novelraw Chapter 128 : A Familiar Feeling
Chapter 128 : A Familiar Feeling
Chapter 128: A Familiar Feeling
The last guest finished dinner and left the inn.
It was past 8 p.m.
Humphrey stretched, signaling the end of a tiring day.
“Everyone worked hard. Robin, thanks to you we were able to finish the urgent matter well.”
The other employees also expressed their gratitude to Robin.
Those in charge of cleaning the guest rooms chattered away.
“Thanks to the handsome guest, the inn feels brighter.”
“Sir, how about quitting being an adventurer and just working at our inn instead?”
Before he knew it, Robin had helped out with the inn’s management tasks one by one.
Thanks to that, he had gained a rough understanding of how the building was structured.
“I’ll help out from time to time whenever I have time.”
“Oh my, not only is he handsome, he has a kind heart too.”
“Boss, recruit that young man right away.”
Robin smiled at the employees’ praise.
Unable to bear it any longer, Margaret waved her hands and shooed them off.
“You all have to work tomorrow too! Let’s clock out!”
With disappointed expressions, the employees left the inn.
“Margaret, I know you were taking it easy today.”
“Taking it easy?! While you were gone, I cleaned up the entire first floor!”
After scolding Margaret, Michael turned his gaze to Robin.
“Thanks to you, the inn feels lively again.”
“It’s less thanks to me and more thanks to Michael’s hard work.”
“Boss, is he really an adventurer? Not some silver-tongued speaker?”
Humphrey snickered and waved a hand at Michael.
“Margaret, hurry up! If you don’t come, I’m leaving you behind.”
“Oh, okay! Wait a second!”
As if he truly intended to leave alone, Michael started walking.
Margaret came in front of Robin and lowered her voice.
“Will it really be alright……?”
“Don’t worry too much.”
“If Robin says so…….”
Margaret straightened her drooping eyebrows and turned around.
“See you tomorrow.”
As she ran toward the entrance, she shouted at Michael.
“Hey, you jerk! Let’s go together!”
Only Humphrey and Robin remained on the first floor.
Robin did not go up to his room and instead sat on a chair.
“Do you need anything?”
“There are a few things I’d like to ask.”
Humphrey took out a glass and poured grape juice.
He set it down in front of Robin and sat across from him.
“I’ll be blunt. There is a Demon Tribe worshiper in the Oak Tree Inn.”
“What do you mean…….”
“Humphrey.”
Robin’s eyes turned cold.
Humphrey’s expression stiffened as he looked straight at Robin.
“Are you a Demon Tribe worshiper?”
“Absolutely not.”
Humphrey’s eyes did not waver.
Robin slowly drank the grape juice without avoiding that gaze.
“If it’s not Humphrey, then only one person remains.”
“To suddenly speak of a Demon Tribe worshiper. I’m flustered.”
Robin rummaged through his pocket and took out a small stone.
The dark blue stone looked ordinary at first glance.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know either.”
At the overly confident reply, Humphrey was momentarily at a loss for words.
Robin flicked the stone on the table, setting it spinning.
The stone spun rapidly.
No Demonic Energy could be felt.
“It gives off a familiar feeling.”
“Do you recognize it?”
“I can’t say for certain, but if I had to put it into words…….”
Humphrey stopped the stone with his index finger.
The opaque stone was cold.
“It feels akin to when using an Artifact.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, but now that you mention it, it does feel similar.”
“Where in the world did you find it?”
“In the second-floor staff storage room.”
“Pardon?”
Robin explained what had happened.
When he brought the Rainbow Pig, it immediately began sniffing and rummaged through a box.
What came out of it was the dark blue stone.
There was nothing else particularly noteworthy.
There had been a brief commotion when Margaret hugged the pig and refused to let go, but Robin had managed to calm her down.
“I’m sorry for entering without permission. I can assure you I didn’t steal anything.”
“It’s fine. More than that, I’m curious why that stone was in the storage room. And what does this have to do with a Demon Tribe worshiper?”
“You really seem not to know.”
“If there’s something you know, please tell me.”
