The Price of Ignorance (6)

“So you want a compliment for those eyes of yours, is that it?”

“Sounds about right.”

The thief deftly let my sarcasm roll off him as he spun the kukri in his hand. It was half again the size of an ordinary dagger, and the man’s strength was clearly no joke.

“Fine then, Sir Knight. What brings you to this back alley? Dragging a hound of the gods along by the tail—have you decided we’re the ones to haul off this time?”

“That bastard—!”

Come to think of it, she did have a bit of a temper. Given her connection to the back alleys, it was only natural.

“…I doubt that’s it. She said she needed to investigate the temple dragging our people away.”

“While trailing an Inquisitor?”

“She claimed it might involve demons.”

The pickpocket’s sudden interjection made the air itself ripple.

“…Demons?”

The thief rolled the word around on his tongue as he looked my way. The hood hid everything above his nose, but the tilt of his head was easy enough to read.

“The location of the ones who were taken. Do you know it?”

“…Hold on—are you saying the temple’s mixed up with demons?”

Who could say? There was a ninety-nine percent chance they were connected, but until we cracked it open, the temple was still Schrödinger’s temple.

I ignored the thief’s question along with that useless thought.

“I asked if you know the location.”

“Listen here, sir. More than twenty people are presumed to have been dragged off to the temple! And you show up with an Inquisitor in tow, demanding their whereabouts. If you want answers, don’t you think you should offer something of value first?”

The thief actually made a fair point. Had he always been this logical? His personal story and combat were so dull I’d never bothered replaying them, so I simply hadn’t known.

“If I already knew the buried truth, do you think I would have come here?”

“……!”

“And those behind me are not my companions.”

“…You walk around together yet claim they’re not your party?”

The sharp distinction I drew seemed to make Kimchi Mandu’s eyes nearly pop out of her skull behind me. The Archmage’s sigh had already become a permanent fixture.

“…Not companions—temporary co-travelers. And… whether this truly involves demons is something we ourselves do not yet know. That is precisely why we stand here, seeking the answer.”

“Then who exactly is that Inquisitor?”

“Someone the Order dispatched to this city on other business.”

Fortunately the Archmage was not the sort of character to freeze up and forget his role when the script grew awkward.

“…Listen. I understand that this affair has driven your faith in the temple into the dirt. But we truly have no connection to it. We merely sensed something amiss and set out. So I ask you—please swallow your anger and cooperate with us, that no more victims may fall.”

She, too, could string a logical argument together, and in the end the thief fell silent. For about thirty seconds, awkwardness swallowed every sound and grinned.

“Hey.”

Having finally reached a decision, the thief flicked his fingers. Someone slipped out from between the alley walls.

“Go report.”

“…You’re going to tell them?”

“I’m confident I can extract myself if things go south.”

“Understood.”

The other thief NPC accepted the order at once and vanished deeper into the alley. The other presences I had sensed earlier also began to fade; at least we no longer needed to worry about a fight breaking out here.

“…Fine. I’ll guide you. But make no mistake—I still don’t trust that damn Inquisitor. I’m doing this only to stop more victims from appearing.”

Having said that much, the thief exhaled once and turned on his heel.

“Follow me.”

With the quick footwork of a true thief he vanished between the alleys in a blink. I could have caught up immediately if I prepared, but the NPC was remarkably inconsiderate.

Still, the quest had updated.

“We’re almost there.”

The thief led us out of the slums and into the commercial district. True to his class, he never once used the open streets, instead weaving us between the glittering buildings with an ability that was both impressive and thoroughly shady.

“There.”

At last he stopped inside one alley. His finger never left the shadows of the alley as he pointed across the main road at a single building: a vegetable shop that saw steady traffic.

“…A vegetable shop?”

The Inquisitor’s face twisted, but neither the Archmage nor I reacted the same way.

“Indeed… I can sense a barrier. Whoever cast it was highly skilled. Had we not been looking carefully, we would never have noticed.”

“…Well, seems we didn’t come for nothing after all. Just like you said—there’s a barrier on the door leading from the warehouse into the basement. We tried looking inside any number of times and failed every one.”

The Archmage for that reason.

I for the updated quest.

But the conversation just now raised a sudden question: why had the thief NPC recognized me while failing to recognize the mage? If he had been chosen to accompany the Hero, the Archmage should have been fairly famous himself.

Maybe the mages’ indoor-recluse setting meant their faces never became public knowledge.

“Then… does that mean… truly…?”

