Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 141

Wasted Trip

Weird, why isn’t there any sound? That shouldn’t be possible. The gambling den should be filled with people, and the secret passage should be connected to the store where some guards should be posted. How can it be completely silent?

Claude pushed upwards slightly and made the slightest opening in the bedding. An ominous sensation assailed him. The room was completely dark. There wasn’t any light or movement outside. Claude pushed the whole bed cover open and weaseled out of the secret passage.

Apart from the little rest room with two beds, the whole storeroom was empty. Claude cast Luminous Pearl and saw a thin layer of dust on the furniture in the room.

It seemed like the den had been abandoned for quite a while. Claude didn’t know what to make of it. It couldn’t be because of the trouble he caused there during new year’s eve, could it? Claude opened the door and saw that the doors along the corridor on the second level were all locked up.

That couldn’t be. He looked at the tidy shelves filled with alcohol, gambling tools and utensils and thought that the den wasn’t abandoned, just temporarily closed because of some reason. They weren’t operating for the time being.

In actuality, Claude’s guess was not so far from the truth. The boss of Blacksnake didn’t think that his men that he brought into the garrison clan would have to go through two months of training and weren’t allowed to leave during that span of time. They would be sent to their respective stations and even a sponsor like him wasn’t exempted from that. It was his own fault for wanting the post as the leader of the fourth band. He had brought it upon himself.

As the leader of the gang, Bidlir had only wanted to use the garrison as an excuse to allow his gang members to legally bear arms. He would then strike a private agreement with the mayor to make the public docks and the slums where his band would be stationed. That would mark when he could start comfortably playing the role of king in those two areas. He could also raise his social status in the meantime. That was the reason he was so generous about donating such a huge sum to fund the garrison clan.

Bidlir Blanche was no idiot, or he wouldn’t have become the boss of Blacksnake. He was well aware of his reputation among the elites of Whitestag. He was rich and ambitious and dreamed of joining the elites. That was his first step of going clean and protecting himself. In the kingdom, even though being the mastermind of an underground gang seemed impressive, when faced with actually strong powers in the kingdom, he was nothing but a little ant in their eyes.

It was his foresight that made him curry favor with Baron Robert no matter the cost. Even if he had to invest lots of money into it, he didn’t mind. While Baron Robert looked like a figurehead in the eyes of many, given how his Title couldn’t be inherited by the next generation, Bidlir Blanche believed that he would be the person to allow him entry into the elite of Whitestag. Fortunately for him, his guess was right.

If the three heads in the town hall hadn’t planned to start some sort of new trade route, perhaps the mayor would continue to be nothing but a figurehead. His words didn’t hold much weight at all. Unfortunately, the chief treasurer, chief administrator and the chief constable were all arrested by the keepers from the prefectural capital on charges of threatening national security. While they were released later, their positions in the administration were revoked. The mayor was the only one with any say in the town hall and his power was unchallenged.

With Baron Robert’s planning and help, Bidlir donated a huge sum of money to form a garrison clan in town. However, he also became the fourth bandsman as a result. His new position certainly sounded much better than ‘owner of a fish-processing plant’ and ‘gang boss of Blacksnake’. He was considered among the elite members of town and his appointment was just and unquestionable.

Bidlir wasn’t greedy, however, and managed to retain his rationality. As the boss of Blacksnake, if he gathered too much wealth, he would eventually be incapable of protecting it. He was worried that he would fall into the sights of any powerful person in the future. So, using his money to get himself a position of bandsman was a great deal for him. He could use his newfound position for even more money-making opportunities in the future.

Even so, he still had to play the role of an obedient townsfolk in the military encampment during the two months of training. Given his age of 47, while he was a rich and powerful owner of his plant and a powerful boss with underlings to do his share of the fighting, he couldn’t compare physically to the elite members he recruited into his band. Thankfully, he was an officer and he only needed to know how to instruct his subordinates.

Adding to the fact that the bandsman position was given to him by the council members of the prefectural capital, nobody in the garrison had the right to take him off the position. He was also the main sponsor of the garrison and also treated the instructors and retired veterans of the garrison, so he would be hard-pressed to find any stark opposition against him. Since they enjoyed some benefit thanks to Bidlir, they were more than willing to overlook some of his faults and their bad impression of him changed somewhat.

