The head of the Mormon Association had a stern look that immediately made him seem rigid and unyielding.
Even as Keldric entered the room, he didn’t put down his pen, continuing to write busily with his head lowered.
“It’s an honor to meet you. I am Anselm, the head of the Mormon Association.”
Anselm’s tone and expression were gentle, quite unlike his appearance.
Perhaps he was only acting this way in front of Keldric, but he didn’t seem like the type to be arrogant simply because of his position; he was also perceptive.
With a constant smile, he guided Keldric to the seat of honor, creating a natural dynamic where everyone in the room was looking slightly up at Keldric.
“Apologies for arriving unannounced.”
“Not at all. For a man as honorable as Sir Keldric, we would always make time.”
Among the wealthy merchants, there were many who didn’t particularly fear knights.
After all, they had accumulated more money than they could spend in a lifetime, while many knights, even after a lifetime of work, couldn’t amass that much.
Merchants with plenty of wealth would often lend money freely to knights who, lacking a sense of financial restraint, would spend it just as freely, while wealthy merchants would use these debts to secure connections with the nobility of estates.
To merchants, who saw the world through coins rather than eyes, there were no people as foolish as knights.
Of course, while they might fear knights less than other commoners, if they overstepped and damaged a knight’s honor, they would be the ones preparing their own funeral.
Anselm’s demeanor hinted at such caution, with a courtesy and friendliness that, upon closer inspection, was subtly tinged with discomfort.
Keldric didn’t feel the need to prolong their conversation.
He had no reason to convince them that he wasn’t like those other knights.
Just hand over the letter and finish the task.
With that in mind, Keldric took out a letter and passed it to Anselm.
“Let’s skip the unnecessary talk. Take the letter first.”
“Sir Keldric? This is…”
“Best to read it before we talk.”
As Anselm unfolded the letter and read it slowly, Alisa, though clueless about the situation, kept a calm expression, looking straight ahead.
There was no need for Alisa to hear the following conversation.
However, it didn’t particularly matter if she did.
Alisa had already openly admitted to being from a fallen noble family, so it mattered even less.
Meanwhile, Anselm’s expression changed with each line of the letter.
His face turned ashen halfway through, and by the end, it was flushed with rage.
“…Are you alright?”
“Ah? No, that’s…uh…”
Anselm hurriedly composed his expression, embarrassed that he had failed to control his emotions.
His flushed face quickly returned to normal, a skill that impressed Keldric, as if demonstrating the virtues of a true merchant.
“Hah… Sir Keldric, I must sincerely apologize.”
“Hm?”
“I’m truly, truly sorry. To think that wretch Joseph would pull such a stunt…”
If his anger was directed at Joseph, Keldric could understand.
At this moment, there were two reasons why Anselm’s head remained attached to his shoulders.
One was the distance of the Bellaf estate, limiting its influence here, and the other was that Keldric knew how to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent.
Though technically, Anselm’s lack of oversight could be considered a problem, Keldric had no intention of pursuing that line of blame.
While he might hint for some form of compensation, he wouldn’t draw a weapon to settle scores in such a fatalistic way.
Unaware of this, Anselm was naturally furious, knowing that his life was at stake because of one foolish merchant under his association.
“Is that bastard dead, then?”
“Calm yourself. It would be wise to choose your words carefully.”
“Oh! I’m sorry, ah…”
Keldric, calming Anselm down, cast a glance at the letter in Anselm’s hand.
Keldric already knew roughly what was in the letter. It simply stated that the Bellaf family had detained Joseph, and if he wanted to know more details, he should contact Baron Volpen directly and send a new merchant in his place.
The letter was more of a notice, even a threat, rather than a letter.
Hilmor had name-dropped Baron Volpen, which meant that the matter was serious enough for the baron himself to get involved.
The letter also briefly mentioned Joseph’s wrongdoings, making it understandable why Anselm would be distressed.
“Sir Keldric, what happened to Joseph? Surely, Sir Hilmor would have meted out appropriate punishment?”
