It wasn't a single lit musket. To be more precise, it was five muskets of different lengths.
They weren't standard muskets either. Instead, they were oddly modified ones. Even the short-barreled gun propped against the skinny man's chest had three barrels. It reminded Claude of the double-barreled shotgun Oask had.
The only similarity between them was that all five muskets were lit and the sparks were bright and dazzling.
It seemed that this match was also specially made. It burned very slowly and the flame was very stable.
Claude looked up and sized up the five gun-wielding black-clothed men who entered the dead end.
They were wearing bat-like black silk robes. Even in such hot weather, they still covered their heads with hoods, giving them a mysterious and scary feeling.
Footsteps rang out as another person followed the five gun-wielding men into the alley.
Claude was taken aback. He knew that person. He was an employee of Dankro Mining Company. His name was Ivago.
Could it be that the Dan Khoro Mining Company was secretly colluding with the underworld of Whitewood City, and had designs on him at the sight of his wealth?
Ivago came in to take a look and pointed at Claude. "It's him."
The five muskets were all aimed at Claude. The black-robed man who had the musket pointed at the skinny man's chest pressed it against his face. "Scram!"
The skinny man and the remaining burly man curled up in a corner of the wall and trembled. They hugged their heads as if they wanted to squeeze their bodies into the cracks of the wall.
"It's best that you don't move. Don't think that we're the only ones aiming at you. If you look at the walls around you, you'll see that there are at least ten more muskets aimed at you.
I hope you understand the situation you're in and don't resist pointlessly.
Of course, if you're willing to tell me where your companions are, I believe we'll get along better, "said the leader of the black-robed men.
Claude was dumbfounded. This was definitely the most powerful mafia he had ever seen. Since when could these mafias walk around the city with muskets?
Weren't they afraid of being reported?
This was Limasosia, a major mining prefecture of the kingdom. If the higher-ups were to find out that a mafia with modified muskets had appeared in Whitewood City, the consequences would be dire.
From the governor to the chief of the garrison to the chief of the police station, not a single one of them would be able to escape.
Generally speaking, the mafias could be ignored. After all, the rats in the dark couldn't be completely eradicated. It was fine as long as they could control their scale and influence.
But for a mafia to openly carry a modified musket on the streets was a direct challenge to the kingdom's rule and dignity.
When encountering such a situation, they could only resolutely annihilate them, and even investigate the responsibility of those local officials. A great purge from top to bottom was unavoidable, and a great earthquake in the officialdom was inevitable.
But now, he had no choice but to lower his head.
With more than ten muskets pointed at him, Claude had no choice but to admit defeat. "I don't have any companions. I only have a coachman waiting for me at the tavern.
If you want money, I can give it to you. But don't drag unrelated people into this. "
"You want money?
Do you think we're here to rob you? "The leader of the black-robed men's face darkened. He had actually been treated as a robber. How preposterous!
"Apart from the fact that I let this clerk see my balance when I withdrew money from the national bank, I really can't think of anything else on me that would make you want to use more than ten muskets on me." Claude shrugged.
"Bullshit! Do you think we're here for that little bit of money of yours?" the leader bellowed.
Claude was taken aback. "You call a thousand crowns a little bit of money?
You sure have a big appetite. "
"A thousand … Huh?
Crowns? How did you get so many gold coins from our kingdom? "
The leader was surprised. A thousand crowns was a huge sum. The question was, how did the young man get his hands on so many crowns from the kingdom? Not to mention, he even had an account book in the national bank. This was different from the information they had received.
"I earned it myself. It's legal income. Isn't there a record of it in the national bank?" Claude found it odd. Why would they ask him where he got his money from?
"Impossible. We got word of you the moment you crossed the border. You've been hiding from us all this time. Where would you find the time to earn money?" the leader retorted.
"Crossing the border?
No. What were we hiding for? There were checks all along the way. Our passes are stamped too. Why are you chasing us? "Claude was puzzled. Did they need proof of entry to cross the county?
Oask didn't say anything about it, and the administrative center didn't issue such a proof either.
The two of them talked for a long time before they suddenly realized that they seemed to have made a mistake.
Someone beside the leader said, "Captain, there's no mana reaction here."
"What?"
The leader looked at Claude, then at the scrawny man and the burly man in the corner, before looking at the three injured men on the ground. He waved his hand and said, "Go take a look at the three on the ground and see what happened to them. What caused them to collapse."
"Yes, Captain."
The man walked over with a strange-looking gun in his hand. Claude obediently took two steps to the side so that he wouldn't block the man's path. At the same time, he showed that he had no intention of resisting.
After all, there were more than ten guns pointed at him from the other side of the wall. There was no need for him to try and escape with a hostage.
The leader was quite satisfied with Claude's tactfulness. He squatted down and quickly checked the injuries of the three. "Captain, two of them are heavily injured. One was hit in the face and the bridge of his nose was caved in. The other was hit in the heart and his sternum was slightly fractured. He fainted from the pain.
As for this one, he fell on his back and got out of breath. It's a light injury. "
The leader listened to the report and looked at Claude. "Who are you? What's your name? Where did you come from? Where are you going?"
