Chapter 52 – Clearing the Slums (1)
After calming Seris down, I bought a sack from the grocery store. The old man’s body was put in a sack and brought to every corner of the house. I’m going to secretly bury him later tonight.
“Mr. Yooseong…”
Seris approached with a worried look.
“Should I bury it secretly? Since you said I didn’t do anything wrong, just tell the guard…”
“Seris.”
I grabbed Seris by the shoulder. Her eyes trembled slightly as she looked at me.
“I understand your anxiety. But let’s think rationally. It’s me, I know you didn’t do it, but the guards aren’t. They’re going to ask you to provide proof that we didn’t do it.”
There is no sign of injury to the old man. But the problem is that the old man is a fortune teller from Agnes’s sisters, and he has many things that seem valuable. We are adventurers who have just arrived in the city. There were many reasons to be suspicious.
‘Also, retaliation might come from Agnes’ sisters.’
Because in this world, the richest guys value honor next to money. It was the logic of the world to retaliate if someone discredited me.
I adequately informed Celis of these facts. She doesn’t do much good to scare me too much.
“Um, are we okay, right?”
“Are you okay. I’ll take care of it. Do you believe me?”
“Yes… I believe it..!”
Seris gave her a big nod. I smiled and opened the bag the old man had brought. There were a lot of things inside that seemed odd.
Among them, he took out a huge crystal ball. It is a bead like the trademark of fortune tellers. A notification window appeared.
===============================
〈 Crystal Orb of Atlant〉
Rating: Advanced
Appreciation: 500 Karma
A crystal ball created by Archmage Daria 500 years ago to predict her fate.
Daria gave this crystal ball as a gift to Prophet Atlant and asked him to predict her fate.
It is said that Atlant was delighted to see the perfection of her crystal orb, and he foretold her fate.
This crystal ball greatly increases the magic power of the possessed fortuneteller.
===============================
‘Relics?’
It is also advanced.
I looked at the sack the old man was in.
‘How could such an old man have such an artifact?’
I rummaged through the other clutter in my bag.
===============================
〈 Tarot Card of Love〉
Rating: Advanced
Appreciation: 400 Karma
This card was created by the great wizard Daria 500 years ago to predict her own luck in love.
Because Daria worked hard on her, she has strong magical powers.
With this tarot card, you can see things other than love luck. However, she doesn’t have the same supernatural power as when she sees love luck.
===============================
“…”
I picked up a small purple orb that had fallen on the bed.
================================
〈 heart sound〉
Rating: Advanced
Appreciation: 700 Karma
An orb created by Archmage Daria 500 years ago to secretly communicate with Sieghart.
The range is short because it was not made for some reason.
Two people holding the orb can communicate telepathically within a radius of 20 m.
===============================
A cold sweat ran down the back of his neck. I glanced into the bag again. There was a lot of junk. It won’t be all relics, but there will be a few relics mixed in.
I looked at the bag containing the old man again.
That human giant
‘What do we do…’
Until now, I thought I could just bury it vaguely in the ground. However, as can be seen from the relics of the old man, the old man is not an ordinary person. He probably had a pretty high place among Agnes’ sisters too.
Such a person died.
In time, Agnes’s sisters will surely try to find this old man. That’s because it’s their specialty.
Frowning my brow, I came to one conclusion.
‘… The points will be fine. Because there is a status window.’
In the first place, that old man died trying to predict the future of Seris. It must have been the intervention of the status window. I wonder if he even needed to kill him, but that’s not for me to judge.
The important thing is that it was the status window that did this, and if so, the status window would have dealt with it in its own way.
At least you won’t be tracked by dots. The ability of the status window to handle work can be understood by thinking about the time of Werther.
‘The old man’s whereabouts won’t be revealed.’
The old man said he must have come secretly. He even hid his identity. Agnes’s sisters will not know that the old man has come to us.
So what I have to do from now on is simple.
‘Let’s throw it in the sewer.’
I think that would be the cleanest.
That night, I dumped the old man’s body deep in the sewer.
* * *
Late at night, Seris looked at the porch where the meteor had left and moved cautiously. Kara was sleeping on her bed. After all, she doesn’t wake up well once she sleeps. Seris fell to the floor.
“I’m sorry..”
She reached over and pulled out her book, which she had hidden under her bed. Again she carefully came out of the room.
‘There will be some time until Yooseong comes..?’
She went to the candlelight and opened the book. Letters she did not know were written in her book. Cerys put her finger on her letter and she said.
“Read me.”
Then the pronunciation of the letter flowed into her head.
‘Do!’
It was just as her grandmother had told her. With this, you’ll be able to read on your own! She smiled brightly, then became slightly depressed.
‘Grandma…’
He was a good man, but he went like that…
I kept trying to calm down. Seris shook her head.
Ceris prayed that her grandmother was in a good place for her, and she turned the accident into happy thoughts. Naturally, I remembered the day when I was held in Yooseong’s arms.
“…”
Seris’ face turned red. Is it because it’s been a long time since I’ve been hugged, so I’ve lost my tolerance? She was lost in the thought for a while, then she came to her senses. Cerys put her hand on the next letter of hers and listened to her pronunciation.
She worked hard to read her letter alone and to receive praise from Yoosung.
