Chapter 317: Quiet Defense

———Lerim———

<2: 55 pm>

“Heard you got a new fancy sword?” Evari suddenly walked over and asked me something superfluous. How the hell did that news already break out?

“Yeah. Not too long ago.” There isn’t any plausible cover story that I can attempt, so I’ll just not elaborate on it. If I said it was a few hours ago and it was obtained suddenly it'd definitely be suspicious.

“Did the old one break or something?” She asked.

“No.” It got forcibly upgraded, but if I said that then she’d know it happens literally this morning or yesterday’s noon, which would’ve been very suspicious.

“...Can I see the new one?” Is it really that exciting? It does look quite a bit fancier, but that’s about it.

“Fine.” I said before pulling it out.

“It’s… really white.” Evari remarked as her eyes shifted from looking at the white blade down to its guard and hilt. “And gold, and green gems?”

“Fits me quite well, I must say.” I remarked before putting the sword away. It’s a bit bigger and bulkier. Like the last one the blade is about as wide as the guard. “I guess the blade could be painted black to match my coat, but no matter.”

“You could just get a white coat?” She suggested.

“With how much I go out fighting, that would’ve been insane. I’d look so damn dirty it’s not even funny.” All the dust and dirt sticking onto it would’ve made me look so unappealing. I know I learn a cleaning spell, but if there are spectators and I don’t have the time to clean it up, I’d look like an uncivilized savage, or at least quite unladylike. “You also wear all black. What? Afraid I’m stepping on your fashion?"

“What? I don’t care about stuff like that.” She said, clearly feeling incredulous. If she doesn’t want those words spat out at her then she should stop recommending fashion to me. She is clearly not in a place to talk. “...So do you think I should get a new spear as well?”

“Forget it. Unless you get a certain type of weapon or a good blacksmith, you should stick to the standard variety for now.” Even if you know how to reinforce your weapon during a fight, it still would be worn down by the unrealistic amount of force it had to endure from its opponents and wielder. Even a substantial upgrade wouldn’t do a whole lot if you can’t find a replacement soon.

“A certain type?” She muttered in confusion.

“Type that can repair itself. While it does drain your mana in order to do this unless it has a generator of some sort, it’s still better than not having it at all.” I explained.

“...That’s pretty nuts.” She remarked. It does sound extremely broken. There is a point where it can’t repair itself anymore, but you need to nuke it and throw it in a volcano, or something similar to that, to make it fully nonfunctional. “How do you even get something like that anyway?”

“Same answer I’ve given for everything else, really.” I dismissively replied. “I think you should focus on stockpiling and learning to take care of your weapons. As you might’ve guessed, the auto-repair features mean that I don’t need to worry about it getting all weathered and dull. Despite looking more like an ornamental weapon, it doesn’t need to worry about getting ugly.”

“Lucky…” She said, sounding less like a compliment and more like a complaint. “...What were you doing this morning anyway? It’s rare for you to not be hanging around here.”

“Something came up.” That’s the most I can say. It’s not something I could’ve predicted, and while it does help me, it’s not something I really want to brag about. “Anyway, I’m free for the rest of the day, so anyone going to the dungeon doesn't need to worry too much. In the first place they shouldn’t be so reckless.”

“Not much we can do about that. If anything they should be grateful there’s even a chance for a rescue, really.” Evari said, actually coming to my defense for once, or at least not being envious.

“That’s nice coming from you.” I can’t help but remark.

“Tch, what does that even mean?” She sarcastically replied.

“Who’s to say?” Our conversation has turned hostile a few times, and by hostile, I mean Evari sounding annoyed. She is the one who keeps talking to me despite her jealousy, so it’s hard to blame me for the tense atmosphere we got at times.

“Hmph.” Hopefully this little song and dance will be done soon. It’s quite annoying for me. At least with those guys in the group chat we didn’t meet face-to-face so it’s easier to dismiss any antagonistic comments.

*Ring* *Ring* *Beep*

“Wait a moment.” I said to her before looking away and taking the call. “Hey, what are you calling about this time?”

“<Yesterday’s topic. I think I can install defense into their living space. I’m pretty free at the moment so I can do that as a pet project.>” They explained.

“Hmm… That’s good. What about people who didn’t say anything?” I asked, since they wouldn’t… never mind.

“<I can install it without their consent anyway, like I care about that.>” They boldly said. If they weren’t doing a favor that would’ve sounded extremely wrong. “<I already put in some temporary measures, just a tweak here and there.>”

“Right…” Hopefully they are more tactful when talking about this topic with other people. This isn’t even mentioning how they apparently track down everyone and where they live. I know all kinds of sensitive information gets collected, but usually only a few companies have access to those. Did they hack into all of them or something? Do I need to worry about the data breach? It doesn’t seem like anything was ever announced about that.

“<Aside from that… I don’t know. I’m bored at the moment, you got something you need my help with?>” They asked.

“...I don’t know. I mean, if you’re so bored with nothing to do, maybe help make the guild at my place a bit fancier? Raise their salary while you’re at it.” I’m just throwing out random suggestions, and thankfully Evari and the others don’t seem to pick up on that nonsense. I don’t even know if Idea can actually do that or not.

