That Shouldn't Have Happened (5)

Had it been so long that thoughts of my parents left me feeling a little wistful?

Still, filial piety was one thing, and the quest was another. Six relics remained to be found.

“Wait.”

I had scoured every other place thoroughly, so the remaining six had to be somewhere in this space.

I searched the tunnel with the spot where the child had been clinging as my center. In the end I found the bones hidden among the roots.

“M-Mommy…….”

In the process the child recognized his mother’s remains and broke down crying…… but there was nothing I could do for him. The most I could manage was to recover her body properly.

Thirteen relics in total. I had them all. The lack of object markers nearly made my eyes fall out of my head while I hunted for them.

Those Deep Sea Pearl bastards. I’ll give them credit for making a solid game, but do they even care about user convenience? Not that I mind this particular challenge all that much.

“Kid.”

“Mommy…… hic.”

The child showed no sign of moving on his own, so I simply scooped him up in one hand and left the tunnel. With a body that could swing a two-handed sword like a twig, carrying one small child was nothing.

It said purification was needed separately, so I pulled an oil drum from my bag and poured every last drop.

This system existed in the original as well, and the starting items included an oil drum, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so it was easy enough to carry out.

Just as I was about to hurl a lit torch onto the oil-soaked ground, the dead-end branches of the side paths suddenly came to mind.

…Now that I think of it, I’ll probably need to burn those too if I want a full hundred percent.

Reaching a hundred percent purification wasn’t a quest completion condition, so it probably didn’t matter much. Still, the unfinished feeling niggled at me, so I figured I would try on the way out.

With that thought I watched the slowly climbing purification percentage and headed outside first. They had even implemented oxygen deprivation if you set fires inside the tunnel; my breath was already growing short.

A mild sensation of stuffiness would have been plenty. Instead the game gave me the full experience of lungs tightening and my heart climbing into my throat.

Even with pain sensitivity set low, the crushing pressure in my chest was unpleasant.

I don’t have any related trauma, but this could be controversial for some players. Is this really okay?

I covered my mouth with a gauntlet and coughed in short bursts while quickening my pace. I could handle it, but I had no idea how the child would fare, so I needed to hurry.

Cough, cough.

“…Tsk.”

The moment I heard the child’s cough I simply broke into a full run. Fortunately my legs outpaced the smoke.

“Are you all right?”

“…Yes.”

In less than three minutes we left the choking space behind. We hadn’t escaped the sewers yet—just reached a stretch the smoke hadn’t reached.

After that it was easy. Having learned the hard way that lighting fires would get me killed, I made no further attempts at purification. The path was the same one I had already walked, so finding my way out was no trouble.

It was a genuine blessing that my memory for routes was good. I hadn’t noticed while fighting goblins, but the tunnels twisted and stretched far longer than expected.

Just getting out felt like a solid thirty minutes of running.

Clang!

At last I found the exit and kicked the iron-barred gate open with a heavy breath. The air still smelled musty, yet it was fresher than the air deeper inside the sewers.

The setting sun stabbed at my eyes.

So roughly two or three hours had passed? I couldn’t remember the exact time of entry, but it had been daytime, and eight hours equaled one in-game day.

Granted, hunting for paths and thrashing demons had taken a while. When I considered the sheer size of the sewers I had explored, two or three hours almost felt too short. I’d had the impression it was more like four or five.

If they’d given us a clock function I would have known precisely. A small regret.

“Kid.”

“……?”

Anyway, I checked the child in my hand. Through the grime on his face, his blank stare was clear.

Tears still welled in his eyes, but as long as he was alive, that was enough.

I climbed the riverbank and started slowly back the way I had come. The guild had told me to report, so it was time to head there.

“Sir Knight.”

Then, for a moment, the child who had caught his breath sniffled and called out to me.

“Mommy will be happy by the gods’ side, right?”

It was a question with only one answer.

“Yes.”

We reached the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Ah, Adventurer? What brings you—wait, that child?”

Perhaps because it was evening, the guild was livelier than before. Most of the noise came from the tavern customers, so the counter itself was relatively quiet.

That made finding Clerk Iseren extremely easy. Handing over the report—and the child—was equally simple.

“Take him.”

I thrust the child at her as she came out from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠behind the counter.

I had thought the weight would be difficult for an ordinary person, the sort only someone with the strength to wield a zweihander could manage, yet the clerk accepted him without trouble.

Impressive. Even real-world me would have staggered under that kid.

“This child is…….”

“A laborer’s son. He went into the sewers looking for his parents. Get the details from him.”

It was a bit cruel to dump it on the kid, but the truth was I hadn’t heard the full story myself. I gave a rough summary.

“What?!”

Naturally the clerk recoiled and looked down at the child in her arms. He only clutched the relic of his mother I had given him and pressed his lips tightly shut.

