A Gift for the Welcome
Having finished putting the house in order, I climbed back into the vehicle as planned, ready to survey the border zone that abutted the west.
"Keep hold of it so you can unbuckle the moment I give the signal."
"How thrilling."
"Haa…"
She let out a sigh, pressed the pedal, and the stationary car slowly rolled forward.
"Priest."
"Go ahead."
Watching the surroundings with a sharp gaze she rarely showed, she carefully opened her mouth.
"You've shown a particular interest in the Western Slum. Is there a special reason?"
"How does it look to you, Jamie?"
"I couldn't say. Honestly, for the first few weeks I spent with you, Priest, I felt like I was almost grasping something — and then not."
I didn't rush her, waiting calmly for her to continue.
"But when you freely offered Nectar to the woman named Vita and to Boss Coltech's wife, I became certain. That for someone like me, figuring out what kind of person you are is impossible."
"In short, I'm a peculiar human being."
"I won't deny it."
She didn't smile the way she usually did. But that change hadn't come from any shift in how she treated me. If it had, she wouldn't have played along with my jokes in the first place.
"The reason I'm interested in the Western Slum is that someone who will take care of my retirement lives there."
"Retirement, sir?"
"Yes. Retirement."
My goal is to live long and lean. To do that, I first need to survive intact until this dimension's story reaches its final act.
The best option would be to slip down to some quiet countryside and pass the time as if I barely exist — but I have my reasons for not choosing that path.
Before I received the Benefit Bank and Shop, a woman who concealed her identity passed me the major settings and knowledge of this dimension. And among that knowledge was the configuration of the dungeon beneath the labyrinth city.
Surprisingly, the sprawling underground dungeon maze of the labyrinth city all converges on a single point. At that terminus, a serpent that swallows everything is sealed — that was the setting.
Swallows everything. At a glance, isn't that the final boss?
And in cases like this, nine times out of ten, some individual or organization is already working to break that serpent's seal — a painfully obvious setup.
I'd been told that Possessors would start pouring in earnest from next year, so I needed to prepare means of protecting myself from every possible variable before then.
And the most powerful among the means I'd chosen currently resides in Oracle's Western Slum. Of course, it wasn't that I had no interest in the slums themselves — but that alone was never why I'd planted my roots here.
"Is this being significant enough that you need to go through all this trouble, Priest?"
"This is purely my personal opinion, but I've judged it more than worth the effort. Of course, I could just go find them myself."
"Then why don't you?"
"I'm the one who needs them more, yes — which is exactly why they need to come to me, if the scales are going to balance."
"Hmm."
Jamie furrowed even her brow — something she rarely did — and made a small hum, clearly curious about the being I was describing. But no amount of humming would tell her who it was.
According to the knowledge I'd received, that being was quite old.
If I had to pick someone who might know, Benjamin would be the likeliest candidate.
"So your plan to mess with the organization distributing the drugs is also work aimed at reeling that being in."
"More or less."
If I had to put a finer point on it, that being was one of the junkies receiving drugs from the organization. The difference from other addicts was that they received every convenience and every dose free of charge.
Come to think of it, Benjamin would know — and so would the bosses of the other districts.
Given Benjamin's personality, he was never the type to leave junkies freeloading off his territory alone. The fact that he'd stopped at carving out a single district for them made it hard not to conclude he knew about this being.
"Just around that corner."
"Looks that way."
Even from the atmosphere outside the window, you could tell we were nearing the border zone — the street was a complete mess and then some.
The sun was out in full, yet somehow the street still looked gloomy. And not just in the alleys — right out on the open street, people were openly sticking what looked like syringes into their arms, or clamping something between their lips and puffing out thick white smoke.
"Good thing we came by car."
"I'm grateful you're saying so even now."
At Jamie's small sigh, I gave her shoulder a light pat.
If I hadn't taken her suggestion and we'd walked instead, it wouldn't have been merely inconvenient — things would have gotten thoroughly chaotic.
Fear and terror are emotions that only show up in people whose brains are still working properly. The junkies sprawled across that street, though — you didn't need to check to know something was wrong with their heads. It was written all over their behavior.
