Karl's Role Play

Two days after Huvel went to the underground auction, he summoned Captain Mylan to his office.

"Sir Mylan, do you remember that I delayed your punishment?"

"Yes, Lord Senebres. I'm ready to receive my punishment."

Although he was about to be punished, Mylan's eyes were calm. He was in his light armour as he was summoned while he was making his rounds on the walls. He was already a tall, stout man so he looked even more dignified in his armour.

"I've thought of some light punishment." Huvel said as he shot a glance at Mylan at looked down at the documents on the table again. "But I received new reports yesterday so I decided to ask you something."

"What may it be, Lord Senebres?" Mylan slightly knitted his brows.

"They say…" Huvel replied in a serious tone and looked straight at Mylan's eyes, "there is a black market in Boswel. Are you involved in that?"

"Black market?!" Mylan lost his cool demeanour and cried. "This is the first time I am hearing about it."

"Do you mean I'm making some mistakes here?"

"I dare not, Lord Senebres. I only meant to say I did not know anything about it. I will investigate this matter immediately!"

"No. I've already got news that a few knights are involved with them. Since you have the highest authority here before I arrived, you are a prime suspect!"

"Lord Senebres, I swear by my family name that I know nothing of it. Please give me a chance to prove myself."

"Calm down. I'll not accuse you without thorough investigation. But since the knights are suspected to be corrupted, you or any knights cannot take part in the investigation. I'll investigate this matter myself."

"This… I understand. You are the Lord of Boswel so it is only right that you want your territory to be clean!"

"That's right. But since they are rooted here for a long time, I need some forces to clean them up. Lend me a few troops under you. If you are proved to be innocent after the investigation, I'll forget about the previous offense."

-----

"Sir Karl, the west side is clear now. We arrested three servants that were trying to escape."

Karl nodded at the soldier that reported to him. It was the second day he went into the town to investigate the illegal trading places. It has been going smoothly up until then. At first, the soldiers were displeased to follow him, the new knight, to patrol the town but after successfully finding illegal trading places one after another, their morale was high and they even started to open up to him.

Everything was going according to his master's plan. When he thought of the 'plan', Karl could not help but felt guilty. After all, the places he went were actually a part of that plan. He already knew where the main black market and illegal trading places were even before he went out to the town. The information of those places was given to him by the elder of Black Python himself.

A few days ago, his master used magic on that elder of Black Python, the underworld syndicate. The elder forgot about his master after that. But the elder submitted to him instead and promised to pay tributes. From being a knight, Karl suddenly became a boss of the underworld syndicate. The places he cleared out were part of the tribute. Him clearing those illegal trading places was mainly for publicity.

Although Karl did not honour righteousness as strongly as like Mylan, he felt uneasy whenever a soldier looked at him with sparkling eyes. And it appeared that his master had no intention of completely unrooting the black market. According to his master, it was better to get the money from the black market in his current condition. Karl did not understand well so he just followed his master's order although he felt guilty.

"We are going back now!"

Karl ordered the soldiers to go back to the castle with the confiscated goods and documents after clearing the last place he was told to investigate.

Then, a soldier rushed towards him from afar. He was one of his men.

"Sir… Wait a minute, Sir Karl! A townsfolk just told me the building on the next street was strange. He said that suspicious strangers were entering that place a few days ago. That might be a warehouse of these illegal merchants. Please give us your order to investigate that place!"

Karl was not eager to go another place since he did not remember that place on the list he got from the elder. He thought of refusing and proceeding to go back. However, he found it difficult to say 'no' when he looked at the soldier that gazed up at him with sparkling eyes.

"Hmm. Fine." Karl finally made up his mind. "But it would be a hassle to make everyone move. You, go with squad four and investigate that building on the next street! Report me back immediately if you find anything suspicious!"

"Yes, Sir!"

Karl regretted letting them go as he watched the backs of the leaving soldiers. He already knew that the excited faces on them would become the looks of disappointment when they returned.

While he was thinking of sending someone to call them back, the soldier ran back to him hurriedly.

"Sir," the soldier cried loudly as soon as he got near Karl, "people in that building are refusing to open the doors for us to investigate! I would like to request backup!"

"What?!"

Karl was taken aback by the soldier's report. He ordered some soldiers to guard the confiscated goods and led all the remaining soldiers himself and went to the building in question.

The men in that building were scared to see the soldiers and tried to run away from the backdoor. But the soldiers had already surrounded the building. The men in the building then starting to fight back the soldiers. They held swords and spears, and tried to break through the surrounding soldiers. However, they were outnumbered when the troops led by Karl arrived and everyone was arrested.

Karl was curious about the illegal trade he was not aware of and went into the building after the soldiers had captured all the running people.

"…! ..."

The scene he saw inside the building made him utterly speechless!