“I-I understand. We will take responsibility for the child’s safety.”

The instant the clerk finished speaking, one of the quests cleared. The rest would probably clear once I made my full report.

“Where should I leave the recovered relics?”

“Ah, you brought relics as well? Just set them down over here for now.”

The clerk handed the child off to a fellow staff member and guided me toward the counter. She pointed at a desk that was neither particularly wide nor narrow—like a bank teller’s station—so I gathered that was the place.

Clatter.

I poured the relics out without ceremony. The laborers’ belongings were jewelry and clothing; the adventurers’ traces were all adventurer tags, so there would be no confusion.

“Y-You brought a lot.”

Of course I did. Unless the situation was truly impossible, how could anyone ignore sub-missions? Granted, I was the one who gave off the impression of a complete bastard who would ignore everyone else’s circumstances.

I frowned and looked down at the clerk. She swallowed hard and quickly checked the relics.

“These wouldn’t happen to be the belongings of all thirteen deceased laborers, would they?”

“Then what else do they look like?”

Regardless of my true feelings I snapped irritably, and the clerk flinched.

“N-No, of course not. We will deliver these relics to the clients and confirm their identities. As for these adventurer tags…….”

Her words cut off. The bloodstained copper tags sifted through her fingertips.

“…On behalf of the guild, thank you.”

Her voice sounded a little heavy, a little too human, and it left me with a strange feeling. I had always wanted realistic NPCs, yet now that I actually had one, it felt somehow uncomfortable.

At this rate a real Skynet might be born. Of course, it’s still fun, so I’ll keep going!

“Is that the end of today’s hunting?”

“……?”

What was she talking about? Why would a player stop hunting?

“Ah…… will you be returning to the sewers? But a little rest might also be…….”

“I cannot understand your meaning. Why would I return to the sewers?”

Hmm. Was this about the purification? Going back in myself to finish it would be a bit much, though.

“Do I have to handle the purification as well?”

“You need to…… eliminate the demons……? Pardon? Purification?”

I frowned as I recalled the purification progress that had ended at forty-three percent.

If I could use purification stones I wouldn’t mind taking it on, but a Demon Knight could only purify with fire. There was a real chance of suffocating to death while doing it. I wanted to avoid that if possible.

“I-I’m only asking because I have to wonder…… have you already dealt with all the demons?”

That question came out of nowhere. My eyes narrowed.

“Then why do you think I am standing here?”

“To…… bring the child?”

If I had found the kid halfway through I probably would have done exactly that…… wait, so she thought I abandoned the quest midway just because I found a child?

Had they programmed her to react this way if the clear time was short? I didn’t feel like my clear time had been particularly fast, though.

“…I find that extremely unpleasant. Did you dismiss me?”

I twisted my face into a scowl, and the clerk frantically shook her head.

“No, I would never dismiss you. I apologize, Adventurer. So every demon has been eliminated except for the purification?”

“Yes.”

“…Then I will contact the client at once.”

I had been a little worried, but fortunately it seemed I didn’t need to purify everything myself. If purification had been a completion condition it would have been a real problem. Luck was on my side.

The quest updated and confirmed my suspicion. The sewer quest was truly finished.

While waiting for the client I studied the guild’s various systems and polished off dinner as well.

The messenger from the commissioning NPC arrived just as I finished my meal.

“This is the commission fee. And…… we will cover the brokerage fee as well.”

Because a high-ranking figure from the merchant association had summoned me, I had no choice but to walk all the way there. In exchange, they even paid the brokerage fee.

I suspected that recovering every last one of the laborers’ relics had something to do with it, even if I hadn’t come in person. Honestly, being ordered around was only a problem for me; NPCs had never been shy about working players like dogs.

“Will that be acceptable, Clerk?”

“For a courtesy of that level, we can certainly make an exception.”

“Then here it is. The promised four hundred thousand gal.”

More than the sum itself—though I had checked it when the contract was written—I still couldn’t quite believe it. I had been shocked by the unit back then, but after getting a rough sense of the local prices, it was even harder to accept.

This was not the sort of amount you handed out for a single tutorial.

“Confirmed.”

The moment I shoved the gold into my inventory, I watched the rising total at the bottom of the screen and barely managed to suppress the tremor in my heart. I had no choice.

Most games—and even the original Legend of Heroes—only paid out in the hundreds or thousands upon quest completion. Sometimes they didn’t even bother with coin and just tossed you cheap equipment or a few consumables.

That was because you earned more walking the roads or killing mobs than you ever did from quests.

The remake was different. These bastards had apparently decided to make money available only through quests instead of mob farming. There was no other explanation for handing out six-figure sums.

“As for the spoils taken from the demons…….”

