Chapter 8
Chapter 8
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Acupressure Slippers are Good for Your Health
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A Golden Goblin.
In the game, it was a monster that looked identical to a regular goblin, but its body shone with a golden hue, and it was depicted wearing a gold crown while carrying a bundle.
It was pathetically weak, but as a monster that practically bled money, the difficulty of encountering one was like plucking a star from the sky.
I had just learned that Golden Goblins were real.
I looked down at the man before me… no, at the Golden Goblin.
I didn’t know how much he had, but I doubted it was less than what I possessed.
But then, a thought occurred to me.
‘Is there any reason for me to take his money and let him live?’
He attacked me first, and I won.
“Can’t I just kill him and take it?”
As that thought crossed my mind, I looked at the man and saw him trembling.
‘What’s with everyone?’
Why was he trembling in fear after taking just one punch to the face?
Just like that goblin from before, they get scared for no reason, even when I haven’t done anything.
Hmm…
As I pondered what to do, a lightbulb went off in my head.
“Ah! How about we play a game?”
“A g-game?”
“That’s right. If you win, I’ll let you live. If you lose, you die. It’s better than just dying without a chance, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know what it is, but I’ll do it!”
“You’ll do it?”
“I’ll do it, sir!”
I called it a game, but he could think of it as something for his health.
“Alright, then take off your shoes.”
At my command, the man kicked off his shoes without a moment’s hesitation.
“There’s something to prepare before the game, so stay still.”
I took a caltrop out of my inventory.
Then, I kindly stuck them one by one into the soles of the man’s feet as he sat neatly with his shoes off.
“Gyaaaah!!!”
“Uh-uh. Shh. This is good for you.”
Back on Earth, people would stick needles all over their bodies for health, get shots in the butt to prevent diseases, and even wear slippers with bumpy soles. Making a fuss over something like this was just being a baby.
-Stab.
“Aaaargh!!!”
-Stab.
“Uwaaak!!!”
The size of the caltrops meant I couldn’t stick in too many, but after planting about ten of them in his soles, it looked quite plausible.
“You said you’d let me live!!!”
“I haven’t killed you, so why are you talking like I have?”
What a funny guy.
You’d think I was holding a knife to his throat.
“There. All done. Now, stand up.”
“Wh-what? You want me to stand up like this?”
“We can’t play the game if you don’t stand up.”
“Ugh… At least explain what the game is before I get up.”
“You’re dropping the formalities again.”
“…Please.”
He already agreed to do it, so why was he talking so much?
He should just do as he’s told.
Does he not understand his position?
“This is a waste of time, maybe I should just kill him…”
As I muttered to myself, the man must have heard me, because he shot to his feet.
The sound of him gritting his teeth was a bonus.
“Kugh…!”
“See? You can do it if you try.”
In the military, let me tell you, huh! There was nothing you couldn’t do! We could level mountains with a single shovel!
Of course, I was a public service worker.
“Acupressure slippers are good for your health. I’m looking out for you, yet you’re giving me that look instead of thanking me. That’s not right.”
“…”
The man stared at me as if I were a lunatic.
But what could he do? He was the one who agreed to it.
“Alright, I’ll tell you the rules of the game. Just take ten steps like that, and I’ll let you live.”
“T-ten steps?”
“If you don’t want to, you can just die.”
“…I’ll do it.”
The man’s legs were trembling, as if even standing was a struggle.
Soon, he bravely took a single step forward.
“Hngh… Aack…!!”
His face contorted in agony with just one step.
Blood trickled down from the soles of his feet, pierced by the caltrops.
At the sight, I clapped my hands.
So this is what they mean when they say a red carpet is laid with every step.
“One.”
Still, it was a game, so I had to count properly.
As I counted, the man mustered his courage and took another step forward.
Two became three, three became four, and the number gradually increased, soon approaching ten.
“Hnngh… Sob…”
By the end, his groans had turned into something close to sobs.
He got to improve his health with a free ten-step acupressure slipper walk and save his life at the same time.
Isn’t that killing two birds with one stone?
Why does he look so sad?
I don’t get it.
Anyway, he won the game, so now I just have to let him go, and I can be on my way.
“You won, so I’ll let you live. But don’t let me see you again. If I do, I’ll really kill you next time. Got it?”
-Nod, nod, nod, nod.
The guy nodded his head with passion.
He crouched down, hastily pulled out the caltrops, and once they were all out, he started running away on his tiptoes.
‘Making such a fuss when he can run just fine.’
Alright, now then.
I watched the man grow smaller in the distance before sprinting after him.
