

Talk Skill: Confess

A skill to force the target to tell the truth. However, not just Confess, all skills that controlled a person"s mind had the danger of causing chaos in society, so if I used it selfishly, I would end up in jail immediately.

「Do you know what you"ve done!? That"s something that will never be forgiven!」
　
「Normally, I"ll agree. But you guys are criminals who embezzled party funds. Mind control type skills are allowed when used to make criminals confess their crimes. In other words, I won"t be blamed of any crime」

「No, no way…」

Blood drained from Tania"s face. It seemed that she had not thought of herself as a criminal.

「The punishment for embezzling, is ten years of forced labor. Congratulations, the two of you have become outstanding criminals. As a former ally, I"m so proud of you both」

The two of them remained pale and silent as I clapped sarcastically.

The two should have understood what the crime of embezzlement was, but they didn"t realise until it was pointed out to them that they were in that position.　
　
When people commit crimes, it"s always during a moment of foolishness. And the foolish, can never notice their own foolishness.

「Looks like the discussion is over」
　
The unshaven man, who had been watching silently, snorted with contempt.

「You"ve shown me something nice. Thank you. I"m satisfied. But hurry up and pay us the reward. You won"t say you"ve forgotten about the one million Fil, will you?」

「I"ll pay the reward. So wait here obediently」

「Nope, not going to wait any more. We"re also busy. Hurry up and pay up」

If you were really that busy, you won"t have become the loser that you were.

「It"s not like I"m asking you to wait till tomorrow. I"m just asking you to wait for a little while. The money will come very soon」

「What kind of nonsense are you spouting? If you have no money, then hand that over!」

The unshaven man"s hand swiftly reached for my Silver Flame.

Silver Flame was a very expensive item. Even a second-hand one would cost three million Fil. Having antic.i.p.ated the unshaven man"s intentions and movements, I grabbed the hand reaching for Silver Flame and twisted it upwards.

「Don"t touch Silver-chan with your squid-stink hands」

「Y, you… tricked us, didn"t you…」
　
「Please don"t slander me. I told you I"ll pay the money. –Hey, don"t move. Is it fine if your precious Scout dies?」

I took a knife from the pouch on my thigh and pressed it to the unshaven man"s neck in order to restrain his allies who were about to help him. I wanted to show them that I was willing to kill if they made any strange movements.

「Just because I"m a rearguard, did you think you could just steal it upfront? That"s a shame. I may have lower fighting strength overall, but in terms of hand-to-hand techniques, I"m even better than Walter or Lloyd」

「Guuu…」

The unshaven man had been looking for a chance to free his hand, but sensing the difference in our strength, he stopped struggling.

It"s a pain, but I have no choice but to let this stalemate drag on for a while. Walter, who couldn"t understand what was going on, turned and faced the unshaven man"s party with his axe at the ready.

Eventually — the neighs from several horses could be heard.

「Here at last」

I sent the unshaven man in my grasp flying with a kick.
　
What came, at a tremendous speed, was a majestic carriage with a gaudy purple color. The carriage stopped in front of us and a tall and svelte man stepped off.

The man was in his early thirties. He wore a pompous outfit worn by aristocrats — a justaucorps and culottes, the color of which was the same unpleasant purple as the carriage. His hair was grey and center-parted. He had very good-looking features, but had a thick layer of makeup applied.
　
The man twisted his face as he brought a handkerchief with purple lace to his mouth.

「Eewww! It"s so dusty in the boonies! And it stinks of horse s.h.i.t!」

That exaggerated tone and gestures. It is indeed a stereotypical drag queen.

However, the air was frozen with fear upon the arrival of this drag queen.
Someone spoke his name in a trembling voice.

「Slave merchant… Finocchio Bargini…」

TN Afterword:
Finally, what everyone had been waiting for. But with that ending, the revenge is probably not yet complete. 2 more chapters till the end of this arc. Thank you for reading and commenting so far and stay tuned to find out how it ends. (ᵔᴥᵔ)

And a shoutout to Kyr F for realizing that there were additional circ.u.mstances to Lloyd and Tania"s escape, back from 2 chapters ago. d(^_^o)