Chapter 12

EP.12 Street Patrol (2)

 

Bad Ending [Commoner’s Misery].

Due to the Demon King Army’s attack, the wheat fields across the empire have been contaminated with plague, leading to an unprecedented famine.

Acella prioritizes distributing the remaining wheat to the Demon King Expeditionary Force and disregards the commoners dying of starvation.

When the commoners gather in front of the palace shouting for bread, Acella mocks them, saying ‘You’re not going to get it.’

She didn’t give them the clichéd advice to eat sweets instead of bread.

“In fact, she cursed the wheat fields. The lowly commoners deserved to starve and die..”

The commoners, with empty stomachs and no strength to revolt, watched the empire perish.

Only later did we realize this fact, and the discouraged Heroes gave up the expedition, and the world was engulfed in darkness.

As you can see from that ending, it’s clear that Acella harbors no good feelings towards the commoners.

‘It seems like negative feelings towards the commoners accumulate from such small interaction.’

I somewhat understand.

Even I, while enjoying a peaceful tea time, would surely develop negative feelings if I encountered a thug causing trouble.

And I was equally irritated by this bastard.

Interrupted during a rare peaceful moment.

Above all, if he’s not even from my territory, my anger doubles.

Thinking that he must have caused trouble for my subjects too, I was twice as furious.

I walked briskly towards the man and stood in front of Acella.

When dealing with a dispute, the one with the louder voice usually wins.

The best defense is a good offense. Though it may lack formality, being an a*****e is more effective.

“After a long time, I went for a walk and found some brats making trouble in the front yard without permission. What are you kids doing?”

The leader of the group was hefty.

He puffed up his chest and approached me aggressively. A threatening posture.

“Watch your mouth, you punk. you money-grubbing bastard, hitting on hollow women in broad daylight.”

“Huh.”

This guy’s got some nerve.

Did he mistake me for someone who’d seduce Acella?

Seems like he’s got a thousand lives to spare.

“Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear that this is my front yard?”

“What does this look like to you?”

The man pointed to the emblem on the chest of my jacket.

“All the land of the empire is the front yard of the Supreme. Know your place.”

“Yeah! Get lost right now. You’re just a pestilent little rat under the parasitic hat.”

Even his subordinates seemed a bit deflated.

I chuckled.

“Nice words, but you’re just a courier company collecting fees. And this, it’s just a vest, right?”

– Tap-tap. –

I tapped the man’s vest with my hand, and dust flew out.

“What’s it to you? It’s obvious you’re just a lowly carrier who’s used to carrying around dirty stuff. Ugh, it stinks.”

– Smack! –

I tossed his vest aside.

“And what’s that got to do with it now, why the top bastards are thugs in someone else’s territory? Huh?”

“I was just asking for a legitimate loan. you could lend us a gold coin, couldn’t you?”

“All you did was come over on a boat to transport goods for a moment. When were you planning to repay the loan? And you keep selling your name to the wrong people?”

My words seemed to scratch his temper, as the man twitched his eyebrows.

“This punk…!”

I thought about revealing my identity, knowing that if I pissed him off any further, there would be violence, but he was moving faster.

His left fist was already coming at me.

This is what short-tempered people do.

There’s a considerable difference in physique. One hit would surely be fatal.

But I’m agile enough to react quickly.

I turn my head and easily dodge the blow.

“What…?!”

He seemed confused at my dodge, perhaps not expecting it.

There’s no time to just stand there after not landing the first hit.

He clenches his fist and immediately takes a stance to strike again.

…But me, my physical strength is a bit lacking.

Quite lacking.

Even if I counterattack, can I deliver any damage? That’s the question that crosses my mind.

[Diagnosis D activated]

A message appeared on the status screen, revealing immediate facts.

[Injury Status: Fracture]

[Injury Location: Right Arm]

Information indicating that the man’s right arm is in a fractured state.

Given the redness in part of his body, the location was easy to see.

‘So, it was his right arm that was injured, not being left-handed, he tried to strike with his left?’

– Whack! –

Without hesitation, I deliver a straight punch to the area marked in red.

“Aah!”

