Chapter 44
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Hamster Wheel Church (1)
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Capital outskirts. A rundown real estate brokerage.
The broker bowed repeatedly at the sight of the thick pile of silver coins stacked on the table.
"You're really going to buy that cursed land? Talk about seeing it all. A ruin sandwiched between monster dens, no less."
"So you're not selling?"
"Haha, if you want it, I'll sell. Of course I will. Tsk tsk..."
As if terrified I might change my mind, the broker quickly scribbled with his quill and stamped the contract.
Taxes and fees included, it came to just three or four gold coins.
In the blink of an eye, with a single sheet of paper changing hands, I became the landlord of the northern outskirts forest and village.
Stepping out of the building, I saw Hilde—bags packed—leaning against the doorframe.
I pulled a heavy pouch of silver coins from my pocket and tossed it to her.
It was her share after settling the quest rewards and loot.
"Here. Your promised cut."
Hilde snatched the pouch and snorted.
"Hmph, the job's done anyway! No breach fee to worry about, so let's call it here."
She turned with footsteps as light as if she might float away.
"I'm a noble of illustrious Adlerheim, after all. Time to lounge elegantly in a luxury suite downtown! You rats can roll around in the dirt all you want!"
The haughty half-elf waved goodbye as she headed toward the capital's heart. Shrugging at her retreating figure, I called out.
"Yeah, bye! We're off to our land."
The ruins in the northern forest lay silent and desolate.
I swept my gaze over the collapsed house foundations swallowed by overgrown weeds, mentally sketching a new map.
'Fix that one up, demolish the rest and build proper structures...'
Rustle!
A dry twig snapped underfoot.
"!"
Mani instantly gripped her bowgun and approached, while Sena tightly clutched the hilt of her shortsword.
"Going in. One, two..."
The sound came from inside the building.
I kicked open the cracked wooden door.
Bang!
"Monster?!"
Mani shouted, aiming her weapon—then froze.
Dust settled faintly in the dim interior of the ruined house.
What was there...
"Eek...! Please spare us!"
...was a cluster of tiny Ratkin girls, huddled together under a tattered blanket like a shield, trembling in fear.
A dozen or so children, their eyes brimming with terror.
I lowered my weapon and stepped forward slowly.
My eyes met those of a particularly quivering girl in the group.
'Where have I seen her before?'
A familiar face.
The memory fragment clicked into place.
The pickpocket girl who'd targeted my wallet in the back alleys right after arriving in the capital, leaving a clear bite mark on my hand before vanishing.
"Eeeek!"
Recognizing me, the girl flattened herself to the floor.
"A-Adventurer sir! Here to turn us over to the military police? I'm sorry! Please spare me!"
Was it the menacing glint of my crossbow? She banged her forehead on the ground, groveling desperately.
The other children burst into tears, shaking uncontrollably.
I let out a short sigh and knelt to meet the girl's eyes at her level.
"Not here to catch you. No plans to call the military police either."
"R-Really...?"
"Yeah. But tell me why you're hiding out here."
Glancing warily, the girl stammered out their story.
Most of these kids were orphans with nowhere to go.
Escapees from exploitative factory owners in the capital who worked them like beasts for sixteen hours a day, or from back-alley gangs forcing them to pickpocket.
'Same spot I was in before running away.'
"No place for us to rest in the city. Hide in alleys, and the gangs drag us back. At night, weird carriages snatch us up."
"Carriages?"
The charred ledger the Oakwood guildmaster had shown me flashed in my mind.
'An organization grading and abducting rodentkin...'
Undoubtedly, the tentacles of that group shipping Ratkin to the mines were prowling the capital's slums.
"Monsters come here, so... even the bad humans get scared off. That's why we hid."
Trapped in a hell worse than monsters, driven there by human greed.
Brutally realistic.
Naturally, the Lord of the Hamster Wheel—watching and hearing it all from behind me—was wailing in anguish.
Waaah! So pitiful! My adorable children! How did you end up in this moldy corner...!
Rodentia lamented, pretending to stroke the children's heads.
Being an illusion, her hand passed through empty air, but the dripping sorrow streamed live in real time.
