One Coin, No Conditions

Mercenary Contract!

To think I'd become an object of terror just for assassinating a phorid fly. I felt a pang of self-loathing, like I'd committed some utterly trivial crime. But a good thing was a good thing, I decided—after all, apparently no phorid fly would ever show its face around me again. Hadn't I contributed, if only a little, to making this world a more beautiful place? And above all, I'd received a reward for it: the Assassin Coin.

No idea how to use it, though.

The Assassin Coin was a coin with a skull emblem engraved at its center, and right now it sat gleaming in my palm. The moment the System message had appeared, I'd snatched it out of the air with practiced ease. A glittering, radiant gold. Was it real gold? I'd seen this trick somewhere before, so I took the coin and bit down on it.

My tooth sank straight in.

"What the—!"

The System message scolded me. My apologies.

Astonishingly, the Assassin Coin was made of real gold. What was it, exactly? It was a coin, so presumably it was meant for buying and selling things... but how did it work?

No sooner had the question crossed my mind than a System message popped up, as if it had been waiting for exactly that.

Something... there was definitely something here. Two options that looked promising at a single glance. When I selected Mercenary Contract, a row of tabs unfolded before me.

A whole lineup of configurable conditions. Every time I tapped one, the estimated cost at the very bottom ticked upward. For instance:

And that was the result with only this much filled in. Had the bank robbery driven up the price? I removed it.

A startling discovery: a partner-in-crime for robbing banks could be secured for a mere three Assassin Coins. Assassinate a phorid fly, a cockroach, and a money worm, and you too could recruit a bank-robbing comrade from another world! ...Apparently the fussier the conditions, the more coins it took.

The peculiar part was that one of the conditions was labeled Dimension. You could even specify a mercenary's dimension of origin? I tapped it, and a list of choices appeared.

Aside from Earth, they were names I'd never heard of—and the last one was locked, on top of it all. Okay. That was where the monkey business of poking at everything out of curiosity would end. I hadn't even been an Awakener for a full day. There was no need to know everything, and I trusted I'd learn it all eventually anyway. For now, it was enough just to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠know this much existed.

Still... other dimensions, huh. Truthfully, the fact that monsters crossed over from other dimensions was common knowledge—even a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠clueless nobody like me had always known it. But seeing its outline laid bare like this felt stranger somehow. Too vast, I guess you'd say. Suddenly the whole vibe was like episode one of I Became Dust in Space. I was dust, technically. But now it felt like I'd become the dust of dust.

Did other hunters already know whether such dimensions existed? For all that, the topic had never even come up, as far as I could tell. Come to think of it, that was strange. Natube, TV, the internet—or real life. I had genuinely never heard this so much as hinted at anywhere. No matter how tightly you gagged a secret like that, it would be over the moment one or two people opened their mouths. In this day and age, it was the sort of thing that couldn't be hidden in the first place.

A thought suddenly struck me, and I set my tiny fingers flying.

Clack-clack-clack—!

I'd always typed faster than most, but perhaps because I'd become a little girl, my fingers now moved like a pianist performing Flight of the Bumblebee.

With the post written, I deliberated. This seemed like it might be genuinely important information. What if I posted it for nothing and agents in black suits and sunglasses came to haul me away? For a moment, I worried.

...But it didn't matter. The only thing I had left to lose in this life was myself—and even that self was currently an SSS-rank assassin girl, sitting right here. Exposing a secret like this couldn't truly cost me anything. At the end of my deliberation, I made my decision and pressed the submit button, firm and decisive.

A banned word in the gallery. Argh. So all that agonizing had been for nothing. No—there was still a takeaway. Someone out there, after all, knew about the existence of other dimensions. Whether the gallery was censored at the government level, or whether its administrator—the great and almighty admin—was policing it personally, I couldn't say... Either way, I now knew that mentioning it would earn me an instant smackdown, and that was enough.

Maybe that was enough of the Mercenary Contract for now... No. Hold on. Just now, at the very beginning—hadn't the Mercenary Contract button been active even though I hadn't set a single thing? I tried the reset-conditions button. The Mercenary Contract button was still alive and well. I looked at the figure written beside it.

