Chapter 80 - Sewers (1)

How long had we been walking through the sewers, keeping watch on our surroundings? The dwarf and Misha were starting to get fed up.

"There really is nothing down here."

"Tell me about it, nyah. I wish something would show up already..."

So that was why they'd been so eager to come along. What exactly had they been expecting?

"Didn't I tell you? This commission is just one circuit through the place, and then we're done."

The commission was simple. Wear the borrowed video-recording orb on my head, make one circuit of the designated route, and check for anyone hiding down here. That was all. Well, we could end up fighting along the way, but...

'They said my predecessors found fewer than thirty people in two years.'

Encounters with strangers were rare to begin with. Even if we did run into someone, we didn't have to chase them down and fight at all costs.

"Huh? We don't have to chase them?"

"I hear there's a bonus for bringing them in, but there's no need to get hung up on that."

"Why not, nyah?"

Because the job I'd accepted was a sewer patrol. As I understood it, the administrative agency would review the footage afterward and send in a separate team to kill or arrest anyone we found.

"Oh, I see, nyah..."

While I was giving Misha a rough explanation of the commission, Rotmiller suddenly stopped at the head of the group.

"Somehow, I get the feeling there's something nearby."

An unsubstantiated mutter based on a hunch. Still, that was enough to make everyone look around. His smell-related stats wouldn't shine as they usually did in these musty sewers, but the Mimic's Essence had raised Rotmiller's Sixth Sense by +50 and Luck by +20.

"Oh! Th-there's someone over there, nyah!"

Just then, Misha shouted and pointed. I followed her gaze and spotted a flustered man.

'Huh. How did she even spot him?'

It was a gap barely large enough for a person to squeeze through. The man was hiding in a hole within it, curled up like a shrimp.

"Eek!"

I reached in, grabbed him by the collar, and hauled him out.

He was fairly tall, but so scrawny he felt as light as a goblin in my hand. He didn't act much differently from one, either.

"Die!"

As he came out, he thrust at me with the dagger clutched in his hand.

A good attempt. You've got to try anything you can to survive, right?

"Gaaagh!"

I caught his dagger-wielding wrist and bent it backward. That ended the fight.

"Why were you hiding here?"

The man immediately changed his tune at my question.

"S-spare me! Please! I-I haven't hurt anyone! I just didn't have any money!"

Not the answer I'd wanted, but... I supposed that meant he'd fled because he couldn't pay his taxes. Not that anyone believed him.

"This brings back memories! Back when I worked at the smithy, thug bastards with tattoos like these used to come by all the time. Hahaha!"

They were different from the geometric tattoos of barbarians. His skin was inked with skulls, scantily clad women, monsters, and the like. Of course, I didn't judge people's character by their appearance. But...

"Bjorn, look at the brand on his forehead. He's clearly a criminal who fled into the sewers."

The brand on his forehead, hidden beneath his headscarf, was proof he'd committed a serious crime that couldn't be settled with a fine. There was no room for sympathy. Well, the outcome wouldn't have been much different even if he'd just been a tax delinquent.

"Bjorn, what will you do with him now?"

"Not sure."

"Surely the administrative agency gave you guidelines beforehand?"

Hmm, they had certainly offered some advice. The basic policy was to capture people and bring them in, but apparently, as long as I'd recorded them properly, there was no problem with killing them and dumping them in the sewers.

"You can kill them? What if they're ordinary citizens?"

"They said no ordinary citizen would wander into a place like this by accident."

"Hahaha! Just as heartless as you'd expect from the administrative agency!"

Well, to me, it seemed more like they were being considerate of heartless explorers. But that wasn't what I needed to think about now.

"So, what will you do?"

"Let's take him with us for now."

It might have been different if I'd come alone, but with five of us here, we had hands to spare. More importantly, bringing him in alive paid an extra five thousand Stones.

"P-please, just let me off this once. Can't you just pretend you didn't see me and move on? I only ended up like this because I was trying to make a living—"

"Enough."

There was no need for a long, drawn-out conversation. Whether he was a tax delinquent or a criminal, whether circumstances had forced him into crime... What was I supposed to do about it?

"I accepted a commission. So I'm taking you in. They'll pass judgment."

"... Fuck! You fucking assholes! How are you any different from me?"

We were different. If we were the same, would you be begging me like this?

"Dwalki, shut him up."

"A-all right."

Dwalki silenced the man with his newly learned [Paralytic Poison] spell. With the man's body rigid, I slung him over my shoulder like a sack of rice and kept walking.

Had about an hour passed since then?

"Rotmiller, how much farther do we have to go, nyah?"

"We're about halfway now."

"What? We still have half left, nyah?"

Misha heaved a sigh, as though regretting coming along. Then she spoke up, apparently curious about something.

"By the way, Dwalki, how are you so fine, nyah? Last time you were throwing up and everything, nyah."

"Hehe, that? Actually, I learned a spell that blocks my sense of smell. It turns out mages who've worked as explorers consider it practically essential."

"Ooh, I see, nyah. But can't you cast it on other people, nyah?"

"Uh... Well, I'm not used to modifying spell formulas yet..."

Dwalki, who'd been proudly explaining his new spell, trailed off.

I chuckled. It wasn't that he wasn't used to it. He couldn't do it. Modifying spell formulas was practically the Magic Tower mages' bread and butter. They might teach basic spells for money, but they never let outsiders learn how to modify magic or create new forms of spells—

"L-let's make a deal! Let me go, and I'll give you information!"

Apparently, [Paralytic Poison] had worn off. The man suddenly began howling and struggling.

"Information?"

