#060. The Dispatch Request is Too Kind (1)

#060. The Dispatch Request is Too Kind (1)

The Adventurer’s Guild offered requests of various types.

Errand requests.

Patrol requests.

Extermination requests.

Escort requests.

The shorter the duration and the easier the task, the more likely it was to be taken by a novice adventurer. The longer the duration and the harder the task, the more likely it was to be taken by a higher-ranked adventurer.

Errands and patrols for the novices.

Exterminations and escorts for the intermediates.

Eradications and dispatches for the experts.

Each would take on requests suited to their level.

And today, the request that had the Sodom Guild buzzing was a dispatch request.

“Our Vanesha Furniture shop uses high-quality wood from Westwood, producing furniture renowned worldwide. However, lately, the fall of several villages has disrupted our supply.”

“I see. What assistance are you hoping for from our Sodom Guild?”

“Naturally, the dispatch of furniture. If it’s quality furniture, we’re prepared to pay any price.”

A furniture shop requesting the dispatch of furniture.

It was a rather peculiar request.

The dispatch of *furniture*, and not people?

“Were several villages along your trade route destroyed, and logistical hubs closed, creating difficulties for transportation, thus requiring an escort?”

“One could see it that way, I suppose. Anyway, this is special furniture intended for VIPs, so we’ve allocated this much for payment.”

The price was considerable.

Enough to make one think that if Momma were still in the village, she would have snatched the request form immediately.

However, the controversy surrounding this request wasn’t due to the high reward.

“Is the wood being harvested directly by your trading company?”

“It is, though I hoped to not mention this. It’s sad.”

The request was accepted not by the Diego party, Sodom village’s current strongest party, but by a party of retired central continent adventurers who had returned.

“We must help each other when the village is in need. We were flying high back in our active days.”

“Diego cannot leave the village, can he?”

“We absolutely must complete this. If this high-paying request passes through Sodom village and ends up in another village, our village will be branded as unable to handle high-value requests.”

The retired adventurers took on the request in Diego’s party’s stead.

Until that point, everyone thought it was a truly kind and grateful act.

The problem arose when an adventurer witnessed the ‘wood’ collected by the client’s company, packed in sacks, and the sacks… *wriggling*.

“What’s that? Why are the sacks of wood moving?”

“Haha. Perhaps we didn’t apply enough of the serum.”

“You apply serum to wood?”

“Well, creatures in areas abundant with mana are exceptionally vigorous, and, if they’re lucky, might even develop resistance to paralysis.”

“Open the sack.”

The adventurers sensed an ominous premonition.

“Must you really open it here?”

“Why can’t we open it here of all places?”

“You are persistent, aren’t you? Very well, I shall make a special showing for you.”

Inside the wagon were logs.

Logs that were long and stretched out, sprayed with some drug, logs that were unconscious humans.

“What in the blazes… what is the meaning of this?!”

“Isn’t it obvious? High-quality logs. Human furniture from Westwood.”

“This is a breach of contract! Fraud, outright! We don’t take requests that aid criminal activity. Prepare to pay the penalty!”

The guild sided with the adventurers.

The dispatch request was nullified, and the client was made to pay.

But the horror of the ‘Human Furniture Shop’ remained etched vividly in Sodom Village.

Just as we were newly struck by how many atrocious things exist in the world, the next incident occurred.

“Messenger from the Guild Alliance! We are requesting support for a request the Alliance can’t resolve!”

“Show me the details.”

The request was, on the whole, acceptable.

As befitting a support request, the reward was high.

Perhaps they were short-handed, but the request wasn’t beyond the capabilities of skilled adventurers.

The problem was a familiar name nestled amongst the listings.

Furniture Delivery Request for the Furniture Shop.

The very same furniture shop that had caused such an uproar in Sodom Village with its human furniture.

“Ian. It’s someone else’s guild business. Do we really need to concern ourselves with such things?”

“We’ve got the Saintess here, why don’t we just have her deal with it?”

People urged Ian to let the Saintess handle it.

Of course, Ian couldn’t.

This request… it’s in the game.

The reward is quite high.

The experience gained will be substantial.

“I can’t allow it.”

And so, he stepped forward.

Not merely because he didn’t want to lose out on experience.

“Many villages have fallen, and logistical hubs have crumbled. With the connections between villages so tenuous, if we stand by and watch as human trafficking rings flourish, the entire Westwood region will fall into an irreversible crisis.”

This is not an era where one can survive by remaining aloof and clean.

Sodom Village’s survival depends on the region surviving.

If the entire regional economy is razed to the ground, the village cannot sustain itself.

“Westwood is the region we’ve lived in and the only land where pioneers can settle. If news spreads that those seeking this land are being exposed to crime and dying, no one will consider Westwood a land of opportunity. It will become known as a criminal’s exile.”

“!!”

“We can’t wait for the knights or nobles who own the village to step in. They can simply receive a new fiefdom, but we have no haven. Our land can only be defended by our own hands.”

The adventurers’ eyes changed.

They realized this was not someone else’s problem.

“This is also a matter of cleaning our own house. If we seek to have our land cleaned by others, even without compensation, then who are we to be called adventurers or residents of this land?”

“H-Hey, shabby saint… Isn’t that a little scary to say…? Land ownership belongs to the knights, not the residents, and even the village chief or mayor is merely someone entrusted with management…?”

“It pains me to say, but Sodom is not the estate of the late noble, Gomorrah. It is a pioneer stronghold established by the Sodom Guild Master himself, a village for adventurers.”

Therefore, I can assert it.

