Ch.4545. The Room of Truth

With his short stature and warm-looking face, Bingo was traversing the imperial capital.

He was originally a low-level administrator in the Royal Order. Despite the Royal Order’s prestigious status, the treatment of low-level administrators was poor.

But over the past few months, his life had changed beyond recognition.

First, he moved to District 3.

A single-story house with a modest garden and terrace. Though relatively modest for District 3, it was incomparable to the beehive-like housing where he used to live.

And yesterday, he purchased several pairs of height-increasing shoes to compensate for his short stature. These miraculous shoes added about 8 centimeters to his height without causing discomfort when walking.

Some might say height doesn’t matter when you have 3 billion, but for Bingo, it was an important issue.

‘Just being able to have such thoughts is a happy concern.’

Bingo never imagined there would come a day when he could spend money freely.

Especially when the market crashed repeatedly, he even felt his life was threatened. No matter how much money a commoner has, they’re still a commoner. What’s worse, the one who took over his Cordana was a branch member of the imperial family.

Back then, Bingo tried everything to ensure his safety.

Not only did he wear his hat pulled down low, but he also wore fake beards. He even stayed at inns for a while, fearing burglars might break into his home. Unlike Erick Wellesley who was skilled with a sword, he was truly defenseless.

But now, Bingo was striding through the imperial capital, his slightly thinning hair fluttering. Literally walking with confidence. He had nothing to fear.

Today, he encountered a former administrative colleague who used to bully him, but he greeted him without hesitation.

“Derick, going to purchase hay for the cavalry horses? That’s your responsibility, right?”

“You’re asking… if I’m going?”

His former colleague received Bingo’s cheerful greeting with a sour expression, as if he’d heard something inappropriate.

“What’s wrong? I’m just happy to see you after so long.”

“…Kid, I used to be your senior.”

“Not anymore. It’s been a while since I retired.”

At Bingo’s words, Derick let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.

He wasn’t acting this way for no reason. He came from a quasi-noble family. More precisely, his family maintained quasi-noble status until his father’s generation, but with Derick, they fell to commoner status. There’s a limit to inheriting quasi-noble status without a title.

In the end, it meant he was a commoner, but his mindset was still that of a noble. Even Bingo had treated him with respect during his administrative days.

But now the situation was different.

“Just because you have some money. I’m still a senior administrator in the Royal Order.”

“It’s not just about money. You probably don’t know, but I recently got a new job.”

“…?”

“I’m now a retainer of Baron Wellesley. Specifically, a financial officer.”

At Bingo’s words, Derick’s expression instantly soured.

Being a retainer of a baron, especially one without a territory, wasn’t much to speak of. The title of retainer sounded nice, but it wasn’t even close to nobility.

However, if that baron was Baron Wellesley, it was a different story. He had been frequenting the imperial palace recently and was now a border inspector.

Bingo hadn’t become an incredibly privileged person, but he was certainly not in a position to be looked down upon by an administrator out to purchase hay.

“…Oh.”

“I’m on duty right now. You know the relief facility in District 18, right? The place that feeds hundreds of people daily. It’s now officially receiving budget support from the imperial palace. Even Baron Wellesley has limits to how much of his personal funds he can use to feed those kids.”

“A man with so much money… I mean, a person with so much money.”

“It means he’s trusted by the imperial palace.”

Bingo smiled warmly, thinking to himself that he was just on his way to purchase food ingredients for the children.

Of course, humiliating a former colleague would be undignified, but fortunately, Bingo was in a position where dignity didn’t matter.

‘Sometimes you need to enjoy moments like this.’

It gave him a strange satisfaction to get back at a colleague who had oppressed him just because Cordana prices had risen. The memories of being forced to work overtime and being slapped with documents were gradually fading.

“…Well, you must be working hard, Bingo.”

“You’re the one working hard. Dealing with the knights’ prickly personalities is no easy task.”

“……”

His former colleague soon disappeared with a sour expression, and Bingo didn’t taunt him further.

Bingo had an important mission.

It was a task assigned by an official from the court department who visited late last night. Not because Bingo was important enough to receive instructions from the court department, but because of his relationship with Wellesley.

– Bingo, I heard you have many contacts with merchants due to running the relief facility. Please naturally approach Cordana investors and guide them to lose interest in investing. If we forcibly stop them, resentment will be directed at the imperial palace.

It was an instruction to raise awareness in advance to reduce the storm that would hit the Cordana market right after the Hero’s return.

It seemed several others had received similar instructions besides Bingo. The intention was to at least prevent additional investments.

Soon after, Bingo approached merchants he met for business.

