Chapter 39
“Please enter here, sir.”
“Alright.”
The organization member who had been thrown by me bowed his head and stepped back. Naturally, I followed, but the place the man led me to was just a wall.
…What am I supposed to do here?
I looked around, but there was no visible entrance. It’s not like he told me to climb over the wall.
“…No way.”
I recalled the traps or key mechanisms that often appear in fantasy labyrinths. When I gently pushed the wall with my hand, it spun around like a revolving door.
Wow… So this was the entrance. It looked so seamless that I thought it was just a wall.
“…Who are you?”
A skinny man sitting in front of the door asked me.
“I came to make a deal. Where’s the item?”
“…Where’s the usual guy?”
“He had some business, so I came instead. Don’t worry, I’ve got the payment.”
I jingled the money pouch in front of the man, and he nodded. Good thing I had some money from the Saint.
“Go inside. If you talk to the boss, he’ll give you the item.”
“Alright, got it.”
…This is hard to act out. This stiff tone doesn’t suit me at all.
Looking closely, the man had the same symbol on the back of his hand. What does it mean? I’ll remember it and investigate later.
As I went inside as the man instructed, there were several men with the same symbol on their hands. Among them, a particularly large man noticed me and stood up.
“Did the errand boy change?”
“The usual guy had some business, so I’m filling in for a while. I’ll be coming for a while, so remember that.”
“…I see. As long as you brought the money, it doesn’t matter who the errand boy is.”
“Let me see the item first.”
“This errand boy is cautious.”
The burly man gestured to someone nearby to bring something. The man rummaged through a sack of barley and pulled out a hard, red stone, placing it on the table.
…That’s definitely the Transformational Stone.
“Then the payment…”
“Wait.”
“Is there a problem?”
There’s no problem. The Transformational Stone is real. What I want to know is something else.
Probably, the people here have been steadily trading the Transformational Stone with someone specific. The way they keep mentioning that the errand boy has changed makes it clear.
Then why hasn’t this been caught until now? Even the distribution information from the Temple didn’t mention that the barley sold here went to someone specific.
That means… they’ve been manipulating the records. It doesn’t make sense otherwise.
They’ve probably built trust with this organization supplying the Transformational Stone and have been trading with them steadily without leaving any records.
So why does this matter? Of course, it’s to peek at the records.
“The boss wants to make sure the transaction records are being properly erased.”
“…You don’t trust us?”
“Not at all. He just wants to double-check for safety. Our boss is quite cautious.”
I called him “boss” because someone trading steadily with an organization like this would surely be a noble. The man didn’t find the term strange, so my guess was correct.
“…Sigh, you’re being a pain today. Hey, bring the ledger!”
“You’re giving it up easily?”
“Trust with customers is important. If your boss said so, we’ll show it.”
…The person trading with them must be a big shot.
The burly man handed me the ledger his subordinate brought.
“Thanks.”
I opened the ledger immediately. As expected, there were no records of steady transactions with any one group. I wanted to catch the noble involved too, but that’s not possible.
So why did I look at the ledger? I was after something else.
Since the transaction records were erased, there’s no way for me to find out who was steadily trading the Transformational Stone. So why did I look at the ledger? To find someone else.
…There it is.
The name Anais Cesar was clearly written in the ledger. It seems Anais wasn’t someone who traded steadily, so the record couldn’t be erased.
“Are you done checking?”
“Yeah, the records are definitely being erased properly.”
You should’ve erased it better. Then I could’ve caught them too.
“We live by trust. We keep our word no matter what.”
Criminals sure talk a good game. I closed the ledger and tucked both the ledger and the Transformational Stone into my pocket.
“…What are you doing?”
What am I doing? Confiscating, of course.
“In the name of the Hero, I’ll be confiscating this.”
“…What?”
I unwrapped the Holy Sword.
#
At Abel’s words, the men in the room were all startled. A Hero. A superhuman who fights monsters. His appearance was clearly a crisis.
