Chapter 177: After Bad
———Lerim———
<3: 01 pm>
“Hmm…” I mumbled to myself as I looked through the many edits to the document and the plan. It’s hard to read all this on a phone that has been suffering for a couple of years and only receiving a few fixes. Good thing I didn’t really need to use it to record or anything tomorrow. I’m just extra muscles to make sure everything will go smoothly.
At least this request should give me some pocket change to use in case the phone gets wrecked, but if I’m lucky tomorrow I might be able to convince someone at the scene to upgrade for free of charge. Seems like there will be someone handling the tech to make sure everyone’s stream will go smoothly.
If they can operate those things, a phone probably isn’t out of the question, right? Should at least know someone who knows more than a thing or two. I could use a new repairman.
As for this incident… Well. The entire building and parts of the neighborhood is completely wrecked. That guy does numbers on the town. The guild building lost more than half its body, others were wrecked with giant holes and walls that barely held itself together. Just a lot of damage all around, probably extremely costly.
There’s a real possibility that this guild branch might be gone for good, nowadays the government is scrambling to keep itself going after all the crazy things happening the past few months, they definitely don’t have time to care for this. Whatever plan they have initially, I doubt they wanna keep going with it.
…Ah, right. I should also call him about the whole incident. Hopefully some of the surviving and conscious staff members also take notes once the authorities come, hopefully they aren’t wiped out and are actually dragged out to do their job.
“<Lerim? Has the matter been resolved?>” He asked the moment he picked up the call.
“Yep. As expected, the man on the call is dead. The guild building and the area around it is completely destroyed, same with parts of the road. A few more people died as well. There’s very little of the building left.” I said while taking a few steps back to look at the damage. “The psycho had been taken care of. Had to kill him, unfortunately, he was basically locked in psychosis. It’d be dangerous to keep him alive.”
“<I see…>” He said with a trace of melancholy in his voice. “<Guess that place won’t have a guild for a while, if not forever.>”
“Yeah. I really don’t wanna be here for even a little bit longer before the police arrive at the scene. You know how they go.” I said before walking out of the area and ready to take off. “I’ll be back in about three minutes tops. We can talk more then.”
“<Hella fast, that’s for sure.>” He remarked. “<Okay then, see you in a bit.>”
*Beep* *Zip*
The moment the call ends I start flying back to my town at top speed. I still have a lot of energy left, that fight basically took nothing out of me.
*Thud*
Quickly landing back down on the rooftop of my house. Hopefully I was fast enough to not be recognizable.
Landing back down to earth, time to get back to the guild and report things in more detail, show some pictures, get some ca… cash. Wait, the guy begging with the money to spend is already dead, ain’t he? Can I get his bank account at least? Or maybe that guy can give me some compensation money. Not my fault that begging guy only asked for help mere moments before he got smoked.
Alright, back in the guild… Why are they looking at me like that? They look quite alarmed for some reason.
“What?” I asked while looking around, why are they staring at me like that? I looked down and… “...It’s not blood. Just some red paint. We’re clear on that?”
I didn’t quite realize how much blood is on my shirt and pants right now. No wonder they’re so alarmed. On the bright white shirt and pants of mine, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Anyway, let’s quickly go up to the office and talk more in detail. I really don’t want to linger around here with all the eyes on me.
“I’m back.” I said as I opened the office door and walked inside unimpeded.
“Welcome back…” He said before staring at me as well. “Quite a lot of blood on you. I assume it’s not yours?”
“Of course not. You’d think I’d be dead if I bleed all over my clothes. In the first place, there would’ve been tears in them in the first place. As you can see, not a single scratch.” I said while placing my hand on my shirt and pants. It’s all intact and fine… I wonder if there are clothes-related materials I could get from monsters. Maybe silk or cotton? Leather is plenty, but those are for bags and such. “Anyway. I need some sort of compensation here. That guy was begging on the phone for a while asking for us to do it for free, and now he’s dead. Now what?”
“In the first place, he never elaborated on the potential danger that person could cause, and it’s supposed to be something for his guild to deal with in the first place. Using your own adventurers as mercenaries isn’t prohibited as far as I understand.” Right, the secret rule of using us as bounty hunters. It’s never said anywhere, and the only reason I know about it is after I bitch at him for paying me to do his dirty work for a while.
“To be fair to the dead man, that guy he is so worried about did absolutely trash everything in his way, walls were like paper to him and an average adventurer would probably not fare much better.” Of course, why does it only take until the very last moment for him to beg us for help boggles the mind. From how he worded it it makes it seem like he is a massive problem already, why doesn’t he do anything about it sooner? Not to mention the grudge his murderer keeps talking about. Seems like another can of worms we can’t really revisit.
“How did no one bring up someone so dangerous until now?” He muttered in confusion. Indeed, you’d think a guy like that would be over the news for a while now.
“Certainly a mystery, not that we need to worry about that anymore” I said with my arms crossed. “No way to really turn back time and redo it…”
“Indeed.” He muttered. It stings a bit that he died when we could’ve saved him and the others. Of course we don’t really know why it got to that point or why it even happened. It’s technically not our fault if a guy calls us on the phone and tells us he jumped down from a skyscraper begging for help, no one can help him in that scenario.
