Darkest Under the Lamp
There's a saying: it's darkest under the lamp.
It's a proverb that means, quite literally, that people often fail to notice what's happening right under their noses.
True to the saying, people living in the big city never even considered that darkness might slip in among them.
The Mudwell Family had only one branch, and it sat right inside the major city of Crineas — occupying an entire building.
Our ancestors really never got a single saying wrong. They must have been beautiful too, right? Looking at the women of history, there were so many beauties.
This was the first time I'd ever come this far from home, and my heart fluttered a little. Not physically trembling, mind you — I was just a bit excited.
Well, it was far enough from the Academy that the protagonists wouldn't have known. Given their personalities, they would have tried to get involved even knowing they were outmatched.
If I'd come alone, I might have been a little scared of getting lost, but thankfully I was with Teacher Cecilia, so I felt at ease.
Could the Association's busty big sister have carefully put the team together with even this in mind?
Thinking a beauty was looking out for me made me feel good, so rather than chalking it up to coincidence, I preferred to believe this.
Imagining being held and patted by Big-Boob Unnie made a smile slip out on its own.
"Why are you smiling like that?"
"Mmm~ It's nothing."
I shook my head at Teacher Cecilia's question.
Even though we were chatting so warmly right now, the operation was already underway.
The two assault teams circled the Mudwell Family's perimeter on watch, while a rear support unit of ninety-two people sealed off the entire city and evacuated the civilians.
"They've already noticed, right?"
"Probably. With an evacuation this noisy."
Cecilia frowned as if she didn't like it much.
Somehow, the aura of a veteran master seemed to radiate from her. An incredibly powerful blind swordswoman… so cool…! I felt like I was about to become her fan. Was this what it felt like to fall for someone?
"Have you done this kind of thing a lot, Teacher?"
"This kind of thing? Villain sweeps?"
When I nodded slightly, Cecilia rested a hand on her chin and went "mmm~" as she counted up how many times she'd done this.
"Not a ton, but maybe around fifteen times or so."
"…Isn't that a lot?"
Cecilia laughed awkwardly at my question.
"It's not that many. There are plenty of people who've done more than me."
"That just means those people are amazing!"
My subtle flattery didn't seem to bother her — Cecilia's shoulders rose a little higher.
Our teacher was surprisingly easy to handle. So cute!
Then a man who'd been standing quietly beside us cut in.
"So what is the relationship between you two?"
"Teacher and student. I'm the teacher, she's the student."
Cecilia answered for me.
Short-cropped black hair. A sturdy build with solid muscle. And a face that radiated solemnity and seriousness. This man who reeked of military was Hwang Daegil — an A-class Awakener assigned to Assault Team B alongside Cecilia, same as me.
Watching him nod and murmur "I see" with that same serious expression, I thought: he, too, was a character never even mentioned in How to Become a Hero.
Of course, while A-class weren't numerous, they weren't rare either, so not appearing in How to Become a Hero wasn't particularly strange. But still…
"Elysia."
"Yes?"
"You don't have to be so tense."
Had my serious expression looked like nerves? This was all because I was fretting over you. I couldn't exactly say that, so I just gave a small smile.
"Teacher."
"Hm?"
"Can I hold your hand?"
"Mmm~ What should I do~."
Cecilia made a playful face and wiggled her fingers.
But only for a moment. She held out her hand kindly, smiling softly.
"……."
When I carefully took her hand, I felt a warm heat. Summer was approaching, so our hands might get sweaty, but somehow I had no desire to let go.
Why was it that just looking at Cecilia made me want to act spoiled? Because she was older than me? More mature? Incredibly strong? Well, I didn't really know. All I knew for certain was that holding Cecilia's hand made my heart ease as if by magic.
Holding hands with a beauty really was the best. From now on, whenever my heart got complicated, I'd go find a beauty and ask her to hold my hand. Lucky me! There were so many beautiful girls around me.
After gazing at Cecilia's face for a moment, I turned my head and saw ordinary-looking people walking the streets around Mudwell's branch. All of them were Assault Team B members in disguise, same as me. Team A was probably behind the branch.
Maybe because forty people were still moving around the area, the streets still seemed lively even though most civilians had been evacuated.
Then, the back of a familiar head caught my eye. I didn't actually know him. He definitely wasn't from Team B. The reason I knew him was simple: he was a man I'd been considering as my next target.
Kaid, an executive in charge of one of Bind's branches.
Cecilia seemed to notice there was someone she didn't recognize — she narrowed her eyes and stared at Kaid. As expected of Cecilia! She'd memorized every face on Team B before the operation started.
Cecilia gave my hand a light tug, signaling me to follow, and began slowly trailing Kaid.
And… when we saw where he'd led us, we had no choice but to stop. That place, which at a glance looked like nothing more than a somewhat large ordinary building, was our target: Mudwell's base.
Because of that, even while holding the hand of an incredible beauty named Cecilia, my head started spinning again.
Why was Kaid here? Did Bind have something going on with Mudwell? Given Bind's size, a direct connection to the Eclipse Family seemed unlikely. Maybe Kaid alone had some kind of link.
I didn't know much about Bind's internal affairs, but just considering it was a new organization that hadn't finished consolidating power, there were bound to be one or two guys looking to take over. Maybe he was trying to get power from Mudwell and swallow Bind whole.
That would make sense — Eclipse had recently been researching that. If Kaid had obtained it from Mudwell, swallowing something like Bind would have been easy. But… unfortunately he'd failed, which was why Kaid, who'd been set to take over Bind, never appeared even once in How to Become a Hero.
As I stood there blankly, Cecilia tapped the back of my hand with her fingers.
"…Ah."
Coming back to my senses and looking at her, Cecilia nodded toward moving a bit farther away.
It was still only evening. The operation wouldn't start until after midnight, so we didn't want anything happening this early. They'd probably already noticed us, so standing here was basically suicide. If they struck first, we'd be dead meat.
I naturally turned and followed her away from the place, but my awareness still lingered in that direction. From the building itself… something ominous seemed to radiate. An inexplicable sense of revulsion.
Mudwell was one of the subordinate organizations Eclipse had ordered to research that… That was probably the aura pouring out from that. Ugh, I already hate it…
I'd already lost interest in Kaid going in there. What mattered was that I'd soon have to fight the guys inside. They were on a completely different level from the ones I'd cleaned up so far, and quite a few would have taken that. Plus, the materials for that were…
"……Annoying."
"Hm? Sorry…"
At my quiet mutter, Cecilia, who'd been still, suddenly wilted and apologized.
"I-I wasn't talking about you, Teacher!"
"Really…?"
"Y-yes……"
That look of hers felt oddly cute, so I playfully squished and kneaded our joined hands with fancy finger work.
One hour and twenty-four minutes until the assault. Until then, I planned to keep holding Cecilia's hand and play with it…
KRAAAAAASH!
Mudwell's base shattered into pieces, and from within, a giant man… no, a monster burst out.
A little early, but the operation had begun.
They say it's darkest under the lamp. The usage was a little different, but it fit Yi Siyun perfectly — the childhood friend who, precisely because they were so close, had never noticed her own feelings.
Carmen clutched her throbbing head and looked at the woman in front of her.
"I'm going crazy……"
"U-uh? What?"
And right in front of her… or rather, sitting on her lap, Yi Siyun turned to look at Carmen with round eyes. For all her attempts to act bold, her face was bright red. She seemed to be trying her hardest to act normal… but that was only making it worse.
To make matters worse, ever since she'd overheard Yi Siyun's counseling session, Carmen had also become conscious of her — making everything even more serious.
"……I'm really going crazy."
"W-what is it!"