Savoring Freedom! The Enemy Within
The morning sun came up. I finished breakfast and strolled out at my leisure — because I had flex hours now. Man, this was a perk South Korea couldn't even imagine.
"My son♥"
"Yes, Mom!"
"Give it your all today!"
"You too! Morning kiss!"
I planted a morning kiss that was light on the surface and lingering underneath. Mom still flushed red, embarrassed as ever.
"Ahn♥"
And yet she licked her lips, slow and sticky. Was there a fox like this anywhere else in the world? With that, I left the house.
There was something I'd always wanted to do if I ever ended up in a world like this.
I headed for the clock tower in the territory. It was the only one we had, and true to that particular charm, it wasn't a place people visited often.
I cut through the streets, passing people as I went. Nobody recognized me from every direction or asked for an autograph the way they would a hunter-genre protagonist. In a way, that was obvious. Everything I'd pulled off so far was limited to the people in the lord's manor and the hero candidates. Unless I took a wyvern's head or a dragon's, the regular residents of the territory weren't going to hear a thing about me.
And they shouldn't, honestly. If the people living here knew every last thing that went on in the territory, that would be its own special kind of chaos.
I reached the clock tower and climbed the ladder to a decent spot.
"This looks good."
Thump. Our territory's clock tower had three bells — one at the height of a second story, one at the fourth, and one at the seventh. I crawled into the fourth-story alcove and sprawled out on my back. It would have been deafening if the bell actually rang, but the fourth-story bell was broken.
When the hell are they going to fix this thing?
I looked down and stuck a stalk of foxtail grass between my teeth.
"Ahh. This is it. The idle, carefree wastrel of another world. Am I right?"
Maybe it was because I'd earned a little recognition, or because I finally had some room to breathe. I wanted to savor this kind of leisure. Sex and all the rest of it — I could set that up whenever I felt like it later. But this everyday kind of ease? It was common enough, and yet somehow the hardest thing to actually do. That was exactly why I'd wanted to try it.
Hero candidates trickled into view one by one, heading for the lord's manor. I laughed the moment I saw them.
You guys go grind your asses off today. I've got Renata as my backer now.
I lay there looking up at the bell. The floor was cold, but I wanted to feel it as refreshing.
Even so, those underground thugs still need a real education. They need to know who actually runs this territory.
One of my grander plans was taking control of this place. Not that I wanted to become the lord. A commoner using his connections to seize a lordship? That's the kind of plot you'd find in a third-rate web novel. The lord had to be Renata, or her son. I'd just stay in the shadows and rule as the power behind the throne. I already had the board set up for it.
I looked around. From this height, the whole territory spread out below me, clear as day. If someone were having sex, you'd probably see the entire show through a window.
Nobody ever comes up here, and you can see the entire territory. Not a bad spot for surveillance, actually.
Let's see. How had it worked in the game? During quests the location was random, but it still popped up on the minimap automatically. This time I'd have to find it myself.
There is a faster way, though.
Someone came to mind. If things didn't pan out today, I was planning to go find that person.
Renata and Ryza wouldn't be much help in this situation. This calls for a specialist.
But was that person even here? The setting was such a mess I couldn't be sure. I looked down, just in case something interesting passed by.
Hm?
Men I'd never seen before were pulling a cart. Their clothes covered them from head to toe in black cloth, like they'd walked straight out of a Middle Eastern desert. A farmer passing nearby called out a question.
"Huh? Who're you folks? Come from a neighboring territory?"
"Shuddit."
The men tossed out that one cool word and kept walking. Wait. Something was off.
That accent's weird. Nobody in this territory talks like that. I've never even heard it.
Weird clothes, weird accent, and the cart they were hauling was even more suspicious. The guys pulling it headed straight into a tavern called Guardiola. Suspicion gradually hardened into certainty.
Guardiola tavern. As far as I knew, that place shut down a month ago. Are they open again? Why are people going in and out of there?
I was starting to want to climb down and take a look. The fact that those bastards had just waltzed in like that was suspicious enough on its own. Then I spotted a big guy in sloppy clothes setting a liquor barrel down in front of the door. He sat on it and started killing time like some neighborhood layabout. His intent was obvious.
Well, well. They're even posting a lookout? Looks like a bum on the surface, but he's actually a sentry. Something's definitely going on in there.
I recorded the situation on a piece of parchment to report to Renata. At least in this world I wasn't stuck with my original chicken-scratch handwriting. Writing from Lashu's original memories, the words flowed without a hitch.
I climbed down from the clock tower and stood there thinking for a moment. Where to go.
Yeah. It's gotta be that person.
I sighed and headed off, arriving at the territory's marketplace. I hadn't come to buy anything. Well — I had come to buy something, actually.
"Waaahahaha! Buy some carrots!"
"Shop with us! That place is all used goods — used!"
"Hey now, it's not like our shop only deals in used goods. Keep those careless prejudices to yourself, tsk!"
The market was bustling as always. Even a backwater territory having a lively marketplace was a blessing. I walked the length of the market street, then suddenly cut into an alley. It was a rundown backstreet I would never have come to under normal circumstances.
This is actually my first time coming here in person.