The man, who had been speaking in a low voice, screams loudly like a woman and collapses on the spot.

Oh my, that must have hurt.

Judging by his reaction, it might be a comminuted fracture. That’s really painful.

He must be a laborer who uses his body roughly, and he must have recently been injured.

I don’t miss the opportunity. I press down on the fallen man with my knee to subdue him immediately.

“Brother!”

“You bastard!”

The other two rush at me, so I pull out a dagger from my back pocket.

“Hey, if you don’t want to see someone really get hurt, stay quiet, okay?”

Seeing the gleaming blade, they retreat in terror.

“What, what’s going on?”

“He’s really crazy! Call the guards!”

As the commotion grows, more and more onlookers start gathering.

It doesn’t matter. My focus is solely on one person, Acella.

[No. 021: Commoner’s Misery 25% → 23%]

Acella continues to observe my actions.

Wouldn’t she feel threatened and disgusted by these top thugs?

Let’s assume that accumulated negative feelings towards the commoners led to this bad ending.

‘What’s done is done, but we must redirect the target of her negative feelings.’

I shout loudly enough for the onlookers to hear.

“Guards? Call them! Let’s see who the guards of this territory are working for!”

I throw away the hat I was wearing.

Gothberg’s pride, my white hair glimmers in the sunlight.

“That, that person!”

“It’s Lars! It’s Young Lord Lars!”

“The successor of Marquis!”

The onlookers who recognize me are surprised and shout out.

Well, there’s no way someone wouldn’t recognize me in this street.

It’s quite a reputation to be called a Lord without anyone calling me by my title. Quite remarkable indeed.

“The, the successor of Lord Marquis?”

“White hair… Is it really him?”

The men are bewildered. It’s like trying to catch a crayfish and finding a poisonous spider instead.

I sheathed my knife and asked the leader in a low voice.

“Hey, why do you need the money?”

“Y-yes? Well, you see…”

“Answer quickly, or I might make you disappear before anyone notices.”

The leader, still grimacing in pain under my knee, managed to answer.

“Th-the thing is… The owner of merchant group was here, and we accidentally smashed the high-end goods that were supposed to be delivered to him in the morning. We need to pay compensation…”

“Ah, so it’s the owner’s fault then?”

“N-no, it’s not, it’s my fault…”

“I’ll ask one more time, and you better tell the truth.”

“Yes?”

“Or else you’ll regret it.”

I cleared my throat and shouted loudly.

“You bastard! You’ve always been intimidating my subjects with violence! I won’t tolerate it today!”

Some onlookers echoed my words.

“That’s right!”

“They’re a problem every time they show up!”

“Young Lord! Teach them a lesson!”

This may be the first time the men I just subdued have ever been on our property. Maybe they’ve only been working for a short time.

But they’re working on a boat, they’re used to rough physical labor.

I predicted that the onlookers would sympathize with me, and then grabbed the leader by the hair and shouted loudly once again.

“Speak! Why would you, a commoner yourself, try to exploit fellow commoners?”

“I-I was ordered by a merchant!”

The leader shouted with all his might.

Good, he said what I wanted.

“Ah, I should have known there was a merchant above you! It’s always the merchant who exploit ignorant commoners. I’ll have to settle this directly by the Gothberg family!”

I released the leader and stood up.

The onlookers murmured and buzzed with excitement.

“Hey, did you hear? Young Lord Gothberg is going to confront the merchant for the territory!”

“I thought he was just a troublemaker, but he seems to care about his land.”

“Young Lord, you’re amazing!”

“He’s so passionate!”

Passionate? My face is burning with passion.

I feel ridiculous.

This isn’t acting, it’s just cheap theatre.

I had no talent for acting, but whatever.

I glanced at Acella, the cause of this farce, to gauge her reaction slightly.

… Acella was enjoying her coffee and looking at me with a slight smirk. She must have felt like she was watching a show.

[No. 021: Commoner’s Misery 23% → 5%]

Instead, the probability of a bad ending has been restored. In fact, it’s slightly lower than before. This should be considered a success.

“What are you looking at? Huh?”

