Now it was time for the interrogation.
Which one should I question first — the man or the woman?
The woman with the insect-like eyes was visibly terrified.
She was already desperately whimpering, trying to get away from us.
Her fear was almost enough to... well, let's leave that aside.
Once I removed her muzzle, she'd probably start spewing incoherent nonsense.
If I was going to interrogate her, it'd be better to wait until things calmed down a bit.
The lizard man, then.
I couldn't really read his expression.
Lizard faces weren't something I could decipher.
He did seem a bit pale, though.
And he was carefully observing his surroundings.
My expression,
His mind was probably racing, trying to figure out how to survive this situation.
That made me regret that Ruijerd had already killed one of them.
The blunt type would've been the easiest to get talking.
Maybe I should just remove both their muzzles and question them at the same time.
Separate one into a different room, interrogate them individually, then cross-reference their stories later.
Yeah, let's go with that.
"Eris, keep an eye on that woman over there."
"Got it."
Eris nodded firmly.
I took the man and moved out into the hallway.
I couldn't handle him alone, so I had Ruijerd help.
We moved far enough down the hall that our voices wouldn't carry.
Carefully, so he wouldn't bite, I removed his muzzle.
"Answer my questions."
"I-I'll answer, I'll answer, just don't kill me!"
"That's good. If you cooperate, I'll help you out."
"I-I'm scared!"
I'd meant to smile reassuringly, but it just scared him more.
I'd thought he was surprisingly calm, but maybe not.
"What are the animals in this building for?"
"I-I picked them up."
"Ohh, that's impressive! And where exactly did you pick them up?"
"Well, that's..."
His eyes darted back and forth.
He was checking my face and Ruijerd's.
Was he really still trying to lie?
"J-just around here and there..."
That wasn't even a lie.
He had a clever-looking face, but maybe he wasn't that bright after all.
"I see! There are lots of animals that get lost in this town, after all!"
"...Are you taking me for a kid or something?"
I let a bit of menace show.
"N-no, that's not it at all."
No good.
Apparently, no matter how threatening I tried to be, I just ended up looking like a goofball.
I was ten years old, after all.
Can't be helped.
Let me try a different approach.
"Explosion."
I snapped my fingers once.
At the same time, I triggered a small explosion right in front of the man's face.
"Whoa—?!"
The tip of his nose singed.
"Wh-what—what did you do?!"
He was asking, but I ignored him.
"Hey, think a little harder before you answer.
You don't want to die, right?"
He must have remembered the man who'd already been killed, because he shuddered.
Then I remembered something.
Our previous conversation had been in the Demon God Tongue.
All this time I'd been talking to them in the only language they understood — the Superd tribe this, the Superd tribe that.
Well, whatever.
Now that they knew, I might as well use it.
"Look. You know this already. That guy over there — the one who dyes his hair blue — he's the real deal. A genuine 'Dead End.' I'm not just what I look like, either."
"The... the real thing...?"
"We're the same kind as you. Talk honestly with me.
Maybe I can even help you out."
I decided to steer the conversation in that direction.
"But... eep!"
The man glanced at Ruijerd, then immediately looked away.
He might have gotten glared at.
"Tell me. What were you doing here?"
"W-we were snatching up pets..."
"Oh, snatching them up?"
"We'd find pets that had missing-person reports filed on them, pretend to locate them, and return them."
"I see."
This was probably the truth.
I had no proof, but it all made sense and checked out.
This time the missing pet had been a young girl's cat, but there were probably jobs like "Find Lady Christine, the rich madam's cat" as well.
The guild's rewards had upper and lower limits based on rank, but on top of that, clients might offer special bonuses.
If you were lucky, you could make good money even just searching for pets.
"So what if there was no missing-person report filed?"
"After a while, we'd just release them normally..."
"Huh? Wouldn't it be more profitable to sell them at a pet shop?"
"Ha! That'd leave a trail, obviously."
The man scoffed with a smirk, and the instant he got a bit too full of himself, Ruijerd slammed his spear butt against the ground.
The man flinched.
Ruijerd, as always, knew exactly when to put someone back in their place.
Your timing on intimidation is perfect, I swear.
"So it's a pretty small-time operation, huh?"
"Y-yeah..."
"If it were me, I'd sell the animals I caught. Carve them up and sell the meat to a butcher. No trail that way, right?"
In this world, where even monster meat was considered delicious, you could probably sell even non-domesticated animals.
Oh wait — the lizard man was making a face like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
What's that supposed to mean!
