“You seem busy these days?”
Carl asked me with a smile, as if the twisted face of rage from some time ago had never happened. It was his usual gentle expression, but having already experienced what I had, I couldn’t help but see that face as a mask.
“Um… Haha, a bit…”
These days, I had been taking time off from the tavern and focusing entirely on the auction house. It was fortunate that I hadn’t used any vacation days until now. To persuade Belly, I had to eliminate stamina-draining activities like stopping by the tavern.
Though security was lax, the infiltration mission had gone on longer than expected, causing significant fatigue. Since I couldn’t tell Carl about all these circumstances, I mumbled my words and laughed awkwardly.
Then Carl approached me with an even deeper smile. His graceful movements were somehow alluring. Though Carl was definitely the same age as my body, his behavior sometimes seemed adult-like.
“You’ve been taking time off from the tavern lately—where have you been going?”
An undisguisable malice oozed from his seemingly excited voice.
I’m not an idiot. No matter how dull and stupid I am compared to others, I’m not so far gone that I can’t sense the venom directed at me. Of course, Carl was also expressing it quite blatantly.
‘That wasn’t something important, was it?’
‘The thing that was stolen!’
At first, I didn’t understand what Carl was talking about, but thinking about it now, what he meant was clear. The valuable item that had disappeared from my room was referring to Belly.
Unlike me—a friendless person doing low-level guild work at a tavern—Carl was different. He was surrounded by many friends and numerous high-ranking guild members who supported him.
[Belly, sold off by the whispers of a little devil…]
If everything written in Glutton was true, then it was Carl who had spread word to those who supported him. There were no other suspects—during the series of kidnapping incidents, the only person connected to me was Carl. There simply were no other suspects to doubt.
“I just wanted to rest for a bit, so I took some time off. Why? Are you having a hard time too?”
But even knowing his malice, I couldn’t lash out. I wanted to curse at him, but that would only hurt me. He had the power to paint his situation favorably, and I had no one to help me even if I got hurt. Well, maybe Rose would take my side…
I should have made some friends if I knew this would happen. The saying that regret always comes too late was right. The deed was already done, and it was too late to fix it. If I couldn’t put out the fire, I at least had to prevent it from growing larger.
“Not really, but… there’s talk that you’ve been frequenting suspicious places lately.”
Carl said with a smirk, as if it were nothing. It flowed with a cruelty like an innocent child laughing while poking roadside insects with a stick, watching their reactions.
I really don’t know what grudge Carl has against me to act like this. Does he want me to get angry and cry?
But unfortunately for him, knowing Carl’s psychology, I wasn’t going to fall for it easily. I smiled stupidly as if I knew nothing and said,
“Huh? Suspicious places? Where?”
“…The casino.”
“Casino? You mean a gambling house?”
I tilted my head as if I really didn’t know. I’d bet my face looked pretty stupid.
“You need money to gamble.”
What I said was the truth without a shred of lie. I didn’t say I hadn’t gone to the gambling house. I just said I hadn’t gambled. At my innocent answer, Carl’s eyes twitched as if irritation had suddenly surged.
“Come on, Carl. My pockets are pretty empty.”
After that, he kept prodding to get the answer he wanted from me, but I avoided answering while playing dumb.
“Right… Well, rest well then.”
After several minutes of meaningless confrontation, Carl finally seemed to give up and concluded the conversation. You need communication to mock someone effectively. For people like Carl, this kind of playing dumb worked best. I answered with a pleased smile.
“Yeah! You take care too, Carl. Watch out for colds.”
Carl tried to smile back at my answer, but he couldn’t help his lips twitching pathetically. No matter how outstanding his abilities, he was only 10 years old. Still too young to have mastered perfect social skills.
Turning my back on him, I hurried my steps to get to Belly today as well.
Ten years old. Certainly a clumsy age to be scheming something, but this world was inside a novel. For a character, that age wasn’t young at all. That’s why I deliberately ignored Carl’s gaze and steeled my resolve inwardly.
* * *
Enough time had passed that even I, directionally challenged as I am, could find my way to the casino without getting lost. That’s how long I’d been trying to persuade Belly.
Sadly, despite my desperate efforts, Belly didn’t believe me easily. That stubborn back of his was becoming resentfully annoying.