But they couldn’t back down. If the Hero took the ledger, their downfall was certain, and the organization would suffer greatly. Plus, their trading partners would also be hit.
“Put the ledger down now. Since you’re a Hero, we’ll let you go if you leave the item and the ledger.”
“…Let me go? You will?”
Abel was dumbfounded. He might be weaker than other Heroes, but he was still a Hero. With a blessing, he could cut down high-level monsters, and even without it, he could easily handle two Orcs.
He had already surpassed the level of a criminal. Objectively speaking, an adventurer who can take down two Orcs without a scratch is at least A-rank. A B-rank adventurer might win against two Orcs but would be heavily injured.
The burly man in front of him looked a bit strong, but the rest were just riffraff. And they’re talking about killing him?
“Your words are fancy.”
“Take it from him now!”
At the burly man’s shout, the men in the room rushed at Abel. Abel was about to cut them down like he did with monsters but stopped when he realized they were human.
‘I’ll have to subdue them.’
Compared to monster attacks, the men’s movements were slow. Abel easily dodged their attacks aimed at his vitals and held the Holy Sword with the hilt facing down.
And then…
Thwack!
“Ugh…!”
He struck their solar plexus. He controlled his strength to knock them out without killing them. The man who got hit staggered and collapsed to the floor.
‘Seven left?’
At least seven were visible. Hoping no more would appear, Abel moved.
With each thud, the men fell one by one. Watching this, the burly man clicked his tongue and reached for his waist.
“…Tch.”
What he pulled out were two hand axes. They were sharp and well-maintained.
By the time Abel had knocked out the sixth man, the burly man threw one of the axes. Abel quickly ducked to avoid it and blocked the following strike with the Holy Sword.
‘…This guy’s strong.’
The killing intent and strength he felt were not ordinary. Realizing it was too disadvantageous to fight in the room, Abel kicked the wall-like door.
Spinning through the revolving door, Abel deflected the flying axe with the Holy Sword.
Clang!
And then, as the hand axe flew out, the man picked up the hand axe he had thrown earlier and charged. Abel blocked the man’s attack while looking for an opening.
Anyway, this guy had to be taken down too. But the man was different from the small fry he had dealt with before. As soon as the axe was blocked by the Holy Sword, the man kicked Abel in the stomach.
“Ugh…!”
Clutching his stomach and staggering back, Abel looked at the man in front of him. The man had retrieved the hand axe Abel had deflected earlier and now approached with two hand axes in hand.
“Heroes are strong, huh? But I know. Heroes can’t kill humans, right? That makes a big difference. The gap between someone who fights to kill and someone who doesn’t is huge.”
As the man said, if Abel had tried to kill him, the fight would have been over already. But Abel couldn’t kill the man; he had to subdue him. That’s why he was struggling.
The man charged again with his twin axes. The sound of metal clashing echoed through the alley. The man was clearly skilled. His fast and unpredictable attacks came relentlessly, and Abel was barely able to block them.
If he could just cut him down, the fight would have been over already. But the fight dragged on, and Abel grew impatient. He pushed the man’s hand axe away and struck the man’s stomach with the flat of his blade.
“Ugh!”
It landed. Or so he thought. But the man was much tougher than Abel had anticipated.
*Thud!*
“…Ugh, damn it…!”
A curse slipped out of Abel’s mouth. Even after being struck in the stomach, the man swung his hand axe, and it lodged into Abel’s right shoulder.
Intense pain surged. For Abel, a right-handed swordsman, an injury to his right shoulder was critical. And since the Saint wasn’t nearby, there was no one to heal him.
“Haa… So much for being a hero…”
The man, clutching his stomach, sneered. Abel, realizing he could no longer wield his sword with his right hand, reluctantly switched to his left.
‘…This is the first time I’ve used a sword with my left hand.’
The sensation of holding the sword in his left hand was unfamiliar. On top of that, blood kept flowing from his right shoulder, and the blood loss was making his whole body burn up.
“Haaa…”
The man, seemingly recovered from the pain in his stomach, straightened his axe again.
