“Thank you. Thanks to you, the damage was minimal.”
I put on an indifferent expression as I listened to the guards thank me.
“I just did what needed to be done.”
I then extended my foot toward the person who had just approached me.
The priest quickly Purified the curse clinging to the underside of my boots. The black substance vanished, making it seem like part of my boots slightly shrunk.
“The cause.”
Anyway, the goal of my character’s actions was never gratitude.
I looked over the area the other priests had just finished Purifying. The section of the wall they’d passed through was littered with the corpses of people and their things. They were the ones who’d been caught by the curse and died without a chance of getting saved.
“…Demon Worshipers, of course.”
Although I’d managed to save quite a few people, it was still just a handful compared to the total number of casualties.Feeling rather guilty for that, I rose from where I was seated.
With a higher vantage point, I could see the grim scene unfolding before me.
“Those damn Demon Worshipers.”
The most notable things in sight were the bodies of dead soldiers and adventurers lying at a checkpoint. Scattered around them were wooden crates and dozens of flasks that appeared to have once been their contents.
Seeing as they were all broken, the curse had probably been inside them.
“May God grant peace to these poor souls…”
A guard spoke a prayer as he collected the soldiers’ bodies. Everyone present lowered their heads in respect as well.
The air was heavy with reverence.
“…Does this happen often?”
“Not often, but it’s not that rare, either.”
The priest who’d prayed beside me gave me an answer.
“I’ve heard that several cities in the north also suffer from these kinds of attacks.”
He followed it up with some truly grim news. I hadn’t received any such news from the South, though.
I’d heard the battles at the Front Line there were especially intense, so I supposed they concentrated these types of attacks to the North.
“At least the damage this time was relatively small. We managed to stop it from entering the city, after all.”
Huh. Could this amount of damage really be called small? Had this stuff been transported into the city, there would’ve undeniably been much more damage, but calling this amount small just didn’t seem right.
“…The gates will probably remain closed for today. Maybe even tomorrow as well.”
I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the corpses placed in neat rows on the ground.
“Stay back!”
“But my goods…”
“Fall back! We will return your belongings after we’ve thoroughly inspected them!”
“Th-Then how long is that inspection? How long will the gates remain closed?”
“The gates will stay closed until the situation has been resolved!”
“Hold on, so when can we go in…?!”
“Stand down! We will provide you with further details at a later point!”
Unfortunately, this was just the beginning.
* * *
“What in the world is this?”
“…I have no excuses.”
“Is that all you have to say?”
A woman who was a head taller than the average Middle man stood up from her seat, unable to suppress her rage.
“If the investigation shows something to be a potential threat, crack down on it in advance to ensure those bastards don’t interfere with our business. How many times have I told you this? Huh? Haven’t I told you multiple times?!”
“Y-You have—”
“And yet you still couldn’t do that one thing? Huh? You couldn’t even drill that one thing in your subordinates’ heads, and now look at what’s happened!”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“Sorry? Sorry? Is that all you have to say to me? Is that all you could think of after all this time?”
The man was already staggering, but she didn’t let him off so lightly. Smack! Already barely remaining upright, he finally fell to the ground after another slap.
“Because of the trash you picked up, we had to shut down the checkpoint. So, what do you plan on doing now? How do you intend to compensate for the damage we’ve suffered and will continue to suffer because of the tighter inspections?”
Even waiting for him to get up was annoying. She grabbed the man by the collar and lifted him up.
Because of their height difference, the man’s toes barely touched the ground as he let out gasping breaths.
“I made it very clear that this operation is a matter of life and death for the trading company. I told you to handle this with extra care. And what did you do? How dare you? How dare you make this mess??”
Thud! And just as the man was about to take his final breath, she threw him to the floor. Her fluffy ash-blue hair bounced slightly with the motion.
“You chose that piece of trash, so now you will go out there and take responsibility by cleaning up this mess. Never let me see that damn face of yours again!”
“Yes!”
“Confiscate all his assets! I have to somehow make up for the damage he caused our trading company! Dock his salary, too!”
Finally, she kicked the man’s shin before kicking him out for good. She then bit one of her manicured fingernails in frustration.
She was so going to get in trouble for this. Worse still, she might even be told she was a disappointment. Her mind was filled with nothing but anxiety, rage, and insecurity.
“Damn it.”
With this incident, the position she’d been eyeing for so long was slipping further and further away. All because of her stupid subordinate.