Robin had carefully observed him, even until the moment he showed him the stone and let him touch it directly.
There was no sign of deceit.
Robin inhaled and opened his mouth.
“Margaret had been exposed to Demonic Energy. The pig absorbed that Demonic Energy.”
“…That’s hard to believe.”
“I believe this stone had been imbued with Demonic Energy.”
Marlen of Old Town and the Rainbow Pig.
Robin had personally witnessed Demonic Energy transferring to a person or a Monster.
A Demon Tribe worshiper would likely be able to handle Demonic Energy as well.
“They probably tried to kill Margaret using this stone.”
No one had known that a magic stone would be in the storage room.
If it had not been for the pig, Robin would not have noticed either.
It was the perfect place to hide it without arousing suspicion.
“While I was away in the uncharted region, Margaret frequently went in and out of the storage room, correct?”
“That’s right…….”
Margaret had been passionate about managing the inn.
Until just a few days ago, Humphrey had entrusted her with the storage room key, and Margaret had overseen management in his place.
It was the perfect setup for continuous exposure to Demonic Energy.
“But who……? Why……?”
“Yesterday, Michael was on the first floor in place of Humphrey, right?”
“Yes. While I went to the market… Then, could it be?”
If he had left the magic stone there, he would have gone to the storage room to retrieve it.
So as not to leave evidence that could later incriminate him.
Someone for whom going in and out of the storage room would not be strange.
Someone who could come and go even without a key.
Matthew and Humphrey had clear alibis.
Then only one person remained.
In a deflated voice, as if struck by shock, Humphrey asked,
“Are you saying Michael is a Demon Tribe worshiper……?”
“It’s only my speculation.”
“Why would Michael…….”
Humphrey’s eyebrows shot up, his pupils trembling.
As he struggled to understand, he suddenly recalled something important.
“Margaret! Margaret left together with Michael!”
“I told her not to be alone with him.”
“Even so, isn’t that a dangerous situation?!”
Humphrey sprang to his feet.
He looked ready to dash outside at any moment.
Creeeak.
Just then, the door opened and Sigbard entered.
He jingled silver coins in one hand and smiled, as if something good had happened.
“Humphrey! Where are you going at this hour?”
“Margaret is in danger.”
“Margaret? I saw her on the way here—she went into some tavern.”
At Sigbard’s words, Humphrey faltered.
Robin added an explanation.
“I sent her. It’s an inn with decent security, so don’t worry.”
“…I apologize. I was discourteous.”
“If the life of a cherished employee were in danger, that would be a natural reaction.”
They explained what had happened to the bewildered Sigbard.
Though it might have seemed somewhat complicated, Sigbard’s conclusion was clear.
“Michael is a Demon Tribe worshiper.”
“You’re not surprised?”
“Robin, didn’t you say so? And.”
Sigbard lowered his voice and spoke about the place he had discovered in the uncharted region.
“It was similar to the place in Old Town where the magic stones were buried.”
At the edge of a suddenly collapsed cavern, Sigbard had discovered a pile of magic stones.
They had been neatly arranged—so much so that an ordinary person might have mistaken it for a quarry.
“After hearing you, I think Michael might be managing it.”
He rummaged through his clothes and pulled something out to show them.
“This is…….”
A small liquor cup used for drinking strong alcohol.
Humphrey brought an identical cup from the bar.
“It’s certainly… identical to the cups used in our inn. But Michael doesn’t like alcohol…….”
“We’ll find out if we follow him from now on.”
Leaving the flustered Humphrey behind, Robin went up to his room and came back down.
In his hand was a cage.
The Rainbow Pig stuck its snout through the bars, trying to get outside.
“Sigbard, let’s go.”
“I just got here and there’s no time to rest.”
“If you want to rest, I’ll go alone.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m coming too.”
As the two were about to leave the inn, Humphrey stopped them.
“I’ll go as well.”
“Isn’t it not time for your shift change yet? If you leave, who will watch the counter?”
Humphrey took out a sign and placed it on the counter.
It bore a message asking for understanding as he would be away briefly, with an awkward expression drawn beside it.
