Chapter 128.2

128 Part 2

“So?”

“It’s no use. There’s no signal here.”

“…I see.”

“Then how about we tear this wall down and get out?”

Doraneko smiled as she struck a fighting pose.

Her smile was truly beautiful, but Haruki couldn’t calm down at all.

She was overflowing with murderous intent.

Kagemitsu went pale after seeing Doraneko like that.

“Stop it. That’s definitely not a good idea.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t huh? me. Sure, if I could establish that they were unrightfully keeping us here, we could tear this whole place down to get away and claim it was in legitimate self-defense. But the other party is the Self-Defense Force. They are basically a small army who acts directly under the local government and have the duty to maintain public order. In that regard, they are weaker than the police, but certainly stronger than adventurers.”

The proof of that was that in case of an emergency, all adventurers would fall under the command of the local Self-Defense Force.

The Self-Defense Force was legally entitled to restrain adventurers.

Of course, these entitlements would apply only during certain circumstances.

In any case, it wasn’t a good idea to force their way out of there.

They were adventurers, not legal experts. By resorting to brute force, they risked falling into the pitfalls of the law.

“This is just a guess, but maybe Yoshioka is going for the client’s neck? That’s the only thing I can think could explain his actions…”

“Do you know who the client is, Kagemitsu?”

Haruki, who had remained silent up until that point, softly cut into their conversation.

Kagemitsu nodded slightly.

“It’s the mayor.”

“…Ah.”

I see.

If the mayor was the client, then Yoshioka’s behaviour could be easily explained.

“Did you notice something, Karaboshi?”

“Yeah. Yoshioka’s been trying to make us angry all this time, right? You probably noticed that by now, but it was all a trap.”

The only ones to nod at Haruki’s words were Kagemitsu and Yoshi.

Van, Becky, Doraneko, and Karen had their eyes opened wide.

(…H-Huh?)

Haruki was a bit shaken, but then decided to let it slide.

“Yoshioka wanted to create a situation where adventurers would get angry and attack the Self-Defense Force. Why do you hire these criminals to do this job when you already have the Self-Defense Force? He was trying to prove this point to the mayor.”

“It’s just as Air said. This request was different from the usual government office requests in that not much time passed between the discovery of the unique-species monster and the request being made. Instead of getting it approved by his congress, the mayor tried to hire adventurers at his own discretion.

Now, if an adventurer hired by the mayor were to assault the Self-Defense Force or destroy their facilities, the mayor would not be able to avoid being found liable for any of those incidents.”

Kagemitsu closed his speech by adding “This is all just speculation for now, though.”

If Haruki and the others were to dare to be on the offensive, it would put their client in quite a predicament.

Haruki and the others were just soldiers that had to carry out their client’s request, and should never give their client any trouble.

Putting their client in a predicament like that could have a considerable impact in future adventurer activities.

“An adventurer who can fulfill the request, but has inconvenienced their client in the past.”

Who would hire such an adventurer?

“So for now, the best thing we can do is be quiet and just relax in this room. …For now, at least.”

As he said that last part, Kagemitsu winked at Van.

The only men Haruki had ever seen winking at others were idols. However, for Kagemitsu, it was starting to look strangely appropriate.

This is the power of a strong presence!

A strong jealousy began to boil up from the bottom of Haruki’s heart.

“By the way, Kagemitsu. What do you think about the skill of this Self-Defense Force?”

“…Rather low, to be honest. Though they seem to be strong enough to take down Mt. Hakodate’s Dungeon Lord.”

“Do you think they can defeat the unique-species?”

“Don’t know. We haven’t been able to even take a look at the unique-species ourselves.”

“I see.”

Haruki slightly dropped his shoulders.

Kagemitsu’s guess had been the same as his own.

Since none of them knew how strong that unique-species monster was, they couldn’t tell if the Self-Defense Force could win or not. All they could do was to wait and see.

Basically, Haruki planned to follow Kagemitsu’s course of action.

But that was as long as the Self-Defense Force was out of harm’s way.

He was thinking of getting out of there if the Self-Defense Force were likely to get hurt.

“And I wanted to check how strong that unique-species monster really was, if possible…”

“Well, it’s not impossible.”

“Huh?”

“Becky.”

“…It’s not going to be that precise, you know?”

Becky sighed loudly with a “Haaaaah.”

Haruki didn’t have the slightest idea of what she was going to do.

But no one seemed to be planning to explain anytime soon. He was sure of that because of the slightly stiff atmosphere that was building up.

Perhaps she was going to use that ability that she used in Asahikawa to know how many monsters were there during the “Monster Hunting Contest”.

Haruki didn’t know what kind of ability it was.

However, if it was similar to his “Detection”, there was a chance she could roughly tell how strong an opponent was.

The “Detection” skill senses the signs of monsters through touch, hearing, and the sensation that something was out of place.

By sharpening that power to its limits, it would be possible to judge a monster’s strength to some extent without the need of looking at it.

“…Hmm. I think I got it, more or less.”

After touching her glasses with her hand for about a minute with her eyes closed, Becky took a breath as she was exhausted.