It wasn't just a lit, short-barreled musket, in fact, there were five. They weren't the usual designs either. Instead, they seemed modified somehow. The gun that was trailed against the lanky man had three barrels instead of one. That reminded Claude of Oask's twin-barrel musket. All five of the guns' slow matches were lit and their light was almost blinding.
It seemed that the guns were custom made. The slow matches burned really slowly at a really stable pace. Claude looked up and looked closely at the five musket-wielding, black-cld men in the alley. They were dressed in a bat-like, black silk robe. Even though the weather was so hot, they had their hoods up and it added to their air of mystery.
Another set of footsteps could be heard as yet five people with muskets turned into the alley. Claude was shocked to find that he recognized one of those people -- a worker in Dunkro called Ivago. Was Dunkro in cahoots with the gangs in Whitewood? Did they have an eye on him?
Ivago looked around and pointed at Claude. "It's him."
The five muskets turned to Claude immediately. The black-robed man who had his gun pointing at the scrawny man pressed it against his face and barked, "Go to the side!"
The brute and the scrawny men both shivered in a corner of the alley. They hugged their heads and seemed like they wanted to squeeze through the seams in the corner.
"It's best if you stay put. Don't think that we have only five muskets pointed at you. If you look around, you'll find that we have at least ten more trailed on you. I hope you understand your position and don't offer any futile resistance. Naturally, if you're willing to tell me where your comrade is, I suppose we can get along better," the leader said to Claude.
His face stiffened. These were probably the most audacious gang he had ever encountered. Since when could a gang carry firearms in broad daylight within a city? Weren't they afraid of being reported? They were in Limasosya, a mining prefecture of the kingdom. If the upper administration were aware that an armed gang like that had formed, the consequences would be dire.
The chief keeper and chief constable would be uprooted. There was no way they could escape. Usually, small brawls and conflicts between gangs didn't have to be mediated or dealt with. There was no way they could be completely eliminated anyway, so it was enough if the scale of it could be limited.
But a gang wielding firearms in public, modified ones at that, was nothing but an affront to the kingdom and the government's pride. These matters would be faced with complete extermination and the local officials would be held completely accountable and exterminated from top to bottom. There was no preventing a huge landslide in the local administration.
Given that he was completely at their mercy, Claude had no choice but to lower his head. With ten guns trailed at him, he could only abide by their demands. "I have no comrades. There's only a coachman who I hired to transport me to report for military duty waiting for me at the inn. If you want money, I can give it to you, but don't involve unrelated people in this."
"Money? Do you think we're here to rob you?" The leader grimaced. He was actually taken for being a bandit!
"Apart from the fact that this shopkeeper saw the huge sum I withdrew from the national bank, I really don't know why you guys would bother moving out against me armed with more than ten firearms." Claude shrugged.
"Bullshit, do you think we lust after your little bit of coin?" the leader yelled angrily.
Claude looked genuinely shocked. "One thousand plus crowns is little money? Wow, you guys have a larger appetite than I anticipated."
"One thousand plus... all those crowns... Where did you get so many gold coins of our kingdom from?" The leader now seemed taken aback. A thousand crowns was a huge sum to him, but the young man having such a large amount and an account at the national bank at that was completely different from the intelligence he received.
"I earned it myself, you know. They're legitimate earnings. Isn't there a record with the national bank?" Claude wondered. Why would the robbers bother to ask him where he got the money?
"Impossible, the moment you guys entered the border, we received word. Your lot was hiding from our pursuit the whole time. How could you have earned that money?" the leader argued.
"Enter the border? Since when did that happen? We weren't hiding at all. Throughout our trip, we were routinely checked and even my passport was stamped. Why would you arrest us anyway?" Did entering Whitewood require a border-crossing permit? Oask didn't mention such a thing and the city hall didn't give him anything like that either.
The two compared their conflicting stories for a long while and finally came to the conclusion that something was off.
