Chapter 26

We arrived at Bandolier in no time. We arrived in search of an adventure. But the only thing that we were able to find were crowded streets. Each filled to the brink with squatters and battered adventurers who, without doubt, like us, had come to collect the duke’s bounty. Their adventure was clearly not going very well.

It was a miserable sight to behold. Not to mention the stench of putrid sweat and unwashed clothes. While my companions did not seem affected by it, I had to actively use my Qi to keep myself from vomiting.

As we made our way through the crowded streets, in search of the local inn, we ran into a very badly wounded man laying on the sidewalk. It was not hard to tell that without medical intervention, he would die. The man’s poor daughter was crying by his side. “Please, anyone. Please help my father,” she begged everyone who passed by.

Despite how crowded the streets were with adventurers, no one bothered to help her or her father. The shameless bastards kept their gaze down and walked past her with little remorse. Little did they care if a man died in bright daylight.

“How unfortunate,” Allisa said. Her eyes had both regret and disdain. Yet, there was Nike who just looked down on the dying man with some form of cheerful excitement.

“This is horrible. We must do something about it!” Joanne said. She tried to act on her desire to heal the poor man, but Allisa grabbed Joanne from behind and gagged her mouth.

“No, you can’t use your limited spells on that man. It will bring uninvited attention and it will put us at a disadvantage,” Allisa said.

Joanne did not care, and she began putting up a fight. Trying to break free of Allisa’s hold.

Suddenly, all eyes were on me.

“Master, I agree with the elf,” Nike said. “This is merely survival of the fittest at work. Weaklings die, while the strong survive. If we help him. We are merely delaying the inevitable.”

“Are you two really saying that we should let that man die?” I asked.

“Yes,” Nike said. Her voice was monotone and cold. Despite her beautiful feminine looks, the lack of remorse in her unblinking golden eyes made it clear that she was not human.

While awaiting my decision, she tilted her head multiple times back and forth as she stared at me with extreme intensity. The mantis did not blink, no. She awaited a response with almost malicious compliance. She went as far as analyzing the tension in my lips and facial muscles to predict an answer.

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When we arrived at the inn, we went straight to their communal dining hall. The place was poorly lit in spite of it being daytime. The atmosphere was tense. When we entered, other adventurers gave us silent stares until we sat at a rather isolated table near the wall. Just then, they returned to their incomprehensible loud chatter.

Joanne immediately laid her face against the table as if she was passed out drunk.

It did not take long before a waitress came to take our order.

“Is she alright?” She asked.

Allisa dismissed her question by asking another.

The Waitress gave her an odd look.

‘Idiot, this is not how you go on about asking for information.’

I ignored Allisa’s existence and smiled at the Waitress. Effetely grabbing the waitress attention and throwing Allisa out of the conversation.

The elf was not happy.

“Don’t you see I am in the middle of something important over here?” She said, half grunting.

I pulled my tongue at Allisa and turned back my attention to the waitress who attempted to pretend she had seen nothing.

Unlike Allisa, I knew very well how to gather information. All thanks to the thousand of hours that I spent playing RPG games in my previous life.

First, I ordered food for the entire party, establishing ourselves as clients of the establishment. When the food finally arrived, and the waitress asked us if we wanted anything else, I winked at her and gave her a couple of extra copper coins.

If I had learned anything from video games, is that the best way to obtain information was through open bribery. People then naturally spoke about anything that I needed to know, even if I did not know what to ask.

“Understood,” the waitress said. “I will be back with your request,”

‘Excellent, my plan worked,’

It was now only a matter of time before an important quest was revealed. All I had to do now was to enjoy my food and relax. ‘I am so smart, Allisa just never had a realistic chance of competing with me,’

The waitress was not even a few steps away when Nike began to systematically insert food into her mouth. Within a few seconds, all the food on her plate had been digested, and all of her attention shifted towards Joanne’s plate. For Joanne had not even given her food a single bite. She was still keeping her head down.

“Bad Mantis, Bad,” I said.

Mantis just looked at me with stoic embarrassment.

“Sustenance is key to victory,” she said.

Our conversation was interrupted by our angry elf companion.

“What do you think you are doing?” Allisa asked.

“Is it not clear? I have compelled the waitress to give us information, something that you failed to accomplish,” I said.

Allisa was literally balding. Her anger had reached a tipping point.

“No, you idiot, you are just wasting our precious coppers!”

“Silence, just eat and watch,” I responded.

When the waitress returned, she came back with a big jar of ale.

“Huh!?” I said.

“Just as you requested,” the waitress said. She gave me a smile and then left.

“What!?”

*Maaaahhhhh*

‘This game world truly has the most broken logic! Well…. Losing a few coppers was not a big issue,’

“How many coppers do we even have left?” I asked.

Allisa pulled her pouch out of the corner of her blue robe and when the money dropped on the table, she announced to us the number.

“Thirty-seven,”

I did the same and only had five coppers left.

Neither Nike nor Joanne carried any money.

“How long will this last for us?” I asked.

“Should be barely enough for a room,” Allisa responded.

“We really need to find a way to start collecting the Duke’s bounty. One silver coin per undead slain. Imagine how rich we will be by the end of the day,”

“Master, if you allow. I can gather information from the locals,” Nike said.

“That does not sound like a bad idea,” I said.

“Do you even have any idea in how many ways that could go wrong?” Allisa said. “It would be a very bad idea to allow this monster to go unsupervised,”

“You speak as if you had a better idea. Besides, you worry too much. Nike would never harm anyone if I tell them not to,” I said. “Mantis, I forbid you from killing any of the locals. But you are free to obtain information using any means that you deem necessary as long as they can not be traced back to us.”

Nike just gave me a nod in agreement and stepped out of the dining hall immediately. There was no discussion to be had.

Allisa glared at me. “I do not understand what type of relationship you have with that monster. But I refuse to believe that such a strong creature would stay true to your commands. They clearly do not value human life the same way we do.”

“You say that. But it was you, the one who left that poor man to die on the sidewalk,” I said.

“But that is different. Human society allowed that man to die,” Allisa responded.

“Human society? You physically prevented Joanne from healing him,” I said.

Allisa chucked. “You sure sound quite human. It is always everyone’s else fault.”

She was quick to point her finger at me.

“You say it was I who prevented Joanne from healing that man? You literally saw it all unfold right before your eyes and did nothing. You could have easily ordered your pet monster to stop me, or maybe healed the man yourself. But you just watched. How human of you. You sneer at injustice from a comfortable distance,”

Allisa was aware that she was ranting. But she could not help herself.

“But that is not the point, Berry. There were hundreds of humans on the street. Hundreds more passed before and after we left. Why should it be our problem? Joanne should not be wasting her spells on strangers. What if she runs out of spells and the one who needs healing is you or me? You expect the same society that allowed that man to die, to heal you or I?”

“Let’s ask Joanne what she thinks of this issue,” I said.

“Don’t you dare,” Allisa said.

“Is not like she can’t hear the two of us argue,”

Allisa and I simultaneously turned our attention towards Joanne. Except. The chair in which she was sitting just a minute ago was empty. Joanne was nowhere to be found.

“Oh Fuck,” Allisa said.

“This is your fault,” I said.

“My fault? Go check outside! Quick!,” Allisa said, as she left enough money to pay our bill and jumped out of her seat.