The Tin Knight-Chapter 84: The Tin Knight and The City of Struggle (3)

“How dare you utter such nonsense to me! Hey! Cut out that woman’s tongue!!”

“Yes, Young Master!!”

The buttered-up noble brat without a proper upbringing

He, whose sore spot had been hit, lashed out like a mad beast, reaching towards Dorothea with malicious intent. The Tin Knight of justice, unable to watch this, suppressed his desire to avoid bloodshed and forcibly started the fight... Such an imaginary development that would be difficult to implement even in text did not occur.

“What? Ha, haha! Hahahaha!”

The man, far from getting upset at Dorothea’s words, burst into hearty laughter as if he found it amusing.

He laughed whenever Dorothea opened her mouth, as if the black witch before him was some kind of laughing bell.

Rather, it was the other young men moving with the man who got upset instead.

“T-this wench, what did she just...!?”

“Do you know who this person is to dare...!?”

Watching this from behind, the Tin Knight and Adelaide whispered.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ wonders if they sell books like ‘Collection of Supporting Character Lines Even a Monkey Could Recite’ at bookstores!]

“Hmm, I haven’t seen such a book specifically. But I feel like I’ve seen lines like that many times in other books. So people like that really do exist? How interesting.”

While the Tin Knight was beyond saying anything, Adelaide’s words were no less harsh. The Tin Knight’s black ink was certainly spreading to those around him.

“You wench! Apologize this instant!”

“Do you really need to taste bitterness to come to your senses!?”

Unaware of how the Tin Knight and Adelaide perceived them, the followers kept repeating threatening remarks.

Of course, Dorothea just looked at them as if they were pathetic.

While the followers’ words were directed at Dorothea, the intended audience for their content was not Dorothea.

It was a posture of wagging their tails to their master, saying, “Look at me my lord! How how fiercely I rage and fight for your sake!” while keeping an eye on him.

Meanwhile, perhaps wary of touching the woman their lord seemed to like and having to deal with the consequences, they were only noisy in their actions without showing any signs of actually drawing their swords.

“Enough. That’s enough.”

Calming his shouting companions, the man who had first made a cheap pass at Dorothea opened his mouth again, “Indeed, manners and dignity vary depending on the situation and person. It’s shameful and foolish for an educated man to neglect his teaching and practices, yet one cannot call it a crime when the uneducated fail to uphold proper decorum. Rather, it’s narrow-minded to blame them for that.”

“Ooh. Indeed.”

“We apologize, my lord.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks what they’re yapping about now!]

To the Tin Knight’s question, Sophia answered with a smile, “While pretending to defend Dorothea, he’s actually dismissing her as an uneducated, lowly country girl. It also has the effect of showing off how generous he is compared to his narrow-minded subordinates.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ nods, saying it was a good cop, bad cop strategy!]

The Iron Stake Mercenary Group members, who were unintentionally eavesdropping nearby, marveled.

Oh, so that’s what it meant?

They thought.

At first, they felt intimidated seeing these people with splendid equipment on fine horses, but listening to the party’s conversation somehow made them start to see these people as mere jesters.

However, not everyone could enjoy such leisure.

Especially Dorothea, who had to deal with these insufferable buffoons alone, was experiencing rising blood pressure.

Whether he knew or not that he was dancing on a minefield, the man who was either a lord or young master naturally continued speaking, “I apologize for my subordinates’ rudeness.”

“Apologize for your own rudeness before mentioning your subordinates.”

“I overlooked that you don’t know about me yet. While it’s common knowledge near the capital, it can’t be helped if someone from such a frontier lacks some knowledge. Hmm. Thanks to you, I learned something. Indeed, you are like a flower of fortune for me.”

“You keep talking nonsense about finding flowers since earlier. Are you on drugs or something?”

“But it’s also the duty of the noble to properly guide the ignorant. Come, follow me.”

“...”

A vein popped up on Dorothea’s forehead.

The conversation wasn’t getting through. It seemed like talking to a corpse would be better than this.

