Chapter 78
“──So, yeah, I just tossed him into the basement.”
I went back to Fran and told her what had happened.
We’d been enjoying some intimate time together, and then I’d run out of the room half-naked, so Fran must’ve been startled. Fortunately, she understood once I explained.
“Ugh……. If Nord hadn’t noticed, he might’ve kept watching us, huh?”
Fran shuddered, wrapping her arms around her shoulders. If even I felt this disgusted as a man, how awful must Fran feel?
I suddenly regretted leaving that pervert alive. Should I go back and finish him off now? I could just shut my eyes and toss in a burning log.
“Still, I think it was right to leave it to the guards. They’re experts at this kind of thing, so they’ll handle it better than we would if we took care of it ourselves, right?”
Fran said as she dried herself off with a towel. It seemed otherworlders trusted the guards a lot, just like Dorka.
“I guess. I just hope this didn’t become a bad memory for you, Fran.”
If one of the guards gave me a hard time, I could just ride Hamal back by myself. We had two whole days before the next quest.
The innkeeper wouldn’t starve to death in the meantime. Thinking that, I looked around the room.
“Still, I feel kind of uncomfortable sleeping here tonight.”
It was the same room as before, but somehow it felt eerie and unpleasant.
I could see why property values dropped for buildings where something bad had happened. The thought of eating and sleeping in such a creepy place made me uncomfortable.
At my words, Fran took out her pocket watch.
“The sun will be up soon. Should we change and head straight to Sargadis?”
“What? What time is it?”
“Four-thirty.”
Four-thirty? Startled, I took out my own watch to check. I wondered if Fran’s was wrong.
But mine also said 4:30. What the fuck? We’d returned to the inn before nightfall, and now almost the whole night had passed. I couldn’t believe it.
“It’s almost dawn. How’d it get so late already?”
“……Because you never seemed to get tired, Nord.”
Fran said, looking at the bed and its surroundings, which were a complete mess.
Had I seriously lost track of time because I was having sex?
No, more importantly, with the innkeeper in that state, who was going to clean up all this cum?
‘Fuck.’
Before the guards or villagers saw it and freaked out, I had no choice but to clean up what I could. I put on my shirt and stretched.
“Fran. Go wash up first. I’ll clean the room.”
“Oh, will you? Thanks.”
Fran wiped the cum off her body and went to the bath first. I roughly cleaned up this disaster of a room with a rag I’d swiped from the first floor, then switched places with Fran and went to shower.
“As I thought, he put a hole here, too.”
I checked around the bathhouse furnace and found a hole covered with a plank.
If I hadn’t stood guard, that son of a bitch would’ve restocked the firewood and peeped at Fran through this hole. Grinding my teeth, I washed up and then noted the location of the hole in the bathhouse, too.
─Footsteps.
After confirming there were holes in the walls of every room, I went to check on Ttareungi. I thought the voyeur bastard might’ve done something to him.
“Hir-hihingheng?! (Are we going for a run?!)”
“Yeah, yeah. In a little bit.”
Thankfully, Ttareungi was fine. If something happened to him, there’d be trouble even if the peeping hadn’t been discovered, so I’d kept a close eye on him.
After finishing up, we climbed onto Ttareungi.
It was time to say goodbye to this village.
***
“Hoo-hihihriiiiing!! (See you again next time!!)”
After returning to Sargadis, the first thing we did was return Ttareungi to the farm. Ttareungi, who’d been crazy fast on the way back, headed to the stable, clearly reluctant to say goodbye.
“Someone who borrowed a Hamal coming back in just one day? That’s a first in my life.”
We got our deposit back from the farm owner, who shook his head in amazement, and then went to the guards.
Then I explained what had happened in Perfort Village.
“Understood. We’ll send someone to make an arrest.”
After hearing me out, the guard shouted to the personnel waiting nearby.
“Ezel! Your team’s going to take witness statements and bring that guy in. Don’t forget to request the Mages’ Guild’s assistance.”
“Are we going on horseback?”
“What, are you going to walk? Get moving!”
“Yes, sir!”
The young guard called Ezel ran to the stable with his comrades. I filled out the paperwork the guard gave me with my name and status—my status as Nord, a long-term resident.
“What happens if he’s arrested?”
“Peeping toms are fined. If he’s a repeat offender or they find other crimes, he could even be sentenced to slavery.”
“Can’t magic tell whether he’s a repeat offender?”
This world had magic.
You could think of it as a downgraded version of the psychometry superpower from sci-fi dramas. More precisely, it was magic that could intuitively determine things like when an object had been made.
