Chapter 154: You Can’t Kill That One
No matter how you looked at it, it was just an ordinary jar.
Not even worth two gold coins—probably just a few silver pieces at most.
“Wait, wait, wait!”
I hurriedly stepped in, panicking.
“Huh? Onii-chan?”
“What are you trying to buy, idiot?”
“It’s a jar that’ll let you never work a day in your life!”
There’s no way such a jar exists.
“Oh, so you’re here, brother. (Tch… what a nuisance.)”
“Didn’t you just click your tongue?”
“Whatever are you talking about? Must be your imagination.”
I grabbed my foolish sister by the hand.
“Come on, let’s go. That’s obviously a fake. You’re being scammed.”
“Eh! But isn’t it a jar that’ll let me never work again!?”
“It’s just extra spending that’ll make you work even more, not less.”
“Ugh! No way, I don’t want that!”
Wait a second.
Maybe making her spend unnecessarily and work harder is actually better for my sister…?
Still, letting a con artist profit from us would be irritating. Best to leave as quickly as possible.
I turned on my heel, thinking that, when—
“Hey! You two! You haven’t paid yet!”
The woman blocked our way, scowling.
“What are you talking about? We don’t need a jar like that.”
“I’m not talking about the jar. I mean the payment for the fortune-telling.”
“Fortune-telling…?”
“Of course. I am a fortune-teller, aren’t I? Now, two gold coins.”
“Two gold coins!?”
No, no. How much is this woman trying to rip us off for?!
“We never agreed to pay! You just said you’d take a quick look, that’s all!”
Sena protested. Apparently, the scam started at the fortune-telling itself.
“That’s your misunderstanding. If you have a reading, you pay an appropriate price. Even a child knows that. I don’t explain every little thing.”
“Still, two gold coins is way too much.”
“My readings are accurate, so they’re expensive. Now, hand it over. You’ve got two gold coins, right?”
I sighed and tossed two silver coins toward the woman.
“Here. That’ll have to do. Let’s go, Sena.”
“Y-Yeah.”
People like this are not worth arguing with. The coins were for the reading we actually received—though two silver coins were still way too much.
“Hey, you two! Do you think you can just leave like that?”
But as we tried to leave the alley, a large man stepped in front of us.
Ah, that explains why the woman was so confident—she had backup.
He blocked the narrow alley completely, leaving no room to pass. The man, clearly no ordinary civilian, wore a menacing face but forced a smile.
“As someone experienced in society, I might have to teach you a lesson about common sense, physically, you know?”
…Oh no.
The man cracked his knuckles, and I winced, stepping forward frantically.
“Uh… you should probably stop, you know? You’ll seriously get hurt…”
“Hah! If you know that, just pay the money! Then we’ll let you go!”
“N-No, it’s not us who’ll get hurt…”
“Wh-What did you just say?! Stop talking and hand over the money!”
The man reached out to grab me by the collar. The next moment, his arm—above the wrist—fell away, clattering to the ground.
“Huh?”
A strange sound escaped his mouth.
“M-My arm!? My arm!?!? Owowowowowowow!”
It seemed the realization and pain hit him at the same time, as he screamed through the alley.
“Shut up.”
“Ugh!?”
Sena had kicked him in the stomach, forcing him to the ground, a sword still gripped in her hand, slick with his blood.
“Hey! That’s way too much!”
Even as an adventurer, Sena was not one to lose to thugs. Usually, her lack of restraint worried me more than the opponents—but I hadn’t expected her to cut off an arm immediately.
“Onii-chan, move. You can’t let him live.”
“We don’t need to kill him!”
“~~!!”
The man was utterly terrified.
“Eeeek!”
The fortune-teller woman had toppled from her chair as well. She seemed to want to run, but her legs had given out, leaving her frozen.
“What are you doing there!?”
“Fighting is bad, you know!”
Hearing the man’s screams, two more people dashed into the alley.
“…You guys?”
“Lyon? And Lala-san too?”
They were adventurers I had met deep in a dungeon just recently.
“What are you doing here?”
“Well… first, before that—”
I remembered the man on the ground, barely conscious. Blood gushed endlessly from his severed arm. If left alone, he wouldn’t last ten minutes.
I picked up his fallen arm, pressed it against the stump, and poured a jarion marked with Merlin’s seal over it.
In an instant, it fused perfectly. The wound was nearly invisible.
“The jarion works as well as ever… or maybe the wound was just clean enough that it left almost no scar…”
Lala-san looked at Sena with awe. Sena, on the other hand, pouted.
“Eh, Onii-chan, why’d you have to heal him?”
I began explaining the situation to the two of them.