Bonnie Tavern

"Master? What are you doing here?"

Havenlight's outer district was home to a lively little tavern called Bonnie Tavern. Though taverns were usually slow in the afternoon, the laughter here was so loud it nearly lifted the roof. Middle-aged men sat packed shoulder to shoulder on a row of wooden benches, drinking heartily.

Among them was a drunken Jeremy—and Benjamin, who had just walked in.

After hearing the butler's report, Benjamin had worried that something had happened to Jeremy. So he took his pistol and ammunition, left the house, and went to the outer district to look for him.

He went to the abandoned hideout and asked some passersby if they'd seen a mouse-faced, cowardly-looking manservant. One of them told him, "Yeah, he's at Bonnie Tavern right now." Benjamin had been startled to hear that, wondering if something unexpected had happened again.

But as it turned out...

Jeremy was fine. He'd just gotten dead drunk with a bunch of people of unknown origin in a tavern whose name sounded like that of a burlesque dancer, and that was why he hadn't come home.

Benjamin could smell the alcohol on him from a dozen meters away.

Damn it...

Why was nobody around him ever dependable?

Looking at Jeremy's drunken face, Benjamin felt an urge to smack him on the forehead with a water balloon.

Still, he held back. Without saying a word, he walked over, intending to drag Jeremy out by force. Once he sobered up, Benjamin would ask him what the hell he'd been doing—and dock a few months' wages or something.

"Jeremy, is this your young master?"

Benjamin was about to haul Jeremy away when a man beside them suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah, this is our young master. Come on, Master, meet my new friend. This is... Hey, what was your name again? Why can't I remember? Hey, Master, don't pull me!" Jeremy's drinking manners were beyond terrible. He kept babbling drunkenly, a far cry from his usual timid self who was afraid of everything.

"It's time to go back. You've been gone all night, and the butler's already angry." Since they were in public, Benjamin kept his patience and didn't lose his temper.

"The butler? Oh, right. Oh no, I'm going to get my wages docked again. Master Benjamin, what should I do? They're docking my wages again!" At that, Jeremy froze, then immediately started wailing.

Abandoning your post and getting your wages docked was perfectly normal, wasn't it? You were lucky not to get fired, you idiot!

Benjamin was nearing the end of his patience, but the mention of the butler seemed to have some sway over Jeremy. It wasn't enough to sober him up, but at least he was willing to follow Benjamin out.

However, things didn't go as planned. The situation suddenly changed.

As Benjamin turned to leave, a hulking man nearly two meters tall blocked the tavern's entrance. He turned around, his face twisted into a menacing scowl as he stared at Benjamin.

Benjamin's heart sank.

When he looked back, the men who had just been chatting and laughing with Jeremy had risen from their seats. Their smiles were gone, and they stared at Benjamin like wolves closing in on their prey.

The atmosphere in the tavern changed drastically. The proprietress quickly swept the breakable items off the counter and into a cabinet, then skillfully ducked into the kitchen.

Benjamin felt uneasy and utterly confused.

What was going on?

No way. Were these people after him?

But what did he have to do with them? He hadn't done anything to offend them, had he?

"Y-Young Master, why did you stop? If we don't get back soon, they'll dock my wages again!" Jeremy was clearly still too drunk to realize what was happening.

Before Benjamin could react, one of the men, a scar-faced brute, suddenly drew a knife. He slashed at a nearby chair, cleaving it in two.

That sobered Jeremy up. His slurred speech turned into a trembling stammer. "W-What are you doing? Weren't we just having a nice chat? Didn't you say you knew our young master?"

The scar-faced man sneered. "That's right. I wanted to get to know your young master. I should thank you for introducing us."

Jeremy was dumbstruck, frozen in place.

By now, Benjamin had pieced together what was going on.

These men had used Jeremy as bait! They must have made up some story about knowing Benjamin to lure him here, then gotten Jeremy so drunk he'd passed out, all while waiting for Benjamin to walk right into their trap.

Though he'd figured out what had happened, Benjamin still didn't understand why these people were after him.

Had someone hired them?

Was Dick behind it? Or someone else?

He couldn't help thinking back to the night he'd just escaped from Michelle and returned to the Riser Family, when a bizarre assassin had tried to kill him. He'd wanted to find out who had sent the assassin, but he hadn't had a clue. Then, with one thing happening after another, he'd had to put it out of his mind.

But now, he couldn't help thinking about it again.

Could the assassin back then and the trap now both be the work of the same person?

"Hey, kid. Tell me, where's that woman?" Suddenly, the scar-faced man in charge asked him.

"That woman?" Benjamin frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Quit playing dumb. Think I won't chop you up? You really think we wouldn't dare kill you just because you're a noble?" the scar-faced man snarled, raising his voice several notches. "If you really don't know, why has your servant been going around to all those places where that woman used to stay?"

At that, Benjamin understood who the man meant by "that woman."

They were looking for Michelle?

Benjamin quickly pieced things together.

Judging from their menacing looks, they were almost certainly out for revenge. Michelle must have crossed them, and they wanted payback but couldn't find her. Then Benjamin had sent Jeremy to investigate Michelle's old hideouts, and they'd noticed.

So they assumed he was connected to Michelle and had used Jeremy to set a trap, all to lure him here.

And that was how they'd ended up here.

Now that he'd worked out what had happened, Benjamin couldn't help feeling exasperated.

What did Michelle's enemies have to do with him?

What rotten luck...

"Are you talking about Michelle? Bad luck for me, but if I knew where she was, I wouldn't have needed to send my servant to all the places she used to stay," Benjamin replied to the scar-faced man.

If he could clear up the misunderstanding, that would be ideal. The enemy of his enemy was his friend. Benjamin did want to test himself against these men, but the Church's people should be nearby, and he didn't dare use magic.

He didn't want to get into a fight with them, either. It would only be a hassle and bring him no benefit, while Michelle would be the one to gain—and he had no intention of doing her any favors.

"That actually makes sense..." one of the men said after hearing Benjamin out.

"So that woman's name is Michelle. We've been looking for her all this time, and now we finally know what she's called," another man said with a sigh.

"Shut up!" the scar-faced man barked, silencing his underlings' murmurs. "Those nobles are all slippery. We can't just take them at their word. We've been looking for that woman for ages, and now that we finally have a lead, we can't just let him go!"

"The boss is right. He really is clever!" one of them immediately chimed in.

"Yeah, don't trust a word he says!"

The men quickly turned their attention back to Benjamin, looking ready to make a move.

Benjamin felt utterly exasperated.

It looked like he wasn't getting out of this mess.

Damn Michelle. Even without showing up, she could still land him in all kinds of trouble!

There was nothing for it. Seeing that the men weren't listening and were closing in with knives, Benjamin could only use his ultimate move.

"Help! Murder! Where are the Church's knights? I, Benjamin, was about to help you catch Michelle, and now I'm going to die here! If I die, the bishop will never forgive you! Help! Hurry up and get in here!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.