"Hey... what's going on Cora..."
When we came back to the blacksmith after another hunt that day, most of the weapons and protective equipment in the store disappeared somewhere.
The sword decorated in the store, the spear, the axe, the shield, the wand, the armor, the robe, were gone and gone.
Later there were only some signs of vandalism in the store and some low-grade equipment that remained in place in relation to carrying or something.
To see this situation, I just think I got into an empty nest.
We saw the tragedy and tightened our teeth tight.
"Shit! Who the hell did this to you!
"Bang......"
Van gets angry when he sees how the store is doing.
Honestly, I feel like I want to be mad at you like a van.
How can Mary's store be seen like this?
She was just hanging out with our leveling.
"Bang, calm down for a second"
"! Merry! I don't think Omei is hungry for this!
"Of course I'm angry... but I have to clean up the store now"
…………
When Mary quenched the van, the showcase broke and she began collecting scattered pieces of glass with a pair of chillies that had been placed in the corner of the room.
When we saw it, we started moving our hands, and we were going to clean up the shop.
On Earth, it would be better to leave it as a field verification for the arrest of the killer, but if it were Earth, advanced scientific investigations, etc. would not be very desirable.
Although various knowledge on the planet's side may have been imported into Earth, even ground time has not made that much progress in a period of just a few years.
I don't know that much about this neighborhood because it involves rights or intellectual property rights.
... Well I don't care about that.
Mary, the owner, decided to clean up the store until we followed that policy.
"Phew... you're a little cleaned up"
And roughly an hour after we started cleaning up.
Though there were fewer items in the store, they returned to their original condition.
"It was the highest-ranked gear around here..."
The van shrugged so as he looked at the store, which had refreshed him in a bad way.
Indeed, the equipment Mary's made was the most performing in this city.
Merry just kept his style of not selling gear to players, so he hasn't gotten that far.
Not even a van that's supposed to be Mary's boyfriend is wearing her gear.
From that, I can tell she's not accommodating gear to players other than me and Phil.
In addition, Mary is currently the only blacksmith for the players in this city?
So there's a lot of trouble by the players surrounding Mary, and that's why she made the decision not to sell the equipment to the players.
Well, I guess there's no choice in this.
Demand and supply didn't match, and there should have been a few idiots among the players who would say, "Make the gear for me a priority over the rest of them," "Don't sell the gear to those guys," and "Make it cheaper.
And the more generous Mary is on the production side, the more those guys grow and push the challenge on her.
Even in MMO games, such examples exist with Goman, and it is not uncommon for production players to retire because they are thus disgusted by the relationships in the game.
This trend becomes worse the rarer the production jobs are.
I don't know what happened to Mary in the past.
but I can imagine that maybe this happened, and perhaps this imagination fits in roughly.
I thought about it and sighed "ha".
I thought maybe that was involved in this case, because I felt depressed.
"... what are you going to do now? Merry."
The van lowered the tone of his voice and asked Mary.
"I don't know..."
The response to that is dull on Merry.
I haven't put it on my face, but she still seems shocked by this event, too.
"It was originally a store with few customers. You know, it could be an ant to make it handy here."
"... right"
Hands-on.
Does that mean folding the store?
I don't even know what Mary thought of opening this store, but even if this happened and most of the items were stolen, I can also nod that judgment.
For once, this is a blacksmith, not an arms store or a protective equipment store, so I guess I can continue the store without any problems as long as I have a blacksmith arm.
But the total damage caused by this case will be considerable, and the cost of maintaining the store should not be foolish.
The store was not well run either.
That's why Mary decided to fold up the store.
"... but it can't be like this."
"Mr. Singh......?
but you can't just shut up and overlook Mary being depressed.
She's our benefactor, and one of the reasons she got into the empty nest in the first place was because she hung out with our leveling and left the store open.
So I turn to the exit of the store and open my mouth quietly.
"I'm gonna go find the killer. 'Cause I'm gonna find you."
I will never forgive whoever vandalized Merry's shop.
And when I find the killer, I'll take back all the gear that was left in the store.
That's what I swore in my heart, and I left the store with Phil following me.
"The clue is Nashi...?"
A few hours after I started looking for the killer, I came back to the inn when it was already getting late at night and so on, and I was sighing with Phil face-to-face.
Until we got back to the inn, we interviewed the residents of the city who were around Mary's shop because the results were unpleasant.
Zero harvest.
Without any information that there was a suspicious person in Merry's shop, he had not been witnessed carrying a pile of equipment that would have been quite a load of baggage.
It's still about a few hours of investigation, but I don't feel like I got up on the reef early.
I also clearly see why people don't come to Mary's store.
I heard from the city's residents that the blacksmith 'Authentic' blacksmith seemed to have gone out wide shortly after rumors opened the store that he had difficulties with his arms.
Mary is the only blacksmith in Mary's shop, even if she says she has difficulty with her arms, so the rumor is totally demeaning.
We also had a slight suspicion of Merry's arm when we heard about Merry's shop, but now we don't think that way at all.
Besides, it's a mystery why such bad rumors spread so widely in the time it took to open the store.
... Well, isn't this something to think about now?
What we need to think about here is a clue that we don't have anything on the killer who went into the empty nest.
"Perhaps the killer... Earthlings, players."
"I knew that was most likely."
Lack of clues can be a clue the other way around.
The fact that residents who were near Mary's store did not see the person who carried a large quantity of luggage means that it is likely that the equipment was carried in an item box or something where someone could not see it - for example.
And the item box is a convenient magic that we Earthlings Players can use.
Apparently, even the Earthmen can use it for once, but that seems to be a very small number.
So if you used an item box to carry your gear, the killer would be a grounder.
"But I'd like to identify the Earthlings..."
There are dozens of other Earthlings staying in this city in addition to us and Mary.
It's a little hard for us to check out today's alibi one by one for lice.
"... no, wait"
But that's where I come up with the possibility.
Even so, if you think about it a little bit, it seems like anyone would understand it.
"I hear there's more than one killer."
"Really...?
"'Cause otherwise you wouldn't be able to carry a ton of gear in Mary's shop at once, would you?
"Ah..."
That's right.
The item box we have doesn't mean we can put as much stuff in it as we want, but there's a capacity limit.
In addition, the number of items brought out of Merry's store is enormous.
To the extent that it can be said that an item box that can be used by one Earthlings cannot be carried up.
"Then we can narrow down the killer somewhat..."
The fact that there are multiple killers makes it easier to do it on a party-by-party or raid basis, rather than on a people-by-person basis.
"Do you want to talk to Mary about the van tomorrow?"
"Yeah."
We didn't have any physical evidence, and we raised the statue of the killer in a way that overlapped the speculation.
I was also anxious to be able to identify the killer by fulfilling it at this rate, but later on I couldn't help but think that this speculation was along other lines than my thoughts.
"Is it true that the store was vandalized by someone?
"... oops, sort of"
The next evening, when me and Phil, Mary, and four of the vans were waiting inside the blacksmith, I met up with the [Fenrill] eagles who had heard what was going on from the van.
"You're definitely selling less... so what's Mary going to do now?
…………
Ougi asks Mary.
But Mary answers nothing.
"? What's wrong, Mary? Something for me..."
"Hey Oogie. Where were Omei and the others doing yesterday?
As Oogie tried to speak to Mary again, the van called in an interruption along the way.
Van's tone is slightly harsh, and he sounds like he's questioning Oogie.
"Wherever we are, we hunt as usual."
"Don't be silly. You're the killers of the empty nest, aren't you?
…………
The look on Oogie's face when she heard my query hardened.
And this is where the rebellion against [Fenrill] by me began.