“Thank you for catching them again! It’s a good thing you stuck around after turning them in; I’m not sure what we’d do without your help. Here, accept this as a token of my gratitude. You’re not allowed to refuse.”

I knew it would work! I turned the bandits in for the good karma. Then I ordered Treasure Finder’s friend to set them free from the jail right before they were about to be executed. I guess having him as a disciple might be handy if I can order him around like that, but I can already order him around without having to give him stuff, so … if he wants to be my disciple, he’ll have to do a lot more! Even after rejecting him over three times, he still hasn’t given up. I’m not sure why. Am I that attractive as a master? Mm, of course I would be because I’m awesome.

Anyways, what’s inside this pouch the city lord gave me? There’s … a bunch of spirit stones. There’s not too many of them. Well, it never hurts to have more! Doing good deeds is great. It’d be even better if this city lord tried to steal from me; then I could rob him without feeling any guilt. He seems like a nice person though, so I don’t think he’ll try anything funny. Oh wells. “Softie, what’s next on our list of good deeds to accomplish?”

“It seems like Sister Ilya took all the requests in the Karma Association….” Softie stared at her messenger and frowned. “There’s close to a thousand that you can do. However, the closest one is hunting an Iron Claw Tiger that’s been eating village children at night.”

“Mm? If they’re in a village, how are they making requests to the Karma Association?” Even I didn’t know about this association until now, yet these villagers do? That doesn’t make any sense! Not that I’m looking down on villagers or anything, but I know how it feels to be a weak villager bullied by people in the army. I definitely didn’t know about an organization that could help me out of nowhere—and for free!

“That’s … a good point,” Softie said. “How do they make contact with the Karma Association? Why didn’t think of that before you did…?” Softie gave me a strange look. I’m very good at telling how people feel by looking at their faces, but even I couldn’t tell what Softie was thinking. It seemed to be a mixture of happiness, sadness, confusion, enlightenment, and fear all in one. Did I say something weird?

“Ahem.” The city lord coughed. “Before you head out, there’s actually another request I’d like to make to you.”

Mm? Another one? I’m always looking to do a good deed as long as I get paid well enough!

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“You see, during the time we imprisoned these bandits, we discovered what they were really here for. It turns out a quasi-immortal expert died around these parts over three thousand years ago. They were looking for traces of his tomb to uncover his treasures that he might have left behind.” The city lord lowered his head. “Would you be willing to accompany an expedition to the tomb? We’ll pay—”

“No! Absolutely not!” I’m sick of tombs. Sick of them! Tomb this, tomb that, tomb your face! Nothing good ever comes out of tombs, just ask Treasure Finder’s bald friend. Look at how poor and miserable he is after going to three different tombs, and he didn’t even enter the third one! Or did he? I don’t remember…, probably because his participation wasn’t important. Oh? I got it! “I won’t go, but you can have these two.” The barkeep and Treasure Finder’s bald friend. They’re both supposed to be good at solving tombs! They’ll get to have fun exploring a three-thousand-year-old dungeon, and I’ll have fun being paid for their work—sounds like a great deal to me! Ah, should I let Softie go with the barkeep? There doesn’t seem to be much progress between the two of them despite my best efforts to get them together. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be?

The city lord was staring at me. Mm? Did he say something while I was thinking? That shouldn’t be the case; I’m still on my bone of focus that I made and absorbed from the Death God’s Tomb. There’s no way I’d get distracted so easily. Nope, nuh-uh. “Alright, it’s settled. You’ll take these two with you to desecrate some graves.”

“…It’s settled then,” the city lord said and nodded.

Mm, now that the boring stuff’s over and done with, I can finally relax! I worked super hard telling people what to do. Eh? Telling people what to do is easier than doing things myself? Nonsense! If that were the case, I wouldn’t have made Ilya do all the boring stuff of being a sect leader, which involves telling people what to do. In fact, isn’t the whole job of the sect leader to tell people what to do? I think it is. Mm, sect leader’s always look older than the rest of the sect, and that’s most likely because it’s a stressful job that causes them to age faster! Ah, I should handle things personally once in a while instead of making Mrs. Feathers do it all the time. Right, there was another request, some kind of clawed cat with iron or whatnot. I’ll go deal with that!

Hmm? Where did everyone go? Only Softie’s here. Oh, and Mrs. Feathers, but she’s sleeping right now. Do phoenixes need to sleep? Apparently, they do. She’s mumbling in her sleep too; I wonder what she’s saying. I’ll crouch down and listen in…. “I’m not tasty…. Boss…, don’t eat me….”

…Sounds like she’s having a pleasant dream. Anyways…. “Softie, why are we alone?”

“You seemed distracted, and the city lord was looking to be dismissed, so I sent him away,” Softie said. “The alcoholic and the man who wants to be your disciple left with him to discuss the quasi-immortal’s tomb. Since that’s the case, shall we head to the villages being terrorized by the Iron Claw Tiger? The longer we wait, the more victims there’ll be.”

It seems like Softie’s in a hurry to leave…. Why? Eh, it doesn’t really matter. Maybe she’s hungry or something.