Apostle Reti! We can't leave them like this! In the name of the gods! Care for these children! At least feed them!
An immediate divine command.
The moment I heard it, abacus beads rattled wildly in my head.
'Wait, those kids. Free labor with nowhere else to go?'
Weak, some with sticky fingers.
But put to good use?
Just guarantee warm meals and beds, and I'd have free workers supplying faith to Rodentia and handling chores, walking right in.
Perfect timing too—short-handed for fixing up these ruins.
'Prime rat resources!'
I told them to wait; I had something to say. They were too scared to bolt anyway.
Stepping out to ponder next moves, I heard footsteps.
Thud thud.
A straggler from the forest path cast a long shadow, shuffling into view.
Shoulders hunched, eyes unfocused.
The same elf who'd strutted off sky-high just moments ago: Hilde.
"What? Weren't you elegantly lounging in a luxury hotel suite?"
At my question, Hilde flinched, then puffed out her chest and cleared her throat dramatically.
"Ahem! W-Well, I checked it out, but the capital's hotels are subpar! Doesn't suit my noble standards at all!"
She crossed her arms, legs trembling as she forced them steady.
"A-And! Worried you barbaric rats might botch this historic site! Staying on as special unpaid honorary supervisor!"
What a tearjerker excuse.
Then Mani eyed the pouch at Hilde's waist and dropped a blunt fact.
"She's broke. Pouch is flat leather now."
"Gasp!"
"Where'd the reward money go?"
Mani's needle-sharp jab turned Hilde's face beet red to her ears.
Hilde frantically hid her empty pouch with both hands, stammering.
"N-No, it's...! On the way here, paid off tab debts, bowgun repairs... and crucially, last month's interest-free installment...!"
The ditzy half-elf's voice shrank to a mosquito buzz.
"Sniff... not a speck of dust left..."
Escaped breach fee hell, but pre-existing debts left her penniless.
Too proud for fleabag inns, too haughty for the streets—slipped back to mooch.
I clicked my tongue briefly.
"Sigh, fine. Food if you work. Inside first."
Hilde pouted but slunk into the ruin, fate sealed.
I approached the huddled Ratkin cluster again.
Flourishing a crisp paper from my pocket like a flag.
Souvenir from the brokerage.
"Listen up. Deed to the land."
The kids blinked round eyes, clueless.
"I just bought this place. Meaning you're trespassing on my private property."
Blood drained from the pickpocket girl's face.
Sensing eviction back to the alleys, her tiny shoulders quaked like aspen leaves.
Just as tears welled in the terrified Ratkin girls' eyes, I raised a hand.
"But I won't kick you out."
Folding the paper and pocketing it, I smirked.
"Contract with me!"
"C-Contract...?"
"Yeah! As of today, you're members of the Hamster Wheel Church."
"Hamster Wheel Church?"
"Work under me, and I'll guarantee a sturdy leak-proof roof and three hot meals a day."
Heavy silence fell.
A dozen shaky gazes hung on my lips.
"R-Really...?"
The pickpocket girl ventured cautiously, voice cracking.
"No beatings, full belly meals...?"
"Obviously."
I drew a firm line, no room for doubt.
"But no free rides on my watch. You'll pay for food, shelter—with labor. Every bit. Slacking? No scraps. Got it?"
Before I finished, the Ratkin kids slammed foreheads to the dirt in unison.
Dust-caked shoulders heaved with relieved sobs.
'Bowing heads for just three squares?'
Whatever. They'd listen, at least.
Well done! My apostle! My poor children finally return to my embrace!
Rodentia's illusion spun wildly in uncontainable joy.
Of course, surveying my immediate reality, my tail twitched nervously.
'So much to fix...'
Weed-choked ruins.
Impoverished rats clinging to a single frayed blanket.
And a penniless half-elf clutching an empty wallet.
The church's beginnings were utterly shabby and pathetic.
Then Hilde crept up from behind, hesitant.
Clutching her growling stomach, she mumbled sidelong.
"M-Me too! Food... right...?"
I shoved a broom into her pale hands and replied curtly.
"As much as you work?"