Chap 44-What Nonsense Is This?

 

Even without that, one vault was as big as a real house, and the gold bars inside were completely full.

He must have filled it up with all the money he earned, turning it all into gold bars.

He wouldn’t even think about paying the workers their wages, so it wouldn’t have been difficult for that vault to fill up.

I took it all.

The workers’ share?

What nonsense. They should be grateful that I helped them escape from slavery. I didn’t care.

Rather, they would use this as an opportunity to hang more corrupt merchants.

Let’s leave about two gold bars behind.

It’ll look like they spent some, and they’ll be even angrier.

“Where the hell did this bastard hide all the money!”

“Th-there. Th-there in the v-vault. Spare me. I’ll give you anything!”

Just as I expected.

Zheneropski was willing to give all the gold bars to the workers to save his life.

Thinking that he could always recover as long as he was alive.

But that was excessive arrogance.

Zheneropski, who never thought anyone would steal the gold bars, had to unlock the vault while being held by the workers.

And inside that vault, as if to mock them, there were only two gold bars.

Small gold bars at that.

It was too little compensation for being treated like dogs all this time.

“Why is the vault empty?”

“We’ve suffered so much all this time, and this is it?”

“Two gold bars? Are you kidding me?”

“Where did you stash all the money, you son of a bitch!”

“I-I don’t know! I really don’t know!”

Zheneropski looked genuinely wronged.

He shook his head several times and pleaded his innocence, but the workers, who had been coaxed into slavery with sweet words, glared at Zheneropski with a truly unpleasant, cold expression.

“Maybe this bastard spent it all?”

“Let’s sell everything this guy owns and get our rightful compensation!”

“Then what about this guy?”

“We should kill him! He must have bribed the kingdom officials, it’ll be a headache if we let him live!”

“S-save… Kkyaaaaaack!”

In the end, the pig-like Zheneropski was hung from a tree and stabbed with pickaxes, sickles, and other farming tools until he died.

The workers took the gold bars and all sorts of valuables from Zheneropski’s mansion.

Moreover, they also sold the ore they had mined.

“I thought they would take even those?”

“You always have to leave a little behind. If they have nothing, you never know where they’ll run off to. They might become thieves.”

I successfully robbed the gold bars and shared them with Master, so it was successful anyway, right?

Everyone is happy and it’s a good, happy ending.

I never thought Zheneropski would really die so cruelly.

Since the owner is dead, isn’t it fair to take it, not like a thief?

Having successfully completed the mission, I returned to the Thieves’ Guild branch in the kingdom with Master.

Back to the present, I scratched my complicated head.

What nonsense is this?

No, okay, I get it, but how does that involve me?

“After that, they made money and returned to the Latin region, but it seems that someone created the Latin Commune from then on.”

“But why? The Commune was founded because of that? The Commune is just extreme, unlike what I spread at the time?”

“Who knows what their true intentions are. What’s certain is that the ideology you planted back then is becoming the spiritual pillar of the Latin Commune. Workers of all countries, unite! is their slogan.”

That sounds terrible.

I only said those words back then to instigate. Yeah. To put it simply, it was a foolish thing I did in my immature days.

Like when young children get lost in their own world.

“Ha, it just seems like they’re using that as a pretext to rob the rich.”

“Well, I don’t know about that.”

“Still, there shouldn’t be anyone who knows about me directly, right?”

“Your ID came out of the fake corpse you pretended to be dead in back then. Of course, there’s no face, but the name is clearly there. Why did you make such a mistake?”

“Oh.”

I thought I lost my ID back then.

I didn’t think anything of it. I thought that even if it was found, it would be dismissed as a scapegoat.

But I never thought it would turn out like this.

Master hesitated for a long time, as if he wanted to say something more, and then finally opened his mouth.

“Apparently, the Latin Commune’s ideology is ‘sienism’.”

“What the fuck.”

Sienism, of all things. I hate that.

Even if those Heroes find out about this information, they’ll definitely link Sien to that anti-imperialism.

I’m becoming an anti-imperialist without even knowing it. And since I fled to the Empire, it’ll give it even more credibility.

Oh. Fuck.

If this really gets out, I’m screwed.

“So, we can prune it, but we can’t destroy it completely. So we’re going to work on it appropriately under our control.”

“So you’re saying we can’t touch it carelessly right now.”

“No. You’re Ciel now. We could take care of it this time.”

Master smiled slyly, narrowing her eyes.

At first, I thought that was okay too. But looking at it from another angle, it’s not.

I, in my current form, am a female version of Sien.

And I’m Ciel. I’ve been introduced to the instructor Gustav, who has a certain position, as Sien’s younger sister.

“No, it’s a bit much to leave ‘Sien’s’ name as a criminal. Above all, Instructor Gustav sees me as Sien’s younger sister.”

“Then we have to hide it. You’re really a troublesome disciple.”

Master sighed deeply.

Did I know it would turn out like this? It shouldn’t have spread this far in the first place.

“Please hide it as much as possible.”

