Ch.314The Man, and the Woman of the Night Cat Clan

Moving to the restaurant across from the clinic with Jessica’s father, Steve, we found suitable seats and ordered food and drinks.

“Thank you for helping my wife. Honestly, traveling all the way to Atelier isn’t easy, and I was at a loss about what to do.”

“I just happened to have something useful. But let’s speak casually. I didn’t get to mention this earlier because of the situation… but I’m dating your daughter Jessica.”

“What? Is that true, Jessica?”

“Yes, Dad.”

Steve’s eyes widened when he heard I was dating his daughter. After seeing Jessica’s affirmative response, he let out a bemused laugh.

“Well, well… life is full of surprises. To think that my shy Jessica would find a boyfriend, and even beat out such formidable competition.”

“Shy?”

“Jessica?”

The women seemed unable to believe Steve’s assessment, having only seen Jessica’s assertive and decisive side. But knowing how she had been losing confidence because of being a Codex Mage, I could understand what he meant.

However, regardless of Jessica’s positive changes, there was something in Steve’s statement that needed correction.

“I’m sorry to say this, but the part about beating out competition isn’t quite accurate.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m actually dating not just Jessica, but all four of them here, except for the Dark Elf.”

A moment of silence enveloped the table.

Steve’s movements froze so completely that I almost thought my danger detection skill had activated.

Eventually, he slowly turned his head toward Jessica, who nodded slightly with a blush on her face.

Well, what would come next? A fist? A bottle? A shotgun for a father with a daughter?

*SLAM*

“This is… so enviable!!”

Ah, so that’s his reaction…

~~~ South Forest of the 8th Western City Construction Site ~~~

While Will’s group was having a serious conversation with Jessica’s father Steve, a suspicious meeting was taking place in a tent about 1km away from the construction site.

On one side was a human man in his late 40s counting the contents of an old wallet, and on the other was a cat-folk woman of about 20 wearing a “Collar of Servitude.”

“110 gold and 80 coins… you brought back such a pittance and couldn’t even clean up properly, causing it to make the newspapers?”

“…I’m sorry. That woman suddenly ran into the place where I was hiding from the rain, and…”

Looking at the cat-folk woman trembling as she lay prostrate, the middle-aged man stroked the blade of a sinister curved sword with his fingertip.

It was too long to be a dagger but a bit short for a longsword—a blade with the perfect size and sharpness for assassination.

“You’re sure you weren’t seen?”

“Yes. The artifact still had more than 20 minutes of operation time left.”

“Footprints?”

“I only walked where other footprints already existed, so there’s no worry about being tracked.”

“…Good. As expected of a cat-folk, at least your movements are useful.”

The man then took out a small gem from a box beside him and placed it against the dragon-head pommel on the sword’s handle.

The metal dragon’s mouth, which had been merely decorative, opened wide and devoured the gem. Soon after, several bumps appeared on the handle.

In this state, firmly gripping the handle would make the user invisible, with the bumps disappearing one by one to indicate the remaining time of the invisibility effect.

“You seem to have a poor memory, so let me remind you… this sword is a very pre~cious artifact that casts invisibility magic proportional to the value of the gem it’s fed.”

“Yes, master.”

“And what happens when you bring back less money than the value of the gem used?”

“…It’s worse than not using the gem at all.”

“You know that and still do this!?”

*THWACK!*

The man suddenly kicked the cat-folk woman in the face. Caught unprepared, her lip split open, bleeding profusely, but she prostrated herself before him once again.

Yet the man, seemingly unsatisfied with her attitude, continued to stomp on her back with his boot.

*STOMP! STOMP!*

“I trusted you because you did well a couple of times and gave you five gems, but you used them all and only brought back 110 gold? If this is all you’re going to earn, why use the gems at all!”

“B-but… you said I absolutely must not, ugh… be seen…”

“Then you should have moved quickly and earned more than you spent! Why waste time hiding from rain!?”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…!”

The man’s words were unreasonable.

After the second victim, patrols by sheriffs had intensified, and as rumors of a serial killer spread, targets walking alone were rarely seen.

Moreover, even with an invisibility artifact, one could be detected in the pouring rain, so hiding indoors in a deserted place until the rain stopped was not a bad choice.

The problem was that she had continued to use gems to avoid being seen as the rain lasted longer than expected.

And she hadn’t earned enough to make up for the cost.

“Haah~ At this rate, all my days of hard work will barely break even.”

Grumbling, the man plopped down on the ground. Noticing the cat-folk woman’s cleavage as she remained prostrate, he cleared his throat and spoke in a somewhat softer voice.

“Well, fine. What’s done is done… come here and ‘service’ me a bit.”

“…Yes, master.”

The cat-folk woman roughly wiped the blood from her mouth with her sleeve, approached the man, undid his belt, and buried her face between his thighs.

Despite the lewd slurping sounds filling the tent, the man’s expression was far from satisfied.

“…Hey. I heard cat-folk women can emit a seductive scent to please men, so why can’t you do even that?”

“I’m shorry…”

“You really are just stupid and useless… if you had any other master, you’d have been sold to outlaws long ago, had your limbs cut off, and lived as a breeding vessel. Got it?”

“Yesh…”

Looking down at the cat-folk slave who was now servicing him with greater effort after his explicit threat, the man began to think about his next move.

‘It seems like I won’t be able to have much more fun here… but moving to another city would make it hard to find people carrying bundles of cash.’

The artifact the man possessed—a magic sword that provided invisibility—was certainly remarkable.

However, it required feeding it gems worth at least 200 gold to activate its power for just one hour, and considering the time needed to select targets, infiltrate, and escape, it was barely enough for one kill.

In other words, he needed to target people carrying at least 200 gold to make it worthwhile.

The problem was that in other cities, few people carried that much cash on them.

It was common practice to keep money in safe banks and only carry what was immediately needed in wallets.

The only places where people commonly carried hundreds of gold were construction sites where banks hadn’t been built yet.

‘No choice. I’ll do just one more job, then sell this sword on the black market.’

After all, it was an artifact he’d found in the belongings of an adventurer killed by monsters, so he wouldn’t miss it even if he sold it cheaply.

He would lay low for a few days, then make one last big score before enjoying a leisurely retirement somewhere far away, like Ambers Ranch or Karn Farm in the east.

For his final target—

“…Hey, Tia. Stop for a moment and look up.”

“Slurp… Yes?”

“Do you think you could handle an adventurer?”

Pointing at the curved sword he had set aside, the man asked, and the cat-folk slave called ‘Tia’ thought for a moment before answering carefully.

“If they don’t have special defensive measures… and if they’re not a beastkin, I think it’s possible.”

“Why not beastkin?”

“They would smell me before I got close.”

“Right. That’s true…”

As the man stood up and began adjusting his pants, Tia prostrated herself again, thinking he was displeased with her ‘service’ and about to hit her.

But the man paid no attention to Tia and instead gathered the animal hides piled on the floor.

“I’m going into the city for a bit, so stay hidden and out of sight. Don’t use any gems.”

“What…? Yes, master.”

One last time.

He needed to choose the most profitable target, which required gathering information.

Maintaining his humble identity as a D-rank hunter while keeping the existence of his cat-folk slave hidden was all for this kind of flexible approach.

‘Now… let’s see who among those gathered at this western frontier is the richest.’

About 20 minutes later, the man’s sharp eyes spotted the bizarre carriage he had recently seen in the newspaper.