Without weighing the severity, Anselm’s words implied Joseph’s death.
For a commoner to organize mercenaries against a noble was madness.
Especially if it involved killing the head of a noble family and installing another heir against the former’s will, it was a clear invitation to death.
It was only natural to assume that Joseph was currently roasting in the purgatory below.
However, Keldric found this obsession with Joseph strange.
‘Why is he so fixated on Joseph?’
Even though Joseph was a member of the Mormon Association, Keldric couldn’t understand why Anselm was so insistent on confirming his death.
It didn’t seem to be solely out of fear for his life.
Anselm seemed less intent on merely wanting Joseph dead and more on confirming his death through Keldric, a desire that seemed driven by a personal vendetta rather than anything else—a baseless conviction that Joseph must die, which Keldric found distinctly odd.
From the moment he sensed this strangeness, the air in the room began to feel unusually stifling to Keldric. Nonetheless, he did not show it outwardly.
“He’s likely dead by now. Baron Volpen himself intervened.”
“Ah! Indeed! As expected!”
“As you said, he was a total bastard.”
“Yes, absolutely! I put so much effort into training him to be an upstanding merchant, and he betrayed the very Bellaf family that granted him the right to trade. A truly ungrateful scoundrel!”
Without batting an eye, Keldric lied smoothly.
He didn’t actually know if Joseph was dead or not.
If anything, he suspected Joseph might still be alive.
While Hilmor had interrogated Joseph to extract information, now that they had found links to Baron Gofrit, Baron Volpen would likely keep him alive.
The only wildcard was Baron Volpen’s impatience.
The baron might have lost control and slit Joseph’s throat the moment he heard Gofrit’s name, though this was merely a conjecture.
Keldric lied solely to observe Anselm’s reaction.
He sensed something amiss and wanted to confirm whether it was genuine.
“With Joseph dead, I’d like you to send a new merchant, as mentioned in the letter.”
“Of course! No problem at all! I’ll send a much more reliable man this time. My apologies to you and the honorable Bellaf family.”
Anselm was strangely pleased about Joseph’s death, and it didn’t seem solely out of relief for saving his own skin.
Even after the matter was resolved, Anselm, feigning exaggerated gratitude, handed Keldric five Floren gold coins and promised further compensation for the Bellaf family.
It was as if he was trying to curry favor with Keldric.
“I’ll make good use of this money.”
“If it’s not enough, please let me know! I’ll refill it to match your honor!”
Naturally, there was no need for Keldric to refuse the money.
He pocketed it without a word. If Jorgen’s words were accurate, it was likely tainted money, but money was money.
Should Anselm later attempt to wield this against him, Keldric would answer with his mace and nothing more.
There was no need to overthink it.
‘I’m becoming more of a knight myself.’
With a tinge of bitterness in his heart, Keldric finished his farewells with Anselm and left the association’s building with Alisa.
As soon as they stepped outside, Keldric turned to Alisa and abruptly asked,
“What do you think?”
“Just now, I’m asking what you thought of that fellow.”
“…I don’t know the details, but it seemed like he was strangely pleased when you mentioned Joseph’s death.”
“That’s what I thought too.”
Keldric nonchalantly mounted Boreas.
Alisa, who had been speaking with him, also quickly climbed onto her horse.
“And that makes it all the stranger.”
Keldric felt a strong instinct—whatever scent he had picked up earlier was definitely a foul stench.
“Sir Keldric! Come quickly!”
“Ah, Sir Hermann.”
“I was waiting for you so anxiously I thought my neck might snap! Come inside!”
When Keldric returned to the castle, Sir Hermann, who appeared to have finished his business with the guild leader, greeted him warmly.
Keldric paused, looking at Sir Hermann somewhat reluctantly, as the stench he had noticed with Anselm earlier still lingered in his mind.
“Did something good happen?”
“It’s a bit sensitive to discuss here… Shall we head inside?”
