Chapter 152 : Understanding the Preference - 4
Chapter 152: Understanding the Preference - 4
That’s right.
B had another preference that we hadn’t noticed.
“Yes. That’s what I think. Eating living things while they’re still alive—that condition was already satisfied in the last trade.”
“……”
“But even with that satisfied, another preference must have come into play. That’s why there was a price difference. So I formed a hypothesis.”
The livestock we purchased last time.
Among them, the one bought at an overwhelmingly high price was the monkey I had prepared.
“The intelligence of the food.”
“…?”
“I think the price varied depending on how intelligent it was.”
“Ah! Indeed, your monkey had an overwhelmingly high price.”
“Yes. The rest followed the same pattern. Pigs, horses, and cows were priced higher than chickens or pheasants.”
Everyone nodded.
I lowered my voice.
“I don’t think Edgar failed to realize what I just did.”
“As annoying as it is, that’s probably true.”
“Then let me ask you this……”
I swallowed hard and continued.
“In the human world, which animal do you think is the most intelligent?”
Aina tilted her head.
“Probably monkeys? Or dolphins… hmm, what else is there?”
“There is. A species far more intelligent than those.”
“What is it?”
“……”
“Ah, wait. Wait. I just got chills.”
Aina shuddered.
Slowly, the expressions of the others began to change.
Karin was the last to open her mouth wide and shout.
“Humans?”
That’s right.
There was no animal more intelligent than humans.
Grinding my teeth, I spoke.
“During the break, Edgar must have realized it. Why not buy humans and sell them?”
“……!”
“At first, he probably planned to go to the Emperor. He must have thought of buying slaves and placing them on B’s table. But……”
Armelia continued my words.
“The Empire abolished slavery long ago. Though I don’t know if it still exists unofficially.”
“But officially, it’s gone, right?”
“Of course.”
“That’s why there’s no one from whom Edgar can ‘purchase’ slaves. Buying means transferring ownership from one person to another in exchange for payment.”
There was no slavery.
No official slave owners.
So there was no one for Edgar to pay.
“Of course, we don’t know if Magireta would regulate things this strictly. She might even allow buying humans from unofficial slave owners.”
“……”
“But there’s a better method than taking that risk.”
“No way.”
“For example, in my case—my owner is myself. My body belongs to me. And that applies to everyone in the world, right?”
So.
In other words.
* Obtain consent from the person themselves to ‘sell themselves,’ and then purchase them.
That was where Edgar’s thinking had reached.
“As you know, he has the ability to control souls and make people his own.”
“……”
“But earlier, Aina overpowered his ability with her own and brought the participants back to their senses.”
“Ah, so……”
“Yes. That’s why Edgar made an additional trade to separate our group. So he wouldn’t be interrupted like last time.”
Silence fell for a moment.
No one could keep up with his way of thinking.
This was Edgar’s true terror.
His intelligence or combat ability wasn’t the issue.
* How could someone even think like that?
That was what made him truly terrifying.
Benjamin spoke hesitantly.
“So Edgar intends to control the participants’ souls and make them sell themselves?”
“Yes. Exactly. That way, he gets a large supply of ‘living’ and ‘highly intelligent’ goods.”
“But if that’s the case, why even use the participants? And in the first place, is it even possible to treat participants as trade goods?”
“There’s no problem with that under the rules.”
I brought up the rules of the Intermediary Trade Quest.
3. Participants must descend to the human world for 10 hours and purchase items that a High-ranking Monster would like. Any item is acceptable as long as it can be obtained in the human world.
“As long as it’s obtained in the human world, any item is acceptable.”
“……”
“Edgar and the ordinary participants are currently in the human world. If he simply makes them ‘sell themselves,’ then he isn’t breaking any rules.”
Armelia trembled.
Sienne carefully asked,
“But why did he take all twelve ordinary participants? The price doesn’t change based on quantity anyway.”
5. The quantity of items purchased in the human world does not matter; the price does not change based on quantity.
That’s right.
That’s why we had been selling items individually.
But—
I shook my head.
“It didn’t matter to Edgar.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t bring twelve participants to get a higher price. He just wanted them to be eaten by B.”
“Why?”
I answered through clenched teeth.
“If all twelve participants get eaten, then the only ones left are us and Edgar.”
“……”
“And if only 50 percent survive from there?”
There would be eight people left.
Out of those, four would inevitably be eliminated.
And naturally, some of those would be from our group.
Everyone’s faces turned pale.
I nodded.
“Yes. He wants to eliminate half of us. That’s why he’s trying to have the ordinary participants eaten by B.”
