Prologue

A blue moon floated high in the sky, and the night breeze chilled me to the bone—it wasn’t quite spring yet.

“Although actually, I suppose the real reason I’m cold is all the blood I’ve lost...”

I let my gaze fall from the sky to my own body. I had lost my right arm, and my left leg was barely attached but hideously crushed and completely useless. My body was covered in wounds, and although I had stopped bleeding a while ago, I knew I was done for. With my barely intact right leg, I forced myself upright and leaned against a wall.

“I figured it wouldn’t be such a bad way to go—watching the sunrise in my final moments. But it’s looking like I won’t make it that long...”

I had always assumed I would lead an ordinary life, but that changed in an instant when I died in an automobile accident. If it had killed me outright, that wouldn’t have been too remarkable. For all the talk of autonomous vehicles and sophisticated collision avoidance systems in recent years, the number of automotive fatalities still hadn’t been reduced to zero. It hadn’t been unthinkable that I would die that way.

The real surprise was that my death had immediately been reversed by an entity calling himself an evil god. At the time, I’d had no idea what was happening, and even after the “evil” god transported me to another world, everything had felt unreal to me.

“Well, I suppose I can’t complain. My second life has actually been pretty decent.”

The god hadn’t blessed me with the kind of skill that would’ve let me cheat my way through life, but the skill I had gotten was powerful enough. Thanks to that, I’d managed to live an enjoyable and carefree year and a half.

“Yeah, I guess I don’t really have any regrets.”

With my life in Japan cut short, my new life in this world had been like an extra stage in a video game, so I’d decided to enjoy it to the fullest rather than trying my hardest to survive as long as I could.

“Maybe I could’ve taken a different path, but there’s no point thinking about that now.”

I had followed my heart and fulfilled my desires, so I had no regrets left over from my previous life. I took a deep breath and gazed up into the sky again.

Chapter 1—Incident Investigation

The escort quest had taken us almost a month, but now we’d finally completed it and returned to Pining. Viscount Nernas had told us that we could rest at his mansion if we so desired, and we’d taken him up on that offer. It would honestly have been more relaxing to rent some rooms at an inn, but we’d stayed at the mansion once before while preparing to leave for the wedding, and the viscount himself had told us that this would save him the trouble of asking us to drop by again in the future, so we really couldn’t say no.

We all got a good night’s sleep. The viscount allowed us ample time to rest and recover; it was the afternoon of the next day before he sent his butler, Wiesel-san, to check on us.

Wiesel-san led us to a room where Viscount Nernas, Illias-sama, and Arlene-san were waiting for us. At the viscount’s behest, we sat down on the sofa in front of them.

Viscount Nernas looked directly at me. “First of all, I would like to thank your party for escorting my daughter to and from the wedding,” he said. “I am deeply grateful that you fended off those would-be assassins.”

The viscount bowed his head, and Illias-sama politely voiced her gratitude as well. “Thank you very much. There can be no doubt that you saved my life.”

But I shook my head lightly. “We were just doing our duty as bodyguards.”

The assailants had been much stronger than we’d expected, but the viscount couldn’t be faulted for failing to prepare us; he couldn’t have anticipated that outcome. And as I’d said, we’d been hired as bodyguards, so we could hardly complain. It would have been preferable if the viscount had taken extra time to prepare and assigned additional troops to protect his daughter, but a noble house that could afford to take such measures wouldn’t have needed to hire adventurers like us in the first place.

“Ekart told me the tale of your valiant deeds,” said Nernas. “Alone, our household troops would likely have failed to protect Illias. In the end, our present personnel shortage became an unexpected boon. I suppose your party hardly benefited, however.”

“We’re just glad that we didn’t have too much trouble protecting Illias-sama,” I said.

I did feel an urge to complain about my party’s bad luck, but I swallowed it and forced myself to smile instead. Illias-sama smiled shyly back at me, and the viscount chuckled.

“You accepted my urgent plea for your help and performed to the best of your abilities,” said Nernas. “You have rendered the House of Nernas a great service, and so you will be greatly rewarded in addition to the agreed upon fee.”

“Thank you very much, sir,” I said.

Haruka and I had actually already received part of the reward the viscount was referring to—namely, the formal clothes we’d worn at the wedding. They could have been sold, but they had been tailored specifically for the two of us, so the viscount must’ve decided they were more suitable as a gift.

“Under ordinary circumstances, our business would now be concluded, but there is one more quest which I wish your party to take on,” said Nernas. “In addition, I fear there is something that I must apologize for.”

More work already, and just when I’d been relieved that our job was done. The viscount’s phrasing gave me a bad feeling, and I glanced around at the others. Illias-sama hadn’t visibly reacted, but that might have been simply because her father hadn’t forewarned her of whatever he was going to tell us. Wiesel-san was, of course, a consummate professional, so I didn’t detect any telltale signs of emotion on his face, and Arlene-san just smiled back at me. What I really wanted was to flee the room before I heard another word, but that obviously wasn’t an option. When I took another glance at my companions, they simply nodded back at me with stony faces, so I sighed internally, then turned my gaze toward the viscount once more.

“...Please carry on, sir.”

“Mm,” said Nernas. “Perhaps you and your companions have already heard tell of the recent kidnappings—women disappearing from the very streets of Pining.”

“Kidnappings?” I said. “Oh, Haruka, do you think this is related to the rumors of people going missing that Diola-san told us about a while back?”

“So I assume,” said Haruka. “Diola-san sounded confident that we would be safe, but she warned us to be mindful of Metea and Mary.”

I looked to the viscount for confirmation, and he nodded before continuing, “As far as I’m aware, the victims are, thus far, few in number—probably fewer than ten people total. As a result, the incidents went undiscovered for some time, and it has been quite difficult to learn anything more.”

“I see.”

If the people who’d gone missing were adventurers, their disappearances wouldn’t have been considered worthy of investigation. Unfortunately, it was all too common for adventurers to leave town on a quest and never return, and even if they were simply moving to another town, there was rarely a reason for them to announce it in advance. With all of that in mind, the women who’d gone missing must’ve been citizens of Pining who paid the head tax.

Still, death was a close neighbor in this world. If the number of victims hadn’t even reached the double digits yet, it seemed a bit odd for a lord to take action. Did someone important get kidnapped?

“I wish for your party to investigate the kidnappings and locate the missing women,” said Nernas. “And, if possible, I would like for you to bring the kidnappers to justice.”

“Um, based on what you’ve told us so far, it sounds like local troops have already done their own investigation, right?” I asked. “We’re not exactly experts at solving mysteries, sir, so I’m not sure how far we’ll get...”

My party had cooperated with the viscountial troops during the incident in Kelg, but they’d been counting on our combat fitness as adventurers. Investigating incidents like this was completely outside of our area of expertise; we’d fare no better than the average amateur sleuth. Even including Mary and Metea, there were only seven of us, and none of us were familiar with Pining, so it wouldn’t be safe for us to split up and cover more ground. With all of that in mind, I doubted we’d be able to contribute much at all.

But the viscount just nodded with a frown on his face. “I quite understand. But we remain short of personnel. The shortage will be alleviated somewhat when Ekart and the other soldiers who accompanied you to the wedding have returned to active duty, but they will hardly be sufficient either. And furthermore, this matter relates to the other I alluded to—the matter in which I must beg your forgiveness.” He fell silent for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth. “Saint Satomi has escaped.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Touya exclaimed. “O-Oh, um, sorry, milord...”

I couldn’t really blame him for accidentally blurting out his true feelings. The rest of us had managed to contain ourselves for the most part, but we still stared at one another in shock.

“Mm. Your reaction is perfectly natural. It was, after all, your party that captured her,” said Nernas. “It seems she took advantage of the fact that so many of our soldiers were away from the viscountial capital, escorting Illias. I am truly sorry.”

This revelation had caught us completely off guard, so we lowered our voices for a short conference.

“I bet she wants revenge on us,” I whispered.

“You mean me, right?” Touya whispered back. “I’m the one who punched her in the stomach.”

“Perhaps we should have finished her off to spare ourselves the future trouble,” said Haruka.

That sentiment spooked me, but Haruka wasn’t completely wrong. Still, up to this point, we hadn’t felt emotionally capable of killing former classmates—with the exception of those like Iwanaka and his buddies who attacked us directly. So she managed to escape before she got executed, huh? I figured as much from Arlene-san’s reaction back when Touya asked about Satomi...

“I took action the moment I learned of her escape, but it is all too likely she has already left Pining behind,” said Nernas.

During the chaos in Kelg, the viscount had planned for various contingencies and posted soldiers at the gates to prevent members of the Holy Satomi Sect from escaping. However, no one had ever imagined she could escape from prison, so her jailers hadn’t been on high alert. According to the viscount, the guards at the city gates checked adventurer cards and collected the toll from people trying to enter Pining, but people who wanted to leave town were usually ignored if they weren’t exceptionally suspicious. Satomi had probably left immediately after breaking out of prison; she must’ve been aware that it would quickly become impossible for her to get out of town.

“How did she manage to escape?” I asked. “Does she have some power to charm people?”

“Nothing quite so powerful,” Nernas replied. “She can undoubtedly manipulate others with ease, but it seems she can’t deceive those who are wary of her. But that very fact means there is no satisfactory explanation for her escape.”

It was good news that Satomi wasn’t powerful enough to charm people, but that just made me all the more curious about how she’d gotten away. Does she have a lockpicking skill or what? Maybe if she had a ton of points during character creation, but considering the skills she would’ve needed to create an entire cult, she can’t have had many points to spare. Am I missing something here?

“So, to summarize, sir, all we know at the moment is that Satomi has escaped and it’s going to take a bunch of soldiers to track her down, correct?” I asked.

“Correct,” Nernas replied. “I can hardly ask you and your companions to capture her again.”

That made sense to me—the viscount would lose face among his noble peers if he had to rehire us like that. I’m glad we won’t have to fight her again, but none of this relates directly to the quest the viscount mentioned—

“If you accept the quest, then you will receive, as an additional reward, the rights to the lands abutting the dungeon that already belongs to your party,” said Nernas. “And I vow that the deed will be registered with the kingdom.”

“All that land? Hmm...”

It was much harder to acquire land ownership in this kingdom than it had been back in Japan. We had purchased the land that we’d built our house on, but Viscount Nernas was the one who’d approved of the purchase and still technically managed the land, so he could confiscate it the moment he felt so inclined.

But if the deed was registered with the kingdom, that would be another matter entirely. Initially, the local lord had to approve such a transaction, but after the land had been registered in our names, the kingdom would have to approve of any further changes, so no future lord would ever be able to appropriate it for himself.

Jurisdiction over land was an important part of a lord’s authority, so for Viscount Nernas to make such an offer was extremely exceptional. He was probably only willing because he had no real use for the land around the dungeon—although it wouldn’t be particularly useful to my party either.

I guess we could build some kind of rest area right outside of the dungeon or a warehouse to store materials, but we’re the only ones who go there anyway, so it’s not like anyone would file a complaint if we built something without a permit. Yeah, I dunno, this doesn’t sound like a great reward, honestly.

Viscount Nernas must have detected my lack of enthusiasm. He turned to address Illias-sama. “Illias, what is the difference between ordinary land and land that has been registered with the kingdom and ceded to a private owner?”

“Lords have very limited authority over registered lands,” Illias recited. “National law is prioritized over local law in most circumstances. Thus, it is difficult for lords to punish crimes on private lands and impossible to levy taxes on the landholders. Taxation in this context most commonly refers to the taxation of crops but also applies to goods of other kinds, including alcohol, produced on the ceded land.”

The viscount nodded, apparently satisfied with Illias-sama’s fluent answer.

“It will be up to your party to decide how to use the land, but I’m confident that you will be able to make good use of it,” said Nernas. “Moreover, I vow that the House of Nernas will act as your party’s patron, in which capacity I can shield you from interference by other nobles. And I promise that I won’t entangle you in any troublesome situations. You are, of course, free to decline my offer, but I would be deeply grateful if you would at least entertain the possibility.”

Uh, buddy, the whole reason other nobles might interfere with us is because we accepted a quest from you that resulted in Haruka and me basically being forced to attend a wedding reception, remember? You’re putting us into a “troublesome situation” right now, with this new quest! Sure, you’re not a tyrant by any means, but you’re really radiating the native arrogance of an aristocrat right now, Viscount Nernas.

“...Could we discuss this among ourselves first?” I asked.

“But of course,” Nernas replied. “We will leave you in peace. Arlene, bring them some tea.”

“Right away, sir.”

The viscount led his daughter out of the room. Arlene-san swiftly prepared tea for us, then bowed and exited the room as well, leaving my party to sit in silence for a while.

It was Touya who finally broke that silence—with a groan of frustration. “Ugh, I can’t believe they allowed someone as dangerous as Satomi to escape!”

“Only someone as dangerous as Satomi would have escaped,” said Haruka. “The local troops aren’t exactly elite, but regardless, the average prisoner wouldn’t be able to break out of a dungeon—I don’t know what they’re like in this world, but I imagine they’re more secure than that.”

“Yeah. I doubt she just smashed her way through the walls,” I said. “It’s gotta be something else.”

The viscount still had no idea how Satomi had made her getaway. If she’d staged a dramatic escape, the town would have been locked down instantly. I gave it good odds that she had some sort of sneaking skill.

“I wonder if Satomi actually has something like the Lock Picking skill,” said Yuki. “Do you think that would be enough, Natsuki?”

“No. Even if she were able to spring the cell door, it would still be very difficult to sneak out undetected,” said Natsuki. “She chose her skills with the objective of masterminding a cult, so I rather doubt she had the points left over for skills related to stealth. Perhaps if she began with double the number of points I did...”

“Nah, no way,” I said.

Of my five friends, Natsuki had started out with the second-greatest number of points. As far as I could remember, Satomi Takamatsu hadn’t stood out at all on Earth—she’d been an ordinary high school student. In light novels, the characters might have an unassuming classmate who turned out to secretly be a celebrity, but I immediately dismissed that possibility as unrealistic. Satomi’s starting points had probably been somewhere around the mean for our class.

“I think it’s safe to assume that someone helped Satomi escape,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, I agree,” I said. “It’d be convenient for us if the troops caught her again and finished her off, but...”

“That would indeed be the best outcome for us, but considering they let her escape once, I doubt we can depend on them,” said Natsuki. “The next best outcome would be if Satomi had already fled to another country so we never have to deal with her again.”

We kept racking our brains for a way out of this predicament. Eventually, Mary hesitantly interrupted us.

“Um, is Satomi the person who got my family’s house burned back in Kelg?”

“Uhhh, distally,” Yuki replied. “But I bet it was your landlord who actually started the fire.”

For a brief moment, Mary’s face turned cold. “Oh, she’s still ali—” Then she snapped out of it and blinked as she processed the rest of Yuki’s words. “The landlord?”

“Yuki!” Haruka shot her a glare.

“O-Oh, um, sorry!” Yuki stuck her tongue out in an attempt to lighten the mood, but it was already too late.

Natsuki looked disturbed by Yuki’s mistake too. “We don’t have any concrete evidence, so we’d agreed to refrain from telling you or your sister, Mary-chan. However...”

We’d asked the Adventurers’ Guild at Kelg for information about the fate of Mary and Metea’s father, and we’d gotten a little, including some information about their landlord. Multiple witnesses had described him setting fire to the house, although the accounts were impossible to confirm; he himself had died during the mayhem. Regardless, given that the landlord was, in a manner of speaking, an acquaintance of the sisters’, we’d decided that the information could be traumatizing and that we should probably withhold it.

“Again, we have no means of confirming this, but we heard rumors that your landlord may have acted under the assumption that the land would be easier to sell if it were vacant,” Natsuki continued. “Bear in mind that we can’t say for certain that he was responsible for burning your house.”

Natsuki had done her best to explain it all in a level tone, but Mary let her gaze fall to the floor. She appeared conflicted. The same landlord had tried to evict her family, but even so, it must’ve been shocking to learn that he might have effectively killed her father and inflicted severe burns on her and her younger sister.

Metea, however, didn’t seem bothered in the slightest by this news. She clenched her fists at chest level and looked up at Mary. “No point in dwelling on the past, big sis! Dad told us that the future is what matters the most, remember? Good things will run away if we focus on bad feelings!”

“...Yeah, you’re right. Thank you, Met.”

Mary smiled as she patted Metea’s head, then turned to smile at the rest of us. “I’m very sorry for how I acted,” she said.

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” I said. “Your reaction was perfectly natural.”

Mary and Metea had grown up under circumstances completely different from my own childhood in Japan, so I had a lot of respect for their positive attitudes. Man, if I was in their shoes, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have that kind of fortitude.

I had a feeling that if we continued on this track, the mood would only get gloomier to no real purpose, so I forced a cheerful tone and said, “Anyway, what do you guys think we should do about the new quest the viscount offered? Should we accept it? The reward is kind of weird...”

“Yeah, it’s not a great reward,” said Yuki.

“The tax exemption would be nice, but we don’t know if it’ll eventually prove useful,” said Haruka.

“Mm. Tax exemption would be useful for property within a city, but the land we’re being offered is deep in the woods, and we’re more or less the only ones capable of getting there,” said Natsuki.

Touya, in contrast, was genuinely excited. “Owning land would be kind of awesome, though! That would make me happy in and of itself!”

But I couldn’t exactly blame the girls for their more muted reactions. We’d have nothing to lose given the exemption from property taxes, but neither did we have much to gain.

“If we absolutely had to figure out some way to make use of the land, I guess we could turn it into farmland,” I said. “But it’s so far from town that it would just be us growing stuff. I guess retiring from adventuring to farm wouldn’t be too bad...”

Our wedding clothes had cost a considerable sum, and the House of Nernas was not wealthy by noble standards, so the land was probably the best the viscount could offer. I was getting a feeling that we weren’t going to be able to turn him down casually.

“W-Wouldn’t it be amazing to get the rights to a big plot of land? The land around the dungeon is probably worth more than a normal plot somewhere else, right?” Mary asked. “Farmers always say that if you have a field to inherit, you’re sure to have a good life...”

“You’ll be set for life if you get married to the heir of a farm!” Metea put in.

Those words made me a bit curious about what the girls’ dad had taught them—a lot of valuable lessons, clearly, but it sounded like he’d also mentioned some things that weren’t really supposed to be discussed around children. Admittedly, his advice was eminently practical; from the standpoint of survival, food mattered more than anything. In a world as harsh as this one, romance was a luxury that only the wealthy could afford.

“Just so you know, Metea, turning a forested area into farmland isn’t easy at all,” I said. “You’d have to cut down a lot of trees, for one thing.”

“I’d work hard!”

“There might be monsters roaming around that you’d have to slay.”

“I’d work extra hard!”

What is it about owning land that appeals to Metea so much? Even after I’d listed all of those potential downsides, she still looked excited. Haruka, Natsuki, and Yuki laughed and sighed at one another when they saw her reaction.

“Well, in any case, turning down the viscount’s quest isn’t really an option,” said Haruka. “We need a bulwark against the influence of other nobles.”

I wished that nobles like Pano Gnos, the idiot who’d hit on Haruka during the reception, were rare, but in reality, they were out there, and I was scared at the prospect of not having protection from their power and authority. In spite of all our hard work and training, we were still only Rank 5—and that was nowhere near the kind of status we needed to be truly safe.

“Based on what you told us, Haruka, it sounds like your appearance at the reception was the direct cause of this potential problem,” said Natsuki. “But regardless, we would likely have needed a noble patron eventually.”

Haruka nodded but seemed to have more to add. “I’m not certain, but when the viscount said he would be our patron, I think he was implying something to do with our magic bags as well. We probably won’t attract any unwanted attention as long as we reserve the bags for our own use, but it would still be good to have a noble patron just in case.”

“Okay, guess all that’s left is to finalize the details, then,” said Yuki. “I doubt we’ll get much out of negotiating, though.”

Huh? Why are you looking at me when you say that, Yuki? It’s not like you know how to negotiate with a noble either!

“The viscount completely avoided the topic of money, so it would probably be pointless to try negotiating additional rewards—even with my silver tongue,” I said.

I felt like the viscount had taken advantage of us to a certain extent, but land wasn’t completely worthless. It could potentially earn us a lot of money depending on how we cultivated it, so we couldn’t object that the reward he’d offered was inadequate.

“Hmm. We’d have to ask for something that isn’t expensive,” said Yuki. “Maybe a regional specialty like furniture?”

Touya immediately shot that suggestion down. “Nah, if we want furniture, we can just order some from Simon-san.”

I had to agree. For another thing, there was no point in asking for furniture we had no use for.

“If there’s some product that’s unique to Kelg and Pining, then that might work,” I said.

I glanced at Mary and Metea to see if they had any ideas, but Mary just smiled awkwardly back at me. Metea, however, confidently raised her hand.

“We can ask for ale!” she said with a grin on her face.

“Oh, right, Pining is known for its ale,” I said. “We don’t drink alcohol, so I completely forgot about that. Great idea, Metea.”

I patted her on the head, and she smiled.

“Ale, huh? We could preserve it in our magic bags, so I suppose that would be a good reward,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, the ale they brew here is really good,” I said. “It went down easy even for us.”

Diola-san and Tomi would definitely enjoy barrels of ale as gifts, and we could probably use the remainder to influence other people.

“That settles it, then,” I said. “I’ll do my best to negotiate with the viscount, but don’t expect a miracle.”

“Didn’t you just say you’ve got a silver tongue, Nao? We’re counting on you! Good luck!”

“I was just joking, Yuki. Please don’t put that kind of pressure on me! Especially not with that grin on your face.”

I was the furthest thing from an expert negotiator. In fact, what I really wanted was for Haruka or Natsuki to take over, but they offered all kinds of excuses for refusing, like the fact that this would be valuable practice for me.

Haruka laughed and patted me on the shoulder. “Relax, Nao. If you succeed, we’ll get something extra, but we won’t lose anything even if you fail.”

The only response I could muster was a sigh of defeat.

★★★★★★★★★

By the time we arrived at a decision, our tea had long since gone cold, but we sipped it while we waited for the viscount to return. When he did, he was accompanied only by Wiesel-san. I wasn’t sure if he’d brought Illias-sama the first time to thank us or if he’d wanted her to act as a witness to the initial round of negotiations.

“Forgive me for keeping you waiting,” said Nernas. “Have you come to a decision?”

“We have, sir,” I said. “It would be an honor to accept the quest, but my party already spent a lot of time on the previous escort quest, and if we accept this one, we’ll continue not to have any income for an extended period of time, so...”

In reality, my party had savings for emergencies, besides which we owned a house, so the lack of a monetary reward wasn’t a big issue. However, it was true that most adventurers wouldn’t have been able to survive on zero income for several months, so I was testing the viability of that excuse.

The viscount furrowed his brows as he reflected on my words. “Hmm. I confess the fact completely slipped my mind. Your party has already spent a month on the escort quest, and I suppose investigating the kidnapping incidents will take some time as well. However, to be frank, the House of Nernas cannot afford any extraneous expenditures at the moment. I can furnish your party with lodging and food, but...”

“Oh, no, we’re not asking for any money, sir,” I said. “It’s just that, well, if we’re going to stay here in Pining for a while, it would be wonderful if we could get some local specialties that we could bring back to our acquaintances...”

“Hmm? Ah, yes, I believe ale is just the sort of thing you’re looking for,” said Nernas. “In that case, I happen to have good news. The brewery that your party assisted some time ago has at last resumed production. I’ll have them prepare a couple of barrels for you. Would that be sufficient?”

“O-Oh, yes, that would be great.” I was a bit confused at how smoothly everything had gone, but I was glad there had been no need for any complicated haggling.

I nodded at the viscount, and he nodded back at me, then rose to his feet.

“Very well. Thank you for accepting the quest. Please visit Sadius for further information. He should be in the captain’s office—you know where it is, do you not? Good. In that case, I’ll leave you to your own devices. I’m a trifle busy right now, so I’m afraid I must excuse myself.”

“No problem at all. You can count on us,” I said.

All of us rose to our feet and bowed, and the viscount nodded with a satisfied look on his face before swiftly striding out of the room. He really did seem to be busy; he must have had a lot of work to take care of after all the problems that had occurred in his domain over the past year. The best way to address a personnel shortage would have been to hire more people, but changes wouldn’t be easy to implement considering that this had been a peaceful domain until recently, and now the House of Nernas was short on cash, so the viscount probably had no choice but to deal with everything to the best of his own abilities.

“...Phew. I never imagined it would be so easy to convince him to agree to an additional reward,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, same here. Maybe I really do have a silver tongue.” All I had done was hint at what we wanted, so it wasn’t like I had truly negotiated with him, but regardless, everything had worked out in the end.

“Yes, you performed quite well, Nao,” said Haruka.

“Mm, I’m impressed by your communication skills, Nao-kun,” said Natsuki.

“Good job, Nao! I knew you could do it!” said Yuki.

Huh? Did all three of them really just praise me sincerely?

“...Are those supposed to be backhanded compliments? All of you saw that I didn’t really negotiate anything with the viscount, right?”

“You seemed to want praise, so we gave you exactly that,” said Haruka. “Compliments are the most basic method of encouraging growth.”

“Wait, are you treating me like a kid?!”

Haruka patted me on my head, and I swatted her hand away, but she just giggled and changed the topic. “In any case, it seems we’ll have to put on our detective caps. I never imagined needing to do something like this, but here we are.”

“Mm. It’s completely beyond our ken,” said Natsuki. “But perhaps we’ll have to engage in combat in the course of our investigations.”

“You mean like our battle against those assassins?” asked Touya. “Man, I really don’t wanna go through anything like that ever again.”

At the reminder of that fight, each of us scowled or groaned. But the sisters, who hadn’t faced the assassins directly, looked around with expressions of confusion.

“Um, we didn’t see the assassins with our own eyes, but were they really quite strong?” Mary asked.

“Aren’t you all very strong, Big Bro Touya?” Metea asked.

“I’m glad you think that highly of us, Metea, but the guy me and Nao took on was definitely stronger than either one of us.”

“Yeah. If he’d actually been trying to kill us, we would have been in serious trouble,” I said. “But based on what Arlene-san told us, it sounds like the assassins wanted to avoid losing members if they could...”

The small group of assassins we’d fought had been highly skilled—skilled enough to infiltrate this kingdom without support. Their paymasters presumably wouldn’t have wasted their lives on a mission of low strategic value. My impression was that their plan had been to take out Illias-sama if it was trivially easy and retreat if it proved too difficult; they probably hadn’t expected for one of their number to lose a leg to us in the process.

“They had no problem retreating, even carrying a severely injured person,” said Touya. “No question they’re competent and dangerous.”

“Really? They carried the injured person back with them instead of leaving him to die?” Mary asked.

“Yeah. As far as I could detect with my Scout skill, all of them survived,” I said.

They’d seemed comparable to a special forces unit back on Earth, so a part of me had been scared that they would “erase” their fallen comrade if necessary to prevent any leak of information, but my Scout skill had informed me that they were all alive and fleeing at incredible speed despite being burdened by the man who’d lost his leg. In fact, they’d even retrieved the severed limb before retreating. Their composure had been genuinely amazing.

“If that assassin survived the loss of a limb,” said Haruka, “maybe they have a healer on their team.”

“Well, we used Fire Magic,” said Yuki. “They might have just stopped the bleeding by, you know, burning it a little bit more.”

“Yikes.” Cauterizing a wound sounded incredibly painful to me. I was glad both Haruka and Natsuki could use healing magic.

“We don’t employ them often ourselves, but there’s also the possibility that they used a potion,” said Natsuki.

“Yeah, we could craft ’em if we wanted to, but still,” said Yuki.

“Crafting potions costs money,” said Haruka, “whereas healing magic is free.”

We kept a stock of potions on us just as a precaution, but so far, we’d only used them for tests. Haruka and Natsuki were always around, and more recently, I had also gained the ability to heal minor injuries.

“Anyhow, do you guys think maybe the Yupikrisa Empire might have something to do with the kidnappings?” Yuki asked. “I’m scared that might be why Viscount Nernas asked us to take on this quest...”

“I highly doubt it,” replied Natsuki. “It would be another matter if Illias-sama had been their primary target, but that doesn’t seem to have been the case. And if she were their target, it would hardly make sense for them to put the House of Nernas on high alert by carrying out kidnappings in their domain. Nothing about it adds up.”

Yuki seemed kind of anxious, but Natsuki had refuted her hypothesis pretty much immediately, and I nodded in agreement with her.

“Mm, I think Natsuki is right. That doesn’t mean we can let our guard down, though. We just got a reminder of the difference between combat against monsters and combat against other humans.”

“For sure,” said Touya. “The battle against the assassins was a good lesson for us, though—it showed us what our actual strength is relative to other humans.”

“Yeah. We can beat Sadius and the other soldiers no problem, but it’s not like we’re the strongest people in the world, and we gotta keep that in mind,” said Yuki. “I’m kinda disappointed about the troops from this viscounty, though. Like, they turned out to be a lot weaker than I expected...”

“We can’t exactly say that to them, but yeah, you’re not wrong,” I said.

Precious wood was Laffan’s most important export, so if Viscount Nernas had had access to more powerful soldiers, he would undoubtedly have dispatched them to intervene in Laffan before the supply of precious wood ran dry.

“I’m fairly confident that we’re some of the strongest people in Laffan, but the world is much bigger than I thought,” said Haruka.

“Yeah. Mary, Metea, someday the two of you may get to the point where you can beat us in combat, but don’t ever get cocky,” said Touya. “You’ve gotta assume there’s always someone out there who’s bigger and meaner than you—otherwise overconfidence will bite you in the ass.”

Mary smiled awkwardly. “I can’t imagine us ever getting strong enough to beat you or any of the others, Touya, but I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

Metea nodded with a serious look on her face. “Okay, I understand! I’ll live humbly!”

I wanted to believe in the sisters, but they were already so much stronger than other children their age that it would probably behoove us to keep a close watch on their egos. Overconfidence was something that all of us had to be wary of.

“All right, let’s go and ask Sadius for more information,” said Haruka. “The actual investigation will start tomorrow, but it would be best to gather as much information as possible in advance. Mary, Metea, will you co—actually, what should we do this time?”

“Hmm,” said Natsuki. “I’m not sure either...”

Haruka and Natsuki both seemed unwilling to involve the sisters in our investigation, and I shared their reluctance. Our ordinary adventures were one thing, but given the nature of these crimes, it was highly likely that we’d uncover information or crime scenes that it wouldn’t be right to expose children to. I glanced at Yuki and Touya, and neither of them reacted right away, so they must’ve been thinking along similar lines.

But Mary herself seemed to know exactly what we were worried about, and, looking a little hesitant, she chimed in, “Um, I don’t suppose Met and I will be able to contribute much this time?”

“No, come on! We can totally—I mean, we’re good at combat!”

Metea, it seemed, wasn’t as good as her sister at reading between the lines. Still, she’d reined in her brash response halfway through—this must have been her idea of humility.

“I-I don’t think that counts as humble, Met...”

I laughed and mussed Metea’s hair. “Yeah, we know that you’ve always been very helpful, Metea. But this quest mainly involves asking around for information, so I think adults will probably have a hard time talking seriously to you and Mary.”

Metea scowled, crossed her arms, and groaned. “Ugh, I guess I can’t do anything about my age... Oh well. I’ll give up this time.”

Mary breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, that’s a good idea, Met. Let’s go study together with Illias-sama instead.”

“Mm, okay,” said Metea. “She did say that we could drop by to hang out whenever.”

The rest of us felt as relieved as Mary looked. The sisters were still young, so it was best to keep them far away from anything to do with kidnappings.

“It’ll put us at ease if the two of you stay here. You should be safe as long as you’re together with Illias-sama,” said Haruka. “All right, let’s get going for real now. We shouldn’t keep Sadius waiting for too long.”

★★★★★★★★★

The training grounds were located some distance from the mansion. Adjacent to the grounds was the duty station, where Sadius had his office.

“Oh, you’re finally here.”

When we entered the office, we were greeted by the sight of Sadius buried in paperwork. The way the papers were scattered and stacked all across his desk somehow perfectly captured his personality. Behind him, on the bookshelves lining the walls, were documents bound together in booklets.

It wouldn’t have been a surprise to come across an office like this back on Earth, but given the scarcity and value of paper in this world, I was taken aback. Dang, I guess the House of Nernas is actually pretty diligent about recordkeeping.

“Sorry for your trouble,” said Sadius.

“No problem,” said Touya. “We all decided to accept the quest. Gotta say, though, I’m surprised you have to do all this paperwork on top of your normal job.”

Our impression had been that Sadius was primarily involved in combat and training the soldiers.

He just laughed as he tossed aside his pen. “I may not look like a paper pusher, but being in charge means I have to deal with paperwork too, even if it isn’t my forte. Guys like Ekart get more time in combat than inside an office. To be honest, I wish I was in his shoes. I really don’t enjoy this...”

Given the disorganization of his desk, I definitely believed the part about him not being any good at paperwork, but we’d been sent to discuss a criminal investigation, so this whole interaction was giving me an uneasy feeling.

“I think I get how you feel,” I said, “but are you going to be able to handle the investigation all right?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. I know where everything important is.” Sadius leaned back in his chair, stretched, then began intently rooting around in the papers on his desk. “It all started back in autumn when a young woman’s body was discovered. That isn’t so unusual in itself—the problem was, the dead woman was a resident of Kelg.”

“Huh? How, exactly, were you able to make that determination?” Haruka asked. “The body was found here in Pining, was it not? Did someone happen to recognize her face?”

“Oh, well—hmm. Right, I suppose adventurers wouldn’t know about this,” said Sadius. “See, the Viscounty of Nernas issues proof of residence on request, though not too many people actually apply for it.”

According to Sadius, anyone who lived in a town and paid the head tax could file an application for proof of residence at a government office. The certificate served the same primary purpose as an adventurer’s ID: It exempted the bearer from tolls when entering and exiting town. Beyond that, residency certificates were useful because they worked across the entire viscounty, not just the town where the person resided.

However, proof of residence was useless for the majority of citizens because they never left the towns where they lived. It was another matter for traveling merchants and farmers who owned fields outside the town proper, but people like that were usually acquainted with the guards who manned the town gates. Thus, it was very rare for anyone to apply for proof of residence.

“The circumstances of the victim’s death were suspect too,” said Sadius. “I sent people to Kelg to investigate. Apparently the woman left around summer without informing any of her acquaintances.”

“I don’t suppose she simply happened to have business in Pining?” Natsuki asked.

Sadius consulted one of the papers on his desk. “Well, that’s one possibility, but she was a merchant who mainly resold goods to other merchants. Seems that normally, whenever she left town, she always visited her clients first.”

According to Sadius, the woman handled orders from merchants. There had been instances in which she’d stocked up on products to sell herself, but she had usually inquired ahead of time about what her clients wanted in order to reduce the risk of getting stuck with a bad inventory. However, she hadn’t reached out to any of her clients immediately before disappearing, and Sadius had quickly been able to ascertain that something was wrong.

“So what was suspicious about her actual death?” I asked. “Was she just found dead on the street or something like that?”

That would obviously have raised the possibility of foul play, but at the same time, it wasn’t uncommon in this world, so I imagined that Sadius had a more concrete reason for classifying her death as suspicious.

He nodded at me. “Mm. There were no external injuries that would have killed her. She was probably poisoned, but her body was found in an alley. She could have been poisoned beforehand, dragged herself to the alley, and died there—or someone could have killed her elsewhere and discarded her there...”

“No external injuries? How old was she?” I asked.

“The victim was in her mid-twenties,” Sadius replied. “But it was an isolated incident, so the case was closed.”

“Really? I didn’t realize a murder investigation could just end like that.” In fact, I was pretty sure the investigation would have gone a lot further back on Earth.

Sadius shrugged and shook his head. “Oh, please. People die all the time. We’d have no time for rest or sleep if we investigated every minor incident like this. Pining is safe and peaceful enough—you saw how bad things were in the Barony of Gnos, didn’t you?”

Sadius’s words brought back the scenes I had witnessed in Mijala. I grimaced at the images that had popped into my head, then glanced around and saw that the other members of my party had similar expressions on their faces. The situation in Mijala was so dire that it wasn’t even worth discussing in this context. As far as I was aware, the majority of the towns in this kingdom weren’t nearly that bad, but even so, in most places, people simply burned the bodies of the dead and moved on with their lives.

Sadius went on to explain that cases in which the troops would thoroughly investigate a death were few and far between; the exceptions were situations in which, for example, the murder took place in the open, with a multitude of witnesses around, or the victims were personally important or related to someone who was.

“If there’s no question a murder took place, we’ll be assigned to carry out a cursory investigation, but what with drifters and adventurers like yourselves wandering around, it’s hard to get good information,” said Sadius. “So, the next case—no way we could’ve made the connection at the time, but it started with a report from the parents of the woman who’d gone missing.”

Sadius flipped through some papers as he continued his narrative. “The daughter was eighteen years old. The man she’d been dating was found dead, but there was no trace of her. After further investigation, an eyewitness account was obtained according to which the man and the girl had been arguing with each other beforehand, so we concluded it was a lovers’ quarrel and the girl had impulsively killed her man, then run off, and the investigation was closed for the time being.”

“‘For the time being’? Again?” I asked.

“Yeah. The two incidents had nothing in common beyond the fact that the two people who’d disappeared were both women,” Sadius replied. “Maybe we could have turned up more clues if we’d investigated further, but everyone happened to be busy at the time.”

“Was there something else going on?” Touya paused in thought, but he immediately arrived at a conclusion and nodded to himself. “Oh, ‘busy,’ right. I guess you guys had to deal with everything going on in Kelg.”

“Mm. Most of the household troops had been assigned to Kelg—we were still busy dealing with the aftermath,” said Sadius. “I was only able to return to Pining after things had calmed down. That was when the body of the second woman turned up.”

“She was assumed to have fled from the scene of a murder, but I take it that wasn’t the case,” I said.

“Something like that. To be more specific, it was only once I got back to my office here that I learned the body had been found,” said Sadius. “I was sorting through the paperwork that had piled up while I was away, and I happened to come across a name I recognized, so I decided to check it out in person just in case.”

A month had passed between the man’s death and the discovery of the woman’s body. It had happened when Sadius was still at Kelg, so a brief report had been filed after the body was already disposed of.

“The document I have here lists the cause of death as drowning in an irrigation canal,” said Sadius. “I assumed the woman killed herself out of guilt or despair at the murder of her boyfriend, but when I went to take a look at the canal for myself, what I discovered was, the water only reached up to my knees...”

“Hardly deep enough to drown in,” said Natsuki. “Of course, it’s possible to drown even in water that only reaches up to one’s ankles...”

Sadius looked a bit surprised. “Is it, now? We investigated the scene because it seemed suspicious, but that’s news to me.”

Natsuki simply nodded. “It’s possible under certain conditions.”

A person afflicted with motion sickness because of water entering their inner ears might be unable to stand and drown for that reason, but that was a highly specific and unusual situation; it was almost inconceivable for a normal, healthy person.

“As an example, a drunk person who fell into an irrigation canal would be at a very real risk of drowning,” said Natsuki. “Nevertheless, as you said, an irrigation canal is hardly suitable for suicide by drowning. In most cases, one would be likelier to die from the fall.”

“Yeah, agreed,” said Sadius. “Anyway, that’s when I decided it was a good opportunity to investigate the recent missing persons incidents. This is the result of that investigation.”

He pointed, with a sigh, toward a sheet in front of him, but when we all peeked at the contents...

Yuki had an exasperated look on her face. “Twenty men and seventeen women? So, thirty-seven people total? That’s a big number!”

“Are we actually supposed to investigate all of them?” I asked. “There’s no way, right?”

“Believe you me, I wish that number was smaller!” Sadius exclaimed, looking just as frustrated as Yuki. “Plenty of people disappeared as a result of what happened in Kelg too—this list probably includes some of them. It’s all too complicated, damn it!”

I was somewhat sympathetic to his plight. So many merchants and nobles had been swept up in the chaos that even if the missing people were connected to them in some way, it would be difficult to identify the motives behind the kidnappings.

“Maybe some of them fled because of the money and status they lost, maybe some of them died in the mayhem,” said Sadius. “Decent odds none of those people have anything to do with the missing persons cases...”

“I suppose it would be prohibitively difficult to confirm the identities of all those who died,” said Haruka.

“Yeah. It was still very hot back then. We prioritized burning and burying the dead,” said Sadius.

It was very difficult to preserve dead bodies in this world, besides which no one had access to technology like DNA tests. If corpses were left alone, they could cause all sorts of diseases, so it made sense that disposing of the dead had been prioritized over identifying them. In a sense, Mary and Metea were luckier than the survivors of many of the other victims; they at least knew their father was dead.

“I swear, I did my best to whittle down this list as much as possible,” said Sadius. “Sure, some of the cases are ambiguous, but they’re still worth investigating.”

“Do you know what Viscount Nernas meant when he said the actual number of kidnapped people would probably end up being less than ten, Sadius?” I asked.

“Yeah. That’s just a rough estimate based on the results of the investigations we’ve done up to this point,” said Sadius. “Not to toot my own horn, but the troops who serve the House of Nernas aren’t exactly incompetent. If dozens of people had been kidnapped, I’m pretty confident we would’ve been able to find evidence of that by now.”

“That sounds like intuition based on years of experience,” I said. “Is that how you were able to arrive at the conclusion that the kidnappings took place within the city limits of Pining?”

“Yeah. I included that in the reports I wrote,” said Sadius. “There was actually a third incident on top of the two I explained earlier. The woman’s body hasn’t been found yet, but take a look at this.”

He placed another paper on top of the list of missing people—a summary of the third incident, apparently another involving a couple; the boyfriend was dead and the girlfriend missing. In this case, however, no one had witnessed them arguing in public.

“The girl is sixteen, huh? I guess it’s kind of similar to the second incident,” I said.

“Yeah. People who go missing usually fit a pattern. The three women I just described don’t. Some of the people on this list may have fled of their own volition.” Sadius was pointing at a couple names as he talked. “I want your party to keep all that in mind as you investigate.”

Touya let out an exasperated sigh. “If you know this much already, why don’t you guys tie up your own loose ends instead of hiring us? Just so you know, we’re amateurs! We have no experience with detective work. Why’d you have to foist your whole mess onto us?”

“Look, we have a personnel shortage. There’s really nothing more I can do. I have to deal with an endless stream of paperwork, so I can’t run out and do it all myself,” said Sadius. “Besides, the lord was the one who decided to ask your party to take on this quest. He must’ve had a good reason for that.”

“A good reason?” Haruka echoed. “Well, I certainly hope the reason wasn’t that he assumes we’re the kind of adventurers who can simply be hired for odd jobs.”

Haruka had an awkward expression on her face. Sadius, in contrast, looked extremely relieved. He clapped his hands and gathered together the documents he’d shown us, combining them with the other papers on his desk.

“Outside my jurisdiction. Nothing more I can say. Anyway, I’ve explained everything, so feel free to get started once you’ve finished looking over the documents here. You’re all good at brainwork, aren’t you? Well...most of you.”

“Sadius...dude...why did you specifically glance at me?”

Touya sounded genuinely unhappy at the implication, but Sadius just shook his head and gave him an exaggerated shrug.

“You don’t have to pretend, you know, Touya. It’s clear to see you’re just like me and the boys I command—you’re good at fighting, but brainwork is something you count on others to take care of, right?”

“Don’t just assume stuff like that! I’m not as stupid as you think I am! Right, Nao?!”

“You’re definitely smarter than the average person,” I said. “Your appearance can be deceptive for sure.”

It was my honest assessment that Touya had been fairly studious—he’d actually had decent grades back in Japan. Still, it was true that since the moment he set foot in this world, he’d come to focus on brawn to the virtual exclusion of brains, which was kind of concerning.

“Seriously?! Damn it, you traitor!” Sadius slammed his fist on the desk. “I won’t forgive you for withdrawing from the muscle alliance, Touya!”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Touya slammed his palms on the desk. “Muscle alliance? I’m not a member of any muscle alliance—I’ve never even heard of anything like that!”

The stacks of paper were toppling off of the desk, but Sadius didn’t seem to care. He thrust his face into Touya’s.

“Just to make sure, you’re still a party to the single men alliance, right?!”

“I don’t remember ever joining that alliance either! I don’t have a girlfriend, but still!”

“Oh, well, that’s a relief, then.” Sadius pretended to wipe sweat from his brow. “I forgive you, Touya. We’re allies. Nao is our common enemy.”

Touya had an exasperated look on his face. “C’mon, man, don’t drag me into this.”

The girls, however, were regarding Sadius with pity.

“Wait, why am I the common enemy?” I demanded. “Sadius, you’re a captain with a lot of troops under your command! Shouldn’t that kind of position make you really attractive to women?”

“Mm, you’re not exactly wrong. My soldiers are very popular with the ladies,” Sadius replied. “Soldiers in this viscounty live relatively safe lives, and belonging to the household army is a symbol of status. Soldiers also get decent salaries, so they don’t have any trouble finding brides.”

“In that case, why can’t you— Oh, sorry,” I said.

Clearly the popularity of the soldiers under Sadius’s command didn’t extend to Sadius himself. I figured there must be some serious disadvantage attached to his position as captain, but when he saw my reaction, he hastened to explain.

“Don’t apologize! I-It’s not what you think! I’m just too busy with work—so busy I have no time for anything else. It’s not as if I’m unpopular! I can get married whenever I want, but there’s no point if you don’t have any time to spend with your wife, right?!”

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense,” said Yuki. “A busy life would make things complicated. No point in even dating if you can’t spend time together. It would be a different story if your partner had the same job as you, but...”

“I suppose Vira-san and the other maids would count as your coworkers,” Haruka mused.

“Mm. And there are women who serve as soldiers, though they’re few in number,” said Natsuki.

Soldiers required physical strength and stamina. It sounded like the total number of women serving as soldiers probably didn’t even make up ten percent of the viscountcy’s household troops, but Sadius nodded at Natsuki.

“Well, it is what it is,” he said. “There’s a lot of competition. Sure, my salary is higher than an ordinary soldier’s, but an ordinary soldier still earns more than most commoners. If the wife works too, they can afford some luxuries. Between a husband who gets home from work at the same time every day and a husband who earns a bit more but is never home, which would you choose?”

Sadius wore a resigned expression as he turned to the girls for confirmation, but all three of them looked away.

“Yeah, that’s about what I figured. And here’s Nao with three girls to pick from while I have no one! Are good looks really all that matters?!”

“You’re not a bad-looking man by any means, Sadius,” said Haruka. “It’s simply that you aren’t my type.”

“Some help you are! If you’re going to try to force a compliment out, at least try to hold the second part back... All right, just take the documents and get out of here! Oh, and don’t forget to wear these while you’re out gathering information.”

Atop the documents he’d gathered for us, Sadius laid a bunch of armbands embroidered with the crest of the House of Nernas; presumably they would indicate we were under the viscount’s protection.

“Ha ha, okay, you got it, boss!” said Yuki. She began gathering up the documents and armbands. “Maybe we can keep anybody else from getting kidnapped if we walk around with these on.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess this basically makes us substitute soldiers,” I said. “Well, Sadius, good luck with...all sorts of things.”

I was trying to cheer him up, but Sadius just scowled. “Ahhh, shut up! Get going, won’t you? I’ve still got a lot of work to do here!”

He made a gesture as if to shoo us away, stopped to stretch, and then resumed sorting through his paperwork. He was a nice enough guy, so I felt kind of bad for him. There was no question that he was too busy for romance.

★★★★★★★★★

We returned to our own room and spread the documents across a table. Though only two dead bodies had been recovered, the total number of missing persons was thirty-seven—a fairly large number, but there were only a few pages of documentation per person. We examined the cases one at a time.

“Hmm,” said Yuki, “I still feel like thirty-seven is way too many people to go missing in a place like this. The Viscounty of Nernas is supposed to be peaceful and safe...”

“Yeah, agreed,” said Touya with a nod. “But just think. Back in Japan, thousands of people went missing every single year...”

Natsuki laughed, then chimed in to correct him. “You’re missing a digit, Touya-kun.”

“Huh? Wait, so it was actually tens of thousands of people every year?! Man, I’m really surprised it was that many in Japan.”

“Japan has a much larger population than this kingdom, so the comparison to Pining is hardly informative,” said Natsuki.

“Mm. In addition, the annual statistics for missing people in Japan are based on the number of missing person reports that the police receive,” said Haruka. “Most of the reports involve minors who run away from home or elderly people with dementia. As such, those cases are often resolved at a later date. Criminal cases actually only make up a small percentage of the total.”

“On the other hand, the cases that we have to investigate are almost certainly criminal, right?” I said. “Yeah, I guess there’s really no point in comparing this to Japan.”

As we continued looking over the documents, we chatted about various topics, and by the time we’d finished reading everything, two hours had passed. Silence fell as we digested the information.

The first person to speak up was Natsuki, but all she asked was, “Does anyone have something to say?”

“Uh, well, all I can say for sure is that I can’t deduce anything from the information we have here,” I replied. “I assume that goes for the rest of you too?”

“Yeah, sadly,” said Yuki. “Sure, there’s plenty of info about the victims, but there’s basically squat about the culprits.”

What we had were the names, ages, and genders of the people who had gone missing. There was also some information about the situations that had led to their disappearances, but mainly in the form of eyewitness accounts. There was no physical evidence available to us and no such thing as forensic science in this world, so...

“There’s no alternative to conducting a follow-up investigation ourselves,” said Haruka. “However, it would hardly be realistic to do that in every one of these cases, so we’ll have to narrow them down. The first two incidents that Sadius told us about are good candidates, and so is the third, since he described it as having certain commonalities with the second. Let’s investigate those three first, then winnow down the rest.”

“Sounds good,” said Touya. “Investigating every single one would be too much work for us. And, like”—he pointed at one specific report—“I’m pretty sure we can just exclude this one involving a fourteen-year-old boy who got in an argument with his parents and ran away from home to become an adventurer. It says here he went missing after registering and taking on his first quest, so...”

The rest of us nodded.

“He took on a quest to slay monsters right away, huh?” said Yuki. “I kinda feel bad for him, but it’s not that surprising that he disappeared.”

“Yeah, even goblins are somewhat dangerous, so he only had himself to blame for his own death,” I said. “The cases over here seem pretty similar too...”

There were a bunch of cases involving young people who’d become adventurers immediately before going missing. Apparently it was fairly common for greenhorns to mistakenly assume that goblins posed no threat to them. There were safe ways to make a living as an adventurer—by taking on day labor. But most young people probably couldn’t resist the allure of combat.

“Mm,” said Haruka. “To those, we can add four similar cases here. As for other cases we can justifiably exclude, there are a number involving people who donated to the Holy Satomi Sect only to go bankrupt and vanish... Oh, so about twenty cases match that description, huh? That’s a great deal more than I assumed there would be.”

The twenty cases that Haruka had mentioned were divided between fourteen men and six women. It looked like the women hadn’t joined the sect themselves; rather, it was their husbands who had driven their families to financial ruin. Assuming their families had been deep in debt, I had a bad feeling about those women’s ultimate fate, but I set aside my concerns and mechanically excluded those cases.

“That leaves us with twelve cases,” I said. “Of those, two are men and ten are women. It says here that the bodies of two men and one woman have already been found, but we can’t take it for granted that they have nothing to do with the kidnappings.”

“Mm. We’ll have to investigate all twelve cases,” said Haruka.

“All right, let’s pause for a moment to summarize things.” I took out a piece of paper and listed out the cases that my party planned to investigate.

• Female merchant from Kelg (turned up dead)
• Woman (drowned under suspicious circumstances in an irrigation canal; boyfriend also turned up dead)
• Sixteen-year-old girl (went missing; boyfriend turned up dead—similar to the previous two cases?)
• Three cases in which the victims’ bodies have already been found (two men, one woman)
• Nine missing women

“Okay, I think I got everything,” I said. “Does this look okay?”

“Yeah, this is perfect,” said Yuki. “Now that we’ve decided what cases to investigate, I just figured out why the viscount said it was all women getting kidnapped. That’s most of the victims in these specific cases.”

“Yeah. Anyway, we can start our investigations tomorrow, but I have no idea what exactly we should do,” I said.

“Uhh, well, on TV, they usually make inquiries and do stakeouts and undercover operations,” said Yuki. “There’s also stuff like collecting fingerprints and footprints, but there’s not really any point in considering any of that, since we can’t do scientific investigations here.”

“Mm. Nor can we take photos, which will make any inquiries considerably more difficult,” said Natsuki.

“We might be able to accomplish some of our objectives by simply asking around for information while wearing the armbands,” said Haruka, “but that’s the only thing that springs to mind.”

Even Natsuki and Haruka seemed to be at a total loss as to how we should proceed, but I couldn’t exactly blame them. Not too long ago, we’d been ordinary high school students, so this was all way beyond our ken.

“Well, in any case, I actually do want to solve these cases,” I said. “We accepted this quest, after all. Deterring future kidnappings would probably be good enough, but we might as well aim high and try to resolve the whole thing, right?”

“Yeah, agreed,” said Touya. “Let’s just give it a shot and see what happens. Everything starts with legwork.”

“I hope that legwork will be enough to produce concrete results,” said Natsuki.

“There’s only one way to find out,” said Yuki.

Our only choice was to do our best, but we had no idea what kinds of difficulties awaited us, and after a moment, we released a collective sigh.

★★★★★★★★★

After waking early the next morning and sending the sisters off to play with Illias-sama, we launched our investigation. We searched the five places where bodies had been found, but...

“In detective shows, they always talk about how turning over the crime scene a bunch of times is how you get clues and solve the case,” said Touya, “but it seems pointless for amateurs.”

That was a decent summary of our current progress. None of us knew how to search for traces of human remains, and all of the bodies had already been disposed of, so we hadn’t turned up any clues.

“Well,” said Yuki, “in fantasy mysteries, they always use magic to discover clues. Nao, do you have a Time Magic spell that would let you see what the crime scene looked like in the past?”

“Come on, Yuki, you already know the answer to that,” I said. “Natsuki is the one whose skill build fits the scout or thief role, so she’s probably the one we should be relying on.”

Natsuki released a pathetic sound—something I wasn’t used to hearing from her. “M-Me?! I’m sorry, but the skills you have in mind won’t be of much use. I’ve hardly had any opportunities to cultivate them, so most of them are still at their initial levels.”

I hastily waved my hands. “Oh, sorry, I wasn’t trying to make some kind of unreasonable request. Don’t worry about it!”

“If we get the opportunity, it might be wise to level up relevant skills,” said Haruka. “It’s likely that we’ll never have to do this sort of detective work again, but all the same, I do think it’s likely that we’ll find ourselves walled into a dungeon and be unable to extricate ourselves by brute force...”

“Yeah, good point,” said Yuki. “We should all try to level up our skills if we can. Especially you, Touya! You’re specialized for combat, so you’re the one who has the highest odds of getting into trouble if you end up separated from the rest of us.”

“Ugh. Yeah, I guess you’re right. I gotta say, though, magic is a big reason you and everybody else have more options than me.”

It was true that all of us had an advantage with respect to survival thanks to the range of convenient spells at our disposal. Touya was giving us a slightly scornful look, but we all just laughed.

“Well, you should at least be able to learn scout or thief skills, Touya,” said Haruka. “The only trouble is that you need someone to learn them from. We might be able to find a suitable instructor in a dungeon city, so—actually, on second thought, I wonder if Sadius and the other soldiers could teach you. Hmm...”

We were more skilled than the soldiers when it came to combat, but they likely had more specialized knowledge that would be useful for this kind of work; after all, the techniques for investigating crimes in an urban environment were very different from the skills we needed for scouting dungeons, although...

“Yeah, if we ever get the opportunity, I definitely think it’d be worth it to ask Sadius to teach us,” I said. “We’ll have to solve this mystery ourselves before he gets time off work, though.”

“Oh, right,” said Yuki. “Anyhow, we didn’t really get any useful info asking around. It wasn’t that hard getting people to talk to us, but that’s about the most we can say.”

“Yeah, we haven’t made any real progress,” I said.

Yuki was a very sociable person, and my party was full of good-looking guys and girls. On top of that, we were wearing our armbands, so everyone we’d talked to had been very cooperative, but it hadn’t done us much good ultimately.

In part because we hadn’t been able to get any sketches of the missing people, the responses we’d gotten had generally been ambiguous. Commoners tended not to have a sense of the exact date when they’d witnessed something, and with nothing like watches or clocks in this world, they couldn’t tell us the time of day either.

Compounding that problem, all of the bodies that had been discovered so far were presumed to have died after dark, and town bells didn’t ring after sunset. A few witnesses had told us about overhearing heated arguments, but what was hardly useful information given that we knew multiple people had been murdered.

“No security cameras, no smartphones... This world really is hard mode for detective work,” I said.

“Yep, you don’t realize how hard it is to obtain objective evidence without technology until you have to do it yourself,” said Yuki. “I finally get why they used to do trials by ordeal back in historical times.”

“Perhaps there are traditions in this world comparable to trial by scalding water or hot iron in medieval Japan,” said Natsuki. “Given that the gods directly intervene in this world, such methods of determining guilt might have more merit, but...”

“Uh, wouldn’t a trial by fire not work if the accused was somebody like Nao who had fire magic?” Touya asked. “Like, the Resist Heat spell exists. You could cheat pretty easily.”

Touya was correct that you could use magic to endure the kinds of ordeals Natsuki had described, but...

“I’m pretty sure you’d be declared guilty the moment they detected you using magic,” I said.

“Mm. Adventurers like us would be especially suspicious due to our lack of social standing,” said Haruka. “That being the case, the viscount’s promise to become our patron might be worth more than we initially assumed.”

It was best to avoid even the appearance of associating with criminals, but trouble was an adventurer’s constant companion. A patron would help mitigate that to some extent.

“Anyway, if we want to remain on the side of the establishment, we should continue investigating these disappearances tomorrow,” I said. “I bet our inquiries would go a lot smoother if we had sketches of the victims, but that’s not an option.”

“Mm. A sketch based on a witness’s impression is quite different from a sketch drawn from a live model,” said Natsuki. “And I highly doubt that the House of Nernas has any artist qualified to produce an accurate sketch.”

“If they had somebody, I’m pretty sure they would have just handed us some sketches,” said Yuki. She shrugged and shook her head. “This isn’t gonna be easy.”

She was probably right that we had a long road ahead of us.

★★★★★★★★★

Our investigations and inquiries on the next day also failed to produce any results, but we’d basically expected as much. It would have been a different story if any of the victims had had distinctive features, but the descriptions we’d given people were all along the lines of “a tall woman with brown hair” and stuff like that.

“So far all we’ve accomplished is confirming the location of one person, huh?” I said. “We really aren’t making any headway.”

“Mm. That in itself is helpful, but it’s still only one case,” said Haruka. “We still need to find the bodies of nine more women.”

Haruka had produced a new list to summarize the results of our work over the past few days. The rest of us approached her to take a peek at it.

• Woman, age sixteen (currently missing; boyfriend found dead a while after they left their home together)
• Girl, age twelve (currently missing; left home to visit a friend and never showed up)
• Girl, age thirteen (currently missing; left home to run errands and failed to return after sunset)
• Woman, age sixteen, lived alone (currently missing; absence discovered by her parents when they dropped by her home to visit her)
• Woman, age eighteen (currently missing; went out to buy food for dinner and never returned)
• Woman, twenty-four years old (currently missing; absence discovered when her employer dropped by her house to determine why she hadn’t shown up for work)
• Two women, twenty-one and thirty-two years old (currently missing; absence discovered by friends who dropped by their house for a visit)
• Woman, thirty-six years old (absence discovered when her landlord dropped by the house to collect rent and found it empty)

“We’ve narrowed things down a lot from those thirty-seven cases, but we’ve still barely gotten any new info,” said Touya. “Ugh. I’m at my wit’s end!”

Overcome by frustration, he dove onto his bed, and I sighed deeply.

“Most of the missing women seem to be young, but I’m not sure if there’s actually a pattern here,” I said.

“Young people account for a high proportion of the population of this world,” said Haruka. “If the objective were to collect ransom money, it would make more sense to kidnap older people, but we have yet to uncover any cases like that.”

“Yeah, and for another thing, younger women just have more value in this world,” said Yuki.

All of us were mature enough to understand exactly what Yuki was implying by “value.” Weak adventurers sometimes met fates worse than death, after all. A heavy silence fell upon the room, but Yuki immediately piped up again in an obvious effort to dispel it.

“More importantly, I still can’t believe how rude they were at that first place—the family Sadius suspected at first, I mean.”

“Oh, yeah. They outright described the missing woman as a disgrace to their family,” I said. “We managed to get them to talk thanks to our armbands, but they seemed very reluctant to provide us with information.”

“They’re in a difficult situation, and in that sense, their behavior is comprehensible,” said Natsuki. “But even so...”

“Based on their reactions, I think we can safely infer that Sadius and the troops didn’t treat them well,” said Haruka. “The missing woman is considered a potential victim now, but the initial circumstances made her look like a probable perpetrator.”

The missing woman had been last seen walking through the red-light district with her boyfriend. The boyfriend’s body had been discovered shortly afterward, so anyone could’ve been forgiven for thinking there was something fishy about the whole situation.

“It’s weird that there are so few people actively searching for the missing girls,” said Touya. “Some of them were just kids, but it’s like even their families have given up on them ever being able to return home. That would be mega suspicious back on Earth, right?”

“In a mystery novel, it wouldn’t be an unusual plot twist for the family of a missing person to be the real culprits, but I don’t think that’s likely here,” I said.

“Life is simply much harder in this world. Family connections more or less wither away the moment a young person becomes independent,” said Haruka. “In fact, it’s not uncommon for children other than the heir to be treated as nuisances and chased out of their homes. It would be a different story if any of the missing women had spouses, but...”

Haruka went on to offer the qualification that there were, of course, many parents who cared for their children, but still, it was fairly common to favor the heir in that way. This world had different cultural standards, so we couldn’t simply categorize uncaring parents as cruel or crazy, but still, it was a hard pill to swallow.

“All of the women who have gone missing were either single or widows, right?” Yuki asked.

“Yes, that’s correct,” Natsuki replied. “It’s difficult to say whether that’s a coincidence, however.”

“People care more about their spouses than their children in this world,” I said. “Adults can work to earn money, after all.”

“Still, it doesn’t sit well with me,” said Touya. “Two of the missing girls are still kids, you know? If Mary or Metea went missing, I’d take the time off work to search for them, no question. You’d do the same thing, wouldn’t you, Nao?”

“Of course. But taking time away from adventuring wouldn’t hurt us much financially,” I said. “It’s hard to compare our situation to a normal commoner’s. You can’t just casually take a break from your work if it’s going to result in you losing your home or not being able to afford food for the next day—especially if you have other people to take care of. It sounds like the parents of the thirteen-year-old girl asked the Adventurers’ Guild to issue a search quest, but...”

“They could only afford it ’cause they own a business,” Yuki finished for me. “They were able to set aside a whole one hundred gold as a reward! They practically begged us for help after they found out that we’re adventurers, and they even offered to pay us extra, so they were definitely very concerned about their child.”

Having contributed that summary, Yuki settled into a resigned smile. The family’s reaction had been ordinary enough considering the topic at hand. They clearly weren’t poor, but they hadn’t seemed rich either, and the mother had looked exhausted from stress.

