Chapter 42: Negotiation Concluded
"So? Where were we?"
While waiting for my parfait, we continued our meeting.
"You"re talking about destroying this city with monsters stampede. How will those cult do that?"
"They will spread some kind of substance, possibly a monsters attracting potion, around the city. While the members themselves, will drink a potion that will make them won"t be attacked by monsters. That"s what I heard. But looking from Sammy"s expression, I got it right."
This time, Sammy kept quiet and not talking at all. But his face shows a different expression when I said the truth that he kept a secret.
Knowing that I can see his expression"s changing, he kept his head down this time. To make it harder for me to find the truth from him. But that"s useless to me who have Divine Vision. I can see his heart beats faster when I said what he tried to hide.
"Does that things even exist? The potions to attract monsters and potions to makes monsters won"t attack us?"
"They are. Even if they still don"t exist yet, the cult would makes them. And I believe they will attack us when they have finished their products. At least that what I learned from eavesdropping on them."
"And the governor is a part of this?"
"Yes. And possibly, many of the guards here are part of the cult as well."
I"m just guessing it, but at least, back when I killed their new recruits, the ones who opened the gates before the supposed times were their members. There are four gates in this city. North, east, south, and west. And back then when I pa.s.sed the gate, there were at least four guards. That means at least there are twelve guards who are members of the cult. Or at least disguising themselves as the guards.
Fortunately, I have gained my Divine Vision ability. If the cult members have the same exploding device in their mouth, I can see it. And so I can tell if they are part of the cult or not. I don"t know if every members have them in their mouth, but at least those who has, are part of the cult.
"And? How did you know he"s part of that cult?"
Sam asked me curiously.
"It was that exploding device in his mouth. This is just the second time I"ve seen it so I wasn"t sure yet. But thanks to him being stupid enough to admit he"s part of the cult, I know now."
"You! You"re just lucky to find me! But regardless of what you found out, this city will be destroyed! There"s nothing you can do on your—Guh!"
And so, I punched him in the gut for speaking without permission.
"I"ll ask you a question then. Do you know the dragon"s appearance near Mellian? Was there any victim killed by the dragon?"
I asked Sammy about the dragon.
"Ugh… there"s no casualties despite the appearance of the dragon. There are many witnesses who saw the dragon and heard its roar, but there"s no victim."
"Despite being punched in the gut, you sure answered honestly. Well… you"re wrong! There"s one casualty. It was someone like you with an explosive inside his mouth. A man with a scar on his palm. I"ve seen him before in the forest. At the entrance of the cave where you"re examining your new recruits. Where every single one of the new recruits and the examiners died."
"What?! How did you know the dead? And the place where we trained our new recruits, you know about it?"
"Not just I know about it, I caused it! Every single one of them are killed by me! Blobby!"
I called out Blobby who has been disguising himself as my armguard all this time.
"This is my summon, Blobby. A Black Slime with shapeshifting ability. I turned him into a blade similar to the monsters during the ma.s.sacre and killed all of your new recruits. And I made it as if it was caused by the monsters."
I showed him how Blobby can transform to anything I wanted.
"You!"
"That"s not all."
I turned Blobby again and this time she"s changed into the dragonhead scissor.
"I"m the dragon! The main cause of the panic in Mellian was me! I used dragon as a disguise to not let your cult realize someone like me exist!"
Sammy turned speechless this time. And Sam has the same reaction as well.
"After using this dragonhead scissor to kill the scarred palm guy, I changed Blobby to a dragon and let it fly so many people can see her. And the panic that comes was within expectation."
"…that"s too much effort just to kill one man. You really don"t want to be found, huh?"
It was Sam who asked me.
"Yeah. In the end, I"m still too weak to fight against such a huge organization. I believe the Evil G.o.d Cult"s influence has spread around the world. There"s limit to what one can do so at least until I have the strength, I won"t let my ident.i.ty be found. This guy will die soon and somehow I can trust you with this information. Just so you know, we are still in negotiation."
"So you want to kill him? How will you do it if you don"t want to alert the cult?"
"Do you have a rival organization? Another mafia group or a gang of thugs?"
"I see… that"s interesting. Now I feel like the negotiation will proceed smoothly. I"ll take care of him then."
"Feels like accepting my conditions now? As for him, just tell me where to find the group. If I found that none of them are part of the cult, I will tell you."
"Once you tell me, I will act accordingly. As for your conditions, I want to listen more. I feel like you already have plan even if the city is truly destroyed."
As expected of the real leader. Of course I have an idea of what to do.
"First thing first, I want to try my best in stopping the destruction of this city. But even if I stopped it, I will move to another city because I want to enroll in medical school in Ca.s.sau. I want you to move your base to that city so we can proceed our business easier. But please move until I have shown you what I will trade with you. Then you can choose to continue our partnership or not."
"Good."
"Hey. Please don"t kill me."
While we were conducting negotiation, Sammy somehow interrupted us. So this time, I hit him real hard so he will faint. At least it"s not enough to kill him yet.
"So? Why did you trust me?"
"Somehow I felt something familiar from you. Are you and Ruby of the Red Tail related?"
"…she"s my mom. And she was supposedly be the real leader of our group. Few years ago she left me in charge and choose to build a brothel."
What?! She"s Ruby"s daughter?! No wonder I felt like Ruby knows Sam.
"So? What else do you want from us?"
"About the clearance of the girls" debts…"
"It"s all done. We already have a lot of money even if they choose not to pay."
"Great! Well, I have an exam at school, so I will tell you after I catch some stuffs to trade with you. We will continue our talk later. Just prepare to move if you decide to continue our partnership."
"And what will you do now?"
"Waiting for my parfait. I"ll search for your rival organization after this and I"ll tell you which one to blame for Sammy"s death. Just tell me all organization that hostile to you."
"Alright. They"re all…"
I listened to her telling the groups one by one from the biggest group to the smallest. I feel like there are too many groups in this small city.
While we were talking, my long awaited parfait is here!
"Here is your parfait."
"It looks so delicious! Thanks!"
"Cough. By the way, all the topping fruits are from the fruits I grows,"
She"s still thinking of getting compliments? That"s fine with me.
"You grow fruits on your own? That"s awesome! You"re the perfect maid!"
She doesn"t reply. But her face turned totally red and she has a smile she tried to hide on her face.
"Lina. You"re always doing your best. You are truly the best a.s.sistant I could have."
This time, Sam tried to give Lina compliment. But Lina react differently than when I compliment her.
"Just doing my job."
Both Sam and I are confused with her reaction, so we talk in whisper so Lina won"t listen.
"Why is her reaction different?"
"Maybe I"m just her type."
"You?!"
"Is there something wrong?"
Curious, Lina asked us.
"Well, our negotiation today has concluded so after finishing this parfait I will leave to do some works. Then… Sam, I"ll see you tonight?"
"Tonight is fine. I"ll let Lina open the secret door so you won"t burst it open again. See you later."
And we make a promise to meet again after I checked other groups.
I left after finished my parfait like I said and went to look for the groups Sam said. Maybe I can kill some of the cult"s members I find?