No, wait. Earlier I had only looked carefully at combat and defense skills and skimmed the lifestyle ones, so I hadn’t noticed, but there was a skill called “Butchering.”

It let you extract loot from the corpses of beasts or demons. If I invested in it I might be able to make money from hunting alone, not just quests.

Whether it would ever pay better than this was another question entirely.

“I have no interest.”

That didn’t mean I regretted taking Close Combat Technique. Considering my character’s personality, I doubted I would ever bother harvesting loot from goblins.

In contrast, Close Combat Technique and the Parry I took afterward had been extremely useful. Even if I had known about Butchering, I still would have prioritized these first.

“Petty coins scraped from insect vermin.”

I struck a solid pose and refused the additional reward. It wasn’t that I felt no regret, but maintaining the role meant overcoming exactly that sort of thing.

I could swear not a single shred of disappointment remained in my answer.

“Is the work finished with this?”

I crossed one leg over the other, folded my arms, and tilted my head slightly—the so-called cool pose—as I asked. The middle-aged NPC read the room and answered, “Y-Yes.”

Ba-bam-bam!

The quest completion BGM rang brightly in my ears.

“Then there is no reason to remain.”

Damn it. I nearly broke character. Why did they set the quest clear fanfare so loud? Once I leveled a bit more I was going to lower the volume.

“I take my leave.”

I soothed my pounding heart and rose from my seat. I didn’t bother pushing the chair back in.

“Then I shall take my leave as well.”

The clerk also prepared to follow me out.

Thud-thud-thud.

The sound of someone sprinting without restraint came from the outer corridor at exactly that moment. The urgency carried through the walls and reached me.

“What is it?”

I opened the door and stepped aside. Immediately someone burst into the room in a manner that deserved the word “crashing.” The clerk jumped back in surprise.

“E-Elder!”

“You look like a colt with a fire lit under its ass! What is it?!”

The old man’s way of speaking. I suppressed the urge to smile fondly at the familiar warmth and simply observed. Something about this felt off, but the man also reeked of a main quest.

Even without original-game memories, years of gaming experience told me this smelled like a quest.

“A rescue request! Signal flares have gone up nearby! They are signal flares belonging to our association!”

“What?!”

As expected.

“We informed the castle guards, but they claim the timing is difficult and their response is far too sluggish……!”

“Those bastards take that much money and still won’t do their jobs!”

The old man raised his veins and bellowed at full volume. Truly, this was an old man who would easily live to two hundred.

“Send our boys at once!”

Around then the elderly NPC’s gaze locked with mine.

“You! You go too!”

“…Do not give me orders.”

This temperament would never react well to a one-sided command. If demons had been mentioned it might have been different, but we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠didn’t even know for certain who the attackers were.

With that interpretation I scowled first to protect my pride.

“You refuse?”

“I have no reason to obey your commands.”

“You little—! So you’re turning me down!”

Even so, outright refusal felt wrong. There was nothing to gain by refusing.

I glanced sideways at the clerk. She happened to be looking at me as well.

“Given the nature of the matter, we can postpone drafting a contract.”

“…You will have to pay a proper fee.”

“We’ll pay you handsomely for that!”

“The contract is sealed. Guide me.”

Then let’s go rescue them. But where was the location? I needed to know that before I could go slaughter whoever needed slaughtering.

Just in case, I opened the quest window, and it proved quite helpful. It seemed a quest could generate even without a written contract.

I checked the updated quest and tried to estimate the location. There was no minimap, but a full map existed, so confirming the position itself wasn’t difficult.

It was just inconvenient to keep the full map open while traveling.

“Get him a horse immediately!”

“Y-Yes!”

Fortunately the messenger was assigned as my guide.

“Together with the mercenaries—”

“Unnecessary.”

This was a tutorial. Surely I didn’t need to drag mercenaries along. There was no reason to endure that kind of hassle.

I found the survivor count on that bonus quest extremely bothersome.

No exact number was displayed, but long experience told me it felt like a time attack. As long as joining the mercenaries wasn’t mandatory, going first was the correct call.

“B-But it will be dangerous.”

“…Are you discussing danger with me right now?”

An early quest couldn’t possibly be that dangerous. If anything, I was more worried about the NPCs’ necks. Considering travel time, even leaving immediately might not be enough.

“Just send him!”

At that moment the old man cut in.

“If he cleaned out the sewers alone, he won’t die even if he goes first!”

“Y-Yes!”

Unexpected help. The messenger led me straight to the stables.

“You can ride this one!”

The horse they provided looked large and sturdy. Horses were a common means of travel in-game, so instead of flinching I simply swung up onto its back.

Among the games I had played was a horse-racing simulator once praised as realistic enough to feel like real riding.

Thanks to that, I was thoroughly used to horseback.

“Hyah!”

The stick-like legs of the horse crushed the mud as it began to gallop hard.