“Here you go. This is the difference after deducting the commission fee from the request payment you left.”
The receptionist girl took out a few silver coins from the pouch containing the reward and returned the rest to Amy.
Amy divided this into three and handed it to us, then explained in detail to the receptionist girl about the situation we had experienced in the dungeon.
The wights occupying the third underground floor, the suspiciously suspicious altar for human sacrifice, and even the necromancy-type grimoire that popped out from inside it.
“Look. These are the corpses of those wights? I only cut off their toes to bring back…”
“Wights…? Altar? Necromancy…? W-wait a moment. Did you perhaps explore a mid-level dungeon instead of a low-level one?”
The receptionist girl was visibly flustered.
It meant that what she thought was an ordinary iron tag level request was actually a request that would require four copper tag adventurers to resolve… no, it might have been even more challenging than that.
It was fortunate that we left as soon as we got the grimoire; if we had lingered trying to perfectly conquer that place, we might not have avoided annihilation.
“No, the depth itself seems to be correct for a low-level dungeon. The problem is what’s lurking inside.”
Amy shook her head as she answered.
Looking at the situation, she said it was highly likely to be a facility used as a hideout by an Abyss Priest rather than an ordinary low-level dungeon, so they retreated without further exploration.
“Oh my…”
Surprised by the mention of an Abyss Priest, the receptionist girl glanced at me and let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness you returned safely. An Abyss Priest, to think such a thing was hiding there…”
Well, she couldn’t help but feel relieved.
She had only tried to give her troublesome benefactor a decent job, but she had almost sent them to their graves.
“We didn’t encounter it directly… but it’s probably certain. It can’t be explained otherwise.”
“I see. I’ll report it that way. Thank you for the information.”
The receptionist girl nodded with a businesslike smile and took out a pristine white paper, recording Amy’s words in one fell swoop.
The completed report, stamped with the adventurers’ guild seal, was handed over to another employee and taken upstairs.
“Well then, can we go back now?”
“Um… just a moment, Priest Bolton, could you stay for a bit? I have something to ask you. The others can go.”
“A question? For Priest Bolton?”
Amy, who was putting the grimoire back into her backpack as if ready to leave now that business was done, tilted her head slightly and asked back at the receptionist girl’s words.
“Ah, is it about Hilde’s heresy charges?”
…What’s that about?
I shot a confused look at Bolton.
Heresy charges, what’s that suddenly about? Isn’t that too ominous a word?
“If it’s about that issue, you can rest assured. The confirmation is all done, so it will be concluded as a false accusation.”
Bolton answered with a slight smile.
“Phew. That’s a relief.”
The receptionist girl smiled too.
“No, what are you talking about? Heresy charges? Confirmation?”
I turned to the receptionist girl and asked what she was suddenly talking about.
With an awkward smile, she apologized for not telling me in advance, then explained the behind-the-scenes of this request in a gentle tone as if to soothe me.
So it was like this…
* * *
“You’re saying I was suspected of being a cultist? Me?”
“Yes. Although it was just a suspicion.”
Surprisingly, truly surprisingly, the goddess church branch here in Vespian had been suspecting me of being a cult worshipper.
A woman with no records of past activities, who never shows her bare face in front of others.
Such a woman was engaging in adventurer work despite not being particularly in need of money, and had killed dozens of iron and copper tag adventurers on the grounds that they were looters.
How suspicious must it have looked from the church’s perspective?
They say rumors even circulated that the claim of party members turning into looters and being dealt with was just an excuse, and that I had actually offered them as sacrifices to an evil god?
“Moreover, the trail of the ‘Lowborn Slaughterer’, registered as a wanted criminal, mysteriously disappeared around this area. The timing also coincides with when Hilde registered as an adventurer.”
“…Lowborn Slaughterer? What’s that?”
It was truly an ominous name. Lowborn Slaughterer, in other words, a serial killer who selectively kills poor and weak people?
What kind of garbage human being does that?
“You don’t know? It’s a murderer who massacred over seven slash-and-burn farming villages and nearby peddlers from the Burgundy border area to Hervor.”
Oh.
“Due to the cruel method that didn’t leave a single person alive, everything from the real name and appearance to the motive and method remains unidentified. It’s a vicious wanted criminal.”
…This sounds like they’re talking about me.
“The goddess church side assumes the Lowborn Slaughterer to be a cult worshipper. A massacre close to desecration, with unclear meaning or purpose. It’s the kind of thing that looks like it would be committed by a cultist serving an evil god.”
“That’s right. And since the criminal’s trail was cut off around Vespian, the upper echelons of the church were assuming that the culprit had hidden in Vespian.”
Bolton added an explanation.
“On our side, we had judged Hilde to be one of the prime suspects… but after accompanying you directly, I realized how absurd an error that was.”