It had been pretty painful asking them for information. The families who didn’t seem to care had been weird as hell to me, but interacting with people who were very concerned was agonizing in a different way.

“It would be great to be able to resolve these kidnappings swiftly, but we still know next to nothing about the culprit’s profile,” said Haruka. “I would assume it’s a man, but beyond that, I have nothing.”

“That would make sense considering the victims were all women. I just wish we at least had some suspects to grill,” said Yuki. “Hey, Touya, do you have any relatives who are great detectives? You know, maybe somebody with a cool catchphrase, like ‘In the name of my grandfather’? You seemed so confident when we were talking with Sadius earlier...”

Touya was still rolling around on his bed, so it seemed he hadn’t been able to overcome his mental block, but when Yuki lobbed that unreasonable request in his direction, he just wagged his tail and pushed himself up.

“Pfft, I don’t remember saying anything specific about being confident, and if I’m confident about anything, it’s that I don’t have any detective grandpa,” he said with an exasperated expression. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to be related to a danger magnet like Young Kindaichi who attracts crimes wherever he goes.”

“Oh, yeah, the famous detectives of Japanese fiction all tend to have that trait,” said Yuki. “It’s like the laws of the universe bend to make sure they get sucked into drama everywhere they go. It’s kinda weird—Sherlock Holmes doesn’t even have a track record like that.”

“Well, Holmes’s method was superior,” said Natsuki. “He primarily resolved cases that people brought to him. Fictional Japanese detectives, in contrast, tend to happen upon the scene of the crime. It might come down to a cultural difference.”

Yeah, in real life, anybody with a relative like the detectives in Japanese crime fiction would probably lose loved ones every Bon Festival and New Year.

“I think it most likely comes down to the fact that a real detective probably wouldn’t be flashy enough to make an interesting protagonist,” said Haruka. “Real detectives are most commonly involved in investigating matters like infidelity, searching for missing persons, and, lately, even defamation cases. All of that is far too ugly to be suitable for entertainment—not to deny that murder is ugly as well.”

“Well, my name isn’t Kindaichi or Edogawa, but I guess I can still give it a shot,” said Touya. “If you forced me to come up with an outlandish theory, I’d say there’s a possibility that one of our classmates has something to do with the kidnappings, what with the suspicious deaths.”

“I’m not so certain,” said Haruka. “The gap in time since our reincarnation is a bit too long.”

By the time that female merchant had been discovered dead, we’d already been in this world for a year. We might have suspected our former classmates if there had been similar incidents earlier, closer in time to our arrival, but even if any of them had gotten skills with the intention of committing crimes, it was difficult to imagine that they would have patiently waited this long to commit them. That said...

“I guess we can’t completely rule out the possibility, though,” I said. “In that case, let’s drop by the Adventurers’ Guild tomorrow. A search quest has already been issued, so they may have more information for us by then.”

“Mm. It would be wonderful if we could help to rescue those children,” said Haruka. “Hopefully they’re still safe.”

A heavy silence once again fell upon the room, but then...

“Hi! We’re back!” Metea yelled.

“We’re back!” Mary echoed.

The sisters’ energetic voices immediately lightened the mood. Over the past few days, as we’d been forced to confront anew the harsh realities of this world, we’d all begun to feel pretty down, but the sisters’ joy for life always helped cheer us up again.

Haruka, too, looked relieved to see the sisters. “Welcome back,” she said. “Did you spend some time with Illias-sama today?”

“Yes, we did... Um, all of you seem to be a bit gloomy. Did you not make much progress with the investigations?” Mary asked hesitantly.

I nodded and casually replied, “We’re basically only starting to get a handle on things—we haven’t made any real progress.”

Metea was pouting at my answer. “It’s not your fault at all, big bro! You’re all amazing adventurers, but you’ve never done detective stuff before, so this is perfectly normal! The people that pushed you to take this quest are the ones that are wrong and bad! They should only ask for your help with fighting bad guys!”

Metea’s argument was perfectly sound, but we were the ones who’d decided to accept the quest, so we weren’t really in a position to complain.

Yuki laughed awkwardly and put a finger to her lips. “Ha ha, yeah, I agree with you, Metea, but you shouldn’t say stuff like that out loud here! Just keep in mind that we got this quest from the most important person in this mansion.”

“Oh, right! I’ll keep my mouth shut!”

Metea’s ears stood up straight, and she covered her mouth with both hands. If anyone was eavesdropping, it was already too late, but I didn’t mind given that Metea was a cute little girl, and anyway, I doubted that Viscount Nernas was the kind of person to get angry about an opinion expressed in a private setting.

“It’d be really chill for us if all we had to do was fight,” said Touya. “Especially for me.”

“Yeah, definitely,” I said. “By the way, what have the two of you been doing with Illias-sama? Have you been studying together like before?”

“Yes, but that’s only for a short amount of time in the morning,” said Mary. “The hours for studying were longer before because we had to get ready for our trip, but they’re shorter most of the time. And we have a lot of free time now thanks to all of Illias-sama’s hard work.”

“The three of us explored the mansion together!” said Metea. “Everyone was very friendly ’cause Illias-sama was with us!”

Yeah, of course they’d be friendly, Metea. There was no way any of the servants could have acted coldly toward the girls, even if they’d interrupted their work. But regardless, Illias-sama wasn’t a spoiled princess, so I didn’t imagine the three of them had caused too much trouble for the servants, although it was a little worrying to learn that Mary and Metea had tagged along while she was exploring the mansion.

“Exploring?” Natsuki echoed. “Are there places in this mansion you can spend multiple days exploring?”

“Yes, a couple of places,” Mary replied. “There are also some places that aren’t used, like some of the barracks and empty stables. It’s very interesting to wander around too, since everything is so big. Oh, and we went to see Illias-sama’s younger brother a few times.”

“We ate snacks and had a picnic! The baby was very cute!”

“...Oh, right, the guy who held the title of Viscount Nernas two generations ago really messed things up,” I said. “I guess that’s why things have been scaled back.”

A lot of people had died as a result of the incident involving the mithril mine, and the current viscount had no order of knights serving directly under him. It was possible that the old viscount’s successor had purposely avoided forming a new order of knights as a political gesture, signaling to the kingdom that he wasn’t as aggressive as his predecessor, but the facilities that had been used in the past were probably still intact.

“Well, Illias-sama was actually attacked during the escort quest,” said Haruka, “and the shortage of personnel is one important factor in their inability to end these kidnappings, so the House of Nernas may not have an alternative to recruiting more people eventually. Now that two generations have passed, the kingdom will probably regard the House of Nernas as having atoned adequately for their past sins.”

Haruka’s hypothesis made perfect sense to me and the older members of my party, so we simply nodded to ourselves. Mary, however, looked concerned about her future.

“I guess so, but it all seems so complicated that it’s hard to say,” said Mary. “Once I become an adventurer, will I have to understand all of this political stuff? I don’t have much confidence about it...”

Metea, however, thumped her chest with a self-assured expression on her face. “Don’t worry, big sis! Everything will work out!”

“Huh? What do you mean, Met?” Mary asked. “Do you mean that you’ll study with me and—”

Metea clenched her right fist and swung it through the air to interrupt Mary. “We can just avoid those types of quests once we become adventurers! We’ll earn money by slaying monsters!”

Her small fist looked very cute—not at all like a fist capable of slaying monsters. But she had actually become strong enough for such a feat.

It was perfectly possible to earn a living just by slaying monsters, and that kind of life was ideal for us as well. In fact, exploring dungeons was much more comfortable than taking on irregular quests that ended up being long and troublesome. The only problem was that we couldn’t avoid that kind of quest as we continued to ascend in adventurer rank and took on more obligations. Nevertheless, it was normal for adventurers to keep their distance from quests with political ramifications.

“Yeah, it’s true that there’s no need to study and cram unnecessary knowledge if you just avoid or turn down those quests,” I said.

“Mm, that’s right.” Natsuki laughed and patted Metea on the head. “You’re a very smart girl, Metea-chan.”

Metea reacted with an embarrassed smile and tried to act humble. “Tee hee. Well, it’s pretty obvious, so it’s not a big deal.”

★★★★★★★★★

At the Adventurers’ Guild in Laffan, we had a personal connection through Diola, and the branch master at Kelg owed us a favor for helping to defeat the Holy Satomi Sect, but we didn’t have any kind of connection at the branch in Pining. Having only dropped by a few times in the past, we didn’t even know who to ask for information or where to start. However...

“Oh, actually, do you guys remember that ale lady we met before? Why don’t we ask her?” said Yuki, pointing.

That unexpected suggestion solved our initial issue. When we looked where Yuki was pointing, we saw a familiar face—the receptionist who’d strongly recommended that we take the quest to inspect the polluted water source. We strode toward her, assuming it would be relatively easy to strike up a conversation, but before any of us could speak, she addressed us in a troubled tone.

“It’s good to see all of you again, Meikyo Shisui. I’d prefer that you not refer to me as ‘that ale lady,’ however. My name is Codi, and you’re welcome to call me that.”

“Okay, Codi-san,” said Yuki. “I’m surprised you actually remembered us, though—we’ve only dropped by a couple times before...”

But Codi-san smiled at us. “You’re all high-ranking adventurers, so you’re very memorable, especially due to everything that you did for Gardim Brewings. It’s thanks to your party’s efforts that Pining once again has a steady supply of delicious and accessibly priced ale.”

The real reason behind her smile was obvious. Well, even now that she’s told us her name, I’m probably still going to think of her as the ale lady from time to time.

“Um, shouldn’t your gratitude be directed toward Viscount Nernas instead?” Haruka asked. “We simply undertook the quest at his behest...”

“Your party was the catalyst. You were the ones who took the crucial steps toward solving the issue,” Codi replied. “And in retrospect, the reward wasn’t too terribly appealing. If no one had taken the quest, Gardim Brewings might have gone out of business, so I’m deeply grateful to your party.”

“I see,” said Haruka. “In that case, there’s actually something that we’d like to ask you about...”

“H-Huh? S-Sure, it’s true that I’m grateful to your party, but there are things that I can’t tell you!”

Codi-san leaned back, suddenly a bit wary of us, but Haruka leaned forward and pointed at her armband. “Don’t worry, we’re not planning to ask you to divulge any secrets or do us any strange favors. Are you aware of the kidnappings that have occurred here in Pining recently? We heard that someone issued a search quest for a young girl. We’re here to get more information.”

A look of relief appeared on Codi-san’s face.

“Oh, so you want to know more about that quest? Sure, I can help you with that. The reward is higher than the norm for a quest like that, but it’s also based on performance.”

We’d never heard of anything like that before, so we were a bit confused, and Natsuki asked on everyone’s behalf, “Pardon me, Codi-san, but could you clarify ‘based on performance’?”

“Oh, have you never heard of this kind of arrangement before? Well, it’s not very common, so I suppose that’s to be expected. You see, if a single party claims a search quest or something similar, it can take them a long time to make any progress, and by then, it may be too late to save the missing person. The guild deals with this problem by soliciting information and splitting the reward between the involved parties based on how much each contributed to the completion of the quest.”

Codi-san elaborated that adventurers could contribute to the completion of a quest by furnishing the guild with information, and even if they didn’t complete it themselves, they would be rewarded in proportion to the usefulness of the information.

However, if you withheld clues for any reason and another party beat you to it in reporting them to the guild, you’d lose any points you would otherwise have gained. Thus, there was a strong incentive for adventurers to report any information they uncovered to the guild as soon as possible, which reduced the time necessary to resolve a quest.

“There have been cases in which adventurers dropped by the guild with information but nobody wanted to tackle the quest itself,” said Codi, “as well as cases in which adventurers withheld crucial information so they could complete the quest entirely on their own and claim the entire reward, so it isn’t a perfect system by any means. But in any case, the client in this case gave the guild a portrait of the missing girl. Would you like to have a look?”

“Really? In that case, certainly,” said Haruka.

“Mm. Give me a moment,” said Codi. She took out a piece of paper and set it on the counter. “Here it is. There aren’t any copies, so please be careful with it.”

On the paper was a realistic drawing that seemed to have been done in charcoal. It looked a bit amateurish, and for obvious reasons, it wasn’t as clear as a photo, but it was good enough that the girl’s likeness was recognizable.

The only trouble was that I had no idea whether this drawing had been made by a member of the girl’s family who happened to be a decent artist or if they’d commissioned it from a professional illustrator and, if the latter, whether the illustrator had seen the girl. The missing girl’s family did run a business, so there was also the possibility that this drawing was a replica of a family portrait they’d commissioned in the past.

“What a cute little girl,” said Touya.

“Mm. She often helped at her family’s store, so it seems she was well-known in her neighborhood as a sort of cute mascot for her family’s business,” said Codi. “So many people knew what she looked like that everyone assumed she would be found quickly, but...”

Codi-san explained that although there had been numerous reported sightings of the girl, the only concrete information was the area where she’d last been sighted; none of the witnesses had seen anyone else with her, nor were there any accounts of her being attacked.

“It’s fortunate that this portrait is available to us,” said Natsuki. “Let me take a moment to copy it.”

“Oh, can you just do that, Natsuki?” I asked.

If we’d had smartphones on us, we could have just taken photos of the drawing, but in this world, everything had to be copied by hand. A sketch was much harder to reproduce than text, but Natsuki nodded, looking undaunted by the task.

“I should be capable,” said Natsuki. “There’s no need for artistic skill if one concentrates and works carefully.”

“Oh, please, it’s more like you’re just really good at drawing, Natsuki,” said Yuki. “Didn’t you win some art prize back in middle school?”

“It’s simply that I’ve attended painting classes, so I have a bit more experience than the average person.”

“Dang, painting classes!” Touya sounded impressed. “You’re a bona fide noblewoman!”

Natsuki laughed. “The classes I attended were the kind available to any child. It’s true that the things I learned have proven useful, but I’m by no means a prodigy.”

Natsuki began to draw on another sheet of paper that Codi-san had laid out on the counter. Despite Natsuki’s modesty, her dexterity was impressive, and gradually, a new sketch began to emerge beside the original. She was making subtle adjustments; if anything, her version looked slightly better than the original.

“...If this is what a ‘bit’ more experience looks like, I doubt I’ll ever be able to draw anything,” I said.

“You can learn to copy drawings with minimal practice,” said Natsuki. “Some of the most common methods aren’t feasible here, but for example, if you place a transparent sheet with borders over the original drawing to create a placeholder image, tracing becomes fairly simple.”

There were no borders or frame lines around the original sketch or the copy, but Natsuki’s education was definitely proving its worth; she continued to work without any sign of hesitation, and she was done in less than thirty minutes.

“There—finished. How does this look?”

“It looks great,” said Haruka. “You’re good at cooking, you play multiple musical instruments, and you draw well. Your frail constitution really was your only weakness, and thankfully, that’s not a problem any longer. You’re almost too perfect, Natsuki. If I were prone to comparing myself to you, it would make me awfully insecure.”

“If this is enough to make you insecure, then just think about me,” Yuki interjected in a joking tone. “I barely have anything where I can confidently say I’m better than Natsuki, y’know?”

“If this is a race to the bottom, then I’m the champ,” Touya said with a laugh. “Combat is the only area where I have any expertise at all!”

He sounded like he was joking too, but...

“Yep,” Haruka, Yuki, and I all said in unison.

Touya’s eyes went wide with shock. “Huh?!”

“Relax, we’re just teasing, Touya,” I said. “It’s true that Natsuki is good at a lot of different things, though.”

“I believe what’s most essential is to have the right people in the right roles,” said Natsuki. “After all, there are also plenty of things I can’t do.”

“Mm, good point. I wonder what’s the right role for me. Hmm...”

Yuki stared at Natsuki as if expecting an encouraging answer, but Natsuki averted her eyes.

“Now, then. We should probably show this copy to people who knew the missing girl in order to get their opinions,” said Natsuki. “The copy will be useless if the adjustments I made were too extreme.”

“Huh?!” said Yuki, who hadn’t quite moved on from the previous topic.

“Oh, I ought to add, Yuki—I was just joking with you earlier,” said Natsuki, smiling playfully. “You’re capable of using powerful combat magic, and you’re good at cooking and sewing. As for you, Touya-kun—if we were to fight head-on, there’s no question you would prevail. Each of us has a unique role to play, so there’s no real point in comparing ourselves.”

It was the kind of sentiment you’d expect out of a schoolbook, but even so, it was true that our party functioned on the basis of everyone being essential, and deep down, we all cared about one another, so I nodded and then changed the subject.

“The most obvious thing to do would be to show this copy to the family members of the missing girl, but I’m a bit reluctant to do that.”

Only a few days had passed since we visited the girl’s family. I was afraid of hurting their feelings regardless of whether Natsuki’s copy was accurate.

“Mm, I agree, Nao,” said Haruka. “We could ask the neighbors or regular patrons of the family business instead—”

Suddenly, we were interrupted by a man’s voice from behind us. “Hey, you plannin’ to search for that girl?”

Upon turning, we discovered that the speaker was a man with zero appealing features. He was older than middle-aged—exactly how much older, I couldn’t have said, but his exhausted expression and thick stubble made him look just plain aged.

Given that the guy had rudely interrupted us, Touya stepped forward, between him and the girls, and answered just as aggressively. “Yeah, so? Who are you?”

For some reason, the dude just ignored Touya and glared at me. “That quest is mine. Drop it.”

“We received a request directly from the viscount,” I said. “We have no reason to defer to you.”

The dude grimaced when he heard the words “the viscount,” but he clucked his tongue and then took a parting shot. “Hmph. Latecomers. Don’t you dare get in my way.”

As he stomped out of the guild, we all exchanged confused looks, unable to decide how to react.

“Wow, that dude suddenly appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared just as fast,” said Yuki. “I wonder if he’s been working on the quest for a while. Maybe he was trying to scare us off ’cause he figured we could snatch the whole reward away from him.” Yuki handed the original sketch back to Codi-san and asked, “What do you think about that guy, Codi-san?”

Codi-san smiled awkwardly as she took the sketch from Yuki. “To be honest, I’m not sure. That gentleman said something similar about a month ago...”

“It doesn’t sound as if he’s anywhere close to fulfilling the quest, then,” said Natsuki. “We certainly wouldn’t object if the girl were rescued by someone else, but based on what we’ve seen thus far, that doesn’t seem likely. Ordinarily, a mere hundred gold coins wouldn’t be enough to merit our attention.”

“‘A mere hundred gold coins,’ huh? It’s plain to see that you’re high-ranking adventurers!” said Codi. “That man has been actively investigating and gathering information, but...”

Codi-san reminded us that one hundred gold coins wasn’t a meager reward for most adventurers; apparently a number had expressed interest when the quest was initially issued. They, too, had asked to see the sketch of the missing girl.

However, most of them had proceeded to turn their attention elsewhere after just a few days of searching—unfortunately an entirely pragmatic decision; any adventurer who devoted their time to a quest like that would be earning nothing for the duration. As for veteran adventurers, very few had savings to fall back on, so the quest wasn’t an attractive prospect for them either.

“Well, the dude didn’t exactly look rich,” I said. “Did nobody try to either stop him or change his mind?”

“Yeah, what about his party mem—oh, actually, is he a solo adventurer?” Yuki asked.

“Yes, he’s a solo adventurer by the name of Gudz,” Codi replied immediately. “His main source of income is day labor, and he only picks the easiest jobs. He’s technically a veteran adventurer, but his rank is very low.”

Her lack of hesitation in divulging all that information was probably due to our high ranks and the fact that we were taking this quest at the viscount’s behest. This was a good example of why it was important for us to continue ascending through the ranks.

“Well, if he still hasn’t given up, I suspect he may have found a lead,” said Haruka. “Has he reported any information to the guild?”

“No, nothing,” said Codi. “He must want the whole reward for himself—that’s probably why he doesn’t want your party involved. It’s the guild’s prerogative to decide how the reward is parceled out, though. If anyone else comes up with useful information, they’ll receive a fraction of the reward regardless of whether Gudz-san also knew it.”

“His strategy would seem to be rather unsound, then,” said Haruka.

“Mm, that’s right. And from the guild’s perspective, his behavior just now was completely inappropriate.” Codi-san eyed our armbands. “How would you like to handle this? If your party demands that he share information, I’m fairly sure he’d have no choice but to cooperate...”

Relatively speaking, adventurers enjoyed a lot of social liberties, but an adventurer who lived and worked in Pining couldn’t realistically afford to oppose the viscount’s will.

“Hmm, I dunno about that idea,” said Touya. “If I was working on a quest like this and somebody snatched it away from me all of the sudden, I’d definitely fight back...”

“We technically do have the option of leaving this case to him and turning our attention to the other missing person cases, but if a single culprit is behind all of the kidnappings, I think it would be best to start with the cases where we have the most information,” I said. “Our objective is to put a stop to this as soon as possible.”

If we included those who’d turned up dead, eleven people had gone missing. That was a moderately high estimate—some of the cases seemed unlikely to be kidnappings—so it was possible that the remainder were the work of a single culprit. Even if there was an entire criminal organization involved, we’d be able to trace things back to them if we could just recover a single person alive.

“I concur with Nao’s opinion,” said Haruka. “It may prove to be a problem if there are multiple kidnappers acting independently of one another, but nevertheless, we should probably tackle the cases one at a time—better than trying to tackle them all at once and making no progress whatsoever.”

“So should we go ask that dude for some info?” asked Yuki. “If we wanna avoid taking credit for the work he’s done so far, we can tell him we don’t need or want the reward, and then he might be willing to cooperate—he didn’t really look strong enough to take out a kidnapper.”

“Mm. Combat against the kidnapper may prove inevitable, so that’s a wise idea,” said Natsuki. “Codi-san, would it be possible for you to arrange a meeting between Gudz-san and our party?”

The rest of us also agreed with Yuki’s idea; a hundred gold coins was an amount we could earn just by slaying a couple orcs, and we wanted to solve the kidnappings and get home to Laffan as soon as possible.

Codi-san seemed a bit surprised at our unanimous decision, however. “Are you sure about this? You also have the option of ordering him to cooperate...”

“If possible, we’d like to avoid wielding the viscount’s authority to get our way,” said Natsuki. “Or rather, I should ask—would the guild actually approve of such a course of action?”

Diola-san had acted as an intermediary for most of our dealings with the viscount. It sounded like Natsuki was curious about Codi-san’s reasons for operating more directly.

But Codi-san simply laughed and shrugged. “Under ordinary circumstances, I would ask you to refrain from lording your authority over other adventurers, but Gudz-san has now interfered with other adventurers on multiple occasions in very similar circumstances, so the guild has decided to modify its policy where he’s concerned.”

“That makes sense,” said Haruka. “We weren’t really bothered, but I suppose he would come off as intimidating to a rookie adventurer.”

“Mm, exactly,” said Codi. “So, have you changed your mind? Would you prefer not to waive your rights to a portion of the reward?”

“...We’ll stick to our initial plan,” said Haruka. “It would be best to avoid any kind of blemish on the reputation of Viscount Nernas.”

“I see. In that case, I’ll ask Gudz-san about a meeting the next time he drops by,” said Codi. “How should I keep in contact with Meikyo Shisui?”

“We’ll drop by the guild occasionally,” said Haruka.

“Very well, then. I will also update you if there’s any other progress made in regard to the search quest.”

Codi-san politely saw us to the door. Our short time at this guild had served to remind us of the importance of connections and rank.

We wanted to make progress on the quest as soon as possible, so we immediately did as Haruka had suggested and went to the missing girl’s neighborhood to confirm that Natsuki’s sketch was accurate. Luckily for us, the regular patrons of her family business as well as her neighbors all told us it resembled her perfectly.

We finally had a lead, but the sun had already set, so we postponed further inquiries for tomorrow and returned to the lord’s mansion. However, bad news greeted us upon our return: While we were away, Illias-sama and the sisters had gone missing.

★★★★★★★★★

His face contorted by fury, Gudz stormed out of the Adventurers’ Guild and down the street toward an alleyway.

“Damn it! I can’t believe those little bastards showed up out of nowhere and threw the lord’s authority around!”

Nao’s party had no intention of abusing the authority that the viscount had granted them, but since Gudz had left before they clarified that point to Codi-san, there was no way for him to know that. He kicked at the ground.

“And how the hell did they copy the sketch that easily?! That’s outright cheating!”

Gudz was well aware of how important that sketch was. In spite of low hopes that the guild would accommodate him, he’d asked to borrow it, but as he’d expected, the receptionist had refused his request on the grounds that they couldn’t lend out the only copy. That reasoning had seemed sound to Gudz, and he’d considered trying to make a copy himself, but he wasn’t any good at drawing, nor did he know anyone who was. It would have cost a heap of gold coins to hire an artist to make a copy for him, but Gudz had no money to spare, hence his desperation to earn the full reward for the quest.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! I’ve spent over two months on this quest, and I’m down to my last coin! If they find more clues before I do, I’m doomed!”

Nao’s party had a high-quality copy of the original sketch, the backing of the local lord, and an advantage in sheer numbers as well, so it seemed very likely that they would solve the quest before Gudz. He was painfully aware of those facts, but as he hid himself in a small alley and peeked out in the direction of the main street, he had a look of determination on his face.

The target of Gudz’s gaze was a private house, a bit larger than any of the surrounding buildings. The property was surrounded by walls, taller than the average adult, which enclosed a spacious garden; at first glance, it looked like the residence of a wealthy family. However, upon closer inspection, strange details emerged: Through gaps in the gate, it was apparent that the garden was quite shabby.

Gudz monitored the house for some time, but nothing happened. Eventually, the town bell rang to inform the citizenry that sunset had arrived.

“Nothin’ today either, huh? Damn it!”

Gudz angrily spat on the ground, then put a hand over his mouth and drummed his fingers in irritation.

“I wanted to gather a bit more information first, but I s’pose I don’t have any time left. It’s now or never.”

Gudz glared at the house, muttering as if to exorcise his doubts, and then left his hiding spot for a time.

Later, after darkness had enveloped the town, he returned, checked his surroundings to make sure no one was around, then covered his face with a black cloth and clenched his fists.

“It’s time. This is the day my life changes for the better.”

After muttering those words, Gudz approached the house and scaled the wall slowly in order to avoid making any noise. Once he was over, he made his way to the back entrance, used a tool to force the door, and disappeared inside.

Side Story—Illias Wants to Become Friends

For Illias, friendship existed only in fiction. There were no noble children her age in the lands adjacent to the Viscounty of Nernas, and regardless, the viscountcy’s connections to its peers had deteriorated as a result of the misdeeds of the viscount of two generations past. After Illias’s grandfather had been summoned to the royal capital in order to assume the title of Viscount Nernas, he had worked hard to establish a new network of connections, but the viscounty was located in a very rural part of the kingdom, and so both physical distance and financial constraints had made it difficult for him to interact with other nobles.

Of course, many children of common birth lived throughout the viscounty, but it was inconceivable that Illias, as the daughter of their lord, could ever truly be friends with them. Thus, Mary and Metea were essentially the first potential friends she had ever met in her life. In addition, both were small, cute girls with fluffy ears and tails. When Illias was younger, the Marquess Marmont had left such a strong impression on her that she’d assumed all beastfolk were muscular and ursine, so Mary and Metea were a breath of fresh air, and she was excited to get to know them.

“Well, I suppose I may have been a bit rude...”

Illias felt ashamed of the way she’d asked the sisters for permission to touch their ears immediately after meeting them for the first time, especially since commoners like Mary and Metea found it difficult to turn down requests from nobles. When she’d first met Marquess Marmont, he had, without warning, hoisted her up into the air, and she’d batted at his ears in surprise—objectionable behavior for a noble child, but given the Marquess’s own lapse in propriety, Illias had gotten off lightly.

“I’m glad that Vira stopped me before I went any further. She really didn’t have to tack on that last part, however.”

Vira’s charge that Illias had no idea how to treat friends was admittedly true enough. Nonetheless, Illias was a bit peeved about Vira going on to remark that she had no friends. Still, Illias knew that she’d gotten ahead of herself at the time, and even if she’d successfully coerced the sisters into letting her touch their ears, she probably wouldn’t have been able to get any closer to them afterward.

“Come to think of it, it’s really as a result of studying together that we’ve become closer.”

The real object of the lessons had been to help Illias review information she’d already learned, but they’d also afforded her an opportunity to become friends with Mary and Metea. The responsibility to teach them what she knew had allowed them to talk in a friendly manner.

“I got to talk a lot with them during the journey to Clewily and on the way back as well. Surely we’re friends by now, more or less? They did let me touch their ears a bit...”

The reason that Illias wanted to touch the sisters’ ears was quite simple: She thought they would feel pleasant. But what she truly wanted—what had become far more important to her over time—was to become closer to them.

“J-Just to make sure, should I perhaps ask something like ‘We are friends, are we not?’”

Had Vira been present, she would surely have given Illias an exasperated look, but there was no one around who could allay Illias’s worries, and so she laid a hand to her cheek as she pondered.

“I did pass a message along to inform them that they can feel free to drop by to play at any time, but after they return home, I have no idea when I’ll next be able to meet them...” she mused aloud with a serious look on her face.

The members of the Meikyo Shisui party lived together, but their home in Laffan was quite far away. It wouldn’t be easy for children like Mary and Metea to travel to Pining by themselves, nor could Illias readily visit Laffan, so she and the sisters wouldn’t be able to meet often regardless of the sisters’ inclination to do so. Illias could have visited Laffan as a representative of the House of Nernas on the pretext of inspecting her father’s domain, but that would have been a frivolous expense for a noble house that was by no means wealthy. And, perhaps unfortunately for Illias, she wasn’t quite immature and selfish enough to demand that she be appointed to such a role for her own selfish reasons.

“I suppose I’ll only be able to meet them when my father asks that Meikyo Shisui take on another quest on his behalf.”

It occurred to Illias that she could get Mary and Metea hired as her maids, but she quickly rejected that idea.

“No doubt the sisters would look quite cute dressed as maids, but that would be a misuse of my father’s authority. Besides, were they my menials, we couldn’t become friends in the truest sense, so all my efforts would be for naught.”

Illias dearly wished she could move to Laffan and remain as close as possible to Mary and Metea, but as a child, she would have needed a very good reason to get her parents’ permission to live by herself.

“Would marriage be a good enough reason? What about the local official in charge of Laffan... On second thought, no, the difference in age between us is far too great, and there would be no real political benefit to marrying him. That leaves either Nao-san or Touya-san, but I doubt their competence as adventurers would be enough to earn my father’s approval.”

Now that Illias had a younger brother, she had gotten a great deal more freedom in choosing her own husband. Still, if it became clear that her choice was motivated primarily by the desire to remain close to her friends, her father would probably be at a loss as to how to respond.

To most people, the idea of a young girl entering a marriage primarily to get closer to her friends would perhaps have seemed like evidence of an unusual obsession, but nobles were raised to regard marriages as primarily transactional. Having been educated to be her father’s successor, Illias had no illusions on this point. In fact, a marriage free of financial woes was far more important to her than romance.

“Hmm. If it comes down to it, then I suppose both of them—”

Illias had enjoyed a rather sheltered and carefree childhood in the countryside, so at times, she fell prey to odd impulses, but before her train of thought arrived at a dangerous conclusion, she was interrupted by a series of light knocks at the door.

“Yes? Who is it?” she asked in confusion. These knocks were different from the maids’.

The door swung open to reveal Metea and Mary. Metea was beaming, but Mary had a troubled look.

“It’s us, Illias-sama!” Metea exclaimed. “We’re here to play!”

“Sorry for dropping by all of a sudden, Illias-sama,” said Mary. “Did we happen to catch you in the middle of something?”

“Oh, Mary, Metea! Not at all! Please, enter!” said Illias, pleased that the sisters had arrived just as she was thinking of them, almost as if all three were on the same wavelength.

“Thank you for having us,” said Mary. “Um, are you sure we’re not interrupting your studies or anything like that?”

“Yes, there’s no need to worry. Under ordinary circumstances, I don’t have to spend the entire day studying; the lessons we took were for a special occasion. And in any case, I’ve now finished my chores for the day, so I have time to play,” said Illias. “However, what about the two of you? If I recall correctly, my father asked your party to take on another quest, did he not?”

“Yes, that’s right,” said Mary. “But Nao-san decided that the grown-ups would handle this one all on their own.”

“We don’t have anything to do this time,” Metea chimed in. “It sucks for us.”

Even Metea did, of course, understand Nao’s reasons for excluding the two of them, but she was still pouting. Being a bit more mature, Mary simply laughed to herself and patted her younger sister on the head.

“I’m certain they were just being considerate of us, though it’s still a hard pill to swallow,” said Mary.

“No doubt, no doubt,” said Illias. “I should add, however, that I know nothing about the quest.”

Viscount Nernas had told Illias only that he’d asked the adventurers of Meikyo Shisui to search for some people who had gone missing recently. Even Illias had been able to divine that this was something much more complicated than a search quest. Mary and Metea were very young, so it was perfectly normal for adults to keep them away from such things.

“You seem disappointed not to be able to help, Metea, but I take it this means we’ll have some time together,” said Illias.

“Uh-huh. Nao-san and the rest of them didn’t say we had to do anything specific, so now we have free time,” said Metea.

“In that case, let’s play together every day until they finish the quest!” said Illias. “It was terribly trying, acting as my father’s representative, and now that I’m done with all that, I’ve been told I can rest and do whatever I please for a while!”

“Oh, that sounds great!” said Metea. “The three of us won’t be able to play together after we go home!”

“Ugh. R-Right, that’s undoubtedly true,” said Illias. “We won’t have as many opportunities in the future...”

Illias had already been dwelling on the fact that she was soon to be separated from the sisters, but even so, to hear Metea say as much aloud was painful.

Having barely recovered, Illias continued, “U-Um, pray tell, how do friends usually play together?”

Illias didn’t sound completely confident yet that the three were friends, but neither of the sisters seemed to mind. The two of them leaned forward as they gave it some thought.

“Well, when we’re free, me and my big sis usually train,” said Metea. “I swing a sword.”

Mary laughed. “Training is different from playing, Met. Besides, it’s not something we can really do with Illias-sama...”

Illias was watching the sisters in confusion. She hesitantly put in, “Do you two really spend all of your free time training? Um, if the life of an adventurer is too difficult, I might be able to get you other work...”

Illias’s proposal was born of a combination of genuine compassion and the hopes of fulfilling her own most selfish wishes, but Metea just blinked at her.

“Huh? Nah, it’s not hard at all. It’s actually fun! We get to eat all sorts of delicious food and see rare and unusual stuff, so it’s a very exciting life with lots of cool things ahead all the time!”

“Training is something we do because we choose to, Illias-sama,” said Mary. “Everyone has told us we can feel free to play more if we want. But right now, we’re still a burden on them, so...”

“Adventurer life will only be half as fun if we get left behind! We wanna stay together with them forever!”

“Left behind, you say? I doubt Meikyo Shisui would ever permit such a thing to happen.”

Illias was aware that Meikyo Shisui had decided to adopt Mary and Metea after they’d lost their father during the incident in Kelg. Nevertheless, it was obvious to her that Nao and his friends truly loved the two sisters and didn’t consider them a burden. She was confident that Meikyo Shisui would never abandon their new wards despite the fact that they’d only known them a short time.

But in response to Illias’s reassurance, Metea pouted and waved her hands around. “No, that’s not what I mean at all! What I mean is we want to stay in their party!”

“Um, adventurers normally form groups called parties with other adventurers who are about equally strong,” said Mary. “Sometimes veteran adventurers let rookies into their parties to train them, but that doesn’t last forever...”

In fact, Nao and his friends had previously discussed the idea of eventually parting ways with the sisters. The five of them were all older than the sisters and much stronger; they had thought it would be perfect if, after Mary and Metea were capable of supporting themselves, the party could take on other children who’d left the care of the local orphanage.

However, they’d dropped that idea for a number of reasons. For one thing, none of the other orphans had proven compatible with their party. For another, Mary and Metea had quickly exceeded their expectations and proven themselves capable of keeping up with the rest of the party.

Nevertheless, Metea was very sensitive about this issue, and she wanted to remain with Nao and his friends, both because she liked them and because she wanted to continue eating good food. She had no intention of slacking off in her training.

“Oh, I see. It sounds like the two of you are working hard with a definite goal in mind,” said Illias. “But surely training isn’t all you do in your free time?”

“We also play games like tag and hide-and-seek for fun,” said Metea.

“Ah, yes, I’ve read of such diversions in books!” Illias was clearly excited, but then a wary look crossed her face, and she glanced at Mary. “Um, you’re sure that doesn’t count as training?”

Mary blinked a couple of times, then looked away from Illias. “When we’re playing with other children from the orphanage, we just do it for fun. But, um, Metea gets pretty serious whenever we play with Nao-san and the others, so it does become sort of like training.”

“The other kids are no match for us if we go all out,” said Metea, puffing out her chest. “We have to hold back. It kinda sucks.”

The sisters had been active as adventurers for some time now, in addition to which the delicious food prepared by Haruka and the other girls had helped them grow and enhanced their physical abilities as beastwomen. It was truly impossible for other children their age to compete with them—and the same applied to Illias; she looked downcast.

“...Um, are there any games you play that don’t require physical aptitude?” she asked with her brow lowered.

“Hmm? Oh yeah, there’s one called billiards!” said Metea. “It’s fun!”

“B-Billiards? What manner of game is that?”

“It’s a game where you use a pole to poke small balls on top of a table and bounce them into holes!”

Metea used her whole body to demonstrate the motions, but Illias was unable to follow.

“Um, Mary, could you perhaps elucidate...?”

Mary was very adept at translating her younger sister’s gestures, hence the fact that Illias turned to her, but apparently explaining billiards was difficult for Mary too; she frowned and spent a moment thinking.

“It’s pretty much like Met said, but also, to play the game, you need equipment that Nao-san and everyone else designed themselves, so that’s probably why you haven’t heard of it, Illias-sama. We can’t play it here, since we don’t have all the special equipment.”

“Meikyo Shisui invented a new game out of whole cloth? Can it really be that they’re no more than ordinary adventurers?”

“They are,” said Mary, “but they’re good at lots of different things. They’ve made all sorts of tools, medicines, and clothes too. But apparently they got help from a woodworker making the billiards table and everything, so it cost them a lot of money.”

“When Big Bro Touya found out how much money it all cost, his face went white!”

In fact, Touya had fallen to his knees in stupefaction upon seeing the bill. His reaction had really put a smile on Metea’s face, in part because of how Nao and the girls had proceeded to bail him out.

But Illias, knowing how much high-ranking adventurers could earn, was confused. “The members of Meikyo Shisui earn a respectable income, do they not? That being the case, I can hardly imagine how great the bill must have been to make him go pale.”

“Mm, yes, we make a lot of money, but they said the cost ballooned during the trial and error process because they were trying out something new,” said Mary. “I think I remember them saying they wanted to pitch the game as a product for sale to earn back the development costs.”

“I see. If they needed the help of a woodworker in Laffan to develop this new product, then it sounds as though it could lead to the birth of a new industry,” said Illias. “Very well, then. I will bring this billiards game up with my father and ask him if it would be possible for him to purchase it.”

“Are you sure about that, Illias-sama?” Mary asked. “It’s really expensive...”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Illias replied. “A lord ought not to be ignorant of new goods invented in the lands he rules, and in any case, it will be up to my father to decide after he sees it for himself whether it’s worth promoting. But if I can just get him to agree to purchase the equipment, then we’ll be able to enjoy billiards together...”

“Really?! That’d be great!” said Metea. “In that case, I want the table to be a bit lower! The current table is a bit too high for me...”

“Oh, is the height of the table important? In that case, I will request that one be custom-made for children, and—”

Illias had casually agreed to Metea’s impulsive demand because she was eager to help a friend—and because she had no idea of the exact cost—but Mary quickly interrupted to scold her sister.

“M-Met, you shouldn’t just casually ask for something like that! It’s very expensive! Besides, you’ll grow taller in no time, so we won’t really have any opportunities to use a custom-made low table.”

“Oh, hmm, I guess that’s true,” said Metea. “I’ll get bigger and taller soon! I’ll even overtake Big Sis Yuki!”

The table that Nao and his friends had designed was actually a bit on the low end due to feedback from short people like Yuki and Tomi, but if it had been too short, it would have been uncomfortable for people like Touya, who was over 180 centimeters, and it had to be usable by people of average height if they wanted to popularize the game of billiards. Thus, they’d arrived at a compromise and reduced the table’s height by about five centimeters. At the same time, they’d waived the rule that players had to keep at least one foot in contact with the floor, so Tomi and Metea had been permitted to use footstools.

“I think it would also be a good idea to avoid spending a bunch of money, Illias-sama,” said Mary. “It’s pretty easy to figure out ways to enjoy billiards even with a normal table, and soon you’ll also be too tall to need it, right?”

“I suppose you’re right,” said Illias. “A low table would perhaps be useful for my brother, but I doubt my father would be willing to purchase two sets of equipment. Lavish spending is strictly forbidden in the House of Nernas... Very well, then. A single set for adults will have to do.”

“Mm, I think that would be better,” said Mary. “And anyway, it’ll be a while before the next time we get together to play.”

At those words, Illias’s expression turned gloomy, and Mary, noticing the shift in her mood, tried to change the subject.

“B-By the way, what do you usually do for fun, Illias-sama?”

“Me? Oh, well, I usually read books,” Illias replied. “I don’t have any friends to play with.”

Mary’s attempt to distract Illias had instead evoked a sad response, and now Mary herself was at a loss for words. Illias, however, smiled in order to reassure her that she wasn’t bothered.

“Can it really be that the two of you are unfamiliar with books?”

“No way!” said Metea. “I like reading, and I have some books of my own too!”

“Haruka-san and the others actually own a lot of books,” said Mary. “I believe their whole library is one hundred and several dozen books.”

“Really?! Given the value of books, that’s rather surpris—no, I suppose it’s nothing unusual for them,” said Illias, nodding to herself.

Mary and Metea had actually been able to keep up with the lessons that Illias had to take as the daughter of a noble family. That they were literate wasn’t too special in itself, but they also had good reading comprehension, which distinguished them from the average commoner.

“I suppose that means we could read together, but I don’t think that would really count as playing with friends,” said Illias. “Hmm... Ah, yes—sometimes I ask Vira to play a game called Chaser with me.”

Illias cast a quick glance at a wooden board on which a grid was painted. Chaser was somewhat like a simpler version of sugoroku, but more dependent on strategy than luck. However, compared to Illias, the sisters had very little experience with Chaser, so she was a little worried about whether they would actually enjoy playing against her.

“It’s not a very complex game. However...”

Illias normally wouldn’t have hesitated to ask someone to play Chaser, but now, reflecting that she’d never before played it with friends, she frowned as she struggled to make a decision. Luckily for Illias, her doubts faded when Metea smiled and grabbed her hands.

“Don’t overthink it, Illias-sama! Even just wandering around is fun if it’s together with friends! The garden here is very big, and there’s a lot of buildings too, so I’d really like it if you showed us around!”

“...Would you really be all right with something so simple?” Illias asked.

“Of course! The weather’s good today, so it’ll definitely be fun to eat outside together!”

“Really...?”

Illias was perplexed that Metea sounded so excited about everyday activities. She glanced at Mary for confirmation, and Mary smiled and nodded back at her.

“Commoners don’t own games and things like that, so Met’s opinion isn’t that out of the ordinary,” said Mary. “I’d like to learn about this mansion too. So far, all we’ve seen are the room we’re staying in and the training grounds.”

“I see,” said Illias. “Very well, then. There are actually rather a lot of facilities that aren’t currently in use, so I don’t have perfect knowledge of the entire property. But you can enter anywhere as long as you’re with me, so let’s go explore together!”

“We can? That sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun! Let’s get going and—”

Metea’s ears were waggling with excitement as she tugged on Illias’s hands, but Mary put her own hands on her younger sister’s back in an attempt to calm her down.

“There’s something we should do before we go outside to play, Met.”

“Oh, right, I completely forgot! Um, we have a present for you, Illias-sama!”

Metea quickly searched through her pockets, produced a pink ribbon, and, beaming, offered it up to Illias-sama with both hands.

“Um, what is this...?”

“Me and my big sis chose this! We thought it would look pretty on you!”

“You were traveling with us, Illias-sama, so I’m not sure if it’s exactly right to call this a souvenir, but we bought this back in Clewily,” said Mary.

“It’s a present to celebrate becoming friends,” said Metea. “We’ll have to return home soon, so...”

“Oh my!”

Illias was getting a bit misty-eyed, and upon taking the ribbon out of Metea’s hands, she gently clasped it to her chest.

“Thank you very much,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”

As she examined the ribbon in her hand, Illias was saddened by the thought that the sisters had to return home in the near future, and yet she was pleased to know that they seemed equally reluctant to part company and had presented her with such a wonderful gift.

“...Hmm? This ribbon seems to be of high quality,” said Illias. “Are you quite sure about giving it away?”

“Yeah, we’re sure, Illias-sama,” said Mary. “We chose this so it would be good enough for a noble like you, but don’t worry—we get plenty of money from Nao-san and everyone else as an allowance.”

The sisters had had a little difficulty deciding what exactly to get. Since the three were all children, an inexpensive gift would have been perfectly adequate, and Illias would probably have been happy with anything her first friends gave her.

Still, she was the daughter of a noble family. Her social standing prevented her from casually wearing anything cheap, and everything in her household likewise befitted her status. Hoping to avoid giving a present that Illias couldn’t use, the sisters had asked Natsuki and the other girls for advice, and together, they had come to the conclusion that a ribbon was the most sensible option. Of course, regardless of quality, ribbons weren’t anything special, but even so, ordinary children wouldn’t have been able to afford this one; the sisters had only been able to purchase it by pooling their money.

“The clerk at the store told us that this ribbon was even fit for a noble girl,” said Mary. “Is that true?”

Illias smiled and nodded deeply. “Mm, yes, quite. In fact, it’s so fine it wouldn’t look out of place even if I wore it to a formal party. I’ll treasure it forever.”

It was the first time the sisters had ever given a present to a noble, so Mary had been very anxious despite what the clerk had told her. Now she sighed in relief. “I’m glad to hear that. It’ll make us even happier if you use it every day, though.”

“I just had a great idea!” Metea exclaimed. “We should tie up your hair with the ribbon before we go exploring! I’ll—actually, big sis will do it for you!”

“Yes, I— Wait, me?!”

“Yeah! I’m not very good at stuff like that! Having the right people in the right roles matters a lot when you’re adventuring, ’member?”

Metea’s “role” in the household was that of the youngest daughter. Someone was always willing to fix her hair for her, so she had no experience fixing anyone else’s; the most she was capable of doing was slowly combing her own hair, so if anything, she had somewhat overstated her actual skills.

“Um, what would you like me to do, Illias-sama?” Mary asked.

Though they were now friends, Illias was still the daughter of a noble family, so Mary felt that perhaps a task like this was better left to one of her maids of honor. However...

“Oh, if you’re willing to fix my hair, I would love that!”

Unfortunately for Mary, Illias was thrilled at Met’s idea. In books, Illias had read scenes in which friends would do one another’s hair, and she really wanted to experience something like that for herself. Mary had essentially offered to do it, and after seeing that reaction, she had no choice.

“O-Okay,” said Mary. “I’m not very good at this either, so would something similar to Natsuki-san’s hairstyle be all right?”

“Of course,” said Illias. “Feel free to do with my hair however you see fit.”

Unlike Metea, Mary wasn’t fibbing about her proficiency. Because of the circumstances in which she’d grown up, she’d never been able to spend the time on an elaborate hairstyle—currently, she had a simple shoulder-length cut—but she had fixed Metea’s hair in the past. She was still learning how to braid hair from Haruka and the other girls, but it wouldn’t be too difficult for her to tie Illias’s hair in a ponytail. Mary felt a bit nervous, but she gently combed Illias’s hair and gathered it behind her head without any issues.

“All that’s left is to tie your hair with the ribbon... Okay, that should do it.”

“Thank you very much,” said Illias. “How do I look? I don’t customarily tie my hair up...”

“You look very cute, Illias-sama!” said Metea. “Your hairstyle is perfect for running around!”

“Your hairstyle looks lovely to me, Illias-sama,” said Mary.

Illias had been touching her hair, feeling a little nervous that it was so different from usual, but she smiled in relief. “I’m glad to hear that. It feels very new and refreshing.” She giggled.

“Yeah, it’s perfect!” said Metea. “Okay, we’re ready now, so let’s head out and play!”

“Yes, let’s!” said Illias.

Metea extended a hand toward Illias. Illias took it, then took one of Mary’s, and the three happily skipped out of the room.

★★★★★★★★★

The girls’ expedition began inside the mansion itself. They dropped by the viscount’s office to peek in on him working, visited Illias’s baby brother, wandered into the kitchen for snacks, and snuck into the dressing room to chat with the maids.

Because of Illias’s presence, everyone welcomed the three girls, but the servants were all busy, so Mary felt bad about interrupting them. She told Metea and Illias as much, and the three agreed to take lunch and snacks with them and go explore the empty parts of the grounds.

“This stable isn’t currently in use,” said Illias, “but there were once a lot of horses.”

The stable was in a corner of the grounds far from the mansion. It was big and wide and lined with stalls on both sides; nearby were other facilities, like a hayloft and a smithy for repairing horseshoes. So many years had passed since the stables were last in use that if the House of Nernas ever wanted to fill them with horses again, extensive repairs would be necessary beforehand.

“Whoa, it’s so big!” said Metea. “It’s kinda lonely without the horsies, though.”

“Yeah. This is the first time I’ve ever seen such a big stable,” said Mary, sounding a bit hesitant. “It looks a bit old.”

Illias laughed. “To my understanding, most of the horses were sold in order to defray costs, and maintenance was scaled back as well...”

The House of Nernas still owned horses, but not enough to justify the expense of maintaining a stable like this; rather, they were kept in a smaller stable near the duty station.

“Apparently even taking care of just one horse is very expensive, so that makes sense to me,” said Mary. “Nao-san and the others thought about buying a carriage, but they gave up on that idea.”

“Yeah, they said they wouldn’t be able to use it much,” said Metea. “They also said they can run faster than a carriage.”

“Oh my, that’s quite impressive. They are certainly doughty adventurers,” said Illias. “Being nobles, my family and I could hardly do the same.”

Nobles like Marquess Marmont, who got from place to place on his own two feet, were the rarest of exceptions; it was only possible for the marquess to behave like that because he was powerful enough to ignore any criticism his unconventional life attracted. In contrast, there were many ways in which weak nobles like the Viscount Nernas were constrained by social expectations.

Illias sighed at that thought, then said, “Let’s move on to the next place.”

She led the sisters to another big building nearby. It was three stories tall and full of windows, but it looked a bit plain and lifeless.

“This building is quite big too,” said Mary. “What is it?”

“It’s an empty barracks,” said Illias. “Most of the soldiers who serve the House of Nernas live elsewhere now, so this isn’t in use either.”

More accurately, the barracks, which had been in use during the time of the lord two generations prior, were empty because of a reduction in the number of standing troops. In the past just as in the present, most of the soldiers who served the House of Nernas had come from Pining, but the viscountcy had also recruited soldiers from other cities, including Kelg and Laffan, so it had been necessary to house them on the grounds. Today, there were still some soldiers who worked night shifts and lived on the premises, but they were so few in number that the duty station was sufficient for them, and barracks like this had long since been abandoned.

“The rooms inside are all the same,” said Illias. “I’m afraid there’s nothing really interesting here.”

The barracks had been designed with an eye toward practicality, hence Illias’s lack of enthusiasm, but Metea screwed up her face and channeled her childish willpower into wringing some fun out of the building.

“Oh, I know! This building would be perfect for hide-and-seek!”

“Huh?! Hide-and-seek? Well, of course, there are probably all sorts of places to hide, but I rather doubt I’d be able to compete with you and Mary,” said Illias. “I’m not athletic like the two of you...”

“Don’t worry,” said Metea. “You don’t have to move after you hide, and the game doesn’t stop until you get found.”

“No need to move, you say? I suppose that also means the seekers don’t chase the hiders? Hmm. In that case...”

Looking a bit anxious, Illias gave Mary a glance as though soliciting her opinion, but Mary just laughed and nodded; it was obvious to her that Illias really wanted to play.

“Sure, why not?” said Mary. “If we’re allowed to play here, then—”

“Of course!” Illias interrupted her, hastily producing a key to show her. “I borrowed the keys to this building. Let’s head inside!”

★★★★★★★★★

For the remainder of that day and into the afternoon of the next, Illias, Mary, and Metea enjoyed themselves playing hide-and-seek in the barracks. Their games finally came to an end when one of them declared she wanted to explore elsewhere.

The next place they visited was a building that, unlike any of the others they had visited, appeared just as well-maintained as the viscount’s mansion. In front was a magnificent garden.

“This is a very beautiful place, but there doesn’t seem to be anybody around,” said Mary. “Does anybody live here?”

Illias shrugged and answered in a lightly self-deprecating tone. “No. This is a guesthouse, and it rarely sees use all year long. It has to be cared for as a matter of keeping up appearances. Guests are rare, but occasionally we have some.” Illias quickly recovered from her self-consciousness and smiled cheerfully at the sisters. “That being the case, I can confidently say that this will be a splendid place to explore, but there are all sorts of expensive things inside, so please be careful.”

Metea, however, shook her head and thrust out her hands as though warding Illias off. “I’ll pass! I won’t go inside! Discretion is the best part of valor!”

“U-Um...?”

Illias had some idea of what Metea was trying to convey, but it wasn’t completely clear to her. She glanced at Mary for help, and Mary laughed before chiming in.

“I think Metea is trying to repeat a proverb that Natsuki-san uses. The right way to say it is ‘Discretion is the better part of valor,’ and it basically means that it’s best to outright avoid dangerous situations or places instead of charging ahead. And I completely agree with Met. No matter how careful we are, we might accidentally break something, and that would cause trouble for Nao-san and the others, so I think it would be best to avoid taking a risk in the first place.”

“Even if we broke something, I’m fairly certain my father would forgive us as long as it wasn’t done on purpose, but I suppose you’re right,” said Illias. “Your proverb seems quite wise to me.”

It was hardly likely that the Viscount Nernas would lash out in anger at the girls, but even so, the House of Nernas couldn’t afford any unnecessary financial losses, and many of the objects in the guesthouse would be expensive to repair or replace.

“In that case, let’s walk around the garden instead,” said Illias. “It’s around the time of year when flowers should be starting to bloom.”

Mary looked very relieved after she heard Illias’s new idea, and Metea’s tail stood on end.

“Oh, that’s a great idea!” said Metea, looking around. “We couldn’t really take our time exploring the other garden...”

“Mm, naturally, given that there were other people around at the mansion,” said Illias. “Only the gardeners visit this place, so we can explore at our leisure.”

“Okay! Whoa, there’s all sorts of flowers I’ve never seen before!”

Metea immediately began dashing around the garden, though she kept stopping to inspect flowers or bringing her face right up to them to sniff. In fact, she was acting quite like a bee flitting from blossom to blossom. Illias and Mary drifted along more slowly behind her, observing the flowers on the way.

“I’m surprised by how many different flowers there are,” said Mary. “It isn’t easy to grow all these flowers and take care of them, is it?”

“I shouldn’t think so. The trouble is that many flowers wither within a single year, so seeds have to be collected for the next year. It would be terribly difficult to replace any that died without the gardeners collecting their seeds, so there’s no alternative but to maintain the garden.”

In this world, there were no garden centers where one could easily buy flower seeds or seedlings, and so even maintaining the garden year round was cheaper than buying new seeds every year. Though the guesthouse was rarely used, a moderately attractive garden was, as Illias had said, necessary to keep up appearances.

“This is a really wonderful garden,” said Metea. “It’s way different from the one we have at home.”

“Really? Do you have a big garden at home?” Illias asked.

“Yeah, we do. It’s more like a field for raising crops instead of an actual garden, though.”

Tears would probably have welled up in Yuki’s eyes if she’d heard Metea’s honest assessment of the “garden” she’d worked so hard on, but Mary, being aware of the reason for its current state, felt moved to correct Metea.

“Um, actually, Nao-san and the others are usually away from home because they’re adventurers, so they can’t really take care of the garden by themselves. They normally leave it up to kids from the orphanage to take care of everything, so it makes sense for them to grow things we can use or sell.”

“Rapeseed flowers are pretty, but the flowers here are completely different,” said Metea. “I still like the garden that we have at home, though. It’s thanks to our kitchen garden that we can eat all sorts of delicious things!”

“I think Nao-san and the others wanted to have an actual garden with beautiful flowers, but it’s too difficult to get seeds,” said Mary.

“Mm. I don’t imagine you’d be able to find flower seeds at stores catering to commoners,” said Illias. “But actually, that being the case, I could share some of the seeds from the viscountial stock if you’d like. As you can see, we have plenty of different varieties...”

“Are you sure, Illias-sama? Aren’t flower seeds rare and valuable?” Yuki would probably jump for joy if the sisters brought some flower seeds back with them, but Mary was anxious at the thought of receiving something so valuable for free.

Illias smiled reassuringly at Mary. “The two of you gave me this ribbon I’m wearing, so I would appreciate it if you accepted the seeds from me and grew them as a symbol of our friendship.”

“Sure! Oh, and just so you know, we don’t know anything about growing flowers, so please forgive us if we mess up and let them die!”

“M-Met?!” Mary exclaimed in a panic.

But Illias just gently nodded, then giggled. “Don’t worry. If that happens, I’ll share some more seeds with you. Besides, it would—actually, never mind.”

The words it would be a good excuse for us to meet up had almost escaped from Illias’s mouth, but she’d managed to contain herself just in time. She clapped her hands and changed the subject.

“Now then, let’s take a break and have a bite to eat. The kitchen staff prepared some snacks for us today as well.”

“...Mm, that sounds like a good idea. But where exactly should we sit down to eat?” Mary was a bit curious about what Illias had meant to say, but she avoided pursuing the subject and instead looked around.

The three girls were in the middle of a beautiful garden that was in far better shape than the place they’d explored yesterday. It wasn’t a suitable place to sit down on the ground, and there weren’t any benches around either.

“A short distance from here is a beautiful place that isn’t visible from the guesthouse,” said Illias. “It’s a grassy area that thrives with minimal care, so it’s the perfect place to play and lay down a mat.”

Illias pointed at the backyard of the guesthouse, and the three walked toward the destination that she had decided on.

★★★★★★★★★

“Today’s snacks were just as delicious as the ones from yesterday!”

Metea was rubbing her belly and rolling around on the mat that the girls had spread on the grass. The basket beside her was completely empty, the contents having disappeared into her belly, Mary’s, and Illias’s.

“The snacks and tea were wonderful, Illias-sama,” said Mary. “Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome,” said Illias. “But wouldn’t you agree that the snacks Haruka-san and the others make are much finer?”

“They’re completely different, so there’s no need to worry about it!” Metea interjected. “I’ve learned that there’s no point in comparing things that cost different amounts of money to make! The snacks here are pretty good too!”

“Ugh, I suppose you’re right, but...”

Illias was somewhat taken aback by Metea’s bluntness, but she quickly cheered herself up when she realized it was a sign that the younger girl was opening up to her.

But then Illias glanced at Metea with slight trepidation, as if fearful of what her next reaction would be. “Will you still come to visit even if the snacks here aren’t as good as the ones you can eat at home?”

“Of course!” said Metea. “I don’t just choose who to be friends with based on snacks! It’s also fun to explore together!”

“It’s heartening to hear that, but I’m afraid I don’t know anywhere else to show you around,” said Illias. “Most of what’s left is the neglected area over there...”

Illias pointed toward what appeared to be a small forest. From her perspective, unkempt areas like this were symbols of the viscountcy’s dire financial straits, but Metea seemed to have an entirely different impression; she immediately sat up.

“Oh, is that whole place over there really part of your house too?!” Metea asked, her ears perking up with excitement.

“Yes, it is,” said Illias. “As you can see, it’s been completely neglected, so there’s nothing really noteworthy.”

“Nah, this is exactly what I wanted! It’s way more fun to explore neglected places!”

“I confess I’m a bit surprised to hear you say that,” said Illias. “I would have assumed such places were nothing out of the ordinary for commoners.”

“No, neglected areas are actually quite rare,” said Mary. “There’s no place in town where kids can just wander in nature.”

“Yeah, I only got to walk around in the woods after we became adventurers,” said Metea.

Towns were surrounded by nature, of course, but the woods and fields were full of all sorts of dangerous beasts and monsters. Commoners were forbidden to roam the wilderness, and there were no children so mischievous as to flout that rule; children who wandered into the woods on their own were never seen again. Since towns were bounded by walls, the land within was very limited, and with the exception of stigmatized properties like Edith’s mansion, no place was ever left alone for long enough to be taken over by vegetation.

“Hmm. It seems that nobles like myself actually live closer to nature than the average commoner,” said Illias. “Still, if you’ve explored the woods before, I don’t suppose anything here will be of terribly much interest to you...”

Illias was assuming that Metea had grown tired of the great outdoors, but...

“When you’re an adventurer, walking around the woods isn’t like exploring for fun.” Metea shook her head, looking extremely serious. “It’s work. I’m a disciplined person who takes work seriously.”

Mary laughed and prodded Metea’s cheek. “Oh, really, Met? I thought I remembered somebody jumping out of the carriage and running to go get meat. Am I just imagining things?”

Metea pouted. “That was the old me. I’m a different person now.” She quickly stood and extended her hands toward Illias with a smile. “Let’s go and explore, Illias-sama!”

“Come to think of it,” said Illias, “I’ve never before had the opportunity to observe a natural forest closely—though I’m not sure whether this forest can truly be described as natural.”

“A real forest would be too dangerous to explore,” said Metea. “We gotta make do with the safe one here.”

“I suppose you’re right. I never thought I would be permitted to play freely like this. Come, let’s go!”

Illias stood and grabbed Metea’s hand, then extended her other hand toward Mary. Mary smiled as she clasped hands with Illias, and the three girls dashed excitedly into the forest.

★★★★★★★★★

“Whoa, this moss feels so soft, and it’s a very pretty green,” said Metea. “Let’s keep it!”

“Oh, you’re right, it really is very soft,” said Illias. “But Metea, whatever do you plan to do with moss?”

“I dunno,” said Metea. “I’m just picking up whatever seems interesting to me.”

“I see,” said Illias. “In that case, the grass here is quite thick. Perhaps a few blades of grass would make a nice addition to your collection.”

“Yeah, of course,” said Metea. “We’re not here for work, so let’s just gather whatever stuff we want and show it to each other later.”

“Oh, so that’s the game we’re playing? I understand the rules now,” said Illias. “In that case, I’ll do my best to gather the finest things I can find.”

“I don’t think this is something you have to really focus on, Illias-sama,” said Mary. “Oh, I found a grass that moves when you touch it.”

“Nice, big sis—you found something rare!”

“Ugh. This competition isn’t over yet!” said Illias. “Hmm? There’s a purple mushroom between the trees over there—”

“Stop!” shouted Metea. “Mushrooms are breaking the rules!”

“Huh?! I wasn’t told of this!” Illias objected.

“Um, Haruka-san and the others warned us there are mushrooms that are dangerous even when you just touch them, so they said not to handle any that we don’t recognize,” said Mary. “They said we have to study about mushrooms before we even try gathering them ourselves.”

“Oh, that makes perfect sense. I suppose I’ll have to exclude mushrooms... Hmm. It looks like there’s a tiny flower growing on this grass here.”

