Chapter 114: Come Kill Me, We Value Your Money and Your Data

It was Jin who spoke up first. The young man had a dagger at his belt and a small bag full of tools slung over his shoulder, and Frelja, taking one look at him, figured he had to be the party’s thief.

"So what exactly are you offering?"

The saleswoman’s smile widened at once, the smile of someone who had been waiting for precisely that question.

"Excellent question! We have plenty of services to offer you, starting with transportation," she said, sweeping a hand toward the carriages lined up a little farther off, every one of them bearing the same logo with the two orange wings. "No more wearing out your boots on the road. You arrive at the dungeon fresh and rested, ready to fight. We also offer maintenance, whether it’s for your weapons or your tamed creatures. A dull blade or a worn-out mount is how an adventure goes wrong, and we’re here to make sure that never happens."

She threw a quick glance to her right, then to her left, before leaning over the counter toward the group and lowering her voice.

"And just between us... we recently found out that the second floor, which has barely been explored, is actually empty. We’re already setting up down there, so that adventurers who make it that far can resupply, find what they need, and get some rest worthy of the name."

Zoyra, the young woman with a bow on her back, frowned, puzzled by the claim.

"But... wasn’t the dungeon only discovered very recently?"

The saleswoman leaned in even closer, still whispering, and the three youngsters instinctively leaned toward her to hear better.

"One of our people got very lucky and found a shortcut down to the second floor."

Then she straightened up all at once and clapped her hands, her voice back to bright and cheerful in a single motion.

"Anyway! We offer supplies, lodging, and repairs, both at the dungeon entrance and on the second floor, and maybe even deeper soon, since our agents are working on it as we speak!"

She let a short silence hang, just long enough to watch the youngsters’ eyes go wide, then went on in the tone of someone who had saved the best for last.

"And that’s not all! We also offer life insurance! It lets you set money aside for your loved ones in case something happens to you down there. Because a true adventurer doesn’t only think about themselves, now do they? They think about the people waiting for them back home."

Jin turned to Arthur, the young man with the sword who hadn’t said a word since the start.

"What do you think, Arthur? Isn’t this a little too good to be true?"

Arthur, who seemed lost in thought, suddenly gave him a light punch to the back of the head.

"Don’t be an idiot, Jin. Didn’t you hear the name of the company?"

Jin, rubbing the back of his head, blinked, and a look of understanding slowly spread across his face.

Bingo~ That’s exactly what everyone must be thinking! This is what having a hero as the face of the business is for!

Arthur turned his attention back to the saleswoman.

"So how does it work, in practice?"

"It’s very simple!" she replied, laying her hands flat on the counter. "Each of our services, whether it’s transportation, lodging, meals, or repairs, can be purchased on the spot, as you need it. Or else..."

She paused and looked each of them in the eye, one after the other.

"...you can sign up for our V. I. P. subscription."

She had pronounced every letter with great care, the way one presents something precious.

Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"A subscription? What’s a subscription?"

"Ah, I can see you’re someone who asks the right questions!" she said with a delighted smile. "The idea is simple: you pay a fixed amount every month, and in exchange, you get access to all of our services, free of charge, as often as you like. Transportation, meals, lodging, weapon maintenance, everything. All you have to do is show your card, and it’s taken care of. No more counting coins before every meal, no more haggling at the foot of the dungeon, and no more nasty surprises when your blade snaps at the worst possible moment."

She turned to Zoyra.

"Just imagine: you come back from a long day in the dungeon, exhausted, and instead of hunting for an inn and arguing over the price of a room, you simply show your card, and someone serves you a hot meal before showing you to your bed."

Zoyra didn’t say anything, but her gaze lingered on the carriages a moment too long.

"And... how much does it cost?" Jin asked.

"Only three silver coins a month."

Then, before anyone had time to react, she leaned toward them again, a hand beside her mouth.

"I really shouldn’t be telling you this... but I’ve heard there are chests full of mithrite equipment down in the dungeon."

"MITHRITE?!" Jin shouted.

The saleswoman hurriedly pressed a finger to her lips and signaled him to be quiet, casting worried looks toward the other stalls, where a few heads had already turned their way.

"Shhh! Not so loud! If everyone finds out, there won’t be anything left for you!"

That was when Frelja brought her fist down on the counter, making the three youngsters jump.

"I’m in!"

The saleswoman’s face lit up.

"Now there’s an adventurer who knows a good deal when she sees one! And since you’re clearly someone who knows what she wants, let me offer you our current promotion. If you take the subscription for six months at once, instead of paying three silver coins a month, which would come to eighteen in total, you only pay fifteen. That’s a whole month free, just for you!"

"Perfect, six months it is," Frelja said, pulling a purse from her belt. "And I’m paying for everyone."

The three youngsters turned toward her as one.

