Chapter 23: Wanted Criminals, the Maw Bandits (5)
Hardin, his face hardened like a fiend, asked.
"Speak. You lot, are you involved in human trafficking?"
The bandits who had been watching swallowed nervously and answered.
"H-human trafficking?"
"Answer properly. Or I'll rip your mouths apart."
A murderous aura seeped out of him.
Just meeting his gaze made everyone feel as if they were suffocating, their bodies stiffening in fear.
'W-what is this? The atmosphere suddenly...'
At that moment, Mikkelsen and Beryl began shaking their heads frantically in unison.
"Ahihihi! Ahihi, no!"
"Absolutely not! What human trafficking are you talking about!"
"Then why are these kids here?"
"T-that’s...!"
Mikkelsen was about to get tongue-tied again when an urgent voice came from beside them.
"It’s the opposite!"
"Hm?"
The boy who had been struck first by Hardin.
He glared at Hardin with a look as if he wanted to kill him and spoke.
"What do you mean by that, brat?"
"T-these men saved us from slave traders! T-they became wanted criminals because of us!"
Rustle.
Hardin took out the wanted poster again and checked it, confirming the detailed content.
"The Maw Bandits plundered the property of the Farend Merchant Guild... Are these Farend people you speak of the slave traders?"
"Yes! That’s right!"
The boy answered firmly, and Hardin turned back to the bandits to ask again.
"Is what this kid said true?"
"I-it is, but..."
The bandits nodded.
"So you robbed the slave traders to stop the kids from being sold?"
"That’s correct!"
"Then you’re still criminals, aren’t you? You laid your hands on other people’s property."
Buying and selling children as slaves.
Personally, it wasn’t to his taste, and he found it disgusting... but it wasn’t illegal.
Depending on the situation, sometimes becoming a slave could be a far better life than living as a slash-and-burn farmer or as a bandit.
Just then, the boy shouted again.
"W-we are not property! Those merchants... they kidnapped us..."
"Kidnapped?"
"Yes! They are wicked people!"
"These men saved us! Uheeeung..."
"They are not bad people! They said they’d help us find our mothers!"
One after another, the children began pleading in tearful voices.
'Why are they crying?'
It made him feel like he was the villain here.
Hardin let out a deep sigh.
'...Well, I roughly understand the situation now.'
He’d seen cases like this before.
'Human trafficking.'
Sometimes, among slave traders, there were truly vile ones who used such methods.
They’d bring in street orphans or abduct children who had living parents to sell them into slavery.
Even in the Fabian Empire, this was something strictly prohibited by law...
'But as long as there’s money to be made, there’s always someone willing to break the law.'
Money became power, and with power, a little bribe could easily trample over the Empire’s lax laws.
'Disgusting vermin.'
Hardin’s expression turned vicious.
Back when he was still Varlach, whenever he saw scum like that, he’d beat them senseless and throw them into prison.
It wasn’t about justice or anything noble.
Just watching them disgusted him and irritated him enough to act.
Well, all of that belonged to the days when he was still young and reckless.
"Fuuuu..."
Hardin let out a long sigh and asked Mikkelsen.
"So, you lot became wanted criminals because you freed wrongfully captured orphans?"
"Ah, yes! That’s correct!"
"Well, aren’t you noble outlaws? I’m so moved, my nose is tingling."
"Then perhaps…"
"Perhaps what."
"Will you show us mercy?"
"Mercy?"
When Mikkelsen asked with an eager face, his eyes gleaming hopefully, Hardin stared at him, let out a heavy sigh, and shook his head.
"Why would I?"
"Pardon?"
"I have no intention of letting you go."
It was true that human traffickers disgusted him.
But… that was that.
'Right now, my family’s situation is more urgent.'
Hardin smiled faintly and spoke.
"I understand your circumstances, but I also desperately need that hundred thousand gold."
If you wanted to play at being noble bandits, you should have been thorough to the end.
You shouldn’t have become wanted criminals in the first place… and you definitely shouldn’t have appeared before my eyes.
Even among my acquaintances, there was someone who liked to play the noble outlaw, but he never let things end up like this.
"G-good sir!"
"C-could you not grant us leniency just this once? What will happen to the children if we’re captured?"
