Chapter 19: The Price of Ignorance (5)

Chapter 19: The Price of Ignorance (5)

Sometimes, when playing games, one would come across maps where NPCs and monsters coexisted.

In the original Legend of Heroes, the ‘Slums’ were one such place where pickpocket NPCs coexisted with humanoid mobs called Pickpockets. There were too few mobs there to call it a hunting ground but too many to call it a safe zone.

You might ask me why I was bringing that up.

“Uargh!”

“Your courage is commendable.”

Unlike in the original, no words floated above the characters’ heads, so it wasn’t easy to tell whether they were mobs or NPCs. Daaamn it.

I approached him thinking that he was an NPC and almost got pickpocketed.

“There are some things God absolutely forbids. One of them is theft.”

On another note, the Inquisitor was in a bitter mood while we were walking through the slums... I could see why.

It seemed our sheltered kimchi dumpling felt rather uncomfortable meeting people who violated the word of God.

“Shit, why am I so unlucky...?”

The person who’d just tried slipping his hand into my waist pocket and been kicked by me in the process curled up and hurled some abusive language our way. As a result, the Inquisitor’s expression turned cold, and she took out her mace.

“Those who steal should have their hands—”

“Let’s keep it at that, Inquisitor.”

“Huh?”

“It isn’t bad to follow doctrines and rules, but one doesn’t have to do that at every moment of their life.”

“But that person is a sinner.”

“It’s sometimes necessary to show mercy, don’t you think?”

“...show mercy?”

“Yes, mercy.”

“...”

Even after listening to the Archmage’s words, the Inquisitor didn’t quite seem to understand what he meant. One could clearly see her straightforwardness through her ignorance.

Well, not that it mattered. It wasn’t anything I really cared about.

“We heard the number of pickpockets has decreased a lot these days. Is that true?”

I felt he would be classified as a mob, given that he tried to pickpocket me, but I asked him just in case. Unlike in the original, where these people were classified as monsters, they might have been promoted to just hostile NPCs. Or this might also be part of the plot: If you managed to catch one, you could interrogate them, and if you let them slip, you had to chase them. That could be possible.

If that weren’t the case, I would just deal with it when the time came.

“Wh-what are you talking about?”

Why was he being so uncooperative?

“I won’t ask you twice.”

Considering what the Inquisitor just wanted to do, it seemed those who committed theft would have their hands cut off. Well, it would be an effective way to get information.

I took out my Longsword without any hesitation. The Archmage, who had just managed to calm down the Inquisitor, balked, but I didn’t care.

“Answer or lose your hand.”

I gently stepped on the pickpocket’s chest with my foot and moved the tip of my sword toward his wrist.

The beautiful sunlight highlighted the hasty movements of his Adam's apple.

“Eek! I-I don’t know! It’s true that our territory has become wider, but...!”

“In detail. Why has it become wider?”

“S-some pickpockets that used to be here just vacated the area. Th-that’s all.”

“Their whereabouts?”

“I don’t know. It isn’t even that strange for one or two people to suddenly go into hiding around these parts, to begin with!”



「❖ Ominous Sign

∎ Talk to pickpockets: 1 / ??

∎ Talk to beggars: 0 / ??」



He didn't know anything. As soon as I reached that conclusion, the count in my Quest Window went up.

Since there was no limit to the number of people I had to talk to, it meant I should speak with as many as I could until I got the information I needed.

In addition, I found out I could get information from these mobs, who may or may not be just hostile NPCs.

“Is there anyone who knows more about this than you?”

Ah, but I still had to ask him one more question.

“K-King Hound might know. All pickpockets of this district have to give him part of their money.”

“Location.”

“Wh-what?”

“Location.”

Kuuuh. I could even ask him things like that? Aside from him not giving me the answer I wanted, interrogating others was quite fun.

I was currently experiencing this exhilarating pleasure from being able to interrogate that guy in a cold voice, roleplaying as my character. In other games, one could only ask questions through given options, but it was possible here to ask whatever I wanted however I wanted, so I was having a lot of fun.

Of course, I wasn’t confident that my questions were as precise as when I had keywords.

“If I tell you, I’ll die!”

“I’ll cut off your hand then.”

“Damn it!”

The pickpocket NPC was wriggling about as if trying to resist, but my foot, still pressing down on his chest, was much stronger than him.

And, drunk on the pleasure of freely interrogating this NPC while fully immersed in my character, my guilt was almost completely drowned out, enabling me to turn my blade toward his wrist without blinking an eye.

Unlike a tongue, cutting off a hand wasn’t as disgusting—it was common during monster hunts—so I had even fewer qualms with it.

“Aah, shit, shitshit...”

I wasn’t sure I could cut it off with a single stroke. However, if I scratched the sword over the floor, its durability would decrease.

It would be better if I stabbed it first. I raised the arm with the sword above my head, aiming to stab into the middle of his wrist and then cut it off.

“I’ll, I’ll tell you!”

And just when I was about to strike down with my sword, the NPC, with eyes shut tight, eventually gave up and raised his voice.

Stab!

I stabbed into the ground right next to his wrist.

“Guide me.”

“Shit, I just wanted to earn some money this morning...”

