Chapter 297 - Evil Spirit (1)

After running for nearly thirty minutes, I encountered a team of five: three humans, a dwarf, and an elf. Judging by their equipment, they explored at least the fifth floor or higher...

"You're lost? Calm down first. Come over here and rest a little."

Far from being wary when I approached their camp, they sat me down by the fire and even gave me jerky.

At first, I wondered whether the jerky was poisoned. But...

"Hmm, what should we do? We don't have time to scour the entire third floor looking for your team."

Not one of them showed any greed throughout our conversation. They didn't even demand equipment in exchange for saving me.

Hmm. That much was practically standard practice.

"Haha, you'll give us your weapon? No need. If you give us your equipment, what will you do for the rest of this expedition?"

"It's fine. If it really bothers you, repay us by helping someone in a similar situation later, without being stingy."

Calling them nice hardly did justice to their character. That actually made them more suspicious, so I deliberately left myself vulnerable, even nodding off by the fire...

"He must have been exhausted."

"Jess, what should we do? I don't feel right leaving him here. That's practically leaving him to die."

"Why don't we spend a few hours searching the area for his companions?"

"And if we don't find them?"

"Hmm, then how about taking him upstairs with us for the rest of the expedition? It'll be inconvenient, but we can't leave him to die here."

There was no point in testing them any further. I'd only be making a nuisance of myself.

So I signaled Amelia, who would be nearby—the signal we'd agreed on beforehand, telling her to come get me.

"We're getting plenty of visitors today. Who are you?"

"... Sorry to interrupt. I'm looking for my companion."

"Your companion? Oh, don't tell me...!"

As Amelia approached the fire, I jumped to my feet and ran over.

"Oh! Emily!! I missed you!! What took you so long?!"

"S-sorry... But could you let..."

"Emilyyyyy!!"

I hugged her fiercely to keep up the act, while keeping an eye on the people behind me. They seemed nice, but I figured seeing Amelia might change their minds.

Well, that had been my concern...

"I'm glad you found your companion."

In the end, there was no twist at all.

"Heh heh. Make sure you stick close to your companions next time."

"You have good companions. It's not easy to split up and search for someone like this in the Labyrinth. Take good care of each other."

They were nice from start to finish. Which meant it was time for us uninvited guests to leave.

"Come on, let's go. Everyone... is worried... about you..."

Saying there was a place where we'd agreed to meet the others, Amelia led me away. They saw us off with warm smiles.

And now, a little while later...

'I... really came back without anything happening?'

I was bewildered, and at the same time, deeply moved.

Was this what healing felt like...?

What kind of life had I been living all this time? There were so many wonderful people in the world.

"Unfortunately, your method didn't work."

While I was still basking in that warmth, Amelia looked at me as if to ask what I planned to do now.

Tsk. Way to embarrass me. How was I supposed to know it would turn out like this?

"Are you going to keep trying?"

I gave her question some serious thought.

That was when it happened.

"You there, did you get separated from your companions? What are you two doing?"

Five explorers emerged from the darkness.

"If that's what happened, come over here. We'll help you."

They were all beaming, like people who'd stumbled across gold on the road. So I put an end to my praise of humanity and approached them with a smile.

"Oh, really? Perfect! We need help!"

You never really had to look for bastards like these. They came to you.

* * *

The second team was far more blatant than I'd expected. The moment we joined them, they casually spread out around us, practically encircling us.

And...

"Oho, isn't this a subspace ring? Your equipment's crap, but you've got something valuable on your finger."

They created a threatening atmosphere, even pulling my hand toward them to examine the subspace ring.

"So, where are your companions?"

"I don't know."

"Hmm, is that so?"

Had the few things they'd learned convinced them there wasn't much to fear?

One of them soon approached Amelia and reached toward her bare thigh...

SHUNK.

Before he could touch her, a dagger pierced the back of his hand.

