“Now, precious time is slipping away as we speak. Let’s begin sharing information.”
Yuridia urged everyone to start exchanging information.
Her intent to use this opportunity to wipe out Teron’s faction was as clear as day.
Had my expression soured too much? Luna subtly approached and whispered to me.
“Sharing information saves time, right? I thought it was a good idea… Was I wrong?”
“Keke, it’s not a bad choice. It’s just that we might have missed a better opportunity.”
“Then should we call it off? Just say the word, and I’ll break it right now. It’s a promise, not a contract.”
I couldn’t hastily tell her to go ahead.
To Luna, promises were as important as life itself.
Forcing her to break one could lower her affection for me. And that was a much bigger problem than it seemed.
‘Right now, Luna’s affection for me is over 100—MAX. It’s at the absolute limit.’
In this game, characters with MAX affection never refuse the player’s requests.
It varies from character to character, but some would even lay down their lives.
‘That makes it even trickier. Affection fluctuates drastically with every conversation and decision.’
But having MAX affection was invaluable.
Take last time with the high-ranking demon—Luna saved Dwener with her whole body, didn’t she?
But if this situation caused even a slight drop in her affection…
‘I might never recover it.’
I had never heard of someone regaining MAX affection once it dropped.
Losing just 10 points from MAX was far more severe than dropping from 90 to 80.
‘But would Luna’s affection really decrease over this? It feels like a waste to let this go…’
I was deep in thought. Opportunities to gain money and artifacts for free weren’t common.
As I hesitated, Luna patted my shoulder.
“Stop overthinking. I’ll break the promise.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“Of course, promises are important. But they’re not more important than you. Besides, I’m the one who made this promise, so it’s only right that I take responsibility.”
Even after hearing it directly, I couldn’t believe it.
Was this really the same mischievous Luna standing in front of me?
‘When did our Luna grow up so much?’
I almost wanted to ruffle her hair and shower her with praise—like a father proud of his daughter’s growth.
Cough!
Guh, cough!
Just then, Yuridia suddenly got a nosebleed, and Victoria coughed up blood.
“D-Did you hear that? ‘Nothing in this world is more important than you!’”
“And the next part! ‘I’ll take responsibility for your life!’”
Yuridia and Victoria screamed, their voices filled with sheer happiness.
…Had something been wildly distorted? No, those were completely different sentences!
But the two of them didn’t care and excitedly kept chattering.
Before I knew it, our conversation had been repackaged into a love story and was spreading all over town.
We needed to finish our objective and leave as soon as possible—before this love story turned into a wedding story!
“There’s no need for that. I’ll share the information.”
“Huh? Are you sure?”
“Yes. If I go back on my word now, I’ll lose all the trust I’ve built so far. Thinking about the future, this is an acceptable loss.”
“But…”
“More importantly, this is a promise Luna made. We can’t break it. I won’t turn a dear friend into a liar.”
“Zero…”
Luna’s eyes welled up with emotion.
Well, even I had to admit—it was a pretty cool line. What if she ends up falling for me at this rate?
‘Confession? No thanks.’
I answered in my head and fell into thought.
My decision to give up squeezing information out of them wasn’t just about affection.
‘They need to increase their stats too.’
Yuridia and Victoria were part of Party 1. Since they were final boss raid members, their growth was necessary.
That’s right. Stat boosts from deductions—I planned to maximize that effect in this episode.
‘If I forced Luna to break her promise, they might have refused to share information out of spite. No, I’m sure they would have.’
These were the same people who created a club just for Luna.
If she became dispirited, there was no telling what they might do.
Besides, Yuridia and Victoria weren’t the only ones who needed to share information.
Rodelin, Alex, and Raymon were also part of this.
We had to exchange information and use deductions to boost our stats.
“Hey, everyone! What are you up to?”
“Z-Zero! It’s Zero!”
A noble—no, I guess a gentleman was too much to expect. Alex and Raymon appeared.
Crack!
Luna’s neck twisted backward. It felt like it had turned almost 180 degrees.
Raymon, who had been running toward me, quickly hid behind Alex.
Honestly… I wanted to hide too. A neck turning like that—is she even human?
“If you’re playing, let us join! Let’s play together.”
“Alex, we’re not here to play, you know?”
“Yuridia, you’re getting it wrong. We’re just pretending, right? Besides… you seem to be enjoying yourself the most.”
“T-This is just a disguise prop!”
Was she embarrassed? Yuridia suddenly shouted.
Well, it wasn’t a problem. Alex and Yuridia had always had this kind of relationship.
‘And eventually, she’ll start falling for Alex.’
For the record, Victoria wasn’t much different in that regard.
Ah, to be a man loved by such strange women… Not envious at all.
…Really. Just ignore the tears streaming from my eyes.
“So, what were you guys doing?”
“Keke, we were sharing information.”
“Information?”
“Yes, the more information we have, the better. Would you two like to join us?”
“Sure. I just happened to get some info myself.”
Alex beamed at me.
Meanwhile, Luna kept her guard up against Raymon, but she didn’t show her usual displeasure.
‘The power of MAX affection at work.’
Alex was the protagonist of this game.
From the beginning, his charm stat was absurdly high, and it only increased over time.
The complete opposite of me, whose charm stat was rock-bottom thanks to my ‘slit-eyes.’
Not that I was jealous or anything. I had my own amazing allies.
“Come any closer, and you’re dead!”
“Ki-Kiiiiik! P-Please don’t torment Lady Luna!”
