Chapter 5
The day after Rashak had chased Lenoa away.
I found myself worrying.
…But seriously, what am I supposed to do for a living now?
Even if Rashak paid off my debt after I spent a week acting as bait, I still had to worry about my immediate living expenses and what I would do afterward.
After closing my shop, I no longer had any source of income.
I couldn’t keep living off my savings forever, could I?
Of course, I could earn money by working, but I didn’t have a job. Even the thought of preparing to look for another one felt overwhelming.
The merchant guild… Well, I did have experience working there.
That sexual harasser will interfere, though. I’ve heard that bastard managed to get a perfectly decent job at another major merchant guild, so he’ll definitely find some way to sabotage me.
But getting a job at a magic potion shop…
With all those rumors going around about me making strange potions, who’s going to hire me?
And so, I spent several days visiting employment agencies. For some reason, however, every single one turned me down.
It was almost as though someone had pulled strings behind the scenes.
Even the Three Calamities couldn’t be this determined to ruin someone’s life. …Wait, does this world even have the Three Calamities?
I was trudging out of yet another agency after practically forcing the employee to take my résumé when—
…What’s this?
The moment I turned the corner, I felt someone’s gaze on me.
It wasn’t my imagination. Ever since I was in school, I’d been exceptionally good at sensing this sort of attention.
…Because I was always afraid the teachers might suddenly call on me to give a presentation.
What? Don’t look at me like that.
I’m not the only person who’s afraid of things like that, am I?
Anyway.
It feels like… someone’s following me.
The instincts of a professional coward began blaring like crazy.
I remembered what Rashak had told me.
They probably won’t kill you right away. They’ll capture you first and ask where you came from, why you saved Rashak Barsen, whether you were involved in some kind of conspiracy beforehand, and all sorts of other questions.
So… had they really come for me?
The spies—otherwise known as the rats?
Where are Rashak’s people?
I subtly shifted my gaze and spotted several of Rashak’s subordinates in the alley across the street.
I recognized some of their faces from the abandoned building a few days ago. I’d also sensed their presence while going about my business, so I found them right away.
I tried to act as though nothing was wrong and play my role as bait.
My plan was to hold out until Rashak’s subordinates ambushed the spies.
…But then—
How exactly are you supposed to be bait?
I mean, Rashak had told me to go about my life as usual. But what was I supposed to do in a situation like this? What did usual even mean?
What made things even more bewildering was that Rashak’s subordinates had started signaling to me.
Was that… a lure? What?
Were they telling me to lure the spies out?
Were they telling me to do it?
I forced my trembling hands to steady themselves and started walking.
I was scared out of my mind. But I had to pay off my debt.
Stay calm. Take it easy. Walk as you normally would.
I was naturally a fast walker, so this pace was perfectly normal for me.
Although, for some reason, the scenery around me seemed to be flying past at an alarming speed.
This should be enough…
“Get her! She’s running away!”
I wasn’t actually running away! I was just walking!
A sudden commotion of footsteps erupted behind me.
Startled by the noise, I began running, too.
One fortunate thing was that I wasn’t bad at running.
You could even say it was a basic skill for a professional coward.
“It’s a dead end! Catch her!”
And, fortunately, I was also pretty good at climbing walls.
Grabbing protruding bricks and using them as footholds, I quickly scrambled upward. The footsteps chasing me came to a halt far below.
“You said she was an ordinary woman!”
“Two of you, go around! The other three, keep chasing her!”
Some people might wonder how a professional coward could climb a tall wall.
But I hadn’t exactly been given a choice.
Back when I was a trainee knight…
I’d spent so much time running away whenever I encountered monsters that I’d earned the nickname ‘She Was Just Here a Moment Ago.’
Once, my instructor cornered me in the courtyard of an abandoned building with a single low-level monster.
The idea was that if I were trapped in a place with no way out, my instinct to flee would finally be suppressed.
…Instead, right in front of every instructor watching, I managed to awaken a brand-new talent: wall climbing.
I mean, think about it.
Getting torn apart by a six-eyed wolf dripping with saliva versus overcoming your fear of heights.
Isn’t the latter obviously the better option?
“Damn it, that Barsen bastard! He even makes people undergo training like this!”
By the time I finished reminiscing about the past, I had already reached the rooftop. The pursuers were still following me.
“She’s on the roof! She’s on the roof!”
“Catch her no matter what! Hah…! Grab… her… Haaah…”
They were using the same footholds I’d climbed up, but they were moving considerably more slowly.
I was anxiously wondering what I should do next when I spotted Rashak’s subordinates again, far below in my line of sight.
They signaled to me once more, indicating that I should lure the pursuers all the way onto the rooftop.
So… the plan was to let the pursuers climb onto the roof, then have them follow me back down the stairs, where Rashak’s men would be waiting to capture them at the bottom.
Wasn’t that asking a little too much of me?
Hang in there, Hiel. You have to pay off your debt, remember?
After thinking for a moment, I cautiously approached the edge of the rooftop and spoke to the pursuers.
