Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Settlement
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I first took stock of my surroundings.
A shady alley hidden in the shadow of the towering Sun Even building.
Anyone venturing this deep should have sensed something was off, but these fools had followed me right in without a care. How convenient.
"Hey, you there, male. Stop right now if you know what's good for you."
"Play nice and do as we say. You won't get hurt."
I shuddered dramatically at their clichéd lines, straight out of some third-rate thug playbook.
"Wh-who are you?"
"You don't need to know who we are."
Zelvin LV.11
Melsi LV.9
They weren't much of a threat.
"Eek! Eeeeek!"
I played up the panic anyway.
One thing I'd learned from my fight with Deluna was the value of these little mind games.
The more they saw me as easy prey, the sloppier they'd get.
In a way, it was a tactic only someone with a Status Window could pull off. Their fake weakness wouldn't fool me.
"Heh. Look at him freak out. You've got a real knack for making our wombs tingle."
"If his face looks decent under that helmet, we could sell him as a slave or a boy toy."
"Idiot. Why do you think a guy hides his face? It's gotta be wrecked."
"Fair point. Still, that body's prime stock. Plenty of demand."
They were already scheming how to cash me in. My coward act was working perfectly.
They crept closer, grinning like idiots, brandishing their sharp daggers and barking threats about rape and prostitution.
Time for some proper negotiation.
'This should qualify as self-defense, right?'
I'd secured my justification. Now all that was left was to swing the axe.
"Pl-please... spare me..."
Zelvin begged, rubbing his hands together desperately. His body was covered in axe-shaped bruises.
His presumed partner, Melsi, lay beside him—but she couldn't beg. She'd passed out with her eyes rolled back right after her thigh took an axe hit.
"Depends on how you behave."
"Eek!"
I leveled the axe at the terrified Zelvin.
"Why were you chasing me? Revenge for Deluna? Who the hell are you guys? Who sent you?"
"N-no one sent us! What the hell are you talking about?!"
"Oh? Playing innocent?"
I pulled out my Confession Dispenser, aiming it at his bewildered face.
A quick, stinging press, and man or woman, they'd spill whatever I wanted to hear.
"W-wait! I'll talk!"
Zelvin blanched as I went for his neck, words tumbling out immediately.
Flawless as always.
"It's only natural for a woman to think of devouring a man the moment she sees one..."
More nonsense. Maybe I needed to press harder.
"What bullshit is that? I asked who put you up to it."
"If we had to name someone... it was our wombs. We just wanted you, pure and simple..."
"...What?"
Something was off.
Apart from the headache his words induced, our conversation kept veering sideways.
'They didn't come for revenge after seeing Deluna's puppet-cursed corpse... They just followed me on a whim?'
I cautiously tested the curse's name.
"Puppet."
"...?"
"The 86574th Puppet. That's you. She's number 88574."
"...?"
Zelvin's face grew even more vacant, like he had no clue what I was saying.
"Puppet...? You mean like a puppet show? They do street performances in the lawless zone sometimes. Pretty fun. I go when I can."
"No, not that kind of—"
Frustration boiled up, but then a possibility flashed through my mind.
'These idiots... do they not even know they're cursed?'
But that didn't add up.
'How could they not know?'
It wasn't just because I had a Status Window.
Explorers or whatever—anyone entering the Labyrinth had a rare chance of gaining a Blessing or Curse. The Labyrinth bestowed them equally on all.
And Blessings and Curses were checked at temples.
Explorers made a habit of verifying after every Labyrinth run. No way they'd miss a Curse on themselves.
Even back at Diana's inn, drunken explorers would rant about their latest Curse and how their life was ruined.
'My ??? Blessing is a special case, but the Puppet Curse shouldn't be.'
The ??? Blessing didn't show details even on my Status Window.
The Puppet Curse, though, displayed normally, like any standard Blessing or Curse.
So it should have shown up on a temple appraisal too...
'They got it appraised... but weren't told?'
Serif had appraised and written it down clearly for everyone to see.
But did every priest follow suit?
Adolf's face came to mind. With rogue priests getting exiled, could I trust them all?