‘They said it was useful not just for dating artifacts, but also for estimating a corpse’s time of death or finding information about traces of a crime.’
I couldn’t use it. Magic took more mana the further back in time you had to go, or the stronger the resistance magic protecting it was.
Since the artifacts archaeologists handled dated back at least a hundred years, I hadn’t even dared to learn it. Usually, artifacts were dated with specialized magic tools.
Still, it was a good spell for finding evidence left behind by criminals who knew nothing about magical countermeasures. I’d heard that was one reason the guards provided security for the Mages’ Guild and accommodated them.
But that wouldn’t tell them how often he’d used those peepholes.
“We’ll know more after questioning him, but if the mage investigates and finds the holes in the inn rooms or bathhouse were made more than five years ago, we can be almost certain he’s guilty. These crimes happen more often than you’d think in rural inns.”
The guard answered cheerfully, perhaps because an easy case had fallen into his lap.
“The number of voyeurism cases increased after public bathhouses were established ten years ago. Many cases went beyond peeping and led to other crimes, so new criminal laws were created, too.”
“I’ve heard about that.”
Apparently, those crimes were common when public bathhouse security was lax.
Everyone dressed lightly when going to and from a bathhouse.
So people’s belongings were stolen all the time, and robberies and sexual harassment against bathers on their way home were frequent in cities, or so I’d heard.
In particular, I heard there was once a royal decree requiring people to bathe for hygiene reasons, but the problems I’d mentioned hit the elderly and women living in the slums especially hard.
“Yes. This case is the same. It’s absurd to claim he didn’t know about the holes in the inn rooms and bathhouse for years, but even if he uses that as an excuse to claim innocence, the hidden basement will be a problem.”
“He said it was a pantry he built to keep thieves out.”
“There are plenty of shameless people who make that claim while kidnapping travelers or pilgrims and handing them over to illegal slave traders. If we find evidence of a deal, that’ll be the end of it.”
“Ah, you mean something like a secret ledger.”
“Exactly. In any case, this will likely be reported to the lord, followed by an investigation throughout the village. A problem like this happening at an inn means there’s a good chance the village itself is connected to a criminal organization.”
The guard took the paperwork I’d finished and put it in a drawer.
“Besides, even if this turns out to have been nothing more than a prank or malicious stunt, if the villagers haven’t committed any crimes, they shouldn’t have a problem being investigated, should they?”
This world had no concept of search warrants, so investigations were pretty heavy-handed. Maybe they were conducting a crackdown because bandit groups had increased lately?
For the guards and the lord, who were responsible for public safety, it made sense they’d want to root out any criminal organization completely.
“Ah, you don’t need to worry, citizen. Even if he’s lucky enough to get off, he’ll be put under surveillance by our guards, so he won’t be able to harbor any sinister intentions.”
He gave me an awkward, bureaucratic smile, trying to reassure me. He didn’t need to go out of his way. Feeling the guard’s consideration, I gave him a grateful nod.
“Thank you for your concern. Well, good luck with the work.”
“Yes. Take care on your way back.”
And so, our conversation ended.
As expected, I wasn’t reprimanded for using excessive force after beating down the innkeeper. I knew it. I mean, I’d been treated like an illegal immigrant from the start and gotten my ass beaten without a word.
‘Is there even a concept of excessive force here?’
Maybe not in Britannia, at least.
They’d checked the immigration registry before trial and found some people innocent, but those guys had also been groaning in the same prison as me, clutching their bruises.
Thanks to its long history and magic, this world’s criminal investigation techniques were quite advanced, but one way or another, it was another world with no such thing as protecting the human rights of criminal suspects.
‘I guess they’d rather not risk letting a truly dangerous criminal go just to accommodate a suspect.’
It was a world where individual strength could exceed all normal limits. Law enforcement groups in this other world would rather arrest one criminal for certain, even if it meant creating a hundred innocent victims.
That was because one criminal they let go due to uncertainty could later cause tens of thousands of casualties.
‘It’s a relief that they don’t go around witch-hunting people without evidence.’
I couldn’t say it never happened.
This was a world that made you lose any affection you were just starting to develop for it.
In the end, to live without suffering injustice or danger in this ostensibly civilized yet still barbaric medieval otherworld, you absolutely needed power and authority.
That was why I wanted to return to Earth, and why I was trying to get stronger.
“Did everything go okay?”
When I came out after finishing up, Fran, who’d been waiting outside, asked me.
“Yeah. They said they’re going to arrest him.”
“Do you think they’ll call you in soon, Nord?”
“To testify? Probably not.”
