Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Rumors at the Bar 

I GOT CHANGED and headed out, telling the other servants that I was feeling better and where I was going. They were good people, and they told me to go out and enjoy myself. They even promised to keep it a secret from Lady Roxy. 

I left the Holy Knight District for the Merchant District. It was just past noon, so I had time to kill before the bar opened. I couldn’t do any real shopping, though. I still hadn’t received payment for my work at Hart Manor, so I only had one silver and twenty copper coins to my name. I also needed to save some money for drinks. Therefore, I headed once more to the flea markets in the back alleys where I’d first found Greed. 

Back then, in my dirty patchwork clothes, that arrogant shopkeeper hadn’t even given me the time of day. Now that I was a servant for the Hart family, and dressed accordingly, nobody would treat me like a nuisance. 

I passed from stall to stall, bargain hunting. Turned out Identify was extremely handy for just this kind of thing. I didn’t even need a trained eye for quality; I could literally see any item’s worth. With this, I thought maybe I could buy high-quality items on the cheap and resell them for profit… But then I realized that wouldn’t work because I didn’t have anywhere to sell anything, let alone customers. 

Putting those thoughts aside, I took an elegant plate in hand and used Identify on it. 

“Whoa, this is amazing!” I cried. “This guy did a fantastic job putting a broken plate back together. You can’t even tell! Looks like the other plates are the same, too.” 

The owner of the stall glared my way. He’d been bartering with a customer right next to me. Seemed like the customer heard me too, because they shoved the plate they were going to buy right back at the shop owner in a rage. Then the two started arguing. 

“You cheated me!” 

“I didn’t cheat anyone!” 

It was…more than a little awkward, so I escaped back to the street before they roped me into the whole mess. 

“Hoo boy. Almost got ourselves into some pretty hot water there.” 

“You need to be more careful,” Greed chided me. “Merchants hate people who walk around using Identify.” 

“Why don’t you tell off the dirty merchant cheating people with his lies?” 

“Ah, but truth doesn’t always put food on the table. The ends may at times justify the means.” 

This kind of dishonesty seemed common among struggling flea-market merchants. Anyway, I put that shop behind me and continued digging through the stalls for bargains. Then I found something truly interesting on a shelf lined with hats and helmets. It was terrifying, but something about it drew me in. I took it in hand and used Identify. 

Skull Mask 

Durability: 20 

Hides the wearer’s identity from others by making them appear as a stranger. 

Now this could come in handy! 

It seemed Greed agreed. “You’ve found something very special. This is an enchanted piece of equipment made for masquerades. It’s an antique, but with a little magic, it’ll still work.” 

Forty copper coins. Not too expensive, either. I would need the mask for monster hunting. I’d soon be at it almost every night, and if I went maskless, adventurers would eventually be able to identify me. The ability to disguise myself would be critical to hiding who I was while I ate. 

I gave forty copper coins to the old merchant at the stall, wrapped the mask in a rag, and tucked it in my shirt. I’d made a valuable find. Of course, in a kingdom the size of Seifort, rare items occasionally popped up at flea markets. It would be a good idea to make a habit of dropping by to look for the odd bargain. 

In any case, it was time to head to the bar. Any longer in the markets, and I’d probably find something else to suck my money up. 

*** 

When I entered the local bar, I found it crowded with scruffy, unkempt men. What were they all doing drinking this early in the afternoon? The bar had always been empty at this time before. But stranger things had happened, so I headed over to my old corner at the counter. 

My usual spot was the only seat still empty. On the counter in front of the seat I found a single flower in a cup. As I sat, I tried to work out what it was. 

A voice called out to me. “Hey, you can’t sit there. That spot belonged to one of our regulars, before he…” 

It was the barkeep, who walked over, took a look at my face, and gasped. 

“You’re alive?! I was convinced you were dead!” 

That explained the flower, then. The barkeep had taken my absence over the last week as a sign the Vlericks had finally done me in. 

“Alive and well, as you can see,” I said. “Is it all right if I sit here?” 

“Of course, of course! Sit! Please!” 

I moved the flower to the side and took my place. “Barkeep, a bottle of your finest wine and some food to match it, please.” 

