Chapter 37 - Guild (2)

I'm sitting in a chair. A rather unusual chair, with iron restraints fitted to the arms and legs as optional extras, and its base nailed to the floor.

'Come on, can't you at least give a guy time to rest?'

To explain the situation a little further, I'm currently in an interrogation room beneath the Explorer Guild. An investigator sits across from me. I'd put him in his mid-thirties, and his distinguishing features amount to severe obesity and an overbearing way of speaking.

“I'm Koldo Birman, the investigator assigned to this case. I'll be asking you a few questions, and I'd appreciate your cooperation.”

“Investigation? Shouldn't you tell me why you dragged me here first?”

I asked without letting him intimidate me. I wasn't expecting the presumption of innocence, but surely even a defendant in this era had a right to that much—

THWACK!

The investigator bastard kicked me in the shin. When I looked at his face, he was grinning smugly, as though nothing had happened.

“Rule one: you answer only the questions I ask. Understood?”

“... Understood.”

“Heh. Follow the rules, and you won't get hurt. You can rest easy on that count.”

Hurt, my ass. After all the shit I'd been through in the Labyrinth, did he think one kick in the shin would even tickle? This bastard clearly had some fantasies about his profession.

“Anyway, to answer your question... Bjorn Jandel. You were brought here on suspicion of plundering within the Labyrinth.”

“... Suspicion of plundering?”

Just as I was wondering what kind of bullshit this was, the investigator bastard turned my backpack upside down and dumped its contents on the floor.

“Whew. Quite a haul.”

Exploration supplies, like torches and a sleeping bag. The special item I'd acquired in the Blood-Tinted Castle. From among those, the food, and the assorted odds and ends, the investigator picked out the equipment and set it on the table, piece by piece. Most of it had belonged to the four-person party that had stabbed us in the back in the Land of the Dead.

“If you weren't plundering, where did you get these? Barbarians don't use bows.”

“Those... belonged to people who tried to kill me first.”

“Proof?”

Proof? Of course I didn't have any, but that was no reason to be meek. I countered with a question of my own.

“Then do you have proof that I'm lying?”

“Well, that's what we'll have to investigate.”

“You're detaining someone and investigating them over nothing more than this?”

That was what made the least sense to me. This wasn't how the Explorer Guild normally operated. Whatever explorers brought out of the Labyrinth, no questions were asked without evidence. That was this city's unwritten rule. Accordingly, the guild never went looking for plunderers unless someone filed a report or gave testimony first.

Except...

“The guild's internal regulations changed a few days ago.”

There wasn't much I could say to that. This wasn't just a game world. It was a world where countless people lived their lives.

“The official directive is to apply the policy to rank-9 explorers first, to curb plundering.”

In short, they were testing it on the easiest targets first. Low status meant suffering, no matter where you went. I could roughly guess the criteria for an investigation, too. Bringing back a lot of magic crystals, or carrying equipment in your backpack that seemed to belong to someone else. Things like that. So I'd started with two strikes against me?

“Now, tell me. Where did you get these items?”

Anyway, perhaps his initial behavior had only been intended to intimidate me, because the investigator bastard proceeded with an otherwise ordinary interrogation. So I cooperated as best I could and told him what had happened.

Oh, I left out the psychopathic bitch, of course. Explaining that would mean talking about the oath, and a barbarian who broke an oath would look suspicious anywhere. Being branded an evil spirit was far more dangerous than being falsely accused of murder. Especially since there would be no room for excuses.

'And if I reported her, that woman might kill me without anyone ever knowing.'

So I gave a brief account of encountering the four plunderers, falling under Suppression, and dramatically turning the tables to finish them off. The investigator bastard, however, remained unimpressed.

“What? You survived being stabbed in the neck? Even a child wouldn't believe that lie.”

“I've told you nothing but the truth.”

“Then where's the scar on your neck? If your story were true, there should be a mark.”

My hand went to my neck before I realized it. Smooth. Not a single raised patch. I didn't have to think about why. Absorbing the Vampire's Essence had raised my natural regeneration so much that even the scar had healed.