Indeed, there were several Cordana investors.

“Oh, Bingo. You must be working hard feeding those beggars.”

“Beggars? The person I serve also used to beg in his youth. …By the way, sir. Do you also invest in Cordana? You don’t, right?”

“Huh? I do.”

“…Why try to salvage anything from a market that’s already crashed?”

“Hey, it’s still possible to safely earn a few hundred thousand Lyra. Since I’m not losing much from my principal, isn’t it worth trying? I’ve only lost 600,000 Lyra so far.”

So he had lost money after all.

Bingo stared blankly at the merchant’s face before speaking again.

“Oh, but have you heard? There’s talk that the Hero has been captured. That means the end for Cordana, right?”

“Isn’t it the opposite? We just need to persuade the Hero to face the Demon Lord’s army again.”

“I’m not so sure. Gwon Heejin might already be ruined. I heard he’s become crippled. There’s even talk that he lost in a one-on-one fight with a knight.”

“Still, they need to fix him and use him. …And Bingo. No matter what, you shouldn’t speak so carelessly about the Hero. It’s okay in front of me, but…”

“……”

This was strange.

But Bingo wasn’t a fool, and before long, he realized what the problem was.

Information gap.

And the difference in perception about the Hero.

Although Bingo was a commoner, he had been frequenting the exchange since the early days of Cordana and possessed information comparable to that of nobles. Having worked in the knight order, he had easy access to newspapers and knew the situation in various territories.

In contrast, merchants who had recently entered the market were, frankly speaking, almost completely ignorant.

They knew much more than commoners living outside the direct territories, but they didn’t have access to high-level information.

Above all, their feelings toward the Hero were vastly different from those of the nobles. After all, when the market was at its peak, commoners couldn’t even access it.

‘But he’s still the Hero, what can we do? Is that what they’re thinking? Even when told he’s become crippled?’

Such ingrained perceptions don’t easily disappear.

The criticism of why they entered an already failed market also seemed ineffective. They had entered with the mindset of just earning some pocket money without much greed.

“But sir, if Cordana suddenly crashes, you could lose tens of millions of Lyra at once.”

“Didn’t it already rise to 380 or 390 million before falling? Despite everything, it’s hard for it to fall further from here.”

“……”

“Don’t worry. I don’t have big ambitions. I’d be happy if it just rose to 3,000.”

Bingo nodded blankly, thinking this was no ordinary matter.

After meeting a few more people and speaking with them, only one responded with, “Right. I heard the Hero is a real bastard. I’m not getting involved.”

Even worse.

“If Cordana falls too much, won’t the imperial palace do something? I heard they’re giving out hundreds of millions from the Second Prince’s assets to nobles.”

Some people even said things like this.

Bingo finally closed his mouth. He realized that the situation wouldn’t be resolved simply by capturing the Hero and thoroughly interrogating him.

Cordana had already contaminated the imperial capital. Bingo, who once prided himself on knowing a lot about Cordana, now felt like a fool.

***

“We’ll rest here today.”

“Understood, Inspector.”

Currently, our group and the prisoners were returning to the imperial capital. It wasn’t the frantic rush like when we charged to capture the Hero, but it was still at a crazy pace.

However, even in the midst of such busy travel, there was one task to be done. That’s why we decided to stay at an inn in a small village for once.

My task was to interrogate the Hero.

Though nothing had been clearly revealed, everyone suspected that the Hero was the biggest beneficiary of the Cordana market. He wouldn’t have caused such chaos just to watch the world burn; he must have a large sum of money.

I had no intention of sitting him down politely and coaxing him to talk. Nor was it necessary to further beat the Hero who was already in tatters.

I just needed some preparation for a smooth interrogation. First, I booked a room and seated the Hero on a chair without armrests.

Then I took out a geas scroll.

It was really expensive, but the mage Yuni had one. I confiscated it and forced the Hero to make a vow. I received help from Professor Weaver in the process.

“Vow to speak only the truth when dealing with me.”

“Erick, but you don’t need to go this far…”

“Just do it.”

Soon the vow was completed. The Hero looked at me cautiously from an awkward posture.

Though he appeared subdued after being beaten severely and having his wrist cut off, his eyes still darted around. It meant he roughly guessed what I was going to ask.

Perhaps even in this situation, he was scheming ways to protect what he had.

I quietly placed a knife in front of the Hero. The very knife that had cut off the Hero’s wrist, borrowed briefly from a senior knight.

The Hero’s face instantly hardened.

“Hero, I have something to ask you.”

Now this room was a chamber of truth where not even a speck of falsehood was permitted.