“An anti-imperialist. To think I’d have a representative of the workers as a disciple. Not even a thief. Tsk tsk.”

“Oh, really.”

I hate that kind of position.

What is it? I’m not a worker or anything. Strictly speaking, I’m self-employed.

My role is to rip off whatever people earn, whether they earn it with blood, sweat, and tears, or through illegal means.

I would refuse even if they gave it to me by force.

Well, yeah. In the end, this problem will have to be maintained as it is.

It’s difficult to completely eradicate those Communes or whatever they are now.

Strictly speaking, if I’m thinking about the Empire, it’s right to catch the Communes, even if it means selling my name.

But as I said, I’m not the kind of person who has that kind of heroic spirit.

Even if I say that Sien isn’t that Sien, the kingdom that lost the Holy Sword will obviously equate that Sien with the founder of the Commune, Sien.

Above all, I embellished the story about the corrupt merchant to some extent, but it’s certain because I wrote it in ‘Achievements Worth Joining the Hero Party’.

Well, if I get caught, I can just deny it to the end, and it’s best to draw a line between myself and the real Sien.

But for now, I have to do it without revealing my name.

“We have to maintain the status quo for now.”

“Yes. Please do it appropriately. It’s also related to demons, so strengthen your efforts to catch anti-imperialists.”

There are many imperialists under the Latin Commune.

Demons appeared in the Schperen attack this time, and there’s no guarantee that other anti-imperialists won’t appear.

I’ll have to be careful for a while.

Sera. Let’s link that bitch to the Commune this time and eliminate her from this competition.

“So, is there anything else you want to say?”

“How are the Heroes doing?”

“They’re going to have a meeting with the imperial nobles and then stop by Schperen.”

Ah, those guys are going to get a lot of flak.

They pressured the Empire with their plan to take the Demon King’s head first, and all the money from the imperial nobles was sucked up to move the army.

The nobles, who are full of complaints about the Hero, will probably grab the Hero and grill him for a long time.

If it weren’t for the ‘Hero’ title, they might stab him with a knife.

No, wouldn’t they just stab him now? He wouldn’t have anything to say even if he got stabbed. It would be great if he died from a knife wound and someone else became the Hero.

“They’re going to get a lot of flak.”

“It’s a problem they have to deal with.”

Well, it’s their fault.

Anyway, the nobles won’t bother blaming the missing Sien.

Then, naturally, only the Hero Party will be blamed. Ah, who told them to banish me?

Around this time, the Hero Party was under pressure from the imperial nobles.

I wondered why the Emperor had given in so easily, and this was the reason.

The imperial nobles.

The people who shed tears of blood in this Demon King decapitation operation and had to pour out everything they had.

They were squeezing the Hero Party dry.

“Are you saying you didn’t mean what you said? If you confidently threatened us and made us move the army, you should have properly taken the Demon King’s head, shouldn’t you?”

“That’s because of the thief, Sien.”

“What’s with kicking out a party member before the battle with the Demon King in the first place? You can’t even manage the Holy Sword, so what do you have to say?”

The nobles only squeezed the Hero Party.

There’s nothing to gain from criticizing Sien, who isn’t here, and there were many who were caught by Sien. They couldn’t directly criticize Sien, so they criticized the Hero Party to divert the resentment from the people to the outside.

Anti-imperialists are already causing a ruckus. It’s true that the Hero Party has to bear all of this.

“The kingdom will compensate for this.”

“Compensation is a matter of course, and can you just sit here like this? The Four Heavenly Kings are pressuring us with their army because of you! Our army that is fighting against them also includes the armies of our imperial nobles!”

In the end, isn’t it because they’re worried about the army?

Talon had a lot to say, but the situation wasn’t good enough to argue about it here.

“We’re sorry. We’ll go right away.”

“Is that all? Anti-imperialists are running rampant right now! It’s all because the army has left for the Demon King’s front!”

The Hero Party was having a hard time.

If they had died fighting the Demon King, it wouldn’t have been this bad.

How did it come to this?

In the end, they were able to escape after being squeezed for a long time.

“Ha. I almost got sick of it.”

“It can’t be helped. Even if they want to stop, the Empire has a lot of problems right now because of the Latin Commune or whatever they are.”

Latin Commune.

A group that is currently stealing chaos in the Empire and anti-imperialists.

They say that they have been more rampant recently thanks to the Hero Party’s plan.

It’s all because the Empire cooperated with the Hero’s semi-compulsory plan and the army left.

If you think about it, it’s a very simple problem.

Why did we miss it?

If we had known that, if we had known that Sien would run away with the Holy Sword, we wouldn’t have made a reckless plan.

“Where did that thief go?”

“It’s not like he’s telling us to look for him.”

“He’s not the type to do that.”

Hero Talon frowned.

Or is this really the end?

No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem like our relationship with him will end here.

Sien is that kind of guy. He’s been plotting something for a long time. That’s why he really pisses people off.

Every time he does something, I feel like an idiot for not being able to predict it.