"Wh-what? No, no, that’s not necessary!" Zoyra said quickly, waving her hands. "We can pay for ourselves, really!"

"She’s right, we can’t accept that," Arthur added.

"I insist," Frelja replied, setting the coins on the counter. "I’m the veteran here, after all. You’re just kids."

She reached out and gently patted Zoyra’s head. Zoyra looked away, her cheeks slightly pink.

At that very moment, a barely perceptible murderous aura made itself felt at Frelja’s back.

Aaaaah... here we go again, huh?

The saleswoman, who hadn’t noticed a thing, or who was very good at pretending, ducked under her counter and came back up with five thick bundles of paper, each about ten pages long and bound with a cord, which she set down one by one in front of them along with a quill and an inkwell.

"Here are your contracts! There’s just a bit of information to fill in, a signature on the last page, and your initials at the bottom of every other one."

Frelja leafed through hers. The first pages praised the benefits of the subscription in large, clearly legible letters, service by service, along with a list of every location where it was valid. Next came the articles of the contract, numbered one after another, covering payment terms, the length of the commitment, renewal, the details of the life insurance, and the cases in which it did not apply. The further she turned, the smaller the writing got, until the last pages, which were covered in paragraphs printed so tiny that no adventurer in a hurry to leave would ever take the time to read them.

Ha... I knew it was a good idea to have them printed this small.

She was laughing inwardly as she filled in the boxes one by one. Last name, first name, age, adventurer rank and specialty, then the address where she was staying in town. After that came the section reserved for the life insurance, with the beneficiary’s name, their relationship to her, and the address of the family the money should be sent to if the worst were to happen. She initialed every page, then signed the last one with a flourish.

Beside her, Arielle had already finished some time ago and was putting her quill away without a word, while Zoyra and Arthur wrote diligently, rereading each line before moving on to the next.

Jin, for his part, sat staring at his first page without moving, quill in hand, looking more and more embarrassed.

The saleswoman noticed right away and came around the counter to stand beside him, without the slightest hint of mockery in her voice. She drew his bundle toward her and, going through the boxes in order, asked him the questions one at a time. First she asked for his last name and first name, then his age, his rank, and his specialty, before asking which inn he was staying at in town. When she reached the life insurance section, she slowed down a little and asked whether he had any family, who he wanted to name as beneficiary, how he was related to that person, and at what address they could be found if something were to happen to him. Jin answered quietly, sometimes after a moment’s hesitation, and she filled in each box for him in neat handwriting. Then she summed up what the articles said in a few simple words, and showed him where to mark a small cross at the bottom of each page, and one last, bigger one in place of a signature.

"And there we go, perfect!" she said, gathering up the five contracts. "Don’t move an inch, I’ll be right back with a magic item!"

She disappeared behind the curtain at the back of the stall, and the group stayed there, trading slightly lost looks, until she came back holding a small wooden box.

She opened it in front of them with a certain ceremony and took out five cards. Each bore its owner’s name, the day’s date, and an expiration date set six months later, all written in fine handwriting, and their surface shimmered with colored glints that shifted gently depending on the angle they were viewed from.

"Here are your V. I. P. cards," she said, handing them out one by one. "Take good care of them. As long as you have it on you, you’ll be welcome at Paydragon Enterprise, wherever you go."

The three youngsters took theirs carefully, turning them every which way to watch the colors change, and thanked the saleswoman warmly, Jin louder than the others. She saw them off with a little curtsy and wished them luck, then pointed them to one of the carriages with the orange wings, and all five of them climbed aboard.

It set off right away toward the dungeon.

Sitting at the back, Frelja watched the stalls slowly fall away behind them. In front of each one, more adventurers stood in line, bent over thick bundles of paper with quills in hand, while the vendors smiled at them, showed them where to sign, and silver coins changed hands across the counters.

A smile slowly spread across her lips.

Looks like Big Sister is going to make a killing!

Because behind the name of Evangel’s hero and the orange wings displayed on every stall, every carriage, and every card, the majority shareholder of Paydragon Enterprise was none other than Big Sister.

In other words, her.

And yet the money wasn’t what interested her most in all of this.

What mattered most was the information each of those contracts brought in. Every adventurer who signed up willingly handed over their name, age, rank, specialty, and where they were staying, and even added, for the life insurance, their family’s name and address. And every time they showed their card, whether to board a carriage, eat a meal, or have a weapon repaired, the company would know where they were and when.

Contract after contract, Paydragon Enterprise was compiling a census of everyone who came to challenge the dungeon. Freya would know who was strong and who wasn’t, who deserved to be watched, who went down most often and how deep, and who never came back up. No guild and no kingdom had a register like that, and it was worth far more than the price of any subscription.

Frelja tucked her V. I. P. card into her pocket with a smile.

Paying three silver coins a month to hand me their own info... The humans of this world are just adorable~