Chapter 39: Shadowless Team

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Shadowless Team

The midday autumn sun hung high, bright but no longer scorching. It shone down with a pleasant crispness, warming the massive graystone archway of Rose Town.

This was Rose Town, one of the most renowned hubs for Adventurers in the Twilight Duchy, and even the entire Jade Federation.

The town gate, like a tireless, giant maw, constantly swallowed and spat out a diverse stream of people.

Lone travelers bearing enormous packs; Adventurer Squads in groups of three or five; hurried-looking merchants; and even a few small goblins, who were slowly herding two carts into town—carts pulled by mountain lizards and laden with strange ores and autumn-harvested root crops.

Above the archway was the crest of the Night Thorn Clan: a rose blooming amidst thorns.

The Guards at the gate were clad in Chain Armor, their eyes sharp.

Although they were long accustomed to the daily chaos and potential dangers at the town gate, they seemed especially vigilant today. Their hands never strayed from the pommels of the weapons at their waists, and their gazes carefully scanned every person who entered or exited.

Beside the flagstone road not far from the archway, six burly men in matching azure jackets were clearing the path.

A middle-aged man in a long, wave-patterned silk coat stood at their head. His hair was impeccably styled, and he nervously fussed with his collar and cuffs, trying to smooth out every last wrinkle.

Behind him, two young men dressed as attendants stood ramrod straight, their eyes fixed on the road ahead.

The spectacle drew the eyes of many a passerby.

Mixed in with the crowd, Dimi pulled his ill-fitting jacket tighter.

He stood on his tiptoes to get a better look at the unusual scene, then nudged the man beside him—a man in old, black Leather Armor—with his elbow.

The man had the air of a rank-and-file Adventurer who had been knocking around for years. His eyes were shrewd with a touch of slick cunning, and a well-maintained Curved Saber hung at his waist.

"Boss Wilson," Dimi asked in a hushed, curious voice, "what are all these people doing? Why the big production?"

The man, Wilson, crossed his arms with the air of a man who knew everything there was to know about Rose Town. "That’s Mr. Ford," he replied in a low voice, "the manager of Four Seas Currency."

"Four Seas Currency is the biggest shop in Rose Town. You’re new, so you probably don’t know. But you must have heard of the great Tide Merchants Association, right?"

Dimi nodded repeatedly, like a chicken pecking at grain, an awed expression on his face. "I know, I know! The big merchant association! All I know is... they’re super rich!"

"Exactly!" Wilson jutted his chin out proudly, as if he owned the association himself. "Four Seas Currency is the Tide Merchants Association’s shop here in Rose Town!

"I just did some asking around. I hear Manager Ford is out here personally to welcome the young mistress of the Tide Merchants Association."

He clapped Dimi on the shoulder, boasting, "See? I told you. You and your brother coming to Rose Town and joining our Shadowless Team was the right call!

"Did you see that? Even an organization as huge as the Tide Merchants Association is sending their own young mistress here. That means this place is bursting with opportunity!"

The moment Dimi heard the words "young mistress of the Tide Merchants Association," he grew nervous and shrank back. He tugged on Wilson’s sleeve. "Boss Wilson, with all this commotion at the gate today... m-maybe we should just forget it?"

"My brother and I didn’t actually lose that much. My dagger was just some piece of junk I picked up at a stall, and my brother’s Money Bag only had a few dozen copper nails..."

Wilson’s eyes bugged out. "Forget it, my ass!" he hissed, annoyed. "What are you afraid of? They’re waiting for their young mistress. What’s that got to do with us? You think she gives a damn if you lost your dagger?"

Dimi’s face was a mask of misery. "I’m usually pretty brave..." he muttered. "But Boss Wilson, you weren’t there last night... It was terrifying. My legs still feel a little weak..."

Recalling the scene from the previous night, Wilson found it both infuriating and hilarious.

Those two idiots, Dimi and his partner, were supposed to come find him during the day. Instead, they’d shown up in the middle of the night, butt-naked and covering their groins, at the address for his combination home and office. They were banging on the door and screaming something about a talking Undead Dog...

He cursed in a low voice, "You two morons! Use your heads! In a town as big as Rose Town, how many Mages do you think there are? What self-respecting Mage would stay in a dump like the ’Roadside Inn’? A Necromancer? You think a Necromancer would give a damn about your pathetic junk?"

"Rupert just said as much when he rushed back to report! He saw the carriage from a distance. There was no Undead Dog! Just a brown-and-white mutt napping on the coach box!

"The two of you definitely got played! The people in that carriage are, ten to one, just con artists who specialize in these kinds of spooky tricks!

"Don’t worry, Rupert saw them heading toward Rose Town!

"I’ll personally get your stuff back, and while I’m at it, I’ll shake them down for some extra coin!"

Dimi was skeptical. "Boss... c-can we really get it back? What if they..."

Wilson patted the Curved Saber at his hip and glanced at the Guards on duty nearby. "What’s to be afraid of?" he said, full of confidence. "The Guards are right there! If they refuse to hand it over, we’ll just raise a ruckus and have the Guards arrest them as con artists! Let’s see how tough they are then!"

Just as he said that, Dimi’s eyes lit up. He pointed to a carriage slowly approaching in the distance and whispered excitedly, "Boss! There it is, there it is! That’s the carriage! That black horse! I’d recognize it anywhere!"

At that exact moment, Steward Ford of Four Seas Currency, who was standing nearby, suddenly took on a solemn expression. He turned to the attendants behind him and commanded, "Raise the banners!"

Hearing the command, the six burly men in wave-patterned azure jackets moved in perfect unison, grabbing the ropes of the flagpoles that had been prepared on both sides of the road and pulling hard.

WHOOSH—

Six enormous, ten-foot-tall merchant association banners instantly unfurled.

The azure silk shimmered in the midday sun, and the surging waves, meticulously embroidered in gold thread, seemed to roil and churn as the banners snapped in the breeze, looking as if they might leap right off the fabric.

This sudden, magnificent display drew a wave of hushed gasps and murmurs from the surrounding crowd.

However, Dimi, Wilson, and the other two members of their Shadowless Team were completely oblivious to the commotion behind them.

Keeping to the shade of the trees along the road, they crept forward silently, like hyenas stalking their prey.

...

「Inside the carriage.」

Hesia stared with a sense of resignation at an empty corner of the carriage.

The clothes he had "liberated" last night had all been thrown out en route, on the young mistress’s orders. She had declared that they reeked of a nauseating combination of filth and poverty.

’What a waste,’ he thought. ’He could have sold them for at least one Silver Scale.’