“…! Wait. Even if the participants get eaten by B, there’s no guarantee they’ll be removed from the total count. Like in Hide-and-Seek, when Ian died midway but was still counted among the total participants.”
“No. In Hide-and-Seek, Magireta deliberately included the wording ‘die’ instead of ‘be eliminated’ as a hint. That trick was intentional.”
That’s why it worked.
In this game, there was no mention of “death” in the rules.
Instead—
“Think about Rules 8 and 9.”
8. After settlement, if your remaining Gold coins place you within the top 50 percent of the final participants, you pass.
9. After settlement, if your remaining Gold coins do not place you within the top 50 percent of the final participants, you are eliminated.
“Why those two rules…… ah!”
“Right. It says ‘top 50 percent of the final participants.’”
“……”
“Not the total participants. The final participants. That means those who die before the fifth trade will be excluded from the count.”
It was the same trick as in Hide-and-Seek.
Back then, Magireta used the wording “die.”
This time, she used “final participants” to indicate how deaths would be handled mid-game.
No one could speak.
A cold silence lingered.
Then Karin spoke sharply.
“Let’s find them right now. Edgar and the ordinary participants.”
“……”
“He’s in the capital anyway, right? I’ll use spirits to search.”
“…Yeah. That’s our only option for now. I’m counting on you.”
Karin nodded and immediately summoned spirits.
She whispered something to the unseen beings.
Soon, after sending them off, she spoke.
“If it’s just the capital, we can find them in five hours… six at most. Don’t worry.”
“I am worried.”
“Have some faith.”
“It’s not the spirits I doubt.”
I groaned and continued.
“I’m saying Edgar might have already left the capital.”
“What? The place to find items is the capital.”
“No. Nowhere in the rules does it say the items must be found in the Imperial Capital. It explicitly says ‘in the human world.’”
In other words, the entire world was fair game.
The capital was just a convenience—because it gathered rare items.
“If I were Edgar, I’d leave the capital immediately after descending. Then I’d hide for ten hours, avoiding us.”
“…Damn it.”
Karin cursed.
Everyone was too overwhelmed to speak.
So was I.
But after a minute—
Karin suddenly spoke again.
“Hey. Come to think of it, isn’t this easy to solve?”
“What are you talking about?”
“We have the Compass.”
For a moment, I stared at her blankly.
She continued casually.
“And we have the Teleportation bead. We can go straight to him, can’t we?”
“……”
“There’s no rule saying we can’t use first-place rewards during the quest.”
“……”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Aina answered with genuine admiration.
“Are you secretly Louis in disguise?”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
“You’re not the type to hit the core point like that.”
“You guys are seriously annoying…….”
“Mason, Karin’s right. Let’s use the Compass and the Teleportation bead—…wait, you’re already doing it.”
Indeed, I was already holding the Compass.
I brought up the map and checked Edgar’s location.
But—
“There’s no red dot anywhere.”
“What? That can’t be. We have the Invisibility Cloak.”
“…He’s hiding.”
“What?”
“Edgar anticipated that I’d figure this out and track him. So he escaped to a place beyond the Compass’s reach—with the other participants.”
Armelia asked,
“Where would that be?”
“Where else? He has an ally.”
“Louis… no, that’s not it. They split up. Then—”
“Yes.”
I ground my teeth.
“He went to Hell, where Odline is. Odline must have opened a dark hole and taken them to his base.”
“…! But is it allowed to leave the quest’s location? This has never happened before.”
“The rules only say to find items in the human world. There’s nothing saying you must remain there.”
Edgar must have controlled the participants’ souls the moment they descended.
He made them sell themselves.
From that moment on, he no longer needed to stay in the human world.
So to avoid being chased, he must have temporarily hidden in Odline’s base.
Benjamin spoke.
“Is that maggot even allowed to interfere in the quest like this?”
“I’m not happy about it either, but as long as Magireta is turning a blind eye, there’s nothing we can do.”
“Then what now? Should we chase him into Hell and rescue the participants?”
“No. If my guess is correct, Edgar has already purchased their bodies. That’s why he left the human world.”
Even if we chased them to Hell now, it would be meaningless.
The transaction had already been completed.
The group sighed in despair.
“Haah… this is hopeless.”
“Damn it. What are we supposed to do with that bastard?”
“To think he planned this far ahead.”
“He’s completely insane.”
They vented their frustration at Edgar.
But it only eased our mood slightly—it didn’t solve anything.
Meanwhile, time continued to pass.