The two people sitting next to my seat looked at me with widened eyes. My sudden proposition coupled with the fact that we were in a hotbed for crime was probably shocking for everyone. If someone said that to me, I would probably think about breaking their face.

  Huh… was this not a good idea?

  “Help us? With the money? Uh… it’s alright, we’ll just work our way—“

  “Wait, Jonathan. We know he’s an adventurer from that time…”

  “He can be an adventurer and a criminal.”

  These two sure talked a lot among themselves.

  “So…” The glasses man turned my way. He seemed to be asking how I planned to help him.

  “Wait,” I said as I pulled out a diary from my pockets. Tanien sighed at the sight while I started writing down on it.

  This was an odd situation. I had to put in my reasoning to make sure things seem proper when I look back, and also to decide if these were the right actions. I even added a stickman sketch of the coffee shop. Now we were good.

  “Alright.” I closed the book and turned to the two knights. “So, you dropped your wallets?”

  The two of them nodded. They were a little suspicious, almost like cats. I looked at their tables… they already ate a bunch of food!? Didn’t these guys come here after I tossed coffee on that bastard? How fast do they eat, no, how fast does this place cook?

  Noticing the lack of money after eating couldn’t be considered good even in a den of crime. The solution was rather simple though.

  I sipped on my coffee, the other three kept looking at me.

  “Y-you don’t need to pay for us,” said the girl. Her purple hair tied in a ponytail swayed as she shook her head.

  “I won’t.” It’s better to teach people to fish than to hand out fish, right? After finishing the coffee, I looked toward the counter and ordered a bunch of more food. Something for all four of us.

  The others watched in confusion, but I ignored them and bit down on the Cheesy Crab Bread.

  Plates piled up slowly. Not too many, but definitely quite a few for people who had no money. After I felt full, I wiped my face with a napkin and looked at the counter again. Still busy.

  Perfect.

  “Alright, let’s go.”

  “Huh…?”

  “You’re paying for us? Adventurer, you don’t have to really. We’ll just clean the dishes—“

  I smirked and gestured at them to stand up. Tanien quickly figured out what I was planning and grabbed our bags. Noticing us standing up, the staff finally looked our way. For good measure, I left a small silver on the table as well. A tip.

  As for the payment…

  “Let’s go.”

  “Where to?” the girl asked.

  “Out, of course. We’re gonna dine and dash.”

  “Huh?”

  “I knew it…”

  “Sir, you were made for this place.”

  The staff seemed to have heard. They quickly pulled some levers from the back and steel bars whirred at the entrance of the cafe. I quickly jumped out and slid under the bars.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Hurry!”

  The other three couldn’t help but follow. Tanien was the quickest as he tossed the bags and slid out too. Next, the girl followed, and lastly, the glasses guy kept looking at the door and one of the waitstaff in the restaurant. He had a depraved look.

  “This guy!” The girl knight screamed and banged at the steel doors. “Jonathan!!”

  I didn’t plan to wait. The staff was already approaching him and the doors were almost closed. Trees and vines stemmed out from the ground and blocked the steel doors, the rest wrapped around the waiters. One of them stretched out of the ground all the way to the height of the glasses knight and slapped him across the face with its branches.

  “Ack! Fine fine, I guess I’ll never get to experience being caught by a scary thief girl who I owe a debt to!”

  I turned to the girl. “Hey, can we leave your friend behind?”

  “I am tempted to say yes…”

  Before I could leave him behind though, the glasses knight—Jonathan as she had called him—slipped out from under the steel bars right on time as the vines broke apart.

  I looked at the staff inside. They didn’t seem to be in a rush… Even that bastard Tanien was smirking as if he was watching a drama.

  Footsteps echoed from across the street. At the turn behind the cafe, dozens of people in skull masks carrying steel rods stepped out, glaring straight at us. Steel was underestimating us a bit, we had proper knights here.

  Or so I thought until the people held the steel rods in between their palms and flattened them with their hands.

  “Uh…”

  “Hahaha! What now, sir?”

  “Hey, Jonathan wasn’t it?” I said. “I heard you, why not get captured now? They’ll treat you well. Maybe one of them is a girl.”

  Jonathan chuckled and adjusted his spectacles. “I actually prefer being the dom.”

  “Fair enough.”

  I turned around and grabbed one of our supply bags from Tanien. My own bag, with my ax and divine window, was with me.

  “Alright, let’s run.”

  No way I am fighting dozens of people who flatten steel with their hands in a place where anyone can stab me. Absolutely no fucking way.

  ***

  Behind an alley closer to the center of the star dune, the four of us hid behind a giant cardboard box. The girl knight, Riziel as she told us her name, peeked out and sighed.

  “I think they are gone…”

  “We have been running for almost an hour…” Jonathan added.

  I took a swig of water from my canteen and tossed it back in my bag before stepping out of our hiding spot. People were filled like cockroaches in the narrowest of streets, I was slowly getting used to the smell of the streets.

  After the four of us found ourselves in a safer spot, we gathered around a bench under a wide tree.

  “That was crazy…” Riziel sighed.

  “I can tell from the glimpse of that one lady I saw while we were running here... The person who stole my wallet is definitely going to slip from a banana peel and die.”

  What? What could he tell from what?

  Well, I knew they were going to be crazy from the beginning. Who would look for their wallet after eating? With a sigh, I smiled and stepped up to the two.

  “It was a strange way to help, but at least we weren’t caught.”

  Riziel smiled, she seemed clearly conflicted about dashing after eating. “Thank you, we would have been in trouble without you.”

  “Don’t mind it…” I crossed my arms. “Well then, what are the two of you doing here in this garbage dump?”

  The two of them exchanged a look, nodded, and then turned to me.

  “We are looking for a person.”

  “We are looking for a BDSM bar—AW!”

  Jonathan was slapped.

  Tanien and I pretended nothing was weird as we looked at Riziel.

  “There was a third comrade aside from the two of us and he went missing six months ago in Blue back in the Zirkonia Empire. Jonathan and I think he might be here…” She then glanced at Tanien and me. “What about you two?”

  Ah. Blue. I was wondering why they kept calling me an adventurer but that became clear now. They might have seen me back there, probably in the dungeon. I was sure no one had become suspicious of me at that place. At least no one alive.

  “We… are old friends,” I said. Tanien flinched but I quickly stepped on his toe. “His grandmother is sick from a disease that no priest or healer can figure out. Tanien set off from our hometown to find me in hopes of helping his grandmother.”

  “And that brought you to the garbage dump?”

  I nodded and leaned closer. The other three closed in as well. In a whisper, I continued. “We have heard that there’s a guild in the garbage dump. An information guild that knows everything about everything. Rumor has it they even know about all the summoned heroes and the events happening in the demonic lands.”

  Tanien raised his brow at me and nodded when the other two looked at him.

  “How about this,” I suggested. “I think they might know about your friend too. Why don’t we look for this guild together?”

  “This information guild, do they really know everything?” asked Riziel. The annoying Jonathan nodded at her words.

  “I have heard rumors of such a thing too. But since we plan to search this place anyway, it won’t hurt to look for this information guild as well. Who knows, they might really exist and tell us something. And…” Jonathan smiled at me. “You did help us. We can’t trust anyone in this place, but we can at least put some of our faith in an outsider like ourselves.”

  Like that, the small favor had turned into a partnership.

  ***