Growling towards the surroundings, I made the onlookers quickly start to disperse.

I turned to the still collapsed leader.

“Hey, you’ve all seen enough, so scram. Don’t bother me anymore.”

“Ar-are you sure? We’re really sorry for today’s incident. If you could just pardon us with a word to the owner of merchant group, we’d be grateful…”

“Enough with the noise. Oh, by the way, what was that thing you were delivering to the owner of merchant group?”

If it was a high-value item purchased for our territory, the category was obvious.

“It was high quality holy water. About twenty bottles…”

If they said it was smashed, it must have been just the holy water. Twenty bottles is quite a quantity. It seems like there must be an ailment that the owner urgently needs to remedy.

Since it was useful information, I decided to let them go for now.

“Alright, now really get lost. Stop wandering around with a broken arm and at least bandage it up or something.”

“Huh? How did you know it’s broken? And bandage it up… what do you mean?”

Annoying.

Normally, I’d have to give him a few more punches to the face to make sense, but nonsense also annoys me.

I used the stick the leader had and improvised a rope, tightly tying it around his arm.

“You’ll have to go around like this for at least two weeks. If you don’t have money for a healer, tough luck.”

“What? I don’t know how, but I do feel a lot better… Thank you. We’re really sorry for causing trouble.”

They bowed their heads to me and Acella and hurried away.

In times like this, having power is indeed convenient.

‘Hmm?’

————

• • Skill rank has increased.

 

• • Emergency Treatment Mastery E → D

 

• • You can perform emergency treatment a little faster.

 

• • The effectiveness of emergency treatment has slightly increased.

————

I gained skill experience and my rank increased.

‘It’s happening fast. Maybe it’s because of my medical knowledge.’

Thanks to that, the overall experience in [Medicine] also increased.

‘I’ll probably get a new skill soon.’

I turned back to Acella.

“There was a little trouble, Your Highness. I hope it didn’t bother you too much.”

“It was very unpleasant.”

Acella delicately touched her coffee cup to her lips, then pulled it away and continued.

“Still, it was a great snack to enjoy with this coffee.”

Seems like she’s gotten amused by my clowning around and doesn’t care about commoners or anything. Yeah, it always felt like this even ten years from now. Our hero party was like clowns for Acella’s amusement, putting on a circus show. Well, as long as the outcome is good.

“Your cups got destroyed.”

“You didn’t order another one?”

“You said not to give any more gold coins.”

“Well done. Let’s go back and get some water.”

As I nodded and sat back down, the owner brought a fresh cup of coffee.

“Here’s your ordered coffee.”

You had placed the order anyway.

As I was about to take out the coins, the owner extended their hand.

“Oh no, it’s not necessary. The payment was received from the lady here.”

“Received? How?”

Since there were only gold coins, payment would have been impossible.

As I looked at Acella with suspicion, the owner smiled satisfactorily and replied.

“It was received in flowers. They’re fresh and bright, perfect for decoration. It’s enough to cover the cost of the broken cup. Please enjoy the rest of your conversation, sir.”

The owner said so and left.

In front of me was a steaming cup of butter coffee.

“What conversation?”

As I turned my head, I noticed Acella was avoiding my gaze.

“Flowers?”

“It’s cumbersome to carry around.”

The flowers she bought from the children were immediately exchanged.

It was a smart move. If I incur a debt or receive something for free under my family name, it would have damaged our reputation.

– Thunk. –

Acella set her cup down and spoke to me.

“Lars.”

“Yes?”

“Will you step forward like that again if a similar situation arises?”

“Of course.”

I replied promptly. If the numbers keep rising steadily, it’s only natural for the body to react reflexively.

In response to my answer, Acella subtly raised the corners of her lips.

There, a bit of butter foam clung to her cheek, where the baby fat hadn’t fully disappeared.

“You got some here.”

I reached out and wiped it away with my thumb.

I should maintain the princess’s dignity.

“Would you like to leave now that you’ve finished?”

No response to the question.

As I looked at Acella, she avoided my gaze and bit her teeth tightly.

Why are you angry again?

“Lars.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

Do what.