Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Midnight Negotiations
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“By any chance, do you know a woman named Luna?”
The guards who stopped me on the street asked that. Just moments ago, I’d been terrified, wondering if they were about to inspect me for suspicious behavior or arrest me for some crime I didn’t even know I’d committed.
Hearing Luna’s name come from the guards’ mouths left me utterly stunned.
“Luna? Pink hair?”
“That’s right. Bronze-tier adventurer with the Mars Guild in Sodomora. Word is, she’s partied up with you, a Samaritan named Hassan?”
“Yeah, that’s true. But what’s this all about…?”
“No time to explain. You’ll need to come with us to the guard station for now.”
Under what I couldn’t tell was an escort or surveillance by the armed guards, I headed toward the guard station in the west gate district.
Luna was the last person I’d expect to have any connection to these soldiers. So why was her name on their lips?
I tried asking a few times, but every time I opened my mouth, they just brushed me off with, “Check at the station for the details.”
For a moment, I worried I’d fallen into some bizarre trap disguised as guards—but soon enough, we arrived at the station.
The guard station felt like a local precinct, with outposts set up at key spots like the west gate, north gate, and south gate. Their duties were similar too.
Creak, clank—.
Swoosh—.
As I pushed open the iron door to the office, a bunch of rough-looking muscleheads turned their gazes toward me while sorting through armor and weapons. One of them asked the guard who’d brought me.
“This the guy?”
“Samaritan. Found him in front of the library and brought him in. What’s the victim up to now?”
“Gave her some food and she calmed down. Cost me all my jerky I was saving for drinks, though.”
The guard nodded and jerked his chin toward a set of iron bars in one corner of the office.
I followed his gesture with my eyes. Inside sat a small, petite figure curled up tight against the cold-looking wall.
Squatting on the floor with her knees pulled up to her chest, she looked like a giant egg or ball. But that distinctive pink twintail was a welcome sight to my eyes now.
“Luna! What the hell are you doing in there!”
Luna, locked in a jail cell? It was so out of nowhere that I couldn’t help yelling in shock. Hearing my voice, she slowly lifted her head.
“…Hassan?”
“Yeah, it’s me! What are you doing in there? Why are you locked up?”
“Hassan! L-Listen! I got scammed! They took every last coin I had! I’m broke now!”
Her face flushed bright red, she shouted louder than I’d ever heard. All her remaining money—scammed? What?
Anyway, I’d never seen Luna this angry before. Even huddled in the cell, remembering whatever happened, she huffed and puffed like she couldn’t hold it in.
“…Deer! Watch out for the deer!”
I tore my eyes from the agitated Luna and couldn’t help asking the guards what the hell was going on.
“…Uh, sirs. Why is Luna locked in there?”
“She was too worked up, so we isolated her till she cools off. Best we’ve got in the office is these bars.”
“But still, treating a person like a criminal?”
“No idea where that tiny thing gets her strength. Took a hell of a time to hold her back. She seems calmer now, though. Hey, buddy, why don’t you go in and talk her down?”
Clank, clank—.
“Eek!”
As the guard moved to unlock the cell door, Luna started trembling violently again, like she was terrified.
It was pitiful and a bit funny, like watching an abandoned pet turn feral. Real pet abandonment is a brutal crime, though.
Anyway, I carefully squeezed through the open cell door.
“Hey, what happened?”
“Th-They took the money and ran…!”
“What? What do you mean? Who took your money and bolted?”
“A d-deer grabbed my five silvers and ran off!”
A deer took her five silvers? Shit, the story just kept getting more tangled the more I heard.
Luna and I were both too riled up to explain or understand properly.
So I figured I needed to calm her down first. I patted her back, and with my other hand, gently placed my palm on her to check her status.
Swoosh, fondle.
Touching her tiny wrist brought up the text.
『Name: Luna Noxdoty Lv. 8
Strength: 2
Agility: 5
Vitality: 1
Aura: Flailing >> Gluttony Enthusiast
Status: Nyx's Curse >> Erebos's Curse >> Mild Apoplexy』
Apoplexy?
Among the curses, this new “Mild Apoplexy” stuck out to me. That must be why she was so worked up.
I pressed my thumb firmly on the dark spot above her pinky fingernail—about 2cm up, the little rush point.
I remembered that pressing there helps when someone’s startled or upset.
It’d be great if she had a calming pill, but no need—Luna suddenly shuddered violently, like someone shaking off the cold.
“Ugh…! Ah…!”
『Healed Luna Noxdoty's Mild Apoplexy.』
『Karma Value +10』
『Current Karma Value: +67』
Oh, it worked.
“Phew….”
I asked Luna, who let out a big sigh.
“Better? Calmed down now?”
“…F-First, I need to take care of some business….”
* * *
So, that morning.
After we parted ways, Luna said she’d spent the day cleaning and fixing up the cabin that appeared for her.
Even just clearing and purifying a shed abandoned for over a decade took half a day, apparently.