“I must confirm it myself.”
“If that’s the case, then let’s go together.”
“Please wait a moment.”
Before long, Humphrey returned holding a mace.
Spikes protruded from its blunt end.
“Let’s go.”
Humphrey’s expression was resolute.
He no longer looked like the gentle innkeeper, but like an adventurer who had weathered countless hardships.
With the cage leading the way and the pig’s snout pointing forward, Robin followed the direction it indicated.
In the house where he lived alone, Michael recalled his walk home from work.
Unlike usual, Margaret had parted ways with him midway.
The way she made a clumsy excuse about wanting to stop by a shop had been cute.
“When you act like that, it just makes me want to tease you more.”
Lying on the bed, he sat up.
He put on the coat he had taken off and finished preparing to go out.
On the streets at midnight, no one wandered about except patrolling Guards.
“A solitary night walk has its own charm.”
Michael passed through the gate with practiced ease.
The vast uncharted region spread before him, as comfortable as his hometown.
Monsters active only at night were visible, but they did not launch preemptive attacks.
It was something he had confirmed countless times while going out alone.
“You can’t feel safe just because it’s an expensive inn.”
Margaret’s sudden change of lodging was surely because of that fellow, Robin.
At the thought of that fair-faced guest, Michael’s fist tightened.
“Hoo. Even so, just a copper-ranked adventurer. I’ll deal with him later.”
Margaret came first.
The carefully laid plan had been ruined by some lodger.
The more he thought about it, the more anger rose within him, but he calmed himself.
“Just wait a little longer, Margaret. It won’t be bad news for you either.”
Resolving to use a more certain method than before, he soon arrived at his destination.
In the ordinary field was a mark that only Michael could recognize.
After looking around and confirming that no one was there, Michael felt along the ground.
Kki-gi-gi-gik.
Beneath the cleared soil was a small wooden door.
With practiced ease, Michael opened it.
Pusss—dust scattered as stairs leading downward were revealed.
Step, step.
Though the passage was pitch dark, Michael’s steps were light.
Before long, light stretching from deeper inside illuminated the floor.
At the same time, the air gradually grew colder.
“Hmm, hmm. Hmm.”
Whenever he came here, he felt good.
It had already been three years since he began following that person and carrying out their will.
A benefactor who had suddenly appeared in Michael’s otherwise unremarkable life.
Whenever he recalled that time, a tune naturally slipped from his lips.
“Let’s begin today as well… huh?”
As he passed through the cavern, Michael looked up at the ceiling.
The sky was visible.
“Why is this…? Don’t tell me someone came?”
Wrapped in tension, he slowly moved forward.
He looked around to see if anyone was there, but the cavern was empty.
If the ceiling had simply collapsed due to age, it could be repaired.
But if someone had intruded…….
“I can’t let them go peacefully.”
Michael’s eyes turned violet.
He wrapped his entire body in Demonic Energy like a thin cloth.
The room at the very end.
The place he had tended with the greatest care over the past three years.
Without hesitation, he flung it open.
Whoosh.
Though he was ready not to miss even a single ant, only an enormous quantity of magic stones greeted him.
“Am I being overly sensitive?”
He withdrew the Demonic Energy and stood before the magic stones.
An amount vast enough to satisfy him no matter how many times he saw it.
As he examined them closely, Michael noticed something strange.
“I definitely left it here—where did it go?”
The dark blue magic stone was nowhere to be seen.
Even Michael had not known much about it and had intended to study it.
As he rummaged through the display shelf, a deep voice sounded from behind him.
“Looking for this?”
Whoosh!
Michael turned around and simultaneously unleashed Demonic Energy.
It was powerful enough to shatter rock.
Yet there was no reaction of the sort Michael had expected.
“To attack without warning. That’s rude.”
“Y-you are?”
So tall it felt unfair to compare him to a human.
A barbarian clad in muscles from head to toe.
Rubbing the stomach where the Demonic Energy had struck, Sigbard straightened his posture.
“There are many things I wish to ask, human.”
Blinking as if just awakened, Sigbard took a step toward Michael.