“Whether it involves demons I cannot say. But at the very least, it is certainly nothing honest.”

“…….”

The Inquisitor’s expression twisted into something murderous. Friction scraped from the hand that gripped her mace.

“Then how do we get inside?”

She ground her teeth and glared with blazing eyes. Matched against the night she had attacked me, the sight sent a genuine chill down my spine.

“Given enough time I could dismantle the barrier, but…”

The Archmage stroked his chin and shook his head.

“The time required is one issue; the location is another. We would be discovered long before the barrier broke.”

“Is there no other way?”

“Hmm… the barrier focuses on concealment, so sufficient physical force should shatter it rather easily.”

Somehow nothing ever came easy. Well, that was games for you.

“Then tonight—”

“We go now.”

How long had it been since dawn broke, and they wanted me to wait until night? Not a chance.

The time allotted to me was truly running out. Within it I wanted to clear this quest—or at the very least the dungeon immediately ahead.

Anything more would be impossible, so just that one cleanly.

“Have you lost your mind? The guards will swarm us!”

“What’s the problem?”

Even the thief’s protest left me unmoved as I took hold of my zweihander.

“Kidnapping is a heavier crime than trespassing.”

“……!”

“You mean to turn the arriving guards against them. But that only works if this city’s leadership is not already in league with the temple.”

That was true enough as well. Facing a companion NPC who opposed the player’s choice, I spat the words as if chewing them.

“If you’re afraid, fall back.”

But if that really was the issue? Sure, a frontal assault tended to raise the difficulty… which was why the developers usually put an alternative in the mouths of companion NPCs.

Yet the fact that the option existed at all meant the method could still clear the content. The developers’ suggestion could be reconsidered after I had already charged in and seen the results.

“This is far too reckless!”

“You seem to be under some misconception. Do you think we have unlimited time?”

More than that, a gamer’s intuition told me that skipping straight to night would only make things harder, never easier.

It wasn’t pure gut feeling either—the information we already had pointed the same way.

“More than twenty sacrifices. The temple is holding a live demon contractor. For a Sage, you should at least be able to project one possible outcome from that.”

“……!”

“They captured a demon contractor…?”

“…His words are correct.”

I had half expected the game to force us to wait until night, but thankfully that didn’t seem to be the case—not when the Inquisitor was already agreeing with me.

“If this diocese has truly fallen, the demon contractor they handed over will no longer be sitting in an interrogation chamber.”

Good. When a choice branch like this appeared, persuading the companion NPCs let us charge straight in, right?

“…The title of Archmage is wasted on me. To fail to consider something so simple… You are right. Let us go in.”

Well, I had never met an Archmage NPC who actually lived up to the name, so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he didn’t need to beat himself up that badly.

The world was full of intelligent characters sacrificed for the sake of plot.

“…You people are something else.”

Once even the Archmage agreed, the thief gave a low whistle. He showed no sign of falling back either; the way he drew his kukri proved it.

“I’ll extract myself the second things get dangerous, so keep that in mind.”

Right. Of all the people who said that, I had never once seen one actually pull out.

“Then for the timing of the assault—”

And of course my concept would never bother considering something like that!

I stepped out of the alley with the zweihander still in my grip.

I briefly considered running, then abandoned the idea just as quickly.

According to the thief the door was in the warehouse, and a warehouse would have crates stacked on top of it. Charging over only to grunt and shove boxes around… that simply had no style.

“Ah, welcome! What would you like to—”

Far better to walk in with complete composure.

“Sir, that area is off-limits—Guh!”

Thud!

I drove my fist into the shopkeeper’s solar plexus and sent him sprawling. After all, there was no chance the owner was ignorant of the basement door’s existence.

In the end this man was either a demon worshipper or their collaborator, and my concept would never tolerate such people.

“Kyaaaaah!”

“Sir, you really leave no path of retreat, do you?”

“That was far too violent.”

The thief’s words were accurate so I let them slide; the Archmage’s words were simply something he would have to get used to, so I didn’t need to care.

Pretending I had heard nothing, I casually kicked open the shop’s back door. Bang. Contrary to my expectation of a rear courtyard, the door led into another room.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

Another person who had been arranging goods in the side alley—apparently a married couple ran the place—rushed out shouting.

The distance made subduing them impractical, so I decided to ignore that side entirely. My eyes swept the room in a rapid scan.

“I’m calling the guards! Get out this instan—”

“We are from the temple. Kindly cooperate.”

