Chapter 115: Visitors

Chapter 115: Visitors

The date was April first.

We were greeted by a group of visitors not long after we got up and to work.

「Good morning Miss Fran. I found a few people to fill that salesperson job you mentioned.」

Colbert had brought with him a group of three female adventurers.

「Hello.」

「Nice to meet you.」

「’Sup」

None of the three seemed to make light of Fran despite her being a child. They all bowed as they greeted her in the manner an adventurer normally would when associating with an employer.

「These guys are all a part of The Scarlet Maidens, a D ranked party.」

_______________________________________________________________

General Information

Name: Judith

Age: 24

Race: Human

Job: Soldier

State: Normal

Status Level: 21/99

HP: 118

MP: 103

STR: 61

VIT: 55

AGI: 60

INT: 61

MGC: 41

DEX: 40

Skills

Flame Resistance: Lv 1

Crisis Detection: Lv 1

Sword Techniques: Lv 2

Sword Arts: Lv 4

Herculean Strength: Lv 1

Shield Arts: Lv 3

Commerce: Lv 2

Cooking: Lv 3

Vigour Manipulation

Titles

None

Equipment

Black Steel Shortsword

Spirit Tree Wood Buckler

Iron Ant’s Helmet

Iron Ant’s Leggings

Trap Spider’s Cloak

Bracelet of Minor Poison Resist

_______________________________________________________________

General Information

Name: Maia

Age: 23

Race: Half Beastman (Red Dog Tribe)

Job: Scout

State: Normal

Status Level: 23/99

HP: 93

MP: 95

STR: 41

VIT: 51

AGI: 69

INT: 60

MGC: 34

DEX: 60

Skills

Flame Resistance: Lv 1

Bow Arts: Lv 3

Presence Detection: Lv 3

Negotiation: Lv 2

Shortsword Arts: Lv 2

Flexibility: Lv 2

Arithmetic: Lv 3

Cooking: Lv 3

Trap Disarm: Lv 2

Trap Sense: Lv 2

Titles

None

Equipment

Toxic Rat’s Shortsword

Spirit Tree Wood Bow

Black Dogman’s Leather Armour

Black Dogman’s Cloak

Lesser Sub-dragon’s Shoes

Bracelet of Enhanced Detection

_______________________________________________________________

General Information

Name: Lydia

Age: 19

Race: Human

Job: Mage

State: Normal

Status Level: 20/99

I was thinking that he was going to do something suspicious, but he actually just ended up giving the door a knock.

「Who?」

Fran called out to the person whilst readying herself for whatever was to come.

「I know it’s a bit late, but I was hoping to ask a favour.」

「Favour?」

「Yes. I was hoping that you would be willing to hear me out about something.」

I was a bit curious as to what was going to happen, so I took a quick glance out the door’s peephole.

The dude standing outside looked like your typical textbook merchant. He didn’t even bear the slightest resemblance to the dirty sleazeball he really was. That is, appraising him informed me that he was a total scumbag.

His job was Swindler, and he had both the Intimidation and Falsehood skills. Yup, he was definitely as guilty as could be. He wasn’t all that strong or anything like that, but his skillset made it so that I’d probably end up saying yes if anyone was to ask me whether or not I found him difficult to deal with...

「What?」

「I would very much prefer if you let me inside.」

「Can’t tell me now?」

「I’d really like to discuss the topic at length if possible.」

I went over to the window and began peering outside as Fran continued to question the man. His supposed companions were hiding themselves within the night, but I managed to find them regardless. I had both presence detection and night vision, so I more or less saw them as clearly as I would’ve during the day.

The conclusion? They were pretty much all just small fry. Our enemies were comprised of a group of burglars alongside a single Lv 25 assassin.

In other words, our assailants were villains that the world would be better off without. I was more or less already completely sure of the fact that they wanted to attack us. In fact, they were technically already in the process of doing so given that they were trying their best to surround the place. We could probably already claim self defense even if we jumped into the crowd and busted them all up before letting them actually try something. We didn’t even need to keep them around seeing as how the swindler dude could probably tell us everything we wanted to know.

『We’d probably end up with a mess on our hands if we let him get away.』

And so, I decided to just casually start by getting rid of the people surrounding us.

『Fran, let him in so he can’t get away. I’ll dispose of all his companions in the meantime.』

「Nn. Got it.」

「Thank you very much for your understanding!」

「Come in.」

「Don’t mind if I do.」

Urushi circled around the swindler and blocked off the exit the moment after he stepped through it. The wolf was currently in his mini mode, so he didn’t look nearly as intimidating. Even so, the swindler basically had no capacity for combat, so seeing the “dog” seemed to worry him a bit. Naturally, he didn’t go as far as to react by changing his expression, but I did catch him throwing Urushi a quick sidelong glance.

「Hahaha, that’s a cute little doggy you have there.」

「Nn.」

Fran promptly locked the door as she responded in order to pressure the swindler even further.

I, on the other hand left the building before he so much as had the chance to see me. I used Short Jump to instantly teleport behind the assassin. I then cast Silence, lopped his head off and shoved his corpse inside the dimensional storage. The whole thing had gone much more smoothly than I’d initially anticipated. He had Crisis Detection, so I figured he might be able to react to me, but I managed to dispose of him before the skill even went off.

I picked up the pace and began to repeat my prior actions. I had to be quick about it. The burglars had presence detection, so they would eventually realize that their allies were being picked off.