…Actually, maybe I was a little jealous.
A short while later, once Luna had successfully tied Raymon up, the information exchange finally began.
First was Yuridia’s intel.
“There are a few caves in the mountains behind the village. A herbalist said they heard something like screams coming from there.”
That would be a deer. A screaming deer.
Going there would just be a waste of a precious day.
Not to mention, there was a 10% chance of getting hit by a deer and ending up hospitalized—one of the places I absolutely had to avoid.
Next was the information from Alex and Raymon.
“The mines have completely run dry. Families started leaving town months ago, so there are a lot of empty houses.”
“No wonder they were offering free lodging… It’s a way to manage the empty homes.”
“You could see it that way. Anyway, the lord thinks it’s not a case of missing persons but just families running away in the night. His reasoning makes some sense.”
Sorry, but that was absolutely wrong.
The real culprit, Baron Kelven, was still at large.
Of course, I couldn’t reveal that.
Yuridia raised her eyebrows—her signal for me to share what I knew.
I explained the information we got earlier from the fried food vendor about the glowing branch.
“Hmm… It’s interesting, but it doesn’t seem relevant to the case.”
“Keke, I agree.”
“But if we come across that branch during our search, it might be worth investigating. The unknown always brings a little thrill.”
Yuridia seemed lost in thought, intrigued by the idea.
Sorry, but that thrill would be mine.
I knew the location, how to extract it, and what it actually was.
Last was Victoria’s intel.
“Hm… The missing people are mostly young?”
“Yes, aside from the first missing person, a middle-aged man, the rest were either just coming of age or in their early twenties.”
“Targeting young people is a common trait in human trafficking… Maybe the middle-aged man was involved in a separate case?”
“As expected of Lady Luna! I thought the same. We might need to consider both human trafficking and demons as possible causes.”
It wasn’t unreasonable for them to think that.
According to Caron’s report, the first missing person left behind signs of a struggle and a significant amount of blood.
It was from the second case onward that people started vanishing into thin air.
“Keke, maybe it was a mistake.”
“Huh?”
“If it was the first abduction after making a deal with a demon, or if someone caught them in the act, they might have panicked and made a mistake.”
“If demons are behind this, why target younger people?”
“The purity of their souls. And because they’re easier to abduct.”
Children in this world were used to working from a young age.
Gathering firewood, picking herbs, carrying stones—
They were used to roaming alone.
“They also have less strength to resist compared to adults, making them ideal targets.”
“What makes you so sure it’s demons? Couldn’t it just be human traffickers?”
“The report mentioned that the second and third victims left behind small traces. But from the fourth case onward, there were no traces at all. As if they had been taken by an irresistible force.”
“…You mean, whatever’s behind this is getting stronger?”
“Exactly. And by now, at least one or two of them have already…”
Been used as sacrifices.
And this wouldn’t stop anytime soon.
“In fact, the ones who really need to be careful might be us—students. Stay close to the instructors at all times.”
The others exchanged glances, seeming to acknowledge the validity of my argument.
At that moment, a system window appeared in front of me.
[Through successful deduction, party members ‘Luna’ and ‘Rezé’ have slightly increased their stats!]
Aside from Luna and Rezé, the others weren’t technically my party members, so I couldn’t be certain, but their stats had likely increased as well.
“Hmph! A mere low-rank demon doesn’t scare me at all!”
“I shall purify them in the name of the Goddess!”
“Hmm… I might be a little scared? Zero, protect me.”
No, you protagonist bastard. You should be growing and protecting me!
With that, our first information exchange came to an end.
After setting a time and place to meet tomorrow, everyone split up into their respective groups.
As we continued exploring the village, a small incident occurred.
Suddenly, Rezé had positioned herself between us.
Considering how much she usually despised me, this was an unusual development.
Luna whispered quietly.
“Zero, you noticed too, right?”
“Keke, what exactly do you mean?”
“We’re being followed.”
She was right. We had been tailed for quite some time.
There was no need to worry. If even the usually oblivious Luna had noticed, then our stalkers had to be amateurs.
Of course, I also knew exactly who they were.
‘Faster than expected. Was it the power of the carrot fries?’
Normally, this event wouldn’t trigger until about three days in, but judging by the atmosphere, it was about to start now.
Well, it wasn’t unheard of for it to start on the first day, so it wasn’t anything particularly special.
Turning a corner and hugging the wall, I pressed myself flat against it.
“Hey! Hurry up! We’re gonna lose them!”
“Boss! Can’t we take a break?”
“U-Ugh… You’re too fast.”
Our pursuers revealed themselves.
They were the kids we had seen earlier when gathering information from the carrot fries vendor.
The moment they turned the corner and came face-to-face with us, they froze as stiff as stone.
“…What are you guys doing?”
Luna’s expression turned ice-cold, as if the fun had been sucked out of the moment upon realizing who they were.
“Tch! So, you noticed us! That makes you even more suspicious! There’s no choice! Guys, let’s begin ‘that’!”
The three children quickly sprang into action, striking rather bizarre poses.
“If you’re curious about who we are, it’s only right that we tell you!”
“To protect our village from destruction! To safeguard the peace of our town!”
“Y-Yeah! That’s right! We are…”
“The Trash Sprout Defense Squad!!”
And so, the comedic relief of this episode, the Trash Sprout Defense Squad, had made their grand entrance.
–TL Notes–
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Hopefully Alex Yuridia ship can sail this time around and not sunk already…