5. Go to the Bathroom
“It should be in a day or two.”
Gilbert’s muttered words as he swept the floor of the headquarters with a broom were met with silence. Today was the day of the big cleaning once every six months.
Like dinner, there was no strict order, but on this day, most people participated in the cleaning unless there was some urgent matter.
No Hound who was cleaning their assigned area missed Gilbert’s words. But everyone knew what it meant.
It had been more than two weeks since their leader Isaac had been coming and going at Diarose. During that time, Abrarum would have used every means—gold, women, alcohol, and more—to train him.
Now, they probably wanted to see the results of the training. Their leader, who had no sense of caution in the first place, should have completely fallen.
All that remained was to put on an even more certain leash, and looking at past precedents, the leash was usually put on around this time.
“He won’t die right away. Abrarum prefers to addict people to drugs the most.”
The one who answered nonchalantly while wiping the table with a rag was Derigan. Unlike Damus, his expression was not good in a different sense; he was removing stains with sharp eyes.
“What? Before dying, he probably did everything he could. He probably had his fill of women, and the drug used in Diarose is a pretty high-end one, right?”
The one who received Derigan’s words was Gina, who was roughly dusting the display shelves with a feather duster. The next senior member after Gilbert, she noticed the dust she had dropped and suddenly shouted at Selemin who was wiping the windows.
“Hey. Come here and clean this up.”
“……That’s not your area.”
“Don’t talk back, kid. If I say clean, clean!”
“Ma’am, do it yourself.”
Gina immediately shot out killing intent. If it were a weak person, that alone could kill them, but Selemin didn’t back down and matched the killing intent with her own.
“It’s starting again.”
“Stop it, you two.”
“You can’t finish before dinner.”
Other Hounds who were familiar with such situations gathered and shouted irritably. Only then did the two retract their killing intent. As they each focused on cleaning again, Boros suddenly said as if remembering something.
“Speaking of which, according to Nuna Gina, it seems we don’t usually use high-end stuff?”
“What are you talking about?”
Boros, the swindler and gigolo, had originally been loitering around Diarose. Because it was a place like that, many rich people gathered to be targeted.
Damus, who knew this, asked if he had heard something, and Boros nodded.
“I heard it from one of the guards there. He said the new leader would use Turquoise Miracle?”
“What?!”
Not only Damus was surprised. The Hounds who were pretending not to listen all turned their eyes to Boros at once. Representing them, Gilbert frowned and asked.
“You’re on the blacklist. You can’t even come near Diarose? Is this reliable information?”
“Eh, Gilbert. Lists like that become meaningless with just a few gold coins. And the guard who told me that story was that ‘White Fist’. Why would an A-rank tell me lies?”
“Tsk.”
Gilbert clicked his tongue lightly. White Fist was a ranker who had made a name for himself in the empire. He was a martial artist with a characteristic white glove, and it was said that his hobby was to cherish the gloves stained red with the enemy’s blood.
“Even if that alone was unpleasant, it wouldn’t have led to expulsion from the guild, but when it became known that he collected not only the enemy’s blood but also the blood of virgins he had forcibly raped, his adventurer qualification was immediately revoked.”
“It’s even worse that he deliberately targeted only small villages or cities far from the empire.”
“That bastard didn’t go to prison because he had Abrarum as his back.”
The things the Hounds themselves did could never be praised or considered right. Upon closer look, White Fist wasn’t that different from them.
So, there had been times of hesitation. Were we really in a position to hate such people? But since they didn’t do it willingly, and there was no law forbidding them from hating similar things.
The old Hounds who once had the same hesitation as them were the only ones who reached a unanimous opinion, and that opinion had been passed down even now.
If others heard it, they would laugh. The only teaching passed down through generations was to ‘hate those like yourselves’.
However, it was one of the very important mindsets for the Hounds.
“It’s fine. I didn’t think it would come to this. Don’t worry about it and keep cleaning.”
Gilbert shouted to dispel the somewhat depressed atmosphere, but the once-dropped mood was not easily recovered.
It wasn’t the first time they had lost their leader. Rather, it was because they had experienced it too many times. Isaac was indeed a special case, but the position of Hound leader was originally such a position.
For the Hounds, the leader’s position was the trauma itself that changed every time.
Isaac hadn’t treated them as someone who would die soon because he disliked them.
And it wasn’t that Isaac liked it and said that.
“Should I save the corpse?”
“Huh?”
Boros reacted to Derigan’s words, which were disguised in a light tone, and the others’ gazes shifted to him. Derigan continued as if it was nothing, knowing that.
