MTLNOVEL Chapter 5: Power Play & Bargaining
"Urgh…" Arthur groaned, feeling a headache attacking him. "Man, I have a weird dream about being isekai-ed to a strange place where a samurai fights against a Thanos wannabe. What a nightmare."
He blinked his eyes several times, trying to gain a better grasp of his surroundings. Then, something clicked inside his brain.
Even after he moved to a bigger and fancier apartment, it was still placed in a crowded area, and usually, when Arthur woke up, he would hear the faint conversation and noises of bustling streets outside, and now, everything was too quiet, putting him uneasy. When his eyes finally caught two muscular people in his dream pointing their weapons – one with a spear and another with his gauntlet – toward him, though, he widened his eyes in realization.
"Wait, wait, wait, you mean to tell me all of the shits before is not a dream? Everything is fucking real?!" His face got paler instantly when the two men in front of him nodded hesitantly. "Goddamnit! Out of all the people in the world, how could I be the one unlucky to get isekai-ed?! Just like when my life gets better, for God's sake! I haven't even spent half of the money I received! Damn, God! You are so cruel!"
The two men in front of him could only stare at each other awkwardly as they couldn't interrupt his rant at all. After a while, though, Arthur finally regained his composure and took a deep breath, his face was still pale as he was processing everything. "Sorry to rant over you both, but I really need to vent out my emotion here. Anyway, can I have a glass of water, please?"
One of the men – the lanky one who held the spear – nodded before turning around to get a glass of water. However, the other man – the Thanos wannabe with a huge build and gauntlet as his weapon – scowled before saying, "Okay, who told you that you are in charge here? Let me remind you something, mister, that you are in our territory, so you better watch your mouth and respect us better here."
That was when the first man froze on the spot, realizing that he just followed Arthur's request like it was an order from his boss.
Arthur blinked his eyes several times before he realized how deep the shithole he was in right now. Unlike any other isekai story he read in the past, he didn't have the advantage of getting transported into a quiet place to let the main character adapt to their new reality. No, he was dumped into the middle of a fight between two groups and somehow fainted, which resulted in his position right now, being a hostage with no power to fight.
Realizing that, Arthur racked his brain to think of a solution. After taking a glance at the two men in front of them, he started speaking, "I apologize for being rude. My name is Arthur Edogawa, and as you can see, I am not from around here. Anyway, mind if I ask about why you both are fighting against each other? You both should be colleagues, right? Is it because of your death boss? Or is it because of 20… No, 22 people that died… One? No, it should be two weeks ago, right?"
'Gotcha!' Arthur smirked when he saw the stunned and disbelief expressions on those two's faces.
He knew that revealing something like that was a risk on his part. There was a possibility that he would be accused as a spy. However, that was the risk he was willing to take to put his status at the same level as them. Now, they wouldn't just see him as a weak man and that his fate was in their hand, but a man who had the power to negotiate with them both.
Of course, what Arthur said was far from nonsense. That was an easy deduction on his part. Just based on the strings coming out of those two men, he could see a lot here, like the fuchsia pink connected those two that indicated a deep friendship, a thin invisible dark string coming out of the bigger man that meant a new hatred born about one or two weeks ago, a dead-end set of yellow string from those two that was not connected to anything that meant someone from their work that they had a good relationship died, and even those twenty or so dead, maroon strings connected to the big man that meant his family members just died either from natural disaster or getting slaughtered like a bunch of sacrificial lambs.
"How the hell do you know that?!" The big man slammed the desk close to the bed, glaring furiously in an attempt to intimidate him.
Arthur just rolled his eyes, turning around to the other man who he deemed would be calm enough to communicate with. "So, I am right? Is it because of his 22 dead subordinates and he blames you for that?" The man had his mouth gaped wide, still couldn't process how Arthur knew all of that.
However, before the man could say anything, Arthur decided to not give him a chance to think clearly and dropped the bomb. "I can help you figure out the real culprit, you know?"
Clank!
The tray the man brought with a glass of water for Arthur slipped from his hand as the man now had his hand shaking. "You mean to tell me that the culprit is not from my tribe?"
'Ho… So, I fell onto the conflict between two tribes, huh?' Arthur saved this information for later. "Yes, I believe I would have no problem finding out the real culprit behind whatever killed those 22 subordinates of his." He pointed his finger at the bigger man confidently. While the only information Arthur knew was just that 22 men died, as a private detective, this was the situation he knew he would shine.
Still, the big man just scoffed at his statement, not believing a shit about him at all. "What if it is you who is the culprit, and this is just your way to cover up the mess you create by doing a bogus investigation?"
'Wow, that is a pretty advanced vocabulary there.' Arthur blinked in surprise. "Well, of course, you can take the easiest way and accuse me just like that. But if you just accuse and interrogate me, you will not find anything new since I don't know what happened, and the mystery about the death of your men would still be there. And who knows? Maybe, in the future, you will snap and bring this back to accuse him of the same thing again since you don't really know what killed your men, right? It would be convenient to bring it back whenever you feel the need to bully your friend over there."