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A Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon Volume 7 Chapter 2 Part 7

Even in Japan, back in its Edo period there was a thing where the Bakuto were authorized by the law enforcement to carry Jitte which allowed the rulers during the Edo period to have many irons in the fire at once, but as history later proved, that decision didn’t turn out too well in the grand scheme of things, because the historian say that it was that kind of special treatment that led to the creation of gangs that later grew up to become Yakuza.

I also heard that the origin of the western mafia was an autonomous assistance organization in Sicily that was dominated by the influence from the foreign countries.

Even if the knights don’t have enough power to deal with the Bandits right now, then what is going to happen in the future when they finally do?

This may lead to undesired custom where the authority is going to rely too much on Bandits defeating other Bandits

and other problems related to it, so I guess in that case not paying the Bandits the money from the bounties is actually a proof of insight and the correct thing to do.

In any case, the most important think to know here is that the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy is not going to be conducting the check of my Intelligence Card if I come to claim the bounty for the Bandits, so I don’t have to wait with it anymore.

On the morning of the next day, I headed to Bode with the Bandits Intelligence Cards to exchange them.
The Bandits from the wanted posters have already been defeated. The more the time passes, the more the inconsistent information may start to spread around, and that’s only going to work to my disadvantage. The sooner I get this done, the more difficult it will be for inconsistencies to arise. I can only hope that nobody is going to get too suspicious of the fact that I have come to claim the bounty for the Bandits only a day after the wanted posters were distributed to the public.

Alternatively, I could have waited for a few more days before coming to make the exchange, but I feel like there’s no time to lose for me. Either I do this now, or never.

My Explorer Job has just risen to Lv.41, so it means that I still have a little bit left to go before I reach Explorer Lv.50, which is a necessary requirement for unlocking the Adventurer Job, and the more I wait, the more dangerous its going to be for me with the possibility of getting caught, so it’s better to cash the money in early than to be sorry later.

Most likely, the higher the level goes up, the more EXP is going to be needed for me to level my Jobs up. In terms of the Jobs of the Girls, Sherry and Roxanne have their Jobs: Beast Warrior and Master Smith at Lv.31, and Miria is catching up to them with her Diver Job being at Lv.30. However, I don’t believe the EXP points needed to level from Lv.1 to Lv.30 are the same as the EXP points needed to level from Lv.30 to Lv.31, unless there is a range of levels?

Even if I defeat a number of Lv.l6 monsters on sixteenth floor of the Labyrinths, I probably won’t even receive half as much EXP as for defeating a single Lv.40 monster.

And it certainly doesn’t help that I don’t completely understand the mechanics of leveling up. For example, even though I have selected the Hero job, it is still at Lv.37, which is starting to look a little sloppy in comparison to others, so I am almost certain that the pace of leveling up differs for each Job individually.

In any case, it seems It will take quite some time to get the Explorer Job to Lv.50, and before that happens it’s going to be of no use to me to bring the Intelligence Card of Heinz the Bandit to anyone else than the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy.

First thing’s first, I want to hear from the Duke of Hartz directly as to why the bounty was assigned to Heinz the Bandit. If there is a story behind it, then I feel it might be in my best interest to hear it.

For the time being I warped to Bode’s Adventurer’s Guild’s wall while having the possibility of the worst possible scenario coming true at the back of my mind. I then enter the city of Bode and head straight towards the Duke’s castle. If they ask to check my Intelligence Card, I can always make an excuse that I am still searching through the Labyrinths of the Hartz Duchy.

I hand the Intelligence Cards of the Bandits to a Knight whose face I have grown to know quite well lately and awaited how things were going to proceed from this point onward.

「Please wait here for a moment. I will go and call the Leader.」

With that said, the Knight heads to the back of the castle. Ugh, I would have been much happier and much calmer if he didn’t decide to go look for him. I mean come on, I’m just here to get the reward from the bounties on the Bandit’s heads, and as soon as I get said money I’m outta here. Is it really that much to ask for the things to go smoothly just this once?

Now I’m beginning to think that it might’ve been better for me to actually go and aim for a time when the Duke and Gozer would not be around, but I decided against it after concluding that such an approach would only lead to more trouble further down the road. If any of the Knights asked me to check my Intelligence Cards and I would refuse or started avoiding the subject, I would’ve only gotten myself wound up in an unpleasant incident that might just get me arrested. But if I appear at usual time, take usual attitude and behave as if there was a scheduled appointment with me to be had, wouldn’t it look like there is nothing special going on? Yeah, exactly.

After a while, Gozer finally appears.

「Lord Michio, are you the one who perhaps brought the Bandits Intelligence Cards just now?」

「Yes, from the ones that attacked when I was in the Labyrinths the other day.」

「Was it by any chance on the twelfth floor of Haruba’s Labyrinth? Because during our investigation there yesterday we found that one of the caverns walls have been completely covered with Shield Cement.」
「Oh, yes, now that I think about it, that might have been the same place where I was attacked.」

Ahh, so apparently they have already found the location where the Bandits have set
Up their ambush. What a lucky coincidence, and just in time when I needed something like that to happen. Now, this makes me glad that I only decided to bring the Intelligence Cards today instead of either waiting or bringing them in later or handing them over sooner.

Now that they found a suspicious place in Haruba’s Labyrinth they will likely focus on investigating it, they would’ve probably grilled me about the time and the place where I got the Intelligence Cards from even harder if I brought them to them later, so it was also a correct decision to come here at usual time. If I brought the Cards at an inappropriate time, they would have thought that I came here immediately after defeating the Bandits.

「Is that so? I have indeed found it strange when we found the location of the ambush point but there were no Bandits around, but who would have thought that it was because they have already been defeated?」

Gozer explains to me. Yeah, that was exactly what happened, and that’s great, because now I have also provided Gozer with the evidence that I have been visiting the Labyrinths of the Hartz Duchy, just like I promised the Duke that I would do.

「Sir!」

「Yes, what is it?」

「These Intelligence Cards belong to the members of Heinz’s crew.」

The Knight to whom I have given the Intelligence Cards comes back and immediately reports to Gozer. So we were right, and the Bandits that attacked us belonged to Heinz the Bandit’s gang.

「There is no mistake about it?」

「No Sir, certainly not!」

「Well then, Lord Michio, please, come with me.」

After having confirmed who did the Cards belonged to with the Knight, Gozer invites me to go to the castle with him.

「Okay, I understand.」

I nod at him and follow him inside the castle.