◆◆
Behind this dude.
In the middle of a dungeon dyed red like a socialist paradise. The only people still breathing were me and a country bumpkin.
Hans, cursing his cheap armor, had turned into a human lotus root with holes everywhere.
He sought holes and got them. Is that not a somewhat satisfying end?
Jamie looked like a drunk surgeon used a blender instead of a scalpel.
His agile body was too busy dodging, leading him to be slashed dozens of times instead of just once.
The stench of blood, urine, and guts filled the air, making it dizzying.
And then, there was John.
“P-please save me…!”
He was trembling, begging for his life with a sword stuck in his shoulder.
“I-I swear, they forced me! They threatened to kill me first if I didn’t help…!”
Ah, threatened, huh?
Well, that sounds about right.
It’s way easier and quicker to blackmail a rookie adventurer, squeezing the life out of him, than to sweet-talk him into becoming a raider.
“Oh really? If that’s the case, you should have said so earlier.”
I shrugged lightly, nodding as if I understood.
Did John think I was picking up his excuse? He was looking at me with a pathetic smile and hopeful eyes.
“S-so, are you going to save me?”
“Uh, no? Why would I?”
See? This is what happens with the clueless bunch. Common sense tells you there’s no way I’m saving him.
“W-why…!”
“I already explained. You should’ve said it first. You should’ve warned me before those guys ambushed me. You should’ve said, ‘Hey, those two are about to attack!’ So, I’d be careful.”
That was just common courtesy for a party member. Even if I couldn’t shout it out loud, I could’ve subtly warned him.
“Well, that’s…!”
“Don’t make excuses. I get it.”
He didn’t do that.
“Facing a fight where the odds are uncertain must’ve been burdensome for you. I bet you thought teaming up with those guys and sharing the spoils they offered was safer.”
If it were an ambush three against one, he probably felt confident he’d win.
“Shut up; it’s obvious. Your breath stinks, by the way.”
“P-please, no…! I-I was just—!”
Crack.
His head, severed at the neck and larynx, flopped down, dropping right between the wet legs of the country bumpkin.
“Hah…”
What a messed-up world.
With a sigh, I wiped the blood from my sword and collected any loot that might sell before leaving the dungeon.
The sky, painted a furious red by sunset, made me really uncomfortable.
◆◆
“…So, you killed all your party members again, right?”
The receptionist at the request office sighed as if in disbelief and shook her head.
Was it the emphasis on “again” that made it feel especially heavy? The gazes of the adventurers loitering at the table in the request office discreetly turned towards me.
“…See? Didn’t I tell you he’d do that again?”
“I mean, didn’t you go with that Hans dude? He’s usually a pretty reliable guy for someone from the same village…”
“Who trusts someone who always loses at gambling? Come on, just cough up the money. It was two silver coins, right?”
…Some were even betting on me.
I wanted to say something, but since they were staked with coins, I decided to hold my tongue.
Even if I somehow won, it’d only complicate my life more.
“…Hilde, are you listening? If you keep killing your party members, we’re going to be in trouble too, you know?”
The receptionist chided me softly. Of course, I felt wronged.
“They were raiders, not party members!”
“Your party members’ return rate has dropped below 60%, yet you claim they were all raiders?”
True. Even as a victim, that statistic seemed ridiculous. But facts are facts.
“Look, Hilde, do you know what’s being said up top? If you’ve killed half your party members, some are openly saying that you’re the real raider here.”
“Uh… is that so…?”
Honestly, I’d suspect myself too if I were in their shoes.
A mysterious outsider with an unclear background and history who just went on a killing spree against the party members met before.
Doesn’t that scream raider or witch? I would’ve thought so too if it weren’t for my own story.
“Of course, I know you’re not like that, but others don’t. I can only defend you so much.”
Despite that, the security team holding ropes didn’t show up at my door, all thanks to the receptionist in front of me.
Most employees at the request office couldn’t care less about low-tier adventurers, but at least this receptionist did seem to care a bit.
“Ah, thanks for that.”
“Of course. You should be thanking me. Do you have any idea how hard it is to help you? The rumors have already spread like wildfire in our branch. Nobody wants to party up with new outsiders anymore.”
…Is that why I keep running into raiders?
“Still, it’s not really my fault, is it? I’m a victim here. A victim. Those raiders are just…”
“Then why don’t you take off that armor? If you’re still wearing steel-grade armor, aren’t you just making yourself a target for raiders?”
Take off my armor?
That’s ridiculous. That armor is my lifeline.
If it weren’t for that armor, I wouldn’t have made it back without a scratch this time.
I probably would have returned with a few sword wounds and a couple of arrows stuck in me.
So how can I give it up?
“That’s a bit hard.”
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
I thought she’d argue more, but surprisingly, she nodded without hesitation.
Honestly, asking someone who makes a living off their sword to walk around without armor is nonsensical.
She must’ve known that it was ridiculous too.
That was probably more of a joke since there seemed to be no other solution than that.
“Life is more important than reputation, after all.”
Just like that, the most crucial virtue of adventurers is to somehow cling to their lives fiercely.
Reputation, fame, and wealth are all things you can eventually get if you survive long enough.
Those who live their lives in the opposite direction usually find themselves dead before they turn thirty.
That’s losing both reputation and life.
“Anyway, take a break from accepting requests for a while. My boss said that if there are more deaths here, they might just kick everyone out regardless of rank.”
“…Yeah. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Anytime. Now, take care on your way back.”
That was her way of saying “don’t get into trouble” as I left.
Nodding, I sighed deeply and walked out of the request office with my meager payment.
The request was to hunt down a dozen goblins, so the reward was barely twenty copper coins. Just enough for one meal.
In reality, there were forty goblins, including a few higher-tier ones… but would the request office care?
No matter how tough the situation was, the pay was always just the amount pre-determined by the request issuer.
As long as the issuer didn’t set a false request in the first place.
On the other hand, there was a benefit.
If you obtained loot unrelated to the request, they’d acknowledge ownership without any interference, no matter what came up…
But only those who had a decent tier or above could actually benefit from that.
What good loot could low-tier adventurers who only raided goblin dens find?
All they got were rusty scraps, which were hardly worth even a meal.
The life of an incapable day laborer is that miserable.
“Life really…”
Shoving the almost weightless pouch into a small bag at my belt, I sighed once more.
Honestly, I could brush off the fact that my pouch felt a bit lighter.
Because what I wanted was not the reward but the contribution points for leveling up.
But didn’t the receptionist warn me earlier? To hold off on accepting requests for a while. That’s the problem.
If I’m not working, there’s no way to rack up contribution points, right?
That’s impossible.
And sneaking into the dungeon or causing a ruckus in front of the receptionist to demand requests is out of the question…
In other words, I’d suddenly become an unemployed person with money.
With no idea when I might be able to get reemployed.
…Isn’t that a good thing?
Ah, sure. If this were Earth, it might be. If only it were Earth.
Back on my peaceful homeland, being a rich unemployed person is the dream life everyone yearns for.
But this isn’t Earth.
It’s a world filled with regret, decay, and obsession, a world from a mature-oriented novel called “The protagonist of an NTR game became a reality.”
…Probably.
◆◆
I was transported into a novel.
I realized that fact less than three minutes after I was suddenly transported.
It took about that long for me to realize that I was screwed and make my escape afterwards.
What a puzzling situation. It was despairing too.
So, how did that happen…
