Chapter 130. The Fanatic’s Tail
“You don’t know? These days, the Empire—no, the entire continent—has been restless.”
[World Quest! ‘An Ominous Presence’ has begun! — Recently, an ominous presence has been spreading throughout the entire continent! The plague spread by the Witch of Corruption, the increasingly frequent appearance of monsters, and even the ominous prophecy delivered by the saints of the Henotheism Church! Investigate the source of this unsettling presence!]
[You are currently a hero affiliated with the Empire! Go to your superior, the Great Hero of Insight, and hear what he knows about this matter!]
[Reward — Expenses required for the investigation]
“Whoa. This game actually has something like this? Wasn’t this supposed to be an otherworld-life simulation game?”
A World Quest.
I had lived in this game world for so long like some protagonist who had actually been reincarnated into another world that I could barely even remember whether this game had things like World Quests.
I had confidently told Ien that she could leave game quests to me.
But at this rate, there was practically no difference between Ien and me.
Besides, until now, I had only dealt with quests that suddenly popped up out of nowhere.
I had never done a quest that started in such a proper, textbook-like way!
...Or had I?
“So, here I am.”
“It has only been one day since the Demonic Realm raid ended. You really are diligent.”
Compared to the last time I came here to inform him about my vacation, there seemed to be even more documents piled on Grandpa Alo’s desk.
Since none of them were my problem, I casually sat back and drank some tea.
Mm.
Smells nice.
Wondering if he had anything useful to tell me, I started picking at the snacks prepared for guests on the table.
Grandpa Alo gave a small laugh before speaking.
“I always thought you were the kind of man who went looking for trouble and created problems yourself. Have you finally started taking an interest in other people’s problems?”
“No. I just wanted something to kill some time.”
“I consider it a good sign. A man like you, who normally has no interest in other people’s affairs and barely pretends to listen to long stories, is actually making an effort to hear about someone else’s problems.”
Seriously.
Just how badly did this old man think of me?
That single sentence was packed with words showing just how little faith he had in me.
Hadn’t I lived pretty diligently?
Even while I was busy, I usually handled the quests Grandpa Alo gave me fairly well.
“Though I admit it hurts me a little.”
“What does?”
“Do you know that after I send you out on assignments, I occasionally receive letters thanking me?”
“Oh?”
“Every single one of those letters complains about your attitude.”
“...”
“Seeing someone who handled my assignments in that manner come here carrying some story he probably heard from an innkeeper makes me wonder whether I ever meant anything to you at all.”
“Haha. Come on, that’s not true.”
“Yes. I would certainly like to believe that.”
Grandpa Alo rose from his seat.
He pulled several sheets of paper from a drawer, then rummaged through the documents on his desk and added several more.
He handed me a pile thick enough that reading all of it would probably take half a day.
Cold sweat formed on my forehead.
I looked back and forth between the mountain of documents and Grandpa Alo, doing my absolute best to show how horrified I was.
“Normally, I would never reveal information this confidential to an ordinary outsider. But you are a hero now. There are things you need to know.”
He paused.
“Besides, a little of what is written there is your fault.”
“What? There’s still more of that left?”
“Still?”
Grandpa Alo narrowed his eyes.
“Did you just say ‘still’?”
Uh-oh.
“There isn’t a single place you pass through where your mistakes don’t remain behind like scars. I heard that after the latest Demonic Realm raid, you got into a massive argument with the Duke’s people again.”
“No, but seriously! They were saying completely ridiculous things with the rudest attitude imaginable! Was I supposed to just stand there and take it?!”
“Listen, In-gwang. You are a hero now.”
Grandpa Alo sighed.
“I know what kind of man you are, so I won’t tell you to start behaving with dignity. But at the very least, stop doing things that disgrace me, your superior.”
He continued sternly.
“Doesn’t that also cause trouble for His Majesty the Emperor, who personally defended you?”
Tch.
Everything had worked out exactly the way they wanted in the end, yet apparently they were still finding reasons to complain.
That damn Duke...
One day, I was definitely going to crush that bastard.
“Haa... Is there a summarized version?”
“This is classified information. Why would there be?”
“...Could you summarize it for me?”
“...That is the summarized version.”
Grandpa Alo glanced at the documents.
“If you want, I can explain every detail.”
“Tch!”
In the end, I sat down and slowly started reading.
Most of it was stuff like what happened in which village, the condition of that village, who lived where, what they did, what they had said, and so on.
Basically...
Each one of these sheets was like the equivalent of a daily quest in another game.
Thinking about it realistically, these documents alone proved that the Empire was actively monitoring civilians.
If this information ever became public, the entire Empire would probably be turned upside down.
Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly use it as a weapon against them.
Because—
[After the Tower of the Hall exploded, the Hall barely managed to restore itself to its original form. Its functions have also returned to normal. However...]
An ominous sentence appeared right at the beginning.
And similar reports were written in most of the documents.
Ah.
No.
My sins were still haunting this place.
But that wasn't even intentional!
I was honestly a little unfairly blamed for this one.
[Most fragments of the destroyed tower have been recovered. However, the smaller shattered fragments could not all be collected. It is believed that these fragments may be connected to the recent sudden appearances of Hero-class monsters.]
“Huuuuuu...”
“Because of what happened at the Hall, businesses throughout the Empire dealing in monster corpses have been thrown into complete chaos.”
Grandpa Alo continued.
“The number of outsiders keeps increasing, and perhaps as if responding to them, increasingly rare monsters are appearing as well.”
“Huuuu...”
“Rare materials that were once incredibly difficult to obtain are now entering the market in huge quantities. Expensive products are being mass-produced and distributed in large numbers. As a result, the market economy itself is being shaken.”
“Huuuuuu...”
“Stop making noises like air leaking from a balloon.”
Grandpa Alo looked at me.
“You are partly responsible, but it would also be strange to say that everything is entirely your fault.”
...Huh?
What did that mean?
Didn't Grandpa Alo originally think that whole incident was basically one hundred percent my fault?
“At first, I also thought the disaster happened because of your army of mice.”
“Right.”
“But the more we investigated, the stranger it became.”
“Strange how? Something like... the inside of the tower was weak, but not weak enough for my kids to destroy it?”
“Exactly.”
Grandpa Alo nodded.
“From the outside, even my attacks were completely nullified by that tower. Yet somehow, merely because they were inside it, a group of fragile mice that couldn't even defeat a single Fanatic Sprout on their own managed to bring the entire tower down?”
He shook his head.
“Doesn’t that sound strange to you?”
“...Oh.”
I blinked.
“Ohhh! You're right!”
“Because of that, I’ve recently started wondering if the event was deliberately caused by some transcendent being.”
He folded his arms.
“It is impossible to imagine that the souls of the heroes residing within the Hall would do such a thing. Which means someone else may have been responsible.”
What?