The meat of a Great King Land Tortoise and the meat of a pet turtle are the same thing!
"
I turned around to find Ruijerd saying something terrifying.
So that's what the lizard man had been imagining.
"That might not be a bad idea, actually..."
When I let that threat hang, the lizard man's face contorted.
Ah, I knew this expression.
It was nostalgic.
Back in my old life, people used to make that face at me all the time.
"Rudeus..."
Ruijerd, sir, please stop glaring at me from behind.
I can feel your stare.
It was a joke. I'm not going to do it.
"Well, we only came here looking for one cat.
We're not exactly heroes of justice or anything.
So we can just pretend we saw nothing and walk away."
"R-really?"
"But... you guys already know that Ruijerd is a real Superd, so... What should we do about that?"
"W-we won't tell anyone! And even if you told people there was a Dead End in town, nobody'd believe it!"
"No, they would. Bad rumors spread fast."
Especially inconvenient ones.
It never hurts to keep that in mind.
"If it were up to me, the fastest solution would be to kill all of you and bury the bodies."
"Pl-please, have mercy!
We'll do anything, just spare our lives!"
I'll do anything — got it in writing.
That was probably enough intimidation for now.
But now, what to do about the situation?
They were pet kidnappers — criminals, in other words.
That said, from what I'd heard, they were small-time crooks with no real backing.
Even if I left them alone, they probably wouldn't cause much trouble.
But Ruijerd had been seen killing someone.
This could become an obstacle to the "Make Ruijerd Popular" operation.
I wanted to nip any potential problems in the bud.
But killing them was out of the question.
I'd just told Ruijerd not to kill.
What about turning them over to the town guard?
No — they were just pet kidnappers, after all. Even if I handed them over, they might not face serious charges.
If the punishment was just a half-hearted fine, they might hold a grudge.
Right now they were being cooperative, but people forget fear once the danger has passed.
Ideally, I'd keep them where I could see them and threaten them regularly.
At least until I was sure they were no longer a threat.
But that came with risks too.
Continued threats could turn grudging fear into genuine resentment.
On top of that, we'd already killed one of their people.
Right now fear was what drove them, but eventually it would become hatred.
Killing them was out. Handing them over to the guard was out.
Then... recruit them?
Keep them close, have them help earn money and raise our rank.
Gather intelligence around town, run errands.
I could even take over their pet-kidnapping business.
But Ruijerd probably wouldn't be happy about that.
In his eyes, these were the kind of villains you could just kill.
He wouldn't want to work alongside them.
Hmm.
Let me lay out the risk-reward for each option.
1. Kill them Risk: Ruijerd gets confused + develops a bad habit of killing to solve every problem Reward: No lingering threats + take their money 2. Turn them over to the guard Risk: Still the possibility of a grudge Reward: Maybe a small boost to our reputation 3. Leave them alone Risk: Still the possibility of a grudge Reward: Nothing, really 4. Recruit them Risk: Allies won't like it + others might think we're complicit in their crimes Reward: Keep them under close watch + more manpower Option 1 wasn't great for the future, I felt.
I wasn't exactly a hero of justice, but "just kill everyone" was the kind of brain-dead thinking that always came back to bite you.
Options 2 and 3 were low-risk, low-reward.
Even if they did hold a grudge, with Ruijerd around finding them would be easy — but we'd just end up killing them anyway. Double the work.
Option 4, then.
It would hurt Ruijerd's opinion of me, but we had an urgent problem: we needed money fast.
Yes — money.
Right now, what we needed was money.
Having extra hands for earning money was a good thing.
Helping with their pet-kidnapping business was one option, or we could have them join the party and split F-rank jobs between us.
Ranking up was important.
If we could at least take on C-rank or above jobs, we'd have more stability.
...Wait.
"Hold on. If you're handing over pets through jobs, does that mean you guys are adventurers?"
"Y-yeah, we are."
Wouldn't you know — they were adventurers.
"What rank?"
"D — D-rank."
And their rank was even higher than ours.
"You're D-rank but taking E-rank jobs?"
"Yeah. I mean, I could promote to C, but E-rank pet searches are steady money."
Once you hit C-rank, you couldn't take E-rank jobs anymore.
So some people deliberately stayed at D-rank to keep earning from E-rank work.
In their case it was basically fraud, but still.
If it were us, we'd promote to C as fast as possible and start taking on B-rank extermination jobs.
Then again, there were probably adventurers who weren't great at combat.
Hmm — what if we had them take on C-rank jobs, and we helped them with those?