"How heartless!"
The bandits began to plead with tearful faces.
"Trash!"
"Evil villain!"
"Uwaaah!"
The children also started crying and screaming in a clamor.
'God, you’re noisy…'
Hardin covered his ears and shook his head.
Alright, I get it. I know your situation is pitiful… but there’s nothing I can do about this.
"Please don’t take them away!"
"Aaah! Aaaah!"
The kids clung to my trouser legs, sobbing as if in despair.
Oof!
Why were they doing this to me?
They were making it look like I was committing some terrible wrongdoing.
…Was I in the wrong? Wasn’t it their fault they got caught by me?
"Hey! I said let go, didn’t I?"
"No!"
Without the bounty, I couldn’t hire mercenaries, and without mercenaries, my family would be ruined.
'Or what, are you lot going to fight in the territorial war instead? Huh?'
That’s the least you’d need to do for me to even consider sparing you—
'Huh?'
Wait a second?
In that moment, Hardin blinked as if something occurred to him and stared intently at the bandits.
'Hold on…'
Now that he thought about it, weren’t all of them mana users?
There were twelve of them in total… and one was even second-rank.
On top of that, there was one who was skilled at making traps and all kinds of contraptions.
'Oh?'
Hardin’s mouth slowly parted.
With the hundred thousand gold he had on hand and the hundred thousand he’d get for turning them in, he could scrape together two hundred thousand gold in total.
With that money, all he could hire at the mercenary office would be a bunch of worthless sellswords.
But…
'What if I took these guys instead?'
They were all much more competent, and he’d still have the hundred thousand gold in hand.
Wasn’t this… a profitable bargain?
As Hardin stroked his chin, the children’s cries grew even louder.
"Let them goooo!"
"Uheeeung!"
Hardin raised his hand and shouted.
"Quiet!"
"……?!"
The commotion died down, and once everyone’s attention was fixed on him, he continued.
"You said your name was Mikkelsen?"
"Y-yes…"
"Let me ask you one question."
"...What is it?"
"Other than robbing those slave traders, have you done anything else wrong? Put your hand on your conscience and tell me honestly."
"..."
At that, Mikkelsen averted his gaze slightly.
"W-well… how far does your definition of 'wrong' go?"
"Tell me everything. If you’re honest, I’ll take it into consideration."
Gulp.
Mikkelsen swallowed and spoke.
"T-there was one time we were so hungry that we ate at a restaurant without paying… B-but! It wasn’t anything expensive! Just… steamed frog…"
"Oh, for—Stuff like that doesn’t count."
Whack!
"Aaagh! T-then what do you want me to say?"
"Not that—have you ever committed any serious crimes?"
"N-not that I can think of…"
Mikkelsen looked around at the other bandits, but they all just blinked blankly as if nothing came to mind.
Seeing this, Hardin scratched his head.
'Well, that’s that, I suppose.'
Letting out a deep sigh, Hardin spoke.
"There is one way you lot can stay out of prison."
"...I-is that true?"
"What is it?"
As hope lit up on the bandits’ faces, Hardin spoke abruptly in a serious tone.
"You lot work under me."
"...Pardon?"
"Work under me… or more precisely, become affiliated with my household. I’ll give you lodging, food… and a salary. About two thousand gold a year. What do you think? Not bad, right?"
What was this man saying right now?
Bewilderment spread across the bandits’ faces.
'He’s going to pay us a salary? Why?'
'Is he lying?'
Truthfully, to a proper mana user, two thousand gold was such a pitiful amount it would be almost insulting.
But that was only for legitimate mana users…
'These guys are wanted criminals, aren’t they?'
Who would ever pay people like them and even feed them?
That wasn’t a person—it was a saint, a literal angel.
Hardin’s lips twitched faintly.
At that moment, Mikkelsen, who’d been stunned into silence, cautiously asked again.
"Excuse me, but why would you pay us?"
"Why? You don’t want it?"
"No, it’s not that, but… isn’t it strange? You went out of your way to capture us, and now you’re offering to pay us…"
If he wasn’t plotting something, then why…?
As Mikkelsen looked on with a thoroughly confused expression, Hardin answered in a hearty voice.
"Simple. You lot caught my eye."
