"....Huh?" I looked around to find no one near us, "What was with that dramatic dash at the end?"

"Sorry, I wanted to prank the readers a bit." He stuck his tongue out, "So, did I manage to fool anybody? Ehe, you thought someone found us at the end of the previous chapter, when in reality...!"

"I don't care about your delirious gags! Dammit Grim, I'm gonna whack your head with these shovels for that."

"Wait, plural!?" He jumped back into a semi-defensive stance, "No wait, even one would be too much! Did you forget I'm still recovering from that musclehead's fist of justice!?"

Well, as one would expect, we simply packed our stuff and ran back to the campus safely without running into any crazed killers. This isn't a book, after all - Such inconvenient timing just doesn't happen in real life, you know. Either way, it only clicked for us when we stopped by a convenience store near the police station that two guys with shovels and a backpack filled with cash would have been pretty suspicious for the officers, so we had to take a detour in order to figure out how to spend it. Damn, I told that idiot we should have spent it all the moment we left!

"Can't we just bury it, backpack and all?" Grim suggested.

"No, local authorities might find it and trace it back to Meil." I shot him down.

"So what?" He rolled his Eyes before continuing to think up solid ideas, "Then, spend it all on the casino again?"

"There aren't any casinos on campus grounds, I've checked."

"Buy a ton of stuff from stores?"

"We'd cause a mass shortage in items with such sudden expenditure. Besides, it'd artificially inflate the market."

"Burn it?"

"Now you're just fucking with..." I then stopped myself, "Hold on, that might actually work."

"Whoa, really? I said that half-jokingly." Grim laughed, "But there's no way, right? Meil would have thought to destroy it ages ago if it was possible. Maybe he figured it'd ruin the market like you said, or it's made out of an impossible to destroy material or something."

"I wonder about that..." I reasoned, "Actually, since this money hasn't been used in a long time according to Meil, it means the economy is stable even without it. In other words, doing something like just outright destroying it all wouldn't impact the economy one bit and would actually be the safest option."

"Dude, aren't you a med major?" He looked surprised, "You're tossing in so much advanced economical terminology that I'm beginning to doubt you're actually a doctor."

"You knew this, come on." I groaned, "Well, we figured out WHAT to do with the money, now we just gotta figure out HOW to do it."

"Yeah, bytes as a form of currency are pretty alien to me." Grim took one out of the bag and inspected it up close, "I can't exactly tell what metal alloys are used in their production, but we can still assume from the weight and surface that it's not something like plastic or wood. In other words, a normal fire won't do - We need a smelter."

"I think there was a blacksmith nearby, though I don't see why they'd need one on a University campus." I scratched my head.

"Probably for the Phys Majors. I heard they have swordfighting there." He swung and slashed an imaginary sword in front of him, "Hyah!"

"Which one of us is more cringe again...?"

Alright, so our goal is the blacksmith, huh? We found the place pretty quickly, but then we ran into another equally as important issue as was the one that came before it.

"How the hell do we convince the blacksmith to just... LET us burn an entire fortune in his smithy?" I sighed.

"Don't worry, I got an idea." Grim then hollered at the blacksmith banging away at his anvil, "Yooo, I'm a customer! Weewoo!"

"Hmn..." The blacksmith continued pounding away, seemingly unable to hear Grim's shouts from the noise his hammer was making.

"Aye! Dude!" Grim got closer, "We need to borrow your-!"

"Urk!?" The blacksmith recoiled once he finally noticed Grim standing mere centimeters away from him, "Back away, guy! It's dangerous here!"

"So stop pounding that hunk of metal and answer me, then!" Grim yelled over the bangs and clanks.

"Can't do, mate! You gotta strike the metal while it's hot, otherwise it won't do shit!"

"Oh, well..." Grim turned to me and winked, "We're actually here to deliver you the metal you ordered."

"Metal? I didn't order any metal, what?" The blacksmith paused for a split second, ruining the tempo of his strikes because of this.

"Look, it's here, it's already paid for." Grim pointed with his thumb at the backpack on me, "If you're busy, we can just toss it inside the smelter and you do with it what you want."

"That's not how it works, mate! Don't touch my workshop!"

Reading his mind with Analyze, I could very clearly see a string of letters appear out of his head. The sentence read: "These guys are some pretty lousy con artists. They think they can just waltz in here and hand me crappy metal? Pssh, it'd have to be pure titanium to be worthwhile, but there's no way...

"It's 100% pure titanium!" I piped up the moment I saw that.

"Eh?" Grim glanced back.

"H-Huh!?" The blacksmith stopped completely, letting the metal on the anvil go cold, "Ugh, shit..."

"Look, we'll toss it away if you don't want it..." I egged him on.

"N-No, err..." He chuckled nervously as he hastily heated up the metal again, "Rather, it'd be a shame to just waste all that titanium, right? Just... toss it by the smelter, then."

"You sure?" Grim almost ruined the plan, "Didn't you say...?"

"Forget what he said!" I ran past them and behind the wall separating the smelter from the anvil area, "Hup! There we go!"

"Dude..." Grim smirked awkwardly once he saw me coming back, "He said BY the smelter, not IN..."

"Who cares?" I shrugged, "Mission accomplished, now to-Ah."

Right, I forgot we still gotta report a whole ass mass murder scene to the police...