“Hey, wait a second,” he said. “One minute I think you’re dead, and the next you come back rich. What’s the story?” 

“New job, my friend. That’s why I was away; I was learning my new responsibilities.” 

“I see. Well, I’m glad. Really, I am.” 

The barkeep disappeared into the kitchen, wiping away a few tears as he went. He returned a short time later with a glass filled with wine and a huge fish in meuniere sauce. 

“To celebrate your new job, you’re eating half-price tonight!” he said. 

“Are you sure?” 

“Of course! Here’s to the years we’ve known each other!” 

I had no idea the barkeep felt so much camaraderie for me. It made me grateful I’d come. I dug into the fish and asked why the place was so packed. 

“These guys are all adventurers,” the barkeep said. 

At first, I figured they all had the day off. The work of adventurers was different from regular jobs because they had to match their hunts to the behavior of monsters. Naturally, they worked irregular schedules. Sometimes monsters didn’t come out if it was raining, and other times adventurers had to wait out a monster that was more violent than usual because it was in heat. 

But it didn’t seem like either of those things were going on today. 

“The way I hear it, these adventurers went out for goblins this morning, and all they found was a graveyard,” said the barkeep. “Goblin corpses scattered everywhere. All of them with their ears, too! Just left there on the ground! So these adventurers made a right profit just harvesting ears. It’s a weird world, I tell you.” 

“Ah, is that so?” I said with a nervous laugh. 

I’d almost spit out my wine. He was describing the consequences of my little adventure. It was okay, though, right? It wasn’t like I’d done anything wrong. 

“But you know what?” the barkeep said, his face gloomy. 

“What?” 

“Well, the problem is, what did kill those goblins? There’s a good chance it was a stray monster that wandered in from another region.” 

“A stray monster?!” 

The barkeep had heard this from the adventurers, too. They were, in effect, calling me a stray monster. It seemed my goblin- hunting expedition might have been less consequence-free than I’d hoped. 

“Yeah, it happens once every ten years or so. That’s why the holy knights have been called in. And I’m glad they have. Puts all the rest of us at ease, you know? At least it’ll be over sooner or later.” 

Apparently, if an unknown monster showed up anywhere near the kingdom’s roads, the traveling merchants and traders put their deliveries on hold; they didn’t want to die, after all. As a result, the flow of goods and produce into the kingdom slowed, so prices went up, and managing a bar became much tougher. 

This was my fault. Even so, I couldn’t simply stop hunting. And now I’d have to deal with a holy knight on patrol—maybe worse. 

“So which holy knight have they put in charge?” I asked. 

“I heard it’s one of them Vlericks you’re so fond of. The middle child, Hado. He still doesn’t have any battle experience in Galia, so they put him on this rookie-league investigation to help build his name.” 

At the mere mention of the Vlericks, I drove my fork into my fish. To think a holy knight from one of the esteemed families would stick his nose into my business… It felt a little like I’d jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. I drained my glass of wine to cool my head. 

“Actually, I heard another weird story recently,” said the barkeep. 

“And what was that?” 

“You know that orphanage in the slums near your place? Some nuns there were up praying a bit before daybreak when a bloodstained bag flew straight through the window. Landed right in front of one of the nuns and she fainted on the spot. So at first, the nuns think it’s some awful prank. They run outside, but whoever did it’s already long gone.” 

Wait, is he talking about…? 

The barkeep held his stomach and laughed. Oblivious to the tense look on my face, he went on. 

“No, wait, there’s more. So the nuns are furious, right? They’re just appalled. And they go to throw the bag away when they notice what’s written on the side. It says, ‘a donation.’ So nervously, cautiously, they open this bloody bag and find a pair of goblin-king ears! Suddenly, the nuns are crying with joy! I hear they’re still looking for whoever gave them that gift.” 

And that…was also me. Without a doubt, that was me. I could only hope the girl at the orphanage got a good meal out of it. And now the sisters were searching for me, too, though that wouldn’t be a problem so long as I didn’t get caught. At least it would be easier now that I had the skull mask. 

“That is a very interesting story,” I said. “Now barkeep, another glass of wine, please!” 

As long as I kept my cool, nobody would ever know a thing. So I drank my wine and ate my food. 

And the food was delicious.