It worked! It worked with no conditions set at all! Which meant signing a contract with a completely random mercenary? That was insanity. Who knew what would pop out? No idea who designed this thing, but it had the stink of a total idiot's handiwork all over it.

...Press it. Right now. What kind of people were we? A people of delivery... no, wait, a people of gambling... no, no—a people of challenge! Not rising to the challenge here would be the stranger thing. What's that? The coin's too precious to waste? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠It's fine. I earned it catching a phorid fly. I hadn't even glanced at the Skill Shop yet, and worst case, I could always assassinate a mosquito or something! With that mindset, I pressed the Mercenary Contract button, firm and resolute.

Poof—!

Black smoke burst from thin air like a firework. Apparently the bathroom held no appeal for it; the smoke zipped away with a whoosh, then, from the middle of the room, dove straight for the floor. And just like that, it was gone.

Vreeeee—

From the floor where the smoke had vanished emerged a single line—a red line that felt somehow ominous. Moving slowly, it began to trace something. It drifted from top to bottom, from right to left. The red line was drawing a star. And the instant the star was complete, the house filled with light.

I had long since bolted for the bathroom on pure reflex, dodging the flash. Thanks to that, I escaped without being blinded. As the brilliance that had flooded the room subsided, the first sound to reach me was the click of a woman's heels.

Click, clack.

"What a boring world~" the owner of the heels murmured. "Nothing but straight lines, zip zip. What is this? Even those stiff old sticks at the Mage Tower didn't have design sense this bizarre, I'd say."

She appeared to be gazing at the scenery outside the window. Should I activate Stealth and sneak a peek? No—she was a contracted mercenary, after all. Meeting face to face was the proper thing to do. I hooked my fingers over the bathroom wall and poked my face out—and there, unmistakably—

stood a mage. Not an assassin. A mage.

She seemed to have already noticed my existence; she was leaning against the windowsill, looking my way.

"Hello there~?"

"Who are you?"

Even though I knew perfectly well she was the mercenary I'd summoned, the question tumbled out of me all on its own. No, but seriously. It was supposed to be an assassin. Why did a gorgeous mage come out instead?!

"What? Ahaha!" The mage burst into peals of laughter—no idea what part of my question had been so funny. Then she slipped a hand into her sleeve and drew something out. An Assassin Coin. And not just any coin—the very Assassin Coin I'd possessed until moments ago.

How was I so sure? ...I could see it. The tooth mark. Thanks to the eyesight my Awakening had sharpened, the tiny dental impression engraved in the center of the coin's skull emblem was perfectly, painfully clear. She couldn't have seen that too... could she? Please, please let it be no.

"It's really been a while since I've seen a coin with a tooth mark in it~"

"Kyaaaaah!"

Before I knew it, I was shrieking like Guan Yu. So embarrassing. If there'd been a hole to crawl into anywhere, I'd have vanished straight into it. The mage nodded along as if she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠understood everything.

"No need to be so embarrassed. I did it too." But the smile playing at the corners of her mouth showed no sign of leaving.

"...I never imagined it would be actual gold."

"You think something on the level of an Assassin Coin would bother with plating?"

Somehow, the mage's tone suggested she knew more about this than I did. But I couldn't muster the nerve to ask. I hated the idea of advertising my own ignorance.

"Honestly, I was only half convinced, but it seems to be the real thing. You're my client, I take it?"

"Yes."

"Where did you get it? The coin. That's not something you come by easily..."

It was easy, though. Should I tell her the truth?

"Oh! Let me say this up front: the Mercenary Contract is far safer than you think, so don't worry too much. But the rule is that both parties speak only the truth to each other, so this much you must keep."

She spoke as if she knew exactly what I was worried about, but trust was another matter...

"The contract is sealed, and your coin is mine now, isn't it? I'd say I have every right to know whether this coin is clean, at the very least?"

"It's an Assassin Coin. Are there clean ones and dirty ones?"

"There are. But answer my question first, and then I'll tell you everything."

...No way around it, then. She'd put it that way, so all I could do was answer honestly.

"I got it from killing a bug."

"...What?"

For the first time, bewilderment flickered across the mage's ever-composed face.