While Welner and his army were in battle against the bandits, about 10 people gathered in a secluded room of the churchs dical center for a secret eting.
The churchs dical center was originally a facility built to treat the poor. Each town had one of these dical centers built and those in the middle of their journey, the poor, the elderly, and people without relatives would receive treatnt in the dical center while resting and supporting each other. The money for the dical centers daily necessities ca from donations, so it was not uncommon for a towns influential people and their subordinates to visit the dical center.
But on this occasion, the people gathered here for a completely different matter.
Hes ignoring us too much.
I agree. We let him move freely for a while because he is young. Yet, he is so arrogant.
Several people voiced their dissatisfaction. Many of these people were those who were treated coldly by the new governor, Welner. So of them were Pledgers, so were the towns influential people or the towns lower-ranking officials. The people whose daughter had gotten a criminal record because of Welner were also here and there were also the people of the Forestry Guild.
Welner was planning to do sothing that needed a lot of wood as such he had used the people of the Woodworking Guild, Carpenter Guild, and talworker Guild. However, Welner bought most of the woods that he needed from outside, so the people of the Forestry Guild didnt benefit.
For the people of the Forestry Guild, they might be dissatisfied with what Welner had done, but the fact that the reputation of the Forestry Guilds leader was bad was also true. After all, the brother of the leader of the Forestry Guild was one of the cronies of the person who was killed on Welners order for assaulting a refugee woman.
The lieutenant of the town guards was also present here. The captain of the guards himself had completely surrendered because of the man nad Kesten that the new governor, Welner, brought with him, but that didnt an all guards had also beco docile. Specifically, the lieutenant of the guards didnt like Welner because Welner was too strict or at least that was what the lieutenant claid.
The truth of the matter was that this lieutenant recklessly challenged Kesten because he thought Kesten was a weak old man and got completely beaten. Ever since then, the lieutenant had been complaining about Welner behind everyones back.
Above all, I dont like how he went ahead with the trial on his own.
That kind of complaint was not completely unreasonable. Most criminals of this town ended up receiving paying fine as a punishnt. One of the reasons was that there was no prison good enough for long-term imprisonnt, but another more important reason was that the fine punishnt was really advantageous for the governor.
For example, if there was a criminal who had to give a fine of 100 silver coins as a punishnt, the victim of that cri would receive 10-20% of that fine as compensation, and the people who were in charge of the trial would receive 1 silver coin, and the rest of the money would go to the governors pocket.
As a result, many governors would be eager to indict criminals. The trial committee would also receive money every ti they brought a criminal to a trial, so for them, trial was quite a lucrative business. In addition, if the criminal couldnt pay the fine, they would be sentenced to forced labor, aning they would all get another very cheap laborer either way, putting soone on a trial would not cause any loss for both the governnt and the trial committee.
There was another reason for their dissatisfaction with Welner. Back when Anheim was still a part of Marquisate Knap, the Knap house would pay the people who participated in the trial.
This was because, as a region that directly bordered Triot, a lot of smuggling happened. Thus, a lot of trials each day. The money was given by the Knap house as compensation for the ti and effort of the trial committee because they had to work on many cases. Even after Triot fell, this law remained alive because of the many unforeseen circumstances, including the death of the Marquis Knap.
However, when Welner beca the governor, he reduced this special pay on the grounds that Anheim was no longer the Marquiss land. Welner also judged most of the trials swiftly by himself. In addition, Wiener didnt even bother to hold any trials for minor cris and directly punished the criminals.
Welners action made the mbers of the trial committee lose quite a bit of money. Of course, the governor did have the authority to do what Welner did, but most governors would not do that. After all, what Welner did was the sa as ignoring the local authority. Welner had his own reasons for doing that, though.
How about we trouble him a bit?
Lets do that. We need the bandits to be exterminated, but giving the governor so trouble over the bandits extermination will be fine.
I an, things like the supplies arrived late is a common occurrence.
Will we be fine doing that?
So people were concerned, but an elderly man laughed.