It wasn’t an error, it was correct.
“Oh… I see. I’m glad the misunderstanding has been cleared up.”
I smiled, awkwardly pulling up the corners of my mouth.
Isn’t the goddess church a bit too competent?
How on earth did they figure that out? There shouldn’t have been any witnesses left.
A drop of cold sweat trickled down my spine.
* * *
Anyway, Bolton says that’s why he joined our party. To observe me up close and confirm whether I was a cult worshipper or not.
Not just me, but other suspects were also apparently monitored by priests or paladins attached to parties like ours?
And as a result of this close surveillance, Bolton seems to have become convinced that I wasn’t the culprit.
“Mannered and considerate behavior. Not excessively greedy for wealth, nor entranced by the pleasure of killing, and your emotional stability was far too stable to be a cultist.”
It was a surprisingly objective high evaluation.
Yeah, I guess someone like me would have a personality in the top 1% among adventurers.
Maybe it’s because this world has no compulsory education, but there are so many people with terrible personalities in this industry.
“Ah, then perhaps, your fits- no, excessive behavior in the dungeon, was it some kind of test to check my emotional fluctuations?”
I voiced a question that suddenly occurred to me.
Recalling Bolton’s fits where he would roll his eyes and growl every time he saw undead or products of cults.
Honestly, I thought how could a person act like that unless they were crazy, but if it was all an act to check my reactions, it would make sense.
“…”
However, Bolton remained silent.
Instead of laughing it off as being caught, he just kept his mouth firmly shut.
Only rolling his eyes slightly to avoid my gaze.
“…Mr. Bolton?”
…No. What’s with that reaction? Don’t tell me that wasn’t an act but real?
He seriously foamed at the mouth, with bulging veins, and did all that?
“Ahem, ahem.”
Bolton just let out fake coughs as if embarrassed.
“…”
I was so glad I was wearing a helmet.
If my visor hadn’t hidden my eyes, I might have been arrested for blasphemy.
“Ahem. Anyway, um. And… your excessively cautious behavior… yes. If you’ve frequently suffered threats from looters as rumored, it would be natural to act that way.”
As I was staring at Bolton without saying anything, having run out of words, he turned his head away from me completely and quickly changed the subject.
“I was right, wasn’t I? It’s true that Hilde has many suspicious aspects, but there’s no way she could be a cultist or a looter.”
The receptionist girl smiled, raising her chin slightly as if to say ‘See?’. She had the face of a parent boasting about their child’s character and abilities.
“Yes. As you said, it seems Hilde can be removed from the list of suspects. She’s not that kind of person.”
Bolton nodded and readily agreed. In a tone overflowing with sincere trust.
Therefore, I decided not to press further and let Bolton’s quirk slide.
In any case, thanks to his vouching for me, the false charges that had been placed on me were cleanly resolved.
“As a priest serving Elianelle, I guarantee. Hilde is not the Lowborn Slaughterer.”
Ah, right, it wasn’t a false charge.
* * *
“Lowborn Slaughterer… what a crazy bastard.”
Amy, who had been standing blankly beside us, chimed in as if interested in our conversation. Her face was a mix of contempt and curiosity.
“What kind of person would go around doing such things?”
Well, that would be me.
Unlike the false accusation of selectively massacring the weak, I had merely subjugated rapists and thieves.
“In my opinion, perhaps… you know the dungeon we just visited? I think it might be the Abyss Priest said to be hiding there. If we judge it that way, all the circumstances fit perfectly.”
Bolton carefully laid out his speculation.
He suggested that the massacre of slash-and-burn farmers was to procure corpses to raise as undead, and the trail disappearing was because they had hidden in the dungeon.
Hearing it, it was a reasonable suggestion.
“Ah, that could be possible.”
“Indeed… it’s a highly plausible inference. If the Abyss Priest matter is true.”
Amy and the receptionist girl seemed to find it a plausible speculation too, as they both nodded slightly with parted lips.
“That might be the case.”
I expressed agreement too.
Bolton’s deduction was so perfect that I couldn’t find any room for refutation even if I tried.
It was almost like he had the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes possessing him.
“An Abyss Priest…”
I see, so the Lowborn Slaughterer was an Abyss Priest…!
How evil, how wicked.
To massacre such helpless weak people so mercilessly, and then try to pin those charges on me. How could someone be so vicious?
They deserved divine punishment.
The terrifying divine punishment of a group beating by enraged paladins.
Such an evil person should be beaten and burned to a pulp on sight, so they can’t even dare to claim innocence.
And so, the four of us ended our long conversation, expressing anger and contempt at the Abyss Priest’s criminal activities.
“Kachak!”
By the way, Kikel sat down by the stove laughing, as if he had no interest in slaughterers or whatever.
It was a very characteristic attitude of him.