* * *
A month has passed since the old man died. In the meantime, we made commissions and lived on money as usual.
The things I was worried about didn’t happen. The status window related to dots seemed to have been handled neatly and well.
‘Should I bring the relics back soon?’
The remains of the old man were buried deep in the ground in case of an unexpected event. I guess I can bring it soon.
‘Let’s use what looks good and sell what doesn’t.’
It seems like I can learn one more skill after a long time. Or save up and buy something more expensive. I entered the guild with a comfortable mind.
“Ah, Yoosung, are you here?”
The receptionist, Orga, greeted me lively.
“Cerris and Kara aren’t here?”
“Because Kara sprained her ankle. I am resting at home.”
“Oh, I see. But if the two of you don’t come, the reward is…”
“I know. I’ll just take mine. After all, I came here to find a good request.”
“Again? You finished the order yesterday. I think you’re exaggerating… Don’t you remember what I said before?”
Orga put her hand on her waist and glared at me. I laughed awkwardly and scratched her head.
“I remember. When you rest, you say you need to rest. Today, I’m just looking for a request.”
“Do you do it as soon as you see something good?”
“Haha.”
Orla looked at me intently and sighed.
“I’m really worried that I won’t be able to live.”
“You don’t even need to worry…”
“Okay, follow me.”
She came out of her reception desk and walked to her private office. I was a bit puzzled, but immediately followed her.
“Why did you call me?”
“I heard you would be commissioned. A good request came in a while ago. Originally, I wasn’t going to go back to Yooseong, who still lacks experience, but… We’re between us, right?”
Orga winked and went into the office. I smiled at her pick and followed her into her. Sitting in her chair, Orla made two coffees and handed her one.
“Thank you. By the way, didn’t you say you’d give up coffee some time ago?”
“You have to be able to quit. Whew…”
Orga let out her soggy sigh. That’s what office workers suffer from work. I laughed and drank my coffee. Write.
“So what is that request?”
“Previously.”
Orla sat down on the chair across from me. She rested her chin on her clasped hands. Looked at me and asked.
“Mr. Yooseong, what do you think of the slums?”
“You mean the ghetto?”
My eyebrows narrowed at the rather unexpected question.
‘Slums…’
The slums are where I have been living for two years since I first came to this world. Let me tell you my impressions of that place.
“It sucks.”
The ghetto is a very fucked up place.
The streets are dirty and smelly.
The buildings look like they’re about to collapse, but there are thugs doing drugs inside. Or sell
All the poor people act sloppy, and they notice those weaker than me like ghosts. It is the order of the neighborhood for the strong to bully the weak and the weak to bully the weaker.
‘I was bullied a lot at first too.’
After I was ripped off once and my eyes went back, that kind of thing has disappeared.
“Okay.”
Ori smiled as if he liked my answer. I wondered what an alternative request was to ask something like this.
“Actually, the request I received this time is rather, how to say… Cruel.”
“Cruel? Didn’t you say it was a good request?”
“Ah, it’s true that it’s a good client. The money for the request is generous and the place where the request is made is a trustworthy place.”
“Are you trustworthy? Was the client a group rather than a single person?”
Orga sipped her coffee and nodded.
“Where did you send the request?”
“The sisters of Agnes.”
“…Yes?”
Momentarily hardened. I was just wondering if I had eased my worries, but that name came up here.
Orla kindly told me again, as if she thought I was asking her back.
“The sisters of Agnes. I’m sure you’ve heard of Yoosung. Because it’s such a famous place.”
“…Yes. What kind of request did you entrust to the adventurer’s guild there?”
She took another sip of her coffee and let out a sigh of relief.
“As Yooseong said, the slums are such a strange place. Murders, robberies, kidnappings, drugs, etc., Such crimes are rampant.”
She asked for a request, and Orr suddenly started talking about something else of her own. But she seemed to rhyme the story in her own way, so she listened quietly.
“A creature like a cancer in the city! Do you know why the higher ups don’t clean it up and leave it alone?”
“I heard about it at first glance, but… Isn’t it because of the Dark Society?”
“That’s right! Because of those damned criminals! Whenever the lord tries to clean up the cancerous slums, he always appears and disturbs them!”
‘If only it wasn’t for that bastard’s sword master,’ Orga murmured.
There was a rumor that the Dark Gray boss was the only 7 sword master on the continent. From what she’s saying now, it seems to be the truth, not a rumor.
“So, I didn’t think of cleaning up the slums when everyone was happy… What is this? This time Agnes’s sisters drew their swords.”
“Did you draw a knife? That word…”
“Extermination of the slums!”
“…Yes?”
“This is what Agnes’ sisters requested from the guild.”
Her words made me dumbfounded.
‘Extermination?’
I will kill everyone in the slums. What is it?
“Is that possible? Anyway, killing everyone there…”
“Ah, we don’t just kill anyone either. Did you lose all the information in the last two weeks? A list of thugs in Kalita. If you follow this carefully, there will be no harm to civilians.”
Orga gave an evil laugh. I asked her one more thing.
“In the world, why did Agnes’ sisters suddenly request this kind of request?”
“Um… Well, it looks like the body of someone very high up there was found in the sewers.”
“…How tall was he?”
He replied by tapping his chin.
“Uh … I’m sure he heard that he was a former priest.”
“…”