Keldric cast a quick glance at the cautious Sir Hermann and then at Alisa, who was standing silently beside him.
“Alisa, go ahead inside.”
“Yes, understood.”
As Keldric watched Alisa hurry to her room, he then turned his gaze back to Sir Hermann, who looked strangely animated.
Whatever news he had heard, it was hard for Keldric to gauge its significance.
They couldn’t linger in the courtyard, so Keldric quickly followed Hermann inside.
They ended up in the same office where Keldric had first met Hermann.
“Sir Keldric, when we interrogated that honorless apprentice yesterday, the guild leader’s name came up.”
Hermann, now somewhat calmer, spoke with a slight frown.
“Therefore, I called the guild leader to the castle today. It’s intolerable for an apprentice to insult your honor.”
Keldric didn’t know what methods Hermann had used to deal with the guild leader, but judging by Hermann’s flushed face, it hadn’t been a pleasant conversation.
Keldric hoped the guild leader hadn’t been too severely mistreated.
He was annoyed by the guild’s refusal to sell him goods, but he hadn’t wanted things to go that far.
“So, what happened to the guild leader?”
“After some intense questioning, he eventually gave in.”
Hermann’s explanation was quite a spectacle.
It seemed the guild leader, who had somehow learned that Keldric had subdued both rock trolls and a band of marauders, had been so indignant that he’d urged the artisans not to sell to Keldric.
“It appears he even planted people in Yalta. Very thorough.”
The guild leader’s resentment stemmed from his personal greed.
With iron supplies disrupted and marauders running rampant, he had intended to use this as an opportunity to conspire with the artisans and raise prices permanently.
The lack of iron was crippling.
It disrupted the output of the forges, which then spiraled into a larger problem.
Unaware citizens would easily be deceived by the reasoning that production delays were unavoidable.
“At first, he only intended to call in the marauders, but he likely didn’t anticipate the rock trolls.”
The rock trolls were a complete disaster.
Like a natural calamity, they were impossible to manage.
But it was none other than the guild leader and Baron Gofrit who had brought in the defeated marauders from the battle of the Robernst estate.
Baron Gofrit wanted to leverage the chaos to boost his reputation and use it as a pretext to seize Belam, while the guild leader saw it as a way to line his pockets.
The guild leader even betrayed the artisans he had conspired with, plotting to increase the guild fees under the pretense of covering losses from delayed production.
According to Hermann, this scheme of using guild fees had been devised by Baron Gofrit himself. Half would go to the guild leader, and the other half to Baron Gofrit.
Both the guild leader’s tyranny and Baron Gofrit’s mischief were outrageous enough to shock even Keldric.
“So, what do you intend to do with this guild leader?”
“Execution, of course! Although I’ll need to consult with Lord Vollpen on the final sentence, he’s a traitor who’s already insulted your honor. A preemptive action with a later report would be justified!”
Though Keldric thought it might be a bit excessive, he didn’t voice it.
Instead, something about the situation still bothered him, like a fishbone stuck in his throat.
“However, doesn’t it seem rather sloppy for the guild leader to have attempted something like this…?”
“They’re always short-sighted! He’s a despicable wretch who betrayed his lord for personal gain and trampled on your honor! No need to think further!”
Based on the situation alone, Hermann seemed right.
But Keldric felt that things couldn’t be left as they were.
“Sir Hermann, there’s something else I’m curious about.”
“What is it? I’ll answer whatever I can.”
Keldric retraced the line of thought that had been bothering him.
The guild leader? Considering the circumstances, he was the most plausible traitor.
Yet, for someone who’d risen to his position, it felt too careless.
Among those in the city council, if he were to name anyone other than the guild leader as suspicious, only one person came to mind.
“Do you know a man named Anselm? He’s the head of the Mormon Association.”
“Sir, did you meet with that man?”
Hermann immediately scowled.
Keldric sensed that the stench had only intensified.
Indeed, as Hermann said, there were far too many shady characters in the city.