Chapter 221: Sacrifice (5)
"Where are we?"
When the adventurers woke up, they found that they were in the carriage from before and they were currently on the road.
They looked up to find that I was sitting there in the driver’s seat.
Once they saw that I was the one that was driving and that the middle aged man was gone, they couldn’t help asking what happened.
With a sigh, I told them everything.
"That son of a b*tch."
"I knew that this mission was just too suspicious. There’s no way that this kind of easy money exists in this world."
"Yet you still took this mission."
The adventurers couldn’t help blaming themselves for falling for the tricks of the middle aged man. Though not a single one of them seemed to be aware that they had only fallen for this because of the subtle mind control that the middle aged man used on them.
If it wasn’t for that, then they certainly would have been able to notice how suspicious this was.
However, I didn’t say anything about this since it wasn’t bad for them to think this way.
I was just waiting for...
"Stark, thanks for saving us. If it wasn’t for you, then we really don’t know what would have happened to us."
"No, we know. We would have been sacrificed to that heretic god of theirs."
"Right...if that happened, my wife would never let me live it down."
"How could she even do that when you’re already dead?"
At least it seemed like they were still in the mood to joke around, but I could hear the sincerity that was in their voices which was good enough for me.
Just my word alone wouldn’t be convincing enough, so naturally I had to pull a few people in with me. Otherwise, it really would be hard to explain this to the Adventurer’s Guild in the end.
"It’s not a problem. It’s just that we should probably get our stories straight if we’re to report this matter back to the Adventurer’s Guild." I said while they were still joking around.
Hearing what I said, these adventurers revealed awkward looks before finally saying, "We actually don’t remember what happened since we were knocked out. We’ll just follow your lead and let you report everything."
I gave a simple nod in response to this before saying, "That’s fine too. Just leave things to me."
...
"They’ve confirmed what you’ve said and found the cave that the cultists were using, but there are still a few things that I have to ask you."
That was the first thing that Rein, the guild master, asked the moment that I stepped into the room.
I wasn’t surprised to hear this.
In fact, I could see that there was someone that was standing on the side watching over everything. From the way that they were dressed and the aura that they gave off, I could guess who they were.
They were an envoy that was sent from the headquarters to confirm this after the guild master reported this matter in.
It had been a week since we came back, so it could be said that they worked quite fast if they’ve already investigated everything.
But there was nothing that I had to hide...or at least there was nothing that I had to hide that they could discover.
As for the altar and some other things, there was no way that they would be able to prove that it was related to me.
With a nod, I sat down and waited for him to ask his questions.
Rein looked at the envoy who gave a nod before asking, "What happened to the demon that killed all of those cultists."
This first question was quite the direct one, but it seemed that they were also quite desperate if they were asking this right away.
After all, it didn’t seem like they believed me with the way that they were acting.
I understood where they were coming from.
If I wasn’t telling the truth, then that meant that there was a demon that was currently wandering around in this area which would be far more dangerous. Demons were far too dangerous for normal humans to handle after all.
So if there was a demon that had escaped...
But there was nothing that they could prove and there wouldn’t be a demon that would come out since the demon that had been summoned was me.
Since they didn’t believe me, the only thing that I could do was say, "As I’ve said before, the demon attacked the cultists when it was summoned and then it tried to attack us.
But before it could, it seemed like whatever power that had summoned the demon to this place had run out, which was why it suddenly disappeared from sight."
Seeing the way that they looked at me, I added, "You should have found the pieces of the altar after it shattered, right?"
The envoy slowly gave a nod to show that this was indeed the case.
Though in reality, the altar that had been left behind was nothing more than mana stone scraps that I left behind.
While it was costly to leave behind mana stone scraps like this, we could afford such an expense now that we had multiple businesses running.
For the sake of authenticity, this was for the best.
After all, we couldn’t let that altar fall into the hands of these people.
When they saw that I wouldn’t say anything else, it seemed like they had no choice but to back down. After all, it wasn’t as if they could force anything out of me that they didn’t believe wasn’t there.
With all of these facts presented to them, it was hard for them to believe anything else.
It was just that they had to be careful since this was a matter that involved the demons.
With a sigh, the envoy said, "It seems that this matter is settled. I’ll file a report with headquarters, but make sure to keep an eye out for anything."
This seemed to be directed more at me rather than at the guild master, but I acted like I didn’t hear anything.