Crack!
Somewhere, a stone cracked against the rear window.
"Haa."
Jamie exhaled a deeper sigh than before, and that became the signal — from every direction, objects large and small came flying to hammer the car.
"Doesn't look like an attack. More like brats throwing things because someone else started and it looked fun."
"Exactly."
The street trash who didn't look like they had a single normal person among them grabbed anything within reach, hurled it our way, and cackled at each other.
"Jamie."
"…Please hold back."
"I haven't said anything yet."
"Weren't you about to ask for ammunition?"
"I'll hold back, then."
I suddenly wondered whether putting holes between those pieces of trash's eyes would make them giggle that it was fun too, and nearly tested it — but the bodyguard responsible for my safety had asked me to hold back, so hold back I would.
Thud!
Clunk! Rattle!
A few of the trash who jumped into our path got hit and we bounced over them — and at last we arrived near the point where the Western Slum's border met ours.
"The west is on the wealthier side, I see."
"Drugs have considerable demand not only in the shadows but in the light as well, as I understand it."
Wherever humans live, it's always the same.
"More importantly, Jamie—"
"Bite your tongue and keep your mouth shut."
The moment those words left her mouth, gender-indeterminate masked figures standing around an iron fence crackling with blue current swung the muzzles of the submachine guns hanging from their necks toward us—
Tat! Tat-tat-tat!
Dozens of rounds hammered the glass and the body of the car.
"Isn't this Mr. Benjamin's territory?"
"Explanations later."
A faint crack spidered across the window, but Jamie calmly spun the car around and pulled us out of the hail of bullets' range.
"Are we heading back now?"
"Yes."
Faced with the firm look in her eyes that said she wouldn't bend this time, I hesitated a moment — then opened the Benefit Shop.
"…You're not going to stop me?"
Fortunately confirming the item I wanted was listed as a product, I closed the shop and answered Jamie, who was watching for my reaction.
"If Jamie, who's responsible for my safety, has judged that we need to turn back, then that's how it is. If there were no need, you'd have stopped somewhere quiet for a moment."
"……."
She parted her lips toward me for a moment, then looked forward again and gripped the wheel tight.
After we'd cleared a few more alleys and entered safer ground, Jamie spoke again.
"Thank you for trusting me."
"Jamie. I keep you at my side because I've judged that I can trust you."
"So it wasn't simply for hugging purposes?"
"We'll call that a secondary benefit."
Only then did Jamie's stiff mouth corners draw a soft arc again.
Creak.
As we parked in front of the house, a creaking sound we didn't normally hear came from somewhere — a bullet must have lodged somewhere it shouldn't.
"Priest. Would you wait a moment?"
"Of course."
Jamie got out first and began speaking to two organization members who had started radiating a menacing aura.
After a few words, the members who'd been guarding the materials returned to their posts, and Jamie came around to the passenger side and opened the door.
"Allow me to escort you."
I stepped out and returned with her to my temporary nest.
We hung up our coats, pulled cool water from the kitchen, and wet our throats. Then we returned to the living room and sat on the sofa.
"So why did they open fire?"
"They take advantage of the fact that their affiliation can't be precisely identified — if it looks worth shooting at, they just open up. There's no other reason. Even if they misjudge the angle and get killed for it, the other side can just claim some drug-soaked lunatics did it on their own and wash their hands of it."
"I see."
Jamie's simple explanation let me reconfirm just how gentlemanly a ruler Benjamin was.
"So as much as possible—"
Thump.
Something dropped onto my thigh and rolled to the floor — a bright red stick — and Jamie, who'd been about to say something, fell silent as her eyes followed it.
Thud. Thump.
Item Purchased
Dynamite Stick
Quantity: Multiple
Each time I pressed the purchase button, more bright red sticks tumbled to the floor and multiplied.
"Priest?"
"A return gift for the welcome just now."
"A gift…?"
Jamie reached out and picked up one of the red sticks that had rolled onto the floor. The only slightly unusual detail was the long fuse attached to the head of the stick, designed to burn cleanly.