“This looks like something that you’ll only be able to notice on a close look,” said Mary. “That’s a great find, Illias-sama.”

“Whoa, the flower is so tiny,” said Metea. “I bet a bee wouldn’t even be able to drink any nectar from it.”

Unlike the materials that the sisters were accustomed to bringing back from their adventures, the things the girls were gathering weren’t rare or valuable; they were simply gathering things they could show one another and smile about. This expedition wasn’t anything special, but even minor discoveries were fun when made with friends, and they were able to relax and savor their time together. Evening had come by the time they’d discovered something new near the entrance to the forest.

“Oh, I see something strange over there,” said Mary. “It kind of looks like an old well.”

The object that Mary had spotted was completely smothered in ivy. Only the patches of stonework visible through gaps in the vines revealed it to be a well.

“A well? I’ve never heard of such a thing being here,” said Illias.

“Really? Isn’t this area still on the mansion grounds?” Mary asked.

“Yes, but people don’t go to abandoned areas,” Illias replied. “And in any case, I can’t imagine why anyone would put a well here...”

Both Illias and Mary were puzzled for different reasons, but Metea didn’t seem bothered; she dashed toward the ivy-mantled well.

“We’ll know for sure after a closer look! This is another fun part about exploring! Let’s see...”

Metea grabbed the vines clinging to the wall, then tore them away and cast them aside with a strength that seemed incongruous with her small body. As Mary had surmised, the structure under the ivy was an old well. It was a bit larger than the typical well, with a diameter of about one and a half meters. The top was sealed with a rusty iron cap, thick and heavy enough that it hadn’t been disturbed despite Metea’s violent assault on the ivy.

“Hmm. I think this old well is very suspicious!” Metea declared.

“Really? What precisely do you mean by that?” Illias asked.

Illias, too, found the well slightly suspicious, as she hadn’t been aware of its presence beforehand, but it appeared to be an ordinary well. She was curious about Metea’s reasoning, but Mary placed a hand on Illias’s shoulder and shook her head with a laugh.

“You don’t have to take Met seriously, Illias-sama—she just blurted out the first words that popped into her head.”

“Nah, big sis, I thought this whole thing through! I’m absolutely sure that this is a suspicious well!” Metea pointed at it as she confidently stated her conclusion.

She shifted aside the iron cap to peek into the shaft, then perked up her ears and hollered down the well. After a moment, she moved the cap back into place, then slowly turned to the other girls and crossed her arms smugly, as if she’d discovered something amazing.

“I was right! There’s no water inside this well!”

“Doesn’t that just mean the well has dried up? Let me take a look for myself,” said Illias. “Ugh...”

Having seen how easy it was for Metea, Illias had attempted to move aside the cap, but it was far too heavy for an ordinary girl below the age of ten. She tried her best, but the cap didn’t budge. Mary couldn’t bear to watch her futile attempts and asked Illias to leave it to her.

“Oh, my, you’re very strong, Mary! Thank you very much.”

Metea had simply moved aside the cap, but Mary had outright lifted it, so Illias was very impressed.

Mary felt a bit bashful as she set the cap down beside the well. “I technically am an adventurer, so I’m decently strong.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that you worked hard to cultivate that strength. I have nothing but admiration for your efforts.”

“We have to be strong to survive, so it’s nothing special,” said Mary. “M-More importantly, please feel free to take a look down the well.”

“Oh, right.” Illias clapped her hands, looking very excited. “Now then, what’s insi—”

But the moment she peeked over the rim of the well, there was a strong gust of wind, as if the well were sucking in the air, and the pink ribbon in Illias’s hair was blown away.

“No! Come back here!”

Illias snatched at the ribbon, but it slipped between her fingers, and her body tilted forward, over the well.

“Watch out!” the sisters yelled in unison.

Mary grabbed Illias’s hands and pulled her upright, away from the mouth of the well. Metea, meanwhile, had aimed for the ribbon, but her hands merely grasped at air; she was too short to reach it.

“Oh...”

The ribbon fell down the well, and silence descended upon the three girls until Mary spoke up.

“I’m very sorry. I shouldn’t have removed the cap...”

“No, it’s my own fault for not tying the ribbon properly,” said Illias. “I should have let Vira tie it for me instead.”

Illias was the daughter of a noble family, so her personal maid, Vira, usually dressed her every morning. However, because the pink ribbon was a special gift from the sisters, Illias had wanted to learn to tie it neatly herself, and she’d asked Vira for instructions as she tied her own hair this morning.

It was possible that Illias simply hadn’t done a good job, but it was equally possible that the ribbon had come loose while the girls were playing in the woods all day, or that the wind had loosened it. In the end, all that really mattered was that Illias had lost the gift she’d received from her friends.

“I’m the one who ought to be sorry,” said Illias. “You gave me such a wonderful present, and yet...”

The ribbon had been a gift from the first friends she’d ever made. Yesterday, she’d been so happy that she had gently folded it up and placed it under her pillow before she went to sleep. Now she was on the verge of tears; she blamed herself for losing something so precious in a single day.

Seeing Illias’s reaction, Metea hurriedly said, “I-It’s not your fault, Illias-sama! I’m just glad that you’re not hurt!” She pointed down into the well. “Besides, I can see the ribbon stuck down there, so it’s too early to give up!”

“...Huh? R-Really?! Where is it?!”

Illias swiftly squinted in the direction where Metea was pointing, but all she saw was darkness. There was no sign of the ribbon, and Illias, confused, turned back to Mary for help.

“Met is right,” said Mary. “I can’t see it clearly, but it’s there, and it looks like it’s stuck on something.”

“Oh, can you see it as well, Mary? In that case, I suppose it must be there,” said Illias. “I’m impressed by your eyesight.”

As surprise and relief washed over Illias, the tears vanished from her eyes. Metea was relieved but also a bit proud.

“Our eyes are very good, and we’re very nimble!” she said, placing her hands on the edge of the well. “I’ll go get the ribbon! Just wait here for a bit!”

“Huh?! No, wait, that’s very dangerous!” Illias objected.

“The walls of this well are rough, so it’ll be easy to climb down,” said Metea. “I bet the person who had this well built was very stingy.”

“S-Stingy? I don’t think that’s—well, come to think of it, I suppose it’s possible,” said Illias. “Hmm...”

The bricks lining the well were irregular in size and perfect as foot- and handholds. Even so, it was a well on the grounds of a noble house. Illias doubted that a noble would actually try to save money through shoddy construction, but she recalled her father telling her before about the tough times that her grandfather had endured when he’d first inherited the title of Viscount Nernas, so she supposed it might be true that he had tried to cut corners where possible.

“Um, I’m not sure if it’s actually because of anyone being stingy, but it’s definitely true that there are good footholds all the way down,” said Mary with an awkward laugh. “We’ll be fine, Illias-sama, so please rest easy and leave this to Met.”

Illias fell silent for a moment, but it seemed she really couldn’t bear to abandon the ribbon. She gave the sisters an uneasy look.

“...I’m counting on you, Metea.”

“Of course! This’ll be easy!”

Metea thumped her chest, looking all too self-assured, then casually hopped into the well. The walls offered more footholds than the average tree, so she quickly descended to the level of the ribbon, then extended her hand toward it.

“Just a little bit more— Oh!”

“Huh?! What happened, Met?!” Mary called down the well.

From Mary’s perspective, the upper half of Metea’s body had disappeared from view, as if she had sunk into the wall.

But Metea immediately reappeared and called up the shaft, “There’s a tunnel down here, big sis! The ribbon got sucked into the tunnel...”

“A tunnel inside of a well? Hmm. Have you heard about this before, Illias-sama?”

“No, unfortunately. In any case, come back to us for now, Metea!”

“Huh? Really? Well, okay!”

Metea sounded a bit unhappy that she hadn’t been able to retrieve the ribbon, but she seemed to realize that there was no point in sticking around now that the circumstances had changed, so she swiftly scaled the well and grabbed the edge of the mouth, then leaped out and turned over in the air before landing on the ground.

“I’m back,” she announced.

“Welcome back,” said Mary. “Can you give us more details about the situation down there, Met?”

“Um, the ribbon was stuck on a ledge on top of the tunnel, but wind blew into the tunnel and took the ribbon with it,” said Metea. “The tunnel was a bit too dark, so I couldn’t see exactly how far the ribbon flew away.”

Metea’s night vision was decent, but that only helped her in dim light; she didn’t have any special power that allowed her to navigate in total darkness, so she hadn’t been able to see to the end of the tunnel, nor had the ribbon been lying in the mouth of the tunnel where she could make it out.

“What did the tunnel look like?” Mary asked. “Did it have any holes inside?”

“No, it was a proper tunnel made of stone,” Metea replied. “I couldn’t see all the way up the end of the tunnel, but it looked like it was barely big enough for all of us to fit into.”

With her outstretched arms, Metea illustrated the size of the tunnel opening; when pressed for a number, she estimated it was about forty square centimeters in area. Nao and his friends probably wouldn’t have been able to fit, but it was just big enough for Illias, Mary, and Metea.

“I can get the ribbon if I have a light,” said Metea.

“Um, I don’t think I should let you explore a tunnel alone,” said Mary. “I’ll go with you, Met.”

“Okay. Let’s go together, big sis,” said Metea. “Can you let us borrow something like a lantern, Illias-sama?”

“Sure, but, um...”

Illias’s words trailed off as she looked around the woods. She mustered some courage and faced the sisters directly with a serious expression.

“May I tag along as well?”

“Huh?!”

The sisters both blinked, their ears standing up straight.

“I felt envious after hearing about the adventurers you’ve had and the dungeon you’ve explored,” said Illias. “I really wanted to have an adventure with the two of you, but I know all too well that my noble birth makes such a thing inconceivable.” She looked at Mary pleadingly. “But if we could have an adventure here...”

“Um...”

Mary wasn’t sure how to respond. The correct choice in this situation would have been to ask adults for help, but there was a high likelihood that that would result in Illias’s wish being denied. If Mary had accepted a quest to serve as Illias’s bodyguard, she would have chosen to discuss problems like this with adults regardless of the exact situation, but she and her younger sister had been playing with Illias, and trying to impose restrictions on Illias didn’t seem like something a friend would do. Still, Mary had a great deal of trepidation.

“Please grant my wish, Mary. I just want to know what it feels like to have an adventure in my own yard,” said Illias. “I vow to take responsibility for anything that may happen—and I vow not to cause any trouble for you.”

Mary managed to squeeze out an answer. “Ugh. V-Very well, Illias-sama. After all, we’re the ones who can only play here with your permission. If you insist, then...”

“Thank you very much! I’ll go fetch a lantern right away!”

Illias beamed, then dashed toward the main mansion before Mary could change her mind.

★★★★★★★★★

With Mary’s assistance, Illias climbed down into the old well. Metea had already hopped down to the tunnel, and she extended the lantern in her hand out of the tunnel to light Illias’s way.

Illias was somewhat jittery during her descent, but Mary pointed out footholds for her, so with a little time, she made it to the tunnel and said, “Phew. Success!”

“You were very nimble, Illias-sama,” said Mary. “I think you would do just fine as an adventurer.”

Illias giggled, aware that Mary was half joking. “I’m flattered, but it was only thanks to your help that I was able to descend, Mary.”

She examined her surroundings by touch.

“I must say, I didn’t imagine this tunnel would be so narrow. I wonder what its purpose is.”

“If it’s part of an irrigation canal, then it could be a drain to keep the water from overflowing,” said Mary. “But it’s part of a well...”

“And I doubt it would overflow even if the water level were to rise a bit,” said Illias. “Perhaps we’ll discover the answer for ourselves if we continue exploring—come, now.”

“Okay,” said Metea. “Straight ahead!”

Metea’s estimation of the size of the tunnel had been mostly correct. She was the smallest of the girls, but even for her, it would have been difficult to turn around, so as the three went deeper into the tunnel, they remained in the same initial order: Metea, Mary, and then Illias.

“Hmm. Perhaps this is a vent,” said Illias. “I’ve never heard of there being a cellar or anything of the kind around here, however.”

“It’s a mystery to us right now,” said Mary. “Met, what do you see up ahead?”

“Uh, there’s a bit of an uphill curve ahead. It also seems like this tunnel starts to get a bit wider from there.”

Metea crawled on her knees and one hand, holding a lantern in her free hand. As she followed Metea, Mary looked back from time to time, and Illias kept up with Mary. This narrow and dark tunnel would have terrified most sheltered children, but Illias wore a bright expression and seemed to be enjoying her time.

“I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to explore a secret place like this with friends,” she said. “I’m terribly excited! Another one of my dreams came true!”

“Really? Is this something you read about in a book?” Mary asked.

“Yes, that’s right. It was a story in which a number of characters worked together to solve a missing persons case. It ended with them obtaining a treasure.”

“Oh, hmm. That sounds kind of similar to the incidents that Nao-san and the others are currently investigating,” said Mary.

Mary’s tone betrayed her anxiety, but Illias simply laughed.

“The chances of kidnappers hiding on the premises of a lord’s mansion are virtually zero,” she said. “It’s true that there might be some valuable objects lying ahead depending on where this tunnel is leading us, but...”

“This is your home, so we can’t just take back anything we find,” said Mary with a giggle.

“I suppose you’re right,” said Illias. “However, if we come across things that could serve as mementos, we might be able to ask my father’s permission to keep them.”

“That sounds great!” said Metea. “Oh, by the way, the path ahead slopes.”

“Huh?”

Illias and Mary had been lost in their conversation, but Metea’s warning also came a little late—the slope wasn’t a big deal from her perspective—and so the other two girls were caught off guard and lost their balance. Mary quickly regained her composure thanks to her experience as an adventurer, but Illias fell forward and flung her hands out to save herself. Unfortunately, in the process, she inadvertently touched Mary’s butt and pushed her forward.

“Eep!”

Mary was unable to react to the jolt from behind, and she rolled forward, her own feet hitting Metea’s butt.

“Eek!”

Though Illias had set off the chain reaction, the downward slope exacerbated it. Had the girls been advancing slowly, they might have been able to recover, but once they’d lost their balance, it was too late. Metea rolled forward with Mary and Illias sliding down behind her.

When Mary realized there was no way to slow down, she acted swiftly to address the situation, calling, “Go first, Met! We’ll catch up with you in a bit!”

“Okay!”

Metea clutched the lantern to her chest to shield it as she rolled. Mary adjusted her posture as she slid down, and Illias covered her head to protect it.

“We’re gonna fall!” Metea hollered.

The end of the downward slope was the end of the tunnel as well. With a beastgirl’s nimbleness, Metea landed safely on the ground below and immediately raised the lantern in her hands. Seeing the light, Mary braced herself for impact and landed without any issue.

But when she looked up, she saw Illias falling in a posture that would surely result in her being injured without any intervention. Mary successfully caught Illias and held her firmly. Illias gasped for air, pale with fear.

“Are you okay, Illias-sama?” Mary asked gently, a worried expression on her face.

Illias looked up at Mary’s face and, once she realized she was safe, breathed a sigh of relief. “Y-Yes, somehow,” she replied. “I was caught completely off guard, but you saved me with your manly feat of strength.”

“M-Manly? Thanks, I guess?”

Mary laughed awkwardly at that choice of words.

Illias immediately realized her mistake and clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh, my mistake. Um, well, it’s more that you’re a cool and reliable person.”

“...Mm. Thank you for the compliment, Illias-sama.”

Mary laughed again as she lowered Illias to the ground. Illias stood next to Mary as if rooted in place, perhaps still a bit rattled.

Displeased with Illias’s reaction, Metea pouted and extended her hands to them. “Hey, what about me? I’m reliable too!”

In her outthrust hands was Illias’s ribbon; Metea had maintained her grip on it even as she rolled down the tunnel.

“Oh my, you actually managed to retrieve it?! Thank you very much, Metea! You’re also a very reliable person!”

Metea giggled. “The ribbon didn’t escape my sharp eyes!”

Looking satisfied, Metea handed over the ribbon, and Illias attempted to tie it into her own hair, but in the absence of a mirror, it ended up slightly misshapen. Luckily for her, Mary was able to adjust it.

Then the girls looked all around them. This place somewhat resembled a stone warehouse and was about six square meters in area. A couple of old wooden shelves stood against the walls, but their only contents were a few wooden boxes, most of them open and filled with dust; clearly they weren’t in use. In the ceiling was the hole the girls had fallen through; its location and size were signs that it hadn’t been intended for human use.

“I guess that must have been a vent, but I’m confused about why it was connected to an old well,” said Mary. “Or was it built this way for a good reason? Hmm...”

Even Mary, who knew nothing of construction, could surmise that a hole in the ground would make a poor vent because rain, dirt, and debris would fall into it. Still, she wasn’t sure if a vent inside of a well would be any better, so she shook her head and abandoned that idea.

“Do you know what this place is, Illias-sama?” Mary asked.

“Unfortunately, no,” Illias replied. “There is a cellar underneath the main mansion, but it doesn’t have a room like this...”

“Nah, we didn’t travel far enough to get back to the main mansion,” said Metea. She laughed. “This place is a secret cellar. I just know it! I knew that I had the right hunch! Time to explore for treasure!” She ran over to the shelves and began opening a wooden box.

Mary sprang into action. “H-Huh? Wait, Met, no!”

It would have been one thing to search for treasure in a ruin or a dungeon, but they were currently in Illias’s home, so Mary didn’t think it would be right to rummage through the boxes without permission. However...

“I’ll check the ones over here,” said Illias. “Oh, this one is empty.”

Illias had started to look through the boxes as well, so it was too late for Mary to intervene. The hand that Mary had extended toward Metea fell down limply when she realized it was futile to try to restrain her.

“I found some old tableware over here,” said Metea. “I don’t know if it’s actually valuable or not, though.”

“Hmm, there are some old clothes in this box,” said Illias. “I judge them unsuitable as mementos, but perhaps tableware would be all right.”

“Oh, can I actually keep these things?!” Metea asked excitedly.

“Having been left here, they’re likely not worth much at all,” said Illias. “I’m quite sure my father will let us have them if I ask him. Let’s select the same kind of tableware so we can each keep some as mementos.”

“That’s a great idea! Let’s check the other boxes too, and—”

“Oh, gosh, Met, Illias-sama!” Mary was extremely anxious and stressed after their accident earlier, and she accidentally raised her voice in frustration at Illias’s and Metea’s carefree attitude. “We shouldn’t be doing this right now! Snap out of it!”

Metea remained nonchalant—a scolding from her older sister was nothing out of the ordinary for her—but Illias looked downcast.

“O-Oh, I’m terribly sorry, Mary,” she said, looking at the other girl with puppy eyes. “I suppose I got a bit carried away. Did I make you angry?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m the one that should apologize for raising my voice. I still think that it’s a bad idea to let your guard down if we’re going to treat our time here as an adventure, though. This place technically is part of your home, Illias-sama, but you’ve never been here before, right?”

“Ugh. Yes, you’re right. I need to be more careful.”

“Please don’t forget that we don’t actually know if this place is completely safe or not,” said Mary. “And as for you, Met—we’re in a completely different situation now, so stay vigilant, like how we usually act inside of dungeons.”

“Okay!”

That was all it took to get Metea to stand up straight and behave. There was a door in one wall, and Metea immediately pressed her body against it and perked up her ears, listening for any sounds from the room beyond.

“I can’t hear anybody else here. I don’t hear any noises, anyway. I don’t think there’s any bad guys ahead.”

“Oh my, is this how you usually act when adventuring in dungeons and similar places?” Illias asked, sounding impressed.

“More or less,” said Mary with a nod. “But we’re usually a bit more relaxed because Nao-san and the others are with us...” She opened the door. “All right, let’s go.”

Beyond the door, a long corridor stretched into the distance, lined with rooms on both sides. As the three girls began to explore, they quickly discovered the place where they were trapped was closer to a basement than a cellar. There were three other rooms similar to the warehouse that the girls had initially fallen into, as well as a toilet, a bedroom, and a room full of documents. At the end of the corridor, the girls found a long staircase that seemingly led up to the ground floor, but...

“Looks like we’re in trouble,” said Metea.

“Yeah,” said Mary. “I didn’t think we’d bump into a door that even we can’t force open.”

The trapdoor at the top of the staircase wouldn’t budge no matter how hard Illias pushed on it. It remained in place even after Mary and Metea added their strength to hers.

Illias wasn’t particularly strong, but the three girls together had more combined strength than the average adult. Clearly force wasn’t the issue; it seemed likely that the trapdoor was either locked from the other side or weighed down by something heavy. The door itself was so thick and sturdy that it made almost no sound when the girls tapped it experimentally. Breaking through it or yelling for help weren’t realistic options.

“I never imagined we would find ourselves in such a predicament,” said Illias. “I was too naive by far in assuming that every part of my home would be safe for us to explore.”

Illias had imagined that if they ended up somewhere they weren’t meant to be, the worst they would suffer was a scolding. Now, trapped underground, she was beginning to feel downcast.

“I suppose we might be saved if someone who happens to have business here should pass by,” said Illias. “However...”

“There aren’t any signs of anyone visiting recently, so I don’t think we can count on that,” said Mary.

“Indeed,” said Illias. “Oh, Mary, would it be possible to climb back up to the hole we fell through?”

“No, we wouldn’t be able to reach it,” said Mary. “Besides, even if we got into the tunnel again, it’s a slope, so it would be really hard to crawl back up.”

Even if Mary carried Metea on her shoulders, the two sisters were too short to reach the hole, and the shelves in the room they’d fallen into were locked firmly in place. If they dragged in chairs from other rooms, it was possible that they could reach the hole, but Mary was fairly certain there was no way they could crawl back up it without any tools.

“In that case, what about destroying the trapdoor?” Illias asked.

“No way,” said Metea. “We would need some kind of weapon.”

That was more or less the answer that Illias had anticipated, but still, she felt dejected.

“Ugh. And we have no food with us. Are we going to starve...?”

“No, we should be fine for a bit,” said Mary. “Oh, Illias-sama, there’s blood dripping down one of your arms!”

Illias’s eyes widened in surprise as she examined her arm. “Hmm? Did I scratch myself earlier? I completely failed to notice this.”

The adrenaline had kept her from feeling pain, but now that she’d acknowledged the wound’s existence, it had started to sing, and she grimaced at the sudden sensation.

“Oh, it looks like it hurts,” said Metea. “But we’ve got the perfect thing for you, Illias-sama.”

Metea searched through the pouch that she was wearing on her waist and took out a small bottle. She proudly presented it to Illias, then unscrewed the cap.

“This can heal any small wound right away! I’ll use this to heal you!”

“Um, I take it that’s a potion? Are you sure about this?” Illias asked. “I don’t imagine it was cheap to make.”

“We got permission from the grown-ups to use these kinds of things whenever we think we need to, so please don’t worry about it,” Mary replied. “Natsuki-san makes them sometimes.”

Several of the members of Nao’s party could use healing magic, so they seldom had any need for potions, but Natsuki had leveled up her Pharmacy skill to prepare for problems that magic couldn’t fix. Now her thorough preparations were proving their worth even outside of ordinary adventuring.

“Anyway, we should wash that before we use the potion on it,” said Mary.

Mary took a waterskin out of her own pouch and cleaned Illias’s wound. When Metea poured part of the potion over the wound, it healed immediately, and Illias’s eyes once more widened in surprise—but not because of the potion’s effects.

“Thank you kindly. My pain is gone. But I must ask—how did such a large waterskin fit in such a small pouch?”

“Oh, that’s what you’re curious about, Illias-sama? Well, our pouches are actually magic bags,” said Mary. “As you can see, we have water and rations inside, so like I said, we won’t starve. Please keep this a secret between us, though.”

“I’ve got plenty of water and food inside my bag too,” said Metea. “We can wait here just fine until Big Bro Nao and the others come to save us!”

The rations in the sisters’ magic bags were enough for the three girls to survive for at least one week. Mary produced some of them to reassure Illias, and a look of encouragement spread across Illias’s face.

“Magic bags, you say? That’s reassuring to know.” Illias breathed a sigh of relief, but she hesitated a moment, then looked at Mary with puppy eyes just as she had before, and, hoping to avoid upsetting her again, carefully asked, “Um, if possible, could we try to escape by ourselves? I’m well aware that by now, I can no longer avoid a scolding from my father, but this is a rare opportunity for me. Could we explore a bit more, then?”

This was likely the last adventure that Illias would have in her entire life. When Mary saw Illias’s reaction, she simply laughed and nodded.

“Your disappearance will probably be a big problem once people find out, Illias-sama, and also, we don’t want to cause any problems for the others, so it’s probably better if we try to escape and get back before anyone else finds out. Let’s do what we can within reasonable limits to search for a way out of here.”

“Yay! Time to go back to searching for treasures!”

“Did you hear what I just said, Met? Our main goal is to find a way out, okay?”

Metea nodded, but then her expression turned smug, and she wagged her index finger. “Yeah, I got it. Searching for treasures is just a side objective. But Big Bro Touya said before that sometimes the side objective turns into the main objective, so I won’t give up hope!”

“And is this something that only occasionally happens, or is it very common?” Illias asked.

Illias’s question was perfectly natural, but Mary couldn’t begin to answer it in detail without resorting to the kind of slang that occasionally slipped out of the mouths of Touya and the others, so she smiled awkwardly and shook her head.

“Please don’t let her worry you too much, Illias-sama. Met just parrots things she’s heard from Touya-san and the others, so if you can just learn to recognize that, all you have to do is go with the flow.”

“I see. I’ll bear that in mind,” said Illias. “In any case, there may be a way to open the trapdoor from the inside, so let us search for any documents we can find. Let’s explore every corner of this place!”

“Okay!” Metea and Mary replied in unison.

★★★★★★★★★

The girls’ goal was to find an exit, so they had only briefly checked the other rooms that led into the corridor. Now they returned to search them more thoroughly, but no obvious means of escape presented itself. The three other warehouses were similar to the one they’d initially fallen into, and there wasn’t anything notable in the toilet room either.

The bedroom was quite small—it contained only one normal-sized bed and a small table—so it was clearly just a place to take a brief rest. There was a complete bed set that must have been quite elegant when it was new, but with the passage of time, mold had enveloped it, and none of the girls were brave enough to touch it. They had one last room to explore—the room full of documents—but...

“Hmm. I believe this room may be a study,” said Illias. “It will take some searching to find anything useful here.”

In fact, the “study” was hardly clean enough to merit that word. The books might more aptly have been called bound stacks of paper, and there were plenty of unbound stacks as well. Most weren’t even stored on the bookshelves; rather, they were scattered across the top of a large desk. Taken altogether, the room more closely resembled a researcher’s lab than a study.

“It’s going to take an awful lot of time to go through all this paper. We’ll have to be careful not to accidentally use up the oil in the lantern,” said Mary. “Illias-sama, would you be okay with looking through books with me? Met can take care of checking the other places again while we work here.”

“I certainly wouldn’t mind,” said Illias. “What about you, Metea?”

“You can count on me!” Metea nodded and seemed to pump herself up. “I bet I’ll be able to find something good!”

The three girls immediately set about their investigation. However, finding anything useful in this messy room soon proved even more difficult than they’d assumed, and after an hour without results, they were on the verge of giving up.

“Ugh. There’s nothing here that helps us,” said Mary. “Have you found anything, Illias-sama?”

“No, unfortunately. All I’ve found are academic resources about mining. And you, Metea?”

“Nope, nothing good on my end either,” said Metea. “And I went back through the other rooms and checked really hard, but I couldn’t find any devices or structures that seemed like they were related to the trapdoor. There are also almost no treasures left, so I only managed to find one notable thing.”

Metea was holding a leather bag small enough to fit in the cupped palms of her hands. Coins were jingling against one another inside, but Metea didn’t seem excited in the least.

“Oh, did you find a bag of money? I suppose that counts as a treasure, does it not?” Illias suggested.

“Nah, money isn’t good for a souvenir,” Metea replied, shaking her head. “And it also wouldn’t be right for me to keep.”

Metea happily pocketed any coins she found inside the dungeon, but she was currently in another person’s home. Only “heroes” of a very specific kind would be brave enough to keep money they’d found in those circumstances; in contrast, Metea was, up to a point, a girl with good sense.

“Besides, the money inside of this bag is play money,” she said, “and not even good play money.”

She opened the bag and poured a couple coins onto her palm. They appeared real at first glance, but...

“Ah, yes, there’s nothing engraved on the faces, and they feel very light,” said Illias. “You’re undoubtedly right about them being for play. But if this isn’t real money, wouldn’t that make it all the more suitable as a souvenir?”

“Nah, I think the tableware I found earlier will work better,” said Metea. “You can actually use tableware every day, and if we don’t wanna use it, we can just display it, so it’ll be a lot more memorable.”

“...Mm, I suppose you’re right,” said Illias. She clenched her fists in excitement. “Very well. In that case, I will negotiate with my father for permission to keep the tableware!”

Mary, however, was smiling awkwardly. “Um, I think we should get out of here before we start thinking about souvenirs.”

“Ugh. Good point,” said Illias. “I suppose it’s more or less impossible for us to escape by ourselves, then?”

“Well, we have a few last resorts,” said Mary. “We could just destroy the trapdoor or try to climb back up that hole. But we aren’t desperate enough to go that far yet.”

The warehouses contained all sorts of objects, including chairs and desks, that the girls could use as battering rams, but their odds of breaking through the door were low, and Mary wasn’t brave enough to attempt such a feat on the premises of a noble’s mansion.

“I’m sure that Big Bro Nao and the others will come to save us!” Metea put in.

“Mm. The smartest thing would be for us to wait for Nao-san and the others to save us,” said Mary. “But it may take them a while to find us, so we should conserve our energy. Illias-sama, is fatigue catching up with you too?”

“Indeed. I’m also a bit peckish.” Illias rubbed her belly as if finally realizing that her body wanted food.

“We can’t see what it’s like outside, but it’s probably dark by now. Let’s eat some food and go to sleep early.” With a smile, Mary handed Illias a cake of grain and dried fruits somewhat resembling a cereal bar.

“Thank you kindly. This is my first time eating rations...” Illias bit into the bar gingerly, and her eyes widened in surprise at its aroma and sweetness. “Oh my! I must say, this is far better than I expected. Is this typical of the rations that adventurers consume in the field?”

Mary laughed and shook her head. “No way! Haruka-san, Yuki-san, and Natsuki-san made these for us.” She took a bite of her own bar and smiled in delight. “Mm, this is definitely delicious. Especially compared to the rations from stores and stalls.”

“Those don’t count as food,” said Metea, grimacing and shaking her head furiously. “They’re something different. I don’t approve!”

Metea had an insatiable appetite, but she also had standards.

“Haruka-san and the others don’t really seem to need rations like these, but they made plenty for us because Met asked,” said Mary.

“Surely that doesn’t mean they don’t consider these rations to be very good?” Illias asked.

“No, it’s just that they have more space in their bags for food,” Mary replied.

Nao and his friends were capable of creating water magically, something Mary and Metea couldn’t do, and so most of the space in the sisters’ magic bags was occupied by waterskins. There wasn’t much room left for food, so it had been necessary to find compact, lightweight rations for them.

Still, Nao and his friends had personally experienced just how dire ordinary rations were in this world. Common sense would suggest that it was necessary to endure bad food in extreme situations, but Haruka, Yuki, and Natsuki had decided that delicious food had even more value in adversity, so they’d willfully ignored cost considerations in developing these rations.

Touya and Natsuki couldn’t use Water Magic, but they still carried some rations in their bags. In that sense, the rations hadn’t been made just for Metea, but the sisters had still been the primary impetus for their creation.

“Oh, I see. No wonder this tastes so good,” said Illias. “The snacks that you shared with me before were better, but the disparity in quality isn’t too great. In any case, I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to say this, but it’s actually rather pleasant eating rations together like this.”

“Tee hee. I’m glad that you’re still in a good mood, Illias-sama,” said Mary. “We should go to sleep after we’re done eating, though.”

“I don’t feel sleepy yet, but I’ll defer to your expertise,” said Illias.

“Good choice,” said Metea. “Your first adventure always makes you really tired. I bet your body is more worn out than you realize, Illias-sama.”

“I see. Very well... Incidentally, where should we lie down? It’s rather cold here. I don’t believe we ought to use the bedroom, however—I assume both of you agree?”

In fact, the thought of sleeping on that bed repulsed Illias, but she glanced at Metea and Mary for confirmation. Both sisters immediately nodded.

“Yeah, that room is no good,” said Metea. “We can just snuggle together and sleep here instead. That way we can stay warm!”

“We have mats that we can lay on the ground too,” said Mary. “Here you go, Illias-sama.”

Mary took a mat out of her magic bag and laid it on the ground near a wall. Illias immediately secured her spot in the middle, then waved at the sisters and pointed to either side of her.

“This is wonderful! Metea, come over here next to me! Mary, you can take the other side!”

Illias hugged Metea with her right arm; Mary cuddled up to her right side.

“My, this is perfect.” Illias smiled contentedly. “I’m just sure I’ll sleep well and have pleasant dreams.”

“That’s good. In that case, let’s close our eyes,” Mary suggested with a laugh. “You’ll be able to fall asleep right away.”

Illias nodded. She’d claimed she wasn’t sleepy, but starting this morning, she had spent as much energy as she would have playing all day, and she’d had all kinds of new experiences, so her accumulated fatigue was beginning to weigh on her. Mary drew a thin blanket over the three of them, and Illias fell asleep shortly afterward.

Chapter 2—The Missing Kids

Right after we returned to the mansion, Viscount Nernas had summoned us to his office in order to inform us that Illias-sama, together with Mary and Metea, had gone missing.

“...What do you mean by that, sir?” I was forcing myself to remain calm, but the atmosphere in the office was very tense.

The viscount folded his hands together and propped them up on his desk, concealing his mouth. “Those are the plain facts,” he said in a flat tone. “Illias, Mary, and Metea were playing together on the mansion grounds, but they didn’t return even after sunset. They did bring the basket that contained their lunch and snacks back to the kitchen, so it is highly likely that they disappeared sometime after lunch.”

“Do you mean there’s a possibility that someone broke in from outside and kidnapped them?” I asked.

“No, I think that highly unlikely,” Joachim replied. “The girls may have gone outside of their own volition and gotten lost, or perhaps they were involved in an incident of some kind.”

“Gotten lost? In this town?” I asked.

“It’s possible,” Joachim replied. “Illias isn’t the sort of girl who’s prone to wandering around outside on her own—nor are Mary and Metea familiar with Pining.”

The beginning of that sentence had confused me—Pining was Illias-sama’s hometown—but everything fell into place after I heard the rest of what the viscount had to say. Mary and Metea lived in Laffan with us. Naturally, they were clueless about areas like this. As Viscount Nernas had suggested, it was quite possible that they’d gotten lost in some labyrinthine or otherwise dangerous part of town.

“I see,” I said. “In that case, we’ll head right out to look for them.”

Touya poked me in the back as if to urge me to hurry. I nodded at the viscount, and all of us turned to leave the room. However...

“Pray don’t be so hasty. Wait until tomorrow before you begin your search,” said Joachim, stopping us in our tracks. “You will draw a great deal of attention to yourselves if you set out at this hour. I can’t have rumors being spread that Illias has been kidnapped.”

“Huh?! Now isn’t the time to focus on keeping up appearances!”

Touya had once again unthinkingly raised his voice in frustration, but the viscount didn’t seem offended; he simply shook his head with a grave expression.

“The crucial problem is Illias’s future. You see, even if nothing has happened to her, any rumors about her purity would be lethal to her future as the daughter of a noble family. Such would not be the case for a more powerful family, but Illias would lose any hope of a proper marriage.”

“Oh, I get it,” said Touya. “Ugh...”

It was easy for us to declare that Illias-sama’s safety was paramount, but that was merely our perspective; we couldn’t force the viscount to adopt it. We had the option of acting without his permission, but that came with the risk of ruining our relationship with him, which wouldn’t be worth it if the girls had simply gotten lost.

“I understand that you are terribly concerned, but don’t act rashly,” said Joachim. “I would like to request your help in searching for them starting tomorrow.”

“...I suppose that means you can’t simply dispatch large numbers of troops to find them?” Haruka asked.

Viscount Nernas silently nodded. His hands were clasped so tightly that his fingers had turned white.

“Yeah, I guess it wouldn’t seem weird for us to search for Mary and Metea,” said Touya. “But as for Illias-sama...”

“Rumors will spread immediately if we ask around about Illias-sama,” I said. “All right, sir. We’ll begin our search tomorrow.”

“...I’m counting on you, Meikyo Shisui.”

The viscount squeezed that plea out of his mouth, lowering his head slightly. We all nodded.

★★★★★★★★★

None of us slept well, but we still got out of bed before sunrise the next day and headed for the Adventurers’ Guild. We usually never dropped by the guild this early in the day. Apparently, however, the same wasn’t true for other adventurers. Though it was still a bit dark outside, a couple had already arrived, and more poured in as time passed. My party sat down in a corner and scanned the growing crowd for Gudz; he seemed like someone who might have information about the kidnappings. It was possible that the disappearance of the three girls was completely unrelated, but we wanted to confirm that out of an abundance of caution.

Until yesterday, we’d been willing to take our time and negotiate patiently with Gudz, but now things had changed, and we’d decided to extract information from him however we had to. In the end, however, our strategy failed; Gudz never showed up. Thinking he might simply have escaped our notice, we asked some of the receptionists about him, and it seemed everyone had been notified of our request that we be kept up to date about his movements, but no one had seen him since he stormed out of the guild the last time.

There were two options left to us. The first was to search for Gudz ourselves; the second was to search for Mary, Metea, and Illias-sama instead. The former would have been the natural choice if we had wanted to prioritize the quest we’d accepted from the viscount, but the girls were way more important to us. Given the possibility that they were in danger, the latter option was the obvious course of action for us.

Thus, we visited Sadius and solicited his help, describing Gudz as a potential key witness, and then set off again to ask around for eyewitness accounts of Mary and Metea. However...

“No clues at all, huh?” I said.

“Unfortunately not,” said Haruka. “Some people were responsive, but...”

We had split up into two groups and asked around until sunset, but in the end, we’d had to return to the mansion without having acquired any useful information. Natsuki had furnished each group with sketches of Mary and Metea, and regardless, beastwomen were rare in Pining, so we’d encountered a few people who’d remembered them, but they had only seen the girls when they were together with us; nobody had seen them yesterday.

“Well, the girls are younger than the girls who have gone missing, right? I doubt they were kidnapped,” said Touya.

All of the probable kidnappings involved girls in their late teens and early twenties, hence Touya’s optimism. Yuki, in contrast, furrowed her brows in anxiety.

“Yeah, but one of the missing girls was twelve, and Mary comes off as older than her actual age...”

“Yeah, that’s pretty close to teenage,” said Touya. “Well, she’s got Illias-sama and Metea with her...”

A year had passed since we first met Mary, so she was now eleven. Thanks to her improved diet, she’d grown healthily, and as Yuki said, her composure made her seem more mature than she really was. Citizens of the Lenium Kingdom counted an increase in age at the start of each new year instead of on their birthdays; not knowing this, we’d assumed Mary and Illias-sama were the same age when there was, in fact, a gap of almost an entire year between their birthdays. Given that, as Touya said, Mary was with two younger girls, I wasn’t sure if a kidnapper whose targets were teenage girls would bother with the three of them.

“Hmm. Actually, what if there’s a separate culprit who has nothing to do with the previous kidnappings?” I asked. “I think it’s possible that Illias-sama was the target.”

A separate culprit would complicate things even further. It wouldn’t be too serious if Mary, Metea, and Illias-sama had simply left the premises of their own volition, as the viscount had suggested, but if we were dealing with an opponent who was capable of sneaking into the mansion and kidnapping Illias-sama without attracting notice, he was probably too skilled for us to tackle ourselves.

“In that scenario, Mary and Metea would be unnecessary baggage,” I said.

An unpleasant scenario had occurred to me, but I refrained from further comment, and a heavy silence descended upon us.

It was Natsuki who broke that silence after giving the matter some thought. “Viscount Nernas assumed the girls were outside the mansion grounds, but I don’t believe that’s an accurate inference. Mary is aware that people have gone missing recently in Pining. That being the case, do you think she would have carelessly ventured beyond the walls of the mansion?”

“Oh yeah,” I said, “now that I think about it, Illias-sama was with them too, so I doubt Mary would have agreed to the idea of going into town even if Metea and Illias-sama begged her.”

Metea was more or less a free spirit, but Mary was much more thoughtful. Lately, she’d slowly begun to relax around us, but it was still possible to detect signs of her determination not to cause trouble for us, and Metea abided by her older sister’s instructions in most cases.

“So does that mean all three of them are still somewhere on the mansion grounds? Hmm,” said Yuki. “I guess a girl Illias-sama’s age could lock herself in a room so nobody would separate her from her friends...”

“There would be no good reason for Viscount Nernas to hide that kind of information from us,” said Haruka. “Yes, it would be somewhat embarrassing, but ultimately, it would just be an adorable little girl throwing a fit. Besides, I very much doubt that Illias would act that impulsively, so I don’t think there’s any need to dwell on the possibility.”

There was no question of Illias-sama’s maturity; she’d successfully discharged her responsibilities as her father’s representative at the wedding. Everyone nodded in assent to Haruka’s reasoned opinion.

“Well, what if the viscount didn’t want to let Mary and Metea go?” Touya asked. “The girls were running around and exploring, right? What if they stumbled across something they weren’t meant to see?”

“Nah, that’s too out there,” I said. “Besides, even if that was what happened, it wouldn’t explain why Illias-sama has gone missing too. The viscount could have just told us that Mary and Metea went to town by themselves to play.”

We could have theorized that the viscount wanted to prevent Illias-sama from interacting with us, but there were plenty of other excuses that would have served equally well; he could have told us, for example, that Illias felt depressed because Mary and Metea had gone missing. I was fairly certain he would never have come up with a pretext that risked exposing Illias-sama to damaging rumors.

“...Let’s summarize what we’ve discussed so far,” said Haruka. “The odds of Mary, Metea, and Illias-sama having gone to town together are very low. Viscount Nernas definitely doesn’t know their whereabouts. As for the possibility of an intruder who’s too skilled for us to deal with, let’s set this aside for the moment. With all of that in mind, what conclusions can we draw from this?”

“They might be stuck somewhere inside the mansion that they can’t escape on their own,” I said. “If the viscount didn’t lock them up somewhere, they could have locked themselves inside a room by accident.”

Maybe they’d been exploring a warehouse or something and had been trapped by objects falling from shelves. That might have been wishful thinking, but when Yuki heard my idea, she clapped her hands.

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense! It’s pretty common for people to get locked in, like, a room at the gym!”

“Yeah, it definitely is a commo— Wait, no! That only happens in rom-coms!” Touya exclaimed. “That’s never happened to me in real life!”

“That’s just because you’re not a character in a rom-com!” Yuki glanced at Haruka excitedly. “I bet Nao and Haruka have—”

But Haruka immediately dashed her hopes. “No, nothing like that has ever happened to us, and in any case, the two of us wouldn’t be in a rom-com scenario.”

I nodded to back her up.

“In real life,” Haruka continued, “the only reason you’d ever get locked in a room at the gym is because of bullying, so—actually, never mind To return to the point: If Nao’s hypothesis is right, then could it be that Viscount Nernas simply didn’t consider the possibility? The normal course of action would be to search through suspicious areas first, right?”

There was ample land in this rural viscounty, so the mansion grounds were quite sprawling—in part, perhaps, because it had once been possible that the Viscount of Nernas would be elevated in rank, but much of the land wasn’t currently in use, and the prospect of elevation had more or less dissipated due to the actions of the viscount two generations ago. Many of the abandoned buildings were locked up, so the areas where the girls could explore were very limited.

“Perhaps it’s something of a mental blind spot for the viscount,” said Natsuki. “Commoners and nobles no doubt have differing ideas of what children do for fun, so he may have unconsciously excluded from his mind the possibility that they’d play in places like that.”

“You think so?” I said. “Well, I guess we should probably act instead of just pondering further, so let’s get going.”

The sun had set, and it was already dark outside, but nobody objected to my idea, and we immediately got to our feet.

★★★★★★★★★

“I see,” said Wiesel. “Your theory, then, is that because Illias-sama and her friends have not been seen in town, they must be on the premises.”

“Yes, that’s right,” I replied. “If nobody has broken in, that’s really the only logical conclusion.”

Under normal circumstances, a meeting with a noble had to be scheduled in advance, in addition to which our working theory cast doubt on the thoroughness of the search the House of Nernas had conducted. Thus, we’d chosen to visit Wiesel-san, the viscount’s butler, before the viscount.

Luckily, he listened to us without voicing any objections, then, after we’d finished, gave our theory some consideration.

“I suppose it’s not impossible,” he said at last. “Ah, yes—come to think of it, I received a report about a borrowed lantern that has not, as yet, been returned. Perhaps it was Illias-sama who borrowed it.”

“A lantern? Hmm. I bet kids would love to explore dark places like warehouses and basements,” I said.

“Mm, quite,” said Wiesel. “Very well. We shall carry out a search of all such places on the grounds.”

“Um, if you happen to be short on manpower, then we can help out too,” I said.

I sincerely wanted to participate, but Wiesel-san shook his head. “Your offer is generous, but it is quite all right. There are numerous buildings that are locked up and not currently in use. We know which keys Illias-sama took with her, so please leave this matter to us.”

Yeah, I figured as much. Although we were working for the viscount in our capacity as adventurers, we were still outsiders. Contrary to what Touya had suggested earlier, I doubted that the House of Nernas had any secrets that absolutely had to be hidden from us. Still, any noble was sure to have some possessions that weren’t meant to be seen by the general public, besides which they probably wanted to keep us away from places like warehouses where valuables were stored.

“Would you be willing to search elsewhere?” Wiesel asked. “The yard, perhaps? We’ve already conducted a search, but perhaps your party will be able to discover clues that have eluded us.”

“We can conjure light magically, so that stands to reason,” said Haruka. “Very well. We’ll get to work immediately. Can you share whatever information you currently have about the girls’ whereabouts?”

“You have the viscountcy’s utmost gratitude,” said Wiesel. “To begin...”

He went on to inform us that Vira-san hadn’t accompanied Illias-sama today because she’d declared that she wanted to play with her friends on her own. Nevertheless, Wiesel-san had a rough idea of what she’d done today. After they finished playing hide-and-seek in an empty barracks, the girls had last been seen walking around the garden. Having received that information, we went to visit the garden ourselves, and...

“Whoa, this is, like, magnificent,” I said. “Honestly, I think it’s just as nice as the main garden.”

“Yeah. I’m kind of sad that we’re here at night,” said Yuki. “I wish we could turn our yard into something like this...”

“Maybe if you earn enough money that you can hire a private gardener, Yuki,” said Haruka. “In any case, given that the House of Nernas is struggling financially at the moment, I’m surprised that the garden is in such good shape. This place usually doesn’t see much use, correct?”

“The Viscounty of Nernas is a rural domain,” said Natsuki with an awkward smile, “so noble guests are few and far between, and when they do visit, they can easily be housed in the mansion proper. Apparently the guesthouse sometimes goes unused for a year at a time. Nevertheless, gardens and yards are difficult to restore once they fall into ruin...”

Touya nodded emphatically. “Oh yeah, the one at Edith’s mansion was a disaster. That place had basically turned into a jungle.”

We had done our best to clean up the yard in front of Edith’s mansion when we erected a memorial shrine, but it still wasn’t much of a garden. Even if we wanted to put forth the effort to transform it completely, pruning the gigantic trees wouldn’t be enough to return them to their original ornamental size, and if we replanted them entirely, the new saplings would take forever to mature. It was proof that regular maintenance was important regardless of the cost.

“Maintenance really is worth it in the long run,” I said. “Anyway, let’s shed some light on the matter.”

“Mm,” said Natsuki. “Light.”

Haruka was the only one who had been maintaining the Light spell, so Natsuki and I joined our own spells to hers. Each individual spell was far brighter than a lantern, so our combined magic lit up the entire garden. In this world, bright lights were much rarer than they had been on modern-day Earth, so we were probably attracting attention beyond the premises, but I doubted it would lead to any rumors about Illias-sama.

“Wiesel-san assumed that the girls came here to have a tea party,” I said, “but...”

“...Spring is coming, and there are lots of flowers in bloom,” said Haruka. “This would be a nice place for a tea party, but...”

“...That wouldn’t be enough to keep Metea occupied even if Mary was having a good time,” said Touya. “I mean, sure, she’d probably enjoy the snacks, but she’s not the type of kid to while away time chatting and looking at the flowers.”

Wiesel-san’s assumption hadn’t entirely made sense to me, and apparently Haruka and Touya were on the same page. Flowers might have captured Metea’s attention for an instant, but she wouldn’t have spent hours wandering a garden like this. There were decent odds that the girls had finished their snacks, then moved on.

“Yeah, I don’t think the girls played here,” said Yuki. “And I bet Mary would actively try to get Metea away from anywhere she could cause trouble...”

“Beautiful as this garden is, it would hardly be suitable for a child as energetic as Metea-chan,” said Natsuki.

“I guess that means we’ll need to look for hints about where they went from here,” I said. “If the sun was still up, we could split up to search, but it’s too late now. Actually, though, can you detect traces of the girls, Touya?”

“Nah, come on, no way,” said Touya. “I’m a beastman, but my sense of smell isn’t that good.”

“Uh, I didn’t say anything about their scents,” I said. “If you could detect any scent—actually, you know what, forget it.”

“Yeah, sniffing around for little girls feels kind of messed up,” said Yuki.

Yuki had casually voiced the words I’d kept to myself, and Touya reacted with shock.

“Huh?! I just said my sense of smell isn’t good enough! Trust me, I don’t sniff them, and I never will! Besides, I can’t think of anything in this area that would catch Metea’s interest. There’s barely anything here. But over there...”

Touya’s shoulders sagged as he looked toward the outer margins of the guesthouse grounds. There was a clear boundary between the well-maintained areas and the areas that had been abandoned due to budget constraints; the latter were smothered in plants, just like Edith’s mansion when we’d first visited it.

“That definitely isn’t the kind of place that adults would be eager to check out,” said Haruka.

“Mm. It’s likely teeming with insects, so it’s certainly not my idea of fun,” said Natsuki. “However...”

“...Metea would probably enjoy wandering around,” said Touya. “It’s the perfect place to make something like a secret base. I’d be super excited about this if I was a kid. No idea if Illias-sama would be willing to go with the sisters, but there’s only one way to find out.”

He immediately set out for the overgrown area, and the rest of us followed. We spent some time investigating. The first person to turn up a potential lead was Haruka.

“Hey, look. I’m reasonably certain that the girls played together over here.”

She pointed toward a place where fluffy moss, fruits, straight sticks, and round stones lay on the ground. They were the kinds of objects that a child might casually pick up, and they’d all been lined up in front of a tree.

“Oh man, this makes me feel kind of nostalgic,” I said. “I remember gathering stuff like unusual rocks and grass as a kid.”

I had eventually thrown away all of the useless objects I’d accumulated, but even so, the sepia-hued memories of childhood resurfaced as I looked at this random collection.

Haruka smiled at my reaction. “If I recall correctly, Nao once gave me a cattail.”

“Nao did something like that?” Yuki asked with a giggle. “I guess you have a cute side after all, huh, Nao?” She covered her mouth with one hand and playfully jabbed me with an elbow.

“Ugh.” I pushed Yuki away with my shoulder. “It was just something unusual that I remembered seeing in a picture book, and then I happened to come across one in real life, so I wanted to show it to Haruka. This was back when we were in elementary school, right? I wish you’d just forget about the whole thing...”

Haruka smiled gently and shook her head. “I could never forget it,” she told me. “It’s an important memory for me. I felt so happy.”

“In that case, I guess I can’t really object.”

“Well, we’re no longer kids, so if you ever get the impulse to give me a present again, I’d like something different.”

“O-Oh, okay. I’ll keep that in mind. M-More importantly, let’s look for other traces of the girls,” I said. “Oh, what’s this?”

My gaze had fallen on an unnatural-looking mound, so I walked over to inspect it and found a pile of ivy. That in itself wasn’t so odd, but there was something nearby that really stood out—what appeared to be a big well.

Natsuki illuminated the well, then sighed to herself. “It is a well, but there doesn’t appear to be any water in it.”

Yuki lifted a hand to her mouth as she paused in thought. “A suspicious dry well with an iron cap and some ripped-up ivy nearby, huh? My genius brain has already devised an explanation!”

“I’m pretty sure all of us came to the same conclusion, Yuki,” said Touya. “The girls probably jumped down that well. But you don’t see any of them, do you, Natsuki?”

“Not a trace,” said Natsuki with a nod. “None that’s visible from this overhead angle, at any rate.”

Despite her pronouncement, all of us looked down into the well to make sure. The shaft was deeper than I had assumed. Even during the daylight hours, it probably wasn’t possible to see all the way to the bottom. However, when the three of us who could use the Light spell sent the glowing orbs down the well, it became easy to see.

“Yeah, doesn’t look like there’s anything here,” said Touya. “I’ll go down and take a look just in case, though.”

He hopped into the well without a moment’s hesitation, descending easily thanks to the ample footholds lining the walls. I scrambled to send my Light spell chasing after him. A few seconds later, Touya reached the dry bottom, briefly inspected his surroundings, and then came skedaddling back up the well.

“Touya, dude, don’t just act impulsively without giving us any warning,” I said. “I have the Light spell—I’m the one who should have gone down there.”

“Yeah, my bad. We’re off work now, so I acted without thinking. It was worth it, though.” After that casual apology, Touya grinned and pointed at the well. “There wasn’t anything at the bottom, but I saw a tunnel on my way down that looked kinda odd. Too small for me, but I bet the kids could’ve gotten through.”

“A tunnel? Hmm,” said Haruka. “We have ample evidence here to indicate that the girls peeked inside the well, but I don’t know whether they’d go so far as to jump into it. Even if they did, and found the tunnel, why would they follow it?”

“Well, y’know,” said Touya, “animals like cats tend to feel the need to stick their heads into paper bags, squeeze themselves into boxes—stuff like that. If Metea found a hole that was the perfect shape, I bed she’d—”

“Metea isn’t a cat, Touya,” I said. But then it belatedly occurred to me that given my own childhood memories, I couldn’t reject his suggestion out of hand. “Although I guess it is true that when you’re a kid, you do random stuff like walking on fence tops and trying to slip through narrow spaces for no good reason...”

Though Natsuki didn’t seem like the kind of girl who would have been a free spirit as a child, she nodded and said, “Touya-kun might actually be on to something here.”

However, she had been examining the iron cap, so it seemed her reasoning was somewhat different from ours.

“This cap is used to seal off the well. Judging by the way the rust has been scraped off, it seems to have been moved recently,” said Natsuki. “I’m fairly confident that either Mary-chan or Metea-chan moved it. Mary-chan would undoubtedly have urged the other two to put it back, but it was left sitting here, so...”

“Did they climb down the well and not climb back up?” Haruka suggested.

Natsuki nodded, then looked up and glanced around our group. “I think we should check. It would be ideal if we could enter the tunnel ourselves, but...”

Yuki caught Natsuki’s glance. “Okay, lemme take a look.”

Yuki descended into the shaft, stopping well short of the bottom. It was hard to see from above, but there was a black tunnel near her. She put her hands over the entrance, hollered into it, and listened closely, then ascended the well again and, once she’d rejoined us, shook her head.

“I’d like to avoid going in there if we can. Sure, I can probably fit, but based on the echoes, it sounds like it’s pretty narrow. And for another thing, we don’t know why the girls haven’t come back. The whole thing is too risky.”

“Indeed,” said Haruka. “You might end up stuck down there yourself. The proper way to rescue them would be to dig through the ground or approach the tunnel from the other end.”

“Yeah, agreed,” said Yuki. “Lucky for us, though, the tunnel didn’t look like it was going in the direction of the guesthouse...”

“So we don’t have to dig a hole in the garden, huh?” said Touya. “If it’s somewhere else, it should be easy enough to get permission to dig.”

“I imagine that if it were absolutely necessary to dig up the entire garden, the viscount would give his permission pretty freely,” said Haruka. “It’s his daughter’s life on the line here, after all.”

“Yeah, but the garden is so pretty,” said Yuki. “It’s nice that we don’t have to dig it up.”

“Well, anyway,” I said, “before anything else, I’ll go report back.”

We needed permission before we could decide on our next step, so I dashed to the main mansion myself, told the first maid I came across to relay a message to Wiesel, and then rejoined the others.

Wiesel-san appeared shortly afterward. He was out of breath, as if he’d run the whole way.

“I-I was informed that your party found a lead,” he said. “Wh-Where is it?”

Wiesel-san had asked us for information before even pausing to catch his breath. Yeah, I guess the fact that Illias-sama went missing really is a serious matter.

I nodded at him and pointed. “We believe it’s this well here. We’re not absolutely sure yet, though.”

I had only given a brief summary to the maid who’d acted as a messenger. Now I told Wiesel-san the details I’d left out—the tunnel we’d found inside the well and our reasoning about why the girls had entered it.

When I’d finished my explanation, Wiesel-san looked frustrated with himself. He groaned and said, “I can’t believe it was here of all places. The initial search wasn’t thorough enough.”

“Were you not aware that there was a well here?” I asked.

“Only a select few, such as myself, know of this well. Being as it was sealed with an iron cap, far too heavy for children to move, no one thought to investigate it. I confirmed before coming here that the personnel who were assigned to search this area noticed it but neglected to check inside. This is the first report I’ve received about it.”

Clearly their judgment had been clouded by preconceived notions along the lines of “Kids probably wouldn’t play here.” That had been naive and optimistic on their part, but the unpredictable variables had been Mary and Metea, our wards, so I had to bite my tongue here. Haruka was clearly thinking along the same lines I was, but luckily, she, too, refrained from bringing up the lack of communication and inadequate efforts on the viscountcy’s part.

“The tunnel seems to lead in that direction,” she said, pointing. “Is there something over there?”

“Yes. There’s one building, not currently in use. My lord’s permission will nonetheless be necessary to open it. Though the hour is late, I will go at once to notify him.”

It was completely dark. Time had passed without our noticing it while we searched for the girls.

But despite the late hour, the viscount soon appeared with Wiesel-san in tow; obviously he was deeply worried about his daughter.

“I’m sorry to disturb you so late at night, sir,” I said.

Even as he seemed to accept my apology, Viscount Nernas shook his head. “A matter of no import! Excellent job finding a lead. Now, follow me, won’t you?”

The viscount charged ahead, as if he didn’t want to waste even another second on discussion. We followed him through the dense vegetation and soon arrived at a two-story building about the size of a modestly large private residence. It looked as though a decent amount of money had gone into its construction, but it was rather shabby, as if it hadn’t been maintained in some time.

“My predecessor often used this villa,” said Joachim. “However, if I recall correctly, it has no basement...”

The viscount was referring to his father, who had assumed the title of Viscount Nernas under unforeseen circumstances. There were presumably all kinds of family secrets that the current viscount’s father hadn’t passed down to him; thus, he didn’t sound terribly confident even about the small amount of information he did possess.

“There might be a secret basement,” Haruka suggested. “But it’s equally possible that we’ll find nothing here.”

It might have been optimistic on our part to assume the tunnel led anywhere in particular. We weren’t sure if it was completely straight, but considering the costs involved, it probably couldn’t have too many curves, so there was a good chance that the villa was its final destination.

“There is concrete evidence to support your party’s hypothesis, but it would be worth investigating this villa regardless,” said the viscount. “You have my permission to search it thoroughly, and even to destroy the floor or the building itself if necessary!”

He clenched his fists in determination, but destroying the villa was a last resort, so I pointed and brought up a more realistic plan.

“We should probably dig a hole before we try anything like that, but first, let’s head inside,” I said.

“Excellent point. That ought to be our first step,” said Joachim.

Wiesel-san unlocked the entrance, and the rest of us followed him inside, illuminating the interior with our Light spells. The disused building was cold, but there was no musty smell, only a layer of dust—it must have been ventilated regularly.

“On the first floor, there is naught but a kitchen, a bathroom, a toilet, and five other rooms,” said Joachim. “There are stairs leading to the second floor, but I have never heard of stairs leading down to a basement.”

“Hmm. There might be a trapdoor or an access hole,” I said. “Can we look around for a bit?”

“Of course. Feel free to take as much time as you need. Wiesel, with me!”

“Yes, my lord.”

The viscount strode off with his butler on his heels, and our party split into different groups to cover the first floor. We knocked on walls, removed furniture and carpets, and inspected everything so thoroughly we might as well have licked the floor clean. Our search even took us into the storeroom and the closets inside the various rooms, but...

“I’m pretty sure we’ve now searched every place that seemed suspicious, but we’ve found nothing,” said Haruka.

“We’ve even searched the places that didn’t seem suspicious,” I pointed out.

Joachim groaned. “How keenly I wish my predecessors had passed down detailed records. Have we no alternative but to begin tearing the villa apart...?”

We’d been actively looking for devices that might open up secret passages, but we’d found nothing. Viscount Nernas seemed anxious about the lack of progress—he was stamping at the floorboards—and that seemed, quite suddenly, to spark an idea in Touya’s mind.

“Oh, what if we try sending a signal from here?” Touya asked. “If the kids are underground, then they might respond, right?”

“A signal?” Yuki echoed. “You mean like making noise? I don’t know if it’ll actually reach them.”

“It would be difficult if the underground areas were separated by thick layers of earth, but it should be possible if there’s an entrance somewhere on this level,” said Natsuki. “If Mary-chan and Metea-chan really are somewhere underground, then...”

“...They have good hearing, just like me, so they’ll probably be able to pick up the vibrations.” Touya pointed at his wolf ears and grinned, then scratched his forehead awkwardly. “I dunno if they’ll still be awake, though.”

“Oh yeah, they’re normally asleep at this time,” I said. “If they’re fast asleep, they might not even wake up.”

We’d spent all night searching the first floor, and now dawn was drawing near. When we were in the field adventuring, Mary and Metea were capable of snapping awake in an instant, but on our days off, they slept deeply.

“Would they really be sound asleep in this situation, though?” I asked. “Actually, yeah, I guess they might.”

“Right? They’re actually pretty tough,” said Touya.

It was partly because of their mental fortitude that the sisters were capable of working as adventurers despite their youth. Given that we made them carry water and food for emergencies, it was also possible that they were sound asleep because they felt secure in the knowledge that they weren’t in any danger of starving.

Touya and I caught each other’s gaze and laughed, and when the girls saw our reactions, they all nodded awkwardly.

“Well, if they don’t respond now, we can try again later once the sun is up,” said Haruka. “Shall we just stamp our feet here?”

“Yeah, that should work fine.” I turned to the viscount for permission. “Will this be okay? We may end up damaging the floor...”

But Joachim immediately granted us his approval. “By all means. Even if you should make a hole, I will not object.”

We proceeded to split up into different rooms. In each, we stomped three times in sync, paused for ten seconds, stomped again, then repeated the entire cycle. Touya, meanwhile, circulated around the building, planting his ear against the floor to listen for a response. Luckily for us, he found a lead after just a few attempts.

“Huh? Hey, I hear a faint sound over here!”

Rather than heading toward any of the rooms, Touya went out into a corridor and stopped near the stairs that led to the second floor, then pressed his ear to the floor again.

“This is where I heard it coming from.” He stood and frowned at the rest of us. “But we already searched this place earlier, didn’t we?”