There is no need to be worried. Although he isnt here, the church head agrees with us. That is why he let us use this place. Even if he is a governor, he wont be able to touch the church easily.
I have to say, you are quite mistaken.
Hearing a sudden voice, everyone turned their gazes to the door with startled expressions. There stood a flabby rchant-like man with a group of ard n behind him.
WhWho are you!?
Ah, pardon my late introduction. I am Rafed. I have been given the honor of working for the governor.
Although Rafed bowed as if he was showing respect to everyone in the room, Rafeds expression was full of sarcasm.
I have heard all your conversations. Of course, with the permission of the church head-sama.
The room fell into silence. So kept their calm expression, while the others expressions turned red and then blue. Finally, after a while, a person barely managed to speak up.
W..Wait! We have done nothing wrong! Judging by our conversation, you might think that we are dissatisfied with the governor, but
Well, I did not co here for that, though.
Rafed shrugged his shoulders lightly before speaking again.
Among the docunts Viscount Welner has received before he arrived in Anheim, there is a docunt about monetary assistance to Mangold. There were many nas in that docunt, including nas of so esteed sirs here.
The expressions of guild leaders, who were also the mbers of Pledgers Council, changed imdiately. It was true that they had given monetary assistance to Mangold before. One of the guild leaders raised his voice.
Even if you ca here because of that, we are not at fault! After all, Sir Mangold was still the Knap houses heir at that ti!
Youre certainly right, but the problem is Mangold gathered soldiers without the Kings permission and attacked Veritza Fortress. This action of Mangold is a huge cri. Where did he get the money to gather that many soldiers is still under investigation. Certainly, the monetary assistance you have given is quite suspicious.
Even though Mangolds reputation in the capital was pretty bad, in Anheim, many people would still think that despite his reputation, Mangold would be the next Marquis since his father died. As such, so people would try to curry favor with Mangold. It was true that Mangold was violent and arrogant, but that sort of personality wasnt rare among nobles.
Therefore, it would be hard to charge the towns influential people for a cri just based on their monetary assistance to Mangold. Keeping them in custody for a few days for investigation was possible though, and when they were in custody, they wouldnt be able to move freely.
In short, Welner aid to keep these people quiet for a few days with monetary assistance as an excuse. Here, the people in the room finally realized that they had been fooled.
Rafed bowed his head again, this ti lower. His gesture looked more like an actor who bowed to their audience on the stage rather than a sign of respect. Unfortunately, Rafed didnt have a handso enough face to be an actor.
Oh, so of you esteed sirs would receive questioning about other matters, like using the confusion of the forr Marquiss death to falsify the tax report by turning in a false guilds sales report.
H..How did you
I have a keen eye for spotting dissatisfied people, you see. The guild is also not a united organization.
So of the guilds leaders faces turned pale. Rafeds words were the sa as telling them that their subordinates had betrayed them. Unfortunately, none of them could escape since several soldiers ca in with Rafeds signal. They were all taken away. Then the church head entered the room.
Thank you for your cooperation.
No need to be that courteous. After all, the Saintess, Laura-sama, has handwritten a letter to ask to help Viscount-sama.
The church head replied to Rafed with a smile. Handing the letter from Laura to the church head was one of the reasons the Iron Hamr ca to Anheim. Later, one of the mbers of Iron Hamr said, I thought since its only transporting a letter and luggage from the capital, its going to be an easy job Technically, if not for Welner asking them to bring a beehive of all things, their job would be easy.
After exchanging a brief conversation with Rafed, the church head left and Kesten, who was leading the support troop, turned his gaze to Rafed with a cynical expression and said, Youre working quite hard, it seems.
Well, I value my life very much. In addition
In addition to what?
My relationship with Viscount Welner is already bad because of the recent incident, so I do not want to worsen it. After all, who would want to make an enemy of the Hero-samas friend who also has the Saintess-sama on his side?
Making him my enemy would be like turning the church of the entire continent into my enemy, Rafed added in a strange tone. It was hard to judge whether Rafed was impressed or regretting. Hearing Rafeds words, Kesten let out a bitter smile.
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