Chapter 59: Suspicious? Reward?
"Oy! That adventurer over there!"
"What are you doing!?"
"What just happened?"
At that moment, the sounds of a multitude of footsteps came from a distance, and Shien who was just dusting himself off turned around and looked towards the source of those sounds.
He saw that on the other side of the street, a group of fully armored knights were rushing over.
Around him, the frightened citizenry were still hiding in a distance, pointing to him while gossiping.
Seeing such a scene, and the knights coming toward him, Shien didn't particularly find it unexpected.
After all, with how big the commotion ended up getting, there's no way the knight orders guarding the town wouldn't come by to check on the situation.
Especially when that major anomaly happened just a little while ago. There's no way that they wouldn't be even more sensitive now.
Thus, Shien just watched the knights encircle the area.
Then, a muddled-aged man with an atmosphere unlike the other knights came out.
"I am the knight captain of Marquis Morrow territory's third knight brigade, seventh squad!"
The person first took a look at the crater in the middle of the street. His heart thumped in fright, and only then did he school up his features and turn his attention to Shien.
"What happened here?"
Hearing that, Shien opened his mouth without hesitation.
"Just now, a suspicious man suddenly latched onto me. He seemed to have bad intentions against me, so I subjugated him."
Shien actually spoke something like that with a completely straight face.
"Suspicious man?"
The knight captain was puzzled.
"Yes." Shien spoke with a serious face, "I as just passing by here, and that person suddenly grabbed a portrait and started forcibly interrogating me with a bunch of strange questions."
Those were all the truth, with an ounce of falseness.
At least, from those words alone, Shien was completely the victim here.
"Is that so?" The knight captain gave the crater a glance and, with a serious face, spoke, "But, the one to create such destruction here was you, right? Why haven't I hear of a high leveled adventurer like you before?"
It looks like, in the knight captain's mind, Shien seemed the one a bit more suspicious.
Unfortunately for him, Shien long since prepared his excuses.
"You misunderstood. Although I was indeed to cause the destruction here, that's actually because I used a magic item that a senior from my current party gave me for self defense. My level hasn't reached high enough for everyone to know of me yet."
Shien completely lied out of his ass with a serious expression.
No way around it. If he actually claimed that it was all his doing, then considering his currently public level and ability, it should have been impossible for him to beat up that poser who was clearly not someone normal to such an extent.
Never mind beating the other person, just with the size of the destruction alone, for him to claim that it was all his doing would definitely arose others' suspicions.
When that time comes, if someone mindful tried to investigate him, Shine believed that he wouldn't be able to hid his details anymore, and with that, trouble would be soon to follow.
If not for the fact that just now, he couldn't stand the other person's attitude of being able to crush him with an errant move and only held back due to the situation and consideration of the big picture, there's no way Shien would have cared to act so flashily.
But, in the end, Shien still acted.
It's still the same statement as before. Shien dislikes trouble, but he doesn't fear it. He wants to avoid trouble as much as possible, so he tries to act without being so eye-catching. However, he doesn't actually want to just tuck his head in and hide away.
Shien himself is quite tired of the old cliché of acting the pig to eat the tiger, so he just wants to avoid anything troublesome happening as much as possible and quietly and calmly spend his life. However, he doesn't want to actually be a pushover.
In the end, Shien really doesn't like those kind of protagonists who wouldn't fight back even when hit, who didn't argue back when insulted, and ignored it even when looked down at with an attitude as if others' jeers are all just their ignorance and he himself didn't want to stoop to their levels.
That's because, that's only an attitude someone who places themselves at a higher level and look down on others would have. In most situations like that, they'd seriously believe that to be the truth.
But for Shien?
He really is just a normal guy.
It's fine to want to live a quiet life, but the vast majority of people in the world are all people who wants to live a quiet life. However, does that mean that they aren't allowed to get pissed off when someone tries to start something with them?
There's no way.
Thus, since the other side had already stepped on his foot, Shien didn't want to follow the old cliché of letting the other side get away all satisfied just because they didn't act, and then only showing them up at a later date.
If you feel insulted, then just go get them. Do only other people have the right to act first, and he himself has to wait until he's attacked first before it counts as being correct?
There's no way that's true either.
Therefore, since the other person spat out vicious words with such killing intent just a second ago, and then dared to turn around without bothering with defenses as if letting him of, Shien felt that if he really didn't drop a kick on him right there and then, then he'd be the idiot here.
Of course, it's one thing to attack. One thing to let it all out, but Shien still didn't want to end up exposing his abnormalities due to this event.
Given all that, there's no other way now other than to lie his ass off.
With all the novels he's read in his last life, and all kinds of events that he's seen, well… A lot of readers have all imagined stuff like how they'd deal with this or that situation if it was them, right?
Thus, Shien didn't panic at all.
"If you don't believe me, you can check with the adventurer's guild. I'm a newcomer who just recently joined the guild, and the party I'm a part of right now is the adventuring party led by captain Vivian. You should know Vivian right?"
The knight captain seemed to have had a realization at Shien's words.
"So you're someone miss Vivian knows?" The knight captain's solemn expression changed and he spoke with some respect now, "I have been impolite."
As expected, if it was Vivian, there's no way the other person wouldn't know her.
No matter what, Vivian is a level 50+ high class adventurer. She's got quite the fame, and her childhood friend is a high noble that not even the noble in charge of this territory would dare to disrespect, as well as being the guildmaster of the adventurer's guild. There's no way that the knights of this town wouldn't know of Vivian.
Plus, Vivian was not only famed, her general style was made her quite trustworthy to other people.
Thus, this knight captain no longer suspected Shien so much.
Shien is of course not the kind of person who would return a smile with a slap, so he spoke very humbly, "No, I'm the one one who was rude here. No matter what, I'm quite shamed for having caused such destruction here, so I'll definitely make reimbursement."
"Understood." The knight captain only then completely relaxed his expressions.
At that moment, there was a commotion among the knights who went to the crater to investigate.
A knight rushed back in a panic and whispers some things in the knight captain's ears.
"What!?"
The knight captain's face suddenly underwent an enormous shift and immediately charged forward to investigate the man who had been dug out of the crater.
From his person, the knight have also found the portrait that Shien just mentioned a moment ago.
(They won't suspect me now, right?)
Since the evidence was found, Shien also relaxed some.
However, the knights panic made Shien notice that this matter might not have been quite so simple.
Especially from that knight captain, who showed an extraordinarily ugly expression when looking at that portrait.
Following that, the knight captain returned to Shien.
"We've already confirmed it, that was indeed a suspicious character. If there was nothing unexpected, he's probably a terrible criminal wanted by the kingdom." The knight captain lowered his head to Shien in a bow and spoke, "Thank you for your aid this time. When we have completely confirmed that person's identity, the lord will quite likely give you a reward, so please don't leave Lamdrion for the time being."
After that, the knight captain gave the order and had the rest of the knights restrain the still fainted man and leave even faster than the speed they used when they arrived.
The gossip all around became even louder.
Shien also watched as the knights left. Then he thought of the person on the portrait, and the smile on his face faded as he fell silent.