episode_0035

“You…help me?”

“That’s right, I need your help too”

It was so fascinating to see a stray cat talking and curling its tail down as if wary of a human it had never seen before, so I looked at its tail closely.

“…Why do you see it like that…”

“It’s so amazing that the tail moves freely”

When I pointed to her gently fluttering tail, Asha blushed in surprise, rolled up her tail, and kept her distance from me.

“Pervert…”

Although the words were clearly harsh, the tone of the speech was soft, so there was no significant damage.

“Hmm! Let’s get to the point!”

I cleared my throat once to change the subject.

“I need a little information”

“Information…?”

I picked up a chair lying nearby and roughly dusted it off with my hands.

“How do you know my job?”

Asha’s eyes were filled with suspicion, so I stopped for a moment while trying to sit down on the chair.

If I, a first-time acquaintance, knew my name and what my occupation was, I would be suspicious and wary of Asha.

“That’s it… I’m also an information dealer?”

“For information…??”

Looking at me with distrust, I calmly sat down on the chair again and crossed my legs.

“I heard a lot of praise for you from the information merchants around me, so I came looking for you”

Did you say that in the era before the spread of the Internet and smartphones, the fastest thing was word of mouth?

With their wide feet, they will surely share what they know with each other and combine news from around them to create valuable information.

“I can’t tell you in detail yet, but I’m busy with other things and it’s hard for me to collect information on my own. I want you to do my part”

Asha seemed to be lost in thought for a moment at my words.

“What do you mean by helping me?”

After thinking, Asha raised her head, folded her hands to her chest, and asked quietly.

I took a gold coin out of my pocket and flicked it with my thumb.

“This, this…”

“Isn’t money what you need?”

Asha’s sapphire eyes, looking at the gold coin, shine brighter than any other jewel.

Asha looked at me, swallowed her saliva once, and shook her head back and forth.

“This, this…”

I wondered why he was so hesitant and returned the gold coin I gave him back to me.

“What, don’t you need money?”

As I was in need of money, I thought gold coins would be nice, but my eyes widened at the unexpected rejection.

“That’s true, but just in case, I don’t tend to take advance payments…”

In this world that is trying to ruin us, seeing Asha, a conscientious person who returns gold coins for such a trivial matter, makes me think of her as an innocent child.

“It’s yours, think of it as a down payment”

“G-Ji-i-i-i-ji Really?

Where had that gentle tone gone? When I saw Asha pricking up her ears with sparkling eyes and tapping her tail on the ground in joy, I burst out laughing.

“Why are you smiling…”

When Asha asked, blushing and puffing out her cheeks as if embarrassed, I shook my head.

“No, no, it’s just cute”

When I spoke with a hint of a smile, Asha blushed red, and her guard against me seemed to have eased to some extent, with her tail gently wagging.

“More than that, it is a down payment…”

“The reason I gave the down payment is because I wanted you to become my exclusive information dealer”

“Exclusive information award? Do you mean to ask me to work only for you?”

Perhaps feeling strong curiosity, the tip of Asha’s tail begins to flutter.

Information dealers in this world are people who work as freelancers without any affiliation, so this may be their first time working under someone’s affiliation.

“That’s right, if you sign an exclusive contract with me, I will give you a certain amount of money every month”

“You mean you want to hire me as an employee?”

Asha thought with a worried expression and then made a stern expression as if she didn’t feel like it.

“You seem to think that salaried workers can’t make a lot of money?”

“Uh, how did you know??”

Just as a cat’s pupils dilate when it finds something interesting, Asha also turned to face me with round pupils and asked, and I raised my index finger.

“If you work next to me, how about I give you information that will help you earn tens of times that amount of gold?”

Being a salaried worker has the advantage of receiving a stable and regular payment, but has the disadvantage of not being able to receive large profits.

In contrast, freelancers have the advantage of being able to make a lot of money if a big deal is caught, but if not, the disadvantage is that their income is not certain.

“If it is several tens of times…”

Of course, I don’t have a large amount of money in hand yet, so I can’t give compensation or anything like that, but I can give you the corresponding information.

Information that can earn tens of times the amount of gold I have. That is the idea of modern civilization.

“Hehehe…”

As long as Asha throws in some knowledge of modern civilization that she can understand, she will definitely be able to scoop up the gold coins.

But how to use it is up to Asha.

“Oh, right. Can you tell me what time it is?”

Asha, who suddenly woke up from a meltingly sweet dream, turned her head and asked.

“Time?”

As I said that, I took out a pocket watch from my pocket and checked the current time.

“It’s about 9 o’clock in the evening?”

“Big trouble! Oppa, can we talk about work while moving?”

Asha was surprised when she heard the time I was talking about and quickly prepared to leave, and I was embarrassed and just followed her.

“What is it? Are you busy with anything?”

“It’s not necessarily like that, but my younger siblings are waiting for me…”

We went out of the abandoned house while being on high alert.

“Did you have a younger brother?”

Asha nodded in agreement and leaned against the corner wall to check for presence.

“One younger brother and one younger sister”

“Oh, I see…”

I wasn’t that surprised because I already thought that just as Ilicia and LaBoille had past stories that I didn’t know about, Asa also had her own story.

“What about your parents?”