Out of that many priests, was I sure none had a Puppet under them?
Wait—Blessings and Curses came from the Labyrinth, right?
Whose Puppet? The Labyrinth's? Someone else's? A group? An organization?
'...No. Too much speculation. Calm down.'
Thinking about enemies spawned endless worries.
I took a deep breath to clear my head.
Anyway. Like me with my ??? Blessing, he seemed clueless about when or where he'd gotten the Puppet Curse.
Set aside what I couldn't learn now. Focus on what I had.
"You two. Lawless types, right?"
From their earlier ramblings, they sure weren't ordinary explorers.
I pressed the Confession Dispenser firmly. The answer spilled out.
"Y-yes..."
"Then how were you sitting out in the open at the Explorer's Union?"
"Th-the Union's building bars only the branded ones. As long as your name isn't known or you're not on a wanted poster, outlaws can drop in briefly. B-but I'm not one of those..."
Zelvin pulled a wooden plaque from his pocket, etched with an odd mark.
"I was a lawless one. Now I'm in rehabilitation. I'd been holding it together fine until you tempted me with that body...! Urgh!"
He explained rehabilitation: lawless folks who couldn't hack it anymore bribed the Union for a new identity and a shot at going straight as explorers again.
"The mark on the ID proves you're a reformed outlaw explorer."
'Explorer's Union alright. Truly money-hungry bastards.'
What was this, if not a criminal buying off their ankle monitor?
Just a game of blind man's bluff.
"Ever hear of a guy named Deluna?"
"Yeah. Rehab classmate. Fast progressor, no slip-ups, graduated early. But looks like she fell back into crime after all."
"What about the Blaz clan she ran with?"
"Blaz? How could I forget those bitches. West lawless zone's infamous for dirty work. Slave-hunting's their default. Real scum."
Zelvin ground his teeth, fuming.
"Especially their boss. Vesta. Used to be a 16th-floor explorer, they say."
16th floor was mid-layers. Deep mid-layers, even.
—You know who's above me? Huh?! Don't you?!
I'd thought Deluna's dying words meant she knew her Puppet master.
But hearing this, and seeing they were oblivious to the Curse... I had to rethink.
'Just trash-talking her own clan boss?'
—That's what slaves are for. Vesta gave her to me for exactly this.
Come to think of it, Kakchi had said something about a Vesta or Best-a giving her to someone.
"I-I've told you everything. Put the axe away... We were wrong..."
Zelvin pleaded desperately now, just wanting release.
The interrogation hadn't yielded much. To shake off the emptiness, I needed something.
"Crime demands compensation to the victim. Ten silver coins, and we're square."
"Wh-what?! We're the only victims here! And we don't have that kind of money!"
"What? Want to restart rehab from scratch?"
"...Wh-what kind of thug—"
"What? Wanna go back to outlaw life? I can arrange it."
I shoved the axe closer. Zelvin glared like I'd invented depravity.
"...Fine. Take it, and you'll shut up for good?"
"Think about it."
"Argh! Let go, you demon!"
Releasing them now felt like a waste.
No immediate intel, but they were cursed...
We settled on five silver coins, mutual agreement. I also got their address—for further Curse investigation if means arose.
"...Sad Cat Inn. Room 105. Melsi lives with me."
"If it's changed when I drop by next, fun times ahead."
"...Got it, you demon."
I twitched the axe. He hoisted Melsi and bolted.
I pondered as I watched them flee.
What linked Deluna and these two?
All three had gone through rehab.
'Meaning all were ex-outlaws.'
Based on what I had: West lawless zone. Something was there.
And it felt seriously sinister.
The next day.
Jermi, Kakchi, and I met at the Explorer's Union to collect our pay.
The moment Kakchi walked in, I clutched my neck in shock.
"K-Kakchi."
"Yes? What's wrong?"
I called her name in a trembling voice. She looked up blankly.
◆ 1389th Puppet Curse
— Densi has become the 1389th Puppet.
— All Stats +1 at max condition fulfillment
"What the hell did you bring with you...?"
"???"
Kakchi just stared back in utter confusion.