Had my existence already taken root as a complete villain in Belly’s mind? I wanted to act cheerfully, but as the moon waxed, my depression waxed in step with it. If Belly truly wouldn’t take my hand like this, there was only one option.
“I could just set him free.”
Thinking about it, there was no law that Belly absolutely had to follow me. In the first place, the reason I’d picked up Belly and wanted to keep him by my side wasn’t because I liked him or out of sympathy. It was because I thought he was an important character in this novel. Because I wanted to watch the story from beside him.
But what had become of my situation now? Wasn’t I a candle in the wind right now? Even if I forcibly brought Belly along like this, the chances of him staying obediently by my side were slim. Rather, it would build a negative connection. I had to avoid that at all costs.
“It’s regrettable, but…”
Still, I had the skill called Glutton. Belly’s story was being updated bit by bit, so it was okay. When something important happened later, I could just go nearby and watch. Anyway, since I’m an extra, it would be strange to be at the center of the story.
I steeled my resolve and looked up at the sky. In the dusky night sky, I could see the moon, nearly full.
Tomorrow that belly would become a perfect circle without any dents. That would be too late. On the day the auction started, not just the room with the auction items, but the entire casino would become several times more heavily guarded than now. While janitors were always needed, it seemed difficult to keep up the disguise until that day.
“Hmm…”
I took out and checked the items I’d borrowed from Rose for today. The disposable item that could cast invisibility magic didn’t last very long, but it was essential just in case.
I hurried toward the auction house. Thinking that this whole affair would end today felt somewhat relieving. No, relieving? Would it truly be relieving to return to the tavern tomorrow and resume my usual daily life?
…What if it’s not relieving? Is there a reason I shouldn’t? Belly was just a character in a novel, after all. That meant he wasn’t someone worth this much emotional expenditure.
“Let’s just hurry up and go.”
I forcibly stopped myself from falling into idle thoughts and hastened my steps further.
Even though it was the day before the auction, the guards weren’t particularly on alert. I was somewhat curious about what punishment that person would receive once Belly disappeared today. Well, it wasn’t something I, infiltrating as a thief, should be saying.
However, that thought changed after I infiltrated the auction house.
“…”
The air was somehow sharp. The prickly air stabbed at my skin. What was this tense air I felt in an empty corridor? It felt out of place.
I endured the sweat seeping from my palms at the unusual atmosphere and entered the bathroom. Having placed the cleaning cart I’d been pulling as part of my janitor disguise beside me, I instantly made a decision and activated the invisibility magic.
And exactly 3 seconds later, suspicious figures burst into the bathroom.
“What, where’d he go!”
“He definitely came in here?!”
They were clearly looking for me. Why? Was it my arrogance to think no one had noticed me?
But a figure flashed through my mind like intuition. It was Carl. In the first place, it was his machinations that had kidnapped Belly. It wouldn’t be strange if he’d instigated this situation too. Damn it.
While people were flustered and making a commotion, I quietly went outside. People were wandering around looking about in the corridor that had been empty just moments ago. They were definitely looking for me, the intruder.
Perhaps communicating with each other through communication magic, they were all muttering to themselves, drowning out my footsteps. It was a stroke of luck.
Guards were also standing in front of the room where the auction items were stored. The ironclad security was unbelievable considering how, normally, not even guarding but only dust had rolled around there.
But right now, they couldn’t see me, and there were no better conditions than this to draw their attention. I stood at a corner of the corridor and screamed a blood-curdling scream.
“Aaaah! Help me!!”
Naturally, the people on guard against the intruder’s invasion were drawn to my voice. I avoided several people rushing over with fierce momentum by sticking to the wall.
They began running around in panic at the fact that someone had invaded. It was a somewhat sloppy sight, as if no one had ever invaded this space before.
I looked around and carefully entered the room where the auction items were stored. With people’s attention focused on the nonexistent victim, I could avoid being caught.
Was it because of the commotion? The living auction items inside the room were noisily stirring. As if they wanted to bite me, the intruder, right away.
But things trapped in iron cages couldn’t harm me in any way. Rather, the noisier it was, the easier it was to erase my presence, so I subtly provoked them further as I ran to Belly.
