"I agree with her on that part, sir Hector."
Benjamin glanced at his niece and then raised his brow, carefully observing the officer's reaction.
"...the thing is... they are... actually protecting them..."
The light-brown-haired man closed his eyes as if he was fighting with himself but ended up revealing.
"..."
"..."
The silence that befell the dining room of the mansion was uncomfortable, to say the least...
"Excuse me, what do you mean by that?"
Ava managed to shake off her confusion first and inquired in disbelief.
"Do you remember a series of arsons last year? It became a true problem, we had no viable leads on the matter, and the people were becoming overcome with fear. Then the group I am talking about began going around and collecting the protection fee. Some folks did pay..."
"Let me guess – the ones who paid were safe while the fire continued to bother their neighbors until they paid up too."
Hector began to explain, but Ava only snickered angrily.
"No. The very next day, the local carpenter was found in front of his house, hanged. He had a plank saying ARSONIST in big red letters nailed to his chest together with a handwritten confession letter – with handwriting matching the dead carpenter - about how he got in a lot of debt because of his gambling addiction and came up with the idea to cause fires so that his neighbors would have to buy new furniture. He even offered a discount to the people who lost most or all of their possessions because of his actions."
"...!"
"I think I've heard about it before..."
The officer shook his head and revealed, stunning Ava into silence while her uncle furrowed his brows, trying to recall a memory.
"Yeah... yeah...! I was still having drinks with the old Tom – rest his soul. I vaguely remember that one time we had a talk about those arsons... Tom said that the soldiers were thinking that someone was using magic pellets to start all those fires, but it turned out the arsonist was using a mixture of various oils and chemicals used for creating varnish that would burn up into an oily soot and was basically unidentifiable amongst the remains...!"
Benjamin rubbed his chin and started nodding faster and faster while talking.
"...o-oh..."
Ava gulped down her saliva and rubbed her cheek, not knowing what to say.
"S-still. That's just one case, and the local thugs still could be behind it!"
Even so, the recovery didn't take her too long, and in no time, she came up with another argument.
"There was also the case with that traveling merchant who flaunted his royal trading permit."
But Hector wasn't done yet and started talking about another example.
"We don't know for sure what was the reason that man came in possession of a royal trading permit... But since the permit is a binding item and each exiting one is listed with the name of the person it was bestowed to, we confirmed that it was the real deal."
"Y-yes, I know who you are talking about! That creepy guy who would show up in our town for years, way before you and your men arrived. Each time he was in town, there would be a burglary!"
The more Hector spoke, the more dispirited he looked right before Ava perked up, as the person they talked about was an extremely unwelcome sight for the locals.
"And because of that whole permit, no one was allowed to search through his cart! Some people got beat up one year for even trying to approach it, and when we notified the kingdom soldiers about the case, they only shrugged at us and said there was nothing they could do!"
The girl huffed and puffed, all agitated.
"That's one of the benefits that the owner of the royal trading permit gets. Only someone with special permission given by the ruling monarch has the right to inspect the property of someone with the royal trading permit."
The officer nodded with a guilty expression.
"So that's why you couldn't do anything when so many things went missing last year when that slimy bastard invited himself to this mansion?!"
"That's correct."
Ava gasped, and Hector lowered his head apologetically.
"Then, are you saying that when I was cheering because that creep didn't show up this year, I should be thanking our local criminals?!"
The girl raised her voice while putting both hands on the table and leaning in towards the young officer.
"..."
"Sir Hector...?"
The man was silent, but the girl urged him impatiently.
"...the criminal became organized last year, and since we were dispatched here for three years and failed to resolve the situation twice in a row, the local folks encouraged by the positive outcome with the arsonist made sure to pay up for the protection with except for the few new faces that settled in after the arsonist case. The traveling merchant with the royal trading permit shows up. Only the folks who didn't pay up get robbed..."
"Including us in the mansion."
The officer said, and the pixie-cut girl cut in with a sour expression.
"...including you..."
Hector agreed bitterly.
"...the next day, the robbed medics put up a formal complaint because they lost some really expensive equipment, we inform them that there is nothing we can do, they get angry... some helpful locals laugh at them for not paying the protection money. So what do they do? They round up all the money they can and send it the way of the crime ring..."
The man rushed through the explanation, barely taking a break to take a breath and not getting into much detail at all.
"...last year, you told me that the creep left in the middle of the night because of some important business, uncle... Tsk. Then, sir Hector? What happened next...?"
Ava, who sounded pretty annoyed about the fact that somehow this was the first time she heard about the whole problematic situation, glared at her uncle first before focusing back on the kingdom's soldier.