He must have heard the sound of my full-speed sprint, because the fleeing man glanced back and our eyes met.
“Here’s Luke~”
I gave him a wide grin, and terror filled his eyes.
His gaze snapped forward again, and he began to run even faster than before.
Not that he could escape from me with his perforated soles.
In the end, I caught up to the man.
After running so hard, he finally tripped and fell at the last moment.
“Y-you said you’d let me live!! I won!! Why are you chasing me when I won!!”
“Hello. We meet again, don’t we? What did I say would happen if I saw you again?”
“You crazy bastard!! You’re the one who followed me!!”
“What are you talking about? A certain force of attraction just pulled me in.”
“What kind of bullshit is that!!”
Ugh, so noisy.
Honestly, was there any reason for me to let him live?
If you let guys like this escape, they either come back stronger later or snitch to their backers, leading to one of those frustratingly slow plot developments where my information gets leaked.
I’m not some pushover protagonist, so I don’t leave any seeds of future trouble.
“Ah, whatever~”
“What does that m—…”
The man’s words were cut short.
Because his head was now rolling on the ground.
Thud. His body slumped forward.
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
“?”
The sudden level-up made me question it.
I thought of my status, and the information window I had seen just a few hours ago appeared before my eyes.
[ Information ]
Name: Luke
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Grade: None
Mana: 0 / 0
Level: 16
[ Skills ]
Inventory (F)
[ Stats ]
Strength: 15
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 0
Stamina: 10
Stat Points: 1
I checked, thinking it might be a bug, but I had really leveled up.
“Wow, you can level up by killing people?”
I briefly wondered if I could find some dark guild and commit mass murder for an awesome grind.
But seeing as I only gained one level after killing two people, the efficiency was abysmal.
It would be more efficient to just hunt a single monster in that time.
I pushed the status window aside and rummaged through the corpse’s pockets.
“Ooh, sweet.”
There were exactly two items on the body.
One was the pouch of money the deceased had mentioned when he was alive.
The other was an unknown key.
“I thought it’d be sweet, but it’s not that much.”
The money pouch contained two silver coins.
I immediately transferred them to my own pouch, put it in my inventory, and held onto the key since I didn't know what it was for.
Still not satisfied, I put the sword the corpse had been wearing into my inventory as well.
Maybe I could sell it at a blacksmith or a general store later for a few more coins.
Now that I had looted everything, I was back to square one.
“…Excuse me.”
I returned to where the carriage was and was looting the first body I killed when I heard a voice from behind me and turned my head.
Standing behind me was a woman with indigo hair and silver eyes, her hands and feet bound in cuffs and shackles.
‘A beastkin!’
Something I’d never see on Earth was standing right before my eyes!
With ears and a tail the same color as her hair, she was unmistakably a beastkin.
Moreover, she was beautiful, making me once again marvel at the average looks in this other world.
“Thank you for saving us.”
It wasn’t like I intended to save them.
Come to think of it, I came here because I heard a scream.
I had completely forgotten my original purpose while shaking down that unlucky Golden Goblin.
“Ah, yeah.”
Now that I’ve saved them, they’ll probably go on their way.
I should get back to looting this corpse.
“Um… Did those men happen to have a key?”
What? How did she know?
“I found one, why?”
“That’s the key to the cuffs and shackles we’re wearing…”
Ah, what the… I thought it was a key to some hidden treasure chest.
What a mood killer.
I took out the key I had put in my pocket.
“Here.”
“…Um, our hands are tied.”
Why does she want so much? She could just use her mouth.
With no other choice, I used the key to unlock the cuffs and shackles of the beastkin woman in front of me.
As the cuffs and shackles fell to the ground, she seemed delighted to have her hands and feet back, hopping in place a few times.
“You can handle the rest.”
I handed her the key, and she began to free the other women.
‘Now that I see it, this wasn’t self-defense, it was a lesson well taught.’
Seeing that there were both beastkin and humans mixed together, they must have been slaves.
As far as I knew, slavery was forbidden in this world, but there are always those who do what they’re told not to.
The kind of people who, even when something is legally impossible, will find a loophole to break the law anyway.
It seems they were criminals from the start, so there was no need for me to claim self-defense after killing them.
Right after all the women were freed from their restraints, they approached me and expressed their gratitude.
“”Thank you for saving us.””
“Ah, yeah.”
I gave them a cursory reply. Now that the bodies were looted, I was about to head back to the Empire when…
“Excuse me.”
“Yes?”
“Do you happen to know the way to the Empire?”
I remembered the fact that I was lost.