If the investigation found nothing else, they’d just fine him and close the case. They wouldn’t summon the suspect separately.
Even if, against all odds, he really was an innocent victim, he’d still be fined for allowing holes in every room and the bathhouse.
In Korea, too, a motel owner would get into deep shit if there were hidden cameras in every room.
Anyway, now that the job was done, we went to the Audumra Guild and submitted our quest completion report.
“Could you provide the Power Stone you mentioned for the investigation? We can pay you for it within a few days.”
When I told the receptionist about the Hobgoblin shaman and the Power Stone, she handled the procedures professionally.
“If I submit it as evidence, can I get it back later?”
“If you want. It’s just difficult to say how long the investigation will take.”
“Nord. We can ask them to return it later, then have them buy it if you change your mind.”
Fran picked up on what the receptionist said and explained. We could leave it with them for now, then sell it if we needed quick cash later. She must’ve learned that back when she’d wanted to become a receptionist.
“Then I’ll leave it as evidence and get it back later.”
I’d make more selling it at a good price to someone who wanted it than dumping it at the guild. If I needed money, I could come back and sell them the Power Stone.
The receptionist took the Hobgoblin’s Power Stone and carefully placed it in a box.
“Thank you for providing it. Oh, since you succeeded on this quest, you’ll be promoted to Bronze Class after one more.”
Even the receptionist, who’d been speaking in a businesslike manner all this time, smiled when she said that. I felt awkward and scratched my back for no reason.
“Ahem, yeah. I’ve accepted a carriage escort quest for the Transport Guild to Haysvent, so is there anything going on with that?”
I hoped it hadn’t suddenly been canceled while we were away. At my question, the receptionist flipped through some documents and answered.
“There’ve been no changes to the quest details or reward. We’ve also filled all four Bronze-class slots, including you, Nord, and Miss Aitrinen.”
“That’s great. Who are the other members?”
“Besides the two of you, one mage and one warrior accepted.”
“That sounds about right.”
It was a shame there wasn’t a priest, but there was little risk of getting hurt on a Bronze-class quest with just Fran and me.
More importantly, there was a Silver-class adventurer, so that person was the main one, and we were basically hired as backups.
‘I wonder if the Guildmaster’s son hired the Silver-class adventurer.’
The one-armed young man had said he’d take responsibility for the children. He must’ve pulled some strings to get them transported safely. Thinking that, I spoke to Fran.
“That’s everything. Shall we go back and rest?”
“Yeah. I’m a little sleepy…….”
Exhausted from staying up all night, we went back to the inn and slept soundly all day.
***
Fran and I woke up on the morning before the carriage escort quest.
It was an awkward time to take a day-trip quest, so we decided to rest until the escort quest. Fran finished mending the robe she’d wear, while I rented a book on rune magic from the Mages’ Guild.
I researched the range of applications for runes while reading, then, when night came, played cat daddy and listened to the information the cats had gathered.
“There are more cats than I heard.”
Fran came along that night because she wanted to see me talk with the cats, and she embarrassed me. Maybe word of me had spread among the cats, because there were more of them than last time.
I cleared my throat and asked.
“Myaow myaow nyaow nya nya? (Did you find what I asked you to look for?)”
“Nya nya─. (Yeah─.)”
Even though I’d put aside my shame and meowed at them, they didn’t have any particularly useful information.
At most, they said there’d been an increase in people sneaking around alleyways and secretly exchanging things, or that the fishmonger had tightened security considerably.
‘Still, they do know how to investigate.’
Considering how many nasty bastards there were, I was glad I’d chosen cats.
Mice might be better than cats at infiltrating places, but they didn’t even have a language system that could handle complex conversation. Their memories were poor, too, making it hard to gather information.
In that respect, strays were great.
These guys were basking in the benefits of their looks from head to toe. No matter where they went, no one suspected or attacked them. And even if they were attacked, they could run away easily.
No psycho would kill a cat just because it was a witness at a crime scene. If we consider that appearance is one of the talents of a spy, cats are fucking natural-born spies.
‘I can trust these guys.’
Cats gathered information according to cat standards, so it wasn’t all that high-quality.
Still, I knew they were capable of getting what I’d asked them to find. The information was more than worth a few pieces of dried fish.
“Nyaow nyaow. (Time to eat.)”
“Nyanyanyaa──!! (Yay──!!)”
I wrote down the information that seemed useful, gave the cats some food, and went back.
The dried fish I’d bought for 2 copper was all snatched up. From now on, it’d be better value to come gather information once a week.
And so another night passed, and morning dawned on the day of the quest.