'... Why does this keep getting more complicated?'

Reluctantly, I ended up having to tell him about the rupture as well. The problem was that the investigator bastard wouldn't listen to a word of it.

“Pahahaha! A rupture? With a Vampire? Not a shred of logic in your story. Typical barbarian!”

“I swear everything I've said is true.”

Apparently, he'd already made up his mind. Even the warrior's oath, which had always worked like a cheat code, was useless this time.

“What honor could a plundering wretch like you possibly have?”

By then, my own temper was rising.

“Then call a mage! You can verify it with magic!”

Really, there was no need for this conversation to drag on. One spell would establish the truth. But the investigator bastard merely gave a derisive chuckle.

“Only explorers of rank 7 or higher can formally request verification from the guild.”

Damn it. When had that changed? They didn't even treat rank-9 explorers like people.

“Even if I pay the fee?”

“That money will revert to the state when you die. We can't waste it on something pointless.”

Bullshit. It would just leave you less to pocket.

“Now, make this easy and confess to your crimes.”

It looked like proving my innocence was going to take some time.

* * *

Brilliant midday sunlight enveloped her, as if announcing the end of fifteen days in the Labyrinth. Erwin stood still for a moment, savoring its warmth. Perhaps it was the stark change in surroundings, but fragments of everything that had happened flashed through her mind.

'I didn't know the third floor would be so hard...'

The third floor, which she had entered with her older sister. The strength of rank-7 monsters, unlike anything she'd ever experienced. Even the rank-6 monster they'd happened to encounter at the end, though her sister had done almost all the fighting. It truly felt like her first proper expedition.

Her first trip into the Labyrinth with Mister hadn't been bad, either... but she'd been too busy trying to stay alive to take much in.

'He'll be so surprised when I tell him, won't he?'

She wanted to run straight to him and tell him everything she'd experienced in the Labyrinth. Then she wanted to ask how his trip had gone. The thought breathed fresh energy into her exhausted body.

'If I tell him I got a new Essence, will he act like he did last time...?'

That worried her a little... Yet somehow, her steps felt lighter than usual. Erwin hurried straight to the exchange counter for rank-9 explorers.

'Did we miss each other this time? I don't see him...'

“That's 184,100 Stones.”

“Wooow...”

“That's quite a sum for a rank-9 explorer, isn't it?”

“I went with my older sister!”

“May I have her name?”

“Daria Wittember de Tersia.”

“Yes, that's confirmed. You're free to go.”

After exchanging her magic crystals, meeting her sister outside, and dropping off their belongings at the inn, she spent three hours washing herself and changing into fresh clothes. Then she headed straight for Bjorn's inn. But what was going on?

“You're that young elf lady who came by every day. What a shame, though. If you're looking for room 302, he hasn't come back yet.”

“Hmm, he hasn't?”

Bjorn wasn't at the inn. What could have happened? From the sound of it, he'd paid for his room in advance, and his other belongings were still inside...

“Are you going to keep waiting?”

“Yes! He'll be back soon!”

“Tsk.”

For some reason, the normally kind innkeeper clicked his tongue in disapproval. How much time passed after that? The sun set. Hours ago, in fact.

“Excuse me, why are you taking his things out of his room without permission?”

“What a nuisance. Look, miss. Do you have any papers?”

“P-papers?”

“You know. A document saying you're that barbarian's teammate, or that you're entitled to his belongings after his death. Something like that.”

“I don't have anything like that... No, wait! What do you mean, after his death?”

“Then why else hasn't he come back, this long after the Labyrinth closed? He's dead! In the Labyrinth!”

With that, the innkeeper all but forcibly threw her out. Dejected, Erwin crouched down in front of the inn.

'Dead? That's impossible...'

It made no sense. Explorers might die in the Labyrinth every day, but she couldn't imagine him dying. So she sat outside and waited.

Morning came, then night, and then morning again.

“There you are.”

Her sister had come for her.

She didn't scold Erwin for staying out for two nights, nor did she ask any questions. She simply held out her hand.

