Chapter 92:
Lord Foronda
I SPLASHED COLD WATER on my face, but it didn’t help the headache I had from lack of sleep. I stayed up late last night, so I’d brought it on myself, but it still sucked.
I’d been so worried about Bolorda and his meeting with Lord Foronda that I sat up until deep in the night waiting for his return. He was gone for so long that I worried that Sora’s judgment was wrong. It was gut-wrenching. Rattloore had practically shoved me into my tent out of concern for me.
Since I couldn’t remember anything after that, I must’ve drifted off. I jumped out of bed the second I woke up, only to find it was already morning. When I peeked nervously out of the tent, Rattloore informed me that Bolorda had returned.
“Thank goodness.”
“I told you everything would be okay.”
“You did. But still…thank goodness.” I sighed in relief, but before I could relax, a jolt of pain stabbed through my head.
Seeing my grimace, Rattloore laughed. “Didn’t get enough sleep, huh?”
Once the pain subsided, I started making breakfast. Since it was early, I went for a simple soup. There was some meat left over from last night, so I sliced it up and made sandwiches. I added a lot of veggies, so they would be extra tasty. Mayonnaise would have been nice, but come to think of it, I hadn’t seen any around. I’ll look next time I get the chance.
“Morning. I hear you waited up for me last night. Sorry.” Bolorda was as mild and kind as ever. I’d heard he was back, but I could only truly settle down when I saw him for myself.
“No, it was my choice to wait. Umm…how was it?”
“Hang tight, we’ll talk about that soon.”
“Okay.”
“By the way, what’s that you’re holding?”
“It’s a sandwich…of sorts.”
“Wooow, neat. Did you learn about those in another town?”
“…Something like that, yes,” I lied.
Why did I make these? Maybe it’s just because I’m at my wit’s end? I did dig the concept of sandwiches out of my memories, so…
“I’ve never seen that before,” Sifar mused. “Looks good, though.”
Ha ha ha! Sifar, you don’t have to deal the final blow! Though I guess it’s not your fault you don’t know about sandwiches. Can I…just pretend I didn’t hear that?
“Breakfast is ready,” I announced. “Shall we eat?”
“Morning! Ooh, Ivy’s made another weird meal, huh?”
Marcreek, please! Urgh, all I did was put food between bread! There must be a dish like this out there, right? There has to be! I hope there is…
“Are these…rolls? Not quite?”
If they have food called rolls, maybe I can get away with this.
“Apparently, they’re called ‘sandwich of sorts,’” Bolorda answered him.
Aargh, no! Bolorda, you got the name wrong, too!
“Huh. ‘Sandwich of sorts,’ huh?”
Oh, this is awful. Everyone heard that. I’m…really hungry, too.
“Let’s eat.” I urged, trying to move things along.
The sandwiches were well received, even if they were just meat and veggies between pieces of bread. “Rolls” were apparently bread stuffed with cheese, so I fibbed and said I was trying to imitate those. Unfortunately, the name “sandwich of sorts” stuck. I’d prefer to make it “roll of sorts,” if anything, but I was wary of digging myself into an even deeper hole.
When they asked why I’d named it that, I said it just came to me. Did they believe it? I wasn’t sure, but it was rare to eat such a thing in Otolwa, so it was probably fine. Why was it rare? Because you needed soft bread to make it. The most common bread, black bread, was hard and bad for sandwiches. But this morning, Rattloore had gone to do the shopping and found soft bread. And yes, it was expensive.
“Well, I’d say things have settled down,” Bolorda said. “Let’s talk.”
While we sipped at our after-meal tea, Bolorda activated his magical item and told us what happened last night. Lord Foronda was fine, just as Sora had said. He was the one who changed the target of the adventurers’ guild’s crackdown to the merchant’s mansion after an adventurer ally of his had tipped him off.
Lord Foronda had found out about the organization eight years ago when he’d secretly sheltered a child who’d escaped it. That was a year earlier than Rattloore and the others had learned about it. Ever since Lord Foronda met that child, he’d investigated the kidnappers alone, struggling to bring their network down. But since he couldn’t grasp the full scope of the organization, he was tormented by failure. It was then that he learned that Count Faltoria had information on a certain black market merchant.
Lord Foronda thought it was strange. He had already investigated that merchant and cleared him of any involvement with the organization. Realizing that Count Faltoria might be deceiving him, he asked an adventurer he trusted to investigate the claims. Once again, the merchant looked clean.
At first, he decided to tell Count Faltoria everything—yet he soon abandoned the idea. If Count Faltoria was close to the organization, Lord Foronda would be endangering himself. In the end, he secretly had the target of the raid changed to the former merchant’s mansion. As he’d surmised, it was the organization’s base in Otolwa. But the plan was leaked, and the evidence smuggled out in advance. After that, Lord Foronda knew someone had figured out he was pursuing the organization.
“Lord Foronda’s pretty impressive for keeping them in the dark until the crackdown, at least,” Seizerk said reverently. Bolorda was positively beaming at learning the person he trusted had been fighting the good fight, especially after so many people had been outed as turncoats. “Did you discuss our strategy at all?”
“I told him there were moles among the town guard and the adventurers. He seemed to expect it, but he was taken aback when I gave him the numbers.”
“Yeah, well… I think anyone would be shocked to hear it. There might be more adventurers, too, y’know. It’s not like we investigated every single one.”
Right. Sora had only inspected the adventurers introduced to us by the GM. And half of them were traitors! Were they worse than the guard? I guess we should take one problem at a time.
“Also,” Bolorda continued, “when I told him Count Faltoria was with the kidnappers, he was still adamant that it couldn’t be true. I figured he’d say that, so I didn’t take it personally, but I did tell him the yarn about our ‘magical item’ to get him to believe me.”
“Not many people other than us would dare to tie Count Faltoria to the organization, after all,” Seizerk commented.
“Yeah. He was flabbergasted. I was worried he wouldn’t trust me, but he finally came around when I mentioned the magical item and said the GM was on board, too. I didn’t tell him about our plan, though, because a problem came up before I could.”
“A problem?”
“He discussed new plans to pursue the organization with Count Faltoria a few days ago. That’s when the count offered to lend him an adventurer as a bodyguard.”
“Now that sounds dangerous.”
A noble putting his full weight behind an investigation was extremely dangerous for the organization. So what would the kidnappers do? They’d come for his life, of course. When he was out of the way, they could install someone beneficial to the organization as the new lord.
“Lord Foronda realized he’s in danger but he’s not sure what to do. If he refuses the guard, then the organization might speed up their plans. But we can’t leave him with a hostile adventurer…”
“Is the adventurer really our enemy?” I asked. “I would expect that they would be killed alongside Lord Foronda.”
“Huh? I get Lord Foronda, but why the adventurer?” Bolorda replied.
“I’d think that killing both would be more effective…”
“Hmm…effective how?”
“Umm, well…losing the adventurer he’d personally asked to protect his close friend at the same time as the lord would make people more sympathetic. He could then install a new lord, claiming they’d work together to get revenge on the organization.
Essentially, it would be easier to move public sentiment by killing more people. I think the organization would do this without batting an eye, but…what do you all think?”
Everyone fell silent.
Huh? Did I say something strange? Why is everyone staring at me? Hmm…Past Me says sympathy makes people do stupid things. Is that wrong?
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