Split the rewards evenly, solve the money problem.
No wait — that wouldn't raise our guild rank.
"Oh..."
That's when it hit me like a bolt of lightning.
I had a great idea.
"You guys... without that other guy, can you keep doing this job?"
"N-no, I think I'm done with this kind of work. I want to go straight—"
"Answer me honestly."
"...We can keep going! That guy found out about our operation and threatened us, saying he wanted his cut!"
Seriously?
They'd gotten lucky, then...
One in three chance they'd guessed right.
Maybe that was the
"Alright, then let's team up."
The moment I said that, Ruijerd shouted from behind me.
"Team up?! What are you talking about?!"
"Ruijerd, could you be quiet for a moment?"
"What?!"
"It won't be anything bad."
"..."
I turned around.
Ruijerd was, as expected, wearing a terrible expression.
I'd thought it was a brilliant idea, but maybe I should call it off?
No — this plan was perfect.
Money would roll in, rank would go up, and Ruijerd's reputation would improve.
It satisfied everything. A flawless strategy... in theory.
I turned back to the lizard man.
"Earlier you said you'd do anything, right?"
"I-I'll even pay money if you spare my life."
"I don't need money. In exchange, raise our rank by one."
"Huh?"
I explained.
"Listen. As you can see, we're all combat types.
We don't mind pet searches, but extermination jobs would be more efficient for us."
"Th-that makes sense... Actually, why are you guys doing this kind of work?"
"Long story short — we just became adventurers."
"I-I see..."
"Well, never mind that."
I pulled the conversation back before it went off track.
"So here's the deal. We want to take combat jobs, but our rank's too low.
On the other hand, you can't take combat jobs. Got that?"
"Y-yeah."
"So let's swap jobs."
The lizard man tilted his head slightly at the word "swap."
"Wh-what exactly do you mean?"
"You take on C or B-rank combat jobs.
We take pet-search jobs to raise our rank.
You do our jobs, and we do yours."
"W-wait a minute. If another party reports a job we accepted..."
"Idiot! Each party reports the jobs they accepted."
"Oh."
The man finally caught on.
Us: Accept E-rank jobs, do B-rank work. Report E-rank, collect the reward.
Them: Accept B-rank jobs, do E-rank work. Report B-rank, collect the reward.
That was the structure.
At the end, we'd swap rewards.
There might be guild regulation issues, but I'd heard that higher-rank adventurers sometimes helped with lower-rank jobs.
We'd just be doing the reverse. No foul play.
"We want money and rank.
You want stable income.
It's a give-and-take arrangement.
If you want, I'll even let you keep a cut of the B-rank job rewards."
"A c-cut of the B-rank rewards..."
The lizard man gulped.
B-rank rewards were lucrative.
Carrot and stick.
Beat them down too much and they'd betray you.
I had to give them something too.
I needed them to believe that working with us would be profitable.
"But there's one condition."
"A c-condition?"
"Yeah. Spread the name of 'Dead End.'"
"Spread it...? There's nobody who doesn't know it already."
Probably true.
"Make us look good. Tell everyone how upstanding we are — lie if you have to.
You could even take F-rank jobs and introduce yourselves as Dead End, if you want."
"Wh-why would we do that...?"
Why indeed.
Would he believe me if I went into the full history of Ruijerd's past?
No, probably not.
This guy had just watched Ruijerd kill his comrade right in front of him.
The guy who'd been killed wasn't exactly a great buddy, but still — the terror of the Superd tribe was probably burned into his psyche.
"Some things are better left unknown."
"...I-I understand."
I'd just been saying whatever, but he seemed to get it.
"So we just... push your name as much as we can?"
"That's right. Though if it ever works against you, don't mention it, okay?
We've got one of those types who'll chase you to the ends of the earth."
The man glanced at Ruijerd and nodded vigorously.
"Let's get along — at least until our rank goes up."
"Y-yeah, yeah."
"Tomorrow morning, meet us at the adventurer guild. Don't skip out on us."
I gave him a pat on the back.
--- I did question the woman too, just to verify the story.
They were pet-searching specialists who'd been doing this kind of work for a long time.
At some point, they'd found a clearly lost pet and thought — what if we caught pets before anyone else and saved ourselves the trouble?
That idea snowballed into pet kidnapping.
At first it had just been the two of them, small-time.
Then one day, Man A caught them in the act of capturing a pet.
He forced his way into the party, claiming he'd serve as a bodyguard, and from there he'd taken charge and expanded the operation.
