56th
A Midnight Talk
056 ? Midnight Talk #1
“Do you know of a woman named Luna?”
The security guards who stopped me on the street asked me that. Until just a moment ago, I was scared that they were going to stop me for questioning, or that I was being arrested for doing something illegal without my knowledge.
I couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded when I heard Luna’s name from the guards’ mouths.
“Luna? Do you have pink hair?”
“Yes. A bronze-tier adventurer from the Sodomora Mars Guild. I heard that Hassan of Samaria is in a party with you.”
“That’s true. But what on earth is going on…?”
“I don’t have enough time to explain. I need you to accompany me to the guard office first.”
I headed to the guard office located in the Seomun area under what I couldn’t tell whether it was an escort or surveillance by the guards.
The person who seems to have the least to do with these armed soldiers is Luna. Why on earth is Luna’s name on their lips?
I wanted to ask them something, but no matter how many times I tried to ask them, they just kept beating around the bush saying, “Go there yourself and check for more details.”
I worried for a moment that I might be falling into some strange trap masquerading as the Coast Guard, but soon I was able to arrive at the Coast Guard office.
The guard office is similar to a local police station, located in a certain area, such as the west gate, north gate, and south gate of the city. The work they do is similar.
Oops, oops.
Swish-.
As I opened the iron door of the office and stepped inside, a group of muscular men with fierce features looked at me, adjusting their armor and weapons. One of them asked the guard who had come with me.
“Is this guy that?”
“It’s Samaritan. I found him in front of the library and brought him here. What is the victim doing now?”
“He became quiet after I gave him something to eat. Thanks to him, all the jerky I was planning to eat as a drinking snack disappeared.”
The guard answered like that and gestured to the iron bars installed in a corner of the office.
Following the gesture, I moved my gaze and saw a small, dainty person sitting with his body curled up, leaning his back against the cold-looking wall.
Sitting with her buttocks on the floor and her knees pulled up, she looked like a large egg or ball. But those distinctive pink twin tails were now a delight to my eyes.
“Luna, what are you doing there!”
Luna locked in a juvenile detention center? Oh my, this was something I had never expected, so I couldn’t help but scream in surprise. Luna slowly lifts herself up, as if she heard my voice.
“…Hassan?”
“Yeah, it’s me! What are you doing there? Why are you here like this?”
“Hassan! D, listen! I got scammed! They scammed all the money I had! I’m broke now!”
Luna was blushing bright red and screaming loudly. She was scammed out of all her remaining money? What was she talking about?
Anyway, it was the first time I saw Luna get angry. She was curled up in the cage, but when she remembered what had happened before, she seemed to be losing her temper and even started to grumble.
“… Deer! Watch out for the deer!”
Turning my gaze away from the excited Luna, I couldn’t help but ask the guards at the security office what on earth was going on.
“… Hey, Nari. But why is Luna locked up in a cage?”
“I was so excited that I had to isolate him for a while until he calmed down. Even if they said they would isolate him in the office, it would be nothing more than a cage.”
“No, but are you saying that we should lock people up like criminals?”
“Where does that little body get its strength? It took quite a while to stop it. It seems to have calmed down a bit now. Hyung-ssi, go inside and try to calm it down a bit.”
Clank, clank-.
“Hic!”
As the guard tried to open the iron door, Luna began to tremble again, as if she was terrified.
The sight is similar to that of an abandoned animal turning wild, and it is both pitiful and funny. Abandoning a pet is truly an extremely cruel crime.
Anyway, I carefully squeezed my way through the open iron door.
“Hey, what the hell is going on?”
“He, he ran away with the money…!”
“What? What are you talking about? Who ran off with the money?”
“Oh, the deer ran away with my 5 silver coins!”
A deer runs away with 5 silver? Shit, the more I listen to the story, the more my head becomes a mess.
Maybe Luna and I are both excited, which is why we are having trouble explaining and understanding the situation.
So I thought I needed to calm down Luna who was crying, so I patted her back. With my other hand, I gently held Luna’s palm to check her condition.
Swish, touch.
The letters that come to mind when I touch the guy’s tiny wrist.
『Name: Luna Noxdotty Lv. 8
Strength: 2
Agility: 5
Stamina: 1
Quirk: 《Running around》 Lover of evil food》
Status: Curse of Nox》Curse of Erebor》Weak Vase》
A vase?
Among the many curses, the new word ‘vase’ caught my eye quite a bit. Could that be why Luna is looking so excited?
So I pressed the spot floating on Luna’s little finger with my thumb.
This is the small congestion point, exactly 2cm above the little fingernail.
I remember that it was said that pressing this part was effective when a person was surprised or something.
It would have been good to take some Cheongsimhwan, but Luna soon began to shiver like someone shivering from the cold, as if there was no need to go that far.
“Ugh… , ugh… ! Ah… !”
『Cure Luna Noxdotti’s Weak Vagina』
『Task value + 10』
『Current task value: +67』
Oh, okay.
“Phew… .”
I asked Luna, who let out a sigh.
“How is it? Are you feeling calmer now?”
“… First, I have some business to attend to…”
* * *
So, that morning.
After breaking up with me, Luna is said to have spent her days busy cleaning and repairing the cabin she had created.
It took at least half a day just to clean up and decontaminate the place that had been an abandoned barn for over a decade.
“I’m done cleaning. I’m done cleaning. But I was really concerned about the holes in the walls and ceiling. So I tried to buy some planks. But I didn’t have enough money…”
Luna pauses as she recalls the events of that time. We are sitting at a table in the corner of the office, having a quiet conversation.