"I'm Claude Ferd, a commoner of Whitestag. I received a conscription order from Bluefeather and had to report to Kafreizit. I was passing by Whitewood today and wanted to stay here for the night," Claude replied honestly.
With so many guns aimed at him, he had no choice but to pretend to be honest.
"Conscription order?"
The leader didn't expect Claude's reply to be like that. If that was the case, he would've made a huge mistake. "Show me your pass and enlistment pass."
"You … Aren't you a gang? Why are you checking that?"
"Who said we're from a gang?!" The leader raged, "We're the special forces of the royal capital!
Show him our number plate! "
"Yes, Captain."
The man who came to check on the injuries of the three bastards took out a silver plate and showed it to Claude.
The words "Aueran Kingdom's Special Security and Security Inspection Office" were engraved on it. The man flipped the back of the plate and showed it to Claude. Special Force 2103 was written on it.
Aueran Kingdom's Special Security and Security Inspection Office? Claude felt like he had heard of that before. "I get it now. You're from the special department."
The leader's eyes narrowed. "Where did you hear about the special department?"
"My teacher told me."
"Who's your teacher?"
"She's Madam Maria, my herbalism teacher," Claude replied.
Claude took out the conscription order, pass, and proof of identity from his backpack and handed them to the black-clothed man in front of him.
"I'm sorry, I really thought you were from a gang. I thought that the clerk was your informant who attracted you here because I revealed my wealth," Claude apologized sincerely.
Claude apologized sincerely, "Just like those thugs from before. They forced me here with a knife and forced me to buy this so-called premium whiteroot powder with all the money I had on me.
I taught them a lesson and you guys came in. I thought the gangs of Whitewood City would be so arrogant as to roam the streets with guns before the sun even set. "
The black-robed man who handed Claude the pass and identification documents to the captain felt the same way. "I told you not to wear those weird clothes to avoid being misunderstood.
See, now they think we're from a gang. Captain, you even said that we look cool in those clothes and that people would be afraid of us and think we're the special forces' uniforms. "
The captain didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Shut up!"
The man in black didn't take the captain's words to heart. He turned around and squatted down to pinch some whiteroot powder from the box. "Hah, this is premium whiteroot powder?
This is clearly talcum powder that's not worth much. "
By then, the captain had finished checking the documents in his hands. "Sorry, we misunderstood.
The person we're looking for isn't you. You can put your guns away. "
With a burst of noise, the ten or so muskets sticking out from the top of the wall were all gone. Judging from the noise, the people on the other side were all using ladders as footholds, and a few of them had even jumped off the wall, landing with a loud thud.
Without the guns aimed at him, Claude felt much more relaxed. "I'm fine. I'm just curious why you're looking for me."
"Because you bought ten boxes of the highest quality whiteroot powder from their shop."
The leader handed the documents back to Claude. "We're looking for two magi from Higros, one old and the other young. They went missing after entering the kingdom.
We suspect that they came to Whitewood for some precious magic materials, so we notified the shops to report to us immediately if anything goes wrong. "
The leader said, "I'm just curious. Since you're going to enlist, why did you buy ten boxes of the highest quality whiteroot powder and send them back?"
So it was because of those ten boxes of triple-A whiteroot powder that the special forces thought he was a magus.
Claude didn't think that his sudden impulse to give Maria a gift would cause such a misunderstanding, so he had no choice but to explain himself.
"It's because we can't get good whiteroot powder from our shop. The lowest quality ones are expensive too.
At that time, I always failed in my potion experiments in the forest's potion laboratory. I always thought that it was because I wasn't skilled enough, but now that I came to White Wood City and saw the samples displayed in the Dan 'kro Mining Company's shop, I found out that it was because I used the lowest quality White Root Powder.
"Even though I'm going to enlist, Maria is still going to the wood for her summer vacation in September. She'll still be doing her experiments there.
"I happened to be passing by and saw the highest quality whiteroot powder. I don't lack money, so I wanted to buy some for her as a gift to thank her for taking care of our family."
"The Lady Maria you're talking about is Baroness Maria Fon Normanley of the King's City, right?" The leader of the men in black asked.
"Yes. Do you know her?"
"Haha, of course I do. We've even met a few times.
She doesn't have a good temper and doesn't like people from the special forces.
But I have another question. Since she's your herbalism teacher, why did she let you enlist? "
Claude smiled bitterly. "I only studied under her for a short while last year before she returned to the royal capital. This year, Whitestag was promoted to a city and Viscount Felidos came to take up the post of majordomo.
She asked him to take care of me and he felt that the best way to take care of me was to send me to enlist in the army. So, he wrote me a recommendation letter and I received a conscription order from Bluefeather. "
The leader couldn't help but smile. "I know Viscount Felidos. He's indeed that kind of person.
Alright, you can leave now. How do you want to deal with those five hoodlums? One of the patrolmen said that their second uncle came to look for them and we detained him. "
Claude scratched his head. "I don't know how to deal with them either. Since I've already taught them a lesson, I'll leave them to you. Let's throw them into the labor camp for a few years."