Seeing this, Abel thought, *If I just cut him down now, I could win.* But a single phrase from the Saint he had heard before made him hesitate.
“…A hero is someone who saves people. Not someone who harms them.”
Using the sword with his left hand was unfamiliar, and he couldn’t kill his opponent. Abel began to search carefully for a path to victory.
“It’s my first time killing a hero. I wonder how it’ll feel!”
The man threw one of his hand axes and charged. Abel decided to dodge rather than block. If he blocked, it would be harder to deal with the next attack.
The speed of the flying hand axe was fast, but much slower than a Chimera’s front paw. Abel twisted his body and narrowly dodged the incoming axe. And instead of blocking the axe with the Holy Sword in his left hand, he didn’t.
“!”
Abel used his injured right shoulder one last time. The sudden movement caused intense pain, but by grabbing the man’s wrist, he prevented the hand axe from smashing his skull.
Then, with the Holy Sword in his left hand, he swung it downward with the hilt facing down. A sharp *crack* echoed, and the man let out a silent groan as he fell backward.
Abel confirmed the man had fallen and slumped down. He dropped the Holy Sword and clutched his right arm, groaning.
“Ah… Ah… It hurts, damn it…”
The blood kept flowing, and his whole body felt like it was boiling. He must have lost a lot of blood because his head was spinning, and his vision was blurring.
If he could have just killed him, he wouldn’t have been hurt like this. Why is being a hero so unreasonable? With such thoughts, Abel writhed in pain.
“Ugh… Ugh…”
‘…Am I really going to die here?’
Just as that anxious thought crossed his mind, a voice sweeter and more hopeful than anything else reached his ears.
“Hero~♡ Where are you~?”
Abel’s eyes shot open. The will to live, which had been absent, forced strength out of him, and he shouted loudly.
“…Saint! I’m dying!!!!!!!!!!”
#
“…Getting hurt like this. You’re way too reckless.”
It wasn’t the Saint who scolded him. It was Chloe. The Saint didn’t even have the energy to joke around. She was healing his shoulder with a seriously grave expression.
“…Sorry. I was worried they’d disappear while I was gone.”
“Sigh, well, it’s a good thing we found you quickly.”
“…Yeah.”
His body, which had been burning up just moments ago, was returning to normal, and the wound on his shoulder was quickly healing. As expected, Holy Power beats any medicine.
A drop of sweat rolled down the Saint’s forehead as she poured Holy Power into him. He must have lost a lot of blood because the healing was taking a long time.
“Saint, maybe you should take a break…”
“Be quiet.”
“…Yes.”
He shut his mouth at the Saint’s firm words. Yeah, just stay quiet.
…But this situation, it feels kind of nice. Two beautiful girls are genuinely worried about me. Even though I’m hurt, I feel kind of happy.
“…Am I crazy?”
“Huh?”
“Ah, nothing. Just talking to myself.”
Chloe, looking at the men bound by magic, spoke.
“…By the way, these are the guys distributing the Transformational Stones, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I secured the ledger and the stones too. They’re in my inner pocket…”
Of course, it had to be the left pocket, making it hard to retrieve with his left hand.
“…It’s on the left side.”
“I’ll get it for you.”
Chloe carefully reached out. Her hand dug into his pocket.
…This is kind of embarrassing. Chloe seemed to feel the same way, as her cheeks turned slightly red. She quickly pulled her hand out, as if fleeing from something.
“…Is this it?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
What she pulled out was the ledger and the Transformational Stones. Chloe opened the ledger and, upon finding a familiar name, widened her eyes.
See? I went through all this trouble to secure this.
“Saint, look at this…”
Chloe showed the ledger to the Saint, who glanced at it and then turned her gaze to Abel with a smug smile.
“What’s this~♡ I didn’t think a weakling like you could pull this off♡”
The Saint spoke in her usual cocky tone, but seeing the sweat dripping down her cheek, I couldn’t bring myself to feel annoyed.
Instead, I playfully responded to her words.
“Weakling Abel, mission accomplished!”
