Chapter 43

Watching closely, I could tell that every single person who had landed on the island was on edge. Not a single soul wore a smile; instead, they paced irritably, squinting toward the west. They weren’t performing any particular task, just standing around and scouting the perimeter.

“It looks like they’re waiting for someone,” Yoshioka whispered.

“Yeah. This is exactly like something out of a movie.”

“Oh, I was thinking the same thing. Like a mafia deal going down, right?”

That was exactly it. It looked just like those cinema scenes where mobsters meet in a desert or an abandoned factory to trade weapons or drugs.

“What’s the move?”

Naturally, we stay hidden. We aren’t guards or part of the watch. While we could probably repel them with magic and skills, you never know what might happen in a real fight. There was no reason to go sticking our noses into danger.

I was just about to tell Yoshioka to keep our heads down when one of the men started walking right toward us. He was loosening the drawstring of his pants as he walked. And then…

“Who the hell are you?!”

We were spotted. Honestly, though, who the hell are you, standing there with your lower half exposed trying to take a leak?

In an instant, we were surrounded by the group, weapons drawn. Counting them again, there were twelve in total, men and women.

“Are you with the Guard?” the man who seemed to be the leader barked. I shook my head. We might be joining up once we hit the Royal Capital, but for now, we’re just civilians.

“Are there others with you?”

“Heh… Everyone, drop your weapons and stay quiet!”

Yoshioka? Have you lost your mind?

“This island is completely surrounded! Your associates aren’t coming!”

Stop it with the bluffs, seriously.

“Boss! They’re here!”

See? Exposed instantly…

A light was visible offshore. It was blinking at regular intervals—clearly a signal.

“Surrounded, my foot…”

“What do we do with these two, Boss?”

“Kill them and toss them in the lake.”

Well, that was blunt. Couldn’t we do a little interrogation first…?

The group surrounding us recoiled in terror as a wall of fire erupted with a roar. From there, it was the same drill as the duel. The winning pattern: trap them with the fire wall, shrink the perimeter, and then fire off Paralyze Balls once they’re immobilized. We knocked the whole lot of them unconscious.

“Tying people up… this is a first for me,” Yoshioka muttered.

“Same here. I don’t exactly have a hobby for this.”

Using nylon rope and cord, we began binding the (likely) lake-pirates with their hands behind their backs.

“For someone with no hobby, Senpai, you’ve been focused on tying up only the women for a while now.”

“I-it’s a coincidence! Just happened that way…”

I was really just tying whoever was closest.

“But the way you’re tying them… isn’t it a bit erotic?”

“I’m just being thorough so they can’t slip out!”

You have to be careful with these things, otherwise, it’s scary.

“The truth?”

“Once I started, I guess I got a little into it…”

It’s like anything else. You might not have an interest initially, but once you start, you get obsessed with the details, right? Like model kits or gardening…

It took some time because a few of the (likely) lake-pirates regained consciousness halfway through and had to be hit with more Paralyze Balls, but we finally managed to bind them all.

By the way, the boat that was supposed to meet them had vanished into the night. They probably saw Yoshioka’s wall of fire and bolted. It was already past midnight.

“Should we hand these guys over to the guards?”

That seemed like the right call, but we were on a small island in the middle of Lake Baden. While not exactly a “deserted island in the far reaches of the sea,” it was a significant distance from the shore. Besides, taking independent action might cause trouble for Clara-sama…

What were these guys actually up to, anyway?

I checked their cargo and found a suspicious wooden crate. The contents were… Magic Stones. So, this is what they were trying to sell. The stones looked like polished obsidian—transparent, square-cut black stones. They felt more like glass than rock.

Obsidian is called a stone, but I’ve heard it’s basically just glass. These Magic Stones were packed into a wooden crate about the size of a cardboard box used for mandarin oranges.

“I wonder what the street value is,” Yoshioka mused.

“It’s not like it’s contraband…” I replied, though I wasn’t so sure.

I remembered Ria telling me that Magic Stones harvested from the Labyrinth of Lagas usually go for about 200 to 400 Marques each. Stronger monsters carry larger stones; a fist-sized one can fetch up to 20,000 Marques. The stones in the crate before us were roughly the same size as the ones Ria had shown me. I couldn’t even begin to guess how many were in there.

“If there are, say, three thousand in this box, the wholesale price would be somewhere between 600,000 and 1.2 million Marques, right?”

“Whoa! Should we just… ‘pocket’ the profits?”

“We shouldn’t commit crimes. Let’s stick to honest business.”

Besides, I wouldn’t even know where to sell Magic Stones. And there was no way Clara-sama would ever overlook something like that.

“Plus, if we were going to embezzle this, we’d have to silence these guys, wouldn’t we?” Yoshioka added.

That was the reality of it. We’d have to destroy the evidence… but there was no way we could do something like that so easily! We were peaceful, law-abiding Japanese citizens. At least, for now.

Yoshioka and I had discussed the topic of killing people several times. If we were going to become inhabitants of this world, it would be impossible to survive while clinging solely to the ethics and common sense of Japan. The era, the location, and even the dimension were all different here. Since we couldn’t make the world conform to us, we had to conform to the world to some extent.

We often told each other to be prepared for when the time came. If we lived in this world, I figured a day would eventually come when we’d have to kill or be killed. But that time wasn’t now. The third woman from the right was actually quite cute and exactly my type. Seeing her tied up and trembling made me feel sorry for her, even though they had just tried to kill us. Thrusting a spear into a human body… I just wasn’t ready for that yet.

“Hey, help us out. We’ll pay you. Just don’t hand us over to the guards, please,” the leader started talking, and the rest of them immediately joined in with their pleas.

“I’m just a low-level grunt! Please let me go!”

“You can do whatever you want with my body, just let me run! I’ll do anything!”

“I’ll give the boss all the money, the stones, and the boat! Just let me be your underling!”

They were certainly desperate. Now, what to do? Even if I wanted to turn them over to the authorities, I didn’t even know where to go.

“Yoshioka, I still don’t understand how this world works very well.”

“I feel the same way.”

“So, I think I’ll ask for Clara-sama’s judgment. What do you think?”

Yoshioka stared at me for a moment and then broke into a smile.

“That’s fine for now. But I’m surprised. Are you the type of person who leaves their decisions to others, Senpai?”

It was strange to me too, but for some reason, I had absolute trust in Clara-sama. I really didn’t know why. I just felt it.

“So, what about these guys?”

“For that, we’ll use the power of the Great Mage Yoshioka-sama to escort them.”

We loaded the lake-pirates onto their own boat, brought the bike aboard, and headed back toward Golfsdorf. I released only a grunt and two of the female pirates to operate the vessel. The boat surged forward, propelled by Yoshioka’s wind magic.

“Senpai, is it okay to go this fast?”

“As long as it holds together until Golfsdorf. Crank it up to 300!”

“300 what…?”

I just wanted to say it; the number didn’t actually mean anything. In reality, it felt like we were hitting about 50 km/h. I estimated we’d arrive around 2:00 AM. I decided to hit the prisoners with one more round of Paralyze Balls each and try to catch a little nap.