Chapter 23. The Empty Two

“That branch really is a shithole, isn’t it? Can’t they properly modify information?”

Necro was shouting at someone the whole time while he was crossing the bridge.

“Bring everyone in the waiting room to me, now! Those bastards...!”

It seemed that he was using telepathy to talk to someone at the moment.

“What? Impossible? Did you just mention the word ‘impossible‘? If I tell you to do something, you do it! You want me to remind you of the olden days again? Huh? Do it!”

Necro shouted extremely loudly by the end, and made a gesture of him throwing a phone somewhere in anger. He probably voiced his conversations on purpose for the saint to hear.

“Stop. We’ll have to confirm your identities here.”

Soldiers began to approach us from the other side when we crossed the bridge. They had checked our identities twice already. How meticulous. After finishing the identification process, the soldier returned the identity card to Necro and saluted.

“Thank you for your cooperation. Your shelter is located in sector B, building one. Here’s a map.”

Everything seems to have been taken care of already. Soldiers were roaming around the town in casual clothes. They had be like this so that the Warrior wouldn’t get suspicious about what was going on. Like this, it should be hard to tell that the town’s been occupied by soldiers. I had heard that the first company came here in advance to set up walls and barriers. They did quite a nice job. After all, they had experienced war in their life already. I could see how much the government cared about this operation just by seeing the quality of the soldiers here. Necro began to walk forward confidently. It was pretty dark outside even with lamps, which made it a little hard to see. I can see quite a lot of stars in the sky.

“It’s 9 already?”

Necro looked down to his wristwatch under the lamp.

“I was thinking of looking around a little bit, but... I suppose we’ll have to do that tomorrow. We need to get dinner as well. Let’s go to the shelter then.”

The saint raised her hand in happiness.

“Food! Yay!”

The two of them are unnecessarily happy.

“I don’t need food though.”

To be more exact, I can’t eat. Necro grinned.

“I know. You can just watch.”

Damn it. I headed to the shelter following Necro. After walking for about ten minutes, I could see a three-floored building. Orange light and muffled noises came out of the open door of the building. Candles, was it? When we walked in, the soldiers inside all turned to look at us. Pretty much all of them seemed to have tattoos on them along with scars. They scanned us for a second then turned back to go back to their usual business.

“Ah! A cat!”

The saint ran forward disregarding everything in her way.

“Can we sit here? Please?”

The saint looked over the tired cat on the table then lifted it gently with her hands.

Just bite it, why don’t you?

“Yay~”

The cat’s body flopped powerlessly in the air. Soon enough, though, it began to fumble around, trying to get away from the saint’s grasp. The saint rubbed her face on the cat’s belly and let it back down. The cat disappeared into the kitchen.

A little while later.

Chomp chomp. Clack clack! Gulp gulp.

Everyone in the inn was looking towards the one person who was eating a mountain of food on her table.

“......”

She’s eating quite well with that small body of hers. Was her stomach linked with a different dimension? How was she eating so well? Was this the power of the Devourer Ring? I tried looking under the table, but her stomach didn’t seem to have changed in size at all. Will she be fine like that? This world’s bathrooms were old and didn’t have a proper flush. It didn’t matter for me, since I didn’t have to use the bathroom, but for the innkeeper, things might get a little annoying for him. After all, the bathroom might explode in his face. A lot of people were looking this way with worried faces already... Perhaps, for the sake of world peace, the saint needs to stop eating?

“Mr. Murderer, were you thinking of something very inappropriate about now?”

The saint growled while she pointed her fork towards me. She seemed like a beast, almost.

“No, no.”

I observed the saint while I denied her speculation. Her fork was moving so fast that it was beginning to leave afterimages. Necro, who had finished his meal already, nodded to himself.

“Germany really has the best sausages.”

I chipped in.

“One might say Germans just like sausages a bit too much.”

The saint licked the sausage on her fork after hearing this. The soldiers gulped when they saw her doing this.

Chomp.

The saint bit into the sausage. Little moans began to come from the crowd. The saint chewed the meat in her mouth and looked around with the eyes of a beast. Only then did the people look the other way. I, too, looked down to read the report on the Warrior.

He’s a defensive type, huh...

It feels like people were staring at me, but let’s ignore that for now.

[His attack power is not to be taken lightly, but the man himself prefers defense over everything else. ‘Warriors are supposed to protect his comrades. It would be good if I could have saved everyone with these hands of mine.’ - Romeo Smith]

The warrior’s style was to stand his ground as much as possible. At least, this was the case for beings other than human-like creatures. I wonder how he’ll fight humans? Maybe he’ll rush in with a shield in hand...? That in itself was quite scary considering the Warrior’s actual stats.

“What a workaholic you are.”

The saint sent a comment towards me while eating.

“Yeah, why don’t you go out on a walk or something? Ah... That was good.”

I looked up when Necro spoke. The table was already completely clear of food. That must’ve been like at least twenty servings of food...

I lowered my report and responded to the two.

“Time is money.”

The saint looked at me silently.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Anything you’d like to say?”

“...No, it’s nothing. It’s just... I was surprised at how human you are.”

The saint was the first to ever say anything like that.

“Yeah?”

I went back to reading the report after saying that. We should arrive in two days. Necro and the saint should be setting up the barrier some time tomorrow. The Warrior arrives in four days. There might be small errors, but it should be generally accurate.

“Necro.”

“Mm? What?”

“Is there a reason why we’re handling the Warrior first? I don’t see a particular reason for choosing the Warrior instead of the Thief, the Summoner, the Fighter, or the Hero. Shouldn’t we be going for the thief if we consider distance?”

“Ah, that?”

Necro responded casually, but his face had changed slightly.

“I don’t know. Maybe because he seemed so easy? It’s simple, you know. He’s a Warrior, so he must be dumb.”

“Would the government really rank it like that?”

“They must’ve ranked in order of difficulty~ Ah! Whatever! Don’t ask. I don’t want to think about it. Why’s it so hot?”

Necro stood up and loosened his belt a little.

“I’m going to go sleep. What are you guys going to do? Morto and I should sleep early for the barrier we’re setting up tomorrow.”

The saint put down the wine glass on the table.

“Noo! I don’t want to!”

“You think I want to do it? We have to create a big’un, so get ready.”

The saint plopped down on the table.

“I guess this is the end for today... Ah! Mr. Murderer, your room number is 202. Mine is...”

“Not interested.”

“Next to yours. Please take care not to get too excited.”

“I won’t.”

Who would?

“It’s a joke.”

The saint stood up, so I cleaned up and got ready to leave as well.

“Right, sleep well then. Ah, Jin, you don’t sleep, right? You might as well come to my room if you feel lonely.”

Necro’s starting to throw jokes my way as well huh.

“Don’t want to.”

“If you decide to come, knock on my door three times.”

I looked at the saint straight in the eye, and clearly told her my feelings.

“I. Don’t. Want. To.”

My eyes would fall out if I had to look at them for another second. I swore that someday I would punch them in the face at some point in my life, and stumbled into my room.