“…By the way. Did that bastard ever pay you back for the last time I helped his ragtag group out?” Recalling the late Guildmaster, I just remembered something from the last time we interacted with him, kinda loosely, but it was something. This dude here had to pay out of his own pocket because that guy said he didn’t have any cash on hand. It’s been over two weeks, surely he paid back before biting the dust. From how this guy described him it seems like he was quite sleazy… Huh.
“No. Unfortunately not. I even said to him that I’ll bring up his behavior to the other branch and the superiors. Unfortunately, aside from how things are behind-the-scenes and the state of the authorities in general, he is dead and cannot repay the debt.”
“Sleazy even in death… Hold on a moment.” I pulled out my phone and texted someone, wondering if they could help. Usually I wouldn’t abuse something like this, but right now it’s quite warranted considering the state of affairs.
“Feels like you have been on your phone a lot lately.” He said. Mind your own business why don’t you.
“Shut it. Who doesn't use their phones anyway.” I said as I finished typing down the details. “Anyway. What in the world do we do about the payment he promised? We can kinda guess he was never gonna keep the promise based on what you were saying, not to mention him being dead.”
“It’s in the air, unfortunately. I did record the call. I keep all the calls recorded just in case.” Quite a thorough guy, isn’t he?
“Hopefully those will be useful for something eventually.” I remarked before looking down on my shirt and wondering what is next on my list. “If there’s nothing else to talk about. Guess I’ll go back home and wash up. Bet you’re getting sick of seeing the red slowly fading into unpleasant brown.”
“Be on your way then. Sorry for getting you involved again.” He said, ignoring my last sarcastic comment.
“Yeah, see you later.” I said before leaving the office, ignoring any eyes on me at the moment, and quickly made my way back home while checking my phone for any updates. She sure responded quickly. I believed she had to resume class next week, so she’ll probably be more busy during that time and can’t always read what I’m putting down.
…Looks like she’ll look into it. She also sent me a link to something. Let’s see here…
‘A giant explosion at the border of the USA and Canada.’ Excuse me? What in the world happened in the past few hours?
Let’s see here… Doesn’t look like there’s any eyewitness outside of an aerial view of the place. Must’ve been quite recent if they didn’t have anyone at the scene yet… Huh. Seems to be in one of this monster habitat, no wonder no one quickly went in and checked.
“Back home…” I mumbled quietly to myself as I got back inside, checking to make sure nothing was mistakenly turned on, checking to see if everything was in order.
Hmm… Looks like everything is fine. Guess it’s time to sit down and look through things on social media for a while.
…Looks like people are understandably confused and scared at what’s happening. There has even been talk about terrorist groups around where the area is being reported. I wonder if Kara knows more about it.
…She sent me another message… ‘It’s something my friend did, sorry.’
…Who in the world is she associated with? Should I be concerned? I know she’s technically an adult by now, but should I be concerned as someone older? Let me ask real quick…
Really looks like she has been involved in more shenanigans while I am kept busy with my own. I guess that shouldn’t be any surprise to me at this point considering where she lives and who she is associated with.
Things must’ve never gotten dull for her, and probably way more carefree than I am.
———Orrel———
<3: 15 pm>
“Of course it’s on the news! That thing looks like a fucking nuke!” Gregori yelled out in frustration while looking at Kenni, who was simply grinning.
“That’s… what? Second time I have been on the news? Maybe third or fourth depending on how you look at it?” She said smugly. She certainly took this in stride.
“Can’t say that’s the best thing in the world…” Jeyst muttered under their own breath.
“At least it’s not on one of those channels that kept spouting nonsensical agendas. I think that’s a plus.” Malk said while eating some fried rice.
“One thing for sure, this is gonna add to everyone’s panic.” Karra remarked. Indeed, it feels like this will just contribute to the general paranoia after what happened yesterday.
“Let’s just be glad no one has attributed this to us. As far as I know, no one even dared to set foot in such a disputed area outside of terrorists and the like. There is probably very little chance they even know someone entered the space, correct? Even drones were destroyed not long after entering the monster habitat.” I said so they’ll stop stressing out. From the view of the explosion that was captured, it seems to be a satellite view, probably can’t get a good look at anyone arriving at the scene. No doubt people are still spooked out that such an attack is so destructive it can be seen from that high up in the sky. “I’d say there’s no need to discuss this further. The damage is already done.”
“So, how are you planning on covering this up?” Kenni turned her head and asked Rico who was just chilling on the sofa.
“I’m not telling.” She flatly answered.
“Tch. Killjoy.” Kenni said with a frown before standing up to go get more food.
“...I don’t think we talked enough about how someone can just casually blow up like a chunk of a very large plot of land. I think that was roughly equal to destroying an entire mountain.” Gregori said.
“I think we’re past that point a long time ago. Should be glad there isn’t someone blowing up cities for funsies. Feels like that could just randomly happen nowadays.” Karra said, as if resigning to any more absurdities and paranoia that came with it.