“Aaargh!”
Was that idiot blind? How could he pick such utter trash like that?!
“Assistant! Demote that fool immediately after his job is done! I don’t need someone who can’t even educate his own subordinates!”
“Understood.”
There was no better method for venting anger than violence. Her face filled with annoyance, she flipped over the table in front of her.
The heavy table of solid wood crashed to the ground with a bang.
“Urgh, this is going to hurt…”
Of course, even at that moment, her mind was calculating how she could resolve this situation. Her anger aside, the cool pragmatism of a merchant forced her to focus on dealing with the crisis.
“…This is fine. I’ll take this chance to uproot all of Envy’s followers. Without their leader, they’ve lost all their strength anyway, so this much should be enough to compensate for their complacency.”
Jingle.
Hanging from her ear, a round jewel resembling a pearl sparkled in the light.
* * *
I stayed at the scene until evening, just in case something unforeseen—like a hidden Demon Contractor suddenly appearing—happened.
The Inquisitor had also arrived some time later, but we didn’t really talk much. To be exact, the Inquisitor seemed pretty eager to talk to me whenever she had a chance, but I ignored all of her signals.
Other than that, nothing happened.
No Demon Contractor appeared, and the dead were properly retrieved along with their belongings. The bodies of those presumed to be Demon Worshipers were also dealt with.
Furthermore, the gates remained closed, and those still outside wouldn’t be allowed entry until the next day. The only exceptions were those who’d witnessed and could recount the whole incident.
However, even they were treated like criminals under strict surveillance.
Knock, knock.
Anyway, since this wasn’t something I should intervene in, I decided just to head back.
I was a little curious about the current status of my gloves, though, so I stopped by Meister’s workshop on my way back to the inn.
Knock, knock.
But why wasn’t he opening the door? Did he get off work already?
I knocked on the door once more, but it didn’t seem like anyone was there, so I decided to give up. But then—Clink—that’s when the door finally opened.
“Perfect timing. I had something to tell you.”
This place must have an automatic door function. I stepped through the open door with no one else around and quietly closed it. Clang. Even though I’d tried to shut it as quietly as possible, it still made a rather loud sound that echoed through the room.
Tap, tap.
Meanwhile, Meister carefully put down the item he was holding after engraving something into it. His face looked significantly darker than it had just half a day ago.
“Let me just tell you this in advance. This isn’t my fault.”
However, those opening words made me incredibly uneasy. Our eyes met, his purple ones darting about nervously.
“Your glove is gone. Without a trace. Just like that.”
I furrowed my brows at that. My glove? Gone? Why?
“Again, I didn’t do anything. Well, it’s not like I didn’t do anything, but nothing that would make them disappear, at least.”
Immediately after, Meister offered me some hasty excuses, his pupils shifting slightly to the side, hinting that he did feel rather guilty.
Still, thinking a bit further, this really didn’t seem to be his fault. If it was just damaging my gloves, then sure, that could’ve happened, but making them disappear without a trace was a different matter entirely.
“Clarify what happened.”
“…First, I’ll explain what experiments I did on your glove.”
Still, I needed to hear him out to understand what had happened.
“I first wanted to analyze the materials. I wanted to determine whether it was made of leather or something similar. Surprisingly, it turned out to be perfectly normal leather. So, I next focused on figuring out why normal leather was regenerating like that. For that, I used this tool and…”
Fortunately, despite coming from a genius, Meister’s explanation was pretty easy to follow. Even a layman like me could understand his words to some extent.
However, I could only understand why he’d conducted certain experiments, not how they worked. It wasn’t surprising that it was difficult for me to understand, seeing as his experiments involved not just science but also the Arcane.
“What exactly happened when they disappeared?”
“It was almost the same as when the piece cut off from the glove disappeared. It seemed to just melt away.”
After finishing this sentence, Meister hastily added to his explanation.
“For your information, the experiment I was conducting back then shouldn’t have caused it to dissolve like that.”
On a different note, I felt a bit like an investor watching a struggling businessman failing to deliver satisfactory results.
Even though all I did was give Meister one of my gloves.
“I’m serious.”
But why had it vanished? It’s not like it was a bound item that automatically returned to its owner, right? Yeah, it wasn’t, right?
…Wait, a bound item?
As the sudden absurd possibility crossed my mind that it might actually be a bound item, I opened my Inventory at my waist.
「Half-Palm Leather Glove (Black, Left Hand)」
As expected, the glove was there.