"Aaargh!! You crazy bitch!"

"Kill them!"

The battle began less than three minutes after we met.

WHOOSH!

Judging by how they counterattacked without a moment's hesitation after the stabbing, they had plenty of experience fighting people.

Not that it was a problem. So did we.

"Behel—raaaaaa!"

[Gigantification], [Swing], and more.

Once I started rampaging in earnest with my skills, the fight was quickly decided. Their formation, intended to keep us from escaping, worked beautifully.

Sure, trapping a goblin and beating it up gave you an advantage...

CRUNCH!

But not a troll or an ogre, right?

I started by fucking up the back line carrying bows and staves. Before long, every last one of them was on the ground.

"You... tricked us... Fuck."

CRUNCH!

"..."

A pleasant silence fell the moment I crushed the skull of the one who appeared to be their leader.

Now it was time to collect the belongings that no longer had owners.

As I stripped off their equipment and opened their bags, sure enough, evidence of plundering turned up everywhere. There wasn't much equipment, perhaps because it was only day three, but there were sleeping drugs, poisons, mind-affecting scrolls, and more. They had a whole stash of consumables meant for people rather than monsters.

There were also several identity tags that looked stolen.

Maybe it was because we'd made such a big haul in one go?

"Another ten rounds or so should do it."

Amelia no longer questioned my method.

Well, she must have realized it herself: there was no more efficient way.

Kill plunderers who'd already done some plundering, and you got multiple sets of equipment and multiple identity tags. Far better results for the time and effort.

"Then let's wipe off the blood and keep moving."

Anyway, we continued using the same strategy, encountering all sorts of teams. Their reactions varied wildly, but broadly speaking...

["Not interested. Go away."]

Ninety percent wouldn't even let me approach when I came alone.

["That's an unfortunate predicament. You may stay for a little while."]

Five percent heard me out, then demanded a reasonable payment in exchange for letting me rest.

["... Suspicious. Show us your identity tag."]

Three percent mistook me for a plunderer and brought out the hammer of justice.

["However valuable your belongings are, surely they're worth less than your life."]

Then there were the groups who tried to strip me of all my equipment, not caring whether a monster killed me afterward...

["Sorry. We don't leave loose ends."]

And those who tried to take my life as well, simply because I'd seen their faces. Those types accounted for about one percent.

'My hit rate's a lot lower than I expected.'

We'd be lucky to find one suitable team out of a hundred.

Ha. Why had I run into these fuckers so often before? Was this one of those things you could never find when you actually needed it?

I didn't know, but time continued to pass. By day eight, we encountered a new type of team.

"Oh, fancy meeting the famous newcomers here."

A team of plunderers from Noark.

* * *

To cut to the chase, there was no battle. Not so much because we had no intention of fighting, but because the other side never gave us an opening in the first place.

"Haha, it's nice to meet you, but I'd appreciate it if you respected our boundaries."

They wouldn't even let us get close, and Amelia showed no particular hostility. In fact, she warned me.

"They're the lord's men. Don't do anything rash."

Hey, I hadn't planned to.

We had to at least pretend we were on the same side, didn't we? If we struck first and one of them survived to tell the tale, our plan would be ruined.

"Could we talk for a moment?"

"All right."

Amelia accepted the Noark team's proposal without hesitation. It didn't take me long to realize what she was thinking.

We needed to join the lord's faction. If anything, this was an opportunity to sell ourselves.

"I'm Beck."

"We're..."

"I know. Emily, and you're Iron Mask, right?"

"Iron Mask?"

"Oh, you didn't know? That's the nickname people gave you."

I hadn't imagined I'd picked up a nickname like that. Well, it fit, considering I always kept my face hidden behind a thick helmet.

"But you're better-looking than I expected."

Oh, right. I wasn't wearing my helmet because I was in the middle of fishing for targets.

I felt dismayed, but didn't bother putting it on. Right, what difference would showing my face to these few people make anyway?

