Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - Volume 3

Chapter 13: Failure, Chaos, and Resolve

Having slain the Red-Hood Cobra, our party headed back to the Adventurers' Guild. As always, we met up with Jalil outside the building to exchange our task cards. We also handed over the snake's fangs and skin, and worked out our stories to make sure they stayed consistent.

There was a large amount of stuff to carry this time, so for once, we all headed inside the guild, even Vizquel. The moment we set foot inside, Nokopara came sidling up to us. It seriously felt like the guy never left this place...or left us alone.

"Hey there! Looks like you've been huntin' some real interestin' prey. Are those Red-Hood Cobra scales I see? Well?"

I glanced over at Jalil, prompting him to trot out the story we'd worked out in advance.

"Y-yeah, that's right. We got lucky and ran into the thing when it was already real weak."

"Hmmm. You two took down a Red-Hood, huh...?"

Nokopara stared down Jalil with something that looked like a condescending smirk on his horsey face.

What's going on here? He seems kinda different today...

"W-we found the bodies of the Super Blazers guys before we ran into it actually. They must have softened it up before they died..."

"What? Hold on, you sayin' Blaze is dead?"

"Yeah."

"Damn. Guess that's how it goes when you run into a Red-Hood though..." Nokopara said with a disinterested snort. "Still...even if it was weakened up, it's hard to imagine you an' Vizquel takin' one of those monsters down..."

"Well, it wasn't just weakened, really. It was almost dead. I mean, you could almost say it was dead. It was still breathing, yeah, but it was basically a goner, you know?" Jalil, speaking a bit too rapidly now, chose this moment to walk hurriedly away.

Nokopara didn't seem to be satisfied yet, though, and turned his attention to us. "So! You guys find some lost pet again today or what?"

"Yeah. Master Jalil's taught us some excellent techniques. We managed to earn ourselves a bit more pocket money today."

"Hmmmm..."

Something felt a little off about this conversation. I tried to slip away and walk off quickly like Jalil had, but just as I began moving, Nokopara slung his arm around my shoulders in a weirdly intimate way and leaned over to whisper in my ear. "So tell me, how exactly were ya huntin' down pets outside the city?"

For just an instant, I stopped moving. But I think I managed to keep my poker face on. This was a situation I'd planned for. He'd only seen us heading out of Rikarisu. I could talk my way around that.

"It just happened to wander outside of town this time."

"Oh reaaally? So what then..." This time, Nokopara grabbed Jalil firmly by the shoulders. "Did that Red-Hood Cobra just happen to be inside the city, too?"

Okay. So he'd seen Jalil and Vizquel around town as well. In other words, the jig was up.

"Hmm. Verrry strange. Lots of odd things happening these days."

I'd given some thought to this scenario. We did have some options to deal with it. For example, I could blame everything on Jalil. If I insisted he was forcing us to do dangerous, high-rank work against our will, I could wriggle my way out of the immediate crisis.

I wasn't going to go down that route though. If I did, Ruijerd might cut off ties with me for good. It was conduct unbefitting of a warrior, after all.

"Come on, guys. Just 'fess up already, why don'tcha?"