He'd demanded to sleep with the woman as a "bodyguard fee" and took a bigger cut too.
That was why they hadn't been too upset about his death.
At least, the woman hadn't.
We really had been lucky.
Incidentally, the lizard man's name was Jarril.
The woman's name was Vesker.
I finished a quick briefing with them, then removed their handcuffs.
--- When I walked out of the building with the cat, Ruijerd was glaring at me.
"Hey, what the hell was that?!"
"What do you mean, what?"
Ruijerd grabbed me by the collar.
My feet lifted off the ground.
"Don't play dumb!
Those people are criminals!
And you want to team up with them?!"
He was genuinely furious.
He looked truly terrifying.
Seeing that face, I remembered again that this man had just killed someone moments ago.
"Th-they are criminals, yes, but small-time ones.
They weren't doing anything that terrible."
"It doesn't matter the scale — a criminal is a criminal!"
I'd known this would happen.
And yet my legs were shaking.
My voice was trembling.
Tears were gathering in the corners of my eyes.
"Be-because this plan is a win-win..."
"...And so what?!"
Ruijerd wasn't buying it.
This was bad.
My mind wasn't working from the fear.
All I could hear was the chattering of my own teeth.
"Criminals will betray you!"
Ruijerd snarled and shouted.
Betrayal.
I'd considered that possibility.
But it was in their interest too.
I'd scared them plenty — they should behave for a while.
"I can't believe you'd partner up with people like that!"
Hearing him say that, I wavered.
He was right.
We didn't have to team up.
We could just take our time.
When we ran out of money, we'd go hunt monsters on the plains.
Take jobs little by little and slowly raise our rank.
That would work too.
We didn't need to use those people at all.
It'd just take a detour.
That's all.
Should I call it off?
Turn around right now and go kill them all?
Take a blood bath — literally?
I hesitated.
Was I doing the right thing?
"Ruijerd!"
What snapped me out of my indecision was a deafening shout.
With a sharp crack, Ruijerd's body lurched.
"Let go of Rudeus right now!"
Eris was kicking Ruijerd in the rear.
Over and over and over.
"What is your problem?!"
Eris's voice was enormous.
It rattled my eardrums.
People nearby were turning to look.
"I don't like working with criminals."
"So you're going to complain just because you don't like it?!
Everything he's doing is for me and you!"
Ruijerd's eyes went wide.
My body dropped to the ground with a thud.
Eris stopped kicking.
But her shouting didn't.
"All he did was grab some animals — so what?!"
"That's not the point. A person who'd kick a child—"
"I'd kick someone too if I had to!"
"...Evil is evil."
"Weren't you doing bad things back in the day too?!"
Ruijerd was speechless.
Eris.
I appreciate you being on my side, but digging into his past like that is a bit much.
"Rudeus is amazing!
If you just leave it to him, everything works out!
So shut up and do as he says!"
"..."
"So don't go complaining just because something unpleasant happened!"
"No—"
"If you're going to complain, then go home!
Rudeus and I can handle things on our own!"
Ruijerd was clearly shaken by Eris's intensity.
"...Fine. I'm sorry."
In the end, Ruijerd apologized to me.
He'd been steamrolled by Eris's force of will.
He definitely wasn't convinced.
"N-no, it's fine..."
Still, I felt like the bar had been raised significantly.
There was no room to say I was still hesitating.
Teaming up with those guys had been rash, probably.
But now that things had gone this far, I couldn't change my mind.
I was full of doubt, but all I could do was push forward.
I'd have to trust the version of myself who'd thought this was a brilliant idea.
Which was hard, since I trusted myself the least of anyone...
--- We delivered the cat.
Maïselle, the client, was overjoyed.
The moment she saw the cat, she ran to it and hugged it tight, tears streaming down her face.
She must have really treasured it.
The cat was calm too.
Well, it was a black panther, technically.
"Thank you! Here — take this!"
What she handed to Ruijerd was a card made of iron or something similar.
On the front was written: ========== D040023 Complete ========== "What's this?"
"You're an adventurer and you don't know?!"
The girl looked at me like I'd said something unbelievable.
Look, I'll grant you permission to educate me.
"Pl-please, if you would, explain."
"So you bring this to the adventurer guild and they'll exchange it for money."
Ah, I see.
D040023 was the job number.
I didn't know how the numbering system worked, though.
"At first it doesn't say 'Complete'!
But if you put your finger on the blank part and say 'Complete,' it changes!"
