"RETREAT!!" - Bloom

"Good plan!" - Mira

I didn't speak up, but I was with the two in my heart as we fled from the undead army. Army as in not just "a lot of weakling undead", but an army as in "a bunch of strong undead led by a leader that gives commands and proper strategies". Where did that guy come from!? That blasted, no-good, rotten-!!

---

Later, at the Union Hall:

"A Skeleton Commander!? Yes, we will put up a warning ASAP. Thank you for your cooperation." - Receptionist

Wow...they didn't even ask questions...

After we returned, Mira got a hold of the nearest receptionist and told her the story. After a while, we could hear an overworked groan from the second floor. Rest in peace, Union Master...

"Garami, do you mind if I tell you to have a talent for being an adventurer?" - Mira

"What's that supposed to mean?" - Garami

"You always find a way to end up in trouble to sell to the Union~." - Mira

"That doesn't make me happy at all!" - Garami

"In that case, want to make a bet? If nothing crazy happens on the next quest, then I'll give you one silver." - Mira

"100 Sol? Fine by me, but I'm the one choosing the quest." - Garami

"That's part of my point~. If it's in Garami's hands, the quest is guaranteed to get us into trouble~." - Mira

"Don't speak so fondly of that possibility." - Garami

But it irks me that I can't outright deny her...

As for the quest, there's no need to hunt any more monsters. Before the Commander arrived, I had absorbed enough corpses (is that the right thing to call the dead undead?) to obtain enough Necro Counters to unlock the next Skeleton blueprint. Even if it's a plain old F-rank Skeleton. It's better to stick to the basics at the beginning. That's true when it comes to anything.

Now, which one of these guys seems less likely to make me lose those 100 Sols... Wow. There's lots of restoration work for the docks and ships posted here. Is the Union doubling as a part-time job center or something? Not that I have any experience with building boats, so let's skip over them.

Hmm? Here's a quest posted by Gust. Speaking of, I've yet to meet him. Wonder what he's doing. I don't know anything about any "tribal ritual spears" anyway, so this is a no-go. I should look for him at a later date though.

...Geh! This one is posted by that Blot guy! This reeks of trouble. And I have no idea who this "dealer" person is either, so we wouldn't be of any use for this quest. Hard pass.

......There aren't many quests without any possible pitfalls, are there? Yikes, did Mira set me up? ...HOLD ON! I found it!

"We'll take this!" - Garami

"...Finding a lost cat? Seriously?" - Mira

"That's all they had!" - Garami

I'm not gonna choose some wacky quest! Not a single Sol is gonna be lost from my wallet because of such a stupid reason!

---

The next day, early in the morning:

"That didn't take long." - Mira

"And with no problems at all~." - Garami

"An exclusion isn't done until you've returned home." - Mira

Wishwash. This time, I'm not taking any chances!

But we were lucky to find the cat so fast. The black cat with white paws, the missing "Milo", is sitting comfortably in the cat cage we'd acquired to keep the guy from running away again.

"It makes you wonder why there was a quest to find this little guy when he was so easy to find." - Mira

"The problem must have been that there were too many cats alongside him at the docks, begging/praying/demanding/threatening the fishermen for their catch." - Garami

"The last bunch were the scariest of them all..." - Mira

So true. Glad Milo here's more relaxed than those guys.

"Okay, this is the place." - Garami

I said as we were nearing our destination. A restaurant with the name "Your Million". Weird name, but the food's prolly alright. ...Or not. I'm hearing a commotion inside. Rather, the store's not open for business yet. That's one impatient complainer!

The door was open, so Mira and I sneaked a peek into the store. There, someone wearing a chef's outfit was getting shouted at by a trio of obviously thuggish-looking thugs. I've never seen such fine specimens of the Thuggis Thuggus Thug species~.

