Kamisama Shop de Cheat no Kaori

Chapter 149. Three Companion And Hansion Town

Just to be safe, we patrolled Hansion Town several times. In reality, though, we quickly responded to the locations Yaralai had found, making it incredibly efficient.

Of course, there were also a few hired guards patrolling the town as well.

This is something I later heard from Winston Garette, the leader of the local vigilante group, but apparently, these hired men were planning to run at the sight of the goblin horde. However, Winston begged them to fight off the goblins that had infiltrated the town, right up until the last moment.

Since they wouldn’t be paid if they fled, they reluctantly agreed. Those left in the town, locals with strong morale and the hired men who feared nothing, built up the defensive line.

It seems, based on a hunter’s advice, that they set up a circular defense along the goblins’ path, causing a huge commotion to slow them down.

Most of the townspeople had fled to Sevites with just the clothes on their backs.

But for some reason, the town’s roads were suddenly closed off, plunging everyone into chaos.

That was what we had figured out by nightfall.

Right now, we’re back in town after picking up the RV.

Lalaila is busy tending to the wounded, so we haven’t spoken much. Faf connected his phone to the TV and has been watching something on a loop.

…Taking a peek, it was filmed with such a good composition, that you’d never guess it was his first time.

Now that I think about it, I tried to ignore him, but he kept moving closer to the film, then suddenly backed up to capture a wide shot, never staying still.

The footage had enough intensity that it could pass for a third-rate Hollywood movie.

I had originally planned to visit the mayor’s residence, but since it’s already dark, I decided to postpone it until tomorrow.

Aside from the money, I mainly want to track down the family of the girls who became the vessel. No one seems more suited for that task than the mayor.

The tavern was packed. The reason was that the road had been closed. Everywhere, you could hear merchants and townspeople grumbling in frustration.

“You’ve been waiting.”

The one who approached our table was Winston Garette, leader of the vigilante group.

“How’s the vigilante team?”

“I left it to my deputy. Besides, I can’t just leave the heroes who saved this town unattended.”

“It just happened that way.”

I waved one hand lightly as I answered. Hagg was sipping his cheap drink, probably because I’d told him how much money we had left. We were sharing the same wallet now.

“By the way, are you sure about the inn? Making it free for all of us…”

“It’s not a problem. Besides, we can’t let those women stand out.”

“…”

It seems humans hold a deep-seated prejudice against those who once became vessels. It can’t be helped since there’s no cure yet, but it’s painful that even their families are affected. We decided to meet with the mayor tomorrow to avoid drawing attention.

“Well, let’s exchange some information.”

What Winston told us matched the information we had gathered on our own.

“But why close off the roads?”

This area is a wilderness. You might think it would be fine to walk around a closed road, but the ground is littered with boulders, and there’s a fair amount of underbrush. If you were on foot, you might manage, but it would take more than five times the effort of walking on a road, and you could easily get lost. The rough terrain would also make it easy to twist your ankle. It would be impossible for carts or carriages to travel anywhere but the road.

If it weren’t for the old path connecting the mine and the town, we wouldn’t have been able to bring the RV close to the mine. The wilderness paths are just that rough.

“The official reason was to prevent chaos. The road to Sevites was already so congested that people wouldn’t be able to move forward anyway.”

“…That makes sense.”

“The problem is that the road in the opposite direction was closed too.”

“Was it?”

That was news to me. True, there weren’t many villages in the direction we came from, and it might not be a good place to escape to, but if wild beasts were pressing down right in front of you, it would still be an option to flee. Something doesn’t sit right.

“I went to report to Messerra, but I couldn’t meet him today. I didn’t get a chance to ask about future plans either.”

“Well, he’s probably busy. Let’s go together tomorrow. It’ll be easier to meet him if you’re with the captain.”

“Of course. I’ll need to tell him about your achievements, after all.”

“That’s not important. What I really want to discuss is the matter of those girls.”

“Indeed.”

The tavern door jingled. I didn’t think anyone would pay attention, since customers had been coming and going all night, but every man in the place turned to look.

I glanced over as well and saw Lalaila standing there.

