[IYFILWATIP] Chapter 31

"Stop talking nonsense. This job was originally assigned to Zelda Black, wasn’t it? She hasn’t returned yet, so why are you passing it on to me?" 

"I waited, but she didn’t come back. I even have to pay the penalty fee." 

"Don’t give me that crap. She couldn’t return, more likely." 

Jade corrected Beatrice’s words, picking up the paper with the job details and flipping it over. 

"A monster zone? In Nabimi Forest, no less? Who in their right mind would go there? There's a rumour that if they’re too lazy to execute someone in the capital, they send them there with a hunting party. Why is this Natalia or whoever she is in that place, and who is she anyway?" 

"You sure have a lot of questions. You should just go and come back. I know you're just as desperate for money as Zelda." 

"How could I not be curious about who she is? What if she’s some important figure and I end up on the gallows for touching her while you sit back and pocket the commission and then cut ties?" 

But in the next moment, with what Beatrice said, Jade had no choice but to pack his bags and head to this cursed place. In the East, no one could escape Beatrice's grasp. Those who tried to flee were captured, had their limbs cut off, and were sold to the gladiator arenas. 

Jade’s overly optimistic brothers believed they could escape that tragedy, and they ran away. Fortunately, though they lacked the kind of brotherly love that would make them take on the work of three mercenaries, they did have a youngest brother who didn’t want to see their limbs cut off. Beatrice used that fact as the leash to keep Jade in line. 

"Since your brothers ran away, you’ll have to work hard to pay off the debt. I’ll forgive all of this year’s interest. That should be enough to get you to go without asking more questions, right?" 

After hours of repeating the simple action of slashing through the man-eating plant vines and moving forward, all he could do was think. 

Brown hair, grey eyes, a capital accent. Name: Natalia. 

He had pretended to know nothing in front of Beatrice, but he wasn't an idiot. He could piece together the situation just by hearing the rumours. 

A year ago, a knight from the capital led a monster hunting party made up of prisoners. Most likely a noble who fell for the Emperor’s sweet talk. Whether lucky or just not completely stupid, this noble managed to survive for a year in the East with a band of misfits, but now that they’d entered Nabimi Forest, it was all over. 

No one had tried to stop her from coming this far, which meant her family probably wasn’t very powerful. It made no sense why someone would spend so much money to have her kidnapped. 

Then again, it wasn’t his concern. The client might believe that "killing her gently was an act of mercy," or maybe it was just another example of the strange whims of nobles, which everyone knew about. 

"Aaaargh!" 

A long, high-pitched scream interrupted Jade's thoughts. It came from across the swamp. 

Hiss, hiss... 

Then came the sound of air escaping. The high-pitched scream continued for several more minutes. Jade crawled under the tangled tree roots, submerging his upper body in the sticky water. 

A monster? When you're alone, even a minor monster is best avoided. Trying to kill it could spread the scent of blood and attract other monsters, leading to a situation where you end up like the person who just screamed, about to become the monster’s lunch. 

Rustle, rustle... 

"Ugh!" 

Something long and slimy slithered through the leaves. With one last cry, the area fell silent again. 

Jade held his breath, watching the other side. There was something huge moving among the bushes. When the sunlight gleamed off its red scales, Jade froze. 

He was a mercenary who specialized in hunting monsters. He had been to Nabimi Forest, where dangerous monsters were everywhere, seven times, and he had always come out alive. He could confidently say he was one of the people who had seen the most monsters in the Empire. Orcs, goblins, wyverns, gargoyles, ogres, trolls... 

But he swore, he had never encountered anything like this before. 

It was a giant serpent, with a body as thick as an old tree trunk and covered in scales as large as a human face. 

This was a basilisk, a monster of the highest level of danger. It could paralyse anyone who made eye contact with it, and its venomous breath could shatter rocks and choke the life out of any living creature. 

The serpent opened its jaws and swallowed something that appeared to be a person. The person had gone stiff, likely from making eye contact with the basilisk before dying. 

After swallowing a few more people lying in the brush, the serpent slithered through the leaves. When it realised there were no more meals on land, it changed direction. As soon as Jade heard the sound of the serpent dipping its head into the swamp, he knew.