I stopped Dwalki from casting [Paralytic Poison] again and asked. The man hurried to continue.

"That crazy bitch! Bring her in, and she'll be worth far more than me!"

"Bjorn, why are you even listening, nyah? He's obviously desperate to save himself, nyah."

I thought so too, but... One particular word had caught my ear.

"... A crazy bitch? Tell me more."

It was worth hearing him out.

* * *

Negotiation. The act of persuasion and discussion to reach a decision. Both rational and unjust. Unless the parties stood on equal footing, someone was bound to lose out. Just like this.

"... I need a promise before I talk!"

"Dwalki, just put him back the way he was—"

"I-I'll talk!"

Apparently unwilling to squander his chance, the man launched into a lengthy explanation.

"I'm not the only one living in these sewers. There are plenty of others. You don't usually see them because they know the patrol routes and avoid them..."

"Keep it short."

"... A crazy bitch stole my hideout a few days ago."

His story boiled down to this. He'd been getting along fairly well down in the sewers when a woman came and stole his home. She wasn't an ordinary woman. Though she had a slender build, she had a bunch of skeletons with her, so he'd been driven out without putting up much of a fight.

"Skeletons? Couldn't she just have absorbed a Necramia's Essence, nyah?"

Misha tilted her head, offering the Grade 7 monster Necramia as an example.

But the man seemed certain.

"I don't know exactly what that is. But! They were clearly different from the skeletons in the Labyrinth! I used to be an explorer myself, so I'm sure of it!"

"And your point?"

"She must have used evil black magic. Turn her over to the temple, and they'll surely give you a reward. Far more than you'd get for someone like me!"

I thought for a moment. The timing was too coincidental to dismiss. A woman who used evil black magic, hiding in the sewers as of a few days ago...

"... Don't tell me it's that woman?"

"Elisa Vehench. True, if she wanted to flee, she'd have had nowhere else to go."

Apparently thinking along the same lines, Rotmiller and the dwarf each spoke, swallowing hard.

'Fuck, is it really that bitch?'

I needed to find out more. There wasn't enough evidence to be sure yet.

"What did she look like? Describe her in detail."

"She wore a robe and hid her face under a hood, so I didn't get a good look. I could tell she was a woman from her figure and voice, but that's all."

"I see."

"Oh! I just remembered. She wore a necklace with a very unusual shape..."

"What shape?"

"It's hard to explain in words..."

Something came to mind, and I quickly pulled an item from my backpack: the symbol of the Order of Carui I'd found while searching Hans's backpack the other day.

"Did it look like this?"

"Yes! Exactly like that!"

I heaved a sigh as the man nodded eagerly. The likelihood that it really was that bitch had just shot up.

"What are you going to do, nyah?"

"I'm thinking."

"Hahaha, what's there to think about? We should haul her in right now and deliver justice!"

Justice, my ass. He just wanted the reward. In any case, if the dwarf was the hard-liner, Rotmiller was the moderate.

"I think we should return to the administrative agency and file an official report first. We're not even sure it's her yet. Why should we take the risk ourselves?"

Both arguments were valid. Capture her ourselves, and we'd get a reward. Or we could avoid the risk, file a report, and leave the matter to someone else. But...

'Something doesn't sit right.'

If the crazy bitch this man was talking about really was Elisa Vehench, leaving now would feel especially unsettling. Elisa Vehench wasn't just some fucking asshole. She was a fucking asshole with a grudge against me. That was why I'd been privately worried she might be plotting something in the shadows.

'Even if the administrative agency and the temple worked together to send people, it'd take several days at least...'

If that bitch got away in the meantime, I'd have to keep living with this feeling.

"I'd like to go check it out. What do you all think?"

Misha agreed immediately. Dwalki, who'd been neutral, cast his vote in line with his good friend the dwarf. Even Rotmiller, despite his concerns, readily accepted the majority's decision.

"Since the four of you agree, I'll come along. But why don't we finish the patrol commission first?"

"You're right. Let's do that."

We picked up the pace and finished patrolling the route designated by the administrative agency.

"Where's your hideout? Take us there."

"I need your promise that you'll spare me."

"If she's the woman we're looking for, or we decide she's worth that much, I'll let you go alive."

"All right. Follow me."

"Wait. Put this on first."

"Huh...?"

What did he mean, huh? I tied a rope tightly around the dumbfounded man's waist, then gripped the long remaining length like a dog leash. It'd be a pain if he ran off, wouldn't it?

"There. Now lead the way."

"... These passages won't be on your map, so follow closely."

The man began navigating the maze of sewers in earnest. As we followed, I realized just how complicated the layout was. Until now, we'd only made a broad circuit along the main passages where sewage flowed. But squeezing through narrow gaps that looked like walls revealed new spaces, with forks along the way and even places where we had to climb through holes in the ceiling.

Which raised a question.

"Why were you hiding somewhere you could get caught?"

"... I was looking around for a new hideout. Then I heard you coming in the distance and had to hide in a hurry. I had no choice."

I see. This guy really had rotten luck.

"We're here."

The man stopped beside a hole about two meters across. I didn't know what this part of the structure had been designed for, but apparently, following the passage beneath the hole would lead to a large space.

"Keep your voices down from here on."

"Hehe, this is rather nerve-racking."

Unlike the somewhat excited dwarf and the slightly frightened Misha, I wasn't particularly anxious. As luck would have it, all five of us had come down into the sewers together, rather than me coming alone. And everyone was much stronger than back then. If the woman hiding down there was Elisa Vehench...

"Hey, is there any way to escape from inside?"

"This hole is the only way in or out."

This time, we'd be able to show her what justice was.