“Um, hello…”
They stared at me in bewilderment. Apparently, they hadn’t expected me to speak to them.
Honestly, I didn’t have anything particular to say, either. I just figured I had to do something.
Still, I’d started a conversation.
Now, what could I say?
“That’s… not how you’re supposed to do it…”
That was when all their shoulders jerked at once.
The pursuer with the mustache began glaring at me as though he wanted to kill me.
“No… If you do it like that, you’re going to slip soon…”
“Are you mocking us?!”
“It’s just that your legs seem to be trembling… And you, sir, it would be easier if you hooked your foot over that spot right next to you instead of there. Yes, yes. Right there. You, too.”
The two men moved their legs according to my instructions.
But no matter how much they stretched and swung their feet, they couldn’t reach the footholds.
Neither of them could.
I let out a sympathetic sigh.
“Oh dear… You have such short legs.”
And just like that, I awakened a new talent in all three pursuers.
In other words, they began climbing toward the rooftop where I stood like madmen.
And once they reached the top, they resumed chasing me with even more murderous expressions than before.
Thus, I successfully lured the pursuers toward the stairs where Rashak’s subordinates were lying in ambush.
“…And… that’s what happened.”
After finishing my explanation, I cautiously studied Rashak’s expression.
He had seemed a little less frightening the last time we’d met, but seeing him today reminded me all over again just how terrifying he was.
I was beginning to resent Fidel, who had told me at the entrance, ‘You should report directly to the Boss.’
Couldn’t he have simply told Rashak that I’d caught the spies?
Why did he have to drag me all the way here?
I was nervously dwelling on these thoughts when—
“Pfft—”
A sudden snort came from across the room.
Rashak spoke, a trace of amusement lingering on his face.
“So, you caught them by climbing walls and running?”
“Y-Yes… That’s right.”
“And you even approached the pursuers yourself and taunted them?”
“It… sort of happened that way.”
“Well done. That’s an excellent talent.”
I looked at him in surprise.
After all, the image I had of Rashak was nothing short of bleak and merciless.
In the original novel, no matter what the female protagonist said, he always responded with sarcasm. Just reading his dialogue had been enough to make me feel suffocated.
“Now that we’ve caught three of them, we should be able to uncover who’s behind them. The rat inside my organization will show its tail soon enough, too.”
“…You think so?”
“Then I suppose it’s time for me to fulfill my promise.”
Rashak stood up and headed toward the corner of the bookshelf.
Since it looked like a safe, I deliberately turned away. A moment later, however, a black briefcase straight out of a mafia movie appeared on the table.
I hurriedly opened the latches and checked the banknotes inside.
One hundred thousand… Two hundred thousand…
There was no mistake.
One hundred million rupen. The entire amount was there.
“Thank you, Bo—”
Before I could finish speaking, Rashak abruptly snatched the briefcase away.
I stared at him in bewilderment, and he asked,
“Why didn’t you ask Count Brent to pay off your debt?”
“……”
“That old man could easily afford an amount like this. I thought you were close to him.”
I had never actually said that to Rashak myself, but, in any case, it was true.
Even so…
“How could I shamelessly ask him for money after breaking up with Allen?”
“You weren’t the cause of the breakup. I don’t think shamelessly is the right word.”
“…That’s true, I suppose.”
“It’s good that you can admit it so quickly.”
What was this?
Why did I feel as though I were being evaluated during a job interview?
“But you need to learn to be a little more shameless.”
“…I don’t understand what you mean.”
“We’re continuing the interview we couldn’t finish before.”
And just like that, it really did turn into a job interview.
…Wait a minute. If that was the case, then—
“We’ve lost quite a few people lately while trying to weed out the spies. We’re short-handed.”
“W-We should hurry and hold the next round of examinations, then.”
“There’s no need for that. As it happens, I have a promising candidate right in front of me.”
“Boss, as you can see… I’m an extremely ordinary person…”
“An ordinary person wouldn’t knock an assassin unconscious with a single punch.”
“My courage is practically nonexistent, too…”
“Then you can develop it.”
“People who have said that to me have been truly terrifying—far more terrifying than you can imagine. And I failed every single time…”
“You’ve never worked under me before.”
He smiled as he spoke.
“Don’t worry. I’ve never had a history of giving up on something once I’ve set my mind to it.”
It was a smile that could only be described as wicked.
It would have fit perfectly with a line like, ‘You dare steal my money? You’d better be ready to face the consequences.’
Perhaps it was thanks to that smile that I managed to summon the greatest shamelessness of my entire life.
In other words, I took the money and ran away.
The moment I stepped out of the national bank after paying off my entire loan, Rashak was waiting for me.
“How did you know I was here?!”
“Once you had money, it wasn’t hard to guess where you’d go.”
Even in broad daylight, in the middle of a busy main street, he had an intimidating appearance. There wasn’t a single subordinate around him, yet I could still feel that inexplicable pressure radiating from him.
“You’re really fast at running.”
He curled the corners of his mouth into a grin.
“The more I see you, the more I want you.”