Nothing was going to change regardless.

"By the way, was that your method back there? Very impressive. You made excellent use of people's preconceptions about barbarians."

"... What do you mean?"

"Oh, it was only a compliment. Nothing more, so don't look at me like that. We might end up being comrades, after all."

Amelia interjected.

"Comrades?"

"Oh, I hadn't mentioned that. We held off because you needed time to adjust to the city, but the lord has a favorable opinion of you."

Translated, that meant they'd been watching us because we seemed capable, but they didn't know what sort of people we were.

"The lord likes bold people. Especially those unencumbered by morality, like you two."

And that meant they no longer needed to test us.

"You'll probably hear from him once you're back, so give it some thought until then. It's an unfamiliar city, isn't it? You need a nest of your own."

"... I'll think about it."

"Haha, that's all I ask."

He laughed heartily, then looked at me.

"Oh, and you. You don't seem to have been out in human society long, but you've already become thoroughly humanized."

"And you must have been out in the world too long, seeing as all your hair's fallen out."

"... What?"

It sounded so obviously like a backhanded insult that the words slipped out before I knew it. But had he really not meant it that way?

"Ah! It was a compliment, a compliment! Sorry if you misunderstood."

Instead of showing offense, he apologized. So it was my turn to apologize too.

"Oh, mine was a compliment too. Sorry if you misunderstood."

"... I-is that so?"

He laughed awkwardly, and I followed suit with an awkward laugh of my own. All the while, I kept watching him.

It was a strange feeling.

'His name was definitely Beck, right?'

So why did looking at him keep making my hands itch?

As I shifted my gaze, troubled by that inexplicable unease, I spotted the only explorer in the group wearing a robe.

They were small. Like a child.

"Oh, you might not know about this yet."

Perhaps taking my stare for curiosity, Beck whisked off the kid's robe.

"In a way, it's similar to your method. We use this one as bait. Most people don't get suspicious. Send the kid inside, and we can gauge the other side's strength in advance. Surprisingly useful in combat, too. Most people have a mental block about killing children this young."

Beck explained the child as though showing off merchandise.

But none of his explanation registered. Not only had I already heard it from Amelia...

'What? Where have I seen this kid before?'

The child, standing expressionless even after the robe was pulled away, felt familiar.

Had he misinterpreted my stare?

"Hmm, now that I look, you weren't curious. You took a liking to the kid, did you?"

Beck spouted utter nonsense. Normally, I'd have cleared up the misunderstanding by smashing his head in first, but instead of denying it, I asked a question.

"What's the name?"

"Name?"

Beck tilted his head as if it were a strange question. His expression said he couldn't fathom why something like a name mattered.

Still, he answered.

"Jenssia Neyfrin."

Right. It was you. No wonder I'd felt so strange.

["W-we're real people... people, aren't we? That would be murder, wouldn't it?"]

This child was the first evil spirit I'd ever killed, in the Glacial Cavern.

Of course, the Jenssia I'd killed would have been someone different from this child. Evil spirits only possessed adult locals. No exceptions had been discovered yet.

'No, wait. If that's true...'

The moment I recognized that, I realized something else.

A child born in Noark. There was a good chance she'd still been living underground when she reached adulthood.

Which meant...

["I want to go home. I can't die here. Not in this fucking place... You have no idea what I went through to survive. Please... I'm begging you..."]

Only then did I understand why that woman had poured out so much anguish.

Human characters had a relatively easy time surviving. Their taxes were set far lower than those of other races, so they could survive for a few years without much trouble even without working as explorers.

That was why I hadn't really been able to sympathize at the time. To me, she'd just been a woman shrieking excuses for trying to make an easy living as a plunderer.

But...

["M-Mom..."]

Right. She'd started out in this hell.

All this time, I'd thought barbarians had the worst starting point.

"..."

There was a bottom beneath rock bottom.