“I only had about 5 silver coins left. I was running around looking for lumber. Then, a man showed up who was willing to sell me the pine planks I wanted for exactly 5 silver coins.”
So Luna said she headed towards the south gate where a middle-aged man was stacking up planks.
Luna was usually active in the slums of Sodomora, the west gate area, so the geography of the south gate area was naturally unfamiliar to her.
The southern gate faced a long forest, so while it was suspicious, it was also expected that there would be wooden planks cut in the forest.
Anyway, Luna and the seller are said to have exited the south gate of Sodomora and entered the deep forest together.
As the name suggests, the forest is called Deer Forest, and deer with long, receding necks were seen here and there.
It is said that while Luna was being amazed by this sight, the deer suddenly gathered around her and began to act cute by licking her palms, shoulders, and face with their tongues.
“Well, one of them ran away with my purse in his mouth! The man started running away too! It was clear that the deer and the man had conspired to lure me out!”
Luna raises her voice again as if her excitement has not subsided.
So, to summarize what Luna said, is it that the man who sided with the deer lured Luna to a secluded place, stole her money, and ran away?
“No, was it really a deer that did that?”
“That’s right! So, I chased after it, but it was so fast that I couldn’t catch up. I lost all my money… So I told the security guards, but they trapped me.”
“This girl is causing a ruckus. She looks like a spring maiden. She’s no ordinary bet. I guess she’s a bronze tier adventurer.”
“aha.”
I felt like I could kind of understand how an excited Luna ended up locked up in a cage.
So, while I was searching for something to say with a complicated mind, the bronze helmeted guard who had been listening to our story spoke.
“Hassan of Samaria. I think this incident is related to the deer swindlers of the South Gate. I often hear that people get their money emptied by deer.”
What the hell is that deer swindler doing? This strange world is full of thieves who are probably studying how to creatively stab people in the back of the head.
Anyway, while I was lost in thought, the guard continued talking.
“The total damages he inflicted on me exceeded one hundred silver. If it exceeds one hundred silver, it’s considered a serious crime. However, he’s such a clever bastard that they can’t catch him. Hassan, I heard that you’re strong enough to catch a lion with your bare hands…?”
A lion? What a lion! – I thought, and then I remembered the Nemean cat that I had dragged out of the aquifer. That enormous cat.
Because Malko kept telling stories here and there, it seemed like he had solidified himself as a lion rather than a cat.
“What is that? Anyway, there are some really complicated circumstances… .”
I was about to explain myself because I couldn’t lie to the security guards who were supposed to keep the peace and catch criminals.
“If you can catch a lion with your own hands, you should be able to catch a deer easily. Since it has come to this, how about taking on a request from the guards while keeping your loyalty to your brother’s party members?”
“A request?”
I was dumbfounded when I heard that the request was from the guards. The organization that issues quests to adventurers is not just the guild building they belong to.
This is because government offices and temples that are in charge of public security work, such as the city guard, sometimes issue individual quests to adventurers and make requests.
According to Elfriede’s colleagues, quests from public institutions are cheap to pay and difficult to complete.
In the case of temple requests, the fee itself is extremely low because it requires ‘service’ that comes from religious beliefs.
Although it sounds like forced labor where you have to do hard work for cheap, adventurers are still anxious because they can’t receive quests from public institutions or temples.
Because adventurers who receive commissions from organizations and temples are proven to be adventurers with exceptional skills.
Also, it’s said that the contribution part, which has a big impact on the adventurers’ ranking system, will give you a significant plus point?
I understood it as a ‘quest that gives little reward but a lot of rank experience’, which is easy for me to understand.
When I was a slave, I used to wonder if I could one day become an adventurer who could receive commissions from public institutions like that.
Now that I think about it, I feel a little bit dazed. Rather, it doesn’t feel real.
“What do you think? Will you do it or not? A bounty of 50 silver is a lot of money.”
The man with the bronze helmet asked me again. The scale armor he was wearing shook with a creaking sound. Beneath the T-shaped hole in the helmet, his slightly tired blue eyes stared at me intently.
I’m scared for no reason even though I haven’t committed a crime. There’s something about the police station or the atmosphere that induces fear even in innocent people.
Then the man in the bronze helmet added a few more words.
“We don’t have a large budget, so we can’t set a generous salary. But if you do this job well, you’ll get a guild contribution, and you’ll have the opportunity to see our West Gate Guard more often in the future.”
It sounds like if I successfully complete this task, I will have some kind of connection with the government, including a contribution. And I have no reason to turn that down.
And even if these reasons don’t necessarily stick.
“My, my money… deer… .”
Luna, one of my companions, was so heartbroken that she was shocked. I couldn’t just sit still.
What if they stole a huge sum of money, 5 silver? If it were me, I would have been so angry that I would have screamed so loudly that I couldn’t sleep.
“Okay. Let’s give it a try.”
“It’s nice to hear a refreshing answer. Then I’ll give you some information about the Deer Scam Group and some places they might be hiding. And I don’t know how good Samaritan Brother is, but you’d better be careful.”
“Be careful?”
“The conman was originally a famous bronze tier adventurer. He was also a hunter. That’s why he’s so good at hiding his presence and erasing his tracks. He must be using the deer as a taming grace or something.”
Is this because you are a holder of grace?
I guess I really need to be careful.
[Work Review]
Emraim!!! Disappointment!!! Kadeom!!! Sky!!! Licorice Potion!!! Vurgil!!!
Calypso-nim!!! I will really use the sponsorship coupon with gratitude…!! I am also very grateful to those who sent me the manuscript fee coupons ㅠㅠ….
Today is the third consecutive day in that sense…!!!
