In the End (4)
I finally managed to slip back inside the walls. The vow never to sneak out of the city again came as a free bonus.
Boom!
"Seize him!"
"One's getting away! After him!"
"Don't let him escape!"
What the hell was all this racket, though?
On the way back to the inn I noticed how restless the streets had grown. From the look of things they had been running arrest operations and pursuit chases since before dawn.
"If you don't move I'll kill—!"
Even so, I found myself pondering amid the chaos.
Why did every damn incident always erupt right near me, right on the path I was taking home?
Wham!
"Guh!"
"You maggot…"
Add this to the list: how cursed with rotten luck did these criminal bastards have to be, to cross this entire city and run straight into me?
And at an hour when the sun was barely thinking about rising, when the only pedestrian around was me.
Hah. Or was this some grand conspiracy? A plot by a deranged world determined to screw with me through sheer insane coincidence?!
"Uuurgh…"
As if.
I quickly discarded the over-interpretation and tried to guess what sort of criminal this one was.
Judging by how fast the city guard was closing in and by the time of day, it looked like the guards had deliberately launched a surprise raid.
"You are…!"
"Take him."
"Thank you for your help in apprehending a demon worshiper!"
…Still, that didn't mean he had to be a demon follower.
Maybe the large-scale purge had been launched because of the last incident—the one that shut down the checkpoint? They had found him pretty fast for only a few days having passed.
"Khh…"
Either way, he was someone who deserved to be arrested.
I handed the one I had subdued over to the guards. Maybe because I had driven a fist into his solar plexus and then slammed him into the ground, he was groaning awfully loud.
"Ah, thank you for the assistance."
"D-Damn you…!"
"Stay down!"
No one paid him any further attention. Some of the guards even added a little extra violence to the already-subdued man.
It wasn't a pleasant sight. Not that I had any intention—or right—to stop them.
"Fuck! If only Lord Sigi… if only Lord Sigi were still here… scum like you—!"
"…?"
And somehow the name of the one I had killed was coming out of his mouth.
I narrowed my eyes at the demon worshiper being dragged away.
There was no real need to haul him off for interrogation at this point… but hearing him shout Sigi's name made it pretty clear these were Sigi's followers. Sigi was already dead, though. Was there even anything left to follow?
"Shut up!"
Thud!
"Ghak!"
I wondered for a moment why Sigi's followers were still hanging around and why they were thrashing about so pathetically, like an ex who couldn't let go, then shook my head.
Demon worshipers were like cockroaches; there was little point trying to reason out why they turned up in any given place.
"Time to sleep…"
Most importantly, the dawn sparring session had left me with only a few hours of rest and I was getting drowsy. I dragged myself back up to the inn.
Bang!
"Seize him!"
…And came right back down again. It seemed they really were combing the city in earnest because of the earlier incident. The noise just wouldn't stop from every direction.
The Inquisitor finished her dawn prayers and returned to hear surprising news.
"A purge… you say?"
"Yes. The operation has just concluded. The arrested individuals have already been transferred to the interrogation chambers."
Every last servant of evil that had been hiding in the city had been rounded up. It was good news, yet somehow left her feeling a little dazed.
She wiped the sweat still running down her face with the towel around her neck. Clack. Meanwhile her other hand pulled a chair back so she could sit.
"Had I known, I would have helped as well."
If she had known they were going to wipe out a nest of evil she would have postponed her prayers for a while. A faint regret settled in her chest.
"I understand how the Inquisitor feels, but one does not need a great hammer to crack a peanut. Clearly they judged their own forces sufficient, which is why no request for cooperation was sent."
The Archmage's words were not wrong. If there were no other options it would be different, but employing excessive force when the proper means were already available was simply foolish.
The Inquisitor accepted the point.
"More importantly, how on earth did they obtain the information?"
"I have no idea. This was entirely an operation arranged by the city guard."
Someone who had arrived only a little earlier than her posed the question. The Archmage stroked his chin.
"I heard the temple was asked to assist only as a precaution, and to ensure more effective suppression if needed."
"Hmm."
"Is something the matter?"
She hated to admit it, but whenever Slicker wore that dissatisfied expression it rarely meant anything good.
