Gasi

Part 8Hewrick Company was a medium sized company that was based in Duke Richmond's territory. It strong point had been in logistics since long ago.

It really helped that Richmond territory was a producing area of good horse, but it was also influenced by the fact that Hewrick Company was started up as a business in river transport.

Mauricia Kingdom had a lot of large rivers. The knowhow and connection for transporting things through rivers couldn't be underestimated in this business.

The president of this generation, Abraham Hewrick was someone who didn't stand out, but he was also highly rated as a solid merchant. Thanks to that he could even secure a transport contract with Dowding Company that was at the height of power right now.

「──His excellency the duke said that?」

「Yes, he ordered us to quickly accept an order to send commodities to Trystovy.」

「Why is he giving such an order? I don't think that he will be able to make his highness Baldr indebted to him just with that...」

It was an open secret among the merchants that the relationship between Duke Richmond and Baldr was like dog and cat.

Abraham was greatly aware that the duke was bewildered how Baldr had reached a height that was beyond his expectation even after he tactfully drove Baldr out of Mauricia Kingdom.

「Well, it's a nice timing. After all things don't look good at Answerer Kingdom.」

Even merchants who weren't that interested with politic was aware that the eastern part and the western part of the continent were in an explosive situation. Such situation was a chance to profit, but it could be said that the ability to weigh that chance against the risk well was a necessary quality for a merchant.

Currently Trystovy Kingdom was in an unprecedented boom. The government there was proactively pouring money for public investment. Any products that were brought there would be sold out.

Abraham had just been thinking that he wanted to have a firm base in Trystovy Kingdom not just for the sake of his company's subcontract with Dowding Company, but also for Hewrick Company's own business.

Although he felt that there was something suspicious with Duke Richmond's demand, Abraham didn't have any reason to proactively refuse.

Even without taking that into consideration, the duke was a regular customer of this company. The company was in a position where they had to proactively accommodate the duke's whim instead.

「I think there should be a request to transport cotton cloth to there. Let's open a talk to accept that job.」

.

Hewrick Company's caravan that consisted of six horse carriages departed around five days after that.

「Let's earn a lot of money!」

They weren't just carrying the cotton cloth that was entrusted from Dowding Company, they had also prepared sugar and the like with Cornelius territory's emblem that recently were getting popular in Trystovy Kingdom.

It was unknown where the money came from, but it was shocking that Trystovy Kingdom was able to invest this much into public investment even after getting out of such civil war.

He felt a slight chill when he thought that Mulberry's maritime guild and Dowding Company could be such a mighty existence that enabled this.

As expected, a lowly merchant like Abraham had no way of knowing about the vast hidden fortune that Valerie left behind and the considerable amount of assets that Baldr owned personally.

「I'm counting on you, Neuzer.」

「Leave it to me president.」

The one leading the caravan was Neuzer. He was also one of the head clerks of Hewrick Company.

He was an unexpectedly well known man. He spent more time going to foreign countries and leading caravan than staying in the office. He was a precious mediator with the outside world for Hewrick Company.

Before the civil war, he had also often gone to Trystovy Kingdom, but this would be the first time he visited there again after the end of the civil war, so Neuzer's face was shining with happiness.

「──I have old acquaintances over there. I'm going to talk with them for the future too.」

「Right, depending on the situation our company will want to open shop there too. Go find a suitable property at Millianna for that with your own discretion.」

「I understand.」

Neuzer showed a deep smile and departed.

The caravan was manned by thirty people. Among them were four former mercenaries working as bodyguard. That number was few for a caravan of this scale.

However their route would be passing through his peaceful Mauricia to Trystovy Kingdom where the civil war had just ended. It didn't seem likely that there would be any danger.

It wasn't the era where bandits ran rampant anymore.

Even Neuzer had only experienced getting attacked by bandits several times all over his life.

Even those only happened during the war with Haurelia where the situation was unstable.

Of course he had no intention to let his guard down, but there was also no need to be paranoid. That was what Neuzer thought.

They went upstream the O'Neal River from Richmond territory to head toward Pirellu Mountains.

Before crossing the mountain, they would need to procure food and recovered their stamina.

From his many years of experience, Neuzer knew that in the mountain, what he could rely on in emergency was his own physical strength.