“He passed away a long time ago and is no longer around”

When I didn’t know what to do, Asha looked at me and smiled and waved her hand.

“It’s okay. It was a long time ago…I don’t have such good memories.”

He smiled and said it was okay, but his last words seemed very lonely.

“Uh, uh…yeah…”

When I ask everyone, each person has a serious situation, so I’m scared to ask anymore.

Asha, who was leading the way, began to show me the way with hand gestures, and after a few minutes of quietly walking along the road, we arrived at a shabby shack.

“Is this right…? Everything was destroyed?”

The state of the shattered shack seemed to fit the word miserable very well, and Asha, seeing the ruined house, was scared and tried to run into the house.

“Louis, Lia—!”

The sound of something breaking and being roughly moved is heard from inside.

I quickly grabbed Asha’s hand and pulled her towards me, covering her mouth and putting my index finger to her lips.

“There’s someone else in there, calm down first”

Asha was startled, then held her breath and nodded, and only after she regained her composure did I release the hand that was covering her mouth.

I ducked down, made as little noise as possible, and went over to the window to take a look at the current situation.

“That guy’s younger brothers are going to be here?”

“Tch, did he just notice and run away…”

These are the men I ran into in the alley.

“Oppa…”

“Shh…”

The men had blunt weapons in their hands as they began to rummage through various places, starting from the closet. They were rummaging through the house, destroying everything that was offensive.

Among them, a wooden box shaking violently as if an earthquake had occurred.

Looking at the slightly sticking out yellow tail, Asha’s younger siblings are probably hiding there.

“I will attract attention, so take my younger siblings and go outside…”

As I spoke in a whisper, Asha swallowed her saliva once and nodded carefully.

I picked up a wooden plank that had fallen near the house and headed to an abandoned house a little away from here.

“Huh!”

Starting with the old table, they smashed everything up to the glass window.

“Brother!! Here it is!! That bitch is here!!”

“What? Let’s go!”

As the world shouts and gives strength to the boat to leave, I hear the sound of men running here.

I threw down the wooden plank I was holding, ran out through what appeared to be the back door, and headed back to Asha’s house.

“Oppa!”

Fortunately, Asha was waiting for me with her younger siblings safely out, and I quickly grabbed Asha’s wrist and ran out of the alley.

“Ha…ha…I guess this is okay…”

I ran so hard that I was out of breath and arrived safely at the accommodation where I was staying.

“This is…?”

“Ah, this is the accommodation I’m staying in. I’ll give you a separate room, so you can stay here with your younger siblings for a while. It’ll be safe here even from those thugs.”

“But…”

Asha looked hesitant for a moment, as if my favor was burdensome or unwilling, and then nodded as if there was nothing else she could do.

““Sister, older sister…””

Like kittens looking for their mother cat, the little guys gathered around Asha.

“I’m hungry…”

“I too…”

These little kids, as if they didn’t care about my presence, made growling noises, pulled the hem of Asha’s clothes, and screamed.

“First, tell the owner here that you are looking for a room for someone named Harry and go in first to rest. I will get some food for your younger siblings”

“Ah…you don’t have to go that far…”

“Is it the boss’s duty to care about employee welfare? Well, I haven’t heard a definite answer yet”

I patted Asha’s head as she looked apologetic.

“…that”

“Huh?”

Asha, who was looking at the floor with her ears folded, held her younger siblings’ hands tightly as if she had made a promise and looked at me with her lowered head raised.

“I will become your exclusive information dealer!”

At Asha’s answer, which spoke with pricked ears, a stiff tail, and sparkling eyes, I happily ruffled her hair and laughed.

“Really? Then, I guess I should bring something delicious for the welcome party today, right?”

“Ugh…”

Asha frowns and raises her hand to straighten her tangled hair.

“Then go in with your younger siblings first”

“Yes…”

I don’t know if the street vendor’s door is open at this time, but if I look, there will be several troops there, so I walked quickly.

If Asha gathers information about DH and her weak points, everything will start to go smoothly.

“Good…”

The street vendor closed earlier than I expected, so I headed to Anzulus Labia, packed as much meat as I could, and stood in front of my room.

As I put my hand on the door handle to enter the room, I heard a loud noise coming from inside.

“No way…”

How come those thugs have already followed us here?

“Asha!”

Feeling worried, I quickly opened the door and entered the room, and was startled by the appearance of an unexpected person.

“Harry…?”

“Elysias?”

“Oppa…Brother…”

Asha was protecting her younger siblings with tearful eyes. Elisias, who was aiming his sword at her, looked back and forth between Asha and me, then sighed and retracted the sword.

“It arrived sooner than expected…? Didn’t I say it would take a few days?”

“Thanks to Illisha’s help, I was able to quickly collect the ingredients… more than that… ”

Elisias glared at me very coldly with narrowed eyes. I turned my head to avoid his gaze.

“How come you end up getting involved with only women?”

He spoke with a secret smile, but that smile was full of murder.

“Oh, kid, it just so happened to be good. What I asked for was-”

Illisha appeared behind me and stopped.

“ing? What’s happening again?”

Illisha, who saw what had happened and smiled like a fish, walked out of the room again and put her mouth to my ear.

“Woooo~~ You playboy, go out~”

“Guys…it’s because of circumstances…”