A man beside the leader said, "Sir, there's no trace of magic in the area."
"What?" The leader looked back at Claude at the two men shriveled in the corner as well as the three injured on the ground. He waved and said, "Go check on the three on the ground and find out why they're down."
"Yes, Sir." The black-robed man approached Claude with his odd gun and Claude obediently took two steps to the side so as to not stop the man from approaching and showing that he didn't intend to resist. There were ten other guns trailed at him from the walls of the alley and there was no point in taking a hostage.
The man was quite satisfied with Claude's cooperation. He knelt down and checked on the three thugs. "Sir, two are heavily injured, one being struck heavily in the face and having his nose caved in, and the other in the solar plexus. The sternum of this one is slightly shattered and he fainted from the pain. As for this one, he only fell on his back and got knocked out cold, but he's only lightly injured."
The leader pondered about the report and looked at Claude. "Who are you and what are you called? Where are you traveling to and whence did you come?"
"I'm Claude Ferd, a peasant from Whitestag. I received a conscription order from Bluefeather and am on my way to Kafreizit. I happened to be passing by Whitewood today and we're going to lodge for the night," Claude responded with honesty. He had to at least act obedient for now with so many firearms trailed against him.
"A conscription order?" The answer was far from one that the leader had expected. If it was true, then he would've caused a huge misunderstanding. "Show me your passport and conscription order. We'll run a check."
"A-aren't you part of a gang? Why would you check that?"
"W-who said we were a gang?! We are the kingdom's special operations unit! Show him our badge!"
"Yes, Sir." The man who checked on the three thugs took out a silver medal and showed it to Claude.
Engraved on it were the words 'Watchers in the Night'. The man then flipped it to the back side and it read 'Special Operations Unit 2103'.
Watchers in the Night... That sounds familiar... Claude pondered on it and finally remembered. "Ah, I know. You're from the Watch."
The leader's gaze cooled all of a sudden. "Where did you hear about us from?"
"My teacher told me."
"Who's your teacher?"
"She's Lady Maria, my herbalism teacher," Claude replied. He took out the conscription order and passport from his backpack and handed it to the black-robed man in front of him.
"Apologies. I really thought that you were part of some underground syndicate. I thought the shopkeeper was your eye and that I attracted your attention because I revealed the wealth I had," Claude apologized sincerely, "The thugs over here threatened me to come here with their knives and wanted to force me to buy their so-called premium-quality whiteroot powder with all the money I had on me. I taught them a lesson and then you arrived. I was wondering what kind of gang would actually dare to carry firearms in broad daylight in the open streets..."
The man who handed Claude's documents to the leader seemed to sympathize with Claude. "I already said that we shouldn't dress up in this odd getup lest we get misunderstood. See? He thought that we were part of a gang. And there you were saying, Sir, that the reason you made this our unit's uniform because it would strike fear in others..."
The leader didn't know what to say. "Shut up!"
The man didn't take his superior's words to heart. Instead, he knelt on the ground and pinched some of the whiteroot powder on the ground. "Huh? You call this premium-quality? It's worthless talcum powder..."
By then, the leader had finished going through the documents. "Apologies, it's a misunderstanding on our part. The one we're looking for isn't you. Guys, hold your fire and go back."
The barrels that poked out from the walls all vanished. The sounds of people going down on ladders or jumping straight down from the walls could be heard.
No longer being aimed at, Claude felt his entire body relax. "It's fine. I just wonder why you guys would think it was me."
"Because you purchased ten boxes of highest grade whiteroot powder from his shop," the man said as he returned the documents, "We are actually looking for two magi that came from Siklos, one young, one old. They entered our borders and disappeared in this vicinity not long ago. We suspect that they came to procure precious magical materials, so we notified the shops to report anything out of the ordinary to us," the leader said, "It really begs the question though. Why did you order 10 boxes of highest grade whiteroot powder to be delivered even though you're going to join the army?"
