Chapter 108 – A Test

Translator: Kell | Editor: Ryunakama

A Test

A few minutes after leaving the Meigis Company’s office, I was walking down the road when I noticed something.

「Do you need something?」I turned around and asked.

No answer. But my senses say someone is following me.

「I know you’re there.」

I picked up a stone and threw it at a nearby hiding spot. Then a man appeared.

「I’m surprised. At first I thought they were sending you, a complete amateur, to certain death. But damn, you’re a pro.」the man said, looking innocent.

It doesn’t seem like he’s hostile. The man reached into his pocket and took out a piece of paper.

「I’m not an enemy. The opposite, in fact. My name is Alpha. Count Meigis asked me to assist you.」

He handed a directive. It said to aid me in my infiltration. Given it had Meigis’s seal on it, it was most likely genuine.

「So you were sneaking around to test me?」

「Yeah. I didn’t expect you to find me that fast, though. I was planning to make it more obvious as time went on.」

So instead of stopping me, the Count sent Alpha to test me. If I turned out to be incompetent, Alpha would’ve stopped me so I didn’t throw my life away for nothing. The test was too easy though.

「In that case, you should conceal your mana. It looks like you have measures against sight or hearing, but your mana is crystal clear.」

「Detect someone’s mana? That’s a good joke. If that’s possible, the spy industry is doomed.」

Whenever I walk around town, I sometimes activate Magic Search. It would actually be hard not to sense someone tailing me.

But it seems this detective doesn’t have any idea about preventing mana from being detected. If the Count sent him, that means he’s a skilled personnel by this world’s standards. If he was clueless about concealing mana, that explains why none made it back alive from Georgis’s territory.

「So what’s your plan?」I asked as we walked.

His mission is to help me, but unfortunately with his skills, he’ll be useless during the actual search.

He could be useful on the way, though. I’m not really familiar with this world, so I’m not cut out for normal information gathering. He might not be able to help me in the actual danger zone, but he could prove to be useful before we reach Georgis’s domain.

「Hmm… If you don’t mind, I want to go with you.」

「I’m going in alone during actual infiltration, though.」

「No objections from me. To be honest, I was trying hard so you wouldn’t notice me earlier. I don’t think I should go with someone who found me that easily. I’ll only drag you down.」

Alpha started walking behind me. Hmm… It feels like I got myself an errand boy.

A few hours later.
As I was walking down the road to Cardinal Georgis’s domain, I asked Alpha about the information we already have.

「What kind of slaves are sent to Georgis’s place?」

There are a few types of slaves in this world. As for the main ones, there are two: Debt Slaves – people who couldn’t pay their debts, and Criminal Slaves – those who committed crimes. Their treatment varies depending on the amount of debt or the weight of the crime.

There are times when seemingly useless information might prove to be useful. The best person to ask about this type of thing is a detective.

「It depends. At first the Cardinal got Debt Slaves with relatively cheap debt to Criminal Slaves that committed serious crimes. But recently, he’s only getting Criminal Slaves.」

「Is it because of the death rate?」

「Yeah. The death rate of the slaves brought into that mine is too high. Right now there are only those who committed very serious crimes – the kind of people whose only options were the death penalty or become a slave. Basically criminals who killed at least three people.」

I see. Heinous criminals were sent to places with high death rates. Quite convenient.

「But killing them is still a crime, right?」

「Yeah. Killing even the worst Criminal Slave constitutes a crime. In exchange for being slaves, their lives are spared so long as they follow orders. That’s how the system works.」

I see. So there’s no chance that Georgis pleads not guilty just because he sacrificed criminals that committed heinous crimes.

I heard killing slaves is a crime, but it’s important to really double check information like this. If I didn’t and it turned out the Cardinal was not guilty later on, all would have been for naught.

If the ones sacrificed are big-time criminals, then I can record without reserve.

Engaged in conversation, we continued down the road to Cardinal Georgis’s domain.