“Of course!” Joachim exclaimed. “There are no hidden doors here, nor is there any removable flooring.”

“So now I’m just confused,” said Touya. “Even if there’s a space underground, it doesn’t seem like there’s any way to get there from here...”

“Are you implying there’s a space directly under this building?” I asked. “I kind of doubt it—I don’t see why something like that would be necessary here.”

It was possible that there were evacuation routes leading from the main mansion and the guesthouse to this villa, but if so, Viscount Nernas wasn’t aware of them, so we were left with no clues as to how to locate the entrance.

“Do we really have to start tearing up the floor?” Haruka asked.

“Wait a moment,” Natsuki interjected. “I have an idea.”

She walked over to the stairs. There was a wall on one side, but the other side was open up to the middle of the stairs. There weren’t any handrails on the open side, but nothing about it seemed especially strange to me.

“Oh, are you curious about the storage area under the stairs?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure Yuki looked through that...”

“Mm, I’m aware. There’s a spot over here that stands out to me, however. Don’t you think it seems a bit strange?”

Natsuki pointed at an area of the wall slightly before the storage door. For a moment, silence prevailed—no one could figure out what she meant—but then she touched a panel.

“When installing wall panels like this, you usually apply panels of the same width one after another,” she explained. “Only the first and the last panels differ in width. This isn’t an end panel, but it differs slightly in width from the others.”

“Oh yeah, you’re right,” I said. “It does look a bit different on closer inspection.”

The difference was barely one centimeter of width. I’d only noticed after Natsuki had pointed it out to me. Because it was on the side of the staircase, it wouldn’t have been visible from the front.

Even Yuki looked surprised as she measured the width of the panel with her fingers. “Whoa, you’re right. I can’t believe you noticed that. You’re amazing, Natsuki... Hmm. Did the construction people try to cheap out on materials?”

“That would perhaps be conceivable in a commoner’s house,” said Natsuki. “In any case, what’s telling is the absence of a rabbet.”

As a demonstration of her certainty that Yuki’s objection didn’t apply to a noble’s villa, Natsuki indicated the gaps between the panels with her fingers, but now I was even more confused than before.

“Rabbet? Wazzat, Natsuki?” Touya asked.

“If you apply paneling like this and it dries and shrinks, gaps will appear between the panels. In order to prevent that from happening, you have to cut grooves along the edges of the panels. In that way, they slot together tightly, resulting in a precise fit without gaps.”

“How knowledgeable you are,” said Joachim. “Pray tell, have you studied carpentry?”

It was obvious that the viscount was deeply impressed; apparently he didn’t know any more about this topic than we did.

“Not at all, sir,” said Natsuki. “I have only the most general understanding.”

“I would call your knowledge far more particular than that,” said Joachim. “Perhaps, as the lord of a land that relies upon carpentry as a source of revenue, I ought to spend more time studying the craft.”

Back on Earth, it had been a cinch to look up all sorts of skills, but in this world, a lot of that information fell under the category of trade secrets. Artisans living within the viscounty would undoubtedly share their secrets with their lord if he asked them, and in that way, he might develop a discerning eye for carpentry, but I wasn’t sure if that was something he really needed to do.

“Okay, I get that this was boarded up in a weird way,” said Touya. “But it isn’t a door, is it?”

As he spoke, Touya knocked on the area that Natsuki had indicated, but the panel remained firmly in place, and the sound was no different from that produced by knocking on other areas. There didn’t seem to be any hidden mechanisms either.

“It’s probably much simpler than you imagine,” Natsuki replied. “Touya-kun, could you please go over there and pull that riser?”

Natsuki pointed at the third riser. Given the open space on one side, part of the stair protruded into the corridor, creating a perfect handle. Touya cocked his head in bemusement, but he still obeyed Natsuki’s instructions and applied force to the edge of the riser.

“Huh? This doesn’t feel loose enough to pull out, so— Whoa!”

Contrary to his expectations, a few things actually came loose. In fact, the movements were transmitted from the first riser all the way to the fourth; it looked almost like a tansu step chest.

“Good gracious, I had no idea that such a mechanism was concealed here!” exclaimed Joachim. “Excellent work!”

“Thank you, sir,” said Natsuki. “I happen to be familiar with a similar style of furniture that makes use of the sides for storage.”

“Oh yeah, a tansu step chest, right?” said Touya. “I remember seeing one at your house.”

“Yeah, it’s difficult to notice when you assume it’s fixed in place,” said Haruka. “You would never think to try moving the different parts if you didn’t know in advance that they could move... Oh, look, there’s something on the floor! Touya, pull harder!”

“Seriously?! Okay, here goes!”

As Touya exerted more strength, the risers continued to move, eventually revealing a thick door on the floor. With the door exposed, I was finally able to hear knocking sounds from underground, and with Touya’s help, I immediately set about lifting the door.

“Big Bro Nao!”

“Whoa!”

Metea hopped right out of the door, and I caught her in my arms. Mary and Illias-sama appeared shortly afterward, both wearing slightly sheepish expressions.

Mary bowed to all of us. “You saved us. Thank you very much.”

“I’m terribly sorry for all the trouble I must have caused, father,” Illias said nervously.

But in response, the viscount merely smiled and gathered Illias-sama into his arms.

“I am simply glad you’re safe. I would like to ask about the circumstances that led to this turn of events, but it’s quite late...” The viscount looked out a window. “Or rather, quite early, as the sun is now up. Regardless, I’m sure the members of Meikyo Shisui are all tired as well. All of you, please feel free to take your leave and rest.”

All of us nodded at the viscount’s suggestion. None of the three girls seemed particularly tired, but even so, they had been stuck underground for a day and half.

As for my friends and me, we hadn’t been able to sleep well the night before last, and we’d spent all of last night up searching for the kids, so we were, in fact, exhausted. The viscount’s offer was a real boon for us, so we took full advantage of it.

★★★★★★★★★

We cleaned ourselves up, ate some food, and then took a nap. By the time we’d risen to meet with the viscount, noon was drawing near.

The viscount had designated this a meeting between parents and guardians, meaning the sisters and Illias-sama were excluded. We’d heard from Mary exactly how the girls had ended up stuck underground, but it was difficult to decide who was responsible. It would probably have been fairest to conclude either that everyone was partially responsible or that Illias-sama, as the lord’s daughter, was solely responsible. However, due to the differences in their social standing, it wasn’t quite that simple...

“Once again, I would like to apologize on behalf of Mary and Metea for the trouble they caused, and—”

The lord’s word was law within his domain, so my party had decided in advance that it would be best for us to adopt a conciliatory posture, but before my apology was fully out of my mouth, Viscount Nernas lifted a hand to silence me.

“There is no need for you to apologize,” he said. “I have heard the full story from Illias. She vowed to assume responsibility for all that transpired. Thus, Mary and Metea are not at fault, nor do I have the slightest intention of blaming them in the future.”

“I see,” I said. “Thank you very much for your mercy, my lord.”

Based on all of our interactions thus far, we were well aware that Viscount Nernas was an upstanding and reasonable noble, but it was a fact that our wards had exposed his daughter to danger, and we’d been genuinely worried about the possibility that the sisters would be held responsible. All of us were relieved that he’d begun by clearly affirming his belief in their innocence.

“In fact, it is I who ought to be thanking you, Meikyo Shisui,” said Joachim. “It was you who found the trapdoor, and it was thanks to the provisions you’d prepared that Illias returned to us in good health.”

Even if the girls had gone without food and water during their day and a half underground, they wouldn’t have died, but they might have been severely weakened, so the emergency rations we made the sisters carry had proven useful.

“Mm. It was lucky that we thought of that ahead of time,” I said. “I’m a bit surprised that our preparations ended up being useful outside of a dungeon.”

“I see,” said Joachim. “As pertains to the question of responsibility, I suppose it is I who am truly at fault: It seems I am unable to manage my own mansion.”

The viscount had done his best given the circumstances, but as a lord, he had to think in terms of results. The things we’d heard about the viscount’s predecessors felt like stories of the distant past, and our daily lives in Laffan were very peaceful, but the viscount had been forced to confront all sorts of problems, from the incident at Kelg to the present missing persons cases, and it was a fact that he’d had to rely on our services as adventurers to resolve many of them.

But as the ones who’d accepted those quests from him, it wasn’t easy for us to be objective about this matter, and so we kept silent.

After a moment, the viscount shook his head and chuckled, then continued, “Well, there’s hardly any sense in complaining. Pray forget what I said just now. What is more important is that you resume your investigation into these kidnappings. I’ve received a report from Sadius that progress has been made.”

“Progress?” I asked.

“Yes, quite. Consult Sadius for more details, won’t you? He should be back by evening.”

“Very well,” I said. “In that case, please excuse us, my lord. We’ll take our leave now.”

It seemed the viscount’s primary purpose in summoning us had been to inform us that he had no intention of holding us responsible. Relieved that the meeting had ended on a positive note, we headed back to our rooms.

★★★★★★★★★

The moment we got back to our rooms, Yuki breathed a big sigh of relief. “Somehow everything turned out all right in the end.” She still sounded exhausted, though.

“Mm,” said Haruka. “I was really worried from the time we first learned that Mary, Metea, and Illias-sama had gone missing, but all’s well that ends well.”

Haruka looked serene as she glanced over at the beds where Mary and Metea were sleeping, their own faces totally relaxed. They’d been energetic when we first rescued them, but their fatigue had undoubtedly built up over the course of more than a day of confinement. After we’d all cleaned ourselves up and had a meal together, they had begun nodding off, and right after they finished telling us about their adventures with Illias-sama, they had fallen asleep.

“I’m glad that the viscount decided to let the matter rest,” said Natsuki.

“Yeah, no kidding,” I said. “We still haven’t made any progress with that quest we accepted, though.”

“Well, sounds like Sadius has come up with some kind of lead, so hopefully that’ll end up being useful,” said Touya.

“I bet he found out some stuff about that Gudz guy,” said Yuki. “It’ll be awkward for us if this turns out to not have anything to do with the kidnappings, though.”

“All we’ve really done so far is tell Sadius about Gudz,” said Haruka.

“I wouldn’t really mind if the case were solved without our involvement,” said Natsuki. “As I’ve said before, we’re hardly qualified to act as detectives...”

Yuki and Haruka seemed a bit unhappy about the prospect of the kidnappings being resolved easily, without any contribution from us; Natsuki, however, clearly wasn’t bothered in the slightest. I was inclined to favor her outlook insofar as there was a good chance that the viscount wasn’t actually counting on us to end the kidnappings. We’d accepted this quest despite having just completed another for him, but even so, I wasn’t too enamored with the idea of the viscount treating us as people he could pay to tackle odd jobs.

“I guess it wouldn’t sit right with me if we were considered useless when it comes to stuff like this,” I said.

“Sure, but there’s no point in us heading out of town right away, is there?” said Touya. “Like, he told us to spend the rest of the day relaxing.”

“Yeah, I know, but...”

The all-nighter combined with our anxiety for the sisters had been quite draining, but it wasn’t as bad as some of our experiences as working adventurers, and I’d already recovered thanks to a nap that morning. Now I had nothing to do at all.

“One thing we could do is review the documents about the kidnappings,” said Haruka. “We’ve gotten some new information over the last few days, so we may be able to find new clues if we go through them again.”

“...Sure, that works for me,” I said.

Nobody else had anything to do, so we all started sifting through the documents again. I thought there was no way we’d turn up any new clues, but...

“This section here stands out to me.”

Haruka drew a circle on the page with her index finger, and Yuki hopped over to take a peek at the document.

“Lessee... Oh, are you talking about this part that says there were no external injuries that could have caused death?”

This was the first incident that Sadius had told us about—the woman who’d been a resident of Kelg but had been found dead in Pining.

“Yeah. Doesn’t this remind you of something? To be more specific, think back to the events of just over a year ago.”

The rest of us pondered that. Touya was the first to lift his head.

“Oh, do you mean the stuff that happened because of the Plunder skill? I remember Diola-san telling us how somebody dropped dead inside the guild. But she said the guy that died looked to be in his twenties, so—well, actually, I guess you can change your appearance during character creation...”

“Nah, wait, the victim here was a merchant from Kelg,” I said. “She had to have regular clients there. Maybe you could establish yourself as a merchant in one year, but...”

Sadius had dispatched soldiers to gather more information, so we could take for granted that the victim did have acquaintances in Kelg. In addition, the proof of residence the merchant had possessed was available only to taxpaying citizens. Adventurers like us couldn’t obtain that kind of license, so it was highly unlikely that any of our classmates had.

“It’s possible to obtain citizenship through marriage, as Yasue did,” said Haruka. “However, that’s not relevant to my point—”

“Oh, you mean exactly the opposite, isn’t that right?” Natsuki asked, clasping her hands together. “You think the victim was killed by one of our classmates, not that she was one of our classmates.”

Haruka nodded. “Precisely. We heard rumors about people dying under mysterious circumstances around the time we were first transported to this world, but we brushed them aside because of the likelihood that our classmates were involved. We didn’t investigate any further because we couldn’t afford to at the time.”

“Oh, this was back when we first registered as adventurers, right? I remember how we didn’t even have enough money to buy weapons,” said Touya.

Touya had technically had a wooden sword, but it was the kind meant for practice rather than actual combat—effectively just a wooden rod. Survival had been our highest priority; information about the deaths of random classmates hadn’t mattered to us at all.

“Uh, if I recall what Diola-san told us at the time, two people died inside of the guild, and there were a lot more deaths outside,” I said. “It’s been a while, so I’m not sure if I’ve got that right.”

Over a year had passed since Diola-san had told us about those deaths, and we’d had so many memorable adventures in that time that it felt like an eternity to me; I could no longer recall the exact details.

“So from what I understand, Haruka, you’re assuming some of our classmates got killed by somebody using a skill like Plunder on them, not from using the Plunder skill themselves, right?” Touya asked. “But hold on, I think the dead people were actually around our age. I remember Diola-san asking us if we were healthy or not.”

“That’s right,” Haruka replied. “Even so, Laffan is a town full of greenhorn adventurers, so there are plenty of people our age there.”

Everyone defined age groups differently, but depending on your criteria, as many as two thirds of the adventurers in Laffan belonged to our age group.

“Did any of our classmates pick a skill that would let them assassinate people without leaving a trace?” I asked. “Or actually, they could also have done it with Darkness Magic. I wonder if there’s a spell that can cause instant death...”

“Darkness Magic remains a bit of a mystery to us. We haven’t come across a grimoire for it yet,” said Haruka. “I suppose it might have been the cause.”

We’d easily obtained a number of grimoires on common types of magic, such as Water Magic, but we had yet to discover one on Darkness Magic. I wasn’t sure whether it had a bad reputation due to its name, but it seemed that very few people were capable of using it, and many of its most famous spells had nasty effects like confusion, sleep, and paralysis.

No spell was inherently evil, but the public image associated with certain kinds of magic was also an important consideration—not only for adventurers but for mages who served their kingdoms directly. Understandably, you could win over far more people by advertising yourself as a Light Mage versus a Dark Mage.

“Okay, say there’s a spell that causes instant death. Who would use it in the middle of town?” said Touya, cocking his head to the left as he posed that rhetorical question. “I don’t think any of our classmates were that psychopathic. Although”—he cocked his head to the right as he answered his own question—“uh, actually, I guess somebody could have used an instant death spell in self-defense without thinking...”

“It didn’t sound like the deaths inside the guild happened because of adventurers fighting,” I said. “Did one of our classmates test their new skills on random people out of curiosity? I hope that isn’t it, but...”

Most of our classmates probably wouldn’t have hesitated to use magic against monsters, but I couldn’t imagine they would have casually used it against other people. Well, using it on criminals would be fine, but it was everyone’s first day in this different world, right? Yeah, nah, there’s no way...right?

“I think using the Plunder skill is every bit as evil as killing another human being outright,” said Natsuki. “True, it’s possible that the users may simply have failed to consider the consequences, but even if the victims survive, it’s deeply malicious.”

“Yeah, kinda like willful negligence,” said Yuki. “Only somebody really stupid wouldn’t think about the consequences. Like, if you stole an adventurer’s skills and they didn’t notice and just headed off for work, they’d probably die.”

“Yes, it’s effectively a direct attack on someone’s ability to earn a living,” said Haruka. “The person whose skills were stolen would be unable to continue working, which is tantamount to a death sentence for most adventurers.”

It was vastly worse than suddenly losing your office job back on Earth. There was no such thing as unemployment insurance in this world, and lots of people lived on the brink of poverty. The odds of successfully stealing skills with Plunder were quite low, but they were better than zero, and starvation was a very real risk for any victim who suddenly lost all the skills they’d acquired over their working life.

“As Nao said, those people may have been killed with assassination skills rather than magic,” said Haruka. “The killers may have carried out the murders on purpose, or the deaths may have been the results of accidental or incorrect uses of skills...”

“Oh, yeah, one of our classmates accidentally killed himself because he lost control of his spell,” I said.

“So in essence,” said Natsuki, “we’re talking about skills that can kill people without inflicting external injuries... What kind of skills might fall under that rubric?”

As Natsuki paused in thought, I began to sift through my own memories of games and light novels. Poisoning and suffocation are standard methods of assassination. I guess there’s also stuff like destroying a person’s heart or brain inside their body through psychokinesis. In fantasy stories, monsters like wraiths often have the ability to drain the life force of their victims...

“...Actually, I doubt anyone in our class was weird enough to want to become a wraith,” I mused aloud.

“A wraith?” said Touya. “What are you talking about, dude?”

“Just, you know, there are games where you can touch people to drain their life force, right? Depending on the game, it could be a drainage of levels or hit points, but it’s a pretty common concept.”

Are there monsters in this world that can do stuff like that? We know there are undead monsters. I remember seeing ghosts and wraiths listed in a monster encyclopedia. I don’t know if they can actually drain our levels, but there was info about them draining your vitality through physical touch and potentially leaving you dead if they maintained contact for long enough.

“Nah, there’s no way any of our classmates would ever willingly become a wraith,” said Touya. “You’d be turning into an undead monster instead of getting brought back to life in a new world. Well, if there was an option like lich lord, then maybe one of them might have been tempted...”

Oh yeah, we did kind of get resurrected from the dead. Some of us got turned into completely different races, so “transportation” is a more accurate term than “reincarnation.” But would becoming an undead monster still count as coming back to life? Maybe... A lich lord, huh? That sounds kind of cool, but...

“I didn’t see the option to become a lich lord or anything like that during character creation,” I said. “Besides, even if the option was available, I really doubt anybody had enough points to afford it. I do remember seeing a Dhamphir race, though.”

The cost for most of the normal races was 20 points, whereas the Dhamphir race was 50 points, right? If the Dhamphir race already cost 50 points, there’s no way anyone had enough points to become a lich lord, assuming something like that would be as powerful as I’m imagining.

“Oh, right, there were vampires too,” said Yuki. “I don’t think a vampire could kill somebody without leaving a wound, though. The bite mark would still be there after he sucked all the blood out, wouldn’t it?”

“But if somebody got sucked dry, how would you even determine the cause of death?” I asked.

Someone who’d died from blood loss would be very pale, right? Still, there’s no such thing as an autopsy in this world...

“Blood has nothing to do with it,” Haruka replied. “It would be easy to find the kinds of bite marks Yuki was describing, but nothing like that is mentioned in any of the documents, so I think we can safely assume nothing weird happened to the bodies.”

“Oh yeah, good point,” I said. “So we can cross out the possibility of vampires, but it might be some kind of special skill instead, and—”

Natsuki suddenly interrupted me with a serious look on her face. “I think Yuki actually might have the right idea here.”

Yuki cocked her head in surprise. “I might be right? About vampires, you mean?”

“Yes. I remember seeing Energy Drain listed as a skill for vampires. It’s also possible that someone chose the skill in combination with a different race, however.”

“...Nah, I doubt anyone requested the Energy Drain skill by itself,” I said.

Maybe Advastlis would have granted a request for a skill like that if someone had really wanted it, but it would probably have cost loads of points, and given that everyone in our class had started with a very limited number of points, it would have been irrational even to ask unless you had a very specific reason for it.

“Vampires...” said Touya. “Honestly, being a vampire sounds cool to me. So how many points did it cost to become a vampire?”

Natsuki put a hand to her head as if to stir her memories, and after a moment’s thought, she answered, “If I recall correctly, it was somewhere between 130 and 150 points. I’m not absolutely certain, however.”

“Whoa, that’s way too expensive!” Touya exclaimed. “I wouldn’t have been able to afford it even with everything that I had!”

I’d had 150 points total, but even that number would, best-case scenario, just barely have covered the cost. Given that a year had passed, there was a slight chance that Natsuki’s memories were simply inaccurate, but even so, I was fairly confident that the cost had been over 100 points, so very few people would have started with enough points to become a vampire. Anyone who had chosen that option must have ended up without any points left over for anything else.

“I chose elf immediately, so I didn’t pay much attention to any of the other available races,” said Haruka. “What kinds of abilities did vampires have?”

“To be honest, I don’t remember much, but I think it was a fairly standard collection of the kinds of abilities that vampires have in fiction and folklore,” said Natsuki. “They probably have the ability to suck blood, turn into mist and bats, and mesmerize others. However, they seemed to have very few weaknesses aside from holy attacks and sunlight. Sunlight is a weakness common to most forms of undead.”

“So no use trying crosses, stakes, or garlic?” Touya asked.

“Are they unable to cross running water or enter other people’s homes uninvited?” I asked.

Natsuki shook her head.

“So there are vampires out there with basically no weaknesses, huh?” I said. “That’s bad news for sure. Good thing sunlight still hurts them. I guess it depends on just how weak they are to sunlight.”

Does sunlight vanquish vampires in this world? I hope it doesn’t just burn them or restrict their powers. Honestly, 130 points for a list of abilities that includes bloodsucking, mist and bat transformations, and the power to mesmerize others is way too cheap unless vampires also have weaknesses severe enough to balance things out. Is having to suck blood a weakness in itself? I remember Dhamphirs having a stronger lust for blood than pure vampires, but I’m not sure if bloodlust is debilitating.

“What about immortality?” I asked. “Can vampires in this world resurrect from ashes?”

“I don’t recall anything in the text about immortality, so it ought to be possible to slay them by conventional means,” Natsuki replied. “The cost to become a vampire would undoubtedly have been even higher if they were immortal. For the same reason, it isn’t likely that the vampires in this world have the power to create minions through their bites.”

So vampires probably aren’t as strong as I was thinking, then. Phew.

“That makes sense. I bet some of our classmates wished for immortality, but even though I had 200 points, I didn’t see any option like that, so it must have been truly out of reach.” Haruka looked just as relieved as I felt, but then a troubled expression crossed her face. “Nevertheless, the power to mesmerize others would be difficult to contend with. I’m confident that there must be limitations on its use, but even so...”

“Yeah, there have to be limits,” I said. “A mesmerizing power without any drawbacks would be way overpowered.”

If vampires were capable of casually mesmerizing their enemies into either fighting one another or committing suicide, they would be undefeatable except by surprise attack from long range. There was no way Advastlis-sama would have allowed us access to that kind of power.

“Yeah, I’m sure there are some limits, but the problem is, we don’t know exactly what they are,” said Touya. “We haven’t heard any rumors of vampires going on rampages, so the limits are probably pretty hard. There’s also the possibility that they just didn’t mesmerize anyone to keep from standing out, though.”

“Hmm. I wonder if the Bless spell would help protect us from being mesmerized,” said Haruka.

“I think being mesmerized probably counts as a status ailment, so the Bless spell should be an effective precaution,” I said.

The best way to deal with vampires was to avoid them, but we had already accepted a quest from the viscount, and honestly, I felt a bit uncomfortable with the idea of allowing a vampire to roam free. Our own livelihoods and safety would be threatened if the viscount somehow fell under a vampire’s sway, after all.

“Regardless, we probably shouldn’t bring too many other people with us if we have to face off against a vampire,” said Natsuki.

“Mm. It would be awkward if we were forced to fight soldiers who’d been mesmerized,” said Haruka. “Fatigue might directly compromise our own resistance to being mesmerized, so we should ensure we’re in the best shape possible before facing off against a vampire. We could also pray at a temple just in case.”

We spent some more time coming up with specific tactics—for example, buffing ourselves with the Resist Disease and Holy Weapon spells—and planning how we’d respond if a vampire turned into mist or a bat during combat. At the end of our discussion, some words slipped out of Yuki’s mouth.

“Well, we’ve done a lot of preparations, but there’s still a possibility that our classmates actually had nothing to do with the kidnappings. We also don’t have any concrete evidence that there’s a vampire hiding out there somewhere. It could just be some kind of special skill.”

If she was right, we’d just wasted a lot of time, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Man, I hope our preparations aren’t for nothing—although actually, it would be better if we didn’t have to fight a vampire at all. Oh well.

★★★★★★★★★

Sadius dropped by our room that evening. As expected, he had information about Gudz, but there was one detail that caught us by surprise.

“If I understand correctly, does that mean you’re more or less completely up to date on Gudz’s recent activities?” Haruka asked with a doubtful glance.

Sadius just laughed. “Yeah, we looked into everything he got up to over the past few days. Our investigation was complete by noon today. Me and my soldiers are all Pining boys—we know our way around.”

The primary duty of the viscountial troops was to maintain law and order in the capital, so it made sense that they had greater investigative capabilities here. Still, I was a bit surprised given that they hadn’t made any headway toward solving the kidnappings.

Sadius frowned; clearly he’d read my expression accurately. “Look, investigating the whereabouts of normal women and kids is completely different from investigating adventurers. Adventurers tend to stand out in all the wrong ways. They make a big impression anytime they show up in places where ordinary people are going about their daily lives. It’s always easy to track them down—especially adventurers like you guys, so don’t get up to any trouble, got it?”

“We won’t!” Touya put in. “We get how much we stand out.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing about us that doesn’t stand out,” said Yuki. “Well, if it was just me and Natsuki here, maybe we could blend in...”

The population of Pining consisted primarily of humans; elves and beastmen were rare and exotic. What Yuki had said made sense to me, but Sadius apparently had a different opinion; he was giving her an exasperated look.

“Nah, you two stand out even on your own,” said Sadius. “In fact, I’d go so far as to say you’re the two people in this group with the highest odds of getting yourselves into trouble.”

“Whaaat? We’re well-behaved. What’re you talking about?”

“Elves like Nao and Haruka have this aura about them, and there aren’t many people dumb enough to pick a fight with a beastman like Touya. You two, though—you don’t look dangerous. I’m not the only one who sees it, right?”

“Oh yeah, you definitely can’t tell how strong they are from the way they look,” said Touya. “But I gotta say, any guy who tries hitting on them stands to lose the family jewels—”

“What precisely are you trying to imply, Touya-kun?” Natsuki interrupted, her voice sounding serene and intimidating at the same time.

Touya must have been thinking back to Tokuoka and his friends, but he’d been far too careless with his choice of words. He stood up straight. “Nothing at all, ma’am!”

“Yuki and I are perfectly normal girls, Sadius-san,” said Natsuki. “Is that understood?”

“Y-Yeah, of course.” Sadius had a strange, awkward expression as he nodded. He forced a cough, composed his face again, and continued. “Anyway, there were a lot of eyewitness reports of Gudz, so we were able to confirm he was watching a specific private residence over the last few days. We don’t know his reasons, but he probably thought that’s where the culprit was.”

“Oh, was he seen by the other residents of the same neighborhood?” Haruka asked. “If he stood out that much, wouldn’t the culprit have noticed him as well?”

“Well, Gudz is a low-ranking adventurer,” Sadius replied. “He’s nowhere near as good as you lot. He doesn’t have the ability to conceal his presence, and if normal people noticed him, I suppose the culprit could have too.”

“That’s no good!” Yuki exclaimed. “If Gudz was right and that’s where the kidnapper was holed up, he’s probably left by now!”

“Well, this is where I ought to add—Gudz disappeared into thin air the afternoon you met him,” said Sadius. “I posted some troops at his own domicile, but he never returned.”

“Does that mean he resorted to brute force?” Yuki asked. She must’ve been wondering if Gudz had broken into the house he’d been staking out.

Sadius nodded. “I know this may not sit well with you considering you gave us this lead, but we’re preparing to raid that house.”

“All we did was warn you about Gudz, so we don’t really mind,” I said. “I am kind of surprised that you didn’t know about him before now, though.” Gudz seemed like the kind of obvious lead that any thorough investigation would turn up.

Sadius shook his head, looking frustrated. “He was probably avoiding the troops until recently. I’m pretty sure he was afraid we’d take credit for his work.”

“Oh yeah,” said Haruka, “when he learned we were investigating the kidnappings at the lord’s request, he ran away from us.”

“Probably blinded by greed despite not having the skills he’d need to capitalize on the opportunity,” said Sadius. “If he’d come to us, we could have helped him out. It’s a shame, but he has only himself to blame for his death.”

“Do you think he’s already dead, Sadius?” I asked.

“Decent odds he snuck into the house where the kidnapper is holed up, and he hasn’t come out,” Sadius replied. “You really think he’s still alive? He’s a poor middle-aged adventurer. I don’t see any reason for the kidnapper to keep him alive.”

Anyone with morals would hesitate to kill a random stranger. But then, no one with morals would become a kidnapper in the first place. It was likely that the kidnapper had already killed multiple people, and once you crossed that line, I didn’t imagine it was easy to stop.

“Okay, but are you sure the kidnapper is in that specific house?” Touya asked. “What if Gudz just got the wrong idea and ended up backed into a corner because he broke into somebody else’s house?”

“Well, that kind of situation might still require a raid,” said Sadius. He chuckled to himself. “And anyway, we asked around about that residence. It’s an area where...let’s say people put a lot of stock in neighborly relations. Not too hard to find gossipy housewives.”

According to Sadius, the house in question was rather large compared to other houses in the neighborhood; a financially successful couple had had it built a few decades ago. They had since passed away, but they had a daughter in her twenties who was supposed to be living in the house to this day.

The daughter had always led a comfortable life thanks to her parents’ wealth, but she’d reportedly been acting strange lately. She hadn’t become a complete recluse, but she’d been venturing outside less and less frequently. The front garden had also deteriorated. Many of the neighbors had been acquaintances of the girls’ parents, so they had approached her to ask if anything was wrong, but “I’m fine” was the only response they’d ever gotten, and so they’d been unable to take further action.

“...Okay, yeah, bingo,” said Touya. “There’s no reason not to raid the house.”

Based on what Sadius had just told us, Touya’s conclusion was a perfectly logical one. The woman’s suspicious behavior could be plausibly explained by a vampire’s command of Darkness Magic and ability to mesmerize others. There was also the possibility that someone else was threatening her. Regardless, my opinion was the same as Touya’s.

“I figured you would arrive at the same conclusion we did, Touya,” said Sadius. “That’s why we’ve already started preparing for a raid...”

“You haven’t actually launched the raid yet, I take it?” Haruka asked.

“Not yet,” Sadius replied. “We have to make sure there’s no possibility of anybody inside that house escaping. We’ll only bust in after it’s completely surrounded. The raid will most likely take place around evening tomorrow. Can I count on your participation?”

“Yeah, this is the kind of thing we’re good at, so we’re up for the task,” I said. “But tomorrow evening? Would it be possible to start earlier?”

“I’m already missing a lot of men—they were dispatched outside of town because of Satomi’s escape and Illias-sama’s disappearance,” said Sadius. “Even if I call ’em all back, they need rest. I’ve got multiple groups taking shifts watching that house, so the suspect is going to have a hard time escaping, but do you think it’s better to make a move now rather than spending time closing off every possible avenue of escape?”

We exchanged silent glances. As important as it was to surround the kidnapper, the timing was an even more pressing concern. If we were correct that the culprit was a vampire, morning would be a safer time to break down the door. The problem was that we didn’t have any concrete evidence we could use to convince Sadius of our hypothesis. Unaware as he was of our circumstances as reincarnators, he might just assume we were overthinking things.

“What’s wrong?” Sadius asked. “If there’s something you’re concerned about, feel free to tell me.”

The five of us once again exchanged a series of glances, each hoping to foist the responsibility of answering onto somebody else. In the end, it was Haruka who drew the short straw.

“Well, you see, numerous aspects of the kidnapping stood out to us as unusual—the female merchant acting strangely, women killing their boyfriends or acting out of character at home... We don’t have any concrete evidence to support our hypothesis, but we think that the culprit may have the ability to influence other people’s behavior. The incident involving the Holy Satomi Sect wasn’t too long ago, and there are some telling similarities.”

I knew we could count on you to come up with an explanation that almost makes sense, Haruka! You even avoided using words like “mesmerize” or “mind control” that might arouse Sadius’s suspicions, and now he’s just standing there thinking to himself! Success!

“You raise an interesting possibility,” said Sadius. “But supposing you’re right, what do you think we should do? Will my boys be able to handle this?”

“The five of us will definitely have a better chance than the average soldier,” said Haruka.

It would have been entirely possible to interpret Haruka’s words as a rude boast, but Sadius didn’t seem to mind; he just nodded. “Very well. In that case, I’ll adjust things so that you’ll be the only ones that physically enter the house. Is that all right with you?”

“It does, but really, I think we ought to be the ones asking you that question,” said Haruka. “There’s a possibility that we’ll end up stealing the show again, just as we did during the incident in Kelg. Won’t some of the troops be displeased about that?”

“Nah,” said Sadius, “most of ’em will be happy—they won’t have to expose themselves to danger. It’s my job to deal with the few malcontents. If they really want to see some action and danger, I can find jobs that suit them better.” Sadius grinned and rose from his seat. “Anyway, I’ll handle the personnel deployment. I’m counting on you lot tomorrow.”

He went to the door and put his hand on the handle, then suddenly turned back as if he’d remembered something. “And thank you for rescuing Illias-sama. I had no idea that she was lost. This is the kind of problem we ought to be able to solve on our own, but everything’s a mess right now because of recent events.”

“Well, Mary and Metea were with her, so we were determined to rescue them no matter what,” I said. “Besides, the viscount directly told us that he wasn’t going to hold us responsible for what happened, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Good to hear. Once the dust settles, though, there’s a good chance the House of Nernas will have to carry out some reorganization. The final result may be that one branch of the household army will cover general military duties and another branch will be knights responsible for guarding the mansion, the viscount himself, and his family.”

“You think so? Sounds like you’ll be needing more people,” said Touya. “Do you think you’ll end up getting promoted, Sadius?”

There was a teasing note in Touya’s voice, but Sadius seemed sincerely happy.

“Yeah,” he said with a nod, “that seems to be the lord’s plan. There ought to be enough money in the new budget to cover the costs. That said...I don’t know if I’ll end up getting promoted or not, but a part of me hopes this’ll be the last time we have to come to you for help.”

Sadius didn’t sound particularly confident that the soldiers would be able to handle everything themselves. A look of exhaustion overtook him, and he let out a deep sigh. Man, being in a managerial role doesn’t seem fun at all.

★★★★★★★★★

The next afternoon, we found ourselves staring at the residence Sadius had described to us. As he’d told us, it was somewhat larger than the surrounding houses, but this wasn’t a wealthy neighborhood, and the house wasn’t large enough to qualify as a mansion. Apart from its size, nothing about it stood out. Why exactly it had caught Gudz’s eye, we had no idea, but it was fortunate for us; if we’d been forced to investigate on our own, it would probably have taken us a long time to find it.

“Maybe the guy is actually all right at detective work,” I said.

“You think so?” said Touya. “I feel like a good detective wouldn’t succeed at the cost of his own life—though I guess we don’t know for sure if he’s dead or not.”

“He obviously sucked at risk management, so I’m not gonna praise him,” said Yuki. She laughed and glanced over at Sadius. “Maybe Gudz’s life would have turned out better if he’d worked as a soldier under Sadius, but I bet he’d just ignore orders sometimes, and Sadius wouldn’t want to put up with a guy like that.”

Sadius was listening to a report from one of his subordinates. It must’ve been bad news; he clucked his tongue and walked over to us, scratching his head.

“Sorry, but it sounds like the deployment hasn’t finished yet. At this rate, the raid isn’t going to start until closer to evening.”

“That’s just a reversion to the original schedule rather than a delay, so it’s perfectly all right,” said Haruka.

The preparations had been going smoothly, so we’d been hopeful that we would be able to attack at noon—the optimal time of day if the culprit really was a vampire—but in the absence of concrete evidence for our hypothesis, we couldn’t insist upon that schedule.

“I guess this just means we have time to prepare ourselves mentally,” I said. “What about you, Sadius?”

“I’ve got more experience with situations like this than you do, Nao,” said Sadius. “I am a bit worried if Haruka’s hypothesis is correct...”

Unlike in Kelg, where we’d worked in coordination with sizable units of soldiers, Sadius was the only one who would accompany us today. If the target was capable of exercising psychic control over the soldiers, greater numbers would work against us, and regardless, this house was too small to permit any larger groups much freedom of movement. That second reason was apparently the one Sadius had presented to his soldiers in explaining to them why they had to remain behind. If anything, it would have been more logical for my party to raid the house on our own, but for a group of adventurers to mount an assault on a private residence would look bad, and if our information was incorrect, we would need someone like Sadius to talk to the distressed residents.

“We’ve got some time, so you could visit a temple to pray,” I said. “What god do you worship, Sadius?”

There was a temple dedicated to Advastlis-sama in Pining, just as there was in Laffan; we’d visited early this morning and prayed in order to feel better.

Sadius gave a casual shake of his head. “There’s a temple dedicated to Igurimayer-sama near the house I was born in, so it influenced me a mite, but I’m not pious by any means. Besides, it wouldn’t be right to pray only when I really need the help...”

Despite the fact that gods were real in this world, pious believers were few and far between within the Lenium Kingdom. Someone who happened to walk by a temple might visit or make a small donation, but there weren’t large numbers of fanatics who adhered closely to religious strictures and claimed to be acting in the name of this or that god. The majority of the people believed in the gods, but they weren’t dependent upon them. It wasn’t so different from the way a lot of Japanese people interacted with religion, so in that respect, life here was pretty comfortable for us. That said, given the very real possibility of divine retribution for sin, things weren’t quite as laissez-faire as they had been back on Earth.

“Well, if we end up in combat, you can fall behind us if you want.” Yuki winked and clasped her hands together in mock contrition. “Just keep in mind that if the kidnapper can influence you somehow, we might have to get rough with you!”

“...I’d hope you would hold back a bit, but all right,” said Sadius with a laugh and a nod. “If it comes down to that...feel free.”

★★★★★★★★★

Shortly before sunset, we finished our preparations and headed toward the house. We stopped outside the front door.

Sadius knocked and barked, “I am Sadius, a soldier in the direct service of the Viscount Nernas. Is anyone home?”

He was met with silence. After waiting a moment, he knocked again, with greater force, and this time received a meek “Hello?” from within. The door at last opened a crack, and a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties showed herself. She was quite beautiful but pale and obviously in poor health.

“I am Sadius, a soldier in the direct service of the Viscount Nernas,” he repeated. “We are conducting a criminal investigation that requires us to search your house.”

“O-Oh, but, um, I haven’t done anything wrong...” The woman’s gaze shifted around as if she were genuinely confused by the sudden intrusion.

“I’m afraid that’s irrelevant,” said Sadius indifferently. “Your cooperation is required.”

He forcefully swung the door open and restrained the woman without wasting any time trying to argue with her. Back in Japan, a policeman who did something like that would have been guilty of civil rights abuses, but it was no big deal in this world. Thank God for feudalism! Works fine for us!

“All right, Sadius, please take care of her for us,” I said.

“Huh? Okay. Be careful.”

“Of course,” I said.

In reality, we had no idea whether the woman was hostile, but her presence here provided us with a pretext to keep Sadius from getting in our way. We exchanged nods with him, then ventured deeper into the house, Touya leading the way. The interior was somewhat dark, and after scanning my surroundings, I immediately noticed the reason: Though night had not yet fallen, curtains covered all of the windows. So the kidnapper doesn’t want any light getting in, huh? Bingo.

“I can sense people on the second floor,” I said. “I think about three total.”

During our adventures, my Scout skill had proven very useful for detecting enemies, but like all of the skills we’d received from Advastlis-sama, it had some limitations. One was that it wasn’t very good at detecting anything other than monsters. It was especially bad at detecting humans who weren’t hostile, which made it difficult to use in densely populated areas like towns.

In addition, the signals became a lot weaker when they were behind walls, especially if the walls were very thick. In that respect, it was similar to sonar. As a result, it was actually somewhat difficult to detect the exact number of people in a room from outside it. But that wasn’t the case if the people were hostile, and I was fairly confident in my reading; I’d detected hostility the moment we entered the house.

“Oh, the stairs are over there!”

“Be careful, Touya,” I said.

“Roger!”

Touya dashed toward the staircase, and the rest of us followed. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, he paused, and his ears stood up. He immediately kicked open one particular door and leaped inside with his shield up.

Our plan was to wrap things up before the enemy got even a moment to recover from his surprise. We were deeply concerned about the prospect of facing a classmate with special abilities, but most of our classmates likely had less experience in combat than we did, so our hope was that the kidnapper wouldn’t be able to react immediately to a sudden attack.

And it seemed our hopes had been fulfilled.

The rest of us followed Touya into the room, which was dark, just like the rest of the house. It was a large room, about twenty tatami mats in area, with a single bed in the corner where a young man sat looking stupefied by our dramatic entrance. Beside him were two scantily clad girls, whose faces I could see clearly now that Haruka had illuminated the room with her Light spell. One must’ve been the missing girl whose family had posted a search quest; she unmistakably resembled the sketch Natsuki had made. I didn’t recognize the other girl. She was younger than the first, though older than Mary. It seemed like there was a good chance that this was the missing twelve-year-old.

The moment the light from Haruka’s spell hit him, the guy snapped to his senses and leaped up from the bed.

“Holy shit, what kind of lunatic breaks into a house without a search warrant?!”

Yeah, this is definitely the guy we’re looking for. My Third Eye skill says he’s a vampire, and besides, nobody born in this world would use the term “search warrant.”

He wasn’t anyone I was familiar with, however. His unhealthy pallor confirmed that he was a vampire, but I couldn’t remember anyone in our class who’d worn his hair long the way this guy did. Hmm. Even if I try imagining him with short hair, I’m drawing a blank. Not that I’m great with faces, but I’m pretty sure this guy looks different as a result of becoming a vampire. Yep, definitely not a me problem.

“It’s over! Surrender now!” Touya roared. “I gotta say, though, I have no idea who you are!”

“Don’t bother trying to resist,” I said. “It won’t do you any good. And to be honest, I don’t know who you are either.”

The guy stomped his feet and jabbed his finger at us. “It’s me, Kaji! Look, I know I wasn’t the most memorable guy, but you should at least remember my name, Nagai. The same goes for you, Kamiya, you bastard!”

Oh, Kaji? Yeah, okay, I can kind of see the resemblance, but if you wanted me to remember you, you should have cut your hair. That hairstyle looks like shit on you, dude. Anyway, I’ve got way too much stuff to remember in this world, like magic, so it’s not my fault if some unimportant memories got pushed out of my brain.

“Your name is irrelevant,” snapped Haruka. “Surrender. You’re under arrest for kidnapping girls.”

“I can’t believe you’ve got a bunch of girls with you! Azuma, Shidou, and Furumiya... Damn it! You’ve just been enjoying the normie lifestyle with pretty girls?!”

“You’re one to talk.” Yuki regarded Kaji and the girls with disgust. “Looks like you’ve been ‘enjoying’ yourself too.”

As a guy, I could relate to the fantasy of being able to charm girls, but that kind of thing was completely unacceptable when it went beyond fantasy. Especially when one of the girls isn’t even in her teens! I don’t know for sure if you did what you’re accused of, Kaji, but...

“You’re a criminal, and now you’ve got to atone for your crimes,” said Yuki. “Death by hanging seems like a good punishment.”

Without any idea of the scope of Kaji’s crimes, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure if I agreed with the death penalty, but he was unquestionably guilty of kidnapping, and he was probably also guilty of the murders that had taken place in the course of those kidnappings, so I wouldn’t have any scruples about killing him. We all raised our weapons and readied ourselves to restrain him. At first, he looked panicked, but he quickly regained his composure and gave us a nasty grin.

“Ha ha! It’s unfortunate that you’ve found me, but how fortunate for me that you brought some girls with you—I’ve grown bored of the ones I have here. Azuma, obey me—kill Kamiya!”

We all froze in our tracks and shifted our attention to Haruka.

“Are you okay, Haruka?” I asked.

Haruka thought about it. “Yeah,” she said, gently moving one hand around. She smiled and nodded at me. “I seem to be fine.”

“I see... Phew.”

We’d been fairly certain that we could resist any powers of mind control the vampire might have, but we were still relieved to be proven right. If it had turned out that Kaji could mesmerize Haruka, our plan had been that Yuki and Natsuki would restrain her while Touya and I killed him. Fortunately, we’d avoided the worst-case scenario.

“H-Huh?! What?!” Kaji seemed flustered and shocked. “Shidou, Furumiya, obey me!”

Again, nothing happened.

“Damn it! I really don’t want to mesmerize other guys, but I guess I have no choice! Kamiya, obey me and restrain Azuma!”

When Kaji turned his gaze on me, I thought I saw his eyes flash for a moment, but that was it. I felt nothing at all. It was honestly kind of disappointing.

“Why does my power not work on you guys?!”

We had cast all kinds of protective magic on ourselves in advance, and we’d been working for over a year to level up and become stronger. There was no way Advastlis-sama would ever have granted one of our classmates a skill that was powerful enough to cancel out our hard work; we had at least that much faith in his sense of fairness. Maybe Kaji’s power would have been effective if he’d worked harder to level it up, but he didn’t seem like the kind of person who’d bother. No one who was willing to work that hard would use a skill like that with malicious intent in the first place...

“Is it because we’re classmates? No, that wouldn’t make sense,” said Kaji. “It worked just fine on Takamatsu.”

“All right, it’s time to end— Wait, what?” Kaji had tried to make Haruka kill me, and he’d shown no inclination to surrender, so I was about to jump him, but I stopped in my tracks when I heard that name. “Takamatsu? The girl behind the Holy Satomi Sect?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, I guess it makes sense that you know about that. Listen, all I did was encourage her with my powers of persuasion, and she performed like a clown—exactly as I planned. I managed to live a good life thanks to her!” Kaji laughed. He had a lecherous smirk on his face, and it suddenly intensified, as if he’d had another idea. “Oh yeah! If you dare touch me, the Holy Satomi Sect will hunt you down! You guys know how dangerous religious cults can be, right? Some of the members are nobles too, ha ha!”

Yeah, you’re right, Kaji. Cults can be dangerous, especially those with fanatical followers who don’t hesitate to commit acts of terrorism. However...

“We have the backing of the lord who rules this domain,” said Yuki. “He was the one who got us to track you down.”

“Yeah. Besides, the Holy Satomi Sect has already been crushed, and all of the nobles who were involved have been dealt with,” I said. “Were you not aware of that?”

Kaji’s only response was silence. Clearly he was aware that the sect had been destroyed; he must have been hoping that we weren’t aware, although there was no way we couldn’t have been after the chaos in Kelg.

Come to think of it, though, is it possible that adventurers who work mainly in Pining might be unaware of everything that happened in Kelg if they didn’t actively seek out the information? Maybe Kaji simply assumed we were ordinary adventurers working on a search quest.

“D-Damn it! Fine! I suppose I’ll have to deal with you myself!”

Kaji’s mouth was twitching as he forced a confident smile, but Yuki immediately blew his facade to pieces.

“Dude, seriously? You realize that makes you sound like a weak boss who’s about to get his ass kicked, right?”

Yeah, bosses who talk big tend to be pushovers. Besides, you don’t even have a weapon, so what are you talking about? Sure, there’s magic, but...

“Shut up! I’m a vampire! I have nothing in common with inferior beings like you. Behold my power of transformation!”

After making that wince-inducing proclamation, Kaji flourished one hand and transformed into a flock of bats, which immediately flew at us and attempted to batter us with their wings. But we were capable of slaying flying monsters like slash owls, and these bats were a lot smaller and weaker, so Touya and I easily whittled their numbers down. Our chain mail completely protected our bodies, so as long as we covered our faces, it was easy to avoid injury.

“What kind of idiot turns into a bunch of bats in the middle of a room?” I said.

“Yeah, like, turning into bats to flee isn’t such a bad idea, but to fight?” said Touya.

As if in testament to the effectiveness of our counterattack, the bats on the floor and in the air gathered together and coalesced into Kaji again.

“Ugh, I didn’t think that power would be so useless!”

Kaji was covered in wounds. The bats we had slain—about five or six altogether—were gone. He turned into about twenty, so we’d probably reduced his health by about a third. Okay, has this guy literally never fought anyone before? Surely if he’d ever fought a truly dangerous enemy, he’d understand what a dumb move this was.

“It would be wise to surrender while you can,” said Haruka. “If you continue to attack us, we have no intention of holding back.”

“Yeah, unless you have some kind of cheaty power, you’ve got no chance,” said Yuki.

“If I turn myself in, I’ll be executed! Why would I surrender now?”

So he had committed crimes worthy of execution, then. We’d been explicitly told that we could kill him if necessary, and since he admitted to misdeeds on that level, there was no reason for us to feel bad about it.

“But you won’t be able to attack this transformation!”

As Kaji laughed maniacally, his body dissolved into a cloud of black mist. Dude, we didn’t act surprised when you turned into bats. Has it occurred to you that we’re fully prepared here?

“Jet Fire!”

“ARRRRGGGGHHH!”

The air trembled as Yuki and I cast the spell at the same time. Fire was effective against mist, so we had practiced together earlier this morning. Jet Fire was much higher in level than our other Fire Magic skills, so we couldn’t use it at anything approaching its full potency, but if the two of us worked together, it was more than good enough.

Spells like Fireball were more purely powerful but could have burned this house down with us in it, and our enemy was just a cloud of mist, so it was more effective to use a spell that allowed us to heat a single target continuously. Jet Fire had a very short range, and it was still possible to start a fire indoors with it, but it was much better than blasting off a Fireball, and we could put out minor fires with the spell Extinguish Fire.

“Damn it, why are you guys being so merciless? Aren’t we classmates?!”

We heard some angry words out of the cloud of mist, but none of us were listening.

“We realized long ago that we can’t afford to show our classmates mercy in combat,” I said.

“We offered you the opportunity to surrender,” said Natsuki. “That was mercy enough.”

“Yeah, we’re not gonna go easy against a sexual predator,” said Yuki.

“You’re just a filthy criminal, Kaji!” Touya snarled. “The real pain hasn’t started yet! Take this!” He swung his sword, the tip glowing faintly.

“Oog! Argh!”

Agonized exclamations echoed around the room. The sword had initially seemed to pass through the mist without any effect, but Touya was clearly dealing actual damage. Kaji had probably assumed this would be one of his most useful transformations, but dealing with it was a cinch. We’d had some idea of its weaknesses ahead of time, and knowing that normal weapons probably wouldn’t damage vampiric mist, we’d cast the Holy Weapon spell on all our equipment, making physical attacks a viable option.

The cloud was gradually thinning out. I was kind of curious about what would happen if we slew the guy in mist mode, but now it gathered itself behind the bed and assumed human form once more. Kaji’s body was in even worse shape than earlier. His right arm was gone, and so was his left leg below the knee. Given that he was capable of these wild transformations, I had no idea what the physical structure of a vampire’s body was, but regardless, he was propping himself against the wall, barely able to stand, so he clearly didn’t have the kind of immortality attributed to vampires in fiction.

“I-Impossible...!”

Kaji sounded shocked that this transformation, too, had proven useless, although I was fairly sure it was meant for fleeing from combat, and outdoors at that. Yuki and I weren’t currently able to use the Jet Fire spell at full potency, so if he’d made the smart choice and run, there was no way we could have stopped him. Even if we’d bombarded him at range with Fire Arrows, that wouldn’t have been enough to pin him down. We had no intention of offering him that advice, however.

“Just give up, dude,” said Touya.

“Yeah, it’s over for you,” said Yuki.

“I-Is this really how my new life in another world is going to end...?”

“You should have worked hard instead of abusing your skills,” I said.

Kaji grimaced in frustration, but then his grimace morphed into a smirk, as if he’d suddenly had a great idea. Yikes!

“You girls—hold them back!”

The girls on the bed had been spacing out while we were fighting, but now they rose and attacked Touya and me. Haruka, Yuki, and Natsuki had dashed toward the bed right as the two girls leaped up, but they were a bit too late. Our plan had been for Touya and me to hold Kaji’s attention while Haruka and the others restrained his thralls, but Kaji had reconstituted his body too close to the bed.

“Sorry!” Yuki yelled.

“We weren’t able to reach them in time!” said Natsuki.

The younger girl slipped past them and lunged at me. She stretched out her arms as if to hug me, so I grabbed them, but it was difficult; she felt very fragile. I wasn’t sure if it was just because she was mesmerized, but although she wasn’t particularly strong, she clung to me with the force of desperation. Had she been an actual enemy, it might have been justifiable to break her arms, but she wasn’t even armed. I glanced in Touya’s direction and saw him in a similar predicament.

“Give us a moment,” said Haruka. “We’ll come help!”

“No, don’t worry about us!” I yelled. “Focus on Kaji—”

Even as I called out that warning, the sound of broken glass filled the room, and Kaji leaped out of the window, then, in midair, transformed into a flock of bats once more. Haruka spun around and shot some of them down with Fire Arrows, but Kaji had learned his lesson from earlier and moved out of line of sight of the window.

“Damn it, he got away!” said Haruka.

“It’s doubtful that we’ll be able to catch up with him now,” said Natsuki.

We were on the second floor of a building, so jumping out of a window wasn’t a realistic option, and none of us could fly. Man, I hope the soldiers around the house can intercept him, but that may be hoping for too much. It’s already dark outside, so even we would have a hard time spotting a bunch of bats.

“Can you help get these girls off us first?” I asked.

“...Okay,” Haruka replied.

We had to take care of the kidnapped girls before we could ponder our next choice. Haruka, Yuki, and Natsuki helped carefully peel the girls off of Touya and me, then wrapped them in sheets before tying them with some rope. They were still flailing violently, but the sheets ought to prevent them from injuring themselves.

We breathed a collective sigh of relief. It would have been simpler to incapacitate them with a sleep spell, but none of us had anything like that at our disposal.

“Ugh,” I said. “This isn’t anywhere near the ideal outcome, but before anything else, let’s go talk to Sadius.”

“Uh-huh. We need to report back,” said Yuki.

I was a bit depressed, but it was still necessary that we be honest with him about our failure. He must have heard the sounds of fighting; he was probably already waiting for us. I headed downstairs, toward the front entrance of the house, to look for him. I found him with his arms folded as he tapped the ground with his foot next to the woman that he had restrained earlier.

The moment he noticed me, Sadius immediately called, “Oh, Nao! What happened?!” He sounded a bit nervous.

“Uh, well, just bring that woman with you and come upstairs first, please,” I said.

“...All right.”

Perhaps intuiting that I had bad news, Sadius complied without question. He lifted the woman into his arms, but she wasn’t trying to escape; she must have received different orders than the two girls upstairs. I led Sadius to the room where we’d confronted Kaji. The two girls had been shifted from the bed to the floor. When Sadius saw the state they were in, he deposited the woman he was carrying onto the bed, where she lay totally still. The two girls had still been flailing around when I had left the room, but they weren’t moving anymore. Wait, hold on. There’s no way, right...?

Haruka answered my unspoken question; maybe she’d noticed the direction of my gaze. “Don’t worry, they’re still alive. They stopped moving around after a while, so there may be a limit to the duration or the area of effect for orders given with Kaji’s powers of persuasion.”

“I see. That’s good to hear.”

The girl who’d tried to restrain me was still a kid, so I had tried my best to not injure her. Needless to say, it would have left a bad taste in my mouth if she’d ended up dead. Man, I still can’t believe Kaji mesmerized a kid who probably isn’t even old enough to attend middle school.

“So what exactly happened?” Sadius asked. “I can hazard a guess based on the situation here, but I’d like to hear the details to make sure.”

The room was empty except for us and the girls on the bed, and the window had been smashed, so there was plenty of evidence of what had transpired.

I nodded at Sadius. “I’ll just cut to the chase. The culprit managed to get away.”

Sadius frowned for a moment, then sighed and shook his head. “I see. Well, if you guys weren’t able to capture the culprit, then I probably wouldn’t have been able to pull it off either with the troops under my command. Oh well.”

Sadius probably thought highly of us because he knew how strong we were, but...

“Uh, to be honest, we probably would have been able to kill the culprit if we’d made that our main objective from the beginning,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s fine. If I was in the same situation, I would have prioritized capturing him too,” said Sadius. “Or maybe I should say, it’s hardly ideal if death is all you’re willing to dish out, so don’t worry about it.”

“Oh, okay. That’s good to know,” I said.

“Besides, you also had to take care of those girls over there, right?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “We tried to ensure their safety before dealing with the culprit, but...”

Should we simply have zeroed in on them right away instead of trying to sneak past Kaji? I’m genuinely not sure. There’s no way to tell which would have been more effective.

“We also have some important news,” I said. “The culprit was a vampire.”

“A vampire?! You sure about that?!”

“Yeah. He turned into bats and a cloud of mist. He was definitely a vampire,” I said.

“He could also mesmerize people,” said Touya.

My party had been aware in advance that the culprit might be a vampire, but for Sadius, this was a bolt from the blue. When his eyes first shot wide, I thought I detected a trace of doubt in them, but it disappeared the moment we’d explained our reasoning to him, and he groaned in frustration.

“Ugh. I really didn’t expect that. What the hell is a vampire doing in these lands...?”

Though vampires were known to exist in this world, most people naturally assumed they would never encounter one themselves. Conflicting rumors circulated about their abilities; there wasn’t a standard set that everyone agreed upon. Normal people in this world also differed a lot from one another, with some having magic and others skills like swordsmanship, and in the same way, it wasn’t possible to describe vampires in generic terms.

“If the culprit can transform into bats, I guess there was no point stationing soldiers around this house,” said Sadius. “Actually, should I issue an alert to make sure none of my boys try to face him? If he was able to get away from you lot, then...”

“Well, he was only able to elude our grasp because we were occupied with the girls he’d enthralled,” said Haruka. “We did manage to destroy one of his arms and one of his legs, and I got in another attack before he got away, so he should be severely injured.”

“Hmm. Without healing, a normal person in that kind of shape would die,” said Sadius. “What do you think?”

“We’re not sure,” I said. “The stump of his arm wasn’t bleeding...”

Clearly vampires could bleed—Kaji had after reverting to his human from his bat form—but we had no idea how damage dealt against his transformations affected him.

“So I take it even you lot don’t know much about vampires, eh? Ah well,” said Sadius. “I’ll order my boys to take care of searching this house. Let’s take these three girls back to the duty station. There’s an awful lot that needs to be dealt with.”

“Yeah, you said it,” I said. “Let’s get going.”

★★★★★★★★★

Not long after we concluded our informal debriefing with Sadius, his soldiers showed up at the house; he must have contacted them ahead of time. Sadius commanded them to take over the task of searching the house, then lifted the woman he’d restrained earlier onto his back. Touya carried the girl whose family had issued a search quest for her, and I carried the youngest girl.

I soon detected other people watching me—the sounds of battle and the soldiers surrounding the house had obviously attracted the neighbors’ attention—so I held the girl closer to my chest in order to hide her face. My party would leave Pining soon, so we didn’t have to worry about rumors, but the girl in my arms was a resident of this city.

I felt horrible about the situation she’d ended up in. Man, I’m really glad that smartphones don’t exist in this world. We swiftly made our way through the residential area and hurried back to the duty station.

★★★★★★★★★

We were all in a funk as we returned to our room, but Metea and Mary greeted us with a cheery “Welcome back!”

Illias-sama had only been lightly punished for her misadventure yesterday—she’d been made to study all day—and the sisters had accompanied her, but they were free now that night had fallen.

Yuki had already collapsed onto her own bed and was rolling around. “Thanks,” she muttered, sounding exhausted.

The rest of us responded with equally low energy. Mary looked around with a worried expression.

“Did things not go well? You all seem very tired. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” I replied. “It wasn’t a complete disaster. It could have gone worse.”

Mary was smiling in an attempt to cheer us up, but that simply reminded me of the girl I’d carried earlier; she was around the same age. I hadn’t given it too much thought at the time, but now I was worried about the future of the girls whom Kaji had enthralled. The wounds they had suffered weren’t the kind you could easily heal with magic. We were fortunate that nothing had happened to the sisters and Illias-sama when they had gone missing, but...

“Can I give you a hug, Mary?” I asked.

For a moment, Mary was stunned, but then she blinked in surprise. “Huh? We don’t normally do that...”

Oh, did I really let those words slip out? I guess I’m more exhausted than I realized.

“Hey, Nao, watch it,” said Haruka. “You almost crossed a line.”

“Oh, uh, sorry. It’s just that... Well, never mind.”

As a guy, being hugged by a girl was one of the best experiences you could have—the kind of memory you never forgot—so I’d probably spoken too freely because of that indescribable feeling lingering in my memory, but on reflection, my suggestion had probably been a little creepy. I hastily tried to tell Mary to forget about it, but she smiled and stretched her arms out toward me.

“Um, I don’t mind if it’s you, Nao-san.”

Mary didn’t know exactly what had happened when we’d gone to face Kaji, but she was mature enough to guess some small part of it from our demeanor. I noticed Haruka nodding at me out of the corner of my eye, so I slowly hugged Mary and stood like that for a moment before pulling back.

“Thanks, Mary,” I said. “I feel refreshed.”

Mary shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, Nao-san. Everybody gets tired sometimes.”

Metea stood beside her sister and stretched her arms up. “I’m free here too, Big Bro Nao! Let me soothe you after a long day of work!”

“Oh, I appreciate the offer, Metea, but I’m good for now. Would you be willing to go hug Touya instead?”

“Huh? Me? All right, I’m wide open!”

“Okay, here I go!”

Metea leaped into Touya’s arms with a giggle. The two of them laughed and rolled around on the bed, and their laughter lightened the mood.

Yuki got up from her bed. “Well, I guess we’re done with the quest the viscount asked us to do. This isn’t exactly a perfect outcome, though.”

Mary glanced at us in confusion. “Oh, did you actually solve the mystery of the kidnappings? I assumed otherwise...”

Mary must have assumed from our melancholy mood that we’d failed.

“Well, you see, the culprit managed to get away in the end,” Yuki replied. “We did some serious damage before he got away, but...”

“Really?! I had no idea the culprit was that strong,” said Mary. “I’m glad we didn’t tag along.”

“Indeed,” Haruka muttered. Yuki and Natsuki wordlessly nodded.

Though Mary and Metea had gotten stronger, we’d been concerned about their ability to resist a vampire’s powers. The scene we’d encountered in that house was not the kind of thing we would ever have wanted the sisters to see, so we’d made the right decision telling them their duty was to stay here.

“I guess we just have to train more and get stronger so you can rely on us!” Metea exclaimed.

“Nah, don’t worry, you’re already key members of our party,” said Touya. “There’s no rush, and besides, we—”

“You guys let the enemy escape this time!” Metea interrupted. “I’m sure that it was because you didn’t have enough people!”

“Oh, uh...” There was a good reason that Kaji had escaped alive, but Touya was at a loss as to how to explain it.

“Um, is everything really okay?” Mary asked.