Roughly: "Place your finger on the card and say 'Complete,' and the card enters a completed state."
Theft prevention, huh.
But wait — what if someone like me did it? Wouldn't it become complete?
Steal the card, mark it complete, collect the money...
No, they'd catch that right away.
They'd have countermeasures in place.
"But it was already marked 'Complete' when I got it, wasn't it?"
Normally, you'd mark the card as complete at the same time you reported the job completion.
"Mm-hmm! I knew Ruijerd could handle it somehow.
So I marked it complete ahead of time!"
Well, how adorable.
This girl was cute.
Believing girls are beautiful!
Ruijerd patted her on the head.
"...I see. You trusted me. Thank you."
"Nope! I just learned that even demons can be nice people!"
At the word "demon," Ruijerd's face froze for an instant.
I knew how he felt, but yeah — that's about the extent of his reputation right now.
"Well then, miss — Ruijerd of 'Dead End.' Please, don't forget."
"Mm! If he goes missing again, I'll come find you!"
The girl's words made my chest hurt just a little.
--- By the time we returned to the adventurer guild, it was fully evening.
It had taken a lot longer than expected.
If every job went like this, we'd go broke fast.
"Hey, would you look at that — they actually came back!"
"So, did you find the lost little kitty?!"
The moment we stepped inside, a guy with a horse's head started heckling us.
Minotaur-like, but with a horse's head.
Distinctive enough that I remembered him.
Wait, had this guy been in the guild the whole time?
"Huh? You're that horse-faced guy from this morning...
Don't you have work today?"
I didn't like this guy very much.
He reminded me of someone who used to bully me back in my old life.
Like — "I'm gonna pick on this guy now, so everyone join in," kind of vibe.
"Wh-what's with the polite act all of a sudden?
That's creepy..."
Oops, I'd forgotten to keep up the act.
Better play it cool.
"I was merely showing due respect to a senior who offered us advice."
"O-oh, really?"
Horse-face was blushing.
This guy was way too easy.
"Thanks to that, we completed the job successfully."
"What?"
I waggled the completed card in front of him.
Horse-face looked genuinely impressed.
"That's something. Pets in this town are damn hard to find, you know?"
Well, of course.
When the reason they go missing is human intervention.
"Well, for Ruijerd of 'Dead End,' it was a piece of cake."
"No kidding... For a fake, he's pretty damn good."
"I told you he's the real deal!"
I put on one last performance, then headed to the counter.
I handed the completion card and our three adventurer cards to the clerk.
After a while, the adventurer cards came back along with a single coin that looked like a rusty hundred-yen piece.
Hm. Cheap-looking.
When I returned, Ruijerd was talking to horse-face.
"So how'd you find it? Teach me — for reference."
"Just used tracking techniques from hunting."
"Hunting! What was your tribe called again?"
"...The Superd tribe."
"Yeah yeah, I know. I can tell from that pendant."
Horse-face's eyes were fixed on the pendant at Ruijerd's chest —
"I'm Nokopara. C-rank."
"I'm Ruijerd. F-rank."
"I already know you're F-rank! Anyway, if there's anything you don't know, just ask. I'll teach you anything — I'm the senior here! Gahahaha!"
Ruijerd and horse-face seemed to be having a good conversation.
The universally disliked Ruijerd chatting with someone was a good sign.
But I worried he might say something unnecessary, or suddenly snap and attack.
Especially — I hoped he wouldn't bring up anything about children.
Speaking of worry, Eris next to me was a concern too.
There was someone sitting beside her who kept glancing over and trying to talk to her, but since she didn't understand the language, she didn't respond.
"Hey, you — that's a nice sword. Where'd you get it?"
"............"
"Hey! Say something!"
I could see a female warrior getting annoyed at being ignored.
"What's wrong?"
I hurried over to intervene.
The female warrior just said "Tch, never mind" and walked away.
In her place, Nokopara approached me.
"Hey kid — you get your reward okay?"
"Yes. One scrap-iron coin. It's our first earnings."
"Haha, that's pretty damn cheap."
"You shouldn't say that about a little girl's hard-saved pocket money."
"Still cheap, though."
"It's not about the amount."
I thought about that little girl smashing open her piggy bank to find her cat.
If you imagined that scene, you'd understand that one scrap-iron coin was no small sum.
"You wouldn't understand its value.
Go away — shoo shoo."
"Rude, man. Well, good luck to ya."
Nokopara waved his hand and started wandering around the guild.
What kind of work did this guy even do, really...
And just like that, our first job was complete.