So this was the right place after all.

I looked down at the basement door protruding from beneath a crate and kicked the box aside. It was empty, so it flew a satisfying distance without damaging my dignity.

“Why would the temple…?”

“I wonder. Why do you think?”

While the Inquisitor handled the owners, I raised my blade.

Crack!

The sword wreathed in black energy split the basement door in two. A glass-shattering effect flickered for an instant and vanished, but that wasn’t particularly important. That would have been the barrier.

“…Demon Energy.”

Something strange and faintly prickling brushed against me from within, but I dismissed it as imagination and stepped onto the shattered basement door.

Crunch!

The door that had been split in half finally collapsed downward, revealing the entrance.

“W-what are you doing right n—”

“Archmage, restrain those two!”

A voice thick with rage issued the command around then.

But whatever happened on that side, I had no obligation to wait. While pale-blue chains bound the shopkeepers, I took the first step down into the basement.

“From this moment I begin the execution in the name of God—evil shall be annihilated, and sinners shall be judged!”

Behind me the Inquisitor’s booming declaration rang out together with the sound of her shield slamming down.

“Never thought I’d get a front-row seat to an Inquisitor’s heresy trial…”

Using that voice as background music I continued down the stairs, only for something to press right up against my back. It was the thief.

He had been so confrontational earlier, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠yet now he seemed frightened.

“More importantly, is it really all right to just walk in like this?”

“Everyone who has ever crossed me must have had a problem with their ears.”

“…Yessir. I’ll shut up.”

Thud. Thud.

Separately, whoever had dug this underground passage had gone deep—there was no end to the stairs in sight.

“Wait, please wait for us!”

Even after the Inquisitor and Archmage hurriedly joined the rear line, we still had to descend a full three minutes—subjectively—further.

Only after a straight corridor finally appeared did the area name update.

“I shall take the lead.”

The Inquisitor announced her shield and offered, but well. I knew that would be efficient, and I even wanted to let her… yet.

“Ah!”

“…Aren’t you the one who never listens to people?”

I ignored her and pushed forward. I clearly heard the muttered comment the thief made in the process. As expected of a thief, he had a sharp eye for reading people.

But was I going to fold because of that? Absolutely not!

I refused to surrender the front line under any circumstances, and the rest scrambled after me. The Inquisitor, who proposed taking the lead several more times, finally accepted her place—third—with a dejected look after being ignored about four additional times.

“A door!”

Soon the end of the corridor came into view: a creaking wooden door. Beyond it hung a thick stench of blood.

Then I needed to be ready to attack or respond the moment we entered.

I set my hand on the zweihander and stretched out my foot.

Boom!

The door that had clearly been locked burst open as the lock shattered under a single kick.

“Damn it, the summoning still isn’t—!”

“The Hero?!”

“How in the world did you—!”

“That’s right! Your executioner has arrived!”

“…The Hero?”

Through the shattered doorway the demon contractors who had been hiding in the underground chamber came into view.

The quest updated.

“You vermin… all gathered in one place just to make killing you easier…!”

“Face the judgment of God, you foul seeds of evil!”

While listening to the Inquisitor spit lines almost identical to mine, I surveyed the battlefield ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with a cold head.

The cavern that opened before us was fairly spacious, and the demon contractors were in the middle of a ritual inside it.

Roughly a dozen or so of them? Three stood farther back providing support. Those were the ones who had reacted when we entered and who were now trying to respond.

“Tch, buy us time!”

“Rise!”

“Prepare the Draugr summoning!”

At the demon contractors’ thunderous cries, the corpses laid out across the cavern floor began to stand.

It was the most classic undead demon anyone would think of first.

“I will prepare magic—please cover me.”

“Ah, yeah… that much isn’t hard.”

But they were as weak as they were common, so they didn’t feel particularly threatening. Even Kimchi Mandu, growling like a tiger, was already splitting skulls with a single swing of her mace.

“Grant my blade victory…”

“As if thrashing about will do you any good!”

“Glory be to the heavens above…!”

“God stands with me!”

My zweihander was much the same. When I slipped past the Inquisitor’s shield and swept the blade, skeletons toppled in droves.

“Hear me, you who love slaughter. Come to the land prepared.”

Yet the number of skeletons was still a number, and the cavern was wider than it had first appeared.

“I have prepared blood and flesh for you. Birth darkness and bring death down upon this earth!”

Before we could reach the demon contractors, their spell was complete.