So it was the AAA whiteroot powder's fault that the special operations unit mistook him for the magi they were pursuing. Claude didn't think that his sudden urge to buy Maria a gift would cause such a misunderstanding, so he had no choice but to explain himself.
"At my place, I won't be able to get good whiteroot powder. Even the worst quality ones cost far more than what's available here. I often failed in my herbalism experiments back at the laboratory in the wood and I thought it's the fault of my skills. I only found that it was due to the quality of whiteroot powder after seeing what's available for sale at those shops.
"Even though I'm joining the army, Lady Maria will be going to the wood for a summer retreat. She would definitely be spending most of her time in the laboratory to experiment. Since I'm here and have some money to spare, I thought I might as well get some quality whiteroot powder for her to use as thanks for all she has done for me."
"This Lady Maria you mentioned is the royal capital's Baroness Maria Fen Normanley, isn't it?" asked the leader.
"Yes. Do you know her too?"
"Hehe, of course I do. I even had a few interactions with her. She doesn't have the best temperament and she hates entertaining those of us from the Watch. I still have another question. Since she's your herbalism teacher, why did she let you get conscripted?"
Claude smiled bitterly. "Last year, I only got to learn from her for a while before she had to return to the royal capital. Only recently, Whitestag's status was elevated from town to city. Viscount Felidos came and took over as the mayor, so the lady asked him to watch out for me. Little did she know that the viscount's idea of watching out for someone was to send them to join the army. So, he wrote me a recommendation letter and got me a conscription order from Bluefeather."
The leader didn't seem surprised. "I know Viscount Felidos too and he does seem to be someone like this. Alright, you may leave. How do you want these thugs to be dealt with? There was also another constable who claimed to be the second uncle of one of them, whom we detained."
Claude scratched his head. "I don't know how they should be dealt with either. Since I already taught them a lesson, I guess I'll just trouble you to toss them in the labor camps for a couple of years."
All of a sudden, the scrawny man jumped out from the alley corner in front of them. "I... I know where the two magi are..."
It wasn't just a lit, short-barreled musket, in fact, there were five. They weren't the usual designs either. Instead, they seemed modified somehow. The gun that was trailed against the lanky man had three barrels instead of one. That reminded Claude of Oask's twin-barrel musket. All five of the guns' slow matches were lit and their light was almost blinding.
It seemed that the guns were custom made. The slow matches burned really slowly at a really stable pace. Claude looked up and looked closely at the five musket-wielding, black-cld men in the alley. They were dressed in a bat-like, black silk robe. Even though the weather was so hot, they had their hoods up and it added to their air of mystery.
Another set of footsteps could be heard as yet five people with muskets turned into the alley. Claude was shocked to find that he recognized one of those people -- a worker in Dunkro called Ivago. Was Dunkro in cahoots with the gangs in Whitewood? Did they have an eye on him?
Ivago looked around and pointed at Claude. "It's him."
The five muskets turned to Claude immediately. The black-robed man who had his gun pointing at the scrawny man pressed it against his face and barked, "Go to the side!"
The brute and the scrawny men both shivered in a corner of the alley. They hugged their heads and seemed like they wanted to squeeze through the seams in the corner.
"It's best if you stay put. Don't think that we have only five muskets pointed at you. If you look around, you'll find that we have at least ten more trailed on you. I hope you understand your position and don't offer any futile resistance. Naturally, if you're willing to tell me where your comrade is, I suppose we can get along better," the leader said to Claude.
His face stiffened. These were probably the most audacious gang he had ever encountered. Since when could a gang carry firearms in broad daylight within a city? Weren't they afraid of being reported? They were in Limasosya, a mining prefecture of the kingdom. If the upper administration were aware that an armed gang like that had formed, the consequences would be dire.
The chief keeper and chief constable would be uprooted. There was no way they could escape. Usually, small brawls and conflicts between gangs didn't have to be mediated or dealt with. There was no way they could be completely eliminated anyway, so it was enough if the scale of it could be limited.