However, in the end, weaklings were weakings. Four of six assailants died before any of them even noticed that something was off. The last two didn’t seem to have the capacity to immediately figure out what to do, so they too soon fell to my blade.

After finishing them all off, I teleported back into the building. Specifically, I ended up choosing to go to where the storefront was in order to avoid being seen by the swindler.

「—is what I would like to procure.」

My timing turned out to be pretty good. The swindler had just so happened to start getting down to business to moment I went back inside.

「Potion box?」

「Yes. I would like to procure from you the potion box you picked up at the pirate’s hideout.」

「What?」

「There’s no point in feigning ignorance. I’ve already had the matter investigated. Would you mind selling it to me for ten thousand Golde?」

Oh come on dude. Aren’t you being a little too stingy? There was over a million Golde’s worth of stuff in there you know? And you’re trying to get it for just ten thousand? Seriously? Come on...

I couldn’t tell if he was looking down on her or just planning to get his hands on the thing through some sort of less than decent method.

Given that he had his subordinates surround the building, I’d say it was more likely than not the latter.

「Don’t know what you’re talking about.」

「As I said just a few moments earlier, I’ve already had the matter investigated, and so, there is no point feigning ignorance.」

「No idea what you’re talking about.」

「Sigh... how obstinate. Taking the offer would have been to your benefit.」

The atmosphere around the man suddenly changed from that of a merchant to a much more intimidating air as he activated his skill.

「Refuse to talk anymore. Leave.」

「I won’t be leaving without the potion box.」

He’s pretty much kicked Intimidation into full throttle. Any normal girl would’ve already been scared out of her wits by now.

「Already said don’t know what you’re talking about. Mentally deficient?」

「Don’t get cocky now, little girl... You’re just a D ranked adventurer. You won’t get away with just a few scratches if you dare disobey us.」

The man merchant like mask finally shattered in its entirety.

「That’s my line. Mere swindler. Shouldn’t be cocky.」

「I’ll make you regret those words, girl!」

The man turned towards the exit whilst making his declaration. He was probably going to go order his subordinates to attack, but it obviously wasn’t going to happen. The card he was trying to play was the one he’d thrown away the moment he entered the building.

「Growl.」

「Oi, what’re you trying to pull here?」

「No escaping. Won’t let you get away.」

「Did you really think that my subordinates would just sit there if I didn’t end up returning to them?」

「Will allow you to call them. Try it.」

「Very well then! Hey! It’s time for work you bastards!」

He shouted incredibly loudly. His subordinates definitely would’ve heard him had they still been alive. It went without saying that he assumed they were, so he ending up standing there for a few moments whilst awaiting their arrival.

He waited and waited, but not a single one responded to his calls.

「Why aren’t they...」

「Men outside dealt with. By Master.」

「Impossible! You had a companion!? That wasn’t in the reports at all!」

We then used lightning magic in order to paralyze the swindler before tying him up and getting ready to make him tell us everything we wanted to know. It’d normally be pretty difficult to actually get information out of anyone with the Falsehood skill, but I just so happened to have the ability to render it completely invalid through the Principle of Falsehood.

「What are you planning?」

「Information. From where?」

「Why would I t-zzaazzjhakjazyhuazza!」

Fran gave sent a weak electric shock running through the man’s body, which in turn caused him to scream and convulse for a few seconds. This time around, we’d decided to go with a mix of electricity and Fran’s bare hands because I didn’t really want to have the kitchen all covered with blood.

「Haa... Haa...」

「Will ask again. Information about me. From where?」

「How would I k- zjlkahkjdfhjksdhfjkzzzzz!」

Fran made the shock last a few seconds longer this time around. She once again repeated the question, whilst also grinding one of his hands into the ground with her feet.

It took about an hour to get him to crack, but we did manage to get the now haggard looking, teary eye man to divulge everything he knew. Unfortunately, the process that led us there ended up getting his tears and drool all over the floor. Yeahhhh, I’ll probably have to clean that up later.

「To confirm. Working for alchemists?」

「Yes ma’am.」

Long story short, he was hired by an alchemist that went by the name Zerais. Apparently, said alchemist was a rogue that’d been expelled from the guild as a result of some sort of violation. He was currently working on illegal research, and was being funded by some sort of outside sponsor.

The potion box we’d picked up was originally something that Zerais had ordered. It ended up getting lost in shipment as a result of the pirates we’d “become friends” a few days back. Zerais was desperately looking for the potions within said box because they were extremely difficult to obtain.

We asked the swindler about Zerais’ precise location, but it turned out that he didn’t know about it because he wasn’t exactly what you’d call high up the chain. Someone else had ordered him to do this, and that was all. Luckily, we did at least manage to get him to tell us where one of his organisation’s bases of operation was.

Turned out it was the place Urushi had followed the hoodlum back to.

Huh, what’s up with that?

So the mansion or whatever was probably related to Barbra’s lord in some way. In other words, the building and whoever owned it had their feet dipped in both the world of stealing recipes from orphanages and the world of rogue alchemists Like, what the actual hell?

We’re going to need a bit more info before we can actually figure everything out. I really wanted to just break into the building, but that was pretty risky given that the residence was more likely than not ultimately related to some sort of noble.

「That’s everything I know! I swear it!」

「Nn.」

「Please, just let me go...」

Yeah no. That’s not happening.

I quickly put telekinesis to use and gave the man’s neck a good old one eighty degree twist.

『Welp. Looks like this whole thing’s just turned into one big ass troublesome mess.』