That Guy's Not Right

That Guy Is Off

The person they found in the room was a woman, and she looked as though she had been severely beaten.

Her face was caked with so much dirt, and swollen from the beating, that one eye could not even open through the bruising and redness. No one could make out what she originally looked like.

Her clothes were smeared with thick grime, even bearing large stains of vomit, along with spatters of blood. She looked utterly wretched.

Unlike Pei Renli, Koura immediately identified herself and told the woman that she was safe now. For the other party, that was surely more effective than anything else. Koura truly lived up to her terminal case of social fearlessness.

She gently patted the woman's back, and her sobbing only grew louder. Perhaps it was a way of releasing her emotions. By all appearances, she had suffered no small amount of abuse.

But Pei Renli noticed that this woman was clearly unlike an ordinary victim.

There were no orange spots on her body, so she had not been used for drug testing. And the fact that she was somehow still alive after everyone else had already evacuated was, in itself, proof that she was unusual.

Looking closely, one could see that though she was coated head to toe in thick grime, to the point that even the original color of her hair was impossible to discern, the material of her clothes was of very fine quality—not the plain cloth worn by ordinary people.

And when she leaned against the wall and wept, they could tell that the garment was actually an extremely heavy and elaborate dress.

To create a petal-like effect, this kind of dress was divided into many layers and held up with metal frames. To keep the frames from injuring the wearer, several layers of petticoats had to be worn underneath. In terms of thickness, it was nearly comparable to padded armor.

Ordinary people obviously could not afford such clothing, nor was it something one person could put on alone. Usually, only noblewomen or daughters of wealthy families who frequented salons would wear something like this.

If so, unlike the other victims, had she been kidnapped as a hostage for ransom?

But then why had the people here left without taking her? That did not seem to make sense either. Unless someone else had been assigned to clean up afterward and take her away?

The martial monk Anton, who could have explained this, was now a corpse. Pei Renli could only make blind guesses himself.

The young woman who seemed to be some noble miss was crying herself nearly unconscious, while Koura kept softly consoling her. There was nothing they could ask her right now.

After thinking for a moment, Pei Renli said, "Let's get her out first. I don't want to stay in this place a second longer."

Indeed, no one wanted to linger in a place reeking of rotting corpses and the harsh, choking stench of fire oil.

Koura quietly asked whether she could stand, but perhaps because she was injured, or perhaps because she was too weak, the young woman tried several times and failed to rise. It seemed they would have to carry her out on their backs.

Finding a victim who was still alive was good news in itself. Though they said they did not want to remain here, no one rushed her.

Bang!

The sound of the door being violently shoved open drew everyone's attention, and they all turned toward the double doors through which they had entered.

A middle-aged man in silver armor, with a weapon slung across his back, rushed in. Seeing Pei Renli and the others, he visibly froze. Then he spotted the dark-blue curtain draped nearby and the corpse of the martial monk Anton.

"What happened here?"

"Officer Chatin, we have something to report to you."

This middle-aged man named Chatin was the one who had explained the mission details when the four of them arrived in Curtain Star City. Other than Pei Renli, who had gone to change clothes at the time and thus did not know, everyone knew his name.

Koura was consoling the young woman, while Pei Renli helped from beside her. Eve stood woodenly to one side without saying a word, so Kaya was the only one who could steel herself and step forward.

Compared to Koura's fearless sociability, Kaya was the sort with a bit of social anxiety. After all, because of the rumors that she bore a curse, almost no one had been willing to associate with her.

Over time, she had become reluctant to approach strangers herself, usually only interacting with others when they approached her first.

For example, the only three people at school who spoke with Kaya—Koura, Eve, and Pei Renli—had all been the ones to approach her first.

Just thinking about how she would have to explain everything that had happened along the way made Kaya's scalp tingle.

She tried to summarize it as simply as possible.

"We tracked them here and discovered that this is a den for human traffickers. They were even using the people they abducted to test drugs."

As she spoke, she walked toward Officer Chatin. What had happened along the way could not possibly be explained in just a few sentences, and speaking from so far away was awkward as well.

Pei Renli turned back to glance at Officer Chatin. He could not shake the feeling that there was something off about the man.

Perhaps because he had survived the first Demon King Arena by being bold-eyed and sharp-eyed, Pei Renli seemed to have developed a habit of paying close attention to details.

And precisely because of that, the moment he saw Officer Chatin, he felt a troubling sense that he had overlooked some detail—as if a voice deep within him were telling him...

Right. The sound!

"Kaya, get back! Something's wrong with that guy!"

When Pei Renli and the others had entered, the outermost door had been locked. He had used magic to get in, and had casually shut the door again afterward.

So here was the question: though the door was flimsy enough that any adult could easily smash it open, it had still been locked. Had breaking it down made no sound at all?

In other words, Officer Chatin had used a key to enter. And as for why he had a key...