No, the urge to turn the person in front of her into a corpse was rising.

When Dorothea remained silent without taking the hand he extended, the man shook his head.

He spoke as if teaching a child, “The public safety in this area isn’t ideal. Dangerous bandits roam about in disguise, and some even impersonate mercenary groups. I’m sweeping away such bandits for the sake of the Empire’s good citizens.”

Suddenly, the man’s tone and expression changed.

He spoke as if deliberately being suspicious, “And then, while patrolling the area to find bandits, I happened to meet you. A self-proclaimed mercenary group whose identity can’t even be properly verified. It’s truly suspicious. Don’t you think?”

“That’s right, my lord!”

Smiling as if satisfied with his followers’ response, the man said, “Ah, of course, I’m not saying you’re bandits, so don’t worry. For now, I’m just ‘suspecting’. Nothing’s been confirmed yet.”

The people around widened their eyes.

No matter how nicely one tried to phrase it, the essence didn’t change. The man’s words were clearly a threat.

He was now threatening to frame the Iron Stake Mercenary Group as bandits(?) and dispose of them.

The Iron Stake Mercenary Group members all trembled.

Shit, how did he know?

We’re screwed. Looking at their armor, it doesn’t seem like we can win in a fight.

Should I run while the others are caught? No, they’re all on horses, so that’s impossible too. Damn. What should we do?

Adelaide cried out indignantly, “That’s too much! How can you accuse these innocent people of being bandits!?”

The Iron Stake Bandit Group—no, Mercenary Group members momentarily reacted with an “Eh?”

The Tin Knight and Sophia, who had roughly guessed these people’s identity, also tilted their heads with an “Hmm?”

“...!”

At that moment, lightning struck the minds of the mercenary captain and Hindler.

They quickly exchanged glances and immediately took action.

“I don’t know who you are, but your words are going too far! We are a proper mercenary group operating based in Thracus!”

The mercenary captain’s words weren’t lies. Although the proportion of their main job and side job was reversed, they were still a mercenary group.

Hindler shouted next, “These people and our Iron Stake Mercenary Group are bound by an escort receiving relationship! Any further harassment towards us will not be forgiven by them!”

Thanks to skillfully omitting parts of the speech here and there, it sounded like they were stepping up to protect Dorothea if one only interpreted what was heard.

While the rest of the members were somewhat inferior to the mercenary captain and Hindler, they still had at least minimal shame and face.

There was no fool who would confess the truth saying, “Oh, we’re actually bandits, just mercenaries in name,” while a golden-haired beauty was sparkling her eyes next to them.

They decided to willingly go along with this great flow.

“Ha, you sure know how to twist words to say you want to have a good laugh. Your basic attitude towards women is rotten!”

Mercenary A, who had been busy ogling the party’s figures throughout the journey, suddenly seemed to have awakened to chivalry and rebuked.

“Damn, what? You’re calling us bandits? You’ve said something you shouldn’t have!”

Mercenary B, who firmly believed one shouldn’t call a bandit a bandit in the same way one shouldn’t call an ugly person ugly, said.

“A man only dies once, not twice! Ladies, don’t worry, we’ll protect you!”

Mercenary C, who had roughly grasped that the Tin Knight was strong from the atmosphere, though not as much as the mercenary captain and Hindler, shouted bravely.

“Hmm.”

Mercenary D kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to regret it later.

“Everyone!”

Adelaide’s eyes sparkled with emotion.

Seeing righteous and loyal people like the Iron Stake Mercenary Group active instead of villains like the Colombo Thief Group, it was clear that the Empire’s culture was indeed different.

Dorothea looked at this scene as if dumbfounded.

Adelaide, who had fallen into a misunderstanding without reading the atmosphere, was one thing, but the other mercenary group members who quickly jumped on board were no ordinary people either.

...But, wait. Since we agreed to escort those people anyway, isn’t the current situation fitting that?

It didn’t matter that the contract was half meant to tease the other party.

