Public order in Suriado Town was deteriorating by the day.
The reason was obvious: the Jack-of-all-trades was intentionally destabilizing the area to rake in a massive profit.
The office would supply goods and weapons to criminals who were forbidden from entering the town, allow them to do their "work," and then strike from the shadows to seize everything they had stolen.
It was a malicious "match-pump" scheme that actively exploited the rule stating that a bandit’s possessions belonged to whoever defeated them.
"Wait, isn't this normally the kind of thing you’d get arrested for as aiding and abetting a crime?" Alto asked, her voice trailing off with her usual quirk.
"Oh? We’re just victims ourselves. Our supplies were stolen while we were out on the road," Mahariku replied smoothly.
"I see! So we're just incredibly lucky to find piles of gold dropped on the path by total coincidence then!" Penpen added cheerfully.
"Hehe, exactly. I’m sorry, Penpen-chan. Every time we retrieve those swords you made, they just seem to get stolen again."
I couldn't help but feel that we were being roped into a serious criminal enterprise.
By the way, the item Penpen had crafted was called the Konjac-Slaying Sword.
On the surface, it looked like a high-end treasure sword adorned with jewels, but it was actually a piece of Scam Equipment with bottom-tier attack power that could only cut through konjac. It was intended as a practice weapon for swordsmanship; getting hit with a wooden club would actually be more painful. In reality, it was a tool designed to sabotage the bandits' combat effectiveness.
...However, it was more than sufficient as a tool for intimidation.
Furthermore, these Konjac-Slaying Swords were enchanted with Lost Item Notification Magic. Since they appeared as dots on the map like a GPS tracker, the location of every bandit hideout was laid bare for us to see.
"Well, I don't mind that, but you're also circulating swords that actually work, right?" Penpen asked.
"Yes. It would look far too suspicious if we didn't include some functional weapons," Mahariku admitted.
"We’re really doing the victims dirty, aren’t we?"
"I suppose so. I did feel a bit bad about it, so I've actually been returning half of our bandit-related profits to the victims through the guild."
So, the guild had already been bought off. I see how it was.
"At this rate, it won’t be long before this town becomes a den of mohawks and shoulder pads," Alto remarked.
"The kind of place where people throw banknotes into the air and shout, 'This isn't even worth using to wipe my ass!'" Mahariku laughed.
"Unfortunately, there isn't any paper currency in this world. ...By the way, Mahariku-san, where are you keeping all that money you've been hoarding?"
"Hm? My current balance is just displayed in my menu."
So she was personally stockpiling the currency instead of depositing it in a bank or keeping it in circulation. If the amount of available cash dropped too low, it would make doing business in the town extremely difficult.
"For some reason, the bandits never seem to run out, so I think we can keep this cycle going for a while longer," Mahariku said.
"That's because the public order is... yeah. I really do feel for the people of Suriado Town," Alto sighed.
"It would be a problem if the town got so dangerous that my favorite ramen shop went under, so I'll only keep this up for a little while longer. I mean it."
The Jack-of-all-trades really was an evil organization. It wouldn't have been at all surprising if someone issued a Slaying Request against us.
Actually, that reminded me.
"Mahariku-san. To be honest, a mission titled 'Save Suriado from Crisis' just appeared for us."
"...Does that mean we're the evil masterminds? Is the game telling you to slay us?"
"Given the circumstances, it's hard to imagine what else it could be. Unless, of course, there's a boss who actually rules over all these bandits."
A convenient existence like that wouldn't normally exist in reality.
In other words, our target was—
"Oh, I know where that guy is," Mahariku said. "Well, if it's a mission, then it can't be helped. Let's wrap up our profit-taking and work together."
Ah, that's right. This was a game.
What a relief. It looked like this wasn't going to be one of those scenarios where the party had to slay a Spirit who had fallen to the dark side.
"Mahariku-san, there's an incredibly high chance that slaying that guy is the key to unlocking The Second Character, don't you think?" Alto asked.
"You think so too? I was worried about our combat power, so I've been hesitant to make a move. My current units have fairly low individual damage output, after all."
"With your skills, Mahariku-san, surely you could take him down anyway?"
"...Only if I were willing to sacrifice someone."
It seemed she had honestly perceived the boss as high-level content to be tackled much later.
I understood the feeling. If you stayed in one town for a long time, the local threat started to feel like a final boss. If we hadn't traveled to other towns, we might have viewed the Great Turtle as our fated nemesis and postponed that fight even longer.
"I thought it was an opponent I had to defeat using only my own strength, but since you have a mission for it as well, there shouldn't be any problem with us cooperating... To be honest, if Miti-chan acts as the decoy, victory is basically guaranteed."
"Of course we'll help."
"That's a huge relief. I actually had a strategy that involved gunning down the enemy along with the decoy, but Miti-chan won't die from that, right?"
As long as her main body remained safe, even if her clones were destroyed, she would only lose a bit of physical mass. Her parameters would return to the main body without any issues.
Miti-chan really was the ultimate decoy.
I suppose slimes really were the strongest once they've leveled up.