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***

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"So, let me get this straight." The angry police officer couldn't believe his ears, "You two guys, both just here on a trip, happened to be walking around inside the jungle, and you just so happened to be carrying around with you shovels that you used to dig up these supposed corpses?"

"...Yes."

"What were you doing with them?"

"That's..." Grim made a difficult face, "Well, it was a bit stupid on our end, but we heard rumors of a buried treasure in the area."

Hm? Ah, he's lying to the authorities again. Classic Grim move.

"Buried treasure, he says... You're grown men, for Gods' sakes, think about your actions a little, will ya'?" The officer berated.

"Hey, we found something important, so just listen to our report and do something about it." Grim got pissed back, "It's in the backyard of the warehouse over by that stupid gravel road. Now, if you'll excuse us..."

"Hold it, where do you think you're going now?" He grabbed our hands as we began walking out of the place, "If this really is the case, and you found a bunch of dead bodies buried in the soil, how can you be sure you didn't just dig up a graveyard? If you did, it'd be considered a serious offense, and you'd be in big trouble."

"Thankfully for us, but not for you, then - The bodies still had a fair amount of meat on them. In other words, either everyone buried there died of natural causes at the same time, or you should really go do your job and investigate the damned place."

"Tch..." He feistily let go of us with a click of the tongue, "Dammit, that means more work for us... Listen, write down your names here and we'll let you go about your day. Thanks for reporting this to us, but we'll probably be requesting your help in the coming days, so be ready for it."

"Ugh, fine..." I took the pen and paper as I asked the officer, "Then you're gonna need to give us yours as well, partner."

"You Entropeans are always so overly-chummy..." He growled back, "Read the badge, dumbass! It's officer Happy Bonnechance! Now get the fuck out!"

"Happy? Your mom must be so disappointed in you, then." Grim teased.

"Out!"

And so, we finally returned home at the very end of the day. We made it inside just as it was turning nighttime, so the other tenants were pretty worried about us just going missing for such a long time. We were hungry as shit, so before anything, we asked what was for dinner. Nelly hastily set the table and made us some grub, and after that we felt energized enough to talk about all of our findings.

"Before that, I would like to point out that the backpack I gave you is not with you." Meil smiled, "Thank you both for getting rid of it. It is a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders."

"Nah, we just chucked it into a smelter, really." Grim picked his ear.

"C-Come again?"

"Nevermind that, Meil!" Nelly fussed, "You two look super dirty and disheveled, not to mention you smell like shi-err, like crap!"

"At least you toned down the swearing while you're inside..." Grim returned a deadpanned stare, "But yeah, we were exploring some abandoned warehouse during our walk, and you won't believe what we found-!"

Knocking the chair he was sitting on over, Meil jumped from his seat and leaned on the table anxiously. What's wrong with him? I've never seen this guy look so afraid in his life, it's like his entire life is ruined with this information. Hell, by the looks of everyone else in the room, it seems this behavior of his is surprising by anyone's standards.

"T-The warehouse!" Meil gasped for air as he uttered, "What did you find!?"

"You've been there, Meil?" Grim continued reclining on his chair nonchalantly, "Hope you're not squeamish, but yeah, we found something pretty scary."

"T-The crate, I..."

"Nah, we didn't touch any crates." I shook my head, "It's the backyard that matters."

"...N-No!"

"Mhm. A bunch of semi-freshly dead bodies buried upright and upside down under some pretty looking flowers." Grim nodded, "It felt like something out of a horror novel. I was certain the killer was gonna jump us from behind or something, but despite Ed's panicking, we safely just walked back to the campus and reported it to the authorities."

"Whoa, eerie..." Eleanor fretted.

"Wicked, but also terrifying." Issei shivered, "Finding a mass grave in the middle of a jungle is like, the top 5 scariest things that could happen in your life."

"Dead bodies, yucky..." Nelly grimaced.

"Well, who cares though?" Othelia shrugged, "You reported it, right? The police force in Simpleton are next level, I'm sure they'll find the culprit in a matter of days."

"...." Meil remained quiet.

"What? Did you not find them there?" I asked.

"...N-No. I did, but..." Meil looked up at everyone, blinking excessively as he explained, "I regret not thinking to inform the authorities when I did."

"Ah, it's alright." Grim consoled him, "We all make mistakes, I'm sure you were surprised by it, so you'd be forgiven for not thinking of doing that when you stumbled upon it."

"...Right, besides, the officer we reported to didn't seem all too interested in the case in general." I shrugged, "By the by, we'll be staying here until we solve the case or it gets dismissed. That's what he said, the bastard..."

"Aww, what?" Nelly got mad for our sakes, "Forcing tourists to help with the investigation... I know it's just because you're the ones who found the dead bodies, but come on, do they gotta force you to stay here until it's all over?"

"You are helping...?" Meil then shook his anxiety away, "R-Right. Then I am sure you will be able to finish it up quickly. I will help you."

"Yeah, same here." Issei flashed us a grin, "I gotta mend the bridge I accidentally burned with my brother-in-law."

"You two are just dating!" I yelled, "You're not married yet!"

"Yet, he says, inferring to the idea that he already expects marriage as a fact." Grim teased.

"Argh! Shut it! I can't think anymore!"