The Inquisitor's face hardened at once and she focused on the conversation. Just in case.
"Finding them all at once like this… simultaneously… feels a little strange."
Was it…? Well, perhaps it was. Demon worshipers were like vermin; they constantly gnawed at the world yet were rarely discovered by anything short of pure chance.
They had to be killed, and she wanted them dead, but they simply did not stand out unless luck intervened.
"I found that point curious as well… yet Bemyurhen's city guard has always been the sort that roots out one or two groups of demon followers every year. So this may simply be the fruit of diligent work."
"Still, catching one or two groups a year is a completely different matter from simultaneously arresting remnants scattered across seven locations like this."
"When you put it that way I have nothing to say… but the aftershocks of the incident a few days ago must have played their part as well, no?"
"…They grew more vigilant and searched harder? Well, that sort of thing does happen."
Watching the Archmage and Slicker talk each other into agreement, her own ears grew soft as well. So it really had been the guards' hard work…?
"Even so, they found them too quickly… No matter how heightened their vigilance, only a few days have passed and they suddenly spotted what had been invisible all this time…"
Ah, or maybe not…?
"On top of that they have been continuously dispatching scouting parties to watch for merman movements. Considering the city guard are ultimately soldiers, shouldn't they be short-handed?"
"Then what exactly do you suspect?"
"It isn't so much suspicion as worry. If this wasn't coincidence but something someone deliberately arranged… then we have no idea what they might be aiming for."
"Not an unreasonable perspective. The problem is that if this was a calculated act, we still do not know for what purpose it was done…"
While the Inquisitor remained confused, the Archmage and Deathbringer continued exchanging thoughts.
"Even assuming it was the work of other demon followers… I cannot see why they would do such a thing. After the gate incident it was only a matter of time before they were discovered, yet if left alone they could still have been put to use."
"But who besides fellow demon followers would know their locations so precisely?"
"That is also true. If they were not of the same ilk, no one who knew the locations of demon worshipers would have remained silent until now."
"So there must be something to gain… but what?"
"…We will have to wait for the interrogation results."
Unfortunately they still had no answer. In the end they postponed drawing any conclusion.
"If an incident was going to break out anyway, I wish it had waited until the sword was finished."
"I agree. They said it would be ready in a few days… I hope we can hold out that long."
"Where shall I set the soup?"
"Ah, right here, please. Thank you."
"Not at all."
Instead they decided to focus on the food that had arrived. Dishes that avoided luxury yet were by no means sparse began appearing one after another on the table.
"…He's late."
As Slicker pointed out, someone who should have been here by now was nowhere to be seen.
"Now that you mention it, Berserk is missing as well," the Inquisitor said, blinking in agreement. The thought of yet another empty seat made her mood dampen, but that was neither here nor there.
"She told me she would be late."
The Archmage's calm words allowed them to abandon their unnecessary fretting. His composed expression made them judge that nothing serious was wrong. Of course, had they known she had already received Berserk's refusal earlier, and that the Demon Knight's matter had piled on top of it until she had lost the confidence to involve herself with others, they would not have felt so at ease.
"Just what kind of training is she doing that she even gave advance notice of lateness…"
"Perhaps it isn't training. Maybe she met a powerful opponent…?"
"That makes sense too."
Not knowing the truth, they waited in peace. They even offered plausible guesses.
"More than that, a strong one acknowledged by a fighter with such high standards. I'm curious who it could be."
The guess was actually correct. They simply never dreamed that the person in question was someone they already knew.
I had meant to sleep only an hour at the inn and ended up sleeping three hours straight.
Realizing once again the flaw in the sleep system—that I could set a wake-up time, wake up, and then fall right back asleep—I knocked on the workshop door.
"Come in."
As always the door opened by itself and let me inside. The person I expected to scold me for being late was instead absorbed in his work, dark circles carved deep under his eyes.
A few flasks that looked like they belonged in a science lab and a pot bubbling away made him resemble an alchemist.
I folded the coat I had removed neatly and set it on the table. Meister paid it no attention whatsoever. Whatever he was doing right now was more important.
"Hah."
After a long while he finally took his hands off the reagent bottles and leaned back in his chair.