There were probably multiple meanings behind Mary’s question: Was it okay that the culprit was now on the run? Would the viscount judge the quest as complete so that we could return to Laffan? Strictly speaking, the quest hadn’t had a clear, concrete objective, and we’d done only the bare minimum so far. We also weren’t sure if Kaji was actually responsible for all of the kidnappings, but one way or another, it also didn’t feel right that we’d let him escape. All of us silently pondered what to do.

★★★★★★★★★

We set out early the next morning to search Pining for Kaji. The viscount hadn’t specifically asked us to do so, but we were the ones who had neglected to tell anyone in advance that the culprit might be a vampire, besides which we felt a certain amount of responsibility for the actions of one of our classmates, so we’d agreed we had to act immediately. Strictly speaking, we hadn’t had enough information at the time to back up the vampire theory, and it wasn’t necessary for us to assume responsibility for our classmates, but we still felt some compulsion to act, if only for our own peace of mind.

“You know, I have a feeling Kaji has already escaped from town,” said Haruka. “He can transform into a flock of bats, so...”

“Good point,” said Natsuki. “Do vampires in this world turn to ashes when exposed to sunlight?”

“Even if that’s one of his weaknesses, he’ll probably still flee to a different town or a cave during the night,” said Haruka. “There’s a good chance his weakness to sunlight isn’t that severe, however.”

Unlike Sadius and his soldiers, we lacked the authority to search private residences, so we mainly explored dark alleys, but we didn’t turn up a single clue. It was a shame that we’d failed to apprehend Kaji yesterday, but none of us were conceited enough to believe the confrontation could have gone differently.

“If our own safety had been our only priority, the best course of action would have been to kill Kaji immediately,” I said. “But...”

“...We were working on a quest, so we didn’t really have that option,” said Yuki. “Besides, we had to watch out for his mind control powers and all. That was another constraint on us.”

Under other circumstances, I would definitely have killed Kaji the second he tried to mesmerize Haruka, but in addition to the parameters of the viscount’s quest, the presence of his victims had held us back. It wouldn’t have been an issue if we’d been able to free them from his thrall, but we hadn’t been certain that the Remove Curse spell would be effective, or even if their mesmerized state was a form of curse.

And regardless of whether Kaji’s powers of persuasion counted as a curse, the girls weren’t yet capable of using Remove Curse to its full potential. It was a Level 7 Light Magic spell, and none of us were anywhere near that level in Light Magic. Thus, we’d decided in advance that our priority would be to capture the kidnapper. Given that he’d escaped, it was possible that we’d made the wrong decision.

“Well, I’m just glad he wasn’t able to mesmerize any of us,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Yuki. “We figured Advastlis-sama wouldn’t have given him any overpowered abilities, and we were right.”

The skill was useful insofar as it had clearly worked on ordinary people, but it seemed we’d been rewarded for the constant training we’d done over the past year. Advastlis-sama had been on the level when he’d told us in the beginning that effort would never betray us.

“I feel like there’s still a possibility that he could have mesmerized us if he’d put in the effort to level up, though, which is kind of scary to think about,” I said.

“Don’t sweat it,” said Touya. “There’s no way he’s gonna start training now—he lost a leg and arm, and there aren’t that many people who can use the Regenerate spell. Although, on second thought, he’s a vampire, so maybe he can regrow limbs...”

“He didn’t show any signs of recovery during the battle yesterday, but we don’t know what would happen if he sucked blood during the nighttime,” said Natsuki. “I’m a bit worried about Sadius-san and the soldiers if Kaji is able to recover completely from the injuries we inflicted on him.”

We had totally overwhelmed him yesterday, but that was only because the plan we’d devised had proven so effective. If we hadn’t figured out in advance that he was a vampire and surprised him, we would likely have been on the back foot.

“I highly doubt that any race in this world is that powerful,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, I completely agree,” I said. “To be honest, the best outcome for us would be Kaji just dying of his injuries.”

Kaji had committed crimes and grossly immoral acts. There was no reason to feel any pity for him. It was common enough in fiction for a wimpy protagonist to turn the tables on everyone, but it wouldn’t be enjoyable to play the role of the antagonist in a story like that. In fact, given the indignities Kaji had brought down on his own head, I was fairly sure that he lacked a protagonist’s plot armor.

“Depending on how he made use of his vampiric abilities, I think Kaji could actually have succeeded as an adventurer,” said Haruka. “He has plenty of convenient ways to flee from battle, so he could easily survive encounters with powerful monsters.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess he wouldn’t really have to think too much about conserving the energy to flee,” I said. “And if he stuck to dungeons, sunlight wouldn’t be a problem either.”

Overconfidence was very dangerous when adventuring. It was best to conserve at least sixty percent of your stamina for the journey home from wherever you were exploring; after all, it was entirely possible to run into monsters on your way back that were more powerful than anything you’d encountered there. However, if you had a reliable means of safe escape, you could stay in the field as long as you wanted.

“Now that I think about it, even his clothes turned into mist,” said Yuki. “I wonder if he can carry a bunch of stuff by turning into mist.”

“Oh, yeah, that might be possible,” I said. “Man, it really does seem like he could have gotten strong if he’d actually put in the effort, huh?”

In fact, Kaji could also have earned more money than my party if he’d been smart about it. We’d been able to make a lot of money harvesting dindels due to having two elves. A vampire could entirely skip the process of climbing a tree.

But shortcuts were usually a one-way road to doom. Although actually, maybe he would’ve been fine if he’d just kept a low profile. He could have behaved basically like a pimp and lived a comfortable life that way. It would have been scummy, but that’s one way to spend your precious time on earth.

“Another thing that stood out to me was the fact that he claimed to have mesmerized Takamatsu-san,” said Natsuki.

“Oh, yeah, he said he just ‘encouraged’ her a bit, right?” Yuki frowned and looked a bit sad. “We’re the ones who captured Satomi, so I’d feel kinda awkward if that turned out to be true.”

We had captured Satomi and turned her in to the authorities knowing only that she was a wanted criminal. Yuki was right that it would feel strange to learn that she’d been under someone else’s control.

“Well, all we can really do is avoid quests that seem suspicious,” said Touya. “Besides, we’re just regular adventurers, so we can’t really rebel against our higher-ups. She was wanted dead or alive, so she oughta be glad that we didn’t just chop her head off on sight.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said. “I guess we’ll just have to follow the law and accept things like that as part of the job.”

We weren’t exactly in a position to investigate every new quest that came our way. We just had to assume that those issued through the Adventurers’ Guild or our lord were fine.

“Well, Satomi managed to escape, right?” Yuki asked. “Sooo, regardless of the exact circumstances—”

The atmosphere between us had become tense after we realized something strange, but...

“Please hear me out!”

A girl suddenly slid in front of us and prostrated herself on the ground.

“Hey—”

The girl interrupted Touya with a wail of fear. “And please don’t punch me in the stomach again!”

She seemed genuinely terrified, and though she had her head down, I recognized her by her voice. All of us looked at one another, at a loss as to how to react. Each of us was clearly trying to foist the task of responding to her to someone, anyone else, and in the end, I lost.

“Fine, I’ll do it. Okay, listen, Satomi, it’s really awkward talking with you like that, so first of all, could you please get up?”

“...And you promise I won’t get punched in the stomach again?”

“Yeah, relax,” I said. “We know that you’re safe now.”

In the past, we’d been operating under the assumption that Satomi had some kind of dodgy power of persuasion, but she hadn’t demonstrated any ability to control the soldiers or her guards in prison, so it was obvious that whatever skills she had weren’t very strong.

“O-Okay...”

Satomi slowly raised her face. She looked more or less how I remembered, if a bit gaunter. I had no idea where she’d been, but she had spent a long time in jail and then gone on the run, which couldn’t have been an easy life. That being the case, I was impressed by how good she looked even now.

“Satomi—actually, we should probably call you Takamatsu here,” I said. “We don’t know who might be eavesdropping.”

“Oh, yeah, that would be great. Thanks.”

“We’ll hear you out, but first, let’s move somewhere inconspicuous,” I said.

“O-Okay.”

We’d been walking down an alley, so there weren’t any other people around, but even so, this situation could attract unwanted attention. We led Satomi into an even narrower side street, then turned to face her.

“All right, we should be good now,” I said. “Where should we start?”

Should we start by asking how she escaped, or should we start by asking her how she’s been living? Man, there are way too many questions. While I was pausing in thought, unsure of what to prioritize, Haruka gave Satomi a sharp look and said, “Tell us all of the skills that you chose during the character creation process. Don’t hide anything from us.”

“O-Okay. The skills I chose were Extremely Attractive Appearance, Level 3 Singing, and Level 3 Persuasion.” Satomi paused, her lips trembling. She was clearly reluctant to keep going, but she forced herself to say, “A-And, uh, I also chose to get the Charm skill.”

“Charm, huh?” I said.

“S-Sure, the skill is called Charm, but it’s not as powerful as you might think it is! All it does is attract people of the opposite sex—it doesn’t let me control people! Ugh, I really didn’t want to get into this...”

Satomi looked like she was on the verge of tears as she scrambled to explain herself. I must have unconsciously addressed her in a menacing tone. I had examined the Charm skill myself during character creation, and it did seem to be different from whatever powers Kaji had over others.

“...She doesn’t appear to be lying to us,” said Haruka.

“Yeah,” I said, “I don’t detect any skills other than the ones she named. It makes sense considering the number of points she probably had.”

“I feel fairly confident in speculating that she had around 100 points,” said Natsuki.

If Satomi had started with the same number of points as Haruka, she might have some ability that would let her hide information from our Third Eye skills, but that didn’t seem likely. The skills we had now were almost certainly worth more than double the points we’d started with, and Satomi didn’t seem like the type to work hard at leveling up, so I was inclined to think she was being truthful about her build.

“D-Does that mean you guys trust me?” Satomi asked.

“For now,” I replied. “But you still might be able to control us with Persuasion, so—”

“I won’t! I promise I won’t even think of trying! I don’t want to die!”

Satomi regarded Touya with a look of absolute terror. That punch to the stomach had clearly left her traumatized, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. Touya had held back, but he was capable of slaying monsters in a single blow, so if he’d messed up, her body could have been blown to bits.

“Well, I’m kind of confused by your weird skill build,” I said. “Walk me through this. How exactly did you plan to survive in this world?”

“Oh, I planned to become something like a pop idol. That’s what I’ve always wanted to be, and I figured everything would go well. Ugh, why did things have to turn out like this? All I did was start an ordinary business! I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything illegal...”

Satomi’s shoulders sagged, and she collapsed to the ground again.

Haruka gave her an exasperated look. “You’re only considering the laws back in Japan. Here, the lord’s word is law. You can be jailed merely for annoying him.”

“H-Huh? That’s...outrageous!”

“Nah, the lord here is actually a good guy compared to other lords,” said Yuki. “He put up with you running around for a while! I’d say your biggest mistake was not thinking about the economic fallout from what you did. The final stroke was probably calling yourself a god.”

Satomi looked up at us and shook her head in denial. “Wait, I never said anything like that! I got asked about that when I was interrogated in jail too, but...”

She didn’t seem to be lying.

Yuki cocked her head. “Huh? That’s weird. Did the people around you act of their own volition? Well, even if they did, you were the one responsible for keeping them under control, so you’re still guilty.”

“O-Oh, come on, seriously? Before I knew it, everything went bananas, and then the town was on fire. I tried to escape as fast as I could, but then I ended up getting punched in the stomach by a boy from school. Why did things end up like this? All I wanted was to be popular...”

“To be popular? Are you aware that the Charm skill isn’t as convenient as you seem to have assumed?” Natsuki asked. “I take it you didn’t purchase the Help Guide, Takamatsu-san?”

“Yeah, no, I didn’t,” said Satomi. “What exactly do you mean?”

“I don’t remember the exact details, but to the best of my recollection, you can’t choose the target of the Charm skill. It’s a passive skill, and those charmed will exhibit signs of possessiveness and try to keep you for themselves.”

Satomi looked absolutely shocked. “U-Uh, when you put it that way, that sounds...dangerous.”

“Yeah, it is,” said Yuki with a laugh. “Just so you know, we treat Charm as a skill that basically produces yandere stalkers.”

Huh? Did we ever talk about the Charm skill like that? I do remember us talking about it, but that’s all I remember. I guess the mayhem in Kelg was sort of caused by yandere stalkers, so I feel somewhat bad for Satomi. Advastlis-sama concealed the downsides of skills like Charm as land mines, so it isn’t solely Satomi’s fault that it didn’t work as intended, and besides, there’s probably no way a high school girl could have exerted control over a bunch of adults with a lot more life experience than her.

“Well, you lived it up on the money you ‘earned’ from your believers, right?” Touya asked. “Rumor had it you spent a lot on male prostitutes...”

“Huh?! That’s not true at all!” Satomi waved her hands frantically. “As an idol, you have to be a virgin! Otherwise it can get really scary—male fans can turn on you. There’s no way I would do something like that!”

“Really? Your whole moneymaking scheme seemed really greedy, though,” I said.

Satomi looked vaguely guilty. “Um, I did get to eat a lot of delicious food thanks to my own hard work. But it was nowhere near as good as the food we used to eat back in Japan.” A smile blossomed on her face. “Well, actually, dindels are delicious! They’re apparently a very expensive fruit.”

It seemed she was proud of having been able to enjoy luxuries like that. Uh, I’m pretty sure the dindels you enjoyed were the ones my party gathered and sold. If dindels were enough to make you happy, then I guess you really didn’t splurge on actual luxuries. Sure, they’re expensive for fruit, but even commoners can afford them if they save up a little. Hmm. You’re starting to sound too stupid to be malicious—but wait, is it possible that you were that self-proclaimed “consultant”? At the time, I assumed it was a guy. There’s only one way to find out for sure.

“Takamatsu, were you the one who acted as a business consultant to an elf who owned a café back in Laffan?” I asked.

A huge smirk appeared on Satomi’s face. “Oh yeah, that was one of the best things I did. I’m sure that café is booming now—”

I was so irritated that I couldn’t help but yell at her. “No, you idiot! That café almost went out of business because of you!”

She looked genuinely surprised. “R-Really? I copied—I mean, I came up with the perfect plan based on a popular place near my home back in Japan. Everything should have gone well!”

“You can’t just copy something you don’t fully understand and expect to succeed,” I said.

“Yeah, totally,” said Yuki. “Aera-san ended up crying because of you, Takamatsu-san! Her café is busy and profitable now ’cause we gave her some actual good advice and delivered stuff like ingredients. She would definitely have gone out of business if we hadn’t stepped in.”

“R-Really? I charged her a big consulting fee... I guess I should probably give her that money back.”

The very fact that Satomi was willing to return the money implied that she wasn’t exactly a bad person at heart, but the results were far more significant than her intentions. And would Aera-san actually be willing to forgive her?

“I don’t think there’s any point in trying to return the money now,” I said. “Besides, do you even have any money on you?”

“Uh, I used up all of the money I had starting my own business, so I’m broke right now, but I can work until I earn enough to pay her back.”

“Work? Jail is the only place you’re going to end up,” I said. “Just so you know, we’re law-abiding citizens, so we don’t intend to let you escape again.”

“U-Ugh. Yeah, I figured as much.” Satomi flinched. Tears streaked her face. She let her head hang. “Well, I’m pretty sure that getting captured by you guys would still be better than getting captured by anybody else...”

“How did you ever manage to escape in the first place, Takamatsu-san?” Natsuki asked. “And what was your plan after escaping?”

“I-I didn’t actually try to escape!” Satomi exclaimed. “I had actually accepted my fate, but then some woman I didn’t recognize showed up and freed me. She hid me in her house.”

Yeah, we knew there was someone on the outside helping her. There was no way Satomi could have escaped on her own with that skill build.

“A woman that you didn’t recognize, huh? Why do you think she helped you?” Haruka asked.

“I have no idea. I tried asking her, but she seemed kind of...absent-minded, so I never got an answer,” Satomi replied. “Then, this morning, she started acting weird, so I decided to run away, and...”

Started acting weird? This morning? Oh, this better not be what I think it is.

Yuki had a troubled look on her face, so she must have been thinking along the same lines. “Hmm, it sounds like Kaji was behind this one too,” she said, raising a finger and wagging it.

“That’s your conclusion as well, Yuki?” said Natsuki. “I think it’s quite likely that he was the one puppeteering the woman who rescued Satomi.”

“Kaji-kun? I welcomed him into my organization and fed him for a while. He must’ve felt grateful to me.”

The five of us exchanged some looks. Satomi clearly had a pretty carefree imagination. It wasn’t her fault that she hadn’t known in advance about Kaji’s power to control others, but I was shocked that she hadn’t realized he had mesmerized her. Was Kaji more discreet around Satomi because they were classmates? I guess that would make sense.

“Grateful isn’t exactly the right word here,” I said. “In fact, he was the mastermind behind everything, so maybe he just felt some pity for you.”

“Nah, he probably wanted to take advantage of Takamatsu-san,” said Yuki. “Like, he didn’t help her escape from town.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes more sense,” I said. “She would be perfect as bait, so— Wait a second...”

Is Kaji hoping that the viscountial troops will be busy hunting Satomi and he can escape in the chaos? I was starting to feel uneasy about the situation we’d found ourselves in, but Haruka shook her head.

“No, if that were his intention, he would have caused a bigger commotion. It wouldn’t make sense for him to abandon Takamatsu-san in such a way that we could immediately find her.”

“Oh, yeah, you’re right,” I said. “In that case, there must be some other reason that the woman who helped Takamatsu escape started acting weird...”

Is Kaji’s power limited by range? If so, it’s possible that he’s already escaped from town and is no longer able to maintain control of his thralls, although I guess it’s also possible that he consciously relinquished control because that woman was no longer of use to him. There were plenty of possibilities to consider, but this wasn’t an urgent matter, so I glanced around at the others and then moved on to the next topic.

“Okay, that’s about it in terms of the things that we wanted to ask you, Takamatsu. Now then, let’s—”

With tears in her eyes, Satomi interrupted me and prostrated herself on the ground again. “Look, I understand that I should go back to jail, but please save me from death or rape!”

Clearly she thought this was her last chance to escape that fate. She was correct that someone in her situation unavoidably faced the possibility of execution. I wasn’t sure why the viscount had kept her in jail instead of executing her immediately, but if she was recaptured, she would likely be executed—or meet a fate worse than death. Based on what she’d told us of her life, she didn’t seem like someone who truly deserved that.

“...What do you think, Haruka?” I asked.

“If Takamatsu-san is being fully honest with us, her actions fall under the category of moral culpability rather than criminal liability,” Haruka replied. “Back in Japan, it would be difficult for the prosecution to secure a guilty verdict against her.”

“O-Oh, then—”

“The Holy Satomi Sect was an organization bearing her name,” Natsuki objected. “Especially considering the results, it would be possible to convict her by arguing this was a breach of the duty of care. There’s no question that extreme mismanagement was involved.”

The sliver of hope that had appeared on Satomi’s face after she heard Haruka’s assessment had disappeared again after Natsuki chimed in. “Ugh. S-Sure, I left the daily operations to other people, but...”

“Regardless, there’s no point in trying to apply Japanese laws and regulations to this world,” said Natsuki. “If they applied to us, we would have been arrested a long time ago.”

Oh yeah, we’ve definitely done a lot of things that would have gotten us thrown in jail back in Japan: illegal possession of bladed weapons, force exceeding the demands of self-defense, animal abuse if monsters count as animals, and, technically, theft of lost or mislaid property too. Ugh. I’m pretty sure we haven’t broken any of the laws of this world, but still.

“There is cause for sympathy in your case, Takamatsu-san,” Natsuki continued, “but the feelings of your victims also matter. If the concept of no penalty without law existed here, we could try to defend you in court, but the legal system of the kingdom of which we’re now citizens works according to almost the diametrically opposite principle...”

“Yeah, crimes are judged on a case-by-case basis,” said Yuki.

“I-I don’t really understand the things you’re talking about—it all sounds really complex—but I guess it means I’m doomed,” said Satomi.

Satomi appeared ready to cry as she looked at us. Rather, she was already crying. Natsuki had been pretty harsh with her, but it wasn’t like she wanted Satomi to die, and now she had a troubled look on her face.

“The final decision rests with the Viscount Nernas,” Natsuki said, lowering her brows. “If he pardons you, you’ll have nothing to fear. But we don’t know if he has a good reason to do so.”

On Earth, executions could only be carried out with adequate reason, but in this world, the opposite was true. Here, the death penalty was considered a logical means of heading off future problems.

“I personally don’t think the viscount would want to execute Takamatsu,” said Touya. “Sure, maybe he could’ve done it right after everything went down in Kelg to deal with the public resentment, but things have calmed down by now, and the rebuilding is coming along...”

“Yeah, but is that really enough to justify not carrying out the death penalty?” I asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Touya replied. “And Takamatsu has her looks going for her. They could just toss her into a brothel.”

Satomi’s expression kept alternating as she listened to Touya’s words. I really did feel bad for her. It looked like she was afraid of the fate he’d described, so it was possible that she’d been threatened with something similar during an interrogation.

“I suppose we could try to plead for mercy on your behalf, Takamatsu-san,” said Haruka. “The viscount technically does owe us some favors.”

“Oh yeah, we helped him resolve the mayhem in Kelg and saved Illias-sama’s life,” I said. “We also cooperated when they needed someone to go to the wedding reception...”

We had captured Satomi back in Kelg as well, but there was no point in counting that as a favor if we wanted to plead for mercy on her behalf.

“I’m willing to help somebody in distress, but I dunno if it’s worth calling in favors,” said Yuki. “We might even end up owing the viscount a favor.”

“What should we do, Nao-kun?” Natsuki asked.

Everyone suddenly looked toward me. Huh? Do I have to be the one to make a decision even though Satomi’s life will depend on it?

“Please save me!” Satomi exclaimed. “I’ll do anything, I swear!”

Satomi had no one that she could rely on, so begging me must have been her last resort, but I wasn’t sure how to respond.

When Yuki saw my reaction, she said with a laugh, “That choice of words might work on a party full of high school boys. Buuut...”

Yuki pointed at Haruka, who looked slightly miffed, then slid her finger back to me.

“Do you think you could beat her, Takamatsu-san?” Yuki asked.

“Ugh. I-In that case, there’s option two, so—”

“Oh, sorry, nah, I’m only into beastwomen,” said Touya.

Satomi’s eyes wandered around for a bit after Touya rejected her, and then she slowly turned toward Yuki and Natsuki.

“Girl-on-girl is fine with me too—”

“Do you actually swing that way, Takamatsu-san?” Yuki asked.

“N-No, but all of the saints in my organization were girls, and relationships with men were forbidden. And we all lived together, so, um, you can probably guess the kind of stuff that went on.”

“I see. I don’t have anything against lesbians, but I’ve got some bad news for you,” said Yuki. She glanced at me and laughed. “Natsuki and I both already have a partner in mind...”

Satomi turned toward me and gasped. “Oh, Kamiya-kun, I had no idea that... Does that mean I have a chance too?!”

“No, you don’t! Please don’t say anything that’ll put me in danger!”

You’re gonna get me killed if you annoy Haruka any further, Satomi! Sure, she’s a kind and thoughtful girl, but she gets angry just like anybody else, and I’m the one who’s usually on the receiving end of her wrath!

“...Listen, we can’t promise you anything, but we’ll give it a shot,” I said. “Is that okay with you?”

“Y-Yeah! Thank you very much! I swear that if you save my life, I’ll return the favor!”

I wasn’t optimistic; if I were a betting man, I’d say the viscount would reject out of hand any plea we made on Satomi’s behalf. But Satomi had begun weeping as though overwhelmed by joy, so rather than look at her, I stared up at the sky.

★★★★★★★★★

“A plea for mercy on behalf of Satomi of all people? What inspired you to ask such a thing of me?” Joachim asked.

We had delivered Satomi to Sadius, then requested a meeting with the viscount. The viscount had granted our request immediately—he must have been awaiting our return—and asked for additional details. I was nervous given that we were, in a sense, trespassing on his authority as administrator of the law within this domain, but the expression on his face was perfectly neutral, which was a slight relief.

I chose my words carefully. “Well, you see, we faced off against a vampire and discovered that he was the one who had been controlling Satomi behind the scenes. After we had a conversation with Satomi herself, we discovered that she wasn’t really such a bad person. We were the ones who captured her, so we would feel bad not trying to do anything at all about her situation.”

Why do I have to be the one to negotiate with the viscount? I’m pretty sure that Natsuki or Haruka would be way better at something like this. Oh well.

“I see. I suppose it is only natural that you don’t wish to have on your hands the blood of a girl you believe to be innocent,” said Joachim. “Nevertheless, it is I who issued the quest in the course of which you captured her, and the guilt, I believe, would lie with me. But human feelings are seldom so simple.”

Nice—the viscount doesn’t seem skeptical of us at all. It would be really bad if he figured out that Satomi was an old acquaintance of ours. We did tell her to keep that a secret, so we should be cool. It was a tremendous relief to hear those words, but the viscount still had a pensive look on his face.

“The primary reason I kept Satomi confined to prison instead of having her executed immediately was that over the course of her interrogation, I became wary of the influence of another bad actor. I thought that as long as she was kept alive, it would be possible to find a lead that could be traced back to the real mastermind. But then she managed to escape, and your party tracked down the mastermind by following a different thread. All my plans would seem to have backfired.”

“Not at all, sir,” I said. “We were only able to produce results because Sadius and the soldiers under his command cooperated with us. Besides, if you’re responsible for us capturing an innocent woman, then surely you also deserve the credit for all of our positive achievements...”

I had to include a little flattery in order to convince the viscount, but I tried to exaggerate instead of lying outright.

The viscount relaxed and smiled at me. “I suppose you’re right. Very well. I will grant your plea that I spare Satomi. There is no point in executing her now, after all. Do you have any requests about her treatment hereafter?”

“Not in particular. We just wanted to save her life,” I said. “From what we could gather over the course of one conversation, she seems charismatic but very naive and lacking in common sense. I believe it would be best for her if you could find a way to make use of her abilities under your protection, sir.”

I had assumed that proposal would be acceptable to the viscount, and sure enough, he immediately nodded. “I see. I will take that suggestion under advisement.”

There was no way we could ask the viscount to hand Satomi over to us, and regardless, Satomi couldn’t survive as an adventurer with her skill build. But it seemed the viscount had ideas of his own.

“Is that all?” The viscount paused for a moment to glance at the girls. “If so, your party may leave, but Touya and Nao, I ask that you remain behind.”

★★★★★★★★★

After the girls left the room, the viscount gave Touya and me some instructions that took us to a particular corner of the duty station, where we found Sadius waiting for us. He guided us down a stairwell that led underground. The air was stagnant and uncomfortably cold, and my nose picked up a strange scent.

“What kind of place is this, Sadius?” I asked.

“It’s exactly what you think it is,” Sadius replied. “All right, this is our destination. Inside.”

We entered an underground room where a corpse lay on the floor. It was missing both arms; the left leg was missing below the thigh, the right leg below the ankle. The face, however, was intact, so although he’d acquired additional injuries since last we saw him, it was clearly Kaji.

“Some soldiers under my command found this body in an abandoned house when they were on patrol,” said Sadius.

“An abandoned house, huh?” I said.

“Yeah. I heard you lot tried to find the culprit yourselves, but we beat you to it this time. You accomplished something yourselves, though.”

“It was just a coincidence that we ran into Satomi—just like the last time we ran into her,” I said. “Besides, the troops under your command were the ones who found the more important target.”

We had primarily been searching the back alleys; we hadn’t even considered searching abandoned houses, since they were still technically other people’s property and we couldn’t enter without permission. It was only natural that we hadn’t been able to find Kaji.

“This is the vampire your party battled, isn’t it?” Sadius asked.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I replied. “Was he dead when they found him?”

“Apparently. He wasn’t bleeding, but he was in this state. Seems losing that many limbs will kill vampires and humans alike.”

“Really? He was bleeding when we fought him,” said Touya.

“But he doesn’t seem to have died of blood loss, huh?” I said. “I wonder if it’s just because he’s a vampire.”

Would healing magic work on a vampire? If vampires are the same as undead monsters, it might actually damage him, but I’m not sure...

“Sounds like vampires are different from humans in all kinds of ways,” said Sadius. “I guess the troops who found him were lucky he was already dead. Anyway, this should resolve a number of ongoing problems, so the lord won’t have to worry anymore.”

Kaji was a fairly odious criminal, so it was a good thing that he was dead, but he had been one of my classmates, so it was hard to feel overjoyed about this.

“By the way, what happened to the girls he was controlling?” Touya asked.

Sadius fell silent for a moment, then, with a sour expression, forced himself to answer. “Let’s leave that topic for later. I think it would be best to discuss that with the girls around.”

It was obvious from his face that he had bad news to relay, but regardless, it was true that the girls’ opinions were important too, so I nodded and made a move to leave the cell, but...

“Also, what’s that thing over there?”

Touya was staring at something across the room from us; a cloth completely covered it.

Why did you have to bring that up, Touya?! You know what it probably is, right?!

“That? I suppose you two ought to have a look,” said Sadius.

I really didn’t want to see what was under there, but it seemed I had no choice. Sadius bent down and flipped the cloth back, revealing a corpse. He must have been dead for a couple of days—death had altered his appearance—but I could still identify him.

“Gudz... I guess he died a while ago,” I said.

“Yeah. His corpse was found in one of the rooms of the house we raided together. There were some bruises on his body, but they weren’t severe enough to be the cause of death. Vampire must’ve gotten him with some special ability.”

Sadius was undoubtedly right given the absence of visible injuries on the corpse. Of course, it could have been something like a heart attack or a hemorrhagic stroke, but there was adequate circumstantial evidence that Kaji had killed him.

“The vampire didn’t use anything like that on us during our battle, though,” I said.

Assuming Kaji had killed Gudz with Energy Drain, I wasn’t sure why he wouldn’t have used the same skill on us. Was his Energy Drain too weak to be useful in battle, or were there some restrictions on its use? I kind of wish we could learn more about his abilities, just as a precaution for the future.

“Well, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll have to fight another vampire, so I guess there’s no point worrying about it for now,” I said.

Touya shot me an exasperated look. “Dude, Nao, you know you’re basically asking for another battle with a vampire, right?”

Sadius chuckled. “We had no notion the culprit was a vampire, but look what happened. Anyway, we’re going to do some research on vampires. We’ll share our findings with you when the time comes. Better safe than sorry, right?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” I said. “Thanks for everything, Sadius—and especially for only asking the two of us to come.”

Sadius shrugged. “Adventurers or not, girls are still girls. No reason to show them places like this unless absolutely necessary—though I wouldn’t have hesitated if it was.”

Regardless, I appreciated his thoughtfulness. My party had become somewhat used to the sight of corpses, but they still weren’t pleasant to look at.

★★★★★★★★★

We returned to the mansion, and Sadius accompanied us to our room to explain things with the girls present.

“First things first: We found the vampire’s corpse,” he said. “I had Touya and Nao tag along to confirm it.”

The girls all glanced at Touya and me, and when we nodded, conflicted looks appeared on their faces.

“We also found Gudz’s corpse in the house,” said Sadius. “Not unexpected, but still unfortunate.”

“I see,” said Haruka, sounding a bit down. “I wonder if he panicked and acted impulsively as a result of running into us.”

Sadius adopted a light tone in an apparent effort to cheer her up. “It’s possible, but don’t worry about it. Every adventurer’s responsible for himself. He had the option of giving us the information he had instead of acting alone. Besides, breaking and entering is illegal. He has only himself to blame for his fate.”

“...I suppose that’s true,” said Haruka.

In principle, Sadius was right. Regular adventurers didn’t have the right to trespass on private property simply because it seemed suspicious, and in the event that they did so, it wouldn’t be unusual for the residents to kill them; it might, in fact, be legally justifiable depending on the circumstances, and especially if the trespasser was armed.

“Well, never mind Gudz’s fate,” said Sadius. “What’s more important is, we found another survivor in the house—one of the sixteen-year-old girls who went missing.”

“Huh? Seriously?! It was really hectic at the time, but still, we didn’t see any signs of another girl!”

I felt just as surprised as Yuki sounded, but apparently this girl had somehow evaded my Scout skill. Come to think of it, the signals from the two girls on the second floor were pretty faint, so maybe the hidden girl’s signal was simply too weak for me to pick up. Yeah, that would make sense.

“Sounds like she was sitting on a bed, staring into space, with a lifeless face,” said Sadius. “Caught the boys who found her by surprise—they didn’t think there would be anyone in the room. Probably why you lot couldn’t find her either.”

So she was in the same state as the two girls at Kaji’s side, huh? I wonder if that’s the default for girls he mesmerized.

“Here’s another piece of good news for you,” said Sadius. “It seems the girls the vampire mesmerized came back to their senses after he died.”

Sadius explained that the soldiers had witnessed the girls’ recovery earlier this morning. They’d been mystified at the time, only connecting the dots after they found Kaji’s corpse.

“I suppose I should be pleased,” said Haruka. “How are the girls doing?”

“All three seem to be doing all right,” said Sadius. “Only in comparison to other victims of the same crimes, though.”

He must mean other victims from kidnapping or sexual assault. Though we’d destroyed the hideout of one bandit gang, bandits were fairly common in this world, and many people fell prey to them. It sounded like Sadius, as a soldier in the viscountcy’s household troops, had interacted with their victims on many occasions and found them in much worse shape than Kaji’s former thralls.

According to Sadius, the girls remembered what had happened to them but had been in a trancelike state. Given that they hadn’t been violently assaulted, it was possible that the whole experience felt like a bad dream to them.

“As a girl, I can’t help but be moved by their plight,” said Haruka. “I hope they aren’t traumatized.”

“Yeah, they’re only relatively better off,” said Sadius. “It’s still not pleasant to talk about. But it could have been worse—they could have lost limbs.”

That comparison seemed pretty extreme to me. He must have seen a lot of gruesome crimes in the past, so I didn’t blame him for his reaction.

Sadius shook his head as if to clear it, then continued, “But the sixteen-year-old girl my boys found is still delirious. You read the documents I gave you?”

“Yeah, we did,” I said. “Oh, is she the girl whose boyfriend was found dead?”

“Yeah. Most of what she was yelling didn’t make a lick of sense, but it seems she was forced to kill him.”

“...Yikes.”

All of us murmured in shock. Kaji did order Haruka to kill me, so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that he tried the same thing before, but still, I can’t believe he went through with it. Maybe I should actually be glad that he’s dead.

“...Is she really okay?” I asked.

“Hard to say, but there’s nothing we can do about it one way or another. Her family could hire a priest to heal her if they have the money, but I don’t imagine they do.” Sadius’s expression turned gloomy; he clearly had low hopes for the girl’s future.

That girl’s residence was the first place we’d visited in the course of our investigation, and her family had been really rude to us. In fact, they had acted like they thought the missing girl was a disgrace instead of showing the slightest signs of concern. They’d appeared to be poor, so I was uneasy about how they were likely to treat her after she returned home.

“Could we visit the girl ourselves?” Haruka asked with a worried expression. “We’re not actual priests, but we might be able to improve her mental state somewhat.”

There were spells that could heal the mind. Cure Insanity was one example, but that was a Level 9 spell, so Haruka couldn’t use it to its full potential, and it would be bad if anyone learned she’d attempted to cast it. Still, the girl’s future would be grim if she were simply left alone, hence Haruka’s offer of help, which she’d undoubtedly made ambiguous on purpose.

“It’d be much appreciated, but are you sure?” Sadius asked. “I know you’re good healers—better healers than the average priest, though you’re adventurers. It would take a hefty donation to summon a priest of your caliber...”

“We’ve been directly involved in this investigation, so it’s perfectly natural for us to contribute what we can,” said Haruka. “It’s within the scope of the original quest.”

By emphasizing the connection to the assignment we’d already accepted, Haruka was implying that we had no intention of letting the viscountcy take advantage of us by making ourselves readily available whenever they needed help.

Sadius immediately nodded. “Very well. You have my permission to go and meet her. Just don’t take Nao or Touya with you. She doesn’t react well to men.”

“In that case, I’d like to take Natsuki and Yuki,” said Haruka. “Are the two of you all right with that?”

“I don’t mind in the slightest,” said Natsuki.

“Yeah, I’ll tag along,” said Yuki. “I feel so bad for her.”

“I’ll send someone over here later to show you the way,” said Sadius. “As for the quest, it’s considered complete now that we’ve confirmed the kidnapper’s dead. The rest of the list I gave you will be categorized as ordinary missing persons cases.”

“That works for us, but are you sure about this, Sadius?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Cases like that are part of our normal duties. There’s no need to search for Satomi anymore either, so don’t worry about it.”

Categorizing missing persons cases as “normal” felt weird to me, but if that was true, there was nothing else we could do to help them. Regardless, my desire to return home to Laffan had been getting stronger. Everyone else seemed to have similar feelings; they all reacted with relief.

Sadius, too, loosened up a bit as he took a sealed letter from his pocket and handed it over to us. “Anyway, here’s your reward for the quest. The documents in this envelope serve as proof of your ownership and rights to the dungeon you discovered and the land surrounding it. Later, when you drop by the guild, you can pick up the official documents issued by the crown.”

“Okay. Thank you very much, Sadius,” I said.

“I ought to be the one thanking you lot for your help this time. No idea how I would have dealt with a vampire if you hadn’t been on hand. I’m sure we’ll meet again if you continue adventuring in these parts. Feel free to drop by and visit me whenever you’re in Pining. Training with your party is a valuable experience for the soldiers.”

Sadius rose and shook hands with each of us one by one, then left the room. After seeing him off, we opened the sealed letter and took a peek at the documents inside.

“Dang, I didn’t expect Viscount Nernas to give us that much extra,” said Touya. “The dungeon and the land within a six-kilometer radius of the entrance—that’s a lot of space.”

“And there’s the viscount’s signature, so these documents should be binding,” I said. “That would probably be enough land to build a whole village if we wanted.”

A circle with a radius of six kilometers had an area exceeding one hundred square kilometers. It was way smaller than the town we’d lived in back in Japan, but it was still really big for a plot of private land.

“I imagine the viscount gave us extra in order to keep up appearances and protect his own reputation,” said Haruka.

“We did spread the information that we’d saved Illias-sama’s life on the way to the wedding,” said Natsuki. “As a result, the viscount likely had to make it known that he’d treated us fairly, and we subsequently accepted another quest from him...”

“I bet it was as simple as ‘Might as well go all out,’” said Yuki. “The land around the dungeon isn’t useful to him.”

Yeah, I guess that might’ve been his thought. It’s not like we can actually use all of that land either.

“For now, what do you say we just build a new house by the dungeon entrance?” Touya suggested. “Not like anybody can stop us now.”

“Why there? I’m not opposed to the idea, but none of us have the relevant skills,” said Haruka.

“Well, uh, prefab would work just fine,” said Touya. “We can lay the foundation and stuff like that with magic.”

Haruka was right that none of us had any skills related to construction, but we were all much stronger than the average person, and thanks to our magic bags, we could easily transport materials ourselves. I was pretty sure that we could assemble them ourselves too. Still, Yuki and Natsuki looked like they weren’t sure how to react to Touya’s suggestion.

“Uh, I wonder if Simon would be willing to build a house for us,” said Yuki. “It might be worth asking him.”

“I think cost will likely be the biggest issue,” said Natsuki. “We’ve spent a lot of money recently...”

“Oh yeah, I remember you mentioning that you bought a lot of stuff back in Clewily,” I said.

“Mm. I’m terribly sorry,” said Natsuki. “It was hard to resist. There were all sorts of delicious-looking ingredients.”

“Oh, it’s fine. I’m not trying to blame you or anything. Food is a shared expense, after all,” I said. “But I guess this means we’ll have to start earning money again, huh?”

A new house would be a luxury; making money to cover our daily expenses was much more urgent. It seemed we would have no rest for some time after returning to Laffan. I didn’t imagine that the girls had spent so much on ingredients that we were in immediate financial trouble, but a respectable savings was essential for peace of mind, and at some point in the future, I wanted to enjoy a peaceful vacation with no money worries.

“I guess that means it’s finally time to head back into the dungeon!” Touya stretched his arms above his head, looking very pleased. “Man, I gotta say, spending time in the dungeon is way more comfortable than tackling tricky quests. That’s the way to make a living!”

The girls smiled awkwardly as they nodded.

“Only two months have passed since we last entered the dungeon,” said Natsuki. “It does feel as if it’s been an eternity, however.”

“Yeah, every day of those two months has been memorable,” said Yuki. “We got attacked by some super strong assassins, we saw a town that was completely different from Pining, Haruka and Nao went to a wedding reception, and we even had to deal with some more problems caused by one of our classmates.”

“Dang, when you list it out like that, a lot of stuff happened to us in a short span of time,” I said.

There was also the matter of the sisters and Illias-sama briefly going missing, but that was a minor incident compared to everything else that had befallen us in the last two months.

“I, too, prefer adventuring in the dungeon to quests,” said Haruka. “Visiting a different town is a nice change of pace, but once in a while is more than often enough.”

“Yeah. Of course, we’re only here because we accepted a quest. I guess it might be a different experience if we came here as tourists,” I said. “Anyway, let’s make our plans for the near future.”

There was actually no need for us to venture deeper into the dungeon if all we wanted was to earn money. The areas we’d already explored were decent sources of sellable materials, and there were also monsters outside the dungeon that we could earn money slaying.

We spent some time discussing our various options. The conversation was still going when we heard a knock at the door.

I walked over to open the door and saw a woman standing outside—presumably the soldier Sadius had sent to guide Haruka, Natsuki, and Yuki to the girl who’d been rescued. The three followed her, and when they returned, within the half hour, they looked much gloomier than they had when they set out. In fact, Haruka and Natsuki hardly had the energy to walk, so Yuki was supporting them. I shot to my feet and helped the two of them to a bed.

“Welcome back,” I said. “How did it go?”

“Not very well,” said Haruka. “We did our best, but...”

“We weren’t able to accomplish much,” Natsuki finished.

I had been able to guess as much from their demeanors. They had attempted to use a spell that was far beyond their current skill levels; the chances of success had been quite low. It was easier to cast a Level 9 spell like Cure Insanity than a Level 10 spell like Regenerate, but the girls had had to deplete their mana completely over a matter of multiple days in order to regenerate Mary’s fingers and toes, so one session of healing couldn’t have been anywhere near adequate for this girl.

Yuki tried to lighten the atmosphere. “She did calm down a bit after Haruka and Natsuki healed her,” she said brightly. “I think it was worth a shot.”

Haruka and Natsuki had been under no obligation to heal the sixteen-year-old, and they would only cause themselves psychological suffering if they brooded too long on this failure.

“We managed to save the lives of four women. I think that’s more than enough,” I said.

“Yeah. Natsuki, Haruka, I know this might be a hard pill to swallow, but you just have to face facts and move on,” said Touya. “You did your best. That’s all that counts.”

“We understand that,” said Haruka. “However...”

“...It’ll take a while,” said Natsuki.

Unlike us, the girls had met directly with the victim, so it was harder for them to move on, and they remained gloomy for a while.

★★★★★★★★★

Now that we’d finished the quest, we prepared to return home as quickly as possible. Though the viscount had awarded us the rights to the dungeon, we hadn’t actually earned any money. The House of Nernas had covered our daily living expenses, but with the spending we’d done in Clewily, we’d accrued a short-term budget deficit.

We wanted to inform the viscount right away of our desire to return home, but he had difficulty working us into his schedule, and so we were forced to stay in Pining for a few extra days. It wasn’t until the morning of our departure that we returned to the viscount’s parlor. My entire party of seven was present, but only Illias-sama and Wiesel-san had accompanied the viscount. We’d simply wanted to tell him something like “Thank you for having us!” at the front gate, then hit the road, but the viscount had expressed the desire to talk with us again, and we hadn’t felt able to deny his request.

“First of all, let me take this opportunity to express my gratitude once more,” said Joachim. “You have my thanks for your help.”

“We’re happy to have been of service, sir,” I said. “The reward we’ve already received is sufficient, so I believe this matter is settled.”

“Nonetheless, I wish to thank your party. Without your help, the House of Nernas would have suffered a crippling blow,” said Joachim. “As promised, you have my permission to make use of my name where it will benefit your party, and the House of Nernas will act as your party’s patron. But pray remember that I am merely the lord of a remote viscounty.”

I nodded deeply. “Thank you very much, sir. We’ll keep that in mind.”

Viscounts were middle-ranking nobility. The name of the House of Nernas would probably be enough to intimidate commoners, but there was a limit to its effectiveness where other nobles were involved.

The viscount nodded to himself in apparent satisfaction, then glanced at Wiesel-san. “Now then, there is one last matter I wish to discuss...and something I wish to show you. Wiesel!”

“Yes, my lord.”

Wiesel-san produced a small, expensive-looking pouch. He gently opened it, removed the contents, and set them on the table.

Metea reacted instantly. “Oh, the play money!”

The objects on the tabletop appeared to be coins without engraving, but...

“Play money? Really?” I murmured.

The words were hardly out of my mouth when I heard Haruka gasp. Natsuki and Yuki responded in much the same way. Mary was the only one who just looked confused.

“I thought you might recognize the true value of these coins,” said Joachim. “As you have probably surmised, these are mithril coins—very nearly pure mithril coins.”

“...Why?”

Why is something as scarce and valuable as mithril sitting right here in front of us in coin form? More to the point, why is the viscount showing us this? I didn’t succeed in fully voicing those questions, but the viscount nodded at me and continued.

“I suppose you likely have some inkling from what your Metea said just now. It had been my understanding that all of the mithril extracted by the Viscount Nernas of two generations past had long since been used up. I never imagined that some might be hidden away underground.”

“Oh, I get it,” I said. “That trapdoor was concealed really well. I guess the mithril was the whole reason for that.”

“They seem to have been carrying out experiments in that underground facility as well—researching ways to exploit the mines more fully. From what I can gather based on the extant documents, the prior viscount was quite determined to develop his domain and improve the economy. The trouble is that he resorted to dubious methods.” The viscount shook his head, his face gloomy, but he quickly snapped out of it. “In any case, these findings will be of great help in managing the lands under my rule, and I am grateful to Mary and Metea for their discovery.”

Metea puffed out her chest with pride, while Mary shrank back in embarrassment. If the sisters had found the coins because they had been searching specifically for mithril, Metea would have had every right to be proud, but they’d simply gotten lucky this time. I felt like it might be necessary for us to scold Metea later, but then I noticed that out of the viscount’s line of sight, Mary’s tail was lashing Metea in the butt. I guess we can leave the scolding to her big sister this time. I should probably focus on making sure I’m circumspect around the viscount.

“Are you sure there won’t be any ramifications from this, sir?” I asked. “We’ve heard many stories about what happened in the past...”

“The prior lord’s sentence has long since been carried out,” said Joachim. “The mithril here wasn’t newly obtained from a mine. There is no legal penalty for possessing it.”

“I-I see.”

“However, if it emerged that the House of Nernas is in possession of mithril, that could prove...troublesome,” said Joachim. “You take my meaning?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Keep this a secret between us,” huh? I had no idea exactly how much mithril had been found, but even I got that it could attract all kinds of unwanted attention. The viscount had probably shared this information in order to prevent us from inadvertently spreading rumors. The sisters hadn’t known the value of the coins, but if they ever came across mithril in the future, they would recognize it and realize the value of what they’d found.

“I’m pleased to hear that. I must say, it is a pleasure dealing with young people as intelligent as all of you clearly are. I hope we can remain on good terms in the future.”

“I hope so too, sir,” I said.

Given the authority that the viscount wielded over our lives, I wanted to do whatever we had to in order to prevent him from coming to the conclusion that he had to make us disappear to keep our mouths shut forever. I was fairly sure we would be fine as long as we never messed up badly, however. I nodded at him, as did the others, and a satisfied expression appeared on his face once more. He glanced at the mithril coins on the table.

“You may take one coin for each member of your party. Do with them as you please. I have no doubt you will be able to make good use of them.”

There were seven coins total. The viscount probably intended this as hush money, so I hesitated to reach out and take it, but...

“Really?! Yay!”

Metea immediately reached for the coins, but Mary grabbed her arm before she could touch them.

“Big sis? What’s wrong?”

Metea looked confused, but Mary ignored her and turned toward Haruka.

“U-Um, Haruka-san, how much is each coin worth?” Mary asked, her face twitching the entire time.

“Hmm, let me take a look,” said Haruka. “Each coin seems to weigh about ten grams, so one coin should be worth around three hundred thousand Rea, I believe.”

“Th-Three hundred thousand...?”

“That’s just the minimum price. Mithril isn’t something you can simply buy on the open market,” said Haruka. “If you acquire it at auction, it can go for double that price.”

“Yeah, and I’ve heard the price can go up even more depending on the quantity,” I said.

Bulk purchases usually entailed a discount, but the opposite was true for mithril. A large quantity of mithril meant that the buyer wouldn’t have to go about gradually purchasing smaller amounts, so the total price increased.

“M-More than double?!” Mary exclaimed.

“U-Um, big sis, you’re starting to hurt me a bit,” said Metea.

It seemed Mary had unconsciously started exerting more force on Metea’s arm.

“O-Oh, sorry,” said Mary. She quickly relaxed her grip, though she still held Metea’s arm firmly and dragged her away from the coins. “In that case, shouldn’t we probably leave these coins with Haruka-san and everyone else?”

“Really? Okay, we’ll keep your coins with us,” said Haruka.

Metea was none too pleased, but she caved to the silent pressure from her sister and nodded at Haruka. Haruka chuckled as she retrieved the coins. She handed one coin to each of us and placed two in her magic bag for safekeeping.

“Ugh,” said Metea. “My souvenir...”

So Metea wanted a souvenir of her adventures with Illias-sama? Metea had accepted her sister’s decision, but her cheeks were still puffed out in a pout. Mary, however, seemed to have no intention of changing her decision; she just silently patted her sister’s head.

Mary was perfectly right to be concerned. Three hundred thousand Rea was equivalent to about three million Japanese yen. It would have been pretty risky to let a kid below the age of ten carry around a coin worth that much money. Metea might drop it, and if she ever took it out to look at, someone might see it and try to steal it, which would be easy enough with an object that small. If she ever lost it outside, it would be nearly impossible to find again. There were an infinite number of undesirable possibilities, so it was only natural for Mary to want someone else to keep the coins for her.

Illias piped up, sounding a bit nervous. “U-Uh, speaking of souvenirs—I actually have some good news. I have some gifts for Mary and Metea.”

Illias leaned forward and glanced at Wiesel-san in the same way her father had earlier; she must have been waiting for her chance to bring this up.

In compliance with Illias-sama’s unspoken request, Wiesel-san placed a wooden box, large enough that I would have had to pick it up with two hands, on the table. Illias-sama carefully opened the box and removed the lumps of cloth that served as packing material, and her gifts to the sisters appeared.

“It’s a pair of flower teacups for you!” Illias proclaimed.

The two teacups were quite elegantly painted. In fact, they looked closer to porcelain than earthenware—undoubtedly luxury goods in this world and not intended for use by commoners.

“Oh, are these from the set we found underground?” Mary asked.

“Yes, that’s right,” Illias replied. “I chose them in accordance with my own preferences. I would be very happy if you would think of me while drinking tea from them in your own home.”

Metea’s mood instantly shifted. “Oh, yay! Thanks! Don’t worry, Illias-sama, I’ll never forget you!”

Mary seemed happy too. “Thank you very much, Illias-sama,” she said. “I will gladly use your gift.”

The three girls exchanged smiles. It was a touching display of friendship, but...

“...Are you sure about this, sir?” I asked.

The viscount hadn’t stopped Illias-sama from bringing out these gifts, so presumably he’d given his permission in advance, but I still glanced at him for confirmation.

“Think nothing of it,” Joachim replied with a nod. “It’s nothing expensive—or at any rate, not so terribly expensive...”

So it is somewhat expensive, then. My thoughts must have been written all over my face; the viscount chuckled.

“It is true that they’re of high quality, but there aren’t enough of them to use on formal occasions, so pray think nothing of it, as I said.”

Not enough of them? Is that why they were stored underground? I would think you could still use them for tea parties of just two or three people, but if Joachim genuinely doesn’t mind, I guess there’s no reason to reject the gifts.

Meanwhile, Illias-sama was enjoying herself chatting with the sisters. When their conversation had concluded, she turned to Yuki.

“I have a gift for you as well, Yuki-san,” she said.

“Huh? Me?”

Illias-sama handed her an envelope. It was thick and bumpy; clearly the contents were something other than a letter. Yuki accepted it, looking confused.

Illias-sama nodded before continuing. “I heard that you like flowers, Yuki-san. I have therefore decided to bestow upon you some of the seeds from the viscountial gardens. I do hope you’ll grow them at home.”

“Really?! A-Are you sure about this?” Yuki asked. “Aren’t flower seeds super expensive?”

“There’s no need to worry. These were collected by the gardeners in my father’s employ,” Illias replied. “Should the flowers wither, feel free to drop by and I’ll be happy to replenish your store of seeds. You could even bring Mary and Metea with you.”

It had proven impossible for Yuki to obtain flower seeds in this world, hence her initial overwhelmed reaction. However, when she heard those last words from Illias-sama, she realized the real reason for the gift and smiled. “Oh, I get it. Thank you very much, Illias-sama.”

The viscount nodded to himself after he saw Yuki’s response. “No doubt Sadius has already informed you, but Diola will receive the documents related to your reward at a later date. The barrels of ale you requested are ready as well and await you in another room; please feel free to take them. I believe that should be all. Is there anything else you would like to discuss?”

“No, sir. Thank you very much for the wonderful rewards,” I said.

I felt like thus far, the viscount had benefited a lot more from our hard work than we had from his support, but even so, the rights to the dungeon and the surrounding lands were worth something to us, and the mithril coins we’d received as a kind of bonus were worth a total of over two million Rea at base, and we might be able to sell them for a lot more than that. It would be a useful fund for improving our equipment, in addition to which the viscount had officially become our patron, leaving us much safer than we had been. Overall, we had gotten a lot out of accepting and completing this quest, hence my sincere expression of gratitude to the viscount. He, in turn, simply nodded in satisfaction.

★★★★★★★★★

A few hours after the meeting concluded, we exchanged farewells with the people who had come to the gates of the mansion to see us off. During our meeting, we had already informed the viscount of our intention to head home, and Sadius had debriefed us yesterday, so Illias-sama was in charge of sending us off; Wiesel-san and Vira-san had accompanied her, but both took backseat roles, as we’d already said goodbye to them.

In fact, Haruka and I were sort of in the back seat too. Illias-sama thanked us for escorting her to the wedding reception, but that in itself wasn’t reason enough for the daughter of a noble family to make a big production of demonstrating her gratitude toward us. The stars of this show—the people Illias-sama clearly cared the most about—were the sisters.

“Mary, Metea, we’ll be friends forever no matter where we are!”

“Of course, Illias-sama,” said Mary. “Thank you for spending time with us.”

“It was really fun playing together, Illias-sama!” said Metea.

The three girls hadn’t started crying yet, but they were obviously reluctant to part; they were hugging one another tightly. Man, Illias-sama really does treat the sisters differently than anyone else. I mean, it’s not like I want her to hug me or anything, but I worked hard too, you know? Sure, it was a job, but those assassins were really strong, and the wedding reception was stressful. Oh well. It’s nice to see that the kids have become good friends. I’d love to continue watching them, but we can’t loiter here forever.

“All right. We should probably get going,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said. “Wiesel-san, Vira-san, thank you very much for everything that you’ve done for us.”

“We are the ones who ought to be thanking you. Without your presence, much of what has been accomplished would have been impossible,” said Wiesel. “I think it likely enough that the House of Nernas will ask you to take on more quests in the future, so I look forward to working together again.”

“I’m terribly sorry about all of the additional help we’ve had to request, including at the reception,” said Vira. “We will never forget that you saved Illias-sama’s life—and helped her in all sorts of other ways.”

Wiesel-san and Vira-san both bowed deeply. Illias-sama was on the verge of tears. She clenched her hands at chest level as she saw us off.

As we walked away from the mansion, Metea looked back and waved. “See you later, Illias-sama!”

Illias-sama gave her a delicate wave in return. “Y-Yeah! See you again!”

Mary turned back from time to time as well, and the kids continued to wave at one another until we rounded a corner beyond which the mansion was no longer visible.

★★★★★★★★★

The moon floating high in the sky looked dimmer than it had just moments ago. My body didn’t feel cold; the only sensation I still recognized was that of something disappearing from my extremities.

“I’m not healing at all, huh? Ugh...”

I had hoped that my body would heal during nighttime or via direct exposure to moonlight. Now my hopes had been dashed. There was a chance I could have recovered if I’d been able to drink blood, but I could barely move.

“Are vampires supposed to be this weak? I didn’t stand a chance against those guys...”

Energy Drain was a powerful skill. The one downside was that I had to be in human form to use it, but any opponent I could touch, I could kill within seconds. A vampire was the strongest thing you could be as long as you succeeded in catching your opponents by surprise, and even if you failed, you could transform into a flock of bats or a cloud of mist and sneak up on them from behind.

However, it seemed vampires were actually powerless against anyone who already knew how to deal with them. It had been impossible to mount a frontal attack on the adventurers who’d come after me—they were armed and on guard—and I couldn’t realistically have transformed in order to sneak up on and corner one of them. The other four would have slashed me to death the moment I returned to human form. Bats were no good either; my former classmates had just sniped them one by one. They’d been able to damage me even in mist form through both magic and, somehow, physical attacks. There had been no opening for me to use Energy Drain on any of them either.

“How, though? And how were they able to resist being mesmerized...?”

I had never failed to mesmerize anyone before that moment; my victims had always obeyed me instantly. My other vampiric abilities were powerful too, but I’d assumed that as long as I had the power to influence people’s behavior, nothing else mattered. My powers had had no effect on my classmates during our battle, though. I hadn’t even been able to create a brief opening.

I zoned out for a while, pondering what had happened, and finally arrived at an answer.

“...Oh. I guess it was probably the level difference.”

I had completely forgotten about the concept of levels; they weren’t displayed on my status screen. I laughed dryly to myself as I finally recalled that the evil god had mentioned level ups existing in this world.

“Heh, I never did anything that would have let me level up. Yeah...”

Every time I’d moved to a new town, I had avoided combat, instead relying on the people I’d mesmerized to do my dirty work for me. I hadn’t done any training either. I had technically killed a couple of people to test out Energy Drain, but that was it.

“I guess it’s only natural that they were able to resist me. The abilities of a Level 1 chump definitely wouldn’t work against professional adventurers.”

I had enjoyed a life of debauchery by mesmerizing other people, and I’d done a lot of things that would have landed me in jail back in Japan.

“I was a real scumbag...”

My actions would have defined me as the antagonist in a fictional story, not the protagonist. A low-level antagonist stood no chance against high-level protagonists. I felt an urge to laugh at myself as I realized how pitiful I truly was, but only the faintest of breaths escaped my lips. I’d had a feeling that karma would catch up with me eventually, but...

“Still, this is better than dying after doing nothing at all...”

The strength was departing my body, and lacking the energy even to continue leaning against the wall, I slid down to the ground.

“Well, I suppose this is a fitting end for me...”

I tried to look up at the moon in the sky one last time, but darkness shrouded my vision.

Chapter 3—Let’s Throw a Flower-Viewing Party

“So yeah, anyway, it was a real struggle for us, Diola-san,” I said.

It was the day after we arrived back in Laffan. I had dropped by the guild to alert Diola to our safe return. I’d also told her about everything that seemed important to me: being forced to attend the wedding reception alongside Haruka; the kidnappings in Pining; and Mary, Metea, and Illias-sama climbing down the well. By the time I’d concluded my narrative, Diola-san looked like she felt sorry for me.

“Oh my, all of that must have been terribly trying. I’m glad to see you’re all right. I thought the quest would be worthwhile for your party, but perhaps the reward wasn’t sufficient. Would you like me to negotiate on your behalf for more?”

“Nah, we’re satisfied with the reward. You don’t have to do anything like that.”

“Really? I suppose if you say so...”

“Yeah, it’s all good,” I said. “The viscount promised to become my party’s patron, so the quest ended up working out well for us.”

Diola-san had looked confused when I immediately turned down her offer, but the reason she’d thought the reward was insufficient was that I had withheld that additional information. However, it would have been awkward if she’d tried to negotiate further with the viscount due to that misconception.

I’d also purposely refrained from mentioning the mithril since I assumed it was essentially hush money. We weren’t likely to be punished for divulging its existence to Diola-san given the relationship between her and the viscount, but even that kind of small lapse in trust could ultimately be damaging to a relationship, so we had no intention of informing Diola-san about the coins unless she specifically asked.

“Very well, then. Incidentally, Nao-san, you’re here by yourself today. Is the rest of your party also doing well?”

“They are, yeah. Also, it’s been about a year since we finished building our house, and the weather is pretty nice, so we’re planning to throw a flower-viewing party and invite all of our friends...”

We’d actually missed the exact anniversary of the completion of our house a few months back, but it had been in the depths of winter, and we’d also had to prepare for the quest from the viscount, so none of us had felt like throwing a party at the time. But things were different now, and we felt like it was the perfect time for a celebration. The biggest restriction was our budget, but it wasn’t like we were struggling for money, and besides, we had to coordinate with our friends and acquaintances and work around their schedules, so we’d concluded there was plenty of time for us to earn money.

“A flower-viewing party, you say? What manner of party is that?”

“Oh, right.” Flower-viewing parties weren’t common in this world, so I paused to come up with a succinct explanation. “Um, it’s an outdoor party where you eat delicious food and enjoy the beauty of flowers. Would you like to attend, Diola-san? We’ll be serving the ale we got in Pining...”

“I’ll make certain my schedule is open! And of course, the food that Haruka-san, Yuki-san, and Natsuki-san prepare is always excellent, so I’ll be looking forward to that as well.”

It was obvious that Diola-san couldn’t resist the allure of ale, and even her belated attempt to conceal this fact amounted to another confession that she cared more about food and drink than viewing flowers. I didn’t really mind, but neither was I sure how to react. My feelings must have been written on my face, however, because Diola-san suddenly blushed and faked a cough.

“I take it that’s why you came here by yourself. Is everyone else running errands?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Well, actually, the flower-viewing party was just one reason I came...”

Touya had headed off to see Tomi, while Haruka had gone to visit Aera-san and Luce-san. Yuki was in charge of inviting Riva to the party, and Natsuki had accompanied the sisters to the orphanage. I had another reason for visiting Diola-san by myself, however.

“I actually have a personal matter I’d like to consult you about, Diola-san.”

“Do you?” Diola-san looked surprised, but then she smiled and confidently patted her chest. “Well, you can count on me. I’m a reliable woman, a little older than yourself. No doubt I’ll be able to supply whatever help you need!”

“Thank you very much, Diola-san. You see...”

It was embarrassing to admit what was on my mind, but I couldn’t stay silent if I wanted her advice, so I looked away as I mustered the courage to speak.

“U-Um, I’m actually planning to propose to Haruka.”

“O-Oh, I see...”

“And, um, I want to give her an engagement ring when I do.”

“Y-Yes, naturally!”

“But, um, size matters a lot when it comes to rings, right? The ring can’t be too small, but it can’t be too big either. I’d like to prepare one while keeping it a secret from Haruka, so I wanted to ask for help finding out her ring size without her knowing, and— Diola-san? What’s wrong?”

