Chapter 65: Catch him (3)

Chapter 65: Catch him (3)

“Come
to think of it, Balkan doesn’t know what happened back then.”

Joy
Hog filled me in on the issue.

“I
received a request from Arpo, one of the academy professors and a
labyrinth ecologist. To be exact, it was through the assistant who
acted on behalf of Master Arpo.”

When
I had fallen into the fifth-floor transference trap, the Joey Hog
Party had been tasked by Professor Arpo’s assistant to get the staff
of the shaman Hobgoblin.

“Quite
a few explorers had tried and failed before we did. There are a lot
of hobgoblins in the village on the fifth floor.”

‘I
remember finding a map in the Hobgoblin Village on the fifth floor
that said, ‘Objective: Shaman Hobgoblin Staff!’’

Perhaps
the map was a remnant of the explorers who were commissioned before
Joy Hog’s party.

“Besides,
hobgoblin shaman staff is the best and most exploitable staff you can
get in the upper levels of the Labyrinth.”

I
know the power of the Hobgoblin Staff intuitively.

Ugh,
my head twitches with a spinal cord reflex and I remember a memory I
shouldn’t have.

Alas,
memories of the terrible Hobgoblins! Thou horrible thing that turns
men into cunt-hungry sperm-sack slaves!

“Even
without that coveted ⋯
no, nefarious ⋯
enchantment, the
staff itself is quite magically efficient.”

“The
Explorers’ Alliance that arranged the commission accepted it,
trusting that a professor or something wouldn’t use it for ‘such’
purposes, so we handed the staff over to the assistant and took the
commission.”

“Well,
isn’t that where it ends?”

You’ve
gotten what you were asked to get, you’ve handed it over to the
assistant who’s representing the professor, you’ve gotten paid, and
that’s it, right?

What
more is there to say?

Jubeel
and Joy Hog nodded at my words.

“That’s
right. It should have ended there.”

“However,
the teaching assistant was attacked by outlaws and disappeared.”

Hmm.

I
straightened my posture. This was going to be a pretty serious story.

Lammel
looked alarmed.

“Attacked?
Those crazy outlaws attacked an Academy professor’s assistant?”

“I
don’t believe it either, but that’s what the guards say. The carriage
the assistant was returning in was abandoned in an alleyway near the
noble district. It was smashed to pieces.”

“Huh.”

The
Labyrinth City of Valerus has a complex power structure, and the
Academy is one of the largest factions in the sprawling city.

The
professors of the academy, though there are variations, are usually
of high rank.

A
lowly explorer or outlaw would not be allowed to meet them even if
they wanted to.

Such
a professor’s research slaves⋯
No, assistants and students, are not to be messed with.

If
you mess with them, you’ll be going against their master⋯
the professor.

But
these crazy outlaw bastards didn’t just mess with her, they got rid
of her.

“Why
did they do that?”

“I
don’t know why but they didn’t find the Hobgoblin staff in the
wrecked carriage, either. I’m guessing the outlaws stole it.”

Hitolis
tilted her head at Joy Hog’s reply.

“I’ve
heard from a priest I know that there’s been an increase in the
number of men with pink tattoos and disfigured faces like they’ve
been attacked by monsters around the Outlaw District lately. Some
have even gone missing. I wonder why.”

“That’s
right, that theory.”

Jubeel
nodded, understanding the situation.

“Outlaw
bastards hijacked the Hobgoblin staff and are using it on the men for
their own pleasure, those lucky bastards. Pfft-!”

Joey
Hogg, who’d just given Jubeel a honey balm, wringed her hands and
looked at us.

“Well,
this isn’t really our problem. We’ve only fulfilled a request from
the Explorers’ Alliance, and what happened afterward is out of our
hands.”

Exactly.
The job ended when you collected the money and parted ways with the
assistant.

There’s
no reason for an explorer to protect an assistant, unless the
assignment involves stopping an outlaw raid.

Common
sense dictates that what happens in the Labyrinth is handled by the
explorers, and what happens on the ground is handled by the guards.

However,
stating something so obvious to everyone means that⋯.

“Something’s
happened again, the commission has fallen through, right?”

“Bingo.”

In
response to my answer, Joy Hog smirked and pulled out two scrolls.

The
scene was eerily familiar. They were the ones Joy Hog had gotten from
the guard yesterday.

-Chirp.

The
scrolls unfolded to reveal a map and two montages.

The
map was a map with a location tracking function, like the one held by
the teaching assistants when we received the Academy request, and the
montage was…

“A
map of the two most likely suspects in this case and their
locations.”

The
location on the map was the second floor of the Labyrinth. This can
only mean one thing.

‘An
outlaw has fled into the Labyrinth.’

Anything
with a long tail will get caught.

Either
they’re waiting for things to blow over, hoping the guards won’t
catch up with them, or they have another purpose for entering the
Labyrinth.

“The
Guards and Professor Arpo gave us the job to capture the outlaws and
bring back the staff. The Guards are paying us five contribution
points and Professor Arpo is paying us one gold coin.”

One
gold coin. That’s quite tempting.

The
Academy pays so well, normally I’d have to bow down and beg for a
favor.

“They’re
giving five contribution points for capturing two outlaws?”

But
the other party members were more interested in the contribution
points than the gold coins.

“What
are contribution points, anyway?”

I
asked Lammel, the only intelligent one in the group, and she
immediately looked alarmed.

“Balkan.
You have no common sense⋯
hmmm.
It’s nothing, just listen without putting your hand on the axe.”

Lammel
explained the contribution points.

“It’s
a score that must be raised in order to move up to a higher level
explorer. No matter how good you are, if your contribution is low,
you won’t even be able to move up to a mid-level explorer.”

