Sin (2)
"It's not that they come often — they come endlessly. And wouldn't you know it, every last one of them is some sheltered young master or young lady from a distinguished house who hasn't the faintest idea how the world works. We explain everything in advance, and they still play dumb and just keep demanding their investment back. If it were a legitimate venture, that would be one thing. But they always pick up some strange rumor from who-knows-where and come in talking about a new business, or something that's about to explode in the near future, or a venture the Imperial Family is backing... Ugh."
Even as she went on, her hands kept trembling — apparently the mere recollection was enough to make her blood run cold. Once she had finished checking the documents, she tapped them into a neat stack, slipped them into a thick leather envelope, and held it out to me.
"You, at least, don't seem to be that type of investor. Still, you'd do well to take what I said to heart. If you don't check things properly, you really will lose every last coin. It's your own money — you ought to use it carefully."
"Haha. Thank you for the advice. I'll take it deeply to heart. Ah — it should already be written on the documents, but I'm currently a student at the Academy, so please be sure to send any correspondence there. Our main house is in Maidheaden, in the south, so if anything gets delivered there, it'll be extremely difficult for me to check it."
"You don't need to worry about that. That's the kind of thing we always confirm as a matter of course. Well then, take care on your way, handsome young master."
I left the building with Irene seeing me off.
Would the method I'd used in the game work this time as well?
I had already confirmed, through several rounds of verification, that the knowledge I possessed — the locations of hidden items, their effects, and the like — held true as common sense in this world as well. This time, however, the situation was somewhat different.
In the game, there had been a trading-company system that let you invest whatever currency you had and grow it. Among the various companies in that system, the ones with the highest investment success rates were Horace and Esmond — the very two I had just put my money into.
Both offered a dividend of only one-tenth of the invested amount, an extremely low return, but their success rate approached ninety percent, making them the perennial favorite of players who wanted to grow their wealth steadily and without fuss.
Valentine was a different story. In the game, Valentine paid out a dividend of one and a half times the invested amount — an insane rate of return — but its success rate was a miserable twenty percent, a truly abysmal probability.
As with so many other parts of the game, however, this system had something that could only be called a bug. Word had quietly spread of a method by which, if you invested a specific amount at a specific time, you could generate a profit with one hundred percent certainty.
For instance, the time I had been filling out the investment contract was 3:48 in the afternoon. Ignoring the minutes and matching the hour — three — if you invested thirty gold, three hundred gold, or three thousand gold, you were guaranteed to receive one and a half times each amount as a dividend.
And like the other glitches, this one had never been patched, all the way through the end of beta testing. That was precisely what I was putting to the test now.
Unlike buried items, this involved actual trading companies run by actual people. I needed to confirm how it would apply in reality. If the rules I knew held true in this case as well, I would have secured myself a reliable source of funds I would never have to worry about running dry.
I prayed, fervently, that the rule would apply this time too.
"Ah, where even is this... I'm going to lose my mind..."
I had been wandering the dark back alleys of Dracton for two hours now.
By the time I had left the building, the sun was already sinking, so I had decided to set out for the Academy tomorrow. I had been looking for a place to take care of dinner and lodging, and that was how I had ended up in this mess. A local had told me that if you wanted to find an inn, you had to go around through the back alleys, which was why I had come this way in the first place.
Come to think of it, I might have taken the opposite direction at the fork earlier...
Contrary to my desperate wish to get out of here, the scenery around me was gradually giving way to a gloomy slum. Unlike the main streets, which ran clean and straight, the back alleys twisted and folded in on themselves, knitting together in every direction. Far from finding an exit, I was sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness of the lanes. I felt as though I had become a butterfly caught in a spider's web.
"Ah, seriously... I'm not going to run into a mugger like this, am I? Before something annoying happens, I need to hurry and—"
Crash!!
As if my words had been a signal flare, something shattered a block or two away, and shouting erupted through the alley. Most of the noise belonged to men, but if I listened closely, a woman's voice seemed to be mixed in among them.
"...block... that way...!"
"...mage... bitch..."
"...hands... how dare you...!"
I couldn't make it out clearly, but from the circumstances it felt like several men facing off against a single woman. What should I do?
If the woman lost, she was all but certain to come to a nasty end.
After a brief moment of hesitation, I made up my mind. I had no desire to get tangled up in something troublesome, but I also had no desire to walk away from someone in danger right in front of me. I had already decided that even if I stayed out of the great currents of history, I would at least put small good deeds into practice.
I had to go this way anyway. I would check the situation first, and if there really was someone in danger, I could help then. If it was just a brawl between back-alley thugs fighting over turf, I could simply walk on by.
Having sorted out my thoughts, I killed my presence and moved carefully along the alley. I had just reached a distance where only a single wall still stood between me and the source of the commotion when something burst around the corner and slammed into me.
"Hah... let...! Let go of me!! Hah..."
What I had collided with was a woman in a robe. In the tangle of it I had ended up wrapping my arms around her, and she, apparently taking me for another ruffian, thrashed and struggled to break free. She was already gasping for breath, though — her stamina spent — and there was almost no strength left in her movements.
I set her down carefully and brought a finger to my lips, signaling her to be quiet. She seemed to grasp the situation at last; she stopped struggling as I had asked and stilled the noisy rustle of her presence. Then, in a small voice, she began to plead with me.
"Hah... hah... please, help me... I took a wrong turn and some ruffians picked a fight... hah... I can't... on my own..."
So it was one against many, just as I had first thought. But could I even trust what this woman was saying? She might have stolen something, or committed some serious crime, and been on the verge of being caught.
I had just begun to sink into that thought when a clamor of men's voices rose from the far side of the alley.
"Hah... hah... this bitch is seriously damn strong."
"She's a mage, of course she is. If I'd known, I wouldn't have even laid a hand on her. Hey, boss! I told you! Something felt off, so I said we should just leave her be!"
"Shut your damn mouth! Mage or not, how the hell do you end up looking like that against a single girl! You useless pieces of shit, I swear..."
"Forget it. We caught her anyway. Anyone who comes down this alley for the first time can't get out at all. Damn, it's been a while since we got a woman this hard to get a taste of..."
"Looking at what she's wearing, she's no noble young lady — just a commoner. Don't even think about collecting a ransom. Just use her as we like and then dispose of her. Max. Leave the arms and legs. You got that? Last time you..."
Listening to the crude conversation the men were so loudly carrying on, I realized that the doubts I had just been entertaining had been a complete waste of time.
I settled on helping the woman and turned back to her. Only a handful of moments remained before we would run into the gang.
"I'm sorry to ask at a time like this, but how much mana do you have remaining?"
"Hah... hah... I'm sorry... I'm completely empty right now... the rebound hit me... hah..."
I squeezed my eyes shut. Judging by the voices, there were five or six of them. Could I bring them all down on my own, without help, and get us out of this?
I considered running, but the alleys behind us were a maze. As the thug had said, a single wrong step could send us even deeper in. Realizing I had no choice but to face them, I slipped into the blind corner of the alley they were approaching from, and carefully drew the sword hanging at my waist.
Using a blade in a narrow alley was hardly an ideal choice, but magic required time to prepare, and with them closing in to arm's length it was no more appropriate a method. Besides, if they spotted me in the meantime, I would lose the advantage of surprise.
Their presence was right upon me now. Sword in hand, I charged out and swung a diagonal cut at the nearest of them.