“…I see. That’s what happened.”
I pulled it out with a weird mix of feelings. If I had to describe it, it was a blend of curiosity and anxiety about the origin of this equipment.
“…?”
Meister, his eyebrows raised when he saw me putting my hand in the pouch, soon widened his eyes.
“Why is it in there?”
I had no clue, either. I didn’t know it had that kind of function.
“Are you messing with me?”
“I have never done that.”
Fiddling with the glove in my hand, I tossed it onto Mesiter’s workbench.
“…You didn’t know about this either?”
“Yes.”
“How…?”
Meister was sharp enough not to let this misunderstanding drag on for too long.
I crossed my arms, leaving the other person to resolve this misunderstanding through simple deduction and begin entertaining other thoughts. My mind was also spinning.
“Okay. Looks like this will take a while.”
Meister appeared to have reached a conclusion. He removed his work clothes and put on his outdoor clothes that were hanging on one side of the workshop.
His thin but muscular arms, characteristic of the Sland tribe, were covered by the robes often worn by wizards. Judging by his expression, he was only wearing them to avoid a repeat of the event from earlier that day.
“Let’s go to the tavern. I think I need to hear more about how you just ‘accidentally’ got these gloves for my analysis.”
So, it seemed I had to explain this to him after all. I followed Meister, trying to suppress my worries.
Since I hadn’t had dinner anyway, I might as well eat something now. These thoughts were the only small consolation I had.
“Then, shall we get to it?”
At least it wasn’t me who’d be paying for dinner. Not that Meister was going to, either.
With that in mind, I didn’t hesitate to order more food. “No need to waste time here.” That was the moment when Meister started our conversation.
“First of all, where did you get this equipment? The Magic Tower? Or is it some sort of family heirloom?”
I wiped my mouth with a handkerchief—more food was coming, but the stuff around my mouth was quite annoying—and took a sip of water before looking straight at Meister.
“If you don’t want to tell me, then don’t. Spare me the whole ‘I came across it by chance’ shtick—”
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
“I just came to have it at some point.”
Hmm. Now that I thought about it, this excuse—amnesia—was quite versatile.
I folded the napkin, hiding the part stained with sauce, and leaned back in my chair. Tap, tap. Meister drummed his fingers on the table.
“…Why did you lose your memory?”
“Do you think I’d know that?”
“Fair enough. If you knew, we wouldn’t be doing this.”
Meister looked unusually serious as he put his hand over his mouth.
“So, is the only thing you’ve forgotten the moment you acquired this equipment?”
However, conversations with him required quite a bit of mental power to keep up with. It wasn’t like he was leaving out some words, but more like he was skipping over entire steps in reasoning.
Well, these gaps were still things I could fill in for, so I didn’t need to ask him about these things and risk looking fairly stupid.
I shook my head.
“Then it’s rather unlikely that obtaining the equipment is what caused your memory loss.”
Tap, tap. Meister kept drumming his fingers on the table, apparently a habit.
“Your food is here.”
The bouillabaisse and caponata I’d ordered had arrived.
Well, I called it bouillabaisse and caponata, but in reality, it was more like a simple fish soup and a vegetable dish with some sauce. It wasn’t as fancy as our modern version.
Still, it tasted pretty good, so I ordered more.
“Does every piece of your equipment have similar functions?”
“Yes.”
“That bag, too?”
I nodded slowly at the question as he pointed at my Inventory.
“And each piece has the same abilities as well?”
“…Only the bag has the added ability to store more items. Aside from that, yes, they’re the same.”
But just where had this equipment come from? Did it automatically materialize when I logged in? Or did this body have them beforehand?
The questions I had shoved aside, thinking they were things I couldn’t answer, started spinning around my head again. Beeeep. My ears rang slightly, everything around me growing muffled.
“So the reason you’ve been wearing it all this time is practicality, I take it?”
“Yes.”
…Still, it wasn’t like I hated the gear itself. I would have suffered a lot if not for it, so that was only natural.
“Well, if I had something that functional, I would wear it too, even if it meant putting up with some discomfort. Considering you’ve apparently been wearing them for quite some time, it doesn’t seem like they’re cursed or have any side effects.”
Meister’s affirmation also made me feel a lot better.
See? Anyone would want to wear these clothes.
I might think differently had I never worn them in the first place, but after unwittingly experiencing the plethora of conveniences they provided, how could I not?
____
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