Chapter 384 - Us (3)

「The Labyrinth has closed.」

「Moving character to Raphdonia.」

The city's sunlight, which I hadn't seen in nearly two months.

Perhaps because I'd spent the very last of that time in Atlante, deep beneath the dark sea, it felt all the more brilliant.

'People really do need sunlight.'

Like the other explorers, I spent a moment looking up at the city's gloomy sky, then hurried to the checkpoint.

"Over here!"

Erwin, who had arrived ahead of me, waved. I joined her in line, and Amelia arrived soon afterward.

"You're late."

"It took longer than I expected to find him."

As she answered, Amelia gestured toward the navigator standing awkwardly to her right.

"So he was telling the truth about entering through the District 7 plaza like us."

"He doesn't lie."

How long had she even known him to sound so certain?

A little dumbfounded, I hid it and asked,

"... Still, did you have any trouble?"

"None at all. He stayed right where he was, waiting for me instead of going anywhere else."

Amelia's voice was full of pride.

Was she that pleased he'd done as he was told?

The navigator, Auyen Rockrove, on the other hand, seemed to be having a belated reality check...

"Heh heh heh..."

But the instant our eyes met, he put on a broad, professional smile.

Hmm. Seeing him like this did make me feel a little sorry for him.

Then again, he'd been one of the people who came after us first. He'd brought it on himself.

"Our turn now."

The line soon brought us to the front. We exchanged all the magic crystals we'd gathered for money and passed through the checkpoint.

Beyond it lay a street packed with people.

We changed our formation a little here, with Amelia at the very back and the navigator directly in front of her.

"Haha... Y-you don't have to do that. I'm not going to run..."

"You might get lost trying to follow us."

"I've lived in District 7 for twenty years..."

The navigator muttered something under his breath, but he stayed in formation all the way through the crowded streets to our home.

And then...

"This is the place...?"

We had reached a three-story detached house. Passing the high walls and stepping into the garden, the navigator gaped in admiration.

But as he looked around, he seemed to notice something odd.

"Um, why are all the windows..."

He trailed off without finishing, his gaze fixed on the boarded-up windows.

"Don't worry about that. It's a security measure."

"Ah, yes..."

He said nothing more, but his eyes and expression held both curiosity and fear.

Just what sort of people were we, to live in a house like this?

'Come to think of it, he seems to have figured out who Erwin is already...'

I'd have to check on that later.

For now, we crossed the garden and went inside. After a brief discussion, we decided to give the navigator one of the spare rooms.

A room in the basement.

"... The basement? We have a basement?"

I tilted my head and looked at Erwin, who blushed shyly.

"I specifically looked for a house with one. Just in case..."

Hmm, really...?

Well, I had heard rich people's houses often had panic rooms...

CREAK, CREAK, CREAK.

Feeling uneasy, I watched Erwin pull back a rug and operate a mechanism that revealed a staircase.

Downstairs, we found a space that seemed designed for storage. It was completely empty, having never been stocked with anything. In the wall at the far end stood a thick iron door with a lock.

CLICK.

Erwin took out a key and opened the door, revealing a room furnished with a single large bed.

For some reason, there were restraints on the wall, too.

"This isn't... a room. It's a prison..."

The navigator went deathly pale at the sight of his assigned quarters.

Honestly, I felt much the same.

For some reason, the moment I saw the basement room, a chill ran down my spine.

Well, it wasn't any concern of mine now.

"... A prison? It's a perfectly ordinary room."

"..."

"Look over there. It even has a toilet and a bath. You'll have them all to yourself. Isn't that nice?"

"..."

"Ahem. Well, I'll head back upstairs first. My stomach suddenly isn't feeling so good..."

Sheesh, why was my heart pounding so hard?

It wasn't as if I had claustrophobia.

I quickly ushered the navigator inside and shut the door, and Erwin immediately locked it.

CLICK.

"W-wait! Wait a moment!"

BANG, BANG, BANG!

We heard the navigator pounding on the door, but all of us pretended not to hear.

"May I keep the key?"

"Go ahead."

With the key handed over to Amelia, the matter of the navigator's accommodations was settled.

She'd take care of feeding him and everything else now.

Actually, there was something else I'd been wondering about for a while.

"Emily, does a poison like that really exist? I've never heard of one that kills you if you don't take an antidote every day."

Wasn't that just like gu poison in martial arts novels?

The Demonic Cult using it to blackmail members of the orthodox sects into becoming its servants was a classic trope.

If it actually existed, I thought it might prove useful in all sorts of ways.

But...

"Schuitz, you have a naive side, too."

"... Huh?"

"Of course no such poison exists. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to know much about poisons."

"Oh..."

So it had been a bluff after all.

I'd suspected that might be the case, which was why I'd waited until now to ask—

"What?"

Erwin suddenly flinched.

"That poison... doesn't exist...?"