I glanced at Diola-san; she hadn’t reacted to anything I’d said. She was smiling, but very stiffly.

It took Diola-san a moment to reboot herself, and when she did, what she said was something I hadn’t expected at all.

“...Am I to interpret this as a declaration of war, Nao-san? You’re aware, are you not, of how long I’ve been unable to marry?”

Oh, crap! I chose the wrong person to consult about this! Like, I don’t think Diola-san is that old, but she is at an age when the topic of marriage gets kind of sensitive!

“N-No, that’s not what I mean at all! U-Um, oh yeah, you’re a noble, right, Diola-san? Based on what I heard from Illias-sama, nobles are—”

“Yes, I am a noble, but that doesn’t matter in the slightest. In fact, my family has done nothing but hinder me, all for the sake of their stupid peerage,” said Diola. “Would you like to become a noble yourself, Nao-san? You’d get me as a bonus. This is a limited-time offer, just for you.”

It seemed I had baited myself into a different trap. Damn it! I panicked and chose the wrong topic to bring up! I really should have known better—I’ve heard all about Diola-san’s marital woes!

“Our family is a baronetcy and, in all likelihood, soon to be demoted, but having a minor title is better than having none at all,” said Diola. “If you’re amenable, then I will do my best to clear away any obstacle. I really can’t delay dealing with my family’s problems too much longer, so this is a good opportunity for both of us.”

“U-Um...”

I had no idea how to react, but Diola-san suddenly laughed and smiled.

“I’m just joking, Nao-san. I’m not so insecure as to lash out at others out of jealousy. I’m also not so petty as to be unable to share a friend’s happiness just because things aren’t going well for me. Congratulations, Nao-san.”

“Th-Thanks, Diola-san.” As I breathed a sigh of relief, I felt cold sweat trickling down my spine. All right, I’ve learned my lesson. I really need to be more careful in the future. About a lot of things.

“With respect to the ring size, if you don’t want it to be wrong, you ought to ask Haruka-san directly, I think,” said Diola. “I take it from the fact that you don’t want her to learn about it in advance that you hope to present the ring as a surprise?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “I’m pretty sure that Haruka can at least kind of guess what I’m planning, but...”

“Depending on the situation, a surprise engagement ring can backfire badly, but I’m sure it will go well for you,” said Diola. “That being the case, the simplest solution would be to solicit the aid of either Yuki-san or Natsuki-san.”

That was definitely a simple solution. Yuki and Natsuki wouldn’t hesitate to help me if I asked; they would probably ask Haruka her ring size for me. In fact, there was a possibility they already knew it.

However, I wanted to avoid that option for a number of reasons. For one thing, Yuki would definitely tease me. For another, even if Yuki and Natsuki were okay with me proposing to Haruka, it would make my relationships with them awkward. My plan was to wait until after I’d proposed to Haruka before going to them.

“By the way, what is it like between nobles?” I asked. “Do nobles give each other rings?”

“It’s hardly relevant in my case,” Diola-san pointed out, “so I don’t know much about the subject, but based on my observation, nobles tend to order rings that are on the larger side. The recipient then brings the ring to a favorite artisan and has it adjusted to fit.”

“Oh, I see. That’s a bit different from what I had in mind...”

What I wanted was to whip out the ring and put it on Haruka’s finger in a cool, stylish way. It would be awkward if it ended up being too big.

But I might have been asking for too much; Diola-san was smiling uncomfortably after I explained. “In that case, you’ll just have to do your best to uncover the information you want on your own initiative, Nao-san. I suppose you could casually bring up the topic if the two of you happen to pass a store selling accessories, but that’s the only alternative I can think of.”

“I appreciate you hearing me out, Diola-san, but yeah, I figured as much. Sorry for wasting your time.”

I was aware that there was no easy solution here, so after apologizing, I thanked Diola-san for her ideas, then rose to go.

“I’m going to head back now. My party plans to resume exploring the dungeon two days from now, so I’ll return at a later date to provide you with more details about the flower-viewing party.”

“Very well. I wish you the best of luck,” said Diola. “Oh, it almost slipped my mind, but I ought to say, an adventuring party visited the guild while you were away from Laffan claiming to be acquaintances of yours. Would you happen to know anything about that?”

“Acquaintances? What were their names?” I asked.

“The party was called Jade Wings and consisted of three girls, Yoshino-san, Kaho-san, and Sae-san. One was an elf maiden and another a beastgirl, so I thought that there might be some sort of connection...”

Those are definitely Japanese names. I don’t remember their surnames, but I can probably just ask the girls and they’ll remember.

“Yeah, those are almost certainly acquaintances of ours,” I said. “Are they currently here in Laffan?”

“No, they’re out of town on a quest at the moment, but it seems they traveled to Laffan to meet your party, so I’d imagine they’ll be back soon. Would it be all right for me to relay your address to them?”

My party’s address? I guess it depends on why they want to meet us. If what they want is for us to save them from some problem of their own, that could be a pain in the butt. Still, if they’re determined to find out where we live, it’ll be easy enough, so there’s no real reason to try hiding from them.

“Yeah, sure, that’s fine,” I said. “Could you please inform us when they get back in town?”

“Very well,” said Diola. She must have noticed I was a bit wary, because she proceeded to furnish me with some additional information about this Jade Wings party. “They are Rank 3 adventurers and do seem to be the hardworking sort...”

I thanked her, then left the guild.

Hmm. If they left a positive impression on Diola-san, then maybe there’s no need to worry. Sharing information is vital, though. I hurried home to discuss things with Haruka and the others.

★★★★★★★★★

We had scheduled two days off after our return to Laffan. Much of our time yesterday had been spent visiting our acquaintances to inform them of our return and the upcoming flower-viewing party, but we’d also spent some time relaxing and adjusting our bodies in preparation for our upcoming adventures. Everyone had the second day completely off, so Haruka and Natsuki headed over to visit Tomi and start working on rice hullers, while Touya was working in the kitchen garden with Mary and Metea. Meanwhile, I somehow ended up shopping with Yuki.

“Um, Yuki, why did you decide to come with me instead of Haruka and Natsuki?” I asked.

“Well, I just figured it would be more fun to tag along with you,” she replied.

“More fun? I’m just running errands. There’s nothing fun about it.”

If what you want is a good time shopping, couldn’t you have gone with Haruka and Natsuki? I really want to do this alone...

“Nah, that’s exactly the fun part!” Yuki looked up at me, covering her wry grin with one hand. “You’re gonna buy a ring, right, Nao?”

“H-Huh? How—”

I couldn’t keep my shock off of my face, but Yuki responded dismissively. “It’s totally obvious. Did you really think nobody would figure it out after you brought it up yesterday at dinner?”

“Oh...”

I had casually brought up the topic of ring sizes in an attempt to learn Haruka’s. Apparently Yuki felt that this hadn’t been terribly subtle.

What I’d learned was that there was no system of ring sizes in this world. Rings were available only to the nobility, who could have them custom-made. In addition, the rings were sometimes worn on top of gloves, so there was a lot of variation in size even among rings belonging to the same person. The tradition of exchanging wedding rings didn’t exist among commoners, so there was no need for a system to specify size. I felt like it wouldn’t have been that odd if rings in simpler styles were the norm among commoners, but apparently they were symbols of power and authority; wearing a ring indicated that you were someone who didn’t have to do your own chores, so to speak.

My ingenious plan to extract information through sheer conversational finesse had, it seemed, been a bust. But although Yuki said my attempts to obfuscate my intentions had been in vain, I’d tried to change the topic by repeating what Diola-san had told me about the Jade Wings party, and the girls had recognized their names. They had only interacted with them a few times back on Earth, but Haruka’s impression had been that they weren’t bad people, and she thought meeting up with them would be fine. Yuki had described them as interesting, and Natsuki had said she suspected we would get along well, so our conclusion had been that we would meet them, then discuss how to proceed. We’d spent proportionately more of our dinner discussing Jade Wings, so my hope had been that the girls would just forget I’d even brought up rings, but...

“Oh yeah, now that I think about it, I rarely see you, Haruka, or Natsuki wearing accessories,” I said.

“Yeah. They can get in the way during adventuring, so most of the time it’s best to avoid them,” said Yuki. “Things with special powers and effects like Natsuki’s pendant are a different story, but it would be horrible if one of us died because of an accessory, y’know?”

Dangling accessories could easily get caught on things, besides which they made a lot of noise and could thus be a distraction during battle or a handicap when sneaking around. In fact, even accessories with special effects could have drawbacks that we had to take into consideration.

“I guess you girls prioritize safety over glamor when working, huh?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying,” said Yuki. “What would you think of somebody like a sushi chef wearing a ring? It’s pretty much the same thing.”

“Yeah, that would be really unsanitary.”

“We do wear some accessories during our days off, but they’re nothing special.”

We had been normal high-school students not too long ago. Perhaps that was why the girls had never shown any indication of wanting to buy expensive accessories, even after arriving in this world and making more money than we’d ever had in our lives. I saw them wear simple necklaces and bracelets from time to time, but that was about it. That might also have been because, with all jewelry in this world being handmade, the expensive stuff was really expensive.

“Actually, though, Haruka does have a simple pendant she wears everywhere,” said Yuki.

“...Oh yeah?”

I know exactly what you’re talking about, Yuki, but I’m surprised you noticed—Haruka keeps it inside her clothes so it doesn’t stand out or get in the way. I don’t really want to talk about this, though.

“Ohhh, I get it,” said Yuki. “You gave that pendant to Haruka as a present, huh?”

“...Why are you so perceptive when it comes to these kinds of things, Yuki?”

Did you really figure out all that from the brief pause before I answered? Ugh...

“I mean, the whole reason I noticed is because Haruka was the one wearing it. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t buy something like that for herself—she wasn’t the kind of girl who wore a lot of accessories back in Japan. Also, it seemed like she had it on her for a pretty long time, and there was no way somebody like Haruka would have spent money on something like that during our first few months in this world. It was pretty obvious what happened!”

Yuki nodded to herself, seeming very satisfied with her theory. As it so happened, she was completely correct. I had given Haruka that pendant during the days before we’d reunited with Yuki and Natsuki. It had been fairly cheap—I would probably have been able to afford something similar back in Japan if I’d asked my parents for the money—but we hadn’t been splitting the proceeds from adventuring at the time. Haruka had given Touya and me some money for our personal use, but the rest had been under her direct control, and as Yuki had said, there was no way Haruka would have spent her own money on something like that.

Yuki grinned at me, then said teasingly, “So you are planning on giving her a ring next, right, Nao?”

I was in a bit of a funk now. I didn’t answer immediately, but there was no longer any point in denying it; my only real option was to nod. “Well, I guess I can’t deny that I’m considering it.”

“Every girl dreams of getting a ring from the boy she likes,” said Yuki. “You don’t have to beat around the bush about it, though. Just admit that you want to give Haruka a ring because you slept with her, Nao.”

“H-Huh? N-No, I—”

I was so shocked at that candid statement that I tried to cover Yuki’s mouth to prevent her from blurting out any more, but she just grabbed my hand and grinned at me again.

“Did you really think you could keep it a secret?”

I sighed at that reaction, but I wasn’t willing to surrender just yet.

“...Okay, sure, you’re definitely very perceptive, but I’m kind of disturbed by how coarse you’re being here,” I said. “As a young lady, shouldn’t you have some...tact or something?”

“Sorry, I’m all sold out of tact! Besides, you’ve known Haruka forever. You really took your sweet time! Although, come to think of it, it’s only been about a year since we got transported to this world, so maybe you’re actually really quick to make a move.”

Yuki, no matter how long you ponder this issue, you’re not going to come up with a definitive answer. It’s hard to switch gears from being childhood friends! Neither one of us is the kind of person to act on youthful impulses.

“We’re still high school age even though we’re adults in this world, so to me, it seems really young to get engaged,” said Yuki. “I wouldn’t mind if you made a move on Natsuki or me, though, so...”

“Fine, Yuki, I’ll give you some money so you can buy some more tact,” I said. “You really shouldn’t say something like that to friends who finally got together after more than a decade of waiting.”

“Oh, come on, you should just be glad I didn’t get in the way,” said Yuki. “Specifically, I left you to your own devices at that inn back in Clewily on purpose—”

“Aaaaah! I heard absolutely nothing!” I pressed my hands over my ears and shook my head vigorously, then sighed and raised my hands in surrender. “Fine, fine! You can tag along with me!”

Did you actually tell Yuki about everything that happened between us, Haruka? I get that there’s such a thing as girl talk, but there’s no way, right?

“That’s what you should have said from the start,” said Yuki. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure that you’ll be glad to have me tag along.”

“Really?”

“You want to buy a ring, but do you even know where to buy one?”

“Well, rings are made from metal...so if I just ask Gantz-san—”

“Made of metal?! That’s way too broad!”

I was at a loss for words after Yuki reprimanded me. I mean, I’m not wrong, am I? The thought did occur to me that it would be kind of weird to drop by a weapon store to ask about rings, but...

“Also, Haruka and Natsuki are at Gantz-san’s place right now. Did you just forget about that, Nao?”

Come to think of it, Haruka and Natsuki were visiting Tomi to talk about rice hullers, so Gantz-san would be nearby, and unless the girls moved somewhere else, there were decent odds that I’d bump into them.

“...Uh, well, maybe I could stagger my visit with theirs...”

“That’s impossible. You’ll have to spend a lot of time discussing the specifics,” said Yuki. “Even just going by personal connections, Simon-san would be a way better bet. He’s a carpenter, so he probably knows metalsmiths who do stuff like decorations for furniture.”

“Okay, so let’s go visit Simon-san and—”

“Nah, let’s just directly go to a jeweler’s,” said Yuki. “I’ll lead the way.”

“You know a place?” I asked.

Yuki turned back toward me and patted her chest. “Yeah, duh. I’m a girl!”

I felt a bit uneasy, but it was true that I had no idea where to find a jeweler, so I slowly nodded and told Yuki hesitantly that I was counting on her.

★★★★★★★★★

The store that Yuki led me to was in the administrative district, where the municipal government had its offices, quite close to Aera-san’s café. From the exterior alone, it was obviously an upscale establishment. I was pretty intimidated, but Yuki strolled right in, looking completely unfazed, so I had no choice but to follow her.

The interior was somewhat different from what I’d been imagining. I’d pictured jewelry with insane price tags lined up inside rows of glass cases, but there were no cases or even jewelry on display inside this store, just some expensive-looking furniture, including sofas that looked like they were meant as places for the staff to sit and have conversations with customers. There was also a refined-looking clerk, plus a couple of muscular guards. The guards were in formal attire, just like the clerk, but they had this aura like they specialized in combat, which made them seem really out of place here.

It was all pretty confusing, but Yuki casually took a seat on a sofa and beckoned me over. Oh yeah, I’ve actually been to one place like this before: the boutique back in Clewily where we went for formal clothes. Poor people definitely aren’t welcome in these kinds of establishments.

“Please feel free to take a seat, sir,” the elegant-looking clerk urged me with a smile.

“Oh, thanks,” I said.

The clerk wasn’t quite as old as Wiesel-san, but he gave off a similar vibe. I felt I had no choice but to obey his instructions, so I nervously took a seat beside Yuki. Right away, he placed a cup of tea in front of me. I found it incredible that a store would serve tea to customers the moment they sat down, but Yuki acted like it was completely normal and took a sip of her own before addressing the clerk.

“We’re here today to browse rings,” she said.

“Rings? Very well. A moment, if you please.”

Wait, why are you taking the lead, Yuki? Like, I appreciate it, but still. When the clerk strode away, I took the opportunity to whisper, “Hey, Yuki, are you sure it’s okay for us to be in a place like this?”

“Relax, Nao,” Yuki whispered back. “This isn’t the kind of place where you have to buy everything that they show you. And anyway, rings are something you only buy after thinking about it a lot...”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I whispered. “But...”

I was a complete novice about stuff like this, so I felt the urge to flee. I tried to distract myself by checking my wallet through my clothes. Okay, yeah, I have plenty of money inside. I wasn’t sure if I would actually be able to decide on a purchase today, but I was relieved that I had enough money if something did catch my eye. In retrospect, it was fortunate that I hadn’t had enough free time to go shopping back in Clewily.

There was no good reason for it, but I was so nervous that my throat felt parched, so I reached for the tea in front of me. Whoa, this is pretty nice. It must be expensive.

The clerk returned shortly with a thin wooden box in his hands.

“Apologies for keeping you waiting, sir, ma’am.”

He placed the box on the table in front of us, then slowly removed the lid. The first thing I saw was a thick piece of expensive-looking cloth; the clerk folded it back, revealing a number of rings. The gemstones were larger than those on the engagement rings I’d seen back on Earth; I wondered if it was because lapidary techniques were less advanced in this world.

“What do you think?”

I felt more than a little intimidated by the rings, but Yuki casually lifted one of them into the light to examine it. “The gems are definitely high-quality,” she said.

“Very observant, ma’am.”

I knew I wasn’t going to damage the rings just by picking one up, and I had to inspect them closely in order to make a decision, but...

“Feel free to take your time,” the clerk said with a smile.

I took that as my cue to copy Yuki and cautiously picked up a ring. Hmm. Yeah, the gem itself is pretty, but this is too gaudy for my tastes.

“Um, would you happen to have any rings that can be worn on a daily basis without getting in the way?” I asked.

“Hmm? May I ask what you mean by rings that don’t get in the way, sir?”

“Rings usually get in the way, Nao,” said Yuki. “They’re meant to be worn in settings like formal parties.”

I was fully aware that rings weren’t meant for situations in which they could hinder the wearer, but I wanted something like the engagement rings back in Japan—something that could be worn daily. A simple ring that could be worn on a girl’s left ring finger would be good enough.

After I explained what I had in mind, the clerk looked confused and fell to pondering.

“Would it be difficult to make a ring like that?” I asked.

“Oh, no, it ought to be entirely possible, but...”

Despite his words, the expression on his face wasn’t exactly encouraging, and Yuki laughed and nodded.

“If all you want is a simple ring, there won’t really be any technique to making it, Nao,” she explained. “What about inserting a small gem inside of the ring? I bet after that it will look really pretty after you polish it.”

After Yuki had explained her idea, the clerk raised his head with a look of surprise and relief. “Ah, yes, it wouldn’t be easy, but that would likely work.”

“Oh, is it actually possible?” I asked.

I had been under the impression that gems could be damaged by high heat, so I’d assumed that dropping them into molten metal would ruin them, and I felt like inserting them into precisely drilled holes would probably look bad...

“Possible, yes. However, it will be necessary to employ advanced metallurgic techniques, including magic, and as a result, the final price will be higher. Is that acceptable to you, sir?”

A plain silver ring wouldn’t be nice enough to commemorate an engagement. I can’t afford to be stingy here.

After some hesitation, I said, “It depends on the price, but I’m willing to go with that option.”

“Very well. What kind of material would you prefer?”

“What’s available?” Yuki asked.

She leaned forward, seeming more interested than I was. The clerk brought us a different box, took another set of rings out of it, and lined them up on the table in front of us.

“Silver, gold, and platinum are commonly used for rings. Another, more expensive option is mithril. Most rings are made with an alloy of different metals. The exception is silver. You could also have a ring made of pure platinum or mithril, but...”

But that would be ridiculously expensive, right? Yeah, makes sense.

“Silver rings are annoying to maintain,” said Yuki. “Silver tarnishes if you don’t polish it.”

“Yeah, good point,” I said.

It wasn’t like I owned any silver accessories, but even I knew that much about silver tableware. The silver ring in front of my eyes gleamed prettily, but only because it had been well cared for. It didn’t seem like a great option for daily wearing.

“In that case, we’ll have to start with gold and pricier metals,” said Yuki. “The mithril ring here is pretty, though. Is it a pure mithril ring?”

“No, ma’am, an alloy, roughly half of mithril and half of platinum.”

The ring differed in luster from regular platinum. In fact, depending on the angle you viewed it from, it was iridescent. It wasn’t the kind of thing I could ever have afforded back in Japan, so as long as it was suitable to wear daily, I felt like it would be the perfect gift for Haruka.

“How are you supposed to care for a ring like this?” Yuki asked. “It’ll probably get dirty if it’s worn all the time...”

“I assure you that mithril rings require no special care. You can simply wipe it gently or clean it with a little water. That will be enough to maintain its luster forever.”

“Oh, that sounds super convenient!” said Yuki.

Adventurers couldn’t really avoid getting dirty, so a ring that could be cleaned that easily sounded ideal to me too, though I imagined “forever” was as much of an exaggeration in this case as it was when jewelers back on Earth applied it to diamonds.

“In that case, I’d like to place an order for a ring like this, and—” I snapped to my senses. “Wait, I don’t know Haruka’s ring size.”

My actual goal today had been to get information about rings in order to make a decision later. I hadn’t planned on visiting a jeweler; Yuki had just dragged me along. Phew, I’m glad I was able to check myself in time.

“Oh, don’t worry, Nao,” said Yuki. “There’s an Alchemical enchantment called Adjust that I can cast on it for you.”

“Seriously? I can’t believe something so convenient actually exists.”

“Yeah, but it’s only convenient for rings. It’s not very useful in most situations.”

Yuki went on to explain that the enchantment caused an object to adjust its size automatically to the dimensions of the wearer’s body, just as I’d surmised from the name, but the range of adjustments was fairly restricted; thus, it was only useful for items like accessories, hats, and gloves that didn’t vary much in size anyway. In addition, it wasn’t useful for accessories like necklaces that didn’t require adjustment, and it was an outright waste when it came to things like hats and gloves that would wear rapidly.

“It’s pretty much never worth it to use Adjust on anything other than a ring,” said Yuki. “It’s also easier to just have the rings custom-made, so most people don’t even know about Adjust.”

“But you’re saying it should be useful for my purposes, right? In that case, I’m counting on you, Yuki.”

“Sure, leave it to me! Also, what do you think of the idea of getting matching rings, Nao?”

A pair of matching rings for Haruka and me both, huh? That sounds pretty nice.

“Yeah, sure, I’m down for that,” I said.

“Also, why don’t you buy some extra rings for me and Natsuki while you’re at it?”

“Okay, sure, I’ll— Wait, no! I won’t buy extra rings!”

Yuki clucked her tongue. “I thought I could trick you into just going with the flow. Oh well.”

Nah, please, I would never blindly go along with the stuff you say, Yuki. I’m finally in a relationship with Haruka—there’s no way I’m going to do anything that might jeopardize it!

“Pardon me, sir...?” The clerk seemed unable to work out what my relationship with Yuki was.

“Oh, sorry,” I said. “I’d like to place an order for a pair of rings. As for the size...”

“You should generally go with rings that are a bit bigger than average,” said Yuki. “The enchantment can’t make small things bigger.”

“Yeah, please do what Yuki just said. As for the gems...”

I ended up deciding on an alloy of mithril and platinum for the rings, with a ruby for Haruka’s and a sapphire for mine. The gems were small and relatively inexpensive, but mithril and platinum were costly even in minute amounts, and on top of that, there were the fees for the special techniques involved.

Man, this is going to eat up most of the money I have on me. This is a massive expenditure, so—actually, now that I think about it, our weapons and armor cost more than this. Okay, I don’t feel so bad anymore. Besides, this is a way better use of money than blowing it on one-night stands like Touya did.

★★★★★★★★★

Before we left the store, I forked over a down payment. The clerk warned us that it would probably be about half a month before the rings were ready. After that, I would need Yuki’s help enchanting the rings, so I had quite a wait before I could propose to Haruka.

So was this actually an impulse purchase in a sense? I guess I should just be satisfied that I managed to place an order without having to bring Haruka with me. The proposal should go smoothly now, although it may not come as a surprise to her based on what Yuki told me earlier... Nah, on second thought, I have faith in Haruka. I’m sure she’ll pretend for my sake not to know even if she actually does.

“All right, Yuki, I’m counting on you when the time comes to apply the Adjust enchantment,” I said. “Feel free to charge me the appropriate fee.”

Yuki smiled at me. “Sure thing. See, isn’t it lucky for you that I tagged along?”

“Yeah, I guess. I wouldn’t have known where to look if I’d been alone,” I said, nodding. “Even if I’d stumbled onto that store, I doubt I could have mustered the courage to enter, so you helped me out in all sorts of ways, but...”

The jeweler’s had been more intimidating than any store I’d ever visited back in Japan. Even if I’d known its location, I probably wouldn’t have made it past the exterior. Yuki hadn’t been buying anything for herself, but she’d seemed totally undaunted. This seemed like something I could stand to learn from her.

“Why did you have to lay all those traps for me, though?” I asked.

“Oh, come on, they weren’t traps,” Yuki replied. “Or maybe just little traps? It’s not like I cornered you in your bed at night...”

“You’ll get me in big trouble if you ever go that far, Yuki!”

Haruka had never seemed particularly bothered by any of the “subtle” flirting Yuki and Natsuki did with me, but that would definitely cross a line even for her and risk destroying the bonds of friendship between her and Yuki.

“I’m sure you can find someone else if you really want to,” I told her. “The same goes for Natsuki. It doesn’t have to be me, right? Also, if our adventures continue going well, you can probably save up enough money for retirement...”

Yuki looked away from me. “I’m kinda hurt by what you just said, Nao. I actually like you a lot, you know?” She sounded like she was sulking.

I was suddenly at a loss for words. “Ugh, I’m sorry, Yuki,” I managed eventually. “I shouldn’t have put it like that.”

Yeah, anybody would feel hurt if the person they liked told them they could easily find someone else. I really should have been more thoughtful. I’ve never experienced it myself, but I’ve heard that it’s bad to reject someone by saying stuff like “I’m sure there’s someone better out there for you.”

“’Sides, I don’t think it would end well if I got married to anybody else,” said Yuki. “Do you remember the downsides of the Plunder skill, Nao?”

“Yeah. I don’t remember the exact details, but it was something along the lines of transferring your own lifespan to your target, right?”

“Uh-huh, and there’s a good chance that one of our classmates died using the Plunder skill on me and Natsuki. Think about it, Nao: a wife who lives longer than normal and looks young forever—that can’t end well for her husband, right?”

“Yeah, assuming you’re right, it could get pretty dangerous.”

Most people in this world didn’t have the option of moving easily, so the majority became very familiar with their neighbors. If anything weird stood out about someone, rumors spread quickly. That was another reason it was impossible for adventurers, who traveled widely, to have conventional marriages.

“But you’re an elf, Nao, so that solves a lot of problems,” said Yuki. “I won’t have to worry about you dying of old age before I do. You also know a lot about me, and we share similar values, so you’re my best option.”

I hate to say it, but everything Yuki just said makes perfect sense to me. I guess she technically could marry one of our classmates, but we still haven’t seen about half of the guys. We don’t know how many of them are even still alive, and given that a lot of the ones we’ve run into so far have been walking land mines, the odds of Yuki finding a good guy seem pretty low. I guess I can’t suggest a classmate as an alternative...

“I could also just stay single forever, but I have my life after retirement to consider,” said Yuki.

“After retirement...” It doesn’t feel real to me yet, but I guess that time will come eventually. What will our lives be like then? I’d love to spend my days peacefully, surrounded by my children and grandchildren, but Yuki and Natsuki can’t have children if they don’t get married, so...

“Anyhow, I know Haruka is the one who matters the most to you right now, so I’m not gonna try to force an answer out of you anytime soon,” said Yuki. “I’d appreciate it if you’d just keep this in the back of your mind and think about it again in the future, though.”

The smile that appeared on her face was modest—different, somehow, from her ordinary smile. I still felt like I was being subtly backed into a corner, though.

We dropped by the dungeon to claim ownership and resume adventuring. Our first objective was to set up a sign outside. We had yet to see anyone else here, but now that the dungeon belonged to us, we wanted to ward off any potential trespassers.

“Where I’m standing is good, right?” Touya asked.

“Yeah,” Haruka replied. “That’s perfect. It’ll be impossible for trespassers to claim they didn’t see it.”

Touya proceeded to pound the stake in with a hammer. The words on the sign indicated that the dungeon and the surrounding land were private property. It was a warning to anyone who wandered into the area that their lives might be forfeit if they ventured any farther. Of course, if we did happen to run into trespassers, it wasn’t like we intended to attack them on sight; there would always be the possibility that they’d wandered here by accident. It was true that we had the right to attack them if we were so inclined, but given that our property wasn’t fenced off, there was still a possibility that we would get in legal trouble.

It would be a different story if we encountered strangers inside of the dungeon, however. The sign outside would be the first and last warning; inside, we could attack strangers on sight without any qualms. We’d heard that encountering other adventurers was the most nerve-racking part of exploring popular and heavily trafficked dungeons.

Touya gripped his sword firmly and pumped himself up. “Hell yeah! Time to challenge the dungeon again! Let’s go!”

“We’ll have to spend a few days readjusting and gathering stuff like meat,” Yuki said with a shrug.

Our plan was to hunt monsters in what we’d designated the “meat area,” spanning the ninth and tenth floors of the dungeon, in order to sell them to the guild and Aera-san for some quick cash. From the eleventh floor onward, we would devote time to practicing coordination during combat, since we were all getting a bit rusty. While we were at it, we could also gather milk, fruit, and nuts. If everything went well, our final objective was to challenge the boss of the twentieth floor and defeat it in time for our flower-viewing party.

The weather at this time of the year was pleasant, so we’d considered earning money outside the dungeon instead, but ultimately, all of us had agreed to head back inside. Our primary reason was one Yuki had brought up during our discussion: She’d explained that she thought this was the perfect time to return for things like fruit, which would probably have grown back during the more than two months since we last harvested them. No one could object to her reasoning. It was true that we had a lot of dindels in reserve, but there was no good reason to ignore the ripe fruit that awaited us in the dungeon.

★★★★★★★★★

“The sisters certainly have become really skilled at handling combat,” said Haruka.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s nice that we no longer have to feel nervous watching them fight.”

We had asked Mary and Metea to take the lead during battles against monsters in the meat area. Despite her small body, Mary was able to deal out powerful slashes with her sword, and Metea nimbly outmaneuvered monsters. Though they’d had no combat experience before they joined us, they had become quite proficient in no time at all, and they had no difficulty with one-on-one battles. As a result, we were quickly able to build up a large stock of meat.

Metea happily sang the words “Yummy meat, yummy meat!” to herself while she slew monsters. It honestly made me a little uncertain about whether we were making the right choices in raising the sisters, but from the standpoint of survival, it was better for her to be capable of mercilessly slaying monsters than to be quaking in fear, so on reflection, it was probably all for the best.

“They’ve worked very hard,” said Natsuki. “In fact, I believe Mary-chan has now surpassed Yuki in raw strength.”

“Ugh. Guess I can’t really deny that.” Yuki was briefly rendered speechless by this reminder of the role that the sisters’ beastkin heritage played in their performance, but she quickly snapped out of it and thrust a finger at Mary. “Whatever. I’ll win on skill alone! This match isn’t over yet, kid!”

“O-Oh, no, I still have a long way to go,” said Mary. “It’s only thanks to your support that I can handle combat...”

“Come on, Yuki, what’s the point of competing with Mary?” I said. “Don’t forget our responsibilities as adults.”

Yuki, you should really just stop and think about the gap in skill levels between you and Mary. On top of that, you have the Copy skill, so there’s no way Mary will ever lap you in terms of abilities as long as we’re all working together.

“It’s good that you know we have your back, Mary,” said Haruka. “Metea, it’s true that you’ve done a great job fighting today, but remember that you should never come here alone for meat, all right?”

Metea nodded, using her entire body to mime her comprehension. “Okay, I understand! I’d be in danger if I got surrounded by a lot of monsters!”

“Well, we wouldn’t be able to get here by ourselves in the first place,” Mary chimed in, shaking her head awkwardly.

The monsters in this part of the dungeon were actually weaker than those outside the entrance. The dungeon was also a bit of a trek from Laffan, but that wasn’t such a bad thing; it was one reason we could keep it to ourselves.

Touya laid his sword across his shoulders. “All right, let’s gather some more meat. We can hunt down everything in sight.”

Metea hoisted her own sword into the air in imitation of him. “Yeah, let’s hunt everything! Lots of meat means happiness!”

The rest of us played along with the sisters’ enthusiasm as we scoured every corner of the two levels for game. Afterward, we temporarily returned to Laffan to sell the meat we’d collected.

★★★★★★★★★

It was a few days later when we finally reached the twentieth floor of the dungeon. Before us was a door that looked like it might lead to a boss arena—the same door from which we’d turned back at the conclusion of our last expedition. It hadn’t taken us long to get here from the eleventh floor; we had expected that it would take longer, but none of the monsters we’d encountered along the way had been suitable for practicing coordination in combat: We didn’t want to slay the cattle that provided us with milk, and forest hoppers only showed up in the wood areas. We had corralled a group of grass coyotes to fight them, but if we slew the entire local population in one battle, they wouldn’t show up in large numbers for a while.

In fact, so far, gathering fruit and nuts had consumed much more of our time than battles against monsters. As Yuki had surmised, everything had regrown by now, and we’d all been excited about the idea of harvesting it, especially Metea. After roaming around, we’d ended up with a decent stock of fruits and nuts. All this was only possible because no other adventurers visited this dungeon. On reflection, I guess it really is a good thing that we managed to obtain sole ownership.

“It’s finally time for a boss battle, huh? What are you thinking the boss is going to be, Touya?” I asked.

“Huh, me? Well, based on the pattern we’ve seen up to this point, I figure it’ll be a giant ox.”

“The pattern...” I echoed. “The skeletons seemed like an exception. I guess the goblin general was the first real boss we encountered.”

“The general was accompanied by a group of goblin captains and leaders,” Haruka pointed out.

“The boss of the sixth floor was a zombie lizard, and the boss of the seventh floor was a tyrant picow,” said Natsuki.

“Yeah. After that, the boss of the tenth floor was a king howling wolf together with a queen, and the boss of the fifteenth floor was that weird minotaur thing,” said Yuki.

“The mad tauros,” I reminded her. “I guess there’s a connection between oxen and the word tauros.”

Red strike oxen were the most prevalent monsters here on the twentieth floor, but all of the bosses we’d faced so far had been very different from one another. I thought there was a good chance that the boss awaiting us in the next room wouldn’t be an ox-type monster.

“We’ve encountered a lot of different monsters, but there are still some that we haven’t encountered as boss variants,” I muttered to myself. “With that in mind...”

Haruka grimaced. “Are you implying that we might end up having to fight a boss version of the forest hoppers, Nao? I really hope that’s not the case. I hate bugs...”

“I, too, would prefer not to have to face off against a giant insect,” said Natsuki. “If it comes to that, I hope we can finish it off with magic.”

“I’d love to fight an ox-type boss! More meat!”

“Oh, please, Met, you can already eat as much meat as you want,” said Mary.

Metea clenched her fists. “There’s no such thing as too much meat! Especially beef! Beef is delicious!”

The red strike oxen that we slew for meat were all male, so their meat was red and slightly tough, but Metea, Mary, and Touya all loved it; apparently it was perfect for beastfolk.

“Well, no point guessing,” said Touya. “We’ll have to slay the monster no matter what it is.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Yuki. “So go ahead and open the door, Touya!”

“Roger!”

Touya had responded pretty nonchalantly to Yuki’s equally casual order, but in spite of that, he opened the door with care. The rest of us had Mary and Metea stand behind us so we could protect them, then held our weapons at the ready and watched Touya closely.

“Oh, bingo! I guessed right! It’s an ox!”

Strike oxen were bigger than regular cows; the ox inside the boss room was bigger than an elephant. Out of all the monsters I had encountered in this world so far, only the lava boar was comparable in size, and it had been able to send Touya flying like a pinball. I had no idea which was more dangerous, the boar or this enormous ox, but the single long horn on the ox’s head looked like bad news.

“It’s a red tyrant strike ox,” said Haruka. “Given that it has the word ‘red’ in its name, we’ll have to proceed with caution.”

“Whoa, that name is way too long!” Yuki blurted out thoughtlessly.

I honestly agreed with her, but she might as well have addressed that complaint to the gods of this world. For another thing, it would have been more convenient if color words in monster names had designated the elements they were associated with and thus allowed us to predict their abilities.

“This isn’t the time to be worrying about that, Yuki!” Haruka exclaimed. “Touya, if it tries to use its breath on you, do your best to dodge!”

“Roger!” Touya firmly gripped his shield as he leaped into the boss room.

Red strike oxen could breathe fire, so it was highly likely that the red tyrant strike ox had similar capabilities. Red strike oxen were already much more dangerous than ordinary strike oxen, so the combination of “red” and “tyrant” spelled trouble. In his first battle with a red strike ox, Touya had gotten off lightly; the worst injury he’d suffered was a little scorched fur. If this hulking boss hit him with its breath, I had a feeling he wouldn’t be so fortunate.

“I’ll advance as well!” Natsuki followed Touya with her naginata at the ready.

The room was big enough for the boss to move around freely, which meant there was also ample space for Natsuki to swing her naginata...and, conversely, for the boss to charge at us.

“It’s coming this way, Touya!” I yelled.

“Yikes!”

The boss had been positioned some distance from the entrance, so it was able to build up momentum before Touya was close enough to land a counterattack on it. He leaped sideways and successfully avoided the charging tyrant strike ox, but now it swung around toward the rest of us.

Touya couldn’t possibly have blocked the boss with his own body. I was all too keenly aware that even trying would have been reckless on his part. Still, as a result of him clearing a path for the tyrant strike ox, Mary and Metea had frozen up, intimidated by its size and speed. They had built up some confidence through our battle with the king and queen howling wolves, but this enemy was simply too big for them. In fact, the rest of us probably wouldn’t have been able to react as confidently if we hadn’t already been through a battle against a lava boar.

“Yuki, take care of Mary!” I yelled.

“Got it!”

I grabbed Metea’s arm and beat a hasty retreat toward the door of the boss room. Yuki followed with Mary in tow. The red tyrant strike ox charged after us with its head lowered. It collided with a wall, and the impact reverberated through the room.

“...Whoa, it went really deep,” I said.

The red tyrant strike ox’s horn was as long as Metea was tall, and half of its length was now embedded in the wall. But the ox easily pried its horn free with a shake of its head, and the wall collapsed into giant fragments that scattered across the floor.

“...I’m pretty sure if it succeeds in running any of us through with that horn, we’ll die instantly,” said Haruka.

“Do you think the horn will actually penetrate our skin now that it’s tougher from leveling up?” I asked.

“Yes. It’s far sharper than the kind of knife an unscrupulous partner would stab you in the back with,” Haruka replied. “Or do you want to test that out for yourself?”

Well, knives are no joke, but...

“Nah, I’ll leave that to Touya.”

“Hell no,” called Touya, who was now standing some distance away. He began swinging his sword in a broad arc to taunt the tyrant strike ox. “Hey, dumbass, look this way!”

As Touya diverted the boss’s attention from us, we slowly backed away.

Metea seemed a little disappointed in herself. “Ugh, I completely froze up.”

I patted her on the head. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to these kinds of situations with enough experience,” I said. I hoisted my spear. “What do you think, Natsuki?”

“It’s faster than I thought it would be. It won’t be easy to find the right timing.”

Natsuki had initially attempted to match the timing of the boss’s charge in order to attack its legs as it passed, but it seemed she had changed her mind and temporarily retreated. She’d probably made the right decision; its gait was far too rapid and powerful. A single stomp from one of those hooves would probably be enough to kill any one of us instantly, and even a glancing blow would lead to severe injuries. Our weapons definitely couldn’t withstand it either.

Touya had succeeded in attracting the boss’s attention, but it kicked its hind legs in warning as Natsuki approached it from behind. Oxen actually had a wide field of view, so it wouldn’t be easy to catch it by surprise and attack it from a blind spot.

“Shit!” Haruka hissed.

The boss lifted its head at the sound of Haruka’s voice, then breathed fire, swinging its head left and right. The fire covered a wide swath of the room, as if the monster was trying to force us back. Most of us were far enough away to dodge it without difficulty, but it was a different story for Touya.

“Yikes!”

Touya had tucked his tail to protect it from the fire, then rolled forward to attack the boss monster’s legs, but a hard clang echoed through the room: His sword had bounced off the tyrant strike ox’s hide, almost as if it had made contact with bone, and he didn’t even appear to have cut it. He must have dealt some damage, however, because the boss monster bellowed, stamped its hooves, and charged him. Touya was once again able to dodge it, but...

“I could use some help over here—I can’t do this alone!”

He must have concluded from the single attack he’d landed that he should immediately get our assistance.

“This is what I anticipated,” said Haruka. “Its weak spots are too high to reach. Let’s slay it with ranged attacks.”

“Good idea,” I said. “Natsuki, you work with Touya to keep its attention off the rest of us.”

“Will do,” said Natsuki.

“Yuki, try to keep it from getting another chance to breathe fire,” I said.

“Okay. So I have to make sure it can’t open its mouth? I think I can manage that.”

Natsuki joined Touya at the front of the group. They split left and right in order to taunt the boss from different directions. She attacked it with her naginata whenever it shifted toward Touya; he cut at its legs whenever it turned to face Natsuki. It tried to breathe fire a couple of times, but each time, Yuki interrupted it with a low potency spell aimed at its mouth. That left Haruka and me with enough time to build up mana for more powerful attack spells, which we hurled at its head, but we were only wounding it—its skull must have been incredibly thick—and gradually attracting its attention. However...

“Linear attacks are way too easy to dodge,” I said. “Sure, it’s scary getting charged by something this size, but that’s all there is to it.”

“Mm. It can’t change direction mid-charge, so the attack is effectively pointless,” said Haruka.

The boss had charged us a couple of times after we attracted its attention with our spells, but despite its speed and size, it was easy enough to dodge as long as we maintained adequate distance. I was a bit worried about the holes it kept making in the walls, but the dungeon could probably continue to repair itself just fine.

We slowly chipped away at the boss from long range using magic. Nothing particularly interesting happened until one of my spells unexpectedly got sucked into its nose. It was able to close its mouth, but it couldn’t close its nose, so I succeeded in burning its nostrils, and it bellowed and flailed in pain.

“Nice one, Nao!” Yuki cheered. “Lemme help!”

It probably wouldn’t be easy for the boss to breathe fire again with the damage to its nostrils. As it opened its mouth to gasp for air, it appeared to be in great pain. Yuki let up with her low-potency spells and joined Haruka and me in attacking it directly with magic. Shortly after, it fell to its knees and then collapsed onto its side.

Haruka and I breathed a joint sigh of relief.

“It’s finally dead, huh? I can’t believe how much mana I used up,” I said.

“Yeah, we weren’t able to wear it down efficiently,” said Haruka.

When fighting monsters this size, we usually aimed for their mouths and eyes, but the red tyrant strike ox’s head had been a bit too high up. When it had lifted its head, we hadn’t been able to see its eyes from below; when it had lowered its head, its horn had been in the way. We had managed to land a couple of clean hits, but it had been hard when we were firing off slow spells from a distance, and as long as we prioritized speed over potency, the boss had been able to negate them by simply closing its eyes—even its eyelids were tough. As a result, we’d been forced to wear it down gradually, and its head was in bad shape.

After confirming that all of us were all right, Touya let out a sigh of annoyance. “I’m glad we defeated it without any of us getting hurt, but man, was that a boring battle.”

“If you wanted a bit of spectacle, Touya, you should have tried chopping its head off in one stroke,” said Haruka.

“Nah, no way. Nothing doing. Maybe Natsuki could’ve done it, but...”

“Unfortunately, I could not have,” said Natsuki. “I don’t have the brute strength to cut through its cervical vertebrae, nor do I have the accuracy to strike the gaps between them, besides which the blade of this naginata is too large...”

Slicing through an ordinary strike ox’s neck was a difficult feat in its own right. There was no way any of us could decapitate something this size with our current weapons.

Metea carefully approached the body of the red tyrant strike ox, poked it to make sure it was dead, then clapped her hands and smiled at the rest of us. “It’s still really amazing that you slew something this big! There’s so much meat here!”

“Well, yeah, it was just one enemy,” said Yuki.

“Ten regular strike oxen would actually have been way more dangerous,” I said.

We’d outnumbered this boss, which had allowed us to toy with it. When facing a solitary monster, no matter its size, we always had the option of whittling away its health from a distance. The result would only vary depending on whether we could slay it before running out of mana.

“I can’t even imagine ever being able to slay something this big,” said Mary.

“It’s not just you, Mary,” said Touya. “The same goes for me. I guess I could have tried jumping on top, but that would have been dangerous...”

Even now that it had collapsed onto its side, the body of the red tyrant strike ox was enormous; Touya, looking up at it, shook his head incredulously. It was common in fiction for characters to leap on top of giant enemies and kill them from above, but there was no way any of us would ever have attempted something like that in real life. If we tried with our current physical capabilities, we would probably have slipped off and been trampled to death.

“Man, how are you supposed to slay something this size if you can’t use magic? I’m pretty strong by now, but obviously not strong enough.”

Touya sighed in frustration as he glanced back and forth between his sword and the spot on the ox’s body that it had bounced off of. It looked like there was a thin trickle of blood, but it was just a minor cut. Touya’s attack hadn’t come close to breaking or cutting through its bones, so it was clear that most conventional attacks couldn’t have broken its legs.

“The strategy for someone without magic would probably be to attack the legs while another member of their party distracted it with arrows,” said Haruka.

“Mm. It would be easy to finish it off once its legs were incapacitated,” said Natsuki.

“You think so? I gave it everything I had and barely put a dent in it,” said Touya.

“Well, you were rolling and slashing at the same time, Touya,” said Yuki. “If you’d just stood and swung from the hips, I bet you coulda dealt more damage.”

Touya thought about that and then nodded to himself. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But now that I think about it, wouldn’t the boss have died a lot faster if you guys had just aimed at its legs instead of its head?”

Hmm. Yeah, the head was a hard target, but we might have been able to get it on the ground sooner if we’d focused on its legs. That said...

“Huh? If we’d taken that route, we wouldn’t be able to take any shank,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “We focused on the head because there’s nothing edible there.”

I’d heard stories about calf brains being used in French cuisine, but no one in my party would be eager to try something like that, and anyway, the red tyrant strike ox was too big to qualify as a calf. The shank, however, was a delicious cut of beef, and it would have been a shame to miss out on the opportunity to get this amount of it. Man, I can’t wait for the roast beef!

“Damn, I have no idea how you two are so in sync.”

“Please, Touya, you didn’t have to say that Nao and I make a perfect couple,” Haruka teased him. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“That’s not what I said!” Touya paused to think. “Or actually, did I?”

Natsuki interposed herself as a mediator. “Well, all that really matters is that we were able to defeat the boss.”

“Yeah, exactly,” I said. “Mary, Metea, I bet you’d both like some beef shank, right?”

“U-Um, yes, of course,” said Mary with a hesitant glance in Touya’s direction.

Metea responded more enthusiastically, as if she didn’t care about Touya’s opinion. “Ox shank is very delicious!”

I appreciated their candor. If we only wanted to consume a small amount of meat, the marbled parts of a picow were the highest in quality, but the lean meat from strike oxen could be thinly sliced for roast beef, minced for hamburger patties, or smoked for beef jerky, which was better when we wanted to eat a large quantity of meat.

“Okay, let’s clean things up here,” said Haruka. “Will this red tyrant strike ox fit into the magic bag that we used before to store a lava boar?”

“If the entire thing doesn’t fit into a single bag, we can separate it into parts,” said Natsuki. “Incidentally, it is possible to get meat from an ox’s cheek. There’s also beef tongue, which wouldn’t be affected by it taking damage to the head.”

“Yeah, definitely,” said Yuki. “I might have damaged its tongue a bit with my spells, but probably not a lot.”

“I completely forgot about cheek meat,” said Haruka. “In that case, perhaps it would be better to give up on offal instead.”

Do you mean we should aim for the belly instead of the head, Haruka? I mean, sure, I would take cheek meat over offal any day, but...

“Dude, stop treating powerful foes as just a source of meat,” said Touya. “What happened to the whole thing about prioritizing safety, Haruka?”

“Safety comes first in any situation,” said Haruka. “I’m just talking about what we should do after we’ve ensured our own safety.”

“Yeah, getting good food is the second most exciting thing about exploring the dungeon,” said Yuki. “You love good food too, right, Touya?”

“I mean, yeah, I can’t deny that,” said Touya. He did sound a bit exasperated, but he immediately got over it. “Oh well. Let’s just get this over with.”

Touya began to drain the blood from the red tyrant strike ox’s body; while he was working on that, the girls prepared a magic bag to store it. Once the ox was no longer bleeding, Touya rolled it across the ground toward a magic bag and successfully got it inside.

“Excellent—it just barely fit inside a single magic bag,” said Haruka. “All that remains is to bring it back with us and gut it at home.”

“Yeah,” said Yuki. “Anyway, next up is the number one most exciting part of exploring a dungeon! Time for treasure chests!”

“Treasure chests!” Metea exclaimed.

Yuki ran for the small room adjacent to the boss room, and Metea was right on her heels. There was a treasure chest awaiting us, but it was different in shape from the ones we had seen before, more comparable to something like a storage cabinet in terms of width and on the smaller end of treasure chests overall. Beside it, however, were the familiar magic circle and stairs leading down, so that much was a relief.

“I wonder if this chest contains a long object,” said Natsuki. “Hmm. It doesn’t seem to be booby-trapped. It should be safe to open.”

Clenching her fists, Metea leaned toward Natsuki. “Can I open it now?”

“Go ahead, Metea-chan,” Natsuki replied with a nod.

Metea used her full strength to open the chest, but the moment she looked inside, she was crestfallen.

“Oh, this looks very plain,” said Metea. “It’s not shiny at all...”

“Let’s see.” Touya peeked into the chest from beside Metea and took out what appeared to be a pop-up tent. “Hmm. At a glance, this just looks like a normal tent.”

The tent was decently large—it looked like it could fit four or five people when erected—but it was similar in structure to standard tents in this world and didn’t seem to have any special functions, like the ability to set itself up and take itself down for storage. Since we were already familiar with state-of-the-art tents from modern-day Earth, this treasure was pretty lackluster by our standards. However, the contents of the treasure chests we’d discovered so far had always been decent, so there was a good chance that this was actually something special.

“This tent is probably a magical device, right?” I asked.

“I’d imagine so,” Haruka replied. “However, I don’t think we should test it right here. For now, let’s store it in our magic bags.”

“Mm. It might have beneficial effects, but they could be disadvantageous depending on the situation, so we need to be careful about when and where we use it,” said Natsuki.

“Huh? Depending on the situation?” Yuki tilted her head quizzically. “What do you mean, Natsuki?”

Natsuki paused in thought for a moment before answering. “Well, for instance, let’s say this tent is a magical device that grants its users deep and restful sleep. A good night’s sleep would normally be a positive thing, but what if we were camping outside and actually wanted to keep watch all night for safety’s sake? Would you still want to use the tent in such a situation?”

Yuki nodded to herself. “Oh, yeah, nah, I wouldn’t,” she said. “Right. I guess it’s true that using it could actually be bad for us, depending.”

Touya was nodding too, as were Mary and Metea.

“We’ll have to wait until after we have it appraised before we can decide on whether to use it or not,” said Haruka. “Hand me the tent, Touya.”

After stowing it inside one of our magic bags, she looked toward the stairs.

“Now then, the twenty-first floor awaits us,” said Haruka. “We’ve completed the objectives we initially agreed upon when we decided to return to the dungeon, but...”

“...It would be nice to take a peek so we could get a little information—enough to decide whether we want to keep exploring or head home now,” I said.

“Yeah, totally, especially since the whole environment will probably change to something completely different after the twenty-first floor,” said Yuki. “Oh, also, we should probably reinstall the special compass while we’re here.”

“Right. I forgot that it’s still in the same place as before,” I said.

“Yeah. I could have moved it if we’d wanted, but the eleventh floor through the twentieth were pretty much the same size and just stacked on top of each other in a column, so we didn’t really need the compass,” said Yuki.

The main unit of the compass Yuki had created for mapmaking purposes was currently located in the staircase between the seventh and eighth floors. As Natsuki had hypothesized, it hadn’t been destroyed or damaged, but...

“It’ll probably be too far away for the signal to reach the twenty-first floor, and the structure of the floors will probably change too, so I feel like now is a good time to move it,” I said.

“Mm. I, too, hope the dungeon will be different from the twenty-first floor onward,” said Haruka. “Floors full of fruit and nuts are nice, but they’re all essentially similar.”

“Yeah, a change of pace would be nice,” said Touya. “All right. Let’s move on.”

He led the way as usual, descending the stairs with the rest of us trailing behind. We walked for a while in complete silence, but suddenly, we came to a halt.

“...Man, these stairs seem to be longer than usual,” said Touya. “Like, a lot longer. It’s not just me, right?”

“Nah, I’ve been thinking about the same thing for a while now,” said Yuki, sounding a bit relieved by Touya’s declaration.

Haruka nodded. “These are definitely longer than the stairs that led to the twentieth floor.”

The stairs were quite narrow and dark, so most people would probably have overestimated their length, but regardless, they were way too long. However, we’d already been descending for quite some time, so we urged Touya to resume leading the way. The journey down the stairs felt like it took about three or four times longer than usual, but at last, my ears picked up a faint sound from ahead.

“What’s that sound, Touya?” I asked.

“Dunno,” Touya replied. “It sounds kind of...deep? I’m not sure how to describe it.”

Touya had the best ears of anyone in our party, but his answer didn’t make much sense. I glanced at Mary and Metea, but both of them shook their heads. The sound gradually grew louder as we kept walking, and I finally got an idea of what Touya was talking about: It was a deep, dull sound that reverberated far down the stairs. I still wasn’t sure what exactly it was.

“Oh, hmm,” said Natsuki. “Is this what I think it is?”

“Do you have an idea of what the sound might be, Natsuki?” I asked.

“Not quite. It’s slightly similar to something I’ve heard before, but it’s difficult to tell what with the way it’s echoing up this narrow stairwell,” said Natsuki. “We’ll be able to find out for ourselves once we reach the end, so for now, let’s continue walking.”

“Yeah, good point,” said Yuki. “There aren’t any enemies ahead, are there, Nao?”

“All clear.”

“So it’s safe to keep going, then,” said Yuki. “Forward, Touya!”

“Roger!”

Touya picked up the pace, but it still took us a few more minutes to reach the bottom of the stairs. The sight that awaited us was nothing like what I had expected.

Mary and Metea were so taken by surprise that both reacted with their hearts instead of their heads.

“H-Huh?! Whoa, what’s this?!” Mary yelled, her tail curling up.

Metea was just hollering incomprehensibly, her mouth wide. “Waaaaaaahhhh!”

Haruka gazed upward; she seemed stunned. “I can’t believe something like this exists inside the dungeon.”

She was looking up at a waterfall, so enormous it reminded me of Niagara Falls. Of course, I’d never seen Niagara Falls in person, so my only point of comparison was a stock mental image. One way or another, “humongous” was the only word that came to mind.

“This sure is a waterfall,” I said.

“Oh, is this really a waterfall?” Mary asked. “This is very different from the picture I had in my head...”

Metea had temporarily lost the ability to produce intelligible words; all she could manage was “Whoa!”

Mary and Metea had never been outside of Kelg before they met us. They must have been thinking of the kind of small waterfalls that were only a few meters in height—falls that paled in comparison to these. The rest of us were aware of Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls, but even we were stunned by the scale and magnificence of this waterfall. Metea was absolutely flabbergasted, her mouth hanging wide open, but that was an entirely natural reaction.

“My guess about the source of the sound was correct,” said Natsuki. “This is even larger than Niagara Falls, however.”

“Oh yeah, now that I think about it, you’ve actually visited Niagara Falls,” said Yuki. “Is this really bigger?”

“Yes, I believe so. I didn’t get up close to the falls there, so I can’t be certain, but this certainly seems larger to me.”

Damn, I didn’t know Natsuki had actually seen Niagara Falls in person. I guess that’s the kind of trip you just go on if your family is rich.

“Man, I really didn’t expect to see something this big inside of the dungeon,” I said.

Something seemed to have carved out a semicircular section of the massive rock wall in order to form the falls. The bottom of the stairs we had just descended led to a rock shelter that essentially clung to the wall. There were less than ten meters between us and the waterfall, and the spray fell on us like rain. From where we were standing, the top of the waterfall was a blur, and the basin wasn’t visible either due to the mist. It was such a majestic sight that I felt the urge to just space out and stare at it for a while.

“I’m well aware that common sense doesn’t always apply in dungeons, but this is far beyond anything I would have expected,” said Haruka.

“It’s probably pointless wondering how or why something like this exists in here, but I’m still really confused,” said Yuki.

Yuki was more knowledgeable about waterfalls than the sisters, so she wasn’t flabbergasted like they were, but apparently she didn’t have any more clues than the rest of us.

“It’s massive,” said Touya. “Hey, wouldn’t this be perfect as a tourist attraction?”

“It would, but only for those who can make their way here,” said Natsuki. “It would also seem somewhat strange to have a tourist attraction within our private property.”

I reflexively nodded at Natsuki’s statement. She was right that the waterfall was technically our property, so the idea of setting up a tourist attraction did seem weird to me. Do celebrities back on Earth feel the same way when their homes become tourist attractions?

Haruka was muttering to herself as she gazed up at the falls. “A natural wonder like this would absolutely make an excellent tourist attraction. Would we be able to continue earning a living as tour guides after retiring from adventuring? More importantly, is there actually any demand for tourism in this world?”

Natsuki laughed at Haruka’s reaction. “You certainly are a pragmatist, Haruka, and you think far ahead. At the moment, however, there’s no need to worry about our lives after retirement. We’re still very young, after all.”

“True, but even without retiring, we could easily end up in a situation in which we’re incapable of working,” said Haruka. “You know what I’m referring to, right?”

Initially, Natsuki cocked her head, but she quickly figured it out.

“Ah, you mean pregnancy? Have you had any symptoms recently?”

Haruka reddened. “No, I haven’t! And I was intentionally vague about what I meant, so don’t just come out and say it!”

When Yuki saw Haruka’s flustered reaction, she nodded and chimed in as well.

“Oh, right, pregnancy would be a problem. We would have one less person for adventuring. But if there’s a living to be made guiding tours, me and Nao could probably handle it with Touya as our bodyguard. That would be enough to cover our living expenses, yeah.”

Ugh, please don’t continue to talk about stuff that’s too awkward for me to weigh in on right in front of me. And Touya, wipe that smirk off your face! Stop nodding to yourself and patting me on the shoulder, please!

I cleared my throat. “Now then, how should we advance from here?”

“That’s such an obvious attempt to change the subject, Nao,” said Touya with a laugh.

“Shut up, dude.”

If you keep this up, Touya, I’m gonna snitch on you to the girls about all the money you blew at brothels. Touya still had a huge smirk on his face, so I tried to punch him, but his abdominal muscles were way too hard. However, it seemed that Haruka was also disturbed by the topic at hand, so she walked away from the other girls and instead stood beside me.

“Y-Yeah, I’m unsure how to proceed,” she said. “There seems to be a path leading beyond this narrow rock shelter, but we can’t know if it’s the right path.”

She pointed to a place where the rock walls seemed to have been hollowed out to form a U-shaped walkway. It was broad enough for two adults to walk abreast, but single file was probably the safer option. The path led in the opposite direction from the waterfall.

“I think I’ve actually seen a path like this before,” said Touya. “It kind of reminds me of the Suihei Trail at the Kurobe Gorge back in Japan.”

“Oh, yeah, it does look kinda similar, but this path has a lot less greenery, and it also seems a lot more dangerous,” said Yuki. “The risk of getting injured is probably just as low, though.”

“Is there really no need to worry about getting injured in such a dangerous place?” Mary asked, cocking her head.

Metea nodded in agreement with her older sister.

Natsuki laughed. “To put it simply, she means that if you slip and fall, you won’t be injured, you’ll be killed immediately.”

She smiled at the sisters. They gasped and immediately attached themselves to the rock wall.

“You’ll be fine as long as you don’t trip,” said Haruka, “but this still looks tricky to traverse.”

“It’ll be a thrilling experience for sure,” said Yuki. She looked over the edge, toward the bottom of the cliff, and seemed a bit scared. “I kinda wish we had some wires and carabiners.”

She was honestly right. Dindel trees were also quite tall, but somehow the drop here inspired way more fear in me.

“...I hope this isn’t one of those traps where the ground under us suddenly collapses,” said Touya nervously. “We’re in a dungeon, so anything can happen...”

The rest of us fell completely silent at Touya’s words. None of us could assert with confidence that something like that wouldn’t happen. This was one of the scary aspects of exploring dungeons.

“Now then, let’s move on,” said Haruka. “Take the lead as usual, Touya.”

“In this situation?! I’m seriously spooked! Don’t do this to me!”

Touya was panicking and begging Haruka for mercy, but she brushed off his concerns with a laugh.

“Don’t worry, I’m just joking, Touya. However, Yuki is right about the walkway being dangerous, so we should devise some safety measures before proceeding.”

“I guess that means our exploration ends here for today,” said Touya.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” said Natsuki. “There’s no need to force ourselves to take unnecessary risks.”

“Yeah, I totally agree,” said Yuki. “Also, we need to go fetch the main unit of the special compass.”

Oh, right, I forgot about that. The special compass will probably be more important for the floors to come than it was with the first twenty.

“I see,” I said. “Mary, Metea, is this fine with both of you too?”

“Y-Yes, of course,” said Mary. “I’m honestly kind of scared...”

“I’m perfectly fine!” Metea declared. “Safety measures are definitely important, though!”

But despite Metea’s words, her always-energetic tail was wrapped around her sister’s leg. Haruka and I chuckled at each other when we noticed that, and then all of us headed back toward the stairs.

★★★★★★★★★

“This wasn’t an outstanding expedition,” Haruka mused, “but I suppose it was a modestly successful one.”

We’d headed directly from the dungeon to the guild in order to sort things out; after that, we’d returned home to rest. Haruka began counting the coins out into stacks of ten on the table. It was true that there was a respectable amount of money for her to go through. Of the fruit, nuts, and milk we’d gathered between the eleventh and twentieth floors, we’d sold only what we wouldn’t use for ourselves, but they’d all sold at respectable prices; nowhere in the vicinity of Laffan produced much fruit.

The tent had been appraised right away and was, as it turned out, a magical device capable of maintaining the temperature and humidity inside at a comfortable level. But when we opened it up to take a look for ourselves, there was only room for about three people—maybe five if we squeezed, and if one of those five was Metea. Regardless, the tent wasn’t quite adequate for us considering the size of our party. However, given that a few people had to be on guard outside the tent at all times when we were adventuring in the wilderness, we decided it would be useful to us and kept it. Though we hadn’t ultimately sold it, it was still an adequate prize for defeating the boss.

The red tyrant strike ox had been the highlight of our latest expedition, and it had furnished us with quite a bit of cash. A regular red strike ox’s meat was already worth a lot more than orc meat, but a red tyrant strike ox was much bigger, so we could take a lot more meat from it. We usually gutted monsters ourselves before selling the meat to the guild, but we had arrived at the conclusion that it would be better to let a professional handle it this time due to how valuable the meat was, so we’d requested that the guild hire a butcher.

The butcher was a man in his thirties called Greedo. He undoubtedly had a lot of experience handling meat. There were a lot of parts that we would have discarded ourselves, but Greedo-san skillfully extracted edible meat from them. Paying for his services had definitely been worth it.

