Chapter 257: The Prison of Gold

“Excuse me…”

In the office of the Fourth Knight Order’s commander, Victor, who had entered with a gloomy expression, greeted Lutz with a smile before getting straight to the point.

“How much did they take?”

“Huh?”

It was a sudden question, and Lutz didn’t understand its meaning. It was impolite to ask such a question to a knight order commander, but Lutz just stood there, dumbfounded, for a moment.

“I mean, the bribe. How much did they take?”

“Um, yes. About ten gold coins, split into several payments…”

“Can’t be helped,” muttered Victor, as he opened a small box on top of a cabinet. Inside were tightly packed gold coins, which Victor scooped up and handed to Lutz.

“Here, take it.”

“No, I couldn’t possibly accept that. My desire to meet Your Excellency is not for official business but for personal matters…”

“Just take it. If you’re seen as not wanting to meet me because of the money, it’ll be troublesome for me. How long are you going to leave me, a knight order commander, in this state?”

“I apologize.”

With his hand still stretched out holding the gold coins, Victor urged Lutz to accept them. Lutz hurriedly made a makeshift plate with both hands.

The jingling sound as the gold coins were dropped clearly indicated there were more than ten. However, counting them and returning change would only sour Victor’s mood. So, after bowing deeply, Lutz pocketed the gold coins.

“Thank you. But won’t this just increase Your Excellency’s expenses?”

“Don’t worry, I take from elsewhere too.”

Victor chuckled heartily and then wore an incongruous wry smile.

“You can’t get anything done in the palace without spending money. It’s a terrible situation when even the low-ranking guides won’t lift a finger without a bribe, isn’t it?”

Not knowing how to respond, Lutz remained silent, waiting for Victor to continue.

“Bribes are shit, a pain in the ass. But you know, it’s become so ingrained as a habit that it’s not something that can be stopped just by someone saying so. Not even His Majesty the King.”

Victor casually criticized the king, his eyebrow twitching slightly. When Lutz rolled his eyes, Victor laughed a little and added, “Shut up.”

“The salaries of the servants serving in the palace are low, terribly low. It’s impossible to support a family with such meager wages. Accepting bribes has become a prerequisite for survival. Try completely banning the exchange of money within the court in this situation, and the garden will be filled with hanging corpses.”

Knowing it’s a harmful practice, there’s nothing one can do. Even the powerful like the king and the leader of the knights are the same. Faced with the power of money, people were too powerless.

Lutz shook his head sadly.

“There’s a major flaw in this system of bribery politics. And it’s related to Lord Leonard’s death.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

Victor’s eyebrows twitched. It wasn’t a matter to be taken lightly when a commoner wanted to talk about the death of a knight order commander

Lutz, without flinching from Victor’s gaze, straightened his back. Honestly, he was terrified. But he believed it would be disrespectful to Leonard’s soul to retract his tongue here and had resolved himself to speak.

“People without connections to nobles or influential merchants, who can’t provide a certain amount of money, can’t even talk to people in power.”

“Hmph, so poor people have nothing to say, huh?”

“The opponents Leonard-sama faced in his final battle, the three giant orcs. But was their appearance truly sudden? Maybe there were signs beforehand, like seeing large figures or finding big footprints. But we couldn’t appeal to the palace because we didn’t have money.”

“Maybe someone did try to appeal. But if you don’t pay a bribe, you get pushed aside. That’s the reality. Some petty official might have stopped the talk. What’ll you do? Investigate and hang them?”

With a bitter expression, Lutz thought for a moment and then rejected the suggestion.

“It would be futile. It’s not an individual wrongdoing but a custom.”

If you were to point fingers, everyone living in the palace would be responsible. But surely, they wouldn’t go as far as to judge everyone.

“I wonder who killed Leonard…”

Victor murmured heavily. While the giant orcs directly killed Leonard, that wasn’t the story he wanted to hear.

No one saw the plight of the village outside the city walls, no one moved to help. Therefore, Leonard had to act with only the forces he had on hand. In the palace ruled by money, he was alone.

In that case, Lutz wondered about Victor. His sorrowful expression didn’t seem like a lie or a pose. He probably genuinely knew nothing.

Normally, when the knight order moves outside of its regular duties, it’s under orders from the king or his representative. Without actively seeking information, nothing else would come in.

If Victor and Leonard had been close, perhaps Leonard might have asked for help. In that case, Victor would have gladly sent troops.

But it was a pointless assumption. Leonard probably didn’t trust anyone. He wouldn’t have even thought about trying to be friendly.

Lutz remembered talking to Leonard. He was a man who didn’t shirk his duty, a man with a strong sense of responsibility. But he also had an aura of rejecting others.

It couldn’t be helped. Could such a story be resolved with just those words?

“Um, we got off track. Your goal is to obtain Leonard’s broken sword, right?”

“Yes. I want to melt down that sword and use it as material to forge a new one.”

“But you know, those villagers are grateful for that sword and aren’t willing to let it go. It would be rather embarrassing for me, who didn’t directly fight with it, to forcefully take it away…”

“Hmm,” Victor muttered, scratching his head, then suddenly came up with an idea.

“…But really, couldn’t you just prepare regular iron instead of melting down the sword? Is there any significance in using the broken sword?”

“There is.”

“Huh?”

Lutz picked up the sword that had been placed beside him. It was still wrapped in a leather bag to prevent mischief in the palace.

Taking the sword out of the bag, still in its sheath, Lutz respectfully handed it to Victor.

“I ask for your discretion.”

It was a rude request, one that could get a blacksmith kicked out and thrown from a room. Victor felt a slight discomfort, but his curiosity won over.

Drawing the sword and holding it vertically, Victor was at a loss for words in the face of its magnificence.

“What is this…”

With his hands on his knees, Lutz answered.

“This is my personal sword, ‘Kyōka Suigetsu.'”

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter