Chapter 13 — Next Time I’ll Ask Permission Before Robbing
Chapter 13 — Next Time I’ll Ask Permission Before Robbing
Reina, a priest of the Harmony Church, stood quietly staring at the hole in the floor.
When are they coming out?
The Fire Ant Nest labyrinth had a peculiar structure.
Explorers entered through the entrance in the middle of the road and exited through the hole in the floor of this house.
Although it was a labyrinth with simple clear conditions and relatively low risk of death, it was not particularly popular.
First, the strategy was nothing more than simple navigation. It was boring, and the rewards were not very profitable.
Another factor was that it was located in the Cultist Isolation District.
Because of that, even though explorers occasionally visited, at most three teams came per month.
So she had been pleased to see explorers again after such a long time.
They’re taking too long.
The two-person expedition—composed of a cultist of the Twisted Truth and a tiger beastman—still had not emerged.
Three hours had already passed.
Considering that the average clear time was no more than two hours, the exploration was taking unusually long.
Did they die?
Could they really have fallen in the Fire Ant Nest, one of the easier E-Rank labyrinths?
It was not an unreasonable guess.
Although the method of clearing the labyrinth was simply following a map, if explorers delayed too long the Fire Ant swarm would gather from across the entire nest. A low-level expedition could never handle that.
Reina stared at the hole silently for a long time.
Eventually she rummaged through the drawer and pulled out some documents.
[Report of Deceased Explorers]
If an explorer died inside a labyrinth, the priest managing the labyrinth was obligated to report it.
Judging from the circumstances, the two-person expedition must have been swept away by a Fire Ant swarm.
What a shame…
She remembered the tiger beastman girl who had listened attentively to the explanation with her ears perked up.
To think someone so young had died such a futile death.
Reina steadied her emotions and began writing the report.
The very first thing she had learned during training as a labyrinth priest was:
Become accustomed to the deaths of explorers.
If one kept feeling pity for every death, it would destroy one’s mental health. So priests had to learn to process those emotions quickly.
“O Artein, please guide the young soul to the sanctuary you protect. As for the cultist… the Evil God will probably take care of that.”
After offering a respectful prayer, she stood up to submit the report.
“…Huh?”
As she stepped outside the house assigned for duty and began walking toward the temple, Reina suddenly froze.
A red gate flickered ominously in midair.
“Ah!”
“Oh.”
A blond cultist and a tiger beastman girl fell out of the gate.
Both of them were completely soaked.
“…Why didn’t you tell me we’d fall as soon as we came out?!”
“I didn’t know.”
“That’s a lie!”
“You’re right.”
“Then why did you do that?!”
“There’s a reason. Do you think I did it just to prank you?”
Reina stared blankly at the arguing explorers.
Then she suddenly came to her senses.
They had exited from somewhere other than the designated exit?
This was not a normal situation.
Artein’s arrangement.
Or what non-believers called a Hidden Piece—a gem hidden by the labyrinth—had been discovered.
“Explorer, hello! I’m glad you returned safely!”
It seemed she would still need to submit a report.
However, it would not be a report about deceased explorers.
Instead, it would be a report about newly emerging explorers.
The Third-Tier Mystery Artein had granted her—[Mysterious Intuition]—was telling her so.
That person will become a great explorer in the future!
A promising new star had appeared who would shake the entire explorer world.
We sold the information about the Hidden Piece of the Fire Ant Nest to the priest and received an advance payment of 50 gold.
“Here it is!”
“Thank you….”
Marlin accepted the pouch with both hands and peeked at the gold coins visible through the tied opening.
Her eyes sparkled like stars.
“Let’s go back.”
I pushed my dazed assistant gently toward the market.
Before returning home, we planned to buy ingredients.
“Fifty gold….”
“You like it that much?”
Marlin lifted her head.
“Of course!”
“Get used to it. If you travel with me, you’ll handle gold coins until you’re sick of them.”
For a child who grew up in the slums, no words could sound sweeter.
Marlin nodded vigorously.
“If I listen to you, Kar… can I become rich?”
“In Pletika, famous explorers and wealthy people are basically the same thing.”
“Then I’ll become a great explorer!”
“Of course you will. I’m sponsoring you, after all.”
This wasn’t baseless confidence.
In many previous cycles, the Marlin siblings had indeed become excellent explorers.
Although in those cases we usually met as enemies rather than allies.
“We’re at the market.”
We arrived at the market inside the cultist district.
《The only market in the Cultist Residential Area. Even at noon, when crowds should fill the streets, silence prevails. The scent of blood is especially strong here, and much of the meat sold has questionable origins.》
Delicious smells filled the air.
I bought chicken skewers from a stall and stuck one into Marlin’s mouth.
“If there’s anything you want to eat, say it. I’ll buy it all.”
“I want pork!”
“I don’t recommend pork… but if you insist.”
“Why not?”
“…You wouldn’t eat it if you knew.”
“…Then I’ll pick something else.”
I bought every ingredient she requested.
Even together they cost less than one gold.
There were reasons why the price was so cheap, but Marlin walked happily with a big smile, so I didn’t bother mentioning them.
“I used to be happy for a whole week if I found even a single silver coin while robbing an empty house. But today I bought a ton of food and I’m wondering why it costs less than one gold!”
I understood her feelings perfectly.
But the example she chose was extremely inappropriate.
Realizing it herself, she gave an awkward smile.
“Well… maybe not a week. Three days?”
“……”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No. I realized I was wrong. Since your class is thief, that makes sense.”
A pickpocket had a pickpocket’s life.
One couldn’t force ordinary moral standards onto them.
Still, as her sponsor, I had to correct something.
“Marlin, from now on, don’t steal without my permission.”
“Why?”
“You’ll get caught by the Holy Knights of the Spear of Order.”
The Spear of Order was the knight order of the Harmony Church responsible for managing cultists and slum districts.
It would not be an exaggeration to say they maintained the peace of District Six.
“Then I’ll just rot in the temple prison for a few months.”
《Your ward Marlin (Tiger Beastman, 14). At such a young age she has already sold off both morality and conscience. A promising future awaits her.》
“…You still need a lot of education.”
After all, she was still a child.
Growing up in the slums meant she was not naïve, but she lacked basic knowledge.
“Marlin, do you know what happens if someone commits a serious crime and gets caught by the Spear of Order?”
“Writing reflection letters every day?”
“They’ll use Mysteries to force order into your mind.”
“…Like brainwashing?”
“Something similar. Remember people who sometimes disappeared from the slums? By now they’ve probably been fully ‘reformed’ and are working as junior members of the Spear of Order.”
In the game, it was an event triggered by causing major trouble in the city.
Becoming part of the Spear of Order could be interesting, but it restricted freedom.
And I preferred being able to explore labyrinths freely.
“I understand. I’ll only rob houses when you give permission.”
“…Right.”
After comforting the slightly depressed Marlin, we arrived home.
“Abel, we’re back—”
Marlin suddenly stopped.
The interior of the house, which should have been filthy with dust and trash, was completely clean.
Abel turned his head while sweeping the floor.
“You’re back. I was bored, so I cleaned.”
“Well done.”
Among cultist players, there was a truth everyone knew:
Stealing was Marlin’s job.
Household management was Abel’s.
“What are those?”
“Ingredients.”
“May I handle them?”
Cleaning, cooking, laundry.
Abel had become a capable housekeeper while taking care of the household for his older sister.
Marlin stared at him.
“I didn’t know he could work that hard. He didn’t seem to like you very much, Kar.”
“He’s perceptive. He realized this is a rare opportunity.”
“Then stop playing jokes if you want respect.”
“I don’t want to do this either. But I have no choice.”
“Why?”
I pointed to my right eye.
“Lidni wants it.”
“…Jokes and pranks?”
“Cultists of the Twisted Truth have to periodically prank people around them.”
Priest classes had to periodically perform tasks demanded by their gods.
Officially it was called religious practice.
Some gods simply wanted their followers to live morally.
But Evil Gods often demanded nuisance acts or crimes.
One of the many reasons the cultist class was considered terrible.
《Objection: Lidni wants pranks using sorcery! Not verbal tricks like yours!》
Ignoring the text, I seated Marlin on the sofa.
“Rest until Abel finishes dinner. I have something to do.”
Now it was time for something very important.
I went down to the ritual basement that every cultist residence possessed.
A dark, gloomy room.
At the far end stood a small altar.
《Basement prepared by the hypocritical goddess’s church. The floor absorbs blood well, and the room is soundproofed to prevent screams from escaping.》
《However, surveillance devices prevent unauthorized human sacrifice, so privacy is not guaranteed.》
A remarkably considerate facility provided by the Harmony Church.
I knelt before the altar and placed the Idol of Sue’je on the floor.
“O violent thundercloud that strikes the earth, O bearer of filthy authority, I beg you. Please answer my call.”
It was time to become a double cultist.
【…Oh my.】
Electric currents ran through my body as the voice of an Evil God echoed in my mind.
Sue’je.
The presence of the Evil God who wielded thunderclouds created solely for slaughter.
“Greetings, Sue’je.”
I smiled brightly.
The electricity surged violently for a moment.
“Please strike your dark lightning into this humble body.”
The requirement to become a cultist of the polluted sky was simple.
There was only one evaluation criterion.
Appearance.
【Pass. Welcome to becoming my cultist!】
Sue’je was a severe face-obsessed deity.