Greedo also taught us all sorts of things about meat. He pointed out what he characterized as rare cuts that could only be obtained in small quantities from an ox’s head. The information was useful for improving our Disassemble skills, but given that some of those cuts were, in fact, roughly as big as Metea, it was hard to appreciate their ostensible rarity and smallness. Greedo-san himself laughed dryly and emphasized that it was not ordinarily possible to obtain this quantity of such rare cuts. It was a huge boon for us; you couldn’t go wrong with a large amount of delicious meat.

The stupendous size of the red tyrant strike ox was actually a problem when it came to its organs, however. Some were simply too big to be suitable for human consumption. The liver would be edible if we sliced it into smaller bits, but that wasn’t a realistic option for some other parts, such as the small intestine, which was, to say the least, larger than its name implied. I didn’t really have much desire to try it. The ox’s stomach didn’t seem appetizing either, so we ended up tossing those parts into our compost machine.

We weren’t sure how to deal with the bones, however. They were hard enough to deflect an attack from Touya, after all. Our compost machine was quite powerful and could even grind up something like an orc, but I had a feeling that in a battle against a red tyrant strike ox’s bones, it would lose. Touya had cheerfully proposed that we test it out, but Haruka and Yuki had shut that down immediately. The girls had definitely made the right decision; it was fairly obvious that the bones would have broken the machine.

“Well, we earned plenty of money and got a lot of meat and fruit, so I think that’s more than enough,” said Yuki.

“Yeah, I agree,” I said. “We weren’t able to explore much deeper into the dungeon, but we won’t have to worry about our finances for a while.”

“I suppose it’s true that there’s no need to feel anxious about money now,” said Haruka. “Okay, I’ve finished dividing up the money that we earned.”

After counting the coins, Haruka had made a pile for each member of our party. When I shifted my share into my own wallet, I was relieved to feel how much heavier it was now. I had spent a lot of money on the rings, and I didn’t regret my choice, but a light wallet still made me nervous.

“I’m kinda rich now too!” Metea exclaimed with a giggle. “Later, I wanna go check out some books!”

“Don’t waste your money without thinking, Met,” said Mary. “I’ll go with you.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m a thrifty person, so don’t worry!”

The first time we’d distributed shares of the proceeds from our adventures to every member of the party had been after our initial expedition through the meat area of the dungeon. This was the second time we’d given the sisters money for their own use. I was a bit worried about how they would spend it, but Mary was a mature girl, and it sounded like I could rest easy for now.

“By the way, what should we do about the bones that are left?” Mary asked. “Should we get rid of them the next time we go into the dungeon?”

“Oh, right, I forgot about the bones,” said Yuki. “They’re quite a sight to behold, so it would be great if we could donate them to someplace like a museum, but...”

The bones of the red tyrant strike ox were currently piled up in a corner of our yard. If pieced together properly, they would make an excellent model skeleton; Yuki was right that they would have been perfect for a museum. Collectors would also probably have loved to acquire them. One thing was for sure: They were too big to keep at a normal house.

“Considering how hard they are, I bet you could even turn them into weapons,” said Touya. “Should we bring them over to Gantz-san’s place?”

“A weapon made from bones, huh?” I said. “That seems like something a barbarian would use, but I guess there are spears tipped with monster fangs, so maybe it wouldn’t be too weird.”

Now that I think about it, one of the spears that Gantz-san recommended to me when we first started out as adventurers had a monster fang spearhead, right? Maybe bones can make good weapons.

“...Let’s ask around and talk to the people we know first before making a decision,” said Haruka. “If we can’t find anyone who wants the bones, then we can just discard them during our next dungeon expedition as Mary suggested.”

★★★★★★★★★

Luckily for us, it didn’t take long to sell off the bones. Diola-san helped us locate a buyer. As it turned out, the first person who made an offer was the local official in charge of Laffan. Initially, we weren’t clear on why he wanted the bones, but it seemed he wanted to display them in a highly visible place as a means of illustrating that there were adventurers in Laffan capable of defeating a monster that size. After the display was created, he planned to turn the remaining bones into fertilizer and sell that. It sounded like a show of power, maybe something similar to a military parade. Of course, just because there were powerful adventurers in town, that didn’t mean they were at the beck and call of the local officials, but most people who saw the bone monument wouldn’t know that.

★★★★★★★★★

“Well, I sure didn’t expect a windfall like this,” I said. “We had no idea how we were going to dispose of those bones, but I guess everything turned out fine.”

“It was all thanks to clever thinking on my part,” said Haruka, sounding proud of herself. “Feel free to shower me with compliments.”

Natsuki and Yuki jabbed back at her instantly.

“Pardon me, but it was really Diola-san who helped us out the most,” said Natsuki.

“Yeah,” said Yuki. “It’s true that you were the one who brought up the topic of the bones with her, Haruka, but still.”

In addition to finding us a buyer, Diola-san had handled the negotiations for us. We’d had to pay the guild a brokerage fee for her services, but regardless, she’d genuinely helped us out a lot. Haruka must have been aware of this fact; she casually turned her gaze elsewhere and tried to change the subject.

“All right. We’ve earned plenty of money now, so let’s move on to planning out the specifics of our flower-viewing party. The kutto trees should be in bloom soon, after all. Most people will probably care more about the food than the flowers, however.”

Natsuki giggled. “I suppose you’re right about that, Haruka, but that’s a rather depressing conclusion.”

“Yeah, I agree,” said Yuki. “I’d prefer to wait until the seeds I got from Illias-sama are in full bloom.”

Metea smiled and threw her hands up. “I helped plant the seeds! I worked so hard on it!”

Haruka patted Metea’s head. “I see. Well, it will take some time for the seeds to grow, right? I don’t mind waiting, but we can’t really wait for too long.”

“We used the fertilizer from our compost machine, so we won’t actually have to wait that long,” said Yuki. “Based on how long it took the rapeseed to grow, I think we probably only have about two weeks or so.”

As she replied to Haruka, Yuki casually glanced my way and winked at me. Oh, is she buying me some time so the rings will be ready? Sure, I was thinking about proposing to Haruka in the near future, but it still feels weird for somebody else to be setting everything up for me. Oh well. I need Yuki’s help with adjusting the rings, so I guess there’s no point in fussing. I should probably just take advantage of this opportunity.

“Two weeks? I suppose that should be fine,” said Haruka. “In that case, let’s get in contact with the people we want to invite and find out their schedules.”

“It would be ideal if we could perfect our curry recipe by then as well,” said Natsuki. “You would appreciate that, wouldn’t you, Nao-kun?”

“Y-Yeah, that would be awesome,” I replied. “But how are we supposed to get the rice we need?”

“That all comes down to Tomi’s efforts,” said Natsuki. “We’ve already furnished him with all the information about the structure of the rice huller and the functions we want for it. We’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out.”

Man, I kind of feel bad about asking Tomi for all this stuff. We’ll probably also need his help with mountain climbing paraphernalia to get past the twenty-first floor of the dungeon. Good luck, Tomi. We’ll pay you a hefty reward for your services, so we’re counting on you!

“Feel free to make requests for other dishes as well,” said Haruka. “As a heads-up, we’ll also be inviting the kids from the orphanage. We’re planning to prepare a lot of food and have a barbecue.”

“Um, some sweet food would be nice,” said Metea. “The snacks that you make are very delicious, Big Sis Haruka.”

“O-Oh, I have the same exact opinion,” said Mary. “Well, if it’s okay for me to request something specific, then ice cream on apple pie would be wonderful...”

Haruka looked slightly grim and avoided answering them directly. “Ice cream, huh? Very well. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Meat was usually enough to satisfy the sisters, but both of them loved sweets as well. They had probably requested sweets because they assumed that plenty of meat would be a given at a barbecue.

“U-Um, if it’s too difficult to serve ice cream, then we don’t need it,” said Mary.

“Oh, nah, it won’t be too difficult. Don’t worry, there will be ice cream available for you and Metea,” said Haruka. “Nao, Touya, what about you guys? Any requests? You can request any food or dessert you want as long as it’s something we can make.”

“A Japanese-style hamburg steak would be great,” I said. “And we did just acquire some high-quality beef.”

“I’d like some roast beef,” said Touya. “The cheek meat from the red tyrant strike ox is a rare cut, right?”

“Cheek meat for roast beef? Hmm. It’s a tough part, so it’s usually simmered for a while,” said Natsuki. “But I suppose the toughness is no problem for Touya-kun...”

“Oh, yeah, feel free to simmer it as long as you need to,” said Touya. “I’m down for any method of cooking that makes the meat taste good.”

Based on the fact that Touya had immediately changed his mind about what he wanted, he must not have had very specific preferences. Natsuki laughed to herself.

“Very well,” she said. “We’ll put some of the cheek in a stew with wine and maybe a curry as well.”

“I guess a regular hamburg steak should be fine,” said Haruka. “Now then, what should we do until it’s time for our flower-viewing party?”

Our next objective was to clear the twenty-first floor of the dungeon, but with only two weeks remaining before our party, the journey there and back would take a bit too long. In addition, we couldn’t explore farther until we prepared some equipment to ensure our safety...

“Oh, about that—I’m going to work with Nao on getting the tools we’ll need for rock climbing,” said Yuki. “It’d be nice if we could start exploring again right after the party, y’know?”

I had been about to say something similar, but Yuki had spoken before I’d gotten a chance to open my mouth. This was my first time hearing about the two of us working together, though. Before I could ask Yuki what she was talking about, Touya clapped his hands.

“Oh yeah, that’s definitely important! I don’t want to die yet, so any tools to help us through that part of the dungeon would be great! I can help out too if you need me!”

“Really?” I said. “In that case—”

Yuki stepped forward and casually elbowed me in the stomach. “Nah, don’t worry, me ’n’ Nao can take care of it! I think it would be better for you to go with Mary and Metea and gather stuff like fish, crabs, and shrimp! You’d like some seafood, wouldn’t you, Metea?”

“Oh, yeah, I’d love to eat some fish! Let’s go fishing!”

“It would be nice to replenish our stock of seafood while we can,” said Haruka. “Unlike meat, seafood isn’t something that naturally appears in front of us...”

We technically had to go out of our way to obtain meat, but it happened all the time in the course of our adventures, so Haruka wasn’t wrong. On the other hand, we couldn’t acquire everything Yuki was talking about without going out of our way to visit the upriver area of Sarstedt.

After Haruka voiced her approval of Yuki’s idea, Touya seemed to be down for it too. As for the sisters, Mary was eager to work hard, and Metea was excited at the prospect of gathering a bunch of seafood.

“To sum things up, Haruka and Natsuki will work on preparing the food for our flower-viewing party, Touya will take Mary and Metea and work on gathering, and I’ll work with Yuki to prepare the tools we’ll need for our next dungeon expedition,” I said. “There’s no rush—we should all feel free to take it easy.”

★★★★★★★★★

“So, Yuki, why did you turn down Touya’s offer to help us?” I asked. “And did you really have to attack and interrupt me?”

If it was just about seafood, Yuki’s reaction earlier seemed a little extreme to me, so I’d waited until I was alone with her to ask her reasoning.

Yuki pouted, looking annoyed by my questioning. “Oh, come on, that was just some friendly skinship! I did it for you, Nao.”

“Elbowing someone in the stomach doesn’t count as skinship, Yuki! That’s the kind of attitude that leads to domestic violence.”

“‘Domestic,’ huh? Guess that means you actually want to build a family with me, Nao!”

“Let’s get divorced, Yuki.”

“We haven’t even gotten married yet! Please don’t abandon me!” Yuki clung to me, but she quickly dropped the theatrics and got a serious look on her face. “Okay, that’s enough joking around. You remember what I said the other day about how I would help cast the Adjust enchantment on the rings for you, right?”

That was a mildly scary choice of words. “Yeah, what about it? You are going to do it, right?”

If Yuki wasn’t actually capable of enchanting the rings, I had to change plans now. I’d already placed the orders, so I was worried about how much it would cost to have them adjusted without magic, but Yuki hastily waved her hands as if conscious of the fact that she’d made me uneasy.

“Of course I’ll do it, but I haven’t actually been able to find all the stuff I need, and Riva didn’t have it either, so...”

According to Yuki, she had been searching for the materials needed for the enchantments in her own spare time, but she’d had no success thus far; Laffan wasn’t a big town by any means, so very few stores had alchemical materials other than Riva’s.

“I should have looked back in Clewily,” said Yuki. “I for sure could’ve found everything I need there, but there’s no point fretting about it now.”

“Oh, I guess things would have gone differently if I’d asked for your help back then,” I said.

Honestly, I was so overjoyed about finally getting together with Haruka that my brain didn’t have any spare processing power for anything else, ha ha! Whoops! I better keep that part a secret from Yuki!

“So just how rare and valuable are these materials, Yuki?”

“Well, like I said, I haven’t been able to find them anywhere in Laffan, but I technically can get them...”

“Huh? Can you clarify?”

Yuki grinned and gave me a thumbs-up. “Let’s go gather the materials ourselves, Nao!”

Apparently it wouldn’t be easy. According to Yuki, the materials could be found in the mountain range north of Laffan, but given the distance, we would definitely have to stay overnight, sleeping outside, and considering everyone else’s schedules, we’d have to go alone. We would be able to fend for ourselves just fine—the mountains weren’t particularly dangerous—but I wasn’t sure how to explain this to Haruka. However...

“Oh, are you going to head out for a while? Be careful out there.”

In the end, despite the fact that the trip would take more than a day, Haruka casually granted me permission to go with Yuki. Is she not worried about me being alone with Yuki, or does she simply trust me? I don’t have any intentions of making a move on Yuki, but still...

★★★★★★★★★

“I actually asked Tomi to help make some tools and equipment that we’ll need for rock climbing before we go back to the dungeon,” said Yuki. “I made this decision as soon as I realized it would be difficult to get all the stuff I need for the Adjust enchantment.”

“Oh, is that why you said during our meeting that you’re going to be working with me?” I asked.

“Yeah, ’xactly,” Yuki replied. “And coincidentally, everything I ordered is stuff we’ll also need in the mountains.”

We were passing through the woods north of Laffan. After a little research, Yuki had selected our destination: a valley in the mountains that now lay directly ahead of us.

“So it’s an ore called revlight?”

“Yeah. You can get it just by excavating like normal, but the easiest way is by climbing rock walls.”

I was a bit confused by the idea that climbing up rock walls was the easiest method of obtaining ore, but unlike mining, excavating a mountain wasn’t a realistic option for a small group of individuals, and the veins that were readily accessible had already been depleted in the past. With all of that in mind, the most realistic option available to us was to climb to a place that wasn’t accessible.

“We’ve sure gotten familiar with this forest,” I said.

“Yeah. I remember how scared we were the first time we came here as a full party, but now it’s okay for just the two of us,” said Yuki.

The most annoying monsters to deal with in the forest north of Laffan were bind vipers and scalp apes. However, as long as we spotted bind vipers with enough lead time, it was easy to slay them at range with magic, and my Scout skill allowed us to finish off a troop of scalp apes before they could summon reinforcements and completely surround us. In the event that we absolutely needed to flee a battle, we had the Teleportation spell as a backup.

“It’s the first time we’ve been to this part of the forest, though, so don’t let your guard down,” said Yuki.

“Yeah, I know. It almost feels like we’re slowly climbing a mountain here.”

The ground was gradually sloping upward, and the vegetation was changing as well. There weren’t any proper paths that looked as if large numbers of humans had traversed them before. With the trees crowding close together, it was difficult to see ahead.

“Uh, Yuki, this just popped into my head—what if we get lost here?”

I had heard it said that it was best never to underestimate a mountain. Apparently it was wise to fill out a registration form before going hiking. Are the two of us kind of like the idiots who climb Mount Fuji in sandals and end up having to wait for helicopters to rescue them? I don’t think we’re that stupid. We prepared the things we’ll need to set up a bivouac, and we told people where we’re going ahead of time. I’m not sure if our current adventuring equipment is suitable for mountain climbing, but it has protected us and saved our lives many times. I guess the only thing that makes me worry is the fact that we can’t count on a helicopter to save us in this world.

I voiced some of my concerns to Yuki, but she just grinned at me and patted her own chest.

“Nao, have you seriously forgotten about my Mapping skill? It’s actually super useful!”

“...Oh yeah! Wait, even in a place like this?”

Okay, so I forgot about it. But does it really work outside of dungeons?

“Well, I wouldn’t be able to draw a nice, tidy map even if you asked me, but it’s enough to keep us from getting lost,” said Yuki. “We’ll always know what the right direction is, so we won’t get stranded here. ’Sides, we’re both nimble.”

One of the major reasons that hikers got lost was due to obstacles forcing them off their intended path, but most natural obstacles would be easy for us to get around; thanks to our physical advantages over the average climber, we could continue advancing in a straight line. It almost felt like cheating.

“But it would be best if we didn’t have to do acrobatics to avoid getting lost, right, Yuki?”

“Yeah, duh. And if it comes down to it, we can just use the Teleportation spell to get back home. That’s why I’ve been burying teleportation markers along the way at specific intervals.”

“All right. I guess it’s really advantageous for us that we can start again from any spot that we’ve been to before.”

That one spell gave us a considerable advantage. We wouldn’t be able to rely on it if we wandered far enough from the markers that we could no longer detect them, but Yuki had given us a lot of leeway in terms of the intervals between markers. There was no need for us to worry about being stranded as long as the markers weren’t swept away by a river or dug up and carried away by something.

“Let’s think about the fun stuff ahead of us, Nao,” said Yuki. “For example, check out the trees right over there. They’re starting to look different from the ones earlier, right? I bet we could gather mushrooms around here...”

“Mushrooms, huh? I remember Touya finding some back when we first made inspiel sauce, but apart from the barrash mushrooms, I’ve only had a few mushrooms in this world.”

We had gathered some magical mushrooms in the past as well, but they weren’t edible as is. I hadn’t actively looked for mushrooms, so I couldn’t remember seeing them in the woods. Well, I guess I’ve seen plenty of small mushrooms on decaying trees, but they weren’t kinds that I recognized, so I have no idea if they were edible. Mushrooms don’t generally look super appetizing at first glance. I would be willing to try one if it looked like a shiitake mushroom, but small mushrooms don’t make much of an impression.

Unfortunately, my Help Guide wasn’t capable of telling me which mushrooms were edible; apparently, that wasn’t common knowledge in the way that information about, say, tusk bears was. It made sense to me; even back in Japan, there was no way I could have strolled through the mountains and instantly detected which mushrooms were safe for human consumption.

“Aera-san actually serves some dishes with mushrooms at her café, and we also use them at home from time to time,” said Yuki. “Like, we used them to make the mentsuyu sauce for dipping noodles in. We just don’t do it that often. It’s not easy to find them.”

“Oh, really? I had no idea,” I said. “Sorry.”

The girls worked hard preparing food for us. I felt ashamed of myself for failing to be aware of all they did.

“I mean, I don’t really mind as long as you enjoy the food we make,” said Yuki. “If it was easier to get edible mushrooms, we could just make a dish with mushrooms as the main ingredient, but...”

“I guess mushrooms aren’t really a necessity...”

Mushrooms were actually highly perishable ingredients. It was possible to preserve varieties like shiitake, but even those had to be dried quickly, and it wasn’t possible to gather them in large quantities, since they grew wild rather than in fields. Shiitake mushrooms grown via substrate cultivation had been easy to find in Japanese supermarkets, but that had only been made possible through the hard work of corporations. There was a chance that artificially cultivated mushrooms would become available if the standard of living in this world ever improved, but mushrooms weren’t particularly valued here, so there wasn’t much of a profit incentive to grow them.

“Now that I think about it, I’m kind of surprised that Touya was actually able to find edible mushrooms,” I said.

“I remember him saying something about how he found them by their scent.”

I fell silent for a bit after that. Sorry, bro, but I just imagined you snuffling around like a truffle pig.

“Touya has the Appraisal skill too,” said Yuki. “That must’ve helped.”

“I guess you’re right,” I said. “What about us, though? My Help Guide isn’t any help...”

I technically had an encyclopedia with information about plants in my magic bag, but mushroom hunting was a bad idea for amateurs, even if they had photographs in hand. Relying on the even vaguer images and text from an old encyclopedia would be far too risky.

Yuki seemed a bit unhappy, however, and she glared at me.

“I’m sure your empty head has forgotten about this, Nao, but...”

“Wha...?”

“I can use the Appraisal skill too.”

“...Right!”

She made a show of sulking. “Yeah, that’s what I figured. You definitely trust Touya more than you trust me, huh? I see how it is. I’m just a downgraded version of him in your mind, aren’t I? Hmph!”

“Oh, uh, nah, that’s not it at all, Yuki.”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to say to console her. When our party traveled together, the only relevant question was who had the highest level in a knowledge-based skill. In case that person was out of commission, other people with the same skill could serve as backups, but that was about the extent of their usefulness. As long as the most reliable source of information was on hand, there was no need to rely on the backup, and in fact, we actively tried to avoid situations in which we had to resort to the backup.

“Y-Your Appraisal skill is very useful at times like this,” I said. “It’s not useless. At all. You should have more confidence in yourself, Yuki.”

“Well, these kinds of situations only come up a few times per year,” said Yuki.

Ugh. I guess she’s right about that. It’s a different story with skills that serve some kind of practical purpose on a daily basis, but Yuki rarely has a reason to bust out her Appraisal skill.

I feigned a cough and looked around. “Let’s go search for some mushrooms!”

Yuki kept her gaze on me. “Trying to shift gears, huh?”

Sorry, Yuki, but I really can’t think of a good way to cheer you up.

“Fine, whatever.” She still sounded somewhat unhappy, but she was looking around; she seemed to understand that there was no point in retreading this topic.

I wasn’t able to spot any mushrooms on the trees in the vicinity. There didn’t seem to be any on the ground either; I had no luck even after flipping over some leaves to check underneath.

“Can amateur mushroom hunters even find wild mushrooms?” Yuki asked.

“I dunno. This is just a way to kill time, isn’t it?” I replied. “If we’re lucky enough to find some along the way to our destination, then we can just collect them to bring back with us, but it’ll be perfectly fine even if we end up finding none.”

“Sure, sounds good to me. It’d be great if we could find mushrooms that do weird stuff, though.”

“Weird stuff? You mean like giving someone the opposite of their regular personality, Yuki?”

“Yeah, exactly—the kind of effects you get in manga and games. That would be awesome!”

Yeah, a regular mottlegill mushroom would be kind of boring. Mushrooms that could change a person’s personality or gender would be way more fun...

“...On second thought, I think I’m good,” I said. “I can imagine some negative effects that would really suck.”

“It’s fun to talk about, though,” said Yuki. “But anyhow, those kinds of mushrooms probably don’t exist.”

“‘Probably’?”

“I mean, yeah, we’re in a world where magic exists, so anything is possible. But even back in our old world, there were ‘magic’ mushrooms that cause hallucinations, so be careful, Nao.”

“Yeah, I know. I won’t just touch a random mushroom.”

Among the blessings of the mountains, there were some that amateurs had to be wary of, and mushrooms were at the top of the list. In fact, I wouldn’t have been willing to look for mushrooms if I hadn’t been able to rely on help from Yuki and her Appraisal skill.

After I started thinking about mushrooms, though, it was like my eyes were searching on their own initiative. The prospect of eating mushrooms wasn’t particularly thrilling to me, but hunting for them seemed enjoyable, especially if I got lucky enough to find something actually delicious.

“Oh, I found something that looks like a mushroom,” I said. “It’s not a white one, though.”

There was a brown mushroom with a round cap hidden under the leaves that had accumulated at the foot of a tree. It was roughly double the size of the first joint of my thumb—bigger than most of the mushrooms I’d seen in supermarkets.

“Not all mushrooms are white,” said Yuki. “Hmm. Apparently this is called a bearbane...”

“Bearbane, huh? I guess I’ll take this ba—”

“...meaning it’s poisonous enough to kill a bear.”

“Never mind! Yikes!”

I had reached out to pick up the mushroom, but I quickly pulled my hand back. The mushroom itself looked entirely normal; I’d had no way of guessing it was actually dangerous.

Yuki laughed at my reaction and pointed at a different spot. “Sure, it’s a poisonous mushroom, but it’s actually safe to touch. See the mushroom next to it that looks a bit paler?”

“Huh? Oh, this?”

There were several mushrooms under the leaves. I pointed at one that looked a bit pale to me, but Yuki shook her head.

“Nah, I’m talking about the one on the right. That one is a false bearbane, and it’s actually edible, unlike the real one... Hmm. Looks like there’s five of them here.”

“...Uh, I actually can’t tell them apart at all,” I admitted.

There were more than ten mushrooms strewn across the ground, but I had no idea how to tell the difference between them. It was true that none of them looked alike, but I couldn’t tell which differences were just superficial and which indicated that they were individuals of separate species. After all, Yuki had just told me that my initial guess had been wrong.

“Give me a few seconds to pick a real and false one for comparison,” said Yuki. “All right. It’s obvious once you get them out of the ground. The color of the stems is different, see?”

“...Oh, yeah, you’re right.”

When she held the mushrooms out for my inspection, the difference was very visible. The bearbane had a white stem, while the false bearbane had a brown one. Easy enough to distinguish, but...

“If you cut off the stem before selling them, wouldn’t it be pretty much impossible to tell the difference?”

“Yeah, most people wouldn’t be able to tell them apart,” said Yuki. “And they’re found together in the wild, so it’s best to avoid these mushrooms if you see them in stores unless the owner is someone you can trust.”

“Mushrooms are pretty crazy, huh?”

“Wild mushrooms all look a bit different from each other, so it’s really hard to spot the bad ones,” said Yuki. “I even heard stories back in Japan about poisonous mushrooms accidentally getting sold in train stations.”

“Oh yeah, I remember seeing incidents like that in the news.”

Daffodils, leeks, meadow saffron, and Siberian onions were some other common culprits of food poisoning, and around this time of year back in Japan, I had seen plenty of reports about cases caused by those plants as well as by mushrooms. No one who was knowledgeable about plants and fungi would ever make a mistake like that; most of the accidents were probably the result of people accepting them from an acquaintance or gathering them in the wild.

“I haven’t seen any poisonous mushrooms sold as edible ones in the marketplace where I go all the time with Haruka and Natsuki, but apparently traveling merchants who are about to skip town do sometimes sell suspicious goods—they don’t care about what happens after they’re gone,” said Yuki. “It means that it’s risky buying certain things if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Dang. It’s hard for me to believe that gathering mushrooms ourselves might actually be the safest option for us, even though it’s usually the most dangerous one.”

“Yeah, if we gather our own mushrooms, we can at least check them thoroughly,” said Yuki. “Well, anyhow, even if one of us accidentally eats a bearbane, it probably won’t be enough to kill us.”

“Probably? Are you sure about that?”

Didn’t you say earlier that it’s potent enough to kill a bear, Yuki? I mean, sure, we’re definitely healthier and stronger than the average person in this world, but I’m not sure if even the Robust skill is powerful enough to protect us from poisonous mushrooms.

“I bet it would be almost a hundred percent safe for Natsuki and Touya,” said Yuki. “As for me and you, I think we can rest easy as long as Haruka and the others are around.”

“I guess poison can be treated with magic.”

Natsuki also had the Poison Resistance skill, so there was a chance that she would be more resilient than Haruka in that regard, but regardless, I didn’t want to take a gamble on mushrooms.

“Don’t worry, Nao! Thanks to the Appraisal skill, it should be pretty much impossible for a poisonous mushroom to accidentally find its way into the food that we cook for you! Unless you cheat.”

“Huh?! What did you just say?!”

I panicked, but Yuki went on in a totally nonchalant tone.

“I’m just reminding you that it’s important to be proper and honest. Especially in situations where you’re dependent on others for food.”

“I-In that case, I should be fine, right? I haven’t done anything wrong...”

“If that’s true, then you have nothing to worry about,” said Yuki. “If you go anywhere near a brothel, though...”

After casually dropping that word, Yuki grinned at me, and I nervously swallowed. Uh, I never went to one, so I should be safe, right? Sure, I was a bit curious, but I never went. Wait, hold on, does this mean she knows that Touya went to a brothel? Come on, I have nothing to do with that! Don’t drag me into it!

“Now then, it seems like we’ll actually be able to gather more mushrooms than we thought, so let’s find as many different kinds as we can to take back with us,” said Yuki.

“Y-Yeah...”

You’re not going to gather any of the poisonous ones at the same time, are you, Yuki? You wouldn’t sneak one into my food, right? Why are you still smiling at me? Please stop! I’m really scared!

★★★★★★★★★

After gathering a bunch of the false bearbanes, we found mushrooms of other kinds too. I wasn’t sure whether they were so abundant because of the time of year or because we were simply in a great spot for mushroom hunting. Some of the edible mushrooms looked dangerous, and some that were lethally poisonous looked completely innocuous, but both of those broad categories seemed, for better and for worse, pretty mundane compared to some of the other mushrooms we found with more exotic effects. One caused inflamed skin; another, if you tried to pick it, released a cloud of spores that would send you into an uncontrollable coughing fit.

It was Yuki who gathered most of the mushrooms we found. According to her, we could sell some of those that were merely dangerous-looking, and even those that were actually poisonous had their uses in conjunction with the Pharmacy and Alchemy skills. She tossed them all into her magic bag, reasoning that it would be a waste to leave them behind. I only rarely attempted to cook, but even if mushrooms were available to me, I would never use them given the risk of accidentally choosing the wrong one.

There were also some mushrooms that Yuki collected together with the patches of rotten wood that they were growing on, apparently because she wanted to grow more at home. Mushrooms reproduce via spores. If we cut pieces of the same kinds of wood we found them growing on, will they just naturally thrive on those? I sure hope so.

Unfortunately, Natsuki later informed me that although kits for growing shiitake mushrooms had been commercially available back on Earth, you had to wait years for them to grow on wood. Mankind’s artificial cultivation of mushrooms was a long and complicated tale.

“We haven’t made much progress toward our destination,” Yuki pointed out.

“I mean, yeah, you’ve been spending all this time hunting mushrooms. What do you expect?”

“Oh, come on, Nao, you were just as enthusiastic as I was, right?”

“I guess that’s true. It has been fun.”

Yuki had said in advance that we could reach our destination in a single day if we pushed ourselves to the limit, but we were nowhere near it, almost entirely because of our desultory mushroom hunting. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. Now, when I see a mushroom, I instantly get the urge to pick it. Surely you understand, Yuki?

“Well, for right now, let’s camp here and resume our journey tomorrow,” said Yuki. “I brought the tent we found in the dungeon the other day. I bet it’ll be comfortable inside.”

“I hope so.”

We came across a large boulder and set up camp in its lee. After erecting the tent, we built a campfire and took chairs out of our magic bags to sit down in front of it. Thanks to our magic bags, it was incredibly easy to set up camp; it felt like we were on vacation.

“Honestly, thinking about it, we’ve grown and learned a lot since we first came to this world,” said Yuki. “I remember how nervous I was when we first camped out, but I don’t feel that way anymore.”

“Yeah, we just naturally got used to it over time.”

It would have been a different story if we didn’t know the monsters that were likely to appear around this campsite, but the forests north of Laffan didn’t demand a high level of wariness. I had gotten used to constantly scanning our surroundings with my Scout skill, and experience had taught me how to contend with sudden unexpected developments, so here and now, we could just relax.

“Oh, yeah, while we’re here—you want me to make you some mushroom soup, Nao?”

“Don’t you have some already made? Why do you want to make more?”

When we’d first arrived in this world, the girls had done a lot of cooking outside, but over the last year, that had become rarer; nowadays, they generally took food out of their magic bags that was either ready for consumption or just had to be heated slightly over a fire.

“Well, cooking stuff right after you’ve gathered it is one of the best parts of camping, y’know?”

“I guess. Well, if it’ll be fun for you, then sure, go ahead,” I said. “Please don’t use any weird ingredients, though.”

As Yuki prepared the pot for cooking, she’d had her back to me. Now she flinched at those words, then slowly turned toward me. She had a fake smile plastered on her face as she put the pot over the flames.

“C’mon, there’s no way I would do something like that,” said Yuki. “Do you not trust me, Nao?”

“You have my utmost trust. In most situations.”

I’m afraid I don’t really trust you at the moment, Yuki. I also caught you grinning at me in a weird way when we were collecting mushrooms earlier...

“Glad to hear it,” said Yuki. “I’m curious about the word ‘most,’ though.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Can I trust you when it comes to cooking?”

Yuki confidently patted her chest. “Of course! We gathered all kinds of different mushrooms. I’m sure I’ll be able to cook up a delicious soup.”

“I see. I’m looking forward to it,” I said, smiling back at her.

I dragged my magic bag closer to me to fetch a book. Most of our books were lined up on our shelves at home, but we kept copies of those that were potentially useful for our adventures inside our magic bags alongside light reading for idle moments. Right now, I had a specific book in mind.

“...‘Can be used as aphrodisiacs,’ huh?”

“Huh? Oh, that book!” Yuki sounded worried; she was actually shouting.

“That’s right. The plant encyclopedia.” I showed her the cover, then turned it around to reveal the page I’d been reading through.

A compendious reference like this was basically a necessity for anyone who wanted to gather edible plants in the woods. This one also happened to contain a section about mushrooms. I’d been curious about some of the ones Yuki had gathered, so I’d looked them up, relying on my memories of what I’d read previously. A certain sentence had stood out to me in the description of a mushroom I’d seen earlier today.

“Oh, um, well, see, I figured you might be kinda...tired by now, Nao, so...”

“Okay, I wasn’t completely sure if I’d found the correct mushroom, but based on your reaction, it sounds like I was right on the mark.”

Yuki averted her eyes. “Wh-What do you mean? I just wanted to help you feel a bit more...energetic!” Her forehead glistened faintly with sweat.

Come on, you’re making it too obvious.

“Yuki, what happened to the whole thing about me being safe from poisonous mushrooms in my food as long as I don’t commit infidelity? That’s what you implied before, right? I can’t believe you’ve already gone back on your own promise.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Nao, but you’ll be fine. I’m sure I can find it in my heart to forgive you. Same goes for Natsuki, I bet.”

It seemed she was absolutely unwilling to admit her mistakes. I sighed in resignation.

“I do not intend to cheat on Haruka. But let’s just say, hypothetically, that I did, and I couldn’t get her to forgive me. What would you do in that situation?”

Yuki glanced up at me in a cute way and giggled. “Well, if it comes down to that, I’ll stick by your side even if we both wind up in hell. Don’t worry—whatever happens, you won’t be alone.”

I rejected that offer immediately. “Please, no! That’s the furthest thing from what I want!” What I wanted was to build a warm, peaceful, loving family.

“I’m just joking, Nao.”

“About everything so far, or just a few things specifically?”

“That’s a secret. As for these mushrooms...”

Yuki took out a bunch of the mushrooms I had spotted earlier in the plant encyclopedia. Wait, don’t tell me...

“Seriously?!”

And she actually tossed them into the pot with the other ingredients.

“Relax. These mushrooms can give you a lot of ‘energy’ if you snarf a bunch of them at once, but in small amounts, they won’t have any effect. It’s like eating garlic or something.”

“Okay, I’ve heard stories about garlic being used as an aphrodisiac...”

But in small doses, all it does is make your breath stink. Hopefully this is equally tame.

“Right?” said Yuki. “Trust me, there’s no need to worry. Unless somebody extracts certain specific compounds from the mushrooms and turns ’em into a drug with Natsuki’s Pharmacy skill.”

“Did you really have to tell me that? Now it’s going to bug me every time I sit down for a meal!”

“Yeah, Natsuki probably wouldn’t hesitate to do the thing you’re thinking. Which, to be clear, I can’t possibly guess.”

“Still playing dumb, huh? Oh well,” I said. “If I’ve truly got nothing to worry about, I guess I might as well just forget about it.”

“Totally,” said Yuki. “So anyhow, you don’t have to worry about the mushrooms I collected. Got it?”

“Very well.”

“I’m glad you understand, Nao.”

“But I’ll be keeping a close eye on you starting tomorrow.”

Yuki cocked her head. “...Huh?”

Did you really think I would just brush this off, Yuki? There’s no way I wouldn’t be worried. Sure, the mushrooms you used this time might be safe, but there are mushrooms out there with way more potent effects. I can’t let my guard down anymore.

Although the whole process of watching Yuki cook had been alarming, the soup itself was delicious. The mushrooms with the potential aphrodisiac effect were, if I’m being honest here, pretty good.

★★★★★★★★★

We finally arrived at our destination the next day around sunset. Though Yuki’s initial estimate had been that it would only take us one day, we’d gotten really sidetracked due to all the different mushrooms we’d found. We’d collected basically everything we saw. It had been pretty enjoyable, even if it was admittedly a waste of time.

In any case, after getting past the mushroom obstacle course, we’d arrived at a valley that was as sharp-edged as if an enormous machete had sliced it into the earth. From the valley floor to the rim, it could probably have accommodated the entire height of a twenty-story building. The rock walls were almost completely vertical; it wouldn’t have been possible to scale them without tools.

The valley pointed toward the southeast. With the sun setting, it was getting too dark to make out the entire valley, but it extended far into the distance. It appeared to have been formed by tectonic plate movement rather than eroded over an extended period of time.

“Not that it’s too big to explore, but are you sure we can find the revlight ore here, Yuki?”

“Yeah! It’s just a bit farther ahead, but it’s dark now, so let’s wait until tomorrow.”

“Sure, that’s fine with me. Rock climbing at night sounds like a bad idea.”

★★★★★★★★★

As soon as sunlight began to pour into the valley on the third day since we’d set out from Laffan, we resumed our adventure.

“Okay, so, we go about two hundred meters from the entrance, then take a right,” said Yuki. “It should be over there.”

She pointed at one of the cliffs ahead of us. There was a crevice in the cliff wall about a meter in width—too narrow for two people to walk abreast—that appeared to stretch far back into the rock. It was still dark and cold where we stood, but the interior of the crevice was a lot darker. In fact, its atmosphere was so intimidating that it seemed like the perfect place for a test of courage. I would have been scared if I hadn’t had the Scout skill. Actually, though, ghosts, skeletons, and zombies were so commonplace in this world that a test of courage would probably be more about defeating them in combat than mastering your fear.

“Guess this is why the person who told me about this place said the best time to come was in the summer,” said Yuki.

“Yeah, I’d imagine the conditions are optimal right now in terms of temperature and light.”

Not only were summer days brighter, the cooler temperature of the valley came as a relief from the heat. Still, this area was hardly suitable as a summer resort; there weren’t a lot of beautiful or interesting sights.

“We just have to climb up about twenty meters and we’ll be there. It might be kinda dangerous, what with it being so dark.”

“I’ve got a solution.” I quickly cast a spell. “Light.”

Given that the two of us had zero experience rock climbing, it would have been too dangerous to judge foot- and handholds in the dark, and safety was always our top priority.

Yuki looked chagrined. “Ugh, it’s so unfair how much of an advantage you have as an elf. How many different elements can you use now?”

“I can use Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, Time, and Light Magic,” I said. “When it comes to Light Magic, though, I still have a lot of room for improvement.”

In order to cultivate your magic skills, it was important to practice spells one level above your current level, but it was also important to practice both mana control and mana usage. If you couldn’t precisely control how much mana you released, you couldn’t manage complex magic, and if you couldn’t release a lot of mana at once, your spells would be weak. Thus, a spell’s formal level was a reflection of both its complexity and the amount of mana required.

For elves, mana control always worked the same way more or less irrespective of the element. Mastering a difficult spell of one specific element also made it easier to use lower tier spells of any other element. It was a different story for humans; they needed a specific innate aptitude for each individual element.

“Well, you yourself have a big advantage compared to other humans, Yuki,” I said. “You can use four different elements, after all.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Yuki. “But I spent a lot of points on magic aptitude, so I’m pretty sure I would’ve been in a pickle if I hadn’t gotten transported to this world with Natsuki.”

The aptitude skills and the Copy skill had apparently been the core of Yuki’s build; initially, she’d barely had anything else. Yeah, I’m pretty sure you would have been doomed if you’d gotten transported here on your own.

“By the way, I’m kinda surprised that not even you can use Darkness Magic,” said Yuki.

“That’s partially because we can’t find a grimoire but also because we’ve never met a mage who can actually use it,” I said. “I’m surrounded by people who can use all the other elements, but...”

Thanks to my skill build, I’d been capable of using Time and Fire Magic from the beginning. Haruka had Water, Wind, and Light Magic, while Yuki had initially had all of those plus Earth Magic. Dark Magic, in contrast, was something I’d never witnessed anyone use. For the time being, it was probably functionally impossible for me to learn.

“Depending on how you use it, Darkness Magic seems like it could be pretty handy,” said Yuki. “There are a lot of nonlethal spells.”

“Yeah, it would be great to have more options like that for battles against other humans,” I said. “With nonlethal magic, I wouldn’t have to hesitate in battle.”

“Yeah, when we don’t even know if somebody is friend or foe, we can’t just blast ’em with a Fire Arrow.”

Our battle with Kaji would probably have turned out differently if any of us had had that kind of magic at our disposal. Nonlethal spells would also afford us more options for dealing with bandits if we were ever attacked.

“Isolation Field and Stagnant Field might count as nonlethal spells, since you can use them to restrict somebody’s movements...”

“Nah, they’re way too hard to use in practice, Yuki,” I said. “They also cost a lot of mana—they aren’t spells I can just cast casually.”

Isolation Field completely sealed a target inside its area of effect, but it only lasted as long as the caster continued pouring mana into it. The target could also physically break out of the spell; its real purpose was to protect the caster. It was technically possible to suffocate a target with Isolation Field, but as a means of restricting an enemy’s movements, it was just a bit too complex and indirect.

Stagnant Field, meanwhile, drastically decelerated the flow of time. Everything inside the area of effect was impacted, including anyone who entered it in an attempt to restrain the target. The spell could also be used for other purposes—to buy time, for instance. Or you could wrap a rope around the perimeter of the area of effect so that it would bind the target the moment the spell was canceled and the field imploded. Of course, that would only work if the caster was successful; Stagnant Field could fail if the target made an effort to resist it, a typical restriction on powerful spells.

“Well, anyhow, I’m really glad you can use the Light spell, Nao,” said Yuki. “I was kinda uneasy thinking about rock climbing without it.”

“We’re amateurs when it comes to rock climbing,” I said. “We’ve got to use every tool at our disposal.”

“Uh-huh. Somebody told me you can climb without tools, but these walls are really tall...”

We had entered the meter-wide crevice. If we’d braced our feet on opposite sides, we could have climbed that way, but just the thought of ascending twenty meters in that posture was enough to spook me. If my hips snapped, I’d be a goner.

“No overhang, so this might actually be a decent place to practice rock climbing,” said Yuki.

“Yeah, like a slightly more difficult version of bouldering,” I said. “No safety net here, though.”

In rock climbing, an overhang is an outwardly angled wall. It’s extremely difficult for a climber to stick to; you have to be capable of supporting your entire body weight with a single arm. Back in Japan, my friends and I had gone to a bouldering gym once. I could hang on by one hand, but pull myself up, not so much.

In movies, the heroes are always clinging to cliffs by their fingertips or hauling people to safety with one arm, but is that even possible? Surely somebody with average strength could never pull that off, right? I’m a hundred percent certain most people would just go over the edge! How many people can even do a one-armed pull-up even hanging from something like a metal bar that’s easy to grip? Admittedly, in this world, people like Touya can pull off feats of strength like that.

“This is also an opportunity for us to test our rock climbing equipment,” said Yuki. “It should be the perfect difficulty level for us.”

“Honestly, that’s actually one of the reasons I’m kind of worried.”

Yuki had ordered a bunch of climbing equipment that would also be of use in exploring the twenty-first floor of the dungeon. All of the tools looked fairly specialized to me; there were harnesses, ropes, climbing picks, carabiners, rope hooks, and a couple of unfamiliar items that could apparently be secured to a rock wall. The girls and Tomi had collaborated in sifting through their memories of modern technology, then combined them with information about the tools customarily used for rock climbing in this world.

I had no misgivings about the harnesses, which were simply a form of safety belt, or about the ropes; there was nothing unusual about them, and after all, we’d long since confirmed the sturdiness of our ropes when gathering dindels and precious wood. The girls had woven the harnesses themselves, and I had a rough idea of how sturdy the materials were, so those didn’t concern me. The climbing picks had been made at Gantz-san’s shop and were basically hammers with slightly altered shapes, so no concerns there either.

It was the carabiners and rope hooks I was less certain about. The girls had told me they’d been meticulously forged, quenched, tempered, and annealed, so I wanted to believe they wouldn’t suddenly break on me. I just hope you did a good job, Tomi. I’m kind of scared, but my only choice is to rely on these tools to keep me safe.

“There is one thing that concerns me,” I said.

The equipment I didn’t recognize was the biggest source of anxiety for me, although the girls had explained how to use it. The first of the unfamiliar tools resembled a bundle of wire looped around a square spindle. Apparently you were meant to hook it into small crevices, but I wasn’t confident it would work as described. The wire itself seemed strong enough; I was just afraid of the crevices opening wider or even crumbling. It was up to me to be careful about choosing where to place it.

The other mystery tool was a rod-shaped anchor. Like the spindle, it was meant to be jammed into a crevice, but it was much bigger and more complex. Apparently it expanded to fill whatever gap you’d thrust it into and then ejected a length of wire. Ugh, I honestly have no idea if I’ll be able to handle this one. It seems too complicated for me...

“Are you sure these tools are safe to use, Yuki?”

“Well, that’s what we’re here to test, right?”

Yuki answered me in a completely normal tone of voice; if anything, my apprehension seemed to confuse her.

“I mean, yeah, but...”

“There’s no way we can test these in the dungeon,” said Yuki. “This place is a good alternative. All this stuff is based on hazy memories, after all.”

“Right, right... Wait, ‘hazy memories’?”

Did I hear you correctly, Yuki?

“I mean, can you blame us? None of us have ever been rock climbing. You haven’t either, have you, Nao?”

“Nope. Bouldering, yeah, but rock climbing isn’t the kind of sport you can do casually.”

“So yeah, that’s why we just did our best to imitate stuff we’d seen in movies,” said Yuki. “We all worked together to fill in the gaps in each other’s memories. And I’m pretty sure we ended up with decent results!”

“H-Huhhh...”

It’s like, I’m pretty confident the girls have better memories than I do, and yet...

“Re-lax, Nao. All of this stuff has passed our durability tests. It can all support the weight of up to five or six people...”

“In that case—”

“...As long as it’s firmly attached to the rock.”

Isn’t that the core issue, Yuki? Good equipment is worthless if the user doesn’t know how to use it correctly!

“Anyhow. Let’s start by testing the equipment at a height of just a few meters. That way it’ll be safe even if we fall on our butts!”

“...Fine.”

I guess I just have to suck it up. It was true that we absolutely had to test all of this equipment before putting it to use in the dungeon, so I donned a harness and listened to Yuki’s explanation, then braced myself to begin climbing. Man, I’m so glad our magic bags effectively nullify equipment weight. Tomi and the girls didn’t have to worry about keeping their prototypes lightweight, so hopefully that freed them up to focus on safety margins.

Yuki pointed toward the top of the wall. “All clear! Time to climb, Nao!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Now that I think about it, wouldn’t Touya be a better candidate to test rock climbing equipment? Even if I could use it without difficulty, Touya was much sturdier, heavier, and more powerful than I was. In fact, when carrying his adventuring gear, he was twice as heavy. If he’d been here in my place, we could have been one hundred percent certain of the reliability of these prototypes.

“Maybe this will be okay as a preliminary test,” I said.

I started to climb. A few meters up, I found a small crevice, which I used to test the climbing pick’s durability.

“Seems all right.”

Obviously I would never have felt comfortable using it in the dungeon if it had broken here. I planted some wire in the crevice, then attached a carabiner to it.

“All right. Here goes,” I said.

“I’m ready whenever!”

I was about to test my weight against the wire, but then I noticed that Yuki was standing underneath me with her arms spread wide.

“...Uh, I’m pretty sure you should get out of the way, Yuki.”

“Don’t worry, Nao! I’ll catch you in my arms even if you fall!”

Admittedly, Yuki is pretty strong in spite of not looking muscular at all. And even if I fall, it’ll only be for a few meters max, so I doubt I’ll crush her... Whatever. This is probably fine.

“Okay. Let’s see...”

I gave the wire an experimental tug. It seemed to be firmly locked in place. I planted my feet against the rock wall and hung from the wire. Still no trouble. I trusted my equipment up to a point, so I proceeded to check the rock itself. The spindle was pretty well lodged in there; there weren’t any cracks that drew my attention.

“Looks like you can plant it in the wall pretty easily,” I said. “The shape of the spindle seems like it could be improved, though.”

Pressure spread across a wide area was better than pressure applied to a single point, so if it was possible to revise the spindle, something like a sheath made of flexible material would have been an improvement.

“What’s wrong, Nao?” called Yuki, sounding a bit worried.

“O-Oh, nothing. I’m going to test the other thing.”

Having offered her that reassurance, I took out the tool I had the least confidence in: the rod-shaped anchor with the complex design.

“I should probably find a slightly wider crevice for this... Oh, there’s one above me.”

It was slightly higher than the first crevice I’d found. I inserted the anchor and began to set up the other tools.

“So first I need to expand this, and then I’ll put a pin in... Okay, that ought to do it.”

The tip of the rod-shaped anchor fanned outward and filled the crevice. I hooked a carabiner to it, then gave it a pull. It refused to budge.

“All clear. I think.”

I leaned my back against the rock wall before swinging left and right to simulate a situation in which I had to rely on the rope to move. I loosened it a bit, then put my whole weight into the rope, and—

“Oh.” The sound escaped my mouth at the same moment a fixture audibly snapped. For a moment, I felt like I was just floating, but then gravity took hold of me.

“Aaaaaaah!”

I immediately curled into a fetal position to protect my head, but the impact turned out to be a lot gentler than I’d expected.

“Nice catch, me! Or not really, but nice save, I guess,” said Yuki.

“...Sorry. Thanks for saving me, Yuki.”

She’d caught my head against her chest. The rest of me had hit the ground butt-first. Yuki’s butt was on the ground too; she must have slid to protect my head from the impact rather than trying to catch my entire body. I was impressed by her quick thinking.

“Don’t worry about it! I figured the most dangerous thing would be for you to fall on your head, so this seemed like the best solution. I think you might have been okay on your own, though.”

“Nah, I applied too much of my weight to the rope,” I said. “I wasn’t in a position to recover properly.”

Rather than accidentally slipping, I’d deliberately thrown my weight into it, so I had completely lost my balance. Even if I’d been able to protect my head unaided, I probably wouldn’t have landed on my feet.

Yuki had a puzzled look on her face as she picked up the metal parts scattered over the ground and inspected them. “I honestly didn’t think it would break... Oh, okay, I guess the pin broke. It was fine when we tested it, so maybe you applied force in a specific way that it couldn’t take. Do you know where the broken pin is, Nao?”

“Uhhh...”

It fell with the other metal parts, right? I guess I’ll look around. I’d initially assumed that it had rolled into a crevice, but after meticulously searching the ground, I at last found the broken pin.

“Found it! This should be it, right?”

“Let’s see... Huh. Maybe we should have gone with a more practical design. I dunno. We thought this would make it easy to secure it to rock walls...”

“I have no idea how to fix this,” I said. “What I do know is that it’s way too dangerous to use in its current form.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll toss that feedback at Tomi and ask him to fix it.”

“You’re going to make him do it for you?!” I burst out. “Well, I guess it’s best to leave tasks like that to a professional. I assume you paid him well.”

“Yeah, of course,” said Yuki. “We also asked him to work on the most important thing we came up with.”

“Oh, you mean that mechanical anchor you mentioned?”

“Yep. What it’ll do is make a hole in a rock wall and then drive a piton in. That should be the safest way to secure ropes,” said Yuki. “The prototype isn’t ready yet or I would’ve brought it with us.”

“How does it make the hole—a drill?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Yuki replied. “Well, we might end up using magic instead of a normal drill bit, but same idea.”

In the videos I’d seen of people rock climbing, there had been hooks wedged into the rock that the climbers attached ropes to, but the hooks must have been installed by past climbers. According to Yuki, the basic concept of driving a metal spike into a rock wall had been discovered in this world, but it wasn’t terribly common. Without access to power drills, people had to bore the holes manually, then pour in a special kind of resin before inserting the spike.

“Unfortunately, we can’t get the resin anywhere in Laffan,” said Yuki. “We could make it with Alchemy if we had the materials, but those aren’t available in Laffan either, so we’ve asked Riva to order them for us.”

Apparently the girls had started sorting all of this out in preparation for our return to the twenty-first floor of the dungeon. The resin would be ready around the same time we had our flower-viewing party.

“It sounds like you had to go through a lot of extra steps,” I said, “but it’s good to hear that we’ll eventually be able to get everything we need.”

“Yeah, and today we were also able to figure out the problem with this.”

Yuki let out a dry laugh as she held up the parts of the broken fixture, then tossed it back into the magic bag along with the broken pin.

“Do you think you could climb up there and get the rest of the equipment back?” she asked.

“Well, we still have the spindle,” I replied, “so I think I can get up there all right as long as I don’t mess up again.”

The most obvious purpose of safety equipment was to prevent worst-case outcomes resulting from mistakes or accidents, but it also served a crucial psychological function: instilling confidence in the user. There were probably tasks I could comfortably perform while suspended two meters up in the air, but twenty meters would be a different story—it would be like asking someone to dangle from the top of a tall building without a harness. I knew I could never do something like that, hence the importance of safety equipment.

“All right. I’m gonna give this another shot.”

“Good luck, Nao!”

Yuki cheered me on as I started to ascend the rock wall again. My first attempt had served to test our new tools; now my objective was to find revlight ore. I tried to climb without relying too heavily on the rope, but I also prepared more fixtures and anchors just in case.

Metal fixtures were quite heavy, and even rope could weigh dozens of kilos if it was long enough. My magic bag rendered everything more or less weightless, but most rock climbers had to contend with the weight of those and other tools. There was no doubt that it was a harsh, intense sport.

Actually, if I recall correctly from the videos and movies I’ve seen, climbers put their rope in separate bags and pull them up after, don’t they? Okay, it finally makes sense to me. I’d never been in a situation where I had to pull a rope that weighed this much, so I failed to connect the dots until now. I guess there was tug-of-war at school, but that’s a completely different deal in terms of thickness.

“Man, I never thought I’d end up rock climbing after getting transported to a different world,” I said. “In a way, I guess this is actually a rare and valuable experience.”

You could even say it was pretty fun. If I’d stayed back in Japan, I probably would never have tried it.

“I should be fine as long as I keep three points of contact.”

I’d learned about this rule at the bouldering gym I’d visited. It stated that a climber had to maintain constant contact with the wall using either one hand and two feet or two hands and one foot. Even if it slowed your climb, it was far safer than the alternative.

When I’d gotten a bit higher, Yuki called some instructions up to me. “Nao, you should be pretty close to the revlight ore by now. Do you see a surface that looks different from everything around it?”

“What do you mean? That’s a bit too ambiguous.”

Leaning on my rope, I carefully shifted away from the rock wall and scanned the vicinity.

“I was told it’d be an exposed mineral vein that would look similar to silver!” Yuki yelled.

“Silver, silver... Oh, is that it over there?”

“You find it?”

“Gimme a sec—I’ll go confirm.”

“It’s supposed to be fragile, so be careful, Nao!”

I raised a hand to indicate that I understood Yuki’s warning, then deployed more fixtures to bring myself closer to the area I’d spotted. There was a white layer on the rock surface, about twenty centimeters in height and extending four or five meters to my left and right. I wasn’t sure if “silver” was the right description—in hue, it more closely resembled limestone—but...

“I guess this can look like silver.”

I could see the slight likeness after I’d scratched it with a pick. The surface was definitely fragile; it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea to wedge any metal tools into it.

“Yeah, I think I found the right thing, Yuki!”

“Lower some rope—I’m gonna climb up to you!”

“Got it.”

I avoided the fragile areas and moved to a spot that was slightly above the mineral vein. After placing an anchor and tying a rope to it, I lowered the rope to where Yuki was standing.

Man, I’m actually pretty high up in the air here—not so high that Yuki looks tiny, but high enough to spook me. I focused on Yuki and did my best to avoid thinking about the height. She quickly climbed up beside me without relying too much on the rope.

“Lemme take a look,” said Yuki. “Okay, yeah, this is definitely revlight ore. Let’s collect some to bring back with us.”

“How much will we actually need?”

“A handful should be enough for one ring, but let’s just take as much as we can,” said Yuki. “It’ll be good to have extra in case I mess up on my first try, and it’s not like ore goes bad.”

Yeah, I guess we don’t have to worry about storing inorganic substances. Even food takes years to spoil in our magic bags.

“Stay where you’re at and mine the ore there, Yuki,” I said. “I’ll mine this patch.”

“Okay.”

The two of us tied ropes tightly to our harnesses in order to free up our arms, then set to the ore with our picks. It wasn’t tough by any means—I was quickly able to extract a fair amount. The real challenge was to avoid dropping it; I had to hold the ore in one hand before I transferred it to my bag. I probably ended up extracting some ore that wasn’t revlight, but Yuki could sort that out when it became necessary.

The whole process was mentally taxing, but as a result, the minutes flew by. By the time my bag was full, an hour had passed. I took a brief break, as did Yuki, hanging from her rope.

“Good job, Nao. I think this ought to be enough. Wanna stop here?”

“Well, you’re the one who’s gonna be using it, so I’m willing to call it a day if you think we have enough.” I said. “Let’s climb back down.”

The descent was usually more dangerous than the ascent. It was harder to see footholds below you, although that wouldn’t be a problem if we simply descended by rope.

“Okay, here goes nothing!” Yuki exclaimed.

We slid down the rock face and landed without any problems.

“Aaaand, touchdown!”

One downside of this method was that we couldn’t retrieve any of the tools we’d planted in the rock, but safety was a more crucial consideration than cost or environmental impact. Besides, these tools had no plastic components, so they would decompose and return to nature in the distant future.

Yuki hoisted her bag full of revlight ore and grinned. “All right, we’ve done what we set out to do. Yay!”

“And we finished testing all the climbing tools,” I added with a nod.

“Yeah. Overall, I’d say we ended up with decent results—all of the tools worked just fine, so...”

“Well, one of them broke,” I pointed out, “but the rest were fine. It just goes to show that simplicity is generally preferable.”

The spindle that I’d used to secure the rope was a simple tool that depended solely on the durability of the wire, so I’d felt at ease using it, and as long as I checked, I could avoid parts of the rock wall that were at risk of crumbling away. When I’d tested this wall, none of the tools had fallen out, so my judgment must have been pretty good.

“Yeah, when you use simple tools, the odds of unexpected outcomes are lower,” said Yuki. “Same deal when you wedge a metal spike into the rock.”

“Also, now that I think about it, if we’re going to be using metal spikes, why not just install climbing holds like the ones in a bouldering gym?” I asked. “Our goal here is to make it easier to get up and down. I’m pretty sure that would be a good work-around.”

“Oh, awesome idea! I’ll pass that on to the others as soon as we get home!” Yuki replied. “Like, rock climbing isn’t our actual goal here.”

Rock climbing was a sport; the goal was to reach a summit using your own strength and skill. For us, however, it was just a means to get past the twenty-first floor of the dungeon, so any viable shortcut was worth it.

“And if we’re gonna make climbing holds, we can also just use magic to blast footholds in the wall, right?” Yuki suggested, sounding very confident in her idea.

I shook my head. “That, I’m not so sure about. I don’t think it would work inside of a dungeon.”

Magic wasn’t very effective against dungeon walls, besides which dungeons had a self-repair function; surfaces damaged by spells were restored to their original state in no time. In fact, as long as the damage wasn’t severe—on the order of collapsed or destroyed walls—it would vanish within just a few days. That said, the dungeon couldn’t easily absorb objects that had been driven into its surface as long as they weren’t left alone for an extended period of time, so our teleportation markers were perfectly safe.

“Considering how the dungeon works, I’m pretty sure any footholds we make with magic will get erased in no time,” I explained.

“But metal spikes would stay in the walls, wouldn’t they, Nao?”

“Yeah, probably. There’s nothing wrong with making holes in the walls as we climb, but we should probably use metal spikes at the same time to conserve mana.”

It would be a disaster if we ran out of mana in the middle of a climb. Reflecting on potential applications of magic in this valley, I realized Earth Magic would have made it extremely easy for us to reach the point we’d just climbed to, but...

“I guess using magic to get up and down wouldn’t have been good practice for actual rock climbing,” I mused.

“Still, I’m pretty sure me and you could make some stairs to the place where we were just mining,” said Yuki. “Anyhow, what’s the plan? We’ve got plenty of ore, so we can head home now if you want, but would you like to get in a little bit more practice while we’re here?”

“Well, there’s no need for us to hurry home, so I guess we may as well take this opportunity to get some more practice for rock climbing,” I said. “We’ll need it to get past the twenty-first floor of the dungeon.”

“Okay, I’ll work as your belayer, then. Good luck, Nao!”

The belayer’s role is to stand below the climber holding the rope. If the climber falls, the belayer has to pull the rope taut. This prevents the climber from falling all the way, but it requires a lot of strength, and the friction from the rope can abrade the skin off the belayer’s hands; it’s very painful even if you’re wearing leather gloves.

“Are you sure? Don’t you need some practice, Yuki?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it. I’ll come back here with Haruka and Natsuki and practice with them.”

“Oh, true, they also need it. In that case, I’m counting on you. Don’t forget your gloves.”

“You got it, boss!”

Though Yuki had answered in a joking tone, she carried out her duties competently, and I was able to focus on improving my technique. In time, I reached a spot that was significantly higher than the revlight ore deposit; there, I tied a safety line and relied on it to ascend and descend multiple times. Once I felt like I’d gotten a decent amount of experience, I set up some other ropes in places that looked inaccessible, then went through the whole process again. I almost slid on two separate occasions, but thanks to Yuki’s support, I was able to avoid injuries and continue practicing safely until evening fell.

“Today sure was a productive day. Tomorrow morning, let’s leave and head back to Laffan,” said Yuki. “I guess we could also just use the Teleportation spell...”

“Yeah, if we don’t find any good mushrooms along the way,” I said.

“Yeah, of course,” said Yuki. “For some reason, hunting mushrooms is really addictive, isn’t it?”

We looked at each other and laughed in unison. Mushrooms weren’t the only potential distractions; as adventurers, we also found it tempting to gather other useful ingredients and materials we stumbled upon.

“By the way, Nao, did you learn a Climbing skill or something like that?” Yuki asked.

“Uh, let me check... Nope. Today was my first day of practice, though. I guess it won’t be that easy.”

Is it just that I need to practice more, or am I not very skilled yet? I worked pretty dang hard, and I’m at the point where I can scale this wall without any problems, but I guess that isn’t enough. Maybe I need to attempt more challenging climbs?

“Oh, that’s a shame,” said Yuki. “Assuming you learned a new skill, I was gonna copy it...”

“Huh?! Hey, that’s no fair! You were planning to just copy my hard work?!”

“Come on, the Copy skill is the biggest advantage I have in this world. Can you blame me for taking advantage of it whenever I can? It’s a great way to save time!”