It seemed he had chosen me as his first target of the day.

Katchak.

“Don’t tell me... Sacrifices for Demons...?”

It seemed he could picture the worst-case scenario with just that testimony alone. Well, I had similar thoughts.

“What do you mean? What sacrifices?!”

“...It’s just a hypothesis. However...”

“The Temple would never do that!”

Tak.

Anyway, I put the dagger I was holding back into its sheath in my coat.

“There’s no word as useless as ‘never.’”

“...!”

By the way, that wasn’t necessarily something I just said in my roleplay, but something I had experienced multiple times in my life. There was nothing more unreliable than claiming something would never happen.

Still, I had to keep up my character, so I just mumbled some words, while touching my right arm. The gasp I heard from behind me was very satisfying to hear indeed.

“Does anyone know where they were taken?”

“Well, I don’t...”

When asking this question, using a tone so cold one might think my voice possessed by glacial winds, I immediately got an answer. I wondered what he actually knew, this guy. Well, all Quests were kind of like this, anyway.

“I-I know!”

Then I heard someone shouting from behind me. It was the pickpocket who had guided us all the way here.

I thought he ran away right away after bringing us here, but weirdly enough, he had waited. Was this also because of the plot?

“It’s not that I know exactly where they were taken, but I know some people who do... They saw the Demon come out. That’s the most important thing, right?”

He stuttered for a moment when my gaze fell on him, but he spoke firmly. My first impression of him was the worst, but I really liked this guy.

Creak, creak.

I turned my back to King Hound and walked toward him. Every time I stepped on the old wooden floorboards they gave off a weird sound, but that helped create this subtle atmosphere.

The one who had just shouted courageously now stepped back as he swallowed his saliva.

“Wh-what?”

Did I make the mood too serious? But well, that was what it meant to roleplay.

“Guide me.”

“...Follow me.”

I followed after him. I was welcomed by those twisted alleyways once more.

“Let’s go, Inquisitor.”

“...Yes.”

Of course, the Archmage and the Inquisitor also followed after me.

* * *

“The place I’m taking you to now is the roughest back alley in the slums.”

After we passed a few back alleys, the pickpocket turned to speak to me. I almost flinched, because it was such an unexpected action.

“What I mean to say is... You shouldn’t take out that knife when we go in there. The people living there are quite sensitive. Especially that Inquisitor over there! They really hate people from the Temple.”

I was thankful for the advice, but that last part probably didn’t reach the right person because he was talking to me. However, the Archmage seemed to have heard him, so it should be fine.

“They are thieves too, tho—”

“Inquisitor.”

He looked at me.

“Please don’t put me in danger by doing something unnecessary! Alright? I-I’m just trying to help because I feel like it’s something important!”

Now that I looked at him a bit more, that pickpocket seemed to be a little tsundere. It reminded me of my cute little cousin, who was also a little bratty.

“Even if things go south, I’ll make sure you live, so stop complaining and guide me.”

“Hmm, you look pretty confident in your strength, but you would have to be at least a knight to survive in that place, you know?”

I see. Coincidentally, he was in the presence of a former knight.

I furrowed my brows as I looked at the pickpocket, still harping on about how I should keep it in. To be honest, I wanted to keep chatting, but the character I was playing didn’t like noisy people, according to his setting. As such, I had to express my feelings like that.

Rustle

“From this point on, you have to be careful. No matter what you do, don’t take out that knife...”

However, as soon as I reached the path he led us to, I reflexively put my hand on the handle of my dagger.



「A hostile existence has entered a radius of 20 m.」



“Shit, what are you doing?! Don’t pull out that knife!”

“If you don’t want me to pull it out, you should tell those guys to put down their blades first.”

I was so glad I’d leveled up [Detection]. Not only had the radius increased, but it even marked the targets and informed me of their location. This was only visible to me.

“What?”

“Come out.”

I cast my eyes on each of them, counting the marks only I could see, and carefully listened to their sounds of breathing.

“...Are there any people?”

It seemed neither the Archmage nor the Inquisitor could hear those breathing sounds.

That semi-tank Inquisitor aside, weren’t Archmages said to be good at perceiving things? Even without his class, he was also of the Shaggi race. Weren’t their ears supposed to be better than those of the other races?

“Do you want me to come to you?”

Why weren’t they coming out even though I already told them that I knew where they were?

“...Sigh.”

As soon as I put one of my hands into my coat, wondering if I should throw a dagger at them, someone stood up on the roof of one of those shacks.

It was the hostile being closest to me. His cat-like ears popped out of his dark green robe’s hood.

Given he had animal ears but the body of a human, he probably was a ‘Curety,’ right? If he were of the Shaggi race, the rest of his body would also look animalistic.

“I feel like I’ve heard of a guy like you.”

However, he somehow seemed kind of familiar to me, or was I just seeing things?

“Two-toned hair. A gauntlet on your right arm. An eyepatch over your right eye.”

Probably not.

His being a Curety aside, dark green hair and messy stubble on the chin weren’t exactly common features among thieves.

Not to mention that loud voice of his.

“You’re the Demon Knight, right?”

That guy looked exactly like the representative character of the Thief class.