The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 2 - Chapter 100

Chapter 100:

Noble Ambush?SIDE: CAPTAIN BARXBY

MARCREEK TOLD AGROP to start his sweep “about three blocks” from the mansion base. Three blocks could fit nearly 120 buildings. Guiding everybody in that radius to the base sounded like a huge pain in the rear.

“It should be pretty quick since they’re using a magical item to assess them, but I expect some will still refuse to cooperate.”

Some people would definitely try to get away with some excuse like “I don’t have time right now.” Persuading them all would be a nightmare. If only there were some other way…

“Why not tell the truth?” Agrop suggested. “We know that citizens in their area are conspiring with criminals. If they refuse, that will be taken as an admission of guilt, and they’ll be taken in for questioning.”

“Do you think that’ll make them cooperate?”

“I wonder…oh. If they refuse, make it clear that it’s a kidnapping organization. If it gets about that they could be conspiring with kidnappers, they’ll have a hard time living in this town. People might throw rocks at them, right? Anyone who isn’t a real blockhead would be glad to comply.”

“Yeah, true…fine,” I surrendered. “Let’s try it your way.” Agrop’s method seemed certain to get the townspeople’s cooperation. The majority of people here loathed the kidnappers. If anyone was rumored to be one of them, they could be killed or worse. We’d tread carefully because of that, but this time, we had numbers. I wasn’t going to let a single criminal slip through my fingers. “Agrop, make sure you get the trainees in line to be checked, too.”

Marcreek gasped at that, but a chilling grin crept onto Agrop’s face. He was probably thinking about how he would put these trainees through their paces. It was true that even if they were trainees, they were still part of the town guard. We were going to make these boys work.

“Understood,” Agrop replied. “I’ll make certain that every single one is examined.”

If any of them were traitors, it would be a blow to the others. Still, they would need to overcome that if they were to be guardsmen.

“Ah, right. Captain, they were hoping to have you go to the base yourself,” Marcreek added.

“Aren’t they all conked out in there? Why does it matter who goes?”

“Well, Ivy was worried there might be some problematic folk among them.”

“Problematic? Problematic how?”

“Hmm…nobles, maybe?”

“Ah…” That reminded me. “Yeah, there was at least one noble listed in those documents, wasn’t there? But…what kind of idiotic noble would try to ambush a guard base?”

“Who knows? Not me.”

“I’ll leave that to you, Captain,” Agrop said. “As for me, I’ll gather personnel at the station and begin combing those three blocks to push people toward the base. Oh, and I’ll be sending the trainees straight to Bolorda. I’d best be off now.”

Agrop strode jauntily off toward the station, indifferent to my confusion. He ran away because he hates nobles, didn’t he?

I heaved a big sigh, and Marcreek put a hand on my shoulder. “We adventurers don’t like ’em, either. Good luck! Hey, maybe there won’t be any nobility there after all.”

I sighed again. “You don’t actually think that. Hey, didn’t Agrop forget to give orders to the guard here?”

“Why don’t you do it, Captain?”

Yeah, I could. But I hate explaining things…

“I know, it’s no picnic. Do your best, Captain! It’s almost over!”

I raised a hand to acknowledge Marcreek’s meager support and headed over to the remaining guardsmen. They had finished transferring all the prisoners into the jail.

They all tensed up when they saw me. I always hated when the mood was like this. It happened every time we had to arrest people. I told myself to buck up; this was no time to get soppy.

Bolorda waved to me. “Keep up the good work, Captain!” he called out.

That made me feel a little better. Sensing Bolorda’s good mood, the other guards visibly relaxed. I chuckled to myself—if there was one thing they were good at, it was reading the room.

“You too, Bolorda. Are you about ready?”

“Yeah, all good. What’s the plan for the guards left here?”

All eyes gathered on me again, but the uneasy mood from before didn’t return. Bolorda had really done me a solid. I locked eyes with Marse, and he laughed.

“Have them stand by until Agrop returns,” I commanded. “After that, send them to the base. Marse, I’ve got a job for you.”

“Sir.”

“Divide the guard into groups of three. We’ll be scouring for every individual within three blocks of the base and guiding them back there.”

“Hmm? Er, every single one? That’ll be a huge group…”

“I’m aware, Marse. Don’t miss a single person—I want everyone. Agrop will fill you in on the details when he returns.”

“Understood.”

I had explained the basics, so the rest was up to Agrop. He’d foisted all the problems at the base on to me, so I was just returning the favor.

“All right, let’s go… Ah.” I stopped on my way out. “Rosay and Clidaro, you two come with me. And…Marse, choose three people who can stand up to nobles for me, got it?”

“Will do, sir.”

My two and Marse’s three would be able to deal with any members of the peerage who might be at the base.

On our way, I asked Bolorda to fill me in on our next steps.

“They’ll change depending on how things are going at the mansion,” he replied. “For now, adventurers are staying out…just in case any specific people might be inside. If so, that’s all yours.”

“I figured.” Nobles would reluctantly listen to the orders of the guard, but they were defiant when it came to adventurers. Plenty of those idiots would brandish their authority to try to weasel out of anything they didn’t like.

“We’ll meet up with Seizerk. Once everything is ready, we’ll start checking people.”

“Do you have enough personnel?”

“The GM ought to have gathered some people for us. Though we’ll have to start by assessing those guys first.”

“Right. Rosay, you’d better go with Bolorda.”

Bolorda and Rosay looked at me in confusion. You could say that Rosay had…resting scary face. I’m not one to talk, but he was terrifying. He ought to make an effective threat just by standing next to Bolorda.

“If anyone causes trouble, stare them down,” I explained. “If that doesn’t work, you have my permission to use force.”

Bolorda’s magical item was vital for this strategy. To keep things moving smoothly, he’d need someone to have his back.

“Great!” Bolorda smiled. “Rosay, right? Good to work with you!”

“Likewise, sir.”

When we arrived at the base, all was quiet. I peeked in from the entrance and saw a staggering number of people on the floor. Lord, how many are there?

Bolorda smiled grimly next to me. I followed his gaze and saw a man clearly dressed in much finer attire than the others around him. He was face-down, so I couldn’t identify him, but that was definitely a style favored by nobles. And he wasn’t the only one—I saw two others like him at a single glance.

“Wow. How stupid are these guys?”

“I doubt they expected our base would be enchanted to make everyone fall asleep,” Bolorda commented. “They figured they were safe to join the ambush, I guess.”

I grinned. Indeed, this was the result of us taking them entirely unawares…nobles and all.

“Captain, what’s going on here?” Rosay asked.

“These are agents of the organization. They came to steal our evidence. Some of our allies are mixed in, but don’t worry about them.”

The five guardsmen who had come with us were shocked.

“Now, let’s not bring any adventurers in here. We can deal with this ourselves. Rosay, stay with us until Bolorda’s ready.”

“Yes, sir.”

“First off, let’s get some fresh air in here. I don’t wanna walk in and get knocked out right away.”

I placed a cloth over my mouth and opened the front door wide. I couldn’t wait to see how many of the organization’s people we had caught. The little problem of the nobles could be left for later.