「Hello, residents of Floor City! And greetings to all you ‘honorary’ Floor City residents living in the outskirts! We are back again today. This is Pale Croaker! First, I suppose I should bring you the news that the military corporation Red Hunters suffered a hacking attack. The culprits were reportedly the netrunner club at Cremwell University. And the result? The corporation’s firewall AI counter-infiltrated their nervous systems and burned every last one of their spinal cords to a crisp. How do I know? What kind of idiot would miss the smell of barbecue? (Audience laughter)」
“Shut up.”
Stella turned off the old-fashioned radio and looked at Tumble. He sat in a corner of the bar, staring into empty space.
It had been a long time since her grandfather had been so deeply lost in thought. Ever since settling in Asle, Tumble had always insisted that living simply and intuitively was best.
“Gramps.”
“…….”
“Gramps!”
“……Huh? What?”
Stella set the aluminum cup she had been cleaning on the bar and spoke.
“How long has it been since that man left?”
“This is the third day.”
“That church…… what was its name again? Anyway, it isn’t far away, is it?”
“Lubener Family Church. Even at a leisurely pace, an hour would be more than enough to reach it.”
Stella pressed her lips together and stared into empty space, falling into thought. Then she picked up the cup again.
“He must be dead. We told him that church was a bad idea, but he insisted on going anyway.”
Tumble looked at his granddaughter.
“Nothing’s going to change just because you look at me like that.”
Of course, Stella did not particularly enjoy imagining the death of the man who had saved her life.
“People dropping dead in Asle is nothing new. There’s no reason to treat him as anything special. It’s just…… a little unsettling.”
“You have become quite the Asle native yourself.”
Unable to tell whether that was an insult or a compliment, Stella stared at Tumble again.
“What are you so concerned about? Honestly, your eyes didn’t light up because you were grateful either. You just calculated that you might be able to get something out of him, didn’t you? Tumble the heartless bastard hasn’t gone anywhere.”
“You are ready to leave the mountain now.”
“It’s your turn to learn from me. Be grateful you’ve found yourself such a fine teacher.”
Tumble laughed heartily, but Stella merely watched him with a sullen expression and said nothing.
Was he upset about the 200,000 credits he had given Evan as an advance?
Stella knew better than anyone that was not the reason.
She sighed, walked to the door, and pressed the switch.
“Let’s open up. We need to make money.”
The 『OPEN』 sign attached to the door flickered before glowing red. Stella placed her hands on her hips.
At that moment, someone rushed inside as though they had been waiting.
“Oh! You’re open! Stella!”
It was Fat Sam, a regular responsible for a considerable share of the pub’s vodka consumption and odd-job requests.
“What? Sam? You’re early today.”
“Did you hear? You haven’t heard yet, have you? As expected, Sam, the man in charge of the Rosegold Pub’s intelligence network, has brought in another fresh catch.”
“Ugh, seriously. Back off. What is it?”
“Lubener Family Church.”
“……What about the church?”
“You know the kid who died there? Rudy, I think the name was. You heard about them?”
“Uh, yeah……. I did.”
She had only recently heard about it.
A child had reportedly been caught up in the Lubener Family Church massacre.
Someone who appeared to be the child’s parent had commissioned the pub to find the person responsible, so there was no way Stella could have been unaware.
“That kid came home.”
“……What?”
That was when Tumble turned toward them as well.
“Apparently, some deathly pale man saved them. Hey, shouldn’t I be charging you for information like this? And that’s not all. There’s a rumor going around that the church’s curse has disappeared.”
“The curse disappeared? What do you mean?”
“People don’t die when they go near it anymore. More and more people have been testing it little by little. Naturally, every one of them came back perfectly fine.”
Stella strained her brain, trying to process the sudden influx of information.
The church’s curse had disappeared?
Then what about the man who had gone there?
Hadn’t three days without any news meant he was dead?
“Want to go see for yourself if you don’t believe me?”
“No, it’s not that I don’t believe you…… Gramps! How long did you say it takes to get there?”
At that moment, another customer entered behind Sam.
“……What? Aren’t you open today? Am I interrupting your plans for a picnic?”
When everyone stared at him in silence, Evan gave a disinterested chuckle.
“Don’t worry. I’m not so oblivious that I’d ask to come along.”
“……Puhahaha!”
Tumble burst into laughter.
“Are you not hungry?”
***
Evan stared at the assortment of food laid out before him.
Considering that his usual meals were garbage balanced somewhere between poison and nutrients, this was good enough to be called hotel room service.
Moreover, once again, the liquor served with it was not vodka but some drink whose name Evan did not know.
Tumble had declared that if Evan dared compare this liquor to mere vodka, not even his Benefactor would be forgiven. To Evan’s tongue, however, it all tasted much the same.
“……Why does he keep doing this?”
Why was this old man so desperate to feed him every time he visited?
Was it something like the relentless force-feeding he had endured from his paternal grandmother?
Whatever the reason, Evan had no intention of complaining if it meant saving the cost of a meal.
It was not as though he had no idea why Tumble was doing it.
“So that’s the man…….”
“That’s him? His whole presence is kind of…… frightening.”
“He doesn’t exactly seem like the churchgoing type.”
Apparently, the rumors had spread.
It was understandable.
