Chapter 394: The Eavesdropping Operation Begins
“I don’t really get it, but that was scary…”
“Yeah… It felt like I caught a glimpse of something truly terrifying for the first time in a while.”
“What was that just now?”
As Rio and I reflected on the earlier incident, Ivan seemed completely lost, tilting his head in confusion.
“That was probably a classmate who was summoned along with us.”
“Huh? That was it?”
Ivan turned his gaze back towards where Neguro had vanished, his expression still puzzled.
“He was brandishing a knife like crazy, but he’s definitely not an ally.”
“No, all the classmates are more like enemies at this point.”
“O-Oh…”
I felt a flicker of irritation at being called an ally, but as I repeated the phrase “all enemies” in my mind, I realized it was true. While I had considered them classmates, they were indeed foes. I could have retaliated after he drew his knife instead of just letting him go.
“By the way, where did you send him?”
“Oh, right…”
At Rio’s prompting, I recalled the dimensional magic I had used earlier. The first place that came to mind was the Commercial City where the other classmates had appeared.
“Maybe he ended up in the Comets of the Commercial City.”
“Hmm, that’s quite far from here.”
“Yeah… But if I had known, I should have sent him to the western side of the Empire instead.”
When I set up the portals to the various Hinomaru branches, I had made it possible to travel to cities all over the continent. I regretted not sending him further away.
“Why not just go there now and toss him somewhere far off?”
“Ehh?”
Ivan’s casual suggestion prompted an immediate denial from me.
“…I don’t want to see him again, so let’s skip that.”
Even after reconsidering, I really didn’t want to lay eyes on that guy again.
“More importantly, let’s hurry and investigate the houses.”
“Right.”
Not wanting to dwell on that topic any longer, I decided to follow Rio’s lead. Thus, we resumed our original objective.
“Here it is.”
We arrived at a modest neighborhood that wasn’t quite a slum but had a somewhat rundown feel to it. The house we were looking for was located down a narrow alley where even carriages couldn’t pass.
There seemed to be a few residents in the surrounding houses. Since it was getting close to evening, many of them were likely preparing dinner.
“There aren’t many people out, but it doesn’t seem like there are many hiding spots either.”
“…Should we go up on the roof?”
“Eh?”
Ivan, who had voiced his dissatisfaction, was lifted by magic and soon found himself on the roof. The target house was two stories tall, so it wasn’t too high.
“There seem to be people inside.”
I quickly sensed the presence below and detected three individuals.
“Looks like we hit the jackpot.”
Rio and Ivan appeared pleased. They must have found waiting at the Guild for the target to show up rather dull.
One person was off to the side, probably busy preparing dinner. For now, I decided to open a small dimensional rift into the room where the other two were and listen in on their conversation.
“………………”
It seemed there wasn’t much of a conversation happening.
“…What should we do?”
We exchanged glances, the three of us.
“What now?”
We had come here with enthusiasm, but if they had been here for a while, their usual conversations were likely centered around local topics.
“Don’t you have some handy tool like usual?”
Ivan asked casually, and he was right; this was precisely when a tool would come in handy.
“The Insect TYPE only shows visuals.”
“Can’t you add a recording function?”
At Rio’s suggestion, I began to think about what I could do as a Dungeon Master. Sure, it seemed feasible to add a recording function, but it would cost around a hundred thousand DP.
“I just spent a lot of DP recently, so I think I’ll save a bit.”
Besides, there were probably plenty of those kinds of devices back in Japan.
“Should we buy a listening device over there?”
“That might work, but can we buy one normally?”
It seemed likely that online shopping would have them, but I wasn’t sure about the quality. A regular IC recorder might suffice. If the locals found it, they wouldn’t know what it was for anyway.
And then…
“The surveillance cameras we prepared before might work too.”
“That’s true.”
“Then let’s pull back for now.”
“Understood.”
Thus, we decided to retreat from the scene immediately.
Once we returned home, it was time to check the surveillance cameras. I pulled out the cameras we had used at the Satanis Garden base and examined them closely.
“They have a microphone jack.”
“Oh, you can connect a sound-collecting microphone, right?”
“Wouldn’t that stand out too much…?”
“Is that so?”
As I took out my smartphone, Rio seemed to start searching for something.
“There are smaller ones than I expected.”
When she showed me the screen, I could see that there were indeed some discreet options available.
“It looks like there are microphones specifically for eavesdropping.”
While discussing various eavesdropping methods in the living room with Rio, El entered the conversation, holding a laptop.
“Whoa, this is amazing!”
The screen displayed a variety of small eavesdropping microphones. If multiple microphones were set up as a single group, they could consolidate the audio collected by each into one recording.
“So, if we set them up around the house, we won’t have to check each microphone individually for sound.”
“Exactly. I’d like to use them for information gathering in various locations, so please go ahead.”
“Alright, I approve.”
“Thank you!”
After El’s presentation, I quickly placed the order. It would be delivered today to my apartment in Japan via express shipping. Since it would be placed in the delivery box, I wouldn’t even need to receive it directly, which was convenient.
“Then, once it arrives, let’s set it up as soon as tomorrow.”
“Understood.”
And so, the information-gathering capabilities of our Hinomaru continued to improve.