“Everyone who wishes to live as an adventurer supports the will of the Sodom Guild Master. I can say that we are all, in effect, the village chief or his proxy.”

“Such words, if heard outside, might make you a heretic! You’d be dragged to the stake!”

“I have not known Cecilia-nim for long, but if the time we’ve spent together hasn’t been built on false relations, I can be certain. Cecilia-nim is not the kind of person who would denounce us to the Order, brand us as heretics, and have us hanged at the stake.”

Cecilia, wavering between devout faith and doctrine, filled with fear.

Seeing this, Ian understood.

How terrifying law and order are in the barbaric medieval ages.

And how special players, free from such constraints, truly are.

He couldn’t blame Cecilia.

This was the reality she had lived in.

He, setting the standards and judgments of another world upon this place, even though he was in the same location, could surely be called a heretic.

If his clumsy thoughts tried to change Cecilia, if that were to threaten her safety in the future, that would be nothing more than dogmatism and arrogance.

And so, he thought.

If, in the distant future, he was revealed to be a brainwasher.

If the players’ challenge failed, and many were executed for the unholy sin of participating in heresy, seeing their struggle for survival as a crime.

He had to secure a path of retreat for this noble saint, a way for her to save herself.

Being hated for using him?

He had been prepared for that from the moment he first used this ability.

Soiling her purity, where hints of ‘courage’ and ‘resolution’ that shouldn’t be nurtured were beginning to bloom?

That was far better than jeopardizing a good person by relying on her nobility.

If someone had to take responsibility, it shouldn’t be the saint.

It had to be him.

Ian steeled himself.

And now, he made a new resolve.

Against a saint, daringly.

Against someone who would condemn him to the stake, if she knew his true nature.

The resolve to use ‘brainwashing’.

Not brainwashing to hide his identity and save himself, but to save the saint who might kill him.

‘I am a brainwasher.’

A deceiver who twists and manipulates people’s minds.

Using this wicked power, I will…

[Brainwash Activation]

[Designated Target – Saint Cecilia]

[Command – It is not Cecilia-nim’s responsibility. All the responsibility for what happens in Sodom village lies with me, Ian.]

Snatching away the Saint’s free will, taking all the credit while diminishing her noble spirit of sacrifice.

A wicked brainwash that even gambled his own life.

As if sensing the foul attempt, immense shock and deep betrayal dawned on Cecilia’s face.

“Worthless wretch, Worthless wretch…!”

Side effect of brainwash failure.

A potent surge of rejection bloomed toward the caster.

The gamble had failed.

Yet the approaching death held no terror.

The noble saint had perceived and thwarted the wicked mind-manipulator’s scheme; the villagers had merely succumbed to impure thoughts at his insidious urging.

Only I deserve to die.

I used a wretched life to safeguard the justice of this land, the Sodom Guildmaster and the adventurers’ haven, the home where Mother and Anna would live, the place where Gorgo, Nina, Shoah, Maria, and all others could return.

Was this not a truly worthy use?

“If you want to take responsibility and be noble so badly, then take it all on yourself! You… you… you… idiot, pathetic, moronic saint!”

“…!”

The saint huffed and stormed out of the Adventurers’ Guild.

But she secretly followed the adventurers who were embarking on their dispatched quest.

Success or failure?

It hardly mattered, in truth.

Even if the mind-control failed, her nobility would not vanish.

She would continue pursuing what she believed to be right.

Then I, too, would do the same.

I would simply continue pursuing what I believed tos be right.

Thus resolved the wicked mind-manipulator.

“…Pack your things. We’re going to follow them, secretly.”

Shoah, who remained in the village, had noticed Ian’s concern for her and aided in the pursuit.

Thanks to that, he could witness it.

Cecilia’s unwavering nobility.

Ian sniffled, wiping tears with his sleeve, watching Cecilia’s small, resolute figure depart stealthily with a pack laden with provisions.

And he vowed.

That if Cecilia were to be executed later, on account of the responsibility from today, that would be a failure of his mind control; but if he could protect her with today’s mind control, that would be its success.

‘Your nobility could defend its own identity even from mind control, but my wickedness could claim to have deprived even an identity that was not taken.’

When that time came, I would stand confidently before the inquisitorial tribunal and declare.

That Cecilia’s participation in heretical acts was not of her own free will, but entirely the result of my mind control.

That today, at this very moment, I had most certainly mind-controlled and dominated Cecilia.

And if, perchance, she were to try to protect me, even that act would merely be the instinctive behavior of one ensnared by mind control, seeking to protect the wicked mind-manipulator.

When the mind-manipulator died and time passed, the mind control would naturally unravel, and the world would believe that she would repent her heretical actions.

That prospect – the false prophet dying, and the true saint living – became a prayer and solace for the wicked mind-manipulator’s heart.

* * *

“Those good-natured Sodom villagers won’t be able to resist coming if they see this request. We’ll kill them in the order they arrive. Then it’ll be easy to raid the village and take Ian, or kill the Sodom Guildmaster.”

Neresha, the action commander of the Black Panther Beastkin Clan.

Her cruel stratagem drew eerie smiles from the Black Panther Beastkin.

“Commander Neresha’s cunning plans are always chilling.”

“Still, it’s for the best. Sodom Village had a lot of strong female adventurers, didn’t it?”

“Let’s capture a few of them and make them into ‘human furniture’.”

Such were their imaginings of unrealizable pleasures, unaware that the Saint Cecilia, profoundly, truly angered by being told by the adventurers that they would handle the dangerous affairs and she should be left out, was following close behind.