Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari - Chapter 259

He hath realized the true power of his food

As for why all these chapters are being released today…

Chapter 259: The Chivalrous Thief

“And so, I thought I would dump this large job on you.” (Naofumi)
“I-I don’t want to! When I make up for my sins, I decided to return to my village and live a decent lifestyle.”

Right. The one who had an abnormally high encounter rate with me, and the one who was under Ren when he was devoured by his curse. I got special permission from the country to take him out of the state prison, after which he had his slave rights turned over to me, and I had a contract written up.

Despite his repeat offenses, he’s repenting nicely. Or perhaps he just doesn’t want to contract with me.
(TL: ／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼)

“Did you think you had the right to refuse?” (Naofumi)

“Calm down. First, listen to what I have to say. It’s not like I’m asking for the impossible. And you’ll also benefit quite a bit.” (Naofumi)

Even though I continuously beat him up, he continued carrying on his role as a thief. My evaluation of him is quite high.
He may just be cursed with bad luck.

“First, I’ll specially grant you a class up. I’ll even cover raising your level.” (Naofumi)

By the way, the sentences the country issued to him included forced farm labor after having his level reset.

He has no means of fighting. He’s in the middle of hard labor in order to make up for his crimes.

It seems that management is much easier here than in my world.

“I don’t know where your hometown is, but I’ll even give financial aid to your family. Under the pretense that you were hired by the country. You’ll make your folks proud.” (Naofumi)
“Gu…” (Bandit)

The bandit lets out a small grunt at my proposal.

“You’re doing a good deed. If you do well, I promise you a large reduction on your sentence.” (Naofumi)

“Can it. It’s a plea bargain.” (Naofumi)

“Then Agent Provocateur.” (Naofumi)
“He’s an Agent?” (Ren)

Ren is looking at me with skepticism.

“Even so, I will…” (Bandit)
“Calm down. Don’t be so hasty. This sudden situation must have made you hungry, right? Should I bring out some food?” (Naofumi)

And I bring out a dish I made to imitate a Katsudon. (TL: Usually given by the police. See Hataraku Maou)

Guu…

He looks at the dish I made, and gulps.

“Don’t worry, it isn’t poisoned. Do you want me to feed some to one of my slaves to demonstrate?” (Naofumi)

I call over the loinclothed dog, put some on a small plate, and give it to her.

“Niichan. This is delicious too! Give me more.” (Kiel)

“Then decline, evil-looking person.” (Kiel)
“I-I just have to eat it, right!? Right!?” (Bandit)

Fu…
The bandit starts eating the pseudo-katsudon.

“W-what is this!? It’s ridiculously delicious, isn’t it!? My hands can’t stop! It reminds me of my mother’s cooking… the tears are…” (Bandit)
(TL: Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is a cooking Web Novel)

I stare contently at the Bandit, who is assaulting the bowl.

Now I just need to make an under-the-table deal with him.
Negotiations like this sure are fun.

“Gu…” (Bandit)

“Even so… I can’t do something like selling out my comrades.” (Bandit)

“I got it! When I succeed, you’ll make them let me free, right!?” (Bandit)

I have various methods to ‘negotiate’.
With that previous method, I think quite a few people would have agreed.

“Of course. It’s a promise.” (Naofumi)

That is if you succeed.

“Naofumi…” (Ren)

Ren opens his mouth as if he wants to say something.

“What?” (Naofumi)

“Still, there’s a limit to going out and hunting bandits, right? In that case we better just cut them off at the source.” (Naofumi)

Using this bandit, we can investigate the cause of the sudden influx of bandits, and keep up public order at the same time.

And just how many people in this world would deduce that a heroes would go around employing bandits?

If I think about it, my position’s changed quite a bit…

“First, you have to gather your thieving brethren. Then you have to build up your forces. Of course, you can’t go around attacking any merchants from my place.” (Naofumi)

By the way, I’ve already negotiated with the accessory merchant.

I can’t understand just what moves him so.

“If I can’t attack merchants, how do you expect me to live!? Don’t underestimate bandits!” (Bandit)
“I never told you not to attack them, right? There are actually some merchants I do want you to attack.” (Naofumi)

According to the accessory merchant, there are several bad merchants who don’t sign in with the Merchant’s Guild. They break the rules and regulation, and sell in other’s territories.

They didn’t act up during the brainwashing incident, but even now they’re building up wealth and power to get rid of me.

I remember seeing a few nobles like that glaring at me.

Though I don’t know the truth of the matter.

“I can’t see the difference!” (Bandit)
“It’s fine. I’ll report the routes and schedules for my merchants and peddlers. You will be choosing evil merchants, and taking their cargo.” (Naofumi)

People call this looking for trouble.
I guess he would be a thief of justice who would only steal from evil.

“And? What should I do about the load from that theft?” (Bandit)

“Is that something a Hero should be doing…?” (Bandit)

I don’t want to hear that from a bandit.

Together with the Queen, I’ll just carry out a large scale trash sweep.

“Will it be alright?” (Bandit)
“The Heroes will also go around under the pretense of getting rid of bandits. As a boss with good intuition, you’ll manage the operation. If you find a troublesome subordinate or someone getting in your way, the people from my place will take care of them. But if you attack us for revenge, we won’t show any mercy.” (Naofumi)

And so I succeeded in taking a bandit as a disciple.

I’ll leave it to Firo’s Spartan training program.

“Naofumi… aren’t you getting darker and darker? It would be troublesome if Eclaire and Wyndia were to imitate it, you know.” (Ren)

“No, it’s not like I don’t see where you’re coming from…” (Ren)

And from my little protégé, I learned one thing.

Since this country’s bandits were regularly caught by my slaves, their forces decreased. And thus, many foreign bandits began to expand their area of activity here.

It’s like the cause and effect where if you hunt one animal too much, another increases too fast.

To summarize the result, a large organization known as the Chivalrous Thief Guild suddenly popped up in Melromark.

Well, the number of underworld organizations in this world merely increased by one.
(TL: Discworld, anyone?)

By the way, the Bandit that I personally trained eventually became quite famous, but that’s another story.