“After all, if he dies, we have to handle it. The empire government will also hound us. So, it would be easier if we found the corpse in advance.”
Even if you weren’t a Hound, you could see how nonsensical Derigan’s words were if you thought about it for a moment.
Turquoise Miracle was as terrifying in price as in effect. It wouldn’t be something Abrarum could easily use.
Since they used such a thing, Abrarum would try to gain maximum benefit from Isaac. It wouldn’t kill him in just a day.
Of course, the Hounds knew that fact. But the words that came out were the opposite of that fact.
“Well, would that be so?”
“Well, finding corpses every time was troublesome.”
“Damus knows Diarose’s interior well, right?”
“I’ll bring out the map.”
The Hounds who were pretending not to care gathered one by one. For them, what kind of person Isaac was didn’t matter.
It was just that even if it was meaningless, they wanted to say once in a while that they had done everything they could.
Isaac’s thoughts were completely different, though.
--
“Think logically. If I had blocked the toilet, I wouldn’t be looking for the bathroom here now.”
I protested seriously to their gazes. If I had blocked the toilet, I would have already done my business, so why look for the bathroom again?
I was about to say that if the women who fainted due to overdoing it wake up, they would testify, but unfortunately, the guards didn’t seem to want to listen to my story till the end.
The ones who realized there was a problem gathered around the guards. They were all people who looked like they had some strength, befitting subordinates of a major criminal organization.
“You, what is your identity?”
“Identity? Isaac Mayer, no, Blata. It’s been more than two weeks since I’ve been a guest, that’s too much.”
It was really frustrating. If they had intended to soak him in medicine and roast him, wouldn’t they have done a basic investigation properly?
“You’re not joking. Answer properly. How can someone who ate Turquoise Miracle move so quickly?”
“Turquoise Miracle? Ah, you call it that here?”
Compared to the original name, it’s a pretty fancy name. A miracle is out of the question, though.
“By the way, we called it ‘toad skin ground from the Hell Swamps’.”
“Hell toad…… what?”
I was explaining to the guards when I suddenly realized something was wrong.
Why is this here?
“Damn it! What are you babbling about!”
I didn’t really intend to, but it seemed like they thought I was mocking them. I wanted to tell them it wasn’t that, but before that, the guards’ anger exploded.
The guard with the impressive white glove instantly exploded his aura and reached out to me. But unfortunately, I don’t have the hobby of shaking hands with men.
*Thud.*
“……Eh?”
I lightly slapped his hand away and grabbed his neck, twisting it, and another guard let out a stupid sound. Unlike the Meyer Kingdom soldiers, the city kids had quite slow situational judgment.
They’re still standing stupidly.
“Is this self-defense?”
“All in combat readiness!”
As expected, judgment is slow. The timing to shout combat readiness had long passed.
“I should have shouted to tear him apart.”
“Kill!”
The bathroom could be reached without delay.
--
*Bang!*
“What, what is it?!”
Paris, looking at the guest list in the manager’s room and finding the next prey, was startled by the shaking building and looked out the window.
It didn’t seem like an earthquake. Outside was fine, and the people on the street were looking at Diarose with eyes full of curiosity.
Paris, who had realized from his long work experience that trouble had occurred, called the guards waiting outside.
“Hey! Is no one there! Explain the situation!”
No answer. Strange. Normally, he would have rushed before calling himself, but now it was unnaturally quiet.
“H, hey…?”
When Paris, feeling inexplicable fear, was about to think to go out himself.
The door opened. At that moment, Paris, who was about to pour out the curse he had been waiting for the employee, recalled, saw the visitor’s appearance and his face turned pale.
“Hello?”
It was Isaac. The appearance of wearing only a bathrobe on his naked body was inappropriate for coming to meet someone, but Paris had no leisure to care about such things.
The pure white bathrobe was dyed red without any white margins. Paris noticed the red droplets dripping to the floor and could understand why the robe was red.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting. I was late because I went to the bathroom.”
This was also a lie-free truth.
“Who! Is no one there!!!!”
“It’s gone now. So, don’t shout loudly.”
Looking at Isaac’s nonchalant answer, Paris was filled with fear. His legs were shaking madly, and his hands and feet that had lost their blood color were as cold as ice.
“Is that idiot really that guy? No way!”
Isaac was smiling. From the first time he saw him, he thought he was hopelessly stupid. He thought he was smiling foolishly without knowing what would happen to him in the future.
But it was Paris himself who didn’t know what would happen to him. He couldn’t understand why he could look down on that evil-looking face in the past.
“Ku!”
Paris put his hand in his jacket pocket and took out a pocket watch.