A problem occurred at the fourth day after they departed.

The axle of one of the carriages snapped with an unpleasant creaking.

「...Strange. Even though it was all right when it was inspected this morning...」

Neuzer got down from his carriage in doubt.

It wasn't impossible to repair it, but they wouldn't be able to arrive at the next inn town before night like that.

If possible he didn't really want to waste time here but it couldn't be helped.

「Prepare to camp here! Assign four people to repair the axle! Guards, stay alert at the surrounding area!」

The caravan started to prepare for camping at night with brisk movement following Neuzer's order.

When in a long journey, they couldn't always be able to sleep on bed at inn town. For merchants whose livelihood depended on traveling all over, camping outdoor wasn't really a rare experience.

However it was a bit troublesome that they couldn't rest as well as at inn town when camping outdoor like this.

The workers quietly put up the tents, assigned the shifts for watching the night, and then they quickly went to sleep.

Everyone had to be at the lookout in shift. Because of that they would have insufficient sleep if they didn't go to bed early.

「Good grief, I want to go to hot spring tomorrow and relax──」

The sentence of one of the guards who were standing guard in front of the campfire was cut off in the middle. No, someone was making him stop.

An arrow had deeply pierced his throat until his spinal cord.

He silently pitched forward and fell on the ground. And then even that guard's coworker who witnessed his last moment followed the same fate soon after that.

One of them displayed an astounding tenacity and succeeded in yelling out as loudly as possible.

「ENEMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!」

It was only Neuzer and a few other people who could react to that yell because they had experienced attacks in the past.

Of course, the result didn't change just because a few people reacted. The result would still be the same even if a lot of people managed to react.

When Neuzer rushed out of his tent with the sword for self-protection in his hand, the attackers had already killed all the lookouts and now they were going to bare their fang toward him.

(──They aren't just bandits! This is the work of a regular army or soldiers of that level!)

The way the attackers calmly and emotionlessly killed everyone with the thoroughness of a professional was enough to make Neuzer give up on his survival.

Their luck had run out the moment an opponent of this level had their eye on them.

But why? Why was an average caravan like them got targeted like this? Their cargo might be precious for the general public, but its worth for the military was extremely insignificant.

Even if their cargo was exchanged into money, the amount would only be enough for several days of extravagant spree.

A pro of this level shouldn't target something like that. They certainly had another objective than the cargo.

「...Ha?」

For a brief instant, Neuzer noticed that one of the attackers had a tattoo of blue moon. It was a total coincidence that he managed to catch sight of it.

「The church huh.」

He didn't know what kind of circumstance there was behind the scene, but it seemed they had gotten dragged into the self-centered plot of the church and the kingdom.

It was infuriating, but he also felt resigned. No matter how hard he struggled, there was no way a group of this level would allow even a single cat to get away.

「Don't screw with me, goddamn idiot!」

His legs were shaking fiercely from terror.

The massacre of the caravan was going to finish in less than a minute by the effective leadership of the assassin group.

Even Neuzer already had several soldiers moving toward him silently.

It was unreasonable, but death was approaching without any way for him to resist.

Neuzer suddenly broke out running toward a horse carriage.

He knew that the horse carriages had also been seized.

However Neuzer climbed up the horse carriage like a man possessed and reached out toward the flag of Dowding Company that was given to their company to show that their company was transporting Dowding Company's product.

「Gahah!」

Two arrows pierced him from his back. Neuzer leaned on the flag and vomited blood.

「...Screw you!」

At the moment of his death, Neuzer believed that he had landed a blow back to their attackers and he fell into eternal sleep.

「Bury the corpses quickly! After that search for their change of clothes and change into them! We are going to be Hewrick Company's caravan from now on after all!」

The assassin group that was composed of the church's skilled agents. They were led by someone named Bezel. His subordinate reported to him.

「Dowding Company's flag got dirtied by blood splash just now...」

「There should be a reserve flag just in case. Search it!」

「Understood!」

The thirty corpses were tossed into a hole that was one meter deep. The clothes and tents that were dirtied by blood were burned to ash. After the assassins finished disposing the proof, they began traveling to the next inn town smilingly like a normal merchant caravan.

One of the carriages was putting up a slightly old looking flag of Dowding Company with different color than normal.