But a gang wielding firearms in public, modified ones at that, was nothing but an affront to the kingdom and the government's pride. These matters would be faced with complete extermination and the local officials would be held completely accountable and exterminated from top to bottom. There was no preventing a huge landslide in the local administration.
Given that he was completely at their mercy, Claude had no choice but to lower his head. With ten guns trailed at him, he could only abide by their demands. "I have no comrades. There's only a coachman who I hired to transport me to report for military duty waiting for me at the inn. If you want money, I can give it to you, but don't involve unrelated people in this."
"Money? Do you think we're here to rob you?" The leader grimaced. He was actually taken for being a bandit!
"Apart from the fact that this shopkeeper saw the huge sum I withdrew from the national bank, I really don't know why you guys would bother moving out against me armed with more than ten firearms." Claude shrugged.
"Bullshit, do you think we lust after your little bit of coin?" the leader yelled angrily.
Claude looked genuinely shocked. "One thousand plus crowns is little money? Wow, you guys have a larger appetite than I anticipated."
"One thousand plus... all those crowns... Where did you get so many gold coins of our kingdom from?" The leader now seemed taken aback. A thousand crowns was a huge sum to him, but the young man having such a large amount and an account at the national bank at that was completely different from the intelligence he received.
"I earned it myself, you know. They're legitimate earnings. Isn't there a record with the national bank?" Claude wondered. Why would the robbers bother to ask him where he got the money?
"Impossible, the moment you guys entered the border, we received word. Your lot was hiding from our pursuit the whole time. How could you have earned that money?" the leader argued.
"Enter the border? Since when did that happen? We weren't hiding at all. Throughout our trip, we were routinely checked and even my passport was stamped. Why would you arrest us anyway?" Did entering Whitewood require a border-crossing permit? Oask didn't mention such a thing and the city hall didn't give him anything like that either.
The two compared their conflicting stories for a long while and finally came to the conclusion that something was off.
A man beside the leader said, "Sir, there's no trace of magic in the area."
"What?" The leader looked back at Claude at the two men shriveled in the corner as well as the three injured on the ground. He waved and said, "Go check on the three on the ground and find out why they're down."
"Yes, Sir." The black-robed man approached Claude with his odd gun and Claude obediently took two steps to the side so as to not stop the man from approaching and showing that he didn't intend to resist. There were ten other guns trailed at him from the walls of the alley and there was no point in taking a hostage.
The man was quite satisfied with Claude's cooperation. He knelt down and checked on the three thugs. "Sir, two are heavily injured, one being struck heavily in the face and having his nose caved in, and the other in the solar plexus. The sternum of this one is slightly shattered and he fainted from the pain. As for this one, he only fell on his back and got knocked out cold, but he's only lightly injured."
The leader pondered about the report and looked at Claude. "Who are you and what are you called? Where are you traveling to and whence did you come?"
"I'm Claude Ferd, a peasant from Whitestag. I received a conscription order from Bluefeather and am on my way to Kafreizit. I happened to be passing by Whitewood today and we're going to lodge for the night," Claude responded with honesty. He had to at least act obedient for now with so many firearms trailed against him.
"A conscription order?" The answer was far from one that the leader had expected. If it was true, then he would've caused a huge misunderstanding. "Show me your passport and conscription order. We'll run a check."
"A-aren't you part of a gang? Why would you check that?"
"W-who said we were a gang?! We are the kingdom's special operations unit! Show him our badge!"
"Yes, Sir." The man who checked on the three thugs took out a silver medal and showed it to Claude.
Engraved on it were the words 'Watchers in the Night'. The man then flipped it to the back side and it read 'Special Operations Unit 2103'.
Watchers in the Night... That sounds familiar... Claude pondered on it and finally remembered. "Ah, I know. You're from the Watch."
The leader's gaze cooled all of a sudden. "Where did you hear about us from?"
"My teacher told me."
"Who's your teacher?"