“... Let's get you something to eat first.”

Erwin took that hand and rose to her feet, a thought forming in her mind. She couldn't quite explain why. She knew the two things had nothing to do with each other.

“I want to get stronger.”

Yet somehow, that was what she felt. More intensely than ever before.

* * *

I'm locked behind thick iron bars. All my belongings have been confiscated, leaving me wearing nothing but a scrap of cloth wrapped and tied around my waist. I'm standing awkwardly, leaning against the wall. For the second day running.

'Fuuuck...'

After the first day, things had only gone from bad to worse. My repeated denials and demands for verification had left the investigator no choice but to call a mage, but...

「The character's Mental stat is 90 or higher.」

「Resisting mental magic through the Mana resistance modifier.」

The rank-9 mage employed by the guild couldn't get a spell to work on me.

“His mental barrier is too strong. I believe we'll need to call a mage from the Magic Tower.”

Things had become troublesome. Even for the guild, closing my case now required help from a higher-ranked mage.

“Calling on them for a mere rank-9 explorer's case isn't worth the expense.”

From then on, the investigator pulled every kind of bullshit imaginable to get a confession out of me. He thought it would be much easier. But there was no way I'd let a little shit like him scare me into a false confession.

I even gave him the names of Allua Raven, a rank-6 mage, and that dwarf, but the thickheaded bastard wouldn't listen. As the case continued to drag on...

“Hahaha! Bjorn Jandel, it seems this wasn't your first time plundering!”

He pinned an entirely new accusation on me, unrelated to the previous investigation.

“What do you mean?”

“We found this while investigating you.”

What the investigator held out with a triumphant gleam in his eyes was none other than a message stone.

“Message stones have unique serial numbers, with their owners registered. So I looked up the one in your backpack, and sure enough, it belonged to a dead explorer.”

For the record, the owner's name was Artoa Serdin.

“He belonged to a clan, so I contacted them. They gave me a detailed account of everything you'd done. Apparently, you injured a man named Hartz Young and fled, then even murdered the person pursuing you?”

Did this bastard think he was the hero of a detective story? He was being needlessly long-winded.

“So what happens to me?”

I cut straight to the point. Whatever I said, this bastard, who was practically dying to get rid of me, wasn't going to listen.

“Given the circumstances, testimony, and evidence, this guild has decided to reject your request for verification and carry out your sentence.”

“This guild,” my ass. You were just rejecting my request yourself.

“... And what's my sentence?”

“What an odd question. The royal laws of Raphdonia have never once shown clemency to plunderers. Ah, is that too difficult for a barbarian to understand?”

The investigator bastard chuckled and continued.

“It means death.”

That was what happened yesterday evening. This morning, a jailer stopped by, told me the date of my execution, and asked if there was anything I wanted to eat. All at once, it felt real.

“...”

If I did nothing, I was going to fucking die. Which meant I couldn't do nothing. We were long past the point of talking this out.

But if I simply smashed the bars and escaped, I'd be nothing more than a plunderer who'd broken out of prison.

'Even if I manage to escape into the city, I'll be a wanted man in no time.'

I thought it over for a while, but in the end, there was only one way to survive. Prove my innocence, whatever it took. Naturally, it wouldn't be easy.

You could judge a forest by one of its trees. If even a lowly investigator was this impossible to reason with, why would the others be any different?

'Guilty or not, the Explorer Guild will decide that making me disappear is the easier, quieter option.'

Once I started planning with that assumption in mind, a way forward began to emerge. The first priority was to create a situation where the Explorer Guild couldn't silence me. I had an idea about how to do that, too. Of course, I'd have to deal with an enormous amount of trouble in exchange...

GRIND.

I pictured the investigator's face and stoked my motivation. Ever since I was little, I'd been a cheeky brat who knew how to repay every slight tenfold.

'No matter how I look at it, just saving my own life isn't enough to make this worth it.'

I would make them pay for this. No matter what.

「The character has cast [Flesh Explosion].」

And pay dearly.