"Pay up already, old-timer!" - Thuggish

"The time limit is way overtime!" - Thuggus

"YA-HAAA! HAND OVER THE GOODS!!" - Thug

Never mind. They're not fine. Even if they're "bad" fine, it's still an insult to use the word "fine" when describing these guys!

"Alright, what's the big idea?" - Mira

And our resident sub-species of the Thuggus Knightus Beauticus is making her entrance. Hey, don't go in with your sword drawn! And don't use [Lightforce Edge] to make the thing sharper and flashier! You're no different from those guys then!

"Hah? Who're you..." - Thuggish

The three meatheads turned around and glared at Mira...for three seconds before their face went pale. Then they almost wordlessly fled out of an open window. The third thug, the guy with the mohawk, was the only one shouting "YA-FLEEEEEE!!" while exiting the stage.

"That was easier than I thought." - Mira

"Their low INT stats must have worked in overtime right there," I told her as I entered the store.

"Ehm, excuse me, but who are you two?" - Chef-looking guy

"People looking for this one's owner," I replied and held up the cat cage to let the guy see the prisoner inside.

"M-M-M-MILO!!" - Chef-looking guy

Hmm, that was easy.

"Then I'll take a wild guess and say you're his owner, correct?" - Mira

"Y-yes, that is me. I am Marcus Pollen, the owner of sweet Milo here, and this establishment. Here is my card." - Marcus Pollen

The stammering old guy hurriedly gave us his card. ...hmm? Oh, it's a business card. From the "Merchant's Union". I've heard about that one. They're something of a common hub for different Unions to keep in contact with each other and request services from one another.

"Alright, this is the real deal. You can let the cat out now, Garami." - Mira

After inspecting the card, Mira gave the okay sign to release the prisoner with the whiskers. "Milo" jumped out of the cage before calmly walking over to a pillow located near the desk with the cash counter. Then he made himself comfortable before falling asleep.

This confirms it. The cat's too comfortable with this place for it to be anything but his home, sweet home.

"In that case, just write down here to confirm we have brought your little Milo back home, then we'll be on our-" - Mira

"P-please wait! There is something else I need help..., no, consultation with!" - Marcus Pollen

"...*grin*. Of course~. Anything for our quest giver~." - Mira

Uh-oh. I'm smelling trouble.

Mira started to hear the chef out. He said that those thugs had been regularly coming to his shop and demanding money for their "services". Money wasn't a problem for the chef, as it turns out his shop makes quite the buck. The problem was the "services".

Those thugs demanded money for utterly ridiculous stuff such as "fresh spring water", "guard money", and "anti-pest-controller control"! And regarding that last one, ain't it just you guys taking care of the pest controllers?! Rather, those thugs are the true pests in this neighborhood!

The chef wanted to complain to the authorities, but the first times they "visited", the thugs were accompanied by the city guards, who said that the thugs were "operating within legal borders". That event caused the chef to lose all his trust in the guards and asked the Merchant Union for protection. The demands from the guards toned down after that, and recently, outright stopped.

The thugs were a different story though. They've never learned their lesson and kept on troubling the chef and his store. Most of the time, they tried to do so when there were adventurers nearby, so they got their butts kicked all the time. Today, however, they showed a rare flash of intelligence and attacked before the store opened. That's when we arrived.

"So you want us to stop those guys from harassing you?" - Mira

"I-in simple terms, yes." - Marcus Pollen

"...just asking, but did the guards from the first visits demand something else than money?" - Mira

Something other than money?