"She's Lady Maria, my herbalism teacher," Claude replied. He took out the conscription order and passport from his backpack and handed it to the black-robed man in front of him.
"Apologies. I really thought that you were part of some underground syndicate. I thought the shopkeeper was your eye and that I attracted your attention because I revealed the wealth I had," Claude apologized sincerely, "The thugs over here threatened me to come here with their knives and wanted to force me to buy their so-called premium-quality whiteroot powder with all the money I had on me. I taught them a lesson and then you arrived. I was wondering what kind of gang would actually dare to carry firearms in broad daylight in the open streets..."
The man who handed Claude's documents to the leader seemed to sympathize with Claude. "I already said that we shouldn't dress up in this odd getup lest we get misunderstood. See? He thought that we were part of a gang. And there you were saying, Sir, that the reason you made this our unit's uniform because it would strike fear in others..."
The leader didn't know what to say. "Shut up!"
The man didn't take his superior's words to heart. Instead, he knelt on the ground and pinched some of the whiteroot powder on the ground. "Huh? You call this premium-quality? It's worthless talcum powder..."
By then, the leader had finished going through the documents. "Apologies, it's a misunderstanding on our part. The one we're looking for isn't you. Guys, hold your fire and go back."
The barrels that poked out from the walls all vanished. The sounds of people going down on ladders or jumping straight down from the walls could be heard.
No longer being aimed at, Claude felt his entire body relax. "It's fine. I just wonder why you guys would think it was me."
"Because you purchased ten boxes of highest grade whiteroot powder from his shop," the man said as he returned the documents, "We are actually looking for two magi that came from Siklos, one young, one old. They entered our borders and disappeared in this vicinity not long ago. We suspect that they came to procure precious magical materials, so we notified the shops to report anything out of the ordinary to us," the leader said, "It really begs the question though. Why did you order 10 boxes of highest grade whiteroot powder to be delivered even though you're going to join the army?"
So it was the AAA whiteroot powder's fault that the special operations unit mistook him for the magi they were pursuing. Claude didn't think that his sudden urge to buy Maria a gift would cause such a misunderstanding, so he had no choice but to explain himself.
"At my place, I won't be able to get good whiteroot powder. Even the worst quality ones cost far more than what's available here. I often failed in my herbalism experiments back at the laboratory in the wood and I thought it's the fault of my skills. I only found that it was due to the quality of whiteroot powder after seeing what's available for sale at those shops.
"Even though I'm joining the army, Lady Maria will be going to the wood for a summer retreat. She would definitely be spending most of her time in the laboratory to experiment. Since I'm here and have some money to spare, I thought I might as well get some quality whiteroot powder for her to use as thanks for all she has done for me."
"This Lady Maria you mentioned is the royal capital's Baroness Maria Fen Normanley, isn't it?" asked the leader.
"Yes. Do you know her too?"
"Hehe, of course I do. I even had a few interactions with her. She doesn't have the best temperament and she hates entertaining those of us from the Watch. I still have another question. Since she's your herbalism teacher, why did she let you get conscripted?"
Claude smiled bitterly. "Last year, I only got to learn from her for a while before she had to return to the royal capital. Only recently, Whitestag's status was elevated from town to city. Viscount Felidos came and took over as the mayor, so the lady asked him to watch out for me. Little did she know that the viscount's idea of watching out for someone was to send them to join the army. So, he wrote me a recommendation letter and got me a conscription order from Bluefeather."
The leader didn't seem surprised. "I know Viscount Felidos too and he does seem to be someone like this. Alright, you may leave. How do you want these thugs to be dealt with? There was also another constable who claimed to be the second uncle of one of them, whom we detained."
Claude scratched his head. "I don't know how they should be dealt with either. Since I already taught them a lesson, I guess I'll just trouble you to toss them in the labor camps for a couple of years."
All of a sudden, the scrawny man jumped out from the alley corner in front of them. "I... I know where the two magi are..."