I was a little tense. Unfamiliar places still got to me. I should have been used to it by now. Hah. The alley itself had a familiar feel, though — the kind of side street you'd find near a thrift market. All it needed was some orange streetlamps.
I kept going until I came to a door. I opened it and stepped inside. Creeeak. Clang. The iron door groaned open with an ominous sound. Inside, someone sat wearing a pitch-black robe, smoking a long pipe. A woman's voice struck my ears.
"Not bad. Of all people, I didn't expect a kid to show up here. Did you lose your way?"
"I'm not a kid, I'm an adult. I need information."
Time to focus. This woman was an information broker. In the game, she was the character you went to when a quest or storyline was completely stuck — a kind of failsafe the developers had planted. How would it work here?
"Where are your parents?"
"Was that a 'your mom' joke? Drop the act right there, information broker Levia."
Her name was Levia. The woman smoking the pipe fell silent, then slowly exhaled a stream of smoke.
"Heh heh heh."
The short chuckle stretched into a long, wild laugh. Then the two eyes hidden beneath her hood gleamed as they locked onto me.
"Clever, aren't you? How did you even know to come here?"
"You already know that anyone who knows about this place isn't exactly normal, right? I'm not normal either."
"I know. It's just so unexpected. Next thing you know, a goblin's going to walk through that door."
"Yeah, whatever. A new faction's recently shown up running this territory's underworld. I need information on them."
Information broker Levia was, under certain conditions, a deus ex machina. But I had no idea how that worked here. In the original setting, she'd been a staffer who'd bounced between various guilds. Levia clicked her tongue, still smoking her pipe.
"This is information I only just got myself, so it's pretty expensive. It'll run you a thousand gold, at least. Heh heh."
"Overcharging really is your specialty. Ever consider just being a merchant?"
"I'm pretty good at rolling on condoms, too."
"Not like you'd do that for me. The information — any other way we can work this?"
I watched her carefully as I said it, meaning every word. Levia. At a glance, her voice was genuinely beautiful. If I had to compare it to something, it was like Ahri from League of Legends — sultry, and when she whispered, it was the kind of voice that could get a guy hard. But I knew. I knew what this woman really was. It might have changed a little in this world, but knowing her true nature, I didn't feel so much as a flicker of lust.
She's not human. She used to be, but after serving a Great Being for even a short while...
Her voice cut through my thoughts. She pointed at my sword.
"That sword."
"What, you want me to sell it?"
Levia sighed. Smoke from her pipe scattered into the air.
"Don't talk nonsense. A sword like that means nothing to an information broker like me."
"Then what?"
"Do you use it?"
"Yeah. It's an heirloom and a holy sword."
I answered with a little extra swagger. But it was true, wasn't it? Plus, my mom gave it to me.
"Hmm. So you're some two-bit hero candidate. Fine, then. A rather interesting table just happened to open up."
"...Table? What are you talking about?"
Like a TTRPG? She was talking like she was about to start a session. Levia often said things that were hard to follow — aftereffects from the time she'd served a Great Being. Still, seeing that side of her made me not want to get involved. The thing I hated most was a woman who wasn't right in the head. Those types would chew your balls off while claiming they were giving you a handjob.
"You know the Gamur Wasteland?"
I nodded. I knew it, all right.
"Yeah, it's the place past Pelegor Hill."
"There's a mansion in the Gamur Wasteland that nobles built a long time ago. Someone's been living there recently, though. It's a headache."
"Who?"
"A beastkin who goes by the alias Black Ghost. Get rid of them. That's the deal."
I tilted my head. As far as I knew, a mansion out in a place like that would be sitting unused.
What's in that mansion? Or is someone trying to buy it? Clearing out one beastkin would be valuable information for her, sure. There'd still be nobles looking to purchase the place.
It wasn't that I didn't understand, but I had my doubts. She'd called the intel expensive, and now she wanted to settle it with this job?
"Fine. Don't try anything funny."
"If you know me so well, you should also know I don't try anything funny."
"Heeeng, of course not. Big sis Levia."
I answered in a greasy, ingratiating tone and headed for the Gamur Wasteland. While I was at it, I figured I'd look around the area. I wanted to know more about Levia's real intentions.
After Lashu Leonhart left, Levia leisurely drew on her pipe.
"Huuu..."
A long ribbon of smoke followed the sigh out into the air. She lifted her head a fraction. Skin as pale as a corpse. Two eyes dyed violet. And from her point of view right now—
It's strange, though. Why did that boy, of all people, shine?
She had once served an unidentified elder god known as the Great Being. Of course, she'd done it while high on drugs, and she'd barely managed to escape. The aftereffects still surfaced several times a day — parroting the whispers inside her head, or seeing the entire world around her in shades of ash.
But the hero candidate she'd happened to meet, the one named Lashu, had been a little strange. He had appeared entirely in gold. Nothing like that had ever happened before.
And did he have a weapon hidden between his legs? The space between his thighs was an especially vivid red. What is that? I keep wanting to know.
Having no idea that Lashu possessed a monstrous cock, Levia left it as nothing more than a question. She put her lips to the pipe again and smiled.
If he just handles the beastkin, I can get my hands on even bigger information. He won't know that, of course. Well then — shall we see whether he's qualified to hold a holy sword? I do like a capable man.
She smiled sweetly, and her face sank back into the dark.