She noticed us and walked over to our table, bringing a spare chair with her. She sat down next to Yaralai at our cramped table, right next to me as well.

“How are they doing?” Winston asked.

“Yeah… The symptoms unique to vessels are getting worse. I just brewed some sleeping medicine from herbs I bought in town, so they should sleep until morning.”

That was a relief. If not, Lalaila would have had to keep nursing them all night.

“Winston, you’re the captain of the vigilante group, right?”

“I am.”

“Then, I’d like to meet with the families of Horn, Rappa, and Baritone.”

“What?”

Lalaila began explaining the events leading up to this point. It was the first time I’d heard the details myself.

After listening, Winston frowned deeply, his expression turning grim. I had a bad feeling.

“…Please keep this between us.”

Winston spoke slowly.

“Those whose relatives died or went missing in the first wave… were all driven out of town. By the mayor’s orders.”

“What?”

I couldn’t help but raise my voice. Lalaila was speechless.

“Messerra thought it would be too painful for the families to stay in a town full of memories. He gave them some travel money and told them to live in another town…”

I, too, was left speechless. What was going on?

“I’m sorry. It was effectively a gag order… I should’ve stopped it as the captain!”

Winston gritted his teeth, spitting out words of regret as if they were sand.

“A gag order? What do you mean?”

“The biggest issue was… the scale of the enemy—the beasts. They supposedly paid off the survivors to keep quiet about it. Even though the actual scale turned out to be much larger than the initial reports.”

I had already informed the captain about this, so he understood. No one had expected the horde to be several times larger than what the Lizard couple had estimated.

“But where did their families go?!”

Lalaila shouted, drawing the attention of a few other customers for a moment before they returned to their own conversations.

Given the town’s current misfortunes, it probably seemed like just another sad story.

“All three families mentioned heading to Sevites. Right now, its slums are filling up with people, and apparently, even outsiders can find a place there. They were given some travel money, so they should at least be able to secure a place to live.”

“I see…”

Lalaila lowered her gaze.

“By the way, you’re Lalaila, right?”

“Huh? Yes, that’s me.”

“You know a woman named Eutis, don’t you?”

“Yes, I know her.”

“She left you a message: ‘Rest assured, I will deliver your family’s keepsakes. Please continue your journey in peace.’”

“…So Eutis…”

“She left for Sevites right away, from what I’ve heard. She managed to leave town just before the roads were closed.”

“Eutis…”

Lalaila’s expression was conflicted.

I looked at the faces of the others.

“We’ve settled our plan, then.”

“Indeed.”

“No problem.”

“Kukuku… This sounds fun. I’ll join you.”

“You…”

“Huh? Huh?”

Ignoring Lalaila’s confusion, we continued with our discussion.

“First, we’ll explain the situation to the mayor tomorrow and try to squeeze some money out of him. Even if that fails, we’ll have him take care of the girls and look for their relatives.”

“Right.”

“After that, we’ll head to Sevites to make some money by completing the quest. And we can look for Eutis and the vigilante’s families while we’re at it.”

“Good.”

“Kukuku… You’re all such do-gooders.”

“It’s not like we’re in a hurry. The trip was supposed to take over a month anyway, so staying in one place to do some business shouldn’t be an issue.”

“It’s decided, then. No booze left, so I’m off to bed!”

“…Me too. Lalaila, you should go to sleep too.”

“Uh… but…”

“We’ve got the same goals and tasks. We’ll handle everything together.”

“Exactly. We’ll need money no matter what.”

Hagg turned his empty cup upside down and stuck his tongue out. Too shameless.

I stood up and made an announcement.

“That’s it for today. Tomorrow morning, shall we meet here? …Actually, is this place open in the morning?”

“They serve breakfast, so they’ll be open. If you don’t order anything, though, they’ll kick you out.”

“Got it. Then, meet us at the inn.”

“Understood.”

With that, we headed back to the inn. Honestly, not having to pay for the room was a relief. Worst case, we would’ve slept outside.

Lalaila seemed like she wanted to say something, but we brushed it off and didn’t let her.

It looked like we were in for a busy day tomorrow.

Remaining funds: 6,408 yen.