The sinister events at that church had far exceeded Evan’s expectations.
People had been dying there for quite some time, and because of it, the only facility supporting the faith of the surrounding area had effectively disappeared. Whenever anything bad happened, people connected it to the church, magnifying the ‘curse’ even further.
The people living in Asle’s garbage dump must have become even more miserable because of it.
Evan picked up a piece of dry, crumbly bread and spoke.
“Tumble, tell Jurgens tomorrow that I brought the item.”
“Then it truly was you who dealt with the church…….”
Evan lifted the bundle he had carelessly tossed beside him. Part of the Golden Cross was visible through a gap in the wrapping.
“May I examine it?”
“That’s why I brought it here. You need to verify the item.”
Tumble opened the cloth with a keen gaze.
First, he examined the cross visually without touching it. Then he lifted it while keeping physical contact to a minimum.
“It is unquestionably the genuine article. I remember the connector at this end. I had an opportunity to see this cross when I visited the church. The material…… yes, the material matches as well.”
“You can tell that merely by touching it? Neural modifications?”
Tumble shook his head.
“It is this old man’s weapon, something bastards who turn their bodies into tin cans cannot imitate.”
Evan stared at Tumble for a moment before picking up the bottle and pouring himself a drink.
He did not show it, but he rather liked Tumble’s attitude.
Evan had realized long ago how difficult it was to find anyone in this world who possessed genuine pride.
“We can hold on to this cross for you. Would you like us to?”
When Evan nodded, Tumble glanced at Stella.
As though she had been waiting, Stella carried the cross into the room at the back.
Tumble watched her go, smacked his lips, and rubbed his chin.
“It still feels regrettable. You resolved a matter of this magnitude, yet you will receive only 600,000 credits.”
“What would the usual rate be?”
“Let me see. You should receive at least 2.5 million.”
Evan nodded and focused solely on his food.
Tumble was surprised that Evan showed no disappointment even after hearing the truth.
‘As expected, this man is…….’
Different somehow.
That confirmed it for Tumble.
After finishing his meal, Evan gathered his belongings and rose. Stella, who had been watching him from the side, asked,
“There’s something I want to ask. Did you rescue a child from that church?”
“Rumors travel quickly around here.”
“Why did you do it?”
Evan looked at her before wrapping the cloak around himself.
“That’s a strange question.”
“Mages don’t act unless they have a reason.”
Evan raised his head again and stared at Stella for a moment.
“I know mages well. I know what kind of bastards they are.”
“I’m not a mage.”
With that, Evan turned and left the pub.
Stella watched his retreating back.
From a short distance away, Tumble watched Stella for a moment before smiling slyly.
“What? Do you like him? He is a rather handsome young man.”
“What the hell are you talking about, old man?!”
“His personality seems better than his appearance suggests, but that intense aura of his might be a problem. What will you do?”
“Stop acting ridiculous and go take some orders! Aren’t you going to make money?”
Apparently quite satisfied with teasing his granddaughter, Tumble snickered as he entered the kitchen.
Stella watched him go before turning back toward the door.
She had always believed that mages were nothing but repulsive pieces of trash.
That was what she had been taught, and that was all she had ever witnessed.
“Hmm…….”
Stella absentmindedly fiddled with her necklace.
It was a keepsake from her mother.
She had been told that her mother had been a mage while she was alive.
***
After leaving the pub, Evan walked down the street for a while before taking something out from inside his clothes.
It was the storage device hidden inside the cross.
This was the true item Jurgens wanted.
‘A drug trafficking route spanning all of Asle.’
One might wonder what could be so extraordinary about information concerning a trafficking route.
However, it included a route into the city that bypassed its checkpoints, a ledger containing information on every gang involved in the drug trade, and the origins and intended uses of every product they had exchanged.
In this world, information was money and opportunity.
This was why Evan had not even batted an eye when Tumble spoke of fair compensation.
The information inside was worth well over ten million credits.
Moreover, there was one more truth that no one but Evan knew.
‘It also contains the location coordinates of a random artifact.’
An artifact.
An object of uncertain origin that granted its owner power science could not explain.
Even in a world where magic itself had been incorporated into science, artifacts remained inexplicable. That alone demonstrated their value.
Including the artifact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the contents of this tiny storage device were worth tens of millions of credits.
‘The odds are low, but the artifact could even be Yender’s Amulet.’
Evan thought of the client, Ralph Jurgens.
He was probably jumping for joy, believing he had obtained this for a mere 600,000 credits.
Soon, he would be jumping up and down for a very different reason when he realized he had burned 600,000 credits on packaging shaped like a Golden Cross.
Evan smiled faintly and slipped the device back inside his clothes.
Before considering how best to exploit it, he had something else to deal with.
By then, Evan had entered a secluded alley and stopped at a suitable spot.
A homeless person lay sprawled on the ground, staring at Evan with only their eyes moving beneath a dazed expression.
Evan took something from inside his clothes and held it up.
“Stop squirming, you…….”
Then he hurled it to the ground.
“You fucking hamster bastard!”
“SKRAAK!”
The hamster, now no larger than a fist, bounced several times before springing upright on two legs and raising both arms.
“SKREEE! I’ll kill you, black mage bastard!”
Evan stared at it with an expression filled with disgust.
It was utterly pathetic.