Evade the Hero and Flee! 184 #21. The Stories of Others (3)>

#4 Their circumstance: A certain spy’s (a lonely gourmet) circumstance

Creak..

A wooden door welcomed me with a creak. I entered the space beyond it. A space filled with nothing but darkness.

But something like this was nothing to me. Compared to our instructor’s training hall, well, this space was nothing at all.

Sure, it was fairly dark inside, but a handful of candles lit here and there meant that even normal folks could move around mostly unhindered if they paid enough attention to their surroundings.

Honestly, the atmosphere in this place seemed even more alive than ever, thanks to the veil of darkness. Personally speaking, I preferred an atmosphere like this, too. Also, a quiet location was more conducive to focusing on my work than a noisy one.

More importantly, I was acting solo to carry out a secret mission, wasn’t I? I was busy wading the world hidden beneath the surface!

“Your business here?”

A man with at least three times my size asked me that while looking at me from so high up. It was almost unbelievable how someone so massive could walk so silently.

“It was a recommendation.”

“..Understood.”

Since ancient times, one must be very economical with what they say when doing serious work.

A person’s manner of speech was one of the tools that laid bare their true nature. Unnecessarily yapping away was basically the same as revealing your weaknesses.

Sure, you could scam people with words, like how our instructor always did but compared to him, I was embarrassingly bad at talking, so the wisest thing to do was keep my mouth shut.

“This isn’t so bad.”

A space cloaked in darkness with not too many people in it meant that we didn’t really need to be mindful of each other. A flashy location had its advantages, but a dark, seedy place like this had its own charms, too.

Instead of relying on one’s eyes, one should use their mind to see through such a place.

“Hnnng..”

First of all, I tried to smell the place.

There was an aroma of a certain oil seeping out of the wood. If you hate such things, then well, you’d be hating this place, too. Personally speaking, though, I liked it.

How should I describe it.. It has a calming effect on my mind?

This aged, soggy and oily smell was enough to let me know that this shop had been in operation for a long, long time.

What would be the reason for potential patrons to seek out such a dark place hidden in some remote corner of the world? And for who knows how long this shop was in operation for!

That’s because only those with ‘purpose’ came here.

“On top of that, the smell of blood, eh..”

A regular person would’ve never picked up on it but I was evaluated to be possessing olfactory senses that transcended humanity. As such, it was not that difficult for me to pick up the faint scent of blood lingering in the air.