“<I guess? Kinda boring though, akin to just throwing money at the problem.>” They said, clearly opposed to the idea. “<Besides that, it’s going to be really hard to explain why there’s a renovation happening all of a sudden. The salary? Don’t even think about it. I’d rather pay them on the down-low instead of anything sounding even remotely official.>”

“So what can you do?” I asked, feeling a bit annoyed already.

“<Hmm… Ah. I know! Your boss is the only one dealing with the paperwork, right? He seemed to have trust issues after that incident all the way back then.>” Why bring that up? That was one hell of a sequence of events.

“What, you’re going to give him an assistant?” I asked, wondering if they’re serious about that.

“<That’s the plan! Maybe starting with a gadget first. If I throw a robot at him we’ll both look extremely suspicious.>” They have been sounding reasonable right now, even if they are working free of charge for something probably worth millions in production. “<So! Can you go to his office and get me a few pictures, and also observe him for a bit?>”

“...Alright. He needs a break more than any of us anyway. I can go do that.” I said before standing up and walking up to the office. I guess he’ll finally get some time to stretch his muscles without needing it to be late at night.

———Meesi———

<3: 09 pm>

“...Something weird is happening.” James suddenly said after brooding for an uncharacteristically long time.

“What?” I didn’t feel anything different around here. It’s been pretty peaceful, no weird things going on for a long time now. “It’s been nice and peaceful, right?”

“That’s exactly why it’s weird. Just so you know, even in towns and cities with people on my level, fights tend to break out anyway, yet it’s not the case here at all…” He explained. His intuition is certainly way sharper than mine, so I trust his judgement more.

“...Then that’s really weird.” All I could really say about that. I don’t have the brain power to think about it more than that.

“Clearly some sort of interference. It’s not from any government officials, known or otherwise.” He said. Is this about the secret basement? We haven’t talked about that in a long while.

“Hopefully it’s nothing dangerous.” Alsam said. “What did you even notice? Crime rate going down? Lack of scuffle?”

“Like I said, the lack of attacks from the outsider is quite baffling. I think I even saw the iron giant attacking them at one point. It shouldn’t attack indiscriminately, at least that should be its pattern.” …That sounds way more terrifying than nothing happening!

“So the monsters are being controlled somehow?” I really don’t like the sound of that, not even a little bit.

“Seems that way, but it doesn’t attack me when I get close without… Now that I think about it, how did it respawn so quickly all of a sudden?” Okay this is sounding more and more worrying, what the heck is happening? “From the looks of it, they are attacking anyone who seems unfamiliar. No idea what the criteria for that is, but I don’t think I want to test it out.”

“Okay… So why not start off with that?” I asked.

“Because saying it the other way around would’ve been fear mongering. I want to ascertain if anyone else knows about this in the first place.” He explained himself. “Besides, it is in our benefit right now, so talking about monster-related topics seems rather sudden and jarring.”

“I guess? I thought you would’ve meant something inside the town.” I said in response.

“If it was something like that, all of you would’ve noticed it as well, but enough about that…” He said before suddenly falling into thoughts.

“So that’s why it doesn’t feel off for us. He’s usually the one confronting the invaders and having them on his mind.” Alsam pointed out.

“Hmm… Speaking of monsters being controlled… Wasn’t there one on the news not too long ago? The name is… Nrite, I believe.” He then suddenly return to the topic of controlling monsters

“Remember hearing about that guy. Sounds like a nightmare.” Alsam spoke up. “Thankfully he seems to be preoccupied with nearby territories, and he’s not even in our state in the first place.”

“Indeed. Though I would love to chop his head off so that streamer can finally stop bitching about him, I feel like that will stop being a problem soon.” James ominously said.

“Streamer? I didn’t realize you have that kind of hobby.” Alsam remarked.

“I can be interested in multiple things. You’ve heard about TerryJoker, right? The monster tamer extraordinaire. She has been complaining about him ‘ruining her reputation’.” Valid crashout to be honest. Imagine having a gimmick of monster taming, something no one has the gall to do, and then someone came over and terrorized people with that ability. “She said that ‘he’s a faker, not a true monster tamer’ and ‘he deserves eternity in hell’. Pretty strong and passionate words.”

“So you think she’s going to do good by her words?” I don’t even know how strong she is. Aside from that collab stream with Kara I can’t gauge her strength at all.

“Indeed. I don’t know when it’ll take place. She has been complaining for a few weeks and nothing came up.” James elaborated.

“Hmm… It sounds rather worrying for a streamer to say that kind of threat to a known terrorist. One that has conquered a few areas already.” Alsam shared his concern.

“I suppose there is a sense of worry that came from it, an ominous feeling, as it were.” James muttered.

“Has she been warned at all about this? Were there any interactions?” Alsam asked for more information.

“Just online scuffle not worth talking about. A few meaningless words thrown at each other.” James replied.

“Hmm… Hopefully this won’t turn into a terrible incident.” I can’t help but to express concern as well.

“Oh. It certainly will.” James suddenly said with a surprising level of confidence.

“That… doesn’t bode well.” Alsam commented.

“What are you talking about?” James said in confusion. “When those two meet, that man can finally be out of everyone’s sight and mind.”