"Hey. Put mana in those."
Several batteries were stacked on another table.
Considering I had left the workshop at seven yesterday and filled every battery made up to that point before I went, it was rather impressive.
When had he made these? Even accounting for how late I was today, there shouldn't have been enough time.
…Had this guy pulled an all-nighter?
"Huu."
The way he moved carried a far heavier fatigue than anything I had seen over the past few days.
I poured mana into the batteries while glancing at whatever Meister had been making. Sealed in reagent bottles, I couldn't tell what any of it was. Some kind of scientific research, maybe?
"I'm dying…"
Well… if he wanted to do it, that was his business.
I watched him make pained noises while I sat on the couch. When I suddenly felt a prickly gaze, it was of course Meister's.
"I'm sleepy and hungry."
He spoke in a thoroughly dry and bland tone, one that somehow even felt condescending.
"I said I'm hungry."
Because of that I failed to understand him the first time.
Of course I did. How was I supposed to immediately match that face—like some "fastidious, etiquette-obsessed, flashy-looking noble character type 1" straight out of a manga—with a childlike whine? My brain refused to process it right away.
And the content of the words was another problem.
I get that you're hungry, but so what? Concept aside, you and I aren't even close… We aren't the kind of people who have these conversations…
"Have you abandoned intelligence as an excuse for fatigue?"
I glared at him with an emotion half a step short of contempt. I had done him a few favors, but that did not mean I was going to become his errand boy.
"It's not that bad, so put that look away."
And Meister knew it too. He stopped whining.
"Let's make a deal."
Instead he offered something else. "Since you called yourself an adventurer, maybe 'commission' is the better word?" From the start it seemed he had planned this; the words that followed were clean and efficient.
"Details."
"Item delivery."
Exactly the type of side quest I liked—peaceful, modest, and simple.
"I trust you won't refuse just because it's trivial. The filthy adventurers who only care about their own profit may pick and choose their jobs, but someone of your caliber wouldn't do that."
On top of that Meister even stroked the pride of my concept.
He lightly scratched at me so I couldn't refuse, yet without saying it outright he also removed any path for me to push back with a blunt "So what?"
"…Cunning little bastard."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Just tell me the items."
In the end, refusing would only make me look petty. I urged him on irritably—while inwardly rejoicing at the modest side quest.
"First, deliver those finished products to each client. That's number one."
It seemed quite a lot was packed inside the simple words "item delivery"; Meister's tone carried the nuance that the explanation would grow longer.
"Every time you hand over a finished product the clients will pay the remaining balance. Collect that money and use it to buy the materials I specify. That's number two."
"There's more?"
"Among the materials to buy, some require secondary processing. Hand those over to the relevant workshops and place the processing orders. That's number three."
The fourth was to bring the remaining materials back to him, Meister finished.
Simple, yet I had the strong feeling I would be running all over the place.
"Ah, and include this as well. Deliver this bottle and letter to the castle. Give my name to the gatekeeper and leave them; they'll take care of the rest. It's not a commission piece so there's no payment. Just deliver them."
Mm. Not a feeling—certainty. I corrected myself.
"For reference, I'd like it all done before noon. Right now work is piled up so I can't research equipment, but this afternoon I should have some free pockets of time."
And a time limit on top of it.
I had no intention of delaying anyway so the limit barely mattered, yet he really did live efficiently. He had even factored in that equipment research couldn't proceed while I was out for long.
"Pay."
"Hmm. One hundred thousand…"
One hundred thousand?
"…Two hundred thousand gal."
Under my steady downward stare Meister changed the number. Compared to the commissions I had cleared so far it seemed very little, yet when I thought carefully it wasn't necessarily so.
No, it might even be a bit high?
As I recalled, the sewer-cleaning commission had been forty or fifty thousand.
A life-risking demon-hunting job paid that much, so two hundred thousand for a simple delivery wasn't bad. Probably.
"In exchange, if any item is damaged, delivered to the wrong place, or lost in transit, you pay the compensation."
"That won't happen."
"Then I'm glad."
Meister spoke and then added one last thing.
"On your way bring some porridge from the inn where you're staying."
Right. He had said he was hungry. Fair enough.