"...no, not directly. They did say something along the line of "if you can't pay, we will have to settle for something else as an assurance", I think it was. Now that I think about it, I told them off by saying I had the money, but I refused to pay for something that ridiculous..." - Marcus Pollen

"Wow. You got guts." - Garami

"Th-thank you." - Marcus Pollen

"Here's a wild guess, but did the guards' faces turn pale after you mentioned that?" - Mira

"...now that you mention it, yes, they did. The hooligans then demanded that I would pay them, or else I would be dragged to prison. But the other guards started to make excuses and dragged the hooligans out of my store. It is pretty strange, now that I have the time to think about it." - Marcus Pollen

"Did this happen to other people?" - Garami

"Oh, yes. Not in that big of a number, but many of my less wealthy colleagues had to turn in their lucky charms as a deposit." - Marcus Pollen

"Stop right there. What did they turn in?" - Mira

"Their lucky charms. Almost every shop in the Merchant Union has something that would give them good luck. Or just to give their store a personal touch." - Marcus Pollen

"And do you have anything like that?" - Mira

"Nothing! ...or, wait. There is Milo..." - Marcus Pollen

The chef paused for a sec before turning his attention to the cat, who was rolling around on his pillow in his sleep. He must be dreaming about fish, seeing how he's licking his hairy lips.

"What about him?" - Mira

"ALLOW ME!" shouted Bloom as she suddenly popped out from my pocket, scaring the chef half to death.

FYI, we made the backstory of "Bloom always takes a nap in my pocket when not around" so we have an excuse for where she is when she's not "activated".

"Milo over there is a prime exemplar of the "Maneko" demon cat race, a species well-known to grant good luck to their owner. They rely on luck for practically anything! And it works!" - Bloom

"WHAT!? That's so unfair!!" - Mira

You wouldn't win at the casino even if you traded LUC stats with him. That's my hunch. I Identified the cat to satisfy my curiosity...holy. He's got 300 in LUC! That's the cap for the stat! Even I, who's considered "lucky" by normal people, only have 150, and that's the highest reasonable value for normal people.

"Completely unfair..." - Garami

"W-wait now! Are you trying to say that those guards wanted my Milo!? Is that why he disappeared!?" - Marcus Pollen

...now I remember. We've met that cat before.

(Hey, at the casino...) - Garami

(Oh, good point. That must have been him.) - Mira

Mira and I had a silent conference with each other, and it seems we're on the same page. Milo must have been kidnapped from the chef by the false guards working for the casino, and they were prolly also the guards who accompanied the thugs during their first visits to this store.

The (fake) guards have stopped appearing as a result of the Union's attack on the casino's underground area. Meanwhile, the thugs are still acting on their own. Rather, it feels like they were not clued in on the (fake) guards' plans about obtaining Milo, a living lucky charm, for their stupid "good luck sacrificial ritual".

As for the thugs, they must have been some random criminals the casino organization dragged into their schemes, so they prolly don't know anything about the ritual. Most likely, the people that attacked me the first night I was in the city, were in the same situation...

Hold on. Wasn't those guys back then killed by glowing throwing weapons? Then maybe the people who fled from the store did so not after they saw Mira, but after they witnessed her sword covered in the effects of [Lightforce Edge]?

If that's true, then my theory about the (fake) guards wanting Milo makes sense. And after the chef refused them, they decided just to take Milo when he was out on a trip. LUC: 300 must have been too tempting for them to resist not getting their claws on him.

...maybe it was Milo's luck that allowed us to infiltrate the casino that easily, not our abilities? Though, luck alone isn't always enough. Or else Milo wouldn't be captured in the first place. He was just..."lucky" that we were at the right place at the right time.

"There's no need to worry about that anymore. The group who wanted to 'catnap' your precious Milo is already taken care of." - Mira

"I-is that true?!" - Marcus Pollen

"It should be. We will tell the Union about your problem. The Union Master is a good friend of the city guard's chief, so they'll see to it that those rogues are caught by the end of the week." - Mira

"Thank you! Thank you so much! It's not much, but how about some breakfast? On the house, of course." - Marcus Pollen

"That's sweet of you~. Also, Garami." - Mira

Mira held out her hand with a smirk on her face... I wordlessly dropped a silver Sol coin in her open hand before starting to look through the menu the chef brought to us. Milo? Could I borrow some of that luck of yours? Just 1 LUC point? Please? ...*Sigh*...