“Ugh, this road is too rough…”
Kello ranted when he felt the jolts from the uneven road as the carriage slowly moved through the mountain road. It was unpaved through the mountainside and the carriage was full of heavy coins that made it move at a much slower pace.
After the carriage traveled through the mountainside for a while, it finally arrived at the main road.
“Now, we’re safe. Luckily, I got through the monster-infested forests without any guards.”
Kello relaxed besides the fact that he was full of complaints. The carriage was now calm as it moved quietly through the road.
“These Khalodians really pave the roads well. Hehe… if this goes well… we will strike back at the empire! It will be the price you pay for destroying us!”
Kello mumbled to himself as he rode on the carriage.
“Hey, did you just hear that?”
“Yeah. Did you hear what I heard?”
“Probably.”
“They are like cockroaches.”
“The emperor did say to watch out for Horuns.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t imagine that they would still be around…”
“When did they crawl into the Thieves’ Guild?”
“They are willing to do anything now.”
“No matter. They can do whatever they want. Oh, he’s moving toward Sayren River.”
The Ainos mumbled to themselves as they watched Kello’s carriage moving toward the river.
“He’s trying to take the boat.”
“Yeah, we’ll send a report.”
A young Ainos wrote something on a piece paper and sent it out after tying it to a bird.
The letter was quickly delivered to the ten-story tower, south of the empire. The people inside were mostly Ainos of various ages and gender with a few humans and Magnos.
“Chieftain, we have a message from Nerow and Binnete.”
“Good.”
Howen nodded at Jenner, who had delivered the message.
“Hmph.”
As he read through the letter, it made him groan in silence.
“Let me guess. Horuns.”
A middle-aged Ainos, Gerona, made a guess Howen and he nodded.
“Yes. There are Horuns involved. Nerow heard the man mumbling to himself. I guess thieves also believe in God.”
“Thieves believing in God… HAH!”
It was ironic, but the leaders of the religion used to hire thieves to do their dirty bidding while they cleansed them from their sins. It had been a long relationship.
“So, we found a total of thirty-two places?”
Howen nodded.
“Yes. We have discovered all the networks and hideouts of the Thieves’ Guild. We will get them before they begin their operations.”
All the Ainos looking at Howen seemed to be eager to jump straight into the job.
“We agree.”
“Right. Oh, Chieftain. Jackson asked to solve it as quickly and quietly as possible.”
“Of course.”
Howen nodded. If Jackson came to make a personal request, then the empire definitely considered it to be a problem. Having a large amount of counterfeit money circulating around when the new currency had just been released would not bode well Khalodian.
‘The market will cower if they hear rumors that even Khalodian’s money can be counterfeited.’
The problem needed to be dealt with before any of that happened.
“We’ll carry this out as planned. Let’s move out.”
“Yes, sir!”
After the Ainos answered in unison and left the room, Howen finally relaxed.
“I’m not good at this job.”
Howen complained as he walked up to the refrigerator and took out a cold drink.
“Haha, are we starting now?”
“Don’t bring it up. How was work?”
Howen turned to Doral who had just walked in.
“They want war. They’re crazy.”
Doral took the iced coffee from Howen and answered, “They think the reason they are suffering from hunger and poverty is because of Khalodian and the other races.”
“Hmph.”
“And the people believe that. They probably forgot that we were the ones who distributed all that food.”
“I see.”
“It’s no use.”
Doral shook his head.
“Humans sometimes only focus on one thing and I think this is an example of it. They need someone to hate.”
Howen nodded. It was human nature to find a scapegoat and deny reality. It was easier to blame it on someone else and the nobles did this especially well. A growing number of people agreed with their views and complaints. They now considered Khalodian as an evil empire.
“I can’t believe those humans fell for the nobles’ lies again.”
“Yes.”
Howen seemed to tired of that fact. Humans were very different from the Ainos, especially with their greed.
“But we must be vigilant. Humans are powerful because of their greed. It is a trait that we despise, however, that’s why they rule over this land. If we had at least a little bit of that…”
“You won’t need to worry about that.”
Howen took a report and waved it.
-Report of the first-generation children between Ainos and Human-
“Huh? Oh, are those children from…?”
“Yes. Those children born between humans and Ainos are competitive. And quite greedy.”
“Really?”
“I’ve heard it firsthand from their parents. They are quite different from the Ainos.”
“Is that true?”
Doral brightened up. That meant the core problem of their race was going to be solved.
“We don’t need to be worried about the future of the Ainos anymore.”