Given that most of his efforts was focused on the garrison, Bidlir Blanche decided not to start the den back. He had lost many core members of his gang ever since new year’s eve anyway. Even the gamblers didn’t feel safe there.

Even if he started running the den again, he would station more guards there than there were gamblers. Who would like having so many guards staring them down as they gambled? That would no doubt harm the business of the den and the minor leaders would no doubt complain that the cost of running the den far outstripped the profits earned.

So, Bidlir decided that he might as well stop running the den for those two months. Only after the training was completed and he was given charge over the slums and the docks would he start it back up. He believed that with the fourth band guarding the place, the bloody new year’s eve incident wouldn’t be repeated.

Claude wasn’t aware that the casino had stopped operating because of the garrison clan’s training, so his trip that night was wasted. His plan to rob them was for naught, even the gang didn’t want to play along with it.

He went out through the secret passage and locked the doors back, restoring everything back to how it was. Taking a look at the little hole he made on the door at the passage’s entrance, he stuffed some mud into it and hoped that nobody would notice. That would make it easier for him to come again next time. He wouldn’t have to make another hole with Magic Missile then. It would be troublesome if they changed it into a metal door after all. While the den wasn’t operating today, the same couldn’t be said for the next time he planned a visit.

He left the hut and locked the main entrance back up. Standing at the alley, he felt really disheartened. Anything he did recently didn’t seem to go well. He wasn’t able to get good prey on his hunts, and the den had to be closed when he wanted to rob it. They were all wasted efforts.

He traveled back along the alley and passed by Hurian’s shop. He saw that it was shut and there wasn’t a trace of light within. That fat old man must be sleeping soundly inside, yet I had to go through all this trouble for money for my experiments and I didn’t manage to rob any… Claude really felt like tossing a rock into the shop to scare that old man, but the urge soon left his mind. He wasn’t a child and there wasn’t a need to vent on a vile merchant like him.

If he robbed Hurian’s shop, he might be able to gain lots of money and magical materials. Perhaps it would be enough to sustain his experiments for quite a while. But that notion was but a mere flash in his mind. He didn’t plan on actually doing so.

Robbing Blacksnake was the lowest he was willing to stoop. There wasn’t any moral burden he had to uphold since he was merely robbing a malign organization. Blacksnake’s money wasn’t earned legally in the first place and he wouldn’t feel bad for robbing from them.

But robbing Hurian was a whole nother thing. Claude couldn’t bear to commit it. Hurian wasn’t a good man, but he was the representative sent to set up a branch of the black magic market in Whitestag to trade in magic materials.

Claude couldn’t rob him because though he was hardly a saint, he wasn’t a depraved and cruel bandit. Robbing the gambling den of Blacksnake was an act of righteous banditry that happened to be able to solve his financial crisis, just like the exploits of the heroes of Liangshan in ‘Water Margin’. They hadn’t robbed the kind and innocent folk and only set their sights on the bad.

Though Hurian had struck a deal with Claude and much more than he deserved, Claude didn’t hate him for that. That was but a marketing tactic. It wasn’t that Hurian forced him to make the purchase; he had jumped into the pitfall trap himself. He had to own his mistakes and learn from them so that he wouldn’t repeat them. At worst, he would include Hurian in his mental list of vile merchants with whom he would avoid doing business as best he could.

He would have too less class if he resorted to robbery just because he got a bad deal. Claude wasn’t willing to stoop so low. Additionally, there was probably more to Hurian than his shady business tactics, given that he was appointed the representative of the black magic market. For his safety, he decided against robbing the old man to prevent courting trouble for himself.

After he passed the crossroads where the shop was located, Claude made his way to the little path that led to the embankment. However, the road seemed rather crowded. The sound of a man’s yells and a woman’s cries could be heard from afar.

Two figures stood ahead and blocked Claude’s way when they saw him.

“Blacksnake has some business here. Any people who aren’t concerned with this should buzz off…”