The moment Kaya heard that, she stopped in her tracks. She had just put her hand on her sword hilt when Officer Chatin swiftly took the long-handled warhammer from his back, swung it up, and leaped toward Kaya, bringing it smashing down at her.

With a thunderous crash, the long-handled warhammer struck the floor slick with fire oil, leaving several glaring cracks behind. Fortunately, Kaya was nimble and Pei Renli's warning had come in time. If she had been ambushed without knowing, that single blow would have killed someone perfectly and completely.

"Officer Chatin? What exactly are you..."

Lifting the warhammer, Officer Chatin said with some regret, "You had already completed your mission. Why did you have to stick your noses into other people's business? You should have just stayed the night and gone back to school tomorrow."

"You probably set the prison fire too, didn't you? That's how Jixiu was able to seize the chance to escape."

From the very beginning, Pei Renli had felt that something was wrong. A place like a prison was managed with extreme strictness, and it had been the middle of the night. The prisoners had all been driven into their cells; they should not have had any opportunity to start a fire.

If the fire had merely been an accident, then adding Jixiu, who had managed to escape from his cell amid the blaze, made it seem far too unlikely to be a simple coincidence.

Sheriff Chatin glanced at the speaking Pei Renli, but offered no answer, neither admitting nor denying it.

Facing the four of them as they drew their weapons and prepared to fight, he still spoke in a regretful tone:

"I didn't expect them to have already withdrawn. Since you've exposed it, I can't possibly let you leave here alive."

He must have spotted the sole survivor as well, for he raised his voice slightly.

"What a pity. I'd originally been looking forward to the reward. Now I can only ask you to die alongside them."

A reward? Did this young lady's family have some kind of bounty out on them?

Pei Renli had been desperately short on money lately, so he was especially sensitive to the word "reward," but this was not the time to discuss that.

He immediately reached out and shut the door. The young lady hurriedly said:

"My father will definitely pay a great deal of money! Don't go!"

"Hide in here and don't come out. We'll talk after we deal with that guy."

Or after they got dealt with. Either way, a fight was inevitable.

As he shut the door, Kaya had already drawn her longsword and charged in with a slash. Eve swiftly changed her casting gesture and launched her most commonly used Magic Missile.

But no one could become a sheriff in a major city like Curtain Star City purely through connections.

In a world with supernatural forces as unscientific as magic, being able to fight was a basic requirement for a sheriff.

The edge of Kaya's sword was easily blocked by a warhammer. Amid the bright sparks bursting from the clash of weapons, Sheriff Chatin simply ignored the Magic Missile and let it strike his side.

Then everyone saw a conspicuous magical radiance flare across Chatin's breastplate. The Magic Missile was completely swallowed when it struck, and even Koura's slightly delayed arrow, fired from her shortbow and aimed at Chatin's head, bounced away as though it had struck a solid block of iron.

That proved one thing: it was magical armor.

As a trading city, Curtain Star City was exceptionally wealthy. The guards responsible for keeping the peace were equipped with iron helmets, breastplates, vambraces, greaves, and iron-bound shields, while their weapons included a military weapon, shortswords, daggers, and various other sidearms.

In terms of equipment, they were already no worse than the regular armies of many city-states, and these were merely the personnel responsible for public order.

The equipment issued to front-line officials like sheriffs was even more lavish. Even though Chatin, who managed the Lower District, ranked among the lowest of the sheriffs, he was still equipped with magical weapons and armor.

Simply put, a feeble attack like Magic Missile would have no effect at all. And judging from the fact that even arrows were deflected, it also possessed a special enchantment against ranged attacks.

To Pei Renli, seeing this was practically the same as having his most frequently used spell crippled.

How come everyone could resist Magic Missile? Monks could do it, and now sheriffs could too.

It gave Pei Renli a strong urge to improve his offensive and defensive capabilities as soon as possible. After all, if immunity to Magic Missile was this common, it would probably be the same in the Demon King Arena.

Since Pei Renli's offensive and defensive abilities were still quite weak, Magic Missile was nearly incapable of dealing any meaningful damage, while the oil-soaked surroundings prevented him from using the more powerful Burning Hands. He could only take two quick steps forward, preparing to use Cat's Grace to buff Koura.

Eve faced much the same situation as Pei Renli. While Kaya and Sheriff Chatin were locked in combat, she threw debuff spells from the Enchantment school at him. But just as when she had fought the monk Anton, they had little effect. Every time a spell landed, intense magical radiance flashed across that magical breastplate.

The breastplate most likely had enchantments that resisted magic or abnormal conditions—something quite important for a sheriff who often had to face vicious criminals.

Low-level novice mages all faced this problem: their spells struggled to take effect, especially against opponents stronger than themselves.

So from the moment the battle began, Pei Renli had clearly understood that Sheriff Chatin would likely be no easier to deal with than the monk Anton. If they wanted to win, they would probably have to use some methods beyond the usual...