How to Live as a Wandering Knight

“Uh. . .”

One sharp mercenary was startled.

“Do you know them?”

“Isn’t that us they’re talking about?”

“. . .?!”

The mercenaries were horrified. Come to think of it, it made sense.

If they weren’t crazy, there’s no way they would be spreading rumors about Johan in the hundred kingdoms now. If he got wrongly involved, he would be sent straight to the gallows for associating with the rebels.

“What kind of unpleasant rumor?”

Johan also roughly grasped what was going on.

It could have been the remnants of the defeated troops, but the possibility was low. Those guys didn’t have much contact with the nobles to spread rumors widely.

“How could I repeat such rude words. . .”

“It’s fine, go ahead and tell me.”

“There are insulting rumors circulating that His Excellency is violent and ferocious, and that he cruelly punished the nobles. . .”

‘𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵.’

Johan thought to himself. Seeing how accurately his test words had reached the city, the nobles who welcomed Johan must have talked quite diligently.

━𝐉𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫?

━𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝, 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰. 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭, 𝐬𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.

The nobles who didn’t want to get involved with the suspicious guys eagerly blamed the mercenaries. . .

Thanks to that, the rumors spread quite quickly and reached the city.

“It is also said that despite his young age, he spends all his time cooped up in his estate, killing and torturing nobles instead of enjoying worldly pleasures.”

‘. . .𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥.’

Johan was startled. No matter how he looked at it, that was not something Johan said. A completely different kind of rumor. The mercenaries also seemed to realize this as they murmured among themselves.

“The b*stards. . . didn’t they mix in their own thoughts?”

“Where did the stone-brained b*stards get the nerve to. . .”

“When His Excellency is so enthusiastic about his sex life!”

Ariku from the Masons’ Guild, unaware of the situation he was in, continued talking.

“I was misled into thinking that you would not come to help this city because of such false rumors! Please forgive me!”

“I see.”

Johan’s voice was slightly cold, but the council members did not notice.

Seeing that Johan seemed to accept it, others also pleaded for Ariku.

“We will surely hang those mercenaries in the square if we catch them. Please forgive us!”

“Please rely on Your Excellency’s generous compassion!”

“I understand. You are forgiven.”

“Oh. . .!”

Inwardly, Johan greatly lowered his evaluation of Ariku, but the people did not notice. They were just satisfied that they could get past this incident.

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𝔞𝕨𝔢ḃ̇𝚜𝘵𝘰ṙ̇𝙞𝙚𝕤.𝚌𝕠𝔪

After the reception ended, Johan got right to the point. He came here to catch the monster after all.

“The city soldiers will gladly follow Your Excellency’s orders.”

“That goes without saying.”

“Ah. Yes.”

The council members tried to save face somehow, but it was not an easy task. Making that kind of mistake right on the day Johan arrived. . .

“The most important thing is luring it out. How many times has it come up before?”

At Johan’s question, some people nodded their heads. Although the sea dragon attacked ships from underwater, when ships became scarce it would come up to the harbor itself looking for prey.

“Do you see the broken part down there by the harbor? That’s where it came up and thrashed around.”

Ariku pointed below the fortress as he spoke. Johan nodded.

“Then is it likely to come up again if we keep waiting?”

“. . . . . .”

“. . . . . .”

Everyone was silent. At first it aggressively came up onto the harbor several times and rampaged violently. But it was intelligent. After being fiercely counterattacked several times, it seemed to have learned that the harbor was disadvantageous.

The frequency gradually decreased, only making surprise attacks on dark and rainy days, and recently it had not come up from the sea at all.

“No wonder it’s been troublesome.”

With nothing to say, they could only bow their heads. Johan spoke with a sullen expression.

“Even if you want to fight it, you have to lure it out first. Offer a reward. I will reward anyone who comes up with a way to lure it out.”

Johan’s words surprised the people. They had consulted some experienced captains and hunters before, but never thought to ask the whole city’s opinion like Johan was now.

Knowledge and experience had always been monopolized by a minority.

What would be the point of telling those who were excluded? There was a high possibility that people who were only greedy for the reward would make useless trouble.

“There’s no need to go that far. . .”

“Enough. I won’t say it twice.”

“. . .Understood. What are Your Excellency’s plans for dealing with it when it appears?”

The people gathered here roughly knew about the monsters Johan had defeated. But they didn’t know the details.

Rumors tend to become embellished and mixed up, so nothing can be fully believed until hearing it directly from the source. The council members wanted to hear the real story.

Especially since many of the stories about Johan defeating monsters were quite unbelievable. . .

“We’ll think about it when we find a way. For now.”

“May we hear the story of you defeating the cyclops? Everyone here is quite curious about it.”

“Well, I’m a bit tired right now.”

Johan’s refusal could not hide people’s disappointment. To not hear the story directly from the person himself!

But Johan was a count. If he were just a mercenary they would have said ‘Is that how you should act now? Answer properly if you want money!’ But they could not do that to Johan.

The council members suppressed their disappointment and bowed their heads in understanding.

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