I
nodded as she explained that every time I accepted a task that
benefited the Labyrinth City, or a sudden summons, my contribution
would increase.

‘I
guess I’ll have to do it at some point.’

“She’s
the reason they’re giving contribution points.”

Joy
Hog pointed to the montage to his right. A female rabbit, with eyes
so sinister you’d think she was in heat.

“Gurmimi,
an executive of the outlaw Clan Blues. She’s a rape socialist. She’s
fucked a hundred people, men and women alike. The record is years
old, but the highest floor she’s ever reached is the tenth floor.”

‘Blues?’

A
medium-sized outlaw clan that Grumpy used to slave for, said to do
all sorts of dirty work.

“So
they’d turn men into idiots and sell them as sex slaves with the
staff of the shaman Hobgoblin.”

“That’s
the most likely explanation.”

“But
who is this woman?”

Hitolis
pointed to the opposite montage.

It
was an ordinary woman. A featureless woman who looked like there
could be hundreds of them on the street.

“The
guards had no information on this one. But from what we’ve heard from
eyewitnesses to the rape, this woman was carrying a staff.”

Hmm.

I
watched the montage in silence.

“What
do you guys think of this assignment? I won’t take it if you guys
don’t like it.”

Joy
Hog asked with a mischievous look on her face, the look of someone
who knows the outcome.

This
was a party of ambitious people.

To
move on to higher and higher stages, they need high contributions,
and if they can make money along with the contributions, so even
better.

“If
I don’t accept these conditions, I’ll quit being an explorer.”

Jubeel’s
words were met with nods from the rest of the party.

And
with that our next quest was decided.

‘Capture
the Outlaws. And retrieve the staff of the shaman hobgoblin.’

It
sounds simple enough, but it won’t be easy.

‘Tricky
business in such a vast labyrinth⋯’

Perhaps
the difference between success and failure would depend on how deep
these guys descended.

“And
just in case they go below the eighth floor, another party has been
requested, a party that’s very close to being promoted to
Intermediate Explorers. I hope you’re all aware of that.”

I
didn’t pay much attention, but I was aware of the situation.

We
chatted for a while, and then we left.

“Accept
customers!! Diana!”

As
we were closing for the evening, Zernier burst into the inn.

-Kaaaaaah!

With
a helm that emitted a brilliant blue light and an axe in hand.

“⋯Be
careful what you wish for. I’ve just finished fixing the door.”

“I
don’t mind. If I break it, I’ll fix it again, with better wood.”

“I
don’t need it.”

Diana’s
eyes traveled to Zirnier’s hand.

“⋯⋯⋯⋯What’s
with this helmet and the axe?”

“Oh.
This?”

Zirnier
exchanged a look with Diana for a moment, then gestured to Balkan,
who was clearing a table in the corner.

“Balkan,
here I come! I thought you were going to pour me drinks!”

“Ah,
you’re here, but we’re closing in five minutes, aren’t we, Ms.
Diana?”

Diana
scratched her head.”⋯How
do these two talk so naturally⋯?”

She
had felt something was off when Balkan first came to her wearing
Zirnier’s helm, but that had to have been a coincidence.

“You
can drink one bottle in five minutes, and then two.”

“And
then it really rots your liver.”

“Don’t
disrespect the liver of a half-dwarf, hiccup.”

“You’ve
had a bottle already, I’m pretty tense.”

“A
bottle when I wake up, five when I work, one when I leave, and that’s
the life of a dwarf. Well, half, but never mind that. Put on the
helmet I got you. I made it just a little wider than your face
shape.”

‘⋯⋯Balkan
face shape? How does Zirnier have that⋯?’

Diana’s
eyes filled with confusion.

Whether
she realized it or not, Zernier continued nonchalantly.

“I’m
going to borrow a room for a while, Diana, just in case, but if it
doesn’t work out, we’ll have to go back to the drawing board.”

While
Diana fumbled and panicked at the suddenness of the situation,
Zernier dragged Balkan up to the second floor.

-Boom!

The
door slammed shut as Diana quickly followed them upstairs.

“No,
are we doing this again? The opening is perfect now, and the view is
clear enough.”

“We
need to accumulate data whenever we get the chance, we might need to
make a new helmet later.”

The
conversation was wholesome on the surface, but it was accompanied by
sounds that were unnerving to Diana’s ears.

The
sound of something being furiously groped, stroked, fondled, and
spanked.

After
a few moments, they emerged from the room.

“Diana,
how do you like my new helmet?”

Balkan
asked, touching the helmet on his head.

His
eyes were slightly more visible than before, perhaps because the eye
sockets were cut ever so slightly wider.

His
pupils were pitch-black, and they held nothing but Diana.

“Ahhh.
Yes. It’s nice. It suits you.”

“It
is, isn’t it? Hm. I’m glad.”

⋯What
was he glad for, that she thought it looked good?

Diana
felt her heart loosen momentarily at Balkan’s casual comment, but she
quickly tried to regain her composure.

She
smiled softly at Balkan, then turned to look at Zernier, who followed
him out the door.

Zirnier
made eye contact with Diana and quickly hid her hands behind her
back.

“Why,
why are you looking at me like that?”

“⋯⋯”

Diana
was well aware that Zirnier Besil was a machine, a woman with no
interest in the opposite sex.

But
the hands she had just seen were⋯⋯⋯

They
were not the cold hands of iron and machinery, but red and ripe as if
they had felt human heat.

Diana
answered her silently and expressionlessly while she thought quietly
in her mind.

‘Too
many vixens are interested in Balkan these days.’

***

Two
days later, the portal to the Labyrinth opened.