“Cleaning’s all done. Cleaning’s done, but there were so many holes in the walls and ceiling that bugged me. So I went to buy planks, but I didn’t have enough money….”
She paused, recalling it. We were sitting at a table in the corner of the office, talking quietly.
“I only had about five silvers left. I ran around trying to buy lumber, and wouldn’t you know it, some guy shows up offering pine planks for exactly five silvers.”
So Luna headed to the south gate, where a middle-aged man had a huge stack of planks, she said.
She usually stuck to Sodomora’s slums in the west gate area, so the south gate was unfamiliar territory.
The south gate faced a long stretch of forest, which made her suspicious but also hopeful for fresh-cut lumber.
Anyway, Luna and the seller left through Sodomora’s south gate and ventured deep into the woods together.
True to its name, Deer Forest, long-necked deer appeared here and there.
While she marveled at them, the deer suddenly swarmed around her, licking her palms, shoulders, and face with their tongues, acting all cute.
“B-But one of them bit my money pouch and ran! The guy bolted with it! They totally set me up—the deer and the man!”
Luna’s voice rose again, her excitement not fully gone.
Putting her story together: a man in cahoots with a deer lured her to a secluded spot, stole her money, and fled?
“Wait, a real deer did that?”
“I’m telling you! I chased it, but it was too fast. Lost all my money…. So I told the guards, and they locked me up.”
“This girl went berserk. Looks like a pretty spring maiden Kore, but she’s no ordinary one. Must be that Bronze-tier adventurer rep.”
“Ah.”
I could kind of see how the worked-up Luna ended up in the cell.
As I racked my brain for something to say, feeling bad for her, the guard in the deep-bronze helmet who’d been listening spoke up.
“Samaritan Hassan. This seems tied to the South Gate Deer Scammers. We hear complaints now and then about deer snatching pouches.”
Fuck, Deer Scammers? What fresh hell is this? This bizarre world must run classes on creative ways for thugs to screw people over.
Anyway, as I mulled that, the guard continued.
“Total damages from that bastard exceed a hundred silvers. Over a hundred makes it a major crime. But the slippery fucker’s too careful—no tail to grab. Hassan, they say you took down a lion barehanded…?”
Lion? What lion—then I remembered dragging that witch Nemea’s massive cat from the underground stream. Yeah, that monster.
Looks like Malco blabbed everywhere, turning the cat into a lion in the stories.
“That’s, uh, complicated. Anyway, there’s a lot to it….”
I was about to explain to these law enforcers—I couldn’t lie to guards who catch criminals.
“If you can grab a lion by hand, a deer should be a cinch. How about it? Take the guard-issued quest to settle things with your party member and show some loyalty?”
“A quest?”
I blinked at the words “guard-issued quest.” Guilds aren’t the only ones issuing quests to adventurers.
Public security offices like city guards or temples often hand out individual quests too.
According to Elfriede’s crew, public quests pay crap and are high difficulty.
Temple ones especially force “volunteer” work out of faith, so the pay’s rock-bottom.
Sounds like forced labor for peanuts, but adventurers clamor for public or temple quests.
Why? Proves you’re a skilled adventurer worth your salt.
Plus, massive contribution points that boost your rank.
I’d summed it up as “low pay, high rank XP quests.”
Back in my slave days, I’d dreamed of becoming an adventurer who gets public quests like that.
Now that it was happening to me, it felt surreal, like it wasn’t real.
“What do you say? Do it or not? Bounty’s fifty silvers—a nice chunk of change.”
The bronze-helmet guy asked again, his chainmail rattling. Under the ding-shaped visor, tired blue eyes fixed on me steadily.
I hadn’t done shit wrong, but it was intimidating anyway. Guard stations have that aura that spooks even innocents.
Then the bronze-helmet guy added,
“Can’t budget much reward-wise, but nail this, and with the guild contribs, you’ll get plenty of chances to work with our West Gate Guards in the future.”
Sounded like success meant contrib points and a foot in the door with officialdom. No reason to turn that down.
Even without those perks.
“M-My money…. Deer….”
My companion Luna was this devastated. I couldn’t just sit idle.
Five silvers stolen? If it were me, I’d be screaming all night.
“Alright. Let’s do it.”
“Straight shooter, I like it. Here’s intel on the Deer Scammers and likely hideouts. Not sure your exact level, Samaritan, but watch your back.”
“Watch my back?”
“The scammer was a famous Bronze-tier adventurer once. Hunter too. Master at hiding tracks and presence. Probably uses some blessing to tame wild deer.”
Blessing holder, huh.
Yeah, gotta be careful.
[Author's Note]
Emraim-nim!!! Silmang-nim!!! Kadeom-nim!!! Heaven's Army-nim!!! Licorice Potion-nim!!! Vurgil-nim!!!
Calypso-nim!!! Thanks so much for the support coupons...!! Grateful to everyone who sent manuscript coupons too ㅠㅠ....
Here's a 3 in honor of that...!!!