“Stop right there! Who goes there?!”
The moment I approached the palace, the gate guards yelled at me, their spears pointing right at my chest.
Seriously, do I really look that suspicious?
Sure, I was in black cloth, with a black cloak over it, and two short swords hanging at my waist. But couldn't they see my pure eyes and upright, handsome face?
Forget it. Explaining to them would be pointless. Someone as pure as me would never attack the royal palace, kidnap the princess, or assassinate the king or anything like that… Well, maybe not the last one.
“Good evening, everyone. My name’s Yurifili. I’m a mercenary from the Ais Empire. I happened to be passing by, saw Her Highness the Princess’s quest posted at the Mercenary Guild, and I just completed it.”
As I spoke, I took out the doll the princess had given me.
“So I’m here with the princess’s doll to claim the reward.”
“Is… is that so…”
The guard stared at the doll in my hand, clearly unsure what to do. After exchanging a glance with the other guard, he said,
“I’ll go report to our captain!”
He said that, then turned and went inside the wall.
What a pain. They could’ve just handled this casually. Such a hassle, and it doesn’t even come with a quick-read function. Total waste of time.
After a while, a man with a cloak over his armor came out with that guard. Probably their captain.
He gave me a quick look, then pulled out a small bag from his pocket and walked up to me, reaching straight for the doll.
I slipped to the side in a blink and stepped back, letting his hand close on empty air.
“A thousand gold coins. That’s what the quest said, right?”
I glanced at the bag as I spoke.
“That was one thousand silver coins, wasn’t it?”
“Hmph! A lowly mercenary like you has no right to negotiate! Hand over the doll and take the money, then get lost! Otherwise, I’ll arrest you as the thief who stole the princess’s doll!”
The captain’s tone was absolutely arrogant.
Idiot. You’re level 10 trash; I don’t even want to remember your name. And you still dare act this cocky. I’m sooo scared~
It was like two options were floating right in front of me~
Option one: hand over the doll, take the reward, and walk away. The rest will resolve itself; even if I don’t move, the princess will move for me.
Option two: kill this guy, fight my way in with the doll, and hand it directly to the princess.
Personally, I hate troublesome stuff, so I usually pick the first one. In a game, I’d normally pick the first too—choose the second and you end up grinding endless mobs.
But right now I’m playing for thrills. With a dog like this who looks down on people, there’s no way I’m not teaching him a lesson.
“So you’re planning to steal the doll and claim the credit as your own, huh, you scum.”
“Ha! How dare you talk to me like that! You—”
“Hmph, don’t forget the doll’s still in my hand.”
I shook the doll a little and smiled.
“…Then how much do you want?!”
“A thousand gold coins is a hundred thousand silver. You think you can fob me off with just a thousand silver? That joke’s a bit much, isn’t it?”
“Fine, fine! Ten thousand silver, okay?!”
“Can’t even do basic math, you moron!”
I answered, even more arrogantly than him.
“If I give you the doll, you’re getting both the money and the glory…”
“Ugh… damn it! Twenty thousand! Twenty thousand, all right?!”
“…”
“Damn it! You people have no idea how hard us guards work. You think it’s easy for us to earn some extra money?!”
“Then just be a good guard. If you want shortcuts, you pay the price.”
“Have it your way! Here, fifty thousand. That’s all I’ve got!”
He threw me something that looked like a card. I caught it and took a look—there were actually the words “Bank Card” on it.
…
Oh come on, how am I supposed to play this seriously now?! There’s a bank system already?! With cards?! What next, I top up and maybe unlock a black card?
I flipped it over. There was only a scan code, no name. Was this anonymous, too?
“Quit staring at it! That’s a card from the new bank that just opened in the Imperial City. You can use it at all the high-end places!”
No idea who had the power to spread card payments in this world, but their grasp of economics wasn’t bad. Making cards replace coins takes more than just a bit of credibility.
“Hey! Is it good enough or not?!”
“Yeah. Deal.”
I tossed the doll over.
“Well then… see you around, maybe~”
While the doll was still midair, I used Shadow Stealth and blinked away, reappearing on top of a tall building some distance off.
I’d picked this spot from the start. From here, I could see most of the Imperial City and the entire palace.
As for why I was staying here—obviously, to wait for the plot to kick in.
Before handing the doll over, I’d hung a small crystal around its neck. One with a recording function.
Of course, I set it to “play when touched by a girl under twenty.”
Then I quietly pulled out the fruit I’d packed earlier and started eating slowly.
“Don’t blame me for being heartless~”
Muttering to myself, I took another bite.
“I already told you to just be a good guard… Hm?”
Right then, I spotted a few guys down on the street whose titles all had the word [Evil] in them. They were tailing a family, clearly stalking them.
…
Since I had the ability, and I’d seen it…
Why not help?
“Ah, I’ll just treat it as killing time.”
…
……
…………
“Thank you. Truly, thank you so much.”
“Don’t mention it. It was nothing.”
Seeing the family’s grateful faces, I answered politely.
When I handed those guys over to the guards, one of the guards suddenly asked me,
“Excuse me, are you Yurifili?”
“Hm? Yeah, that’s me. Why?”
“Ah, I knew it. See, I told you, right? This Fili’s definitely a good guy. Our captain was just a dumbass who dug his own grave.”
“Yeah, who’d have thought. I mean, the captain was kinda weird, sure, but he wasn’t exactly a bad person day to day. Just too greedy.”
Listening to the two guards gossip, I cut in.
“So, you were looking for me because…?”
“Oh, right. Her Highness the Princess is looking for you. She said it’s about the doll. Please come with us.”
“That so? All right.”
I nodded.
“Then let’s get going.”