For some reason, she sounded deeply disappointed.

Something about that bothered me too much to let it pass, so I asked obliquely whether she'd needed it for something. Erwin averted her eyes.

"J-just in case..."

In case of what, exactly?

I wanted to press her, but I doubted I'd get a proper answer anyway, so I let it go.

* * *

On our first day back from the Labyrinth, we all rested in our own rooms. Starting the next day, though, things got busy.

We'd brought back far too much loot to sit around.

"Erwin, come with me."

"Huh? Me? You can handle it perfectly well on your—"

"You can't even do this much for Schuitz?"

"... That's not what I meant."

From the second day onward, Erwin and Amelia went out at all hours to turn our loot into cash, while I spent most of my time watching the house.

"Schuitz, I've left his meals on the table in order. Make sure to feed him at mealtimes while I'm out."

Apart from visiting the basement at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, there wasn't much to my daily routine.

On the third day, however, I had a visitor.

"Raven."

"I meant to come yesterday, but I was busy. Can I come in?"

"Of course."

Once inside, Raven glanced around and asked,

"Where are the other two?"

"Out dealing with the loot."

"Hmm..."

There was something a little strange about her murmur.

When I asked whether something was wrong, she said it was nothing.

"I was just thinking that those two are doing what I used to handle."

"I'm sorry about that. You were the only one I could trust with those things."

"I wasn't asking for an apology. More importantly... there's nothing to apologize for."

"Thank you for seeing it that way."

I led Raven into the living room, where we sat facing each other.

Then we briefly caught up.

"How did things go for you?"

"Things worked out pretty well overall. What about you?"

"Same as ever. It's not a war that'll end in a day or two."

"I see."

"..."

There was a distance between us that hadn't been there when we were teammates.

She probably felt it, too.

We'd both been in the Labyrinth, so it had effectively been almost two months since we'd last seen each other.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!

Just then, I felt vibrations from below.

"It sounds like there's something in the basement..."

Oh, right. It was well past lunchtime.

"We had some sewer work done recently. It's probably that. Don't worry about it."

Admitting I had someone locked up down there would have been a little awkward, so I offered a vague excuse.

Fortunately, Raven didn't seem suspicious.

After that, our conversation flowed naturally, and I got to hear what had happened during her latest expedition.

The important information only came at the very end, though.

"Oh, and about that thing you asked me about, Mr. Jandel... I mean, Mr. Schuitz."

"What thing?"

"The racial incorporation proposal."

"Did you find out who brought it up?"

"Yes. It was Countess Pevroch."

"Pefroch...?"

The moment I heard it, I wondered what was going on.

After all, that was the surname of someone I'd been quite close to.

Lagna Litaniel Pefroch.

Maybe they simply shared a surname, but the question wouldn't leave me alone.

When I'd checked before, there hadn't been a noble house named Pefroch anywhere in Raphdonia.

"Raven, what's the countess's first name?"

"Lagna Pefroch. I'm certain that was her name."

"... What?"

Was it really her?

Although, if it was, her middle name was missing...

"... Is she someone you know?"

"Possibly. Could you tell me more about House Pefroch?"

"It's a fairly ordinary fallen noble house. It had even disappeared from the royal register of nobility, but it was quietly restored a year ago."

What? Then of course I wouldn't have found it when I'd checked.

Could the countess really be Lagna?

As I kept turning that question over in my head...

"That part made so little sense that I investigated further. Fallen nobles are restored from time to time, but how could she have built up enough standing to attend a royal council meeting in such a short time?"

Raven lowered her voice and continued.

"The answer turned out to be simple. She had someone backing her."

"Who?"

"Raphdonia's Chancellor, Marquis Terserion."

"... What?"

Suddenly, my thoughts were a jumble.

Setting aside whether Countess Pefroch and Lagna were the same person, if Raven was right, didn't that mean the countess belonged to the Chancellor's faction?

"Then... the Chancellor was the one pushing the racial incorporation proposal..."

As I unwittingly voiced my thoughts, Raven shook her head slightly.

"No. That part's unclear. Apparently, the moment the proposal came up, the Chancellor himself shouted it down as absolute nonsense. That startled the other nobles, and the whole thing fizzled out immediately."

"Perhaps it was just a performance."

"A performance...?"

"I mean it might have been staged. By putting his anger on display, he made his position clear in advance so the other nobles wouldn't get any ideas."

"Oh..."

Raven's mouth fell open, as though that hadn't occurred to her.

"You know a fair bit about politics, too, apparently...?"

"Not really. I'm just interested in people."

Of course, that was only speculation. I didn't know what had actually happened.

I still had far too little information.

"Raven, could you look into Countess Pefroch a little more?"

"I will. There are a lot of things that don't sit right with me, either."

"Thank you, as always."

"I'll be going, then."

"All right. Take care."

That brought my meeting with Raven that day to an end.