That greasy man and his followers were now threatening to bury the mercenary group that the group had agreed to escort, and she had an obligation to respond to this.

That was right.

Even if they hadn’t particularly harmed Dorothea herself, with this justification, she could crush those guys!

Dorothea tightened her stomach and shouted, “Tin Can!”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ cheers, saying he’s been waiting for those words!]

Clank clank!

With a terrifying momentum, the Tin Knight moved to Dorothea’s side, that was, right in front of the greasy man’s nose.

As the huge chunk of iron rushed at high speed, the horse the man was riding neighed and backed away as if feeling threatened.

-Neigh!

“Whoa, whoa whoa!”

The followers drew their swords in panic.

They took a combat stance, surrounding the man as if to protect him.

The Tin Knight was about to mercilessly crush the horses’ legs, but Dorothea gave additional instructions, “Leave the horses alone and just the people! And if possible, keep them alive for now! If not, then whatever!”

The Tin Knight, who had received the sub-quest, instantly changed his posture.

He grabbed the ankle of one knight and roughly pulled the opponent with his brute strength.

The opponent fell off his horse without being able to properly resist even once.

After lightly stomping on the chest of the opponent, who was twitching with a “Kuhk” sound, the Tin Knight called for Adelaide.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ calls for his pupil!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ declares it’s time to practice hitting with the back of the sword!]

“But this is a double-edged sword!?”

While voicing a reasonable objection, Adelaide’s body was already shooting forward.

She used her light weight to jump high.

More precisely, she cut the reins while jumping, and before falling back down, she slashed the opponent’s chest with her sword.

The sword strike without mana didn’t pierce the armor, but instead transmitted the impact, causing those who had lost their reins and were struggling to maintain balance to fall off their horses.

She didn’t particularly use the back of the sword, but she thought it was roughly similar to hitting with the back of the sword, since she didn’t cut them, anyway.

“Now, everyone. Would you come over here for a moment? Yes, you two over there as well. Come on, you need to listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”

Sophia gathered the mercenary group members and made them turn their attention away from the battlefield.

Her manner was so natural that the mercenary group members unconsciously followed her words.

Sophia winked at Dorothea.

Dorothea opened her pouch and took out a handful of powder.

“You bastards!!”

The opponents, who had been dazed by such a lightning-fast surprise attack, regained their senses and tried to respond by the time about four of them had been taken down.

Among them were some who emitted mana from their swords or bodies.

While their actions were problematic for looking like extras, their skills themselves were not ordinary.

But even that was too late.

“Ack, ugh.”

They contorted their faces, making choking sounds, without even being able to properly swing the swords they had drawn.

The effect of the special paralysis poison from the “Garden” was excellent.

The green mist, as if possessing a will of its own, didn’t harm the mercenary group or the horses, but only penetrated the mouths and noses of the men.

Adelaide knocked them off their horses one by one as they became defenseless, and they trembled from the impact as they fell to the ground.

Whether due to luck or good equipment, there were no cases of necks breaking and dying.

“This is... black magic!! There was an evil witch here!”

The man who seemed to be the leader among them had particularly high-grade equipment, as he alone remained fine while his companions were falling to the poison.

He contorted his expression with anger and tried to say some long-winded speech.

But he didn’t know.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that your eyes must be knotholes if you couldn’t immediately guess she was a witch just by looking at that fashion!]

“Shut up!!”

Neither the Tin Knight nor the witch had even the slightest intention of listening to his long-winded speech anymore.

When Dorothea pointed her staff forward, the black curse lump gathered at its tip shot out like a bullet and pierced into the man’s stomach.

The highest-grade metal armor caved in like a crater, showing how much mana she had poured into it.

The Tin Knight, not to be outdone, raised his shield.

He, who was about to strike down on the opponent’s head with the edge as usual, remembered that the survival of all opponents was a sub-quest and adjusted the angle of his shield.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ shouts let’s play whack-a-mole! You’re the mole!]

Clang!

As the face of the shield strongly hit the man’s crown, his eyes became unfocused.