Thinking about the best interests of the party as a whole, I have to admit Yuki’s right: It’s an efficient way to learn and benefits all of us. Still, after all that hard work I did today, something about it bugs me.

“Besides, I worked hard as your belayer, ’member? It’s not like I did nothing, right?”

“Hmm...”

Oh, is that why you were willing to help me practice this time, Yuki—just because you wanted to expand your own skill set? Of course, the copied skill would start at Level 1...

“I hereby vow that I’ll fill the support role until somebody in our party learns a Climbing skill!” said Yuki.

“Fine. I guess you have a point.” Try as I might, I couldn’t think of a good counterargument. Copying other people’s skills was simply more efficient. “All right. When I get a Climbing skill, I’ll let you copy it. And when the time comes, I’ll teach you thoroughly.”

“Huh? Oh, nah, all you have to do for the skill to activate is give me a brief overview of how it works, so—”

“I won’t go easy on you, Yuki! Prepare yourself!”

It’s for the sake of my mental hea—I mean, it’s for your sake, Yuki! It’s better to be safe than sorry, yep!

★★★★★★★★★

We left the valley early the next morning, but mushroom hunting once again consumed a lot of our daylight hours, and we found some intriguing wild vegetables too, so our journey back to Laffan ended up taking another day.

Chapter 4—A Moonlight Tryst

The day of our flower-viewing party had finally rolled around. Riva was the first guest to arrive. Though she’d visited our house once before, she was still, for whatever reason, visibly nervous as she walked through the front gate. The girls were busy cooking, so Touya and I had been assigned the roles of greeting guests and preparing the venue. I’d been lining up tables but took a break to chat with Riva.

“Th-Thank you for having me over today!” Riva said. As she addressed me, she was glancing around at the flowers that filled our yard. “Oh my, did I get here a bit too early?”

“Welcome, Riva! And no worries—the other guests will probably show up soon. Would you like to wait here, or do you want to go where the girls are? I’m pretty sure they’re in the middle of cooking, but...”

“I-I’ll go see them,” said Riva. “See you later.” She gave us a shallow bow and then quickly disappeared inside.

I guess most girls would rather hang out with other girls than be alone with two guys.

Touya laughed. “Looks like you got rejected, Nao!” he teased me with a smirk.

I casually blasted him with a counterattack. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. It’s possible she fled because she saw you.”

Touya fell silent, then thumped me on the shoulder. “Let me tell you something you should keep in mind, buddy. Assumptions can be hurtful, you know? Especially when they might be true.”

“Y-You don’t say? Sorry, I guess.”

I didn’t realize this had actually been bothering you, Touya. Well, this time, for once, it wasn’t your fault, so—actually, Riva does still seem pretty uncomfortable around you. Alas. I couldn’t think of a good way to comfort him, so I silently resumed working on the tables. Soon, Aera-san and Luce-san arrived together.

“Thank you for inviting us over today, Nao-san,” said Aera.

“Mm. We really appreciate your invitation,” said Luce, extending a small barrel toward me. “We brought a gift with us.”

Accepting the barrel, I said, “I know how busy your café is, so thank you for taking the time to come over.”

Hey, is this alcohol? We only drink on rare occasions, and then only in small amounts, but it’s good to have for other guests.

“Is there anything we can help with?” Aera asked.

“Uh, the two of us should be fine here, but please feel free to check in with the girls.” I pointed. “They’re in the kitchen...”

All Touya and I had to do was a little manual labor—namely, carrying and lining up the tables—so it wouldn’t have felt right asking Aera-san or Luce-san for help.

“Very well,” said Aera. “See you two later, then.”

A while after Aera-san and Luce-san had gone inside, Tomi arrived with Gantz-san and Simon-san. The three of them had also brought a barrel of alcohol as a gift, but it was much larger than the one Luce had been carrying; Tomi had been obliged to hoist it onto his shoulder. They explained that they’d pooled their money to buy it. We didn’t really need their help with anything either, so we told them to take a seat while we finished our preparations.

A while later, the girls emerged to set plates on the tables; the food must have been close to ready. It was only then that we asked Mary and Metea to run over to the orphanage. We’d decided that a gaggle of kids—there were over twenty—would probably have trouble waiting patiently, so we’d agreed that we’d hold off on summoning them until the party was about to begin. Diola-san arrived shortly after Mary and Metea had left; the orphans were the last guests we were waiting on.

“Thank you for coming over today, Diola-san,” I said.

“I’m the one who ought to thank you for the invitation. I deeply appreciate it,” said Diola. “It’s usually nobles rather than adventurers who host events of this kind, so it’s good to know your party can afford it.”

“It’s all thanks to the kindness and support of our guests today,” I said. “We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this by ourselves.”

Diola-san had contributed more than anyone, but all of our guests had assisted us in some way. Gantz-san had furnished us with high-quality weapons and armor. Simon-san had helped us sell the precious wood we’d collected. Riva, Aera-san, and Tomi had all made our daily lives easier. Our successes came down to our good fortune in making such wonderful friends and acquaintances.

“I admire your humility,” said Diola. “Adventurers who struggle as rookies tend to start acting high and mighty the moment they achieve a modicum of success. They often boast it was all thanks to their own hard work.”

I was aware that Diola-san had previously worked at other branches of the Adventurers’ Guild. She must have been ruminating on unpleasant memories of those times; she looked into the distance and sighed to herself.

“Uh, well, I hope you have a good time today,” I said. “We have that ale you said was really good, so feel free to enjoy as much as you want.”

“Oh, that’s good to know. Thank you. I ought to mention, the crown issued the documents certifying your ownership of the dungeon, and Viscount Nernas forwarded them to the guild—here they are,” said Diola. “Oh, and I brought a gift as well.”

Diola-san handed over a fancy, expensive-looking envelope, followed by her gift. Another bottle of booze? This looks way more expensive than the ale from Pining that we’ll be serving today!

“Th-Thanks, Diola-san,” I said.

“Think nothing of it. I hope that ours will be a long and fruitful collaboration,” said Diola. “The quest that I recently asked your party to take on was, in a manner of speaking, a personal request, after all. And I’m sure that there will be plenty of work for you as high-ranked adventurers.”

Diola-san had a wide smile on her face, but for some reason, I found it kind of intimidating. There was no doubting her aptitude as a vice guildmaster, and I knew I was no match for her shrewdness.

“I hope you won’t work us too hard, Diola-san,” said Haruka.

“Oh, Haruka...”

I turned at the sound of Haruka’s voice. She walked over to join us, wearing a slightly awkward smile.

“Of course,” said Diola. “The ideal relationship between the guild and adventurers is defined by respectful coexistence and mutual prosperity.”

I handed the envelope to Haruka, and she shrugged. “I genuinely hope that’s true,” she said.

After opening the envelope and checking the contents, Haruka handed it to Yuki and Natsuki, who had joined her out of curiosity.

“Everything seems to be in order as far as I can tell,” said Haruka. “I am a bit surprised by the quality of the paper.”

“They are, after all, deeds registered with the crown,” said Diola. “Your party now enjoys a wide range of rights and privileges within the lands you own.”

“Do we, now?” asked Natsuki.

“Yes. For example, you have the right to kill any commoner who trespasses on your property.”

Diola-san offered that detail in a flat, neutral tone. I was aware that we’d been awarded a certain level of jurisdiction over our lands, but it seemed our powers were further-reaching than I’d assumed.

“...Really?” Yuki asked.

“Indeed. Well, I ought to add that you will be in a certain amount of trouble if you kill a noble, although even that may be excusable depending on the circumstances. If, for example, a low-ranking noble tries to rob you or loot your dungeon, you are well within your rights to slay him—provided you have proof of his misdeeds. Poaching wild game or monsters in the nearby forests is somewhat more of a gray area, but anyone who sneaks into the dungeon without your permission, you may regard them as a criminal.”

Diola-san went on to clarify that she was referring to nobles of baronial rank or lower. I’d been shocked to learn that we had the right to slay commoners, but I never could have imagined that the same would apply to nobles, at least under certain circumstances. It seemed that, contrary to my initial assumption, the rights to the dungeon were actually an amazing reward.

“Strictly speaking, however, you are merely permitted to kill trespassers without consequences,” Diola added. “I believe it would be wise to avoid doing so if at all possible.”

“Of course,” said Haruka.

If we killed trespassers, we would obviously earn the enmity of their families. It would be a different story if a trespasser was a ne’er-do-well whose own family despised him, but one way or another, attracting resentment from our community would lead to bad outcomes, and we especially wanted to avoid any conflict with nobles, regardless of rank. We couldn’t simply hole up in the dungeon for the rest of our lives, after all.

“Since the viscount has promised to become your party’s patron, he will protect you as long as you are in the right and the circumstances are favorable,” said Diola. “However, he’s a mere viscount. Please bear in mind that there are limits to his ability to cover for you.”

“Oh, uh, don’t worry, we don’t plan on resorting to violence with zero provocation,” said Touya.

We had no intention of killing either low-ranking nobles or commoners simply for trespassing, and we wouldn’t mind even if people hunted monsters in the meat area. It would be aggravating if thieves gathered fruit without our permission, but we could simply restrain them and throw them out of the dungeon. In some cases, there would also be the option of reporting them to the guild.

Diola-san slowly turned to regard each member of my party, one after another. She shook her head, smiling awkwardly, before voicing her thoughts. “You ought to be aware, Touya-san—the problems that arise are never the problems you expect.”

“Ugh, please don’t say ominous stuff like that here, Diola-san,” said Yuki. “See, the official name of this party is ‘One year full of peaceful days has passed, so let’s celebrate together by viewing some flowers.’ Let’s keep the vibes positive! Well, a year and a half, technically, but who cares.”

So Yuki had come up with an official name for the party while I wasn’t around. Diola-san fell silent for a moment, but then she smiled at her.

“If you truly believe that your days since arriving here in Laffan have been peaceful, then I suppose your party will thrive no matter what challenges come your way,” said Diola.

Now that she mentions it, I don’t know if we can truly describe our days as peaceful. Even excluding the biggest thing—dying and getting transported to this world—so much has happened. I still can’t believe that Haruka and I actually had to attend a noble’s wedding reception. Well, in the end, we’ve made it through everything. Even if the next year doesn’t turn out to be a peaceful one, I just hope we’ll make it through that too.

★★★★★★★★★

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for making the time to join us today for this flower-viewing party. It is thanks to all of your assistance that we’ve been able to achieve a secure life. We hope to remain partners with you in the future,” I said. “Feel free to eat and drink as much as you want. I hope you all have a good time.”

The party had kicked off after Mary and Metea returned from the orphanage with the last guests in tow. For some reason, I’d once again gotten stuck with the job of giving the opening remarks, but since the guests were all people I knew, I wasn’t the least bit nervous.

After I’d delivered my little speech, the kids shot to their feet and dashed with plates in hand toward the grills Touya and I had made. Metea got there first. As a demonstration for the orphans, she grilled a bunch of meat and personally served the younger children like Remi. The older children quickly began imitating her. I was a little worried about them accidentally consuming undercooked meat, but the apprentice priests, Cain and Sydney, were hard at work managing their charges, so I could probably trust them to keep an eye out. We had given the kids their own tables away from the adults so that we wouldn’t intimidate them.

“All right. I guess I’ll enjoy some flowers—or actually, I’ll get something to eat first,” I said.

As a Japanese person, I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t any cherry trees here, but the kutto trees were close to full bloom. Our yard had become incredibly colorful; the other trees had also blossomed, and the flowers that Yuki had planted were flourishing. Before I filled my eyes with the scenery, however, I wanted to satisfy my tongue.

“There are so many dishes here, I don’t know what to start with...”

The girls had cooked everything I’d requested, plus a bunch of other dishes that all looked equally delicious. Should I dive into the meat right away or start with some lighter fare? I guess I could also try this hearty meat stew. While I was lost in thought, Haruka solved my conundrum for me.

“Here, Nao, try this.” She handed me a plate with all kinds of different food on it.

“Oh yeah, sure. Thanks.”

On the plate were some slices of roast beef, a hamburg steak, a salad, a fried egg, and a cylindrical onigiri. The onigiri was the simplest dish but also, in a sense, the main attraction. I’d heard that Tomi had completed the rice hullers and rice mills, but that was around the time when Yuki and I had gone to mine revlight ore, so this was my first opportunity to try this white “rice.”

“Whoa, it actually looks like white rice.”

“It was more trouble than you might think to get it this close,” said Haruka.

The rice the girls had used in the onigiri had smaller grains than the ones we’d hulled with our own hands. According to Haruka, the machines’ hulling and milling functions hadn’t been too difficult to implement. The real challenge had been the function that split each grain of rice into four equal-sized parts, but they’d eventually succeeded, and the end products were comparable in size to the rice we were familiar with from Japan. I immediately took a big bite of the onigiri and found it perfectly crumbly.

“Now this is what I would call rice. It’s excellent.”

“Right? And the size of the grains doesn’t matter at all if we’re, say, pounding them into dango,” said Haruka.

Natsuki suddenly appeared and handed me a bowl of soup. “Nao-kun, here’s a dish made from the ingredients that you and Yuki gathered,” said Natsuki.

“Oh, mushroom miso soup!”

It was loaded with mushrooms too. Mm, perfect! Onigiri isn’t complete without miso soup!

“Well, it’s not real miso, but we did our best to approximate it,” said Haruka. “Now that we’ve acquired white rice, however, you might get to eat real miso at some point.”

“...Seriously?”

Inspiel sauce had been enough to resolve most of my complaints about the food in this world, but it was still, at the end of the day, imitation miso. It would be great if we could somehow make actual miso.

“Well, it’ll depend on how things go for Natsuki,” Haruka noted.

“I’ll do my best,” Natsuki assured me. “If I can successfully cultivate koji mold, miso and soy sauce shouldn’t present any difficulty.”

“Have you actually made those things before, Natsuki?” I asked.

“Yes. Traditional methods of making miso and soy sauce have been passed down from mother to daughter for generations of my family.”

I guess I ought to have expected that such an old family would have old traditions. My family just bought both of those things at the supermarket.

“Does that mean all of the miso and soy sauce in the Furumiya family were homemade?” I asked.

“No. Our miso was homemade, but making soy sauce takes a great deal of time and effort, and I’ve only done it once, when I was learning from my mother. We had commercial brands for daily use,” Natsuki replied. “In the past, there were millers who specialized in making soy sauce, but they no longer exist...”

That must be why I’ve never heard of anyone making soy sauce at home, even though homemade miso isn’t that rare. Also, miso can be used as is, but soy sauce requires pressing and a lot of other labor-intensive steps. I’m pretty sure it has to be pasteurized too, right? I’d assume so given the existence of unpasteurized soy sauce...

“So based on the one time you made soy sauce, what is the process actually like?” I asked.

“I used a cloth and pressed it myself,” Natsuki replied. “Without specialized machinery, I was only able to extract a small amount, but it was certainly delicious.”

“Homemade soy sauce honestly does sound delicious,” I said.

The kind of soy sauce you got in bento boxes in Japan tended to be pretty bad, possibly because the flavor diminished over time. In contrast, unpasteurized soy sauce was delicious even when you just got it from a supermarket. I could only imagine that homemade sauce would taste even better.

“Many Japanese dishes require koji mold, so hopefully I’ll be able to cultivate some,” Natsuki went on. “If I succeed, we’ll be able to make things like sake and mirin as well. Substitutes never have the same complexity and depth of flavor.”

“Well, I’m perfectly satisfied with the food you’ve been making for us,” I said.

“That’s kind of you to say, but I refuse to compromise when it comes to cooking,” said Natsuki.

I’ve definitely seen TV chefs use cooking sake, soy sauce, and mirin to add flavor to Japanese dishes. It would be great if the girls could do the same. But wait, isn’t it illegal to brew sake at home?

“Uh, Natsuki, how exactly do you know so much about home-brewing sake?”

At first, Natsuki seemed confused by my question. “Well, my family has...” Then she clapped her hands over her own mouth. “Oh, never mind.”

“You’re really just going to stop there?”

“J-Just to be clear, everything we did was technically within the bounds of the law,” said Natsuki. “There’s a loophole that permits you to home-brew sake for religious purposes.”

According to Natsuki, you did need a license to brew sake, but it was permitted at places like shrines under certain circumstances. Now that I think about it, Natsuki has mentioned before that she has relatives from a branch family connected to the Shinto hierarchy. Maybe that’s how she has all this old-fashioned knowledge.

Tomi suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “I’m pretty sure I heard something about brewing sake!” It seemed the idea had been too tantalizing for him to resist.

“I had a feeling you would show up eventually,” said Haruka. “Dwarfs do love their liquor.”

“Have you really figured out how to brew sake in this world? If you have, I’ll pitch in—just tell me how!”

“U-Uh, I get that you’re enthusiastic, Tomi, but calm down,” I said. “Even Natsuki looks a little freaked out.”

Although we’d known Tomi since we were all teenagers on Earth, it was a little bit intimidating to be approached out of the blue by someone who appeared to be an adult man with a full beard. Natsuki had hidden behind me and pushed me forward to keep him at bay.

“O-Oh, sorry,” said Tomi. “I got a bit too excited.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I am curious about why, though. You enjoy the alcohol in this world, don’t you?”

I pointed at the mug in Tomi’s hands as evidence. It was full of the alcohol that he, Gantz-san, and Simon-san had brought as a gift. I felt like it was a little weird that the three of them had been chugging it themselves, but the rest of us weren’t big drinkers by any means, so I didn’t really mind as long as they were having a good time.

“Oh, this ale? Well, it’s good, but I wouldn’t say it has the most sophisticated taste. It’s a famous product of Pining for a reason—it’s better than regular ale—but...”

“Yeah,” I said, “even we enjoyed it when we tried it for ourselves.”

“Oh, you’ve had this before? Nice. It’s pretty affordable. The one downside is that it isn’t easy to acquire. I only got this barrel thanks to Simon-san’s connections.”

Viscount Nernas had also given us some barrels of ale as one of our rewards for the services we’d rendered him. We had promised Diola-san we would serve them at this party, but Tomi, Gantz-san, and Simon-san must not have noticed yet; they were too busy drinking their own ale.

Honestly, though, it would probably be to our advantage if Tomi was willing to take part in brewing sake. I wasn’t very knowledgeable about the topic, but I did know that miso was relatively easy to make; after the initial preparations, you could just leave it alone. Sake, in contrast, required intensive effort at every stage of the process. If I recall correctly, we’ll have to put a lot of elbow grease into mixing it. And given that we’re often away from home adventuring, I doubt we’ll have the time to brew it completely on our own. I glanced at Natsuki for her opinion, and after a moment’s thought, she nodded.

“Assuming we’re able to cultivate koji mold, would you like for us to share some with you, Tomi-kun?” she asked. “We can also share information about brewing sake.”

“Really?!”

Tomi was beaming. He almost took a step toward Natsuki, but then it was as if he suddenly remembered what had happened earlier, and he instead took a step back and looked at me.

“Yes, really,” said Natsuki. “In exchange, would you be willing to share some of the sake you brew?”

“Of course! I won’t be able to brew it at all without a supply of rice from you guys, after all.”

Oh, yeah, I guess that is kind of the bare minimum. The “rice” we bought isn’t sake rice, but considering how passionate Tomi is about this project, I’m sure he’ll do fine.

Tomi folded his arms and looked around. “Hmm. It’d be great if I could acquire some suitable land too...”

“Wait, Tomi, do you really intend to buy a plot of land solely for the purpose of brewing sake?” Haruka asked in surprise.

“Hmm? Yeah, of course. You can’t brew sake without a sake brewery,” Tomi replied. “Luckily, I’ve been able to save up a decent amount of money thanks to all the orders your party has placed with us...”

“You can’t just casually take big gambles like that. We can lend you a corner of our yard if needed,” said Haruka, obviously exasperated at his recklessness. “I don’t suppose anyone has any objections to that idea?”

Natsuki and I both nodded at Haruka’s suggestion. Tomi was someone we knew, so I doubted Touya or Yuki would object either. Anyway, we had ample space that wasn’t in use; we could easily spare some for a brewery.

“But with respect to the costs of construction and equipment,” Haruka began, “you should—”

“Yeah, don’t worry, you can leave all that to me!” Tomi exclaimed. “I won’t have to go it alone—I’m pretty sure Gantz-san and Simon-san will help out too.”

Tomi casually glanced at the two adult men, each of whom was devouring food with a mug in his free hand. Given that Gantz-san was a middle-aged man, I wasn’t particularly surprised, but Simon-san was a really hearty eater for an old guy. He kept refilling his mug too.

“Yeah, they definitely seem like they’d be willing to cooperate if you told them that you’re trying to create a new kind of alcoholic beverage,” I said.

“Indeed,” said Natsuki. “In any case, we’ll contact you if and when we successfully cultivate some koji mold.”

“Great! I’m looking forward to it!”

★★★★★★★★★

Yuki showed up shortly after Tomi had wandered off. “Yo, wassup? You drinkin’, Nao?” she asked.

“Nah, not me. Wait, are you okay, Yuki?”

She was completely red in the face. Diola-san was standing behind her looking slightly sheepish; at Diola-san’s side was Touya, who wore an awkward grin.

“I’m terribly sorry,” said Diola. She had the bottle she’d brought in her hands. “Yuki drank some of this, and...”

“Oh, gotcha,” I said. “Is Yuki really that much of a lightweight?”

“A lightweight?” Yuki waved her hands weakly in denial, but it was somehow less than completely convincing. “C’mon, I ain’t no lightweight! Ha ha ha...”

“You’re really drunk, Yuki,” I said.

I glanced at Diola-san, who nodded at me, then handed over the bottle.

“It goes down very smoothly,” said Diola, “so I’m afraid she accidentally overindulged.”

Only about a third of the contents remained in the bottle. It wasn’t as big as the 1.8 liter sake bottles that were common back in Japan, but it was still bigger than a wine bottle. I poured some into a cup and took a sip. It was indeed very smooth. Based on the aroma, it seemed to be some kind of fruit wine, but presumably with high alcohol content.

Natsuki casually took the cup from me, sipped, and nodded. “This is rather strong,” she said, “perhaps as strong as sake.”

I probably shouldn’t ask her how she knows what. Considering she knows how to brew sake, it’s not that surprising that she knows what it tastes like, but still, I’ll keep my mouth shut.

“Did you spend a fair amount of money on this, Diola-san?” I asked.

“...Well, I thought it would be worth it to spend a bit more than usual to express my gratitude for the invitation to your flower-viewing party.”

The ale commonly consumed in Laffan had low alcohol content. I had no idea if it came down to brewing techniques or some other factor, but even taking into account that no one in my party really cared about alcohol, we had yet to see any hard liquor in this world.

“Did Yuki really drink that much on her own? If so, that would be enough to get her drunk irrespective of the alcohol content,” said Natsuki. “Please excuse me for a moment. Though the flower-viewing party has just started, I’m going to take Yuki somewhere to rest.”

“Huh? Nah, I’m fine!”

“Heed my advice, Yuki, or you’ll suffer later. Let’s get going.”

“Ugh, fine...”

Yuki was none too pleased, but she seemed to recognize the seriousness of Natsuki’s warnings and permitted herself to be led away. The rest of us watched the two girls leave, and as they disappeared into the house, Diola-san turned to me with an apologetic look.

“I’m terribly sorry about this. I should have stopped her sooner. It seems she isn’t used to drinking...”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “She’s responsible for her own actions.”

“Mm. We usually don’t drink,” said Haruka.

“Better good food than booze is how I see it,” Touya put in.

“Yeah, that—actually, Touya, you’re the one who should have stopped Yuki,” said Haruka. “You saw this happening, didn’t you?”

“Nah, I was too busy enjoying myself,” said Touya. “And anyway, the smell of alcohol is all around us...”

Yeah, okay, I guess it would be hard to detect what with Tomi, Gantz-san, and Simon-san all boozing nearby. Man, I’m really glad we placed the tables for the kids far away from the adults.

“Um, Haruka-san, couldn’t you simply have sobered Yuki-san up with a spell?” Diola asked.

“I could have, yes,” Haruka replied, “as could Natsuki.”

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Cure Poison spell. Alcohol is a toxin, so it stands to reason that the spell would work to counteract it.

“Then Yuki could have continued to participate in the party, could she not?” Diola asked.

“Again, yes, but I figured a hangover would be a good learning experience,” Haruka replied. “Natsuki probably had the same idea.”

“...I see. I suppose that’s one way to look at it,” said Diola. “I’ve seen people commit all sorts of mistakes due to drunkenness, so it would seem desirable to teach her a lesson.”

“Although it’s possible to cure the effects of excessive alcohol consumption with magic, it’s still bad for the body,” said Haruka.

There was no guarantee that Haruka or Natsuki would always be around if one of us drank too much, so Haruka’s response seemed reasonable. I should probably be careful myself. Yuki is apparently just a cheerful drunk; this whole situation could have gone so much worse. It would be awful if getting drunk made me do something weird. I’d die from embarrassment if I started acting silly or stripped naked in front of everyone.

“Well, there’s no need to force yourself to imbibe, but I do believe there’s some value to you in increasing your alcohol tolerance, Haruka-san,” said Diola.

“Do you?”

“Yes. Alcohol is served at formal events as a rule,” Diola replied. “You can’t completely avoid partaking if the host offers it. Nao-san, Haruka-san, the two of you attended a noble’s wedding reception; you must have some idea of what I mean.”

“True, but we went as Illias-sama’s bodyguards, not actual guests,” I said. “We were able to get away with just wetting our palates.”

“And in any case, it shouldn’t be a routine concern,” said Haruka. “I doubt that we, as adventurers, will have to attend many formal parties.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” said Diola.

We all fell silent at Diola-san’s words. Did you really have to make us feel uneasy, Diola-san? Please don’t jinx us. Now that I think about it, if we trace things back, Diola-san was actually one of the most important factors in Haruka and me having to attend that reception. That being the case, it might be a good idea to ask her for advice.

“What about you, Diola-san? Ever gotten into trouble because of drinking?” Touya asked. “I mean, you are a noble...”

As far as revenge went, that question was pretty tame, but it wasn’t exactly subtle. Diola-san, however, just responded with an immaculate smile.

“Oh, not at all. Never in my life have I passed out drunk.”

Admittedly, it’s hard to imagine. I kind of want to jump in and score another point against Diola-san, but I can’t come up with a good dunk.

But Haruka seemed to have an idea; she was grinning. “Incidentally,” she said, “I’ve heard a good-looking woman doesn’t have to drink much to become more attractive to men.”

“...Wait, is that why I’ve been unable to get married so far?!” Diola-san suddenly clung to me. “Nao-san! Would you consider marrying me if I got as drunk as Yuki-san was earlier?!”

I pried her off of me. Haruka was watching us, so there was only one way I could reply. “No way!”

“Is it because of my age?! Am I too old for you?!”

I shook my head vigorously. “No, that has nothing to do with it! No matter how you look, no guy is going to jump feetfirst into a marriage!”

With an air of despondency, Diola-san let her gaze fall to the ground. “Ah, I see. I wonder if the obviousness of my desire to get married has been an impediment to that very goal...”

I glared at Haruka to scold her for instigating this situation, but she just gave me an awkward grin and clasped her hands apologetically.

Oh well. Diola-san has calmed down already, so I guess I’ll just forget about it. Unfortunately, the existence of a certain buffoon had completely slipped my mind.

“Well, women like Diola-san who are too perfect can come off as intimidating to approach,” said Touya, throwing more fuel onto the fire.

“Huh?! If that’s true, what about Haruka-san?!” Diola-san jabbed a finger at her. “She got together with Nao-san. How do you explain that?!”

At that accusation, Haruka waved her hands in panic. “Please, I’m nowhere near perfect, and—”

“One,” Diola-san interrupted, “you’re extremely beautiful! Two, you’re a highly competent adventurer, capable of earning a respectable income! Three, you’re as skilled as a professional chef! So you see, it’s just as I said—you’re absolutely perfect! And I imagine housework is no challenge for you. Even if you aren’t blessed with domestic skills, you can probably take care of everything with Light Magic! I’m no match for you!”

Okay, I honestly can’t think of any rebuttals here. Sure, the phrase “love is blind” does apply to me to a certain extent, but she’s not wrong. I feel like I can set aside the comments about adventuring, since it’s a team effort, but everything else was spot-on...

“Yes, yes, I’m fully aware that I have few standout qualities,” said Diola. “I’m not exceptionally competent at my job, nor do I have much reason to be proud of my appearance, my rank, or my earnings. I’m simply a woman who has nothing to offer men...”

While Diola-san was muttering to herself darkly, I slowly backed away from her, then pulled Touya aside for a private chat.

“Listen, man,” I said, “you’ve gotta take one for the team here.”

“What? Why me?” Touya whispered back. “Haruka was the one who started all of this!”

“Yeah, but you threw fuel to the fire. Besides, do you really think either me or Haruka can cheer her up with the kind of stuff she’s saying?”

“...Yeah, I guess not. She probably won’t react well to either one of you right now.” Touya shrugged. “Fine, I’ll take care of this. Diola-san has helped us out a lot. I guess this is one way to pay her back.”

He walked over to Diola-san and gave her a pat on the back.

“Feel free to drink as much as you want today, Diola-san! Work has gotta be pretty stressful right now, huh? Just get it out of your system—I’m happy to listen!”

“You’re such a kind man, Touya-san,” said Diola. “I wish I had met someone like you around ten years ago.”

“Oh, sorry, I’m already taken—I’m gonna marry a cute girl with animal ears.”

What the hell, dude?! Look, I get that you’re a furry, but did you really have to bring it up now?!

“Waaaahhh! Do I have to grow a pair of animal ears in order to get married?!”

Diola-san claimed earlier that she’s never passed out drunk, but she definitely seems drunk now. Oh well.

★★★★★★★★★

Since Touya was the one who’d really gotten Diola-san going, Haruka and I left her in his care and quietly scrammed. We scanned the crowd for other guests to chat with, but...

“Nao-san!”

Aera-san dashed toward us before I could make a decision. Luce-san and Riva were right on her heels. I lifted a hand to greet them.

“Um, how are things going over there?” Aera-san asked with a worried glance in Diola-san’s direction. Diola-san was still ranting with no end in sight.

“Oh, yeah, everything’s fine,” I said. “Diola-san’s job isn’t easy. I’m pretty sure she just has a lot of pent-up stress.”

I was well aware that work was only a small part of it, but I was choosing to elide some details.

“Ah, yes, I suppose dealing with adventurers must be stressful,” said Aera.

“Yeah, and she is vice branch master, so she probably has to interact with a lot of people,” I said. “If anything, I bet she has to do more work than the branch master.”

There were probably tasks that only the branch master could handle, but I had never seen one interact directly with adventurers at any of the guilds we’d visited. On the other hand, Diola-san was behind her counter whenever we visited the Laffan branch; I assumed she was there every day.

“What about you, Aera-san? Your job isn’t easy either,” Haruka pointed out. “Does dealing with customers every day lead to pent-up stress?”

“Uh, I’m in the kitchen cooking most of the time, so not especially,” Aera replied. She glanced at Luce-san. “Luce is the one who deals with the customers most of the time.”

But Luce-san shook her head. “Troublesome customers are few and far between. It would probably be different if the café was cheaper, but fortunately, Aera went for a high-end concept. The location is favorable too. Most of our clients are pleasant people. What about yours, Riva?”

“Um, well, things are mostly all right for me as well, I think partly because I barely had any customers in the past,” said Riva. “I’ve been getting more lately thanks to your advice, Luce-san, but I haven’t had any unreasonable ones yet.”

“Riva’s store offers goods that can’t be found elsewhere in Laffan, so I guess that makes sense,” I said. “I bet your customers wouldn’t risk doing anything that would get them blacklisted.”

“Mm. The store has a good clientele too,” said Haruka, “namely women with disposable income.”

Cosmetics had become Riva’s flagship product, and as a result, men were almost never seen in her store anymore. It sounded like this new customer base was easier for a timid woman like Riva to interact with. Apparently she’d been able to start saving as well.

“If I recall correctly, Riva-san, isn’t the location of your store far from ideal? I’m fairly sure you would get more customers if your store were closer to my café,” said Aera.

“Um, well, I chose the location to match the atmosphere I originally had in mind.”

“Oh yeah,” I said, “your store had a very, uh...unique look back then, so the location fit.”

It had taken me a moment to come up with a diplomatic word to describe the original concept of Riva’s store, and Haruka nodded and laughed to herself.

“The location certainly matched your original concept,” she said. “Is it a rental property, Riva?”

“Mm-hmm. It was the only option—I didn’t have much money when I opened my store,” said Riva. “One of the main reasons I decided on that place was that the rent was cheap.”

“Oh, really? In that case, why don’t you just move to a place near Aera-san and me?” Luce asked. “Our neighborhood is full of shabby houses that even Aera-san can afford. I’m sure it would be affordable for you too.”

“Luce, please. I worked hard to afford a house, you know? It’s unquestionably a bit old, but it’s perfectly comfortable.”

“...Seriously? You asked me to travel all the way here to help you out with your café. Did you never think about how I’d feel being asked to live in a room like that? I mean, you’re not asking me to pay rent, so I’m not complaining, but still!”

“Is your room really bad? It’s one of the rooms on the second floor above the café, right?” I asked.

It didn’t look like a particularly bad place from the outside, but Luce-san nodded deeply.

“Yeah. It used to be so bad that it’s a miracle the roof never leaked.”

“Oh, please, ‘the roof, the roof,’” said Aera. “Meanwhile, the walls were perfectly fine. Of course, the wind came through the gaps sometimes, but—”

“And bugs got in easily, and winters were very cold.” Luce gave Aera-san a hard, accusatory look. “During the early days, when it was especially cold, we even slept together on the floor.”

“...I suppose I do recall that,” said Aera, casually averting her eyes. “I have fond memories of huddling together in front of the oven, ha ha!”

Clearly life hadn’t been a picnic for these two. Based on what I’d seen when I first visited Aera-san, she must have already spent a lot of money on the first floor of her café; she probably hadn’t had much left over to furnish the residential area on the second floor.

“Oh, come now, Luce! The second floor is pristine now! Don’t mislead Nao-san!” Aera was playfully punching Luce-san, but even so, she genuinely looked a little embarrassed.

Luce-san shrugged and ignored her. “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, what do you think, Riva? You can probably afford a house with your current earnings, right?” She cast a glance at Simon-san, who was drinking nearby. “There’s a skilled carpenter here. I’m pretty sure you can get a new store built befitting your main products.”

Simon-san grinned and raised his mug to us. He looked pretty sloshed, but apparently he was still lucid enough to follow our conversation.

“If it’s renovations or a new house you need, you can count on me,” said Simon. “In fact, since you know this lot, I’ll even give you a discount, ha ha!”

“I-I see. Well, I suppose I’ll give it some thought,” said Riva. “I would feel better living in a safe neighborhood...”

Yeah, the area around Riva’s store isn’t exactly safe. She used to conceal herself in a suspicious-looking robe, but she isn’t hiding her face anymore after changing her store’s emphasis, so her frail appearance may invite trouble eventually.

“Sure. Feel free to discuss things with me whenever you want,” said Simon. He firmly set his mug down on a table and approached me. “By the way, Nao, did I hear tell you’re planning to make a tasty new alcoholic beverage?”

“Um, well...”

I glanced behind him and saw Tomi bowing toward me with his hands clasped together apologetically. Gantz-san was at his side, also staring in my direction. I guess Tomi spilled the beans already. Not that I mind, really, but we haven’t made any progress toward cultivating koji mold yet...

“Um, we’re actually not completely sure yet how well it’ll turn out,” I said. “But yes, we’re planning to create something new.”

“I see. In that case, I’d be more than happy to lend you a hand,” said Simon. He turned to Gantz-san. “What do you think?”

“Count me in!” Gantz exclaimed. “But in exchange...”

“...You want to try some when it’s ready?” I said. “Yeah, I get it.”

The assistance of a carpenter and a blacksmith would be a huge advantage—especially the latter, since I was fairly sure we’d need a lot of wooden implements.

“There are some of the ingredients that we only have in limited amounts, so we won’t be able to give you a ton of samples,” I said. “But if you’re okay with that, then sure.”

“Fine by me,” said Gantz. “If the final product is tasty, we can place orders for the ingredients ourselves.”

“We have connections we can count on,” said Simon.

Oh yeah, that makes sense given that Laffan exports high-end furniture. If it’s exported to towns where rice is grown, then maybe we can ask the delivery men to bring some rice back with them.

“Pray tell, Nao-san, what’s this about a new alcoholic beverage?” Aera inquired. She’d been hovering nearby while I was chatting with Simon-san and Gantz-san.

“Oh, you see, we’ve managed to find some rice, so we’re going to use it to make some condiments, and yeah, we’re going to try making a new alcoholic beverage while we’re at it,” I said.

Exactly as I’d expected, it was the word “condiment” that Aera reacted to. “A new condiment, you say?! How intriguing!”

Meanwhile, something else had captured Luce’s fancy. “Personally, I’m more interested in the alcohol.”

“It’ll probably take a while for us to finish these projects, but would you like us to share some if things go well?” I asked.

“Of course! That would be wonderful!” Aera and Luce exclaimed in unison.

Haruka and I drifted away from Gantz-san and the other enthusiastic boozers and approached the table where our guests from the orphanage had gathered. Ishuca-san immediately noticed us and set her plate on a nearby table so she could bow to us.

“Thank you for your invitation today, Nao-san, Haruka-san,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” I said. “Mary and Metea have really enjoyed playing at the orphanage, so this is our way of returning the favor.”

The sisters were sitting among the orphans; all of them were eating like it was a race. It wasn’t like the sisters were going to go hungry tomorrow, but eating with friends seemed to heighten their enthusiasm for food.

“Well, we haven’t done anything in particular. In fact, the sisters have been a great help to us,” said Ishuca. “It’s common for orphans to become adventurers upon reaching the age of majority and leaving the orphanage, so we’re grateful to have the assistance of two girls currently employed as adventurers.”

“Oh, we’re the ones who should be grateful,” said Haruka. “We’re pleased that the sisters have been able to make friends their age.”

Mary was a very mature little girl, but she loosened up and acted like a kid when playing with the orphans, which was always a relief to see. It was possible that the sisters would someday form an adventuring party with some of the other orphans or even find romantic partners among them. If that happened, their boyfriends would have to visit us for our permission to marry them. I bet Touya will be the final challenge—he’ll be like a devoted dad. I’m a lot weaker physically, and I can’t just blast some kid away with magic, so I’ll have to rely on him to play the role of human obstacle. Oh, right—there aren’t any beastfolk at the orphanage, are there? Well, the sisters grew up without any other members of their own race nearby, so maybe they’re okay with other kinds of partners...

“Thank you, but nevertheless, I believe we ought to thank you properly,” said Ishuca. “Please bear with me for a moment.”

Ishuca-san clapped her hands, and the kids, who’d all been eating voraciously, instantly stopped and rose from their seats to line up in front of us.

They bowed in unison, then exclaimed, “Thank you very much!”

I tried to hide my surprise. “O-Oh, don’t worry about it,” I said. “Feel free to eat as much as you want.”

“Okay!”

The kids all looked toward Ishuca-san. When she gave them the nod, they immediately returned to their seats and resumed eating. Mary and Metea were the only exceptions; they were frozen in confusion. It was honestly kind of cute.

I was impressed by how well-trained the orphans were, but I noticed that the adults—Cain, Sydney, and Ange—had risen from their seats with the children. Cain and Sydney were apprentice priests, while Ange was, based on Ishuca-san’s introduction, the person in line to succeed her. Ange had apparently been raised in the orphanage, so it was possible that she’d obeyed Ishuca-san’s command on instinct.

Ishuca-san must have noticed me staring at Ange; she gave me an embarrassed smile. “Please forgive her. She’s still a child in many ways.”

“Oh, that’s perfectly fine. All we want is for our guests to have a good time here. That’s all that matters to us,” I said.

“Thank you for your kindness,” said Ishuca. “Even as priests, they eat the same meals as the other orphans, so it’s undoubtedly difficult for them to restrain themselves here...”

“Oh, I see.”

Though Cain and Sydney were apprentice priests, they would have been middle school students back in Japan; it was only natural that they had healthy appetites. Of course they would eat as much as possible when a huge pile of meat appeared in front of them, especially if it wasn’t normally available to them. Even back in Japan, where food hadn’t exactly been scarce, I ate until my stomach ached whenever I got an opportunity to go to an all-you-can-eat barbecue. My appetite was smaller now that I’d become an elf, but at the end of the day, teenage boys ate like teenage boys.

“They can feel free to eat as much as they want. We can even bring food over from the other tables if there isn’t enough for them here,” said Haruka. “The adults are all drinking at the moment.”

Yuki and Natsuki had retired early, and Touya was sipping a drink while he listened to Diola-san gripe. Gantz-san and Simon-san were still eating and drinking, but it was clear that the alcohol was the main course for them, and being older men, they weren’t big eaters. Thus, Tomi was the only one of the adults putting away a lot of food.

“Thank you very much. I don’t imagine the food here will run out...?”

Ishuca-san’s tone was a little doubtful. It was probably the sisters who had her worried; they were consuming so much that I had no idea where they were putting it.

“Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that,” I said. “Mary, Metea, come over here for a sec.”

At my words, the sisters whipped around and swallowed their food in perfect sync, then dashed over to me.

“Sure. What do you need us for?” Mary asked.

“We’re ready whenever!” Metea declared.

But even after eating so much, they seemed unable to keep their eyes off of the table. We should probably get on with this.

“The armor that we ordered for you the other day has been completed,” I said. “We left it in the living room.”

“Really?!” the sisters hollered in chorus.

They immediately took off for the house. There was no need to rush, but apparently the armor was even more exciting to them than the food.

“They’ve really been looking forward to this,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, definitely.”

“You purchased new armor for them?” Ishuca asked.

“Yes, that’s right,” I replied. “They’re become strong enough to handle more demanding combat roles.”

The sisters returned in no time, both wearing reflective white chain mail. Instead of approaching us, they went to see the other kids, who gathered around them yelling, “Whoa!” and “Holy smokes!” They touched and even slapped the mail, and the sisters looked pleased to show it off. I wasn’t sure if this was a good idea given how expensive the armor had been, but although some of the kids looked envious, all of them were admiring rather than resentful.

“I’m a trifle surprised you would purchase such high-quality armor for them,” said Ishuca. “Is it truly worth the price?”

“Well, their share of our earnings wouldn’t be enough to cover it, but this is our way of rewarding them for their hard work,” said Haruka.

“It was a significant expense, but it wasn’t anything that we couldn’t afford,” I added.

We had placed the orders right after returning from the twenty-first floor of the dungeon. After a couple of times in the dungeon, it had become obvious to us that they were serious about making a living as adventurers. We’d also wanted to prioritize their safety; we had no idea what kind of monsters awaited us from the twenty-first floor onward.

Still, we had spent some time debating whether to order white iron or elemental chain mail. From the standpoint of safety, elemental metal was the obvious choice. However, the sisters’ contributions to our shared purse wouldn’t have been enough even for white iron. We had no problem paying for their armor ourselves, but Touya had been worried that they would lose the chance to experience the joy of acquiring top-of-the-line equipment through their own hard work, and I had kind of agreed. When I’d finally been able to buy decent equipment, I’d been really pleased, and it had served as a lasting source of motivation.

We had weighed this consideration against the sisters’ physical safety. After Touya, acting like a true man, had vowed to put his own life on the line to protect the sisters if they were ever in danger, we’d finally agreed to buy them white iron mail and let them earn the money for better armor on their own.

“The thing that surprises me the most, personally, is that none of the other kids seem jealous,” I said.

“These children are well aware that there is little profit in comparing themselves to others,” said Ishuca. “They know to appreciate what fortune has bestowed upon them.”

Haruka and I fell silent after that. Until that moment, it had escaped my mind that Ishuca-san was a priestess.

If the orphans got jealous of anyone who was more fortunate than them, they would spend their entire lives miserable. In practice, it probably wasn’t possible for them to suppress their jealousy completely, but given that they’d been able to forge friendships with the sisters, Ishuca-san had clearly raised them well. I was impressed—I now knew for myself how hard it was to educate kids—and I was confident that they were having a positive influence on Mary and Metea.

Haruka and I glanced at each other and nodded in recognition of how fortunate we’d been to meet Ishuca-san.

★★★★★★★★★

The party had started around noon and ended around sunset. Only half of us—namely, Haruka, Aera-san and Luce-san, and myself—had spent much time admiring the garden and the trees, so I wasn’t sure if our flower-viewing party really qualified as such. Yuki, who’d worked the hardest on the flowers, had been knocked out of commission early in the afternoon, and most of our guests had quickly gotten diverted by the food and alcohol. Honestly, though, it wasn’t too different in that respect from the average flower-viewing party back in Japan, so as long as everyone had enjoyed themselves, I was content to count it as a rousing success.

Although the kids had really tucked into the meal, they’d all gotten full after a couple hours. There was still plenty of food left on the tables, but by the time the party was drawing to a close, most of the kids had stopped reaching for it. Ishuca-san seemed pleased—she told us we’d saved her the cost of two meals—so we wrapped up the leftovers and handed them over to the priests to take back to the orphanage.

Tomi, Gantz-san, and Simon-san had completely emptied the barrel they’d brought, but they appeared to be perfectly fine and set out for home on foot without any difficulty. Diola-san, meanwhile, was wobbling on her feet even as she continued to insist she wasn’t drunk, so I ordered Touya to accompany her home. It would probably turn out fine; he might have been a wolfman, but I was confident that he wasn’t a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I helped Haruka and Natsuki clean things up. The sisters were eager to help as well, but they were rubbing their eyes, worn out from their antics earlier, so we told them they could head to bed. Haruka asked them if they wanted to stay up for ice cream, but they both shook their heads—proof they were very sleepy indeed.

We actually hadn’t served any ice cream at our flower-viewing party. It would have melted outside, besides which it was extremely valuable; we were, after all, the only people in the world who knew how to make it. We’d discussed all this with Ishuca-san ahead of time, and she’d said she actually preferred to avoid introducing the children to something so rare and costly. That had probably been the right decision, and on top of all the other considerations, it would have been a huge burden on the girls to make enough ice cream for all of our guests.

In the end, cleaning up the venue was fairly easy even though there were only three of us. We foisted all of the food that was still fit to eat onto Ishuca-san. As for the bones and other detritus, we simply tossed them into our compost machine, and then Haruka and Natsuki cast Purification on the plates and utensils, obviating the need for washing. All we had to do after that was put away the tables and tableware. After we were mostly done, I approached Haruka and asked for a little of her time later tonight.

★★★★★★★★★

The sun had completely set by the time I went to wait for Haruka by the entrance to the house. Beneath the moonlight, I took a deep breath of the cool night air.

Eventually, the door opened, and Haruka came over to stand beside me. “Did I keep you waiting?” she asked.

“Nah, not really,” I replied. “I was just looking up at the sky.”

There were no clouds, and the light of the waxing moon fell silently upon us. In this world, I’d gotten used to seeing more stars in the night sky than had ever been visible back in Japan, but tonight they were sparser because of the moon being so close to full. By daylight, the flowers in our yard had been vibrant and wonderful to look at; now I could only just make them out.

A famous phrase of the novelist Natsume Soseki escaped my mouth without me realizing it. “The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Hmm?” said Haruka, but then she smiled and played along. “Do you want me to respond, ‘Now I can die happy,’ Nao?”

I smiled back at her. “Nah, that quote just popped into my head.”

“And technically, we can’t say the moon in this world,” she pointed out.

“True,” I said. “There are two of them.”

Yes, this world had two moons. They were never visible at the same time, however, and they looked more or less alike, so I hadn’t noticed until someone mentioned that fact to me. A few times, I had thought I’d noticed slight differences in size, but even back on Earth, the moon had sometimes looked larger or smaller depending on the day, so it had never crossed my mind that this world might have more than one.

“Tonight’s moon is the larger of the two,” said Haruka. “That’s why it’s so bright.”

“I’m glad it’s brighter, even though it’s only a little larger,” I said. “That way I can see your beautiful face better.”

Haruka’s blue eyes were gleaming brighter than usual in the moonlight. She blinked a couple times, looking startled.

“Where did that come from all of a sudden? It’s rather out of character for you.”

“Oh, come on, I have my moments,” I said. “I’m in a romantic mood right now, that’s all.”

“I-I see. Well, I am a girl, so I can’t deny it’s nice to hear things like that from you.”

Haruka leaned on me, and together, we gazed up at the sky.

“It’s been over a year since we were transported to this world, huh?” I said. “Time has really flown.”

“To be more precise, around a year and a half has passed, though I haven’t kept an exact count of the days,” said Haruka.

“We’ve gotten a new home and a dungeon all to ourselves, and we’ve made a lot of connections, including a noble patron,” I said.

“Mm. And we have a respectable amount of savings as well. We’ve come quite far since the days when we were worried about whether we could afford lodging at an inn,” said Haruka.

“Hey, incidentally, spring is kind of the season of new beginnings, right?” I said. “So with that in mind, I felt like this would be the perfect moment for something I’ve been planning for a while.”

“...What do you mean?” Haruka peered up into my face, looking a bit puzzled.

I presented her with a little wooden box, then opened it for her. Inside were two rings, shining in the moonlight.

Haruka gasped when she saw them. “Are these engagement rings, Nao?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” I replied. “I know it isn’t really possible right now, but once things have settled down and our life is more peaceful, will you marry me?”

It had taken a lot of courage to propose, but Haruka answered me quickly and casually. “Of course.”

I couldn’t detect any hesitation on her part. It actually made me space out for a moment.

“...I didn’t expect you to say yes so lightly.”

“Oh, did you want me to take my time and pretend to think before responding?”

“Nah, if you’d purposefully kept me waiting, I think I would have gotten uncomfortable. It’s just that, you know, it took a lot of thought on my part...”

I had spent a fair amount of time thinking about when, where, and how to propose, so Haruka’s response felt a bit anticlimactic. But she must have understood my feelings; she was regarding me with a gentle smile.

“Well, to be honest with you, I’ve always wanted to be a couple,” she said, “ever since we were children back on Earth.”

“Really?”

“Did you never notice? Surely you’re joking, Nao.”

“Uh, well, yeah, I did notice some hints, so...”

We were childhood friends, and Haruka had often stayed in my room past sunset. Sometimes, she’d even cooked meals for me, so her behavior toward me was different from an ordinary friend’s, especially once we were into our teens. Touya was her childhood friend too, but she’d never acted that way toward him. Only an incredibly dense and clueless guy could have claimed there had been no hints at all.

“I do wish your proposal had been a bit more romantic, however,” said Haruka.

“Oh, come on, you know there’s no point in expecting that from me!”

“Mm, yeah. And I am fond of your straightforward and honest character.”

“Oh, uh, thanks. I’m glad that you get me.”

I had actually thought up some romantic lines, but in the end, I’d decided it would be better to use simple words to convey my sincere feelings; anything else would have been pretentious. We had spent so long together that I’d been confident Haruka would understand.

“Anyway, I did put some thought into what would be the right place and time to propose,” I said. “It ended up being here at home, though.”

Haruka giggled. “Don’t worry, you made the right choice. Imagine if we were in some scenic location and we suddenly got attacked by a monster. The moment would be ruined.”

“My thoughts exactly. A blood-soaked proposal would probably still make for some unforgettable memories, but for all the wrong reasons.”

The only safe locations available to me for a proposal were all inside of town. I’d also considered the temple, but I’d quickly discarded that idea; the thought of proposing right under Advastlis-sama’s watchful gaze felt pretty weird to me, though I’d probably have to greet him during the actual wedding ceremony.

“Well, in any case, will you do me the honor of slipping on the ring, Nao?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Haruka held out her left hand, and I picked up her ring and gently slipped it on. The moment I drew my hand back, the ring automatically adjusted itself to the size of her finger. The enchantment had worked without a hitch.

“Oh, it fits—but it didn’t at first? Hmm. Is this Yuki’s doing?” Haruka asked.

“Yep, she cast the Adjust enchantment on it,” I replied. “And she was the one who told me today would be a good day to propose.”

There had been a possibility that the rings would take a lot longer, but apparently Yuki had rushed the jewelers, so they’d been completed ahead of schedule. She had also worked hard to enchant them as quickly as possible, and thanks to her efforts, they’d been ready for me tonight. Yuki often laid playful traps for me, but I didn’t really mind; it was one of the traits that made her so endearing, and she’d helped me out in all sorts of ways.

“I see. Well, I suppose I’ll put on your ring for you,” said Haruka.

Haruka picked up the other ring and placed it on my left ring finger, then took my hand and slowly interlaced her fingers with mine. She seemed very happy as she gazed at our rings right next to each other.

“This is a wonderful set of rings,” she said.

“Yeah, I paid for them as a pair,” I said.

When I stated that obvious fact, Haruka pouted at me.

“Oh, come on,” she said in evident displeasure, “can’t you come up with something more romantic than that?”

“Didn’t you just say that you like my straightforward and honest personality?”

Haruka looked at me expectantly. “Yes. But I like your more theatrical side too.”

I sighed and took a moment to prepare myself, then gently squeezed her left hand with my own and cupped her cheek in my right. Staring into her eyes, I said, “As long as this ring shines brightly on your finger, I vow I will do everything in my power to protect you from whatever harm threatens,” I said. “May it shine until both of our lives at last burn out.”

“...All right, that’s going a bit too far, but I’m satisfied,” said Haruka. “I’m sure we’ll have many years together. Please stay by my side until the very end.”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll never let you go.”

Haruka and I gradually drew closer to each other, locked eyes, and then—

“Argh, I can’t stand it anymore! It’s too sweet!”

I spun around toward the loud voice that had abruptly interrupted our moment. Yuki was standing with her hands on her head. She was gazing upward; she must have been yelling to the sky. Natsuki was peeking at us from the shadows of the front entry, but she, in contrast, looked like she felt a bit bad about it.

“Y-Yuki?! Weren’t you asleep?!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, I was deep asleep! I fell asleep at an awkward moment, but I was planning to sleep all the way through tomorrow morning!”

Why couldn’t you have stayed asleep?! Or rather, why couldn’t you have kept quiet?! I would have been willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that you spied on us if you had at least refrained from interrupting us!

“...But then, after a few hours, I woke up, so I figured it would be a shame to miss this.” She turned and gestured at Natsuki. “Right?!”

Natsuki hastily shook her head. “O-Oh, um, I know nothing about this...”

“What are you doing here, then?” I demanded.

“W-Well, Yuki invited me to tag along...”

I mean, Yuki helped set this whole proposal up, so of course she knew where we’d be, but did you have to accept her invitation?

“I honestly didn’t want to see,” Yuki insisted, “but once I woke up, I couldn’t stop thinking about it!”

Hold on, did you get drunk on purpose earlier so you’d just pass out and could avoid having to see the two of us together? If so, why didn’t you time it so you’d pass out at the end of the party instead of the start? You should have been able to guess that if you got drunk at high noon, the Robust skill would help you recover by nighttime!

“Ugh, I sure am jealous! I wish you’d vow to do everything in your power to protect me!”

“Wait, did you eavesdrop on top of spying on us, Yuki?!”

“Duh! If I had a smartphone on me, I would have a huge collection of photos by now. I’d keep them forever and edit them into a flashy film for your wedding!”

“Yikes!”

Man, I’ve never been more grateful that Yuki doesn’t have a smartphone. And that there aren’t any magical tools with similar capabilities. It’s frightening to realize that thanks to the existence of Alchemy, it wouldn’t be impossible to invent something like that...

“Well, the least I can do is to write down what Nao said, and—”

“...Yuki.”

Haruka had spoken quietly, but Yuki froze.

“This was one of the most important moments in my life before you showed up. I’m sure you’re aware of that, right?”

With a cold smile on her face, Haruka took a step toward Yuki.

“Wh-What’s the matter, Haruka? Are you actually mad?”

Yuki laughed and cocked her head, playing dumb, but Haruka, undeterred, took another step toward her.

“It’s the kind of moment that would have flashed before my eyes as I died,” said Haruka.

Flashed before your eyes? That sounds kind of unsettling. It would be one thing if we were to grow old together and die peacefully in our beds, but given what we do for a living, I guess it’s likelier that our lives will flash before our eyes in the middle of a dangerous adventure.

“Oh, um, spying was probably okay, but maybe I went too far by interrupting things, yeah,” said Yuki.

“Nao is a shy boy,” said Haruka. “It’s rare that I get to hear him be that candid about his feelings.”

She continued inching forward. That was when Yuki started panicking; cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

“...So I’m hearing that the spying was also a bridge too far, in your opinion?”

“And then, just now, he actually mustered the courage to say something romantic. But you ruined it...”

Yuki was still frozen in place from fear. “All right, I’m capable of reflecting on my actions. I should probably say sorry, huh?”

With the same chilling smile fixed on her face, Haruka grabbed Yuki by the shoulders.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t be mad at you, Yuki?”

★★★★★★★★★

The things that happened to Yuki after that are probably best left unsaid. I just clasped my hands in her general direction, praying for her safety. Meanwhile, Natsuki skirted the other two and approached me to bow apologetically.

“I’m terribly sorry for spying,” she said.

“Oh, well, I was kind of embarrassed, but that’s about it,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. Yuki was the one who actually ruined the moment.”

“But she was also the one who facilitated this moment, was she not?”

“Yeah. I really owe her for everything she did, so it’s hard for me to get too mad at her.”

On top of making sure the rings had been ready ahead of schedule and enchanted, she’d given me a lot of help and encouragement...

“I imagine she couldn’t bear to watch without saying something,” said Natsuki. “You’re fortunate to be the object of her affection, Nao-kun.”

“...Yeah, I guess I am kind of a lucky guy.”

“And I, too, am...”

“Huh?”

“...Never mind. This isn’t the right moment,” said Natsuki. “I’ll be the first to return home. I leave Yuki and Haruka in your capable hands.”

“Seriously? Just so you know, I have no idea how to deal with a situation like this on my own.”

“It’ll be a good learning experience, then. You’ll thank me for this in the future.”

Natsuki chuckled and briefly favored me with a smile, then headed back inside and left me alone.

★★★★★★★★★

I killed some time walking around the yard under the moonlight. After half an hour, Haruka returned.

“Ugh. Yuki is far too quick to get carried away,” said Haruka.

“Welcome back. Where’s Yuki?” I asked.

“I put her to sleep,” Haruka replied.

“...I see.” I was fairly sure that Haruka didn’t mean she’d sung her a lullaby or anything like that, but I changed the subject and did my best to defend Yuki. “Well, she’s not a bad person by any means. She actually helped me set things up for today.”

“Mm, that’s true, but I wish she would think before acting.”

No disagreements there. Her timing shocked me—she chose the worst possible moment to interrupt us. I sincerely do appreciate everything she did in relation to the rings, but couldn’t she have waited just a little longer?

“Of the three of us girls, Yuki is the one who’s quickest to act on her feelings,” said Haruka.

She gave me a meaningful glance. In order to avoid her gaze, I averted my eyes toward the flowers. Haruka sat down, then touched the flowers I was looking at and gently smiled.

“Natsuki is sometimes rather detached. I’m a pragmatist and prioritize safety above all,” said Haruka. “In our present circumstances, it’s practical considerations that matter the most to me. Yuki, meanwhile, has the luxury to grow flowers.”

“Yeah. They’re beautiful,” I said. “The viscount’s gardens were even more beautiful, but I still think Yuki did a nice job.”

There was a kitchen garden nearby as well, so it was impossible to turn the entirety of our yard into a proper ornamental garden, but I was actually quite pleased with how it had turned out. It reminded me of my parents’ yard back in Japan; it was free of ostentation.

“Mm. This kind of yard is perfect for me,” said Haruka. “Anything too fancy wouldn’t be suitable for casual walks.”

She laughed, then rose to her feet again and leaned against me again.

“Haruka...”

She looked up at me. Her face was very close, and her eyelashes fluttered as she stared at me. It took me a moment to work up the courage to speak again.

“Are you feeling a little cold right now?”

“...I was expecting you to reenact that scene earlier, Nao.”

My shoulders sagged. “Come on, give me a break. I did the best I could...”

Still, I felt that some warmth had returned to Haruka’s eyes as she continued to watch me.

She giggled. “I’m just kidding, Nao. I’m happy that you did your best to come up with something romantic to say to me, even if it ends up being a onetime deal. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting even that much from you...”

“Okay, now I’m kind of offended,” I said. “I’m the kind of guy who can rise to the occasion, y’know?”

“Really? Back on Earth, I had a hunch you always assumed that your feelings would come across even if you didn’t put them into words,” said Haruka. “You never took the initiative with me, even though we had more than enough time together.”

I fell silent. Haruka was completely right. There was a good chance that our relationship would have remained static if we hadn’t been transported to this world. I shifted my gaze away from hers and looked up into the sky.

“Haruka, the moon is beautiful tonight, isn’t it?”

“Mm. Now I can die happy, Nao.”

Haruka laughed and held out her left hand. I clasped it into my own. Our rings gently touched, and the red and blue gems sparkled silently as the moonlight poured down upon them.

Afterword

Writing a book is a battle with the word count. It’s necessary to consider the number of words per line and the number of lines per page as well as the choice of words and expressions so that the text will be easy for readers to get into the moment they open the book and won’t become overwhelming. You have to decide, in advance, the total number of pages, then divide them up into sections every sixteen or twenty-two pages for printing reasons. In order to save paper, your initial estimate of the total page count has to incorporate a certain amount of leeway; some pages may be adjusted to be shorter than others.

Recently, more people have started reading ebooks, and the number of words and lines per page can differ greatly between the print and digital editions. It’s true that there’s no point in focusing on how a book looks in its printed version, but I intend to keep doing my best as long as I can; I love print books.

The reason I opened with the topic of length is that this volume is the first in the series to exceed 320 pages. Starting with volume 9, there was a formatting change, with an extra line being added to each page, but even taking that difference into account, the page count for volume 11 is massive. When I began writing this volume, I expected it to end up somewhat shorter than the norm for this series. I even considered adding more scenes to make up the shortfall. It’s a real mystery to me how things turned out the way they did.

But it means that I have good news! Recently, you may have had the experience of opening a package of snacks or candy only to discover that the contents are scantier than you expected. This has become all too common—a sort of stealth price hike. But relative to volume 1 of Land Mines, volume 11 actually represents a thirty percent increase in word count. It’s more bang for your buck!

But that’s enough joking around. To return to the book itself: Nao and Haruka are the main characters on the cover, just as for the previous volume. I’m once again grateful for Nekobyou Neko-san’s wonderful art.

Nao and Haruka don’t actually play the leading roles for this volume, however. If anything, there’s more focus on Mary, Metea, and Illias. Yuki gets some cute scenes too. Still, Haruka has plenty of eventful scenes in this volume, and by the end, she’s back in the spotlight, so I’m confident fans of Haruka won’t be disappointed.

There’s also one character from a previous volume who shows up again; some readers may be surprised to learn who it is. As for whether that specific individual will go on to become a recurring character, I can only say it depends on how long this series continues. I’m personally quite fond of her, but although I’d planned out all sorts of things, including her psychology and background, I gave her very few scenes in the web novel version of the series, so I’m satisfied that I’ve gotten an opportunity to bring her back. However, consistency is essential, so these kinds of changes are always a struggle to implement properly.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all of the parties involved in publishing this book, plus all of the readers who made it possible for this series to continue. I hope you’ll all be kind enough to support me in the future.

Itsuki Mizuho