"Caught your eye? In what way?"
"What, you don’t like it?"
"That’s…"
When Hardin’s expression subtly hardened, one of the bandits standing behind Mikkelsen smacked him on the back of the head with his forehead and shouted.
"Why are you even asking, Mikkelsen! Obviously, he was moved by our noble outlaw deeds! Isn’t that right, sir!"
"Yeah, think whatever you like."
Hardin shrugged his shoulders.
I did tend to like guys like this… though honestly, it was just because they could take a beating, had some grit, and were desperate enough to accept anything.
As for why I’d pay them—
'If they’re any good, I’ll just keep milking them for all they’re worth.'
Right now, the Daphne household was in a state of absolute shortage of knight forces.
If I tried to fill that gap by newly recruiting troops and then awakening mana in each of them one by one, that alone would take an eternity.
Even with intensive training, an ordinary person typically needed five to ten years just to achieve their awakening with mana.
But those guys were already awakened mana users… which meant I could skip that whole process.
'Especially that one called Beryl, or whatever.'
If I trained them properly, they wouldn’t just be a help in this territorial war—they’d be a great asset to the household’s strength in the long run.
A smile naturally formed on Hardin’s lips.
'When you find a pearl in the mud, there’s no reason to throw it away just because it’s dirty.'
If you wanted to make people work well for you, you couldn’t just use the stick—you had to offer a carrot or two as well.
Hardin cleared his throat.
"Ahem! One more thing."
"W-what is it?"
"If you don’t cause trouble and work well, I might even let you go."
"Pardon? Let us go?"
"Yeah, I’ll clean up your records completely and make sure you can live as free men."
"R-really? When?"
Hardin thought for a moment before replying.
"That depends on you. If you perform excellently, you might walk free in a year. If you’re hopeless, it might take ten."
"Oooooh!"
"A-a year?"
"If you’re good, I said. If you’re good."
Hope lit up on the bandits’ faces.
Of course…
'Yeah, you lot are never getting out.'
I had no intention of releasing them at all.
Anyway, by the time it came to that, even if I told them to leave… they probably wouldn’t want to go. Our household would have grown to a point they’d never want to abandon.
'If I want to use them properly until then, I have to give them hope.'
If you just told people to live their entire lives working like slaves with no hope, their motivation would plummet. But if you dangled just a bit of hope, they’d work harder than ever.
"Uhehehe! Uhehehehe!"
Perfect. This was a flawless plan.
Brother Valter, how about it? I’m quite quick-witted too, don’t you think?
As Hardin wore a sly, villainous grin—
"……."
"Young Master?"
The bandits stared blankly at Hardin, blinking.
Damn it, you brats… making me feel awkward.
"Khhm! Anyway, choose. Are you going to prison, or are you going to shut up and work under me?"
"That’s obviously…"
There was nothing to deliberate over.
They’d be fed, given a roof over their heads, paid… and if they did well, they might even regain their freedom. Where else would they ever find conditions this good?
Thunk!
The youngest, Mikkelsen, quickly lowered his head.
"I will serve you with all my loyalty, Young Master!"
"Alright."
That was the beginning.
"I…I will follow you as well."
"M-me too!"
One by one, the members of the Maw Bandits lowered their heads, declaring their intention to follow Hardin.
At that moment, Beryl stared fixedly at Hardin and asked.
"Gozahi… gehaha, aihehe… what abou… hehehe…?"
"You’re asking about the children?"
"Yes!"
I’d heard him so much I could finally understand him.
Hardin shifted his gaze to the children.
They were looking up at him with bright eyes, though their faces were still full of worry.
"Don’t worry. I’ll put in a request at the Adventurers’ Guild."
"Adven…turers’… Guild?"
"Yeah. If you hand them some money, they’ll make sure the kids get back home safely."
There were plenty of adventurers out there who’d take a job like that for two or three thousand gold.
Not that I was handling this because I was some kind of humanitarian.
If I considered it part of the price for taking these bastards under my command… it was actually cheap.
Just as Hardin let out a snort through his nose—
"Gahaha! Gahsahaha, Eunuch!"
Beryl bowed over and over, his face overcome with emotion.
Eun… I’m telling you, that’s not it, you bastard.