The Secret of the Underground Cave
I waved a hand as if it were nothing.
“No, that’s not it. Don’t misunderstand me, Nnen.”
Smiling softly, I explained, “A little while ago, I happened to help a child who’d run into trouble on the road. As it turned out, the boy’s older brother was the boss of that organization.”
“You helped the younger brother of an underworld boss?”
“So I’m guessing this letter was sent because of that. Don’t worry, it’s definitely not a threat.”
“......Is that so?”
Nnen withdrew her killing intent and put her usual gentle smile back on.
“Still, be careful. People like that are never what they seem.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Then get some rest. And make sure you read the papers.”
As soon as Nnen left, I tore open the letters.
The first was from the magic tower branch.
To: Hans, tailor exclusively contracted to the Valderk family
Content: The first batch of Cleanliness Handkerchiefs you supplied has sold out completely. They have been met with enthusiastic praise among noble ladies and research mages who take hygiene seriously. Accordingly, we are placing an additional order for 1,000 pieces. Please deliver them within a reasonable time frame.
Sold out in five days.
And now they wanted more!
“One thousand, huh.”
A smile spread across my face.
At five silver apiece, one thousand of them meant fifty gold.
“I already made five hundred, so I only need another five hundred.”
Make money, and train mana at the same time.
It was a perfect virtuous cycle.
Bargo, what did you send me?
The second letter.
The moment I opened the envelope, rough handwritten notes spilled out.
To the brother who saved my little brother.
Brother? Who was he calling brother?
I let out a small laugh and kept reading.
Curious about your enemy, the Bergen family? We can’t exactly dance around with swords ourselves, but sniffing out the stench of those bastards is what we do best.
Underneath that were details on the Bergen family’s recent movements, especially Sophia’s.
- Sophia Bergen has recently skipped social gatherings and holed herself up in her mansion, becoming increasingly irritable.
- Count Bergen is under pressure from a tax investigation over problems with the southern trade port.
- The Bergen family’s exclusive dress shop has brought in a new head tailor, Duel.
“Duel?”
Duel was apparently a promising young tailor from the Eastern Continent, drawing noble attention with flashy, unconventional fashion.
Bargo had clearly put some effort into it, but there wasn’t much of real value there.
I should go buy more fabric.
I still had another five hundred handkerchiefs to make.
* * *
The market at dusk.
“Move! Get out of the way! Can’t you see this transport wagon?”
“What is it with this traffic? Hurry up and unload the goods already!”
The narrow street was so clogged with freight wagons that it was nearly impossible to get through.
As I pushed through the crowd on my way to my regular fabric shop, I studied the line of wagons blocking the road.
That blue wheel emblem painted on the covers.
Blue Wagon Transport.
One of the stocks I’d recently bought.
“Hah. These days, they say nobody’ll even take a delivery unless it’s Blue Wagon Transport.”
The merchants watching from the side clicked their tongues and muttered among themselves.
“Don’t even start. The Bergen shipping side is in chaos right now. They say cargo is piling up at the port like a mountain because they can’t sort it fast enough, and it’s all rotting away. Blue Wagon Transport is the only thing keeping them afloat, since they’re charging a premium to haul the stuff out.”
The merchants’ grumbling complaints sounded sweet as honey to my ears.
So Blue Wagon Transport is making a killing right now.
Was my intuition actually right?
The corners of my mouth lifted on their own.
* * *
The underground workroom.
Once again, I wrestled with the heaps of white fabric piled on the worktable.
Snip, snip.
The steady sound of scissors cutting through cloth.
Already on the third day.
Making the extra five hundred handkerchiefs for the magic tower had been far more grueling than I’d expected.
At the exact instant the needle pierced the cloth, I had to inscribe the 1st Tier purification magic circuit into it.
The timing was so delicate that if I missed it by even a heartbeat, the magic wouldn’t take and it would just be an ordinary scrap of fabric.
“331... 332...”
Sweat gathered on my forehead and stung my eyes, but I didn’t even have time to wipe it away.
My fingertips ached joint by joint.
Still, this one handkerchief is worth five silver.
I was making silver coins with my own hands.
It was work that was turning a poor man into a rich one.
I was so caught up in the thrill of making money that I barely felt the fatigue.
Then the wall of the secret passage opened, and Ellen came in.
“Welcome, my lady.”
“It’s been a while, Hans. You still look busy as ever.”
“I’m always like this.”
“But what’s that?”
Ellen’s eyes went wide as she looked at the pile of handkerchiefs.
“Could it be... Cleanliness Handkerchiefs?”
“How did you know?”
“A few days ago, my friends recommended one to me, so I bought it. They sell them at the Rowen magic tower shop, don’t they?”
She stared at me in disbelief.
“That was your work? Good heavens... Those things are popular among noble young ladies lately. Everyone’s saying that if you wipe away blemishes or rashes with one, they calm down almost immediately.”
“It calms down blemishes and rashes?”
“It’s true. I’ve seen the effect myself.”
“I see.”
That was an unexpected side effect.
I had given the Cleanliness Handkerchief several experimental enchantments, but I hadn’t expected it to have any effect on skin blemishes.
Did the Trace Erasure magic recognize blemishes on skin as traces...?
Either way, it wasn’t a bad thing.
In fact, it was great.
This... could sell very well.
It would be a deeply tempting product for women who wanted beautiful, blemish-free skin.
“How did you even think of making something like that?”
“It was something I happened to create while running a number of experiments. Even I didn’t expect that effect.”
“Amazing, really.”
Ellen looked genuinely impressed.
“But Hans. Why do you work yourself so hard? You’re not sleeping, and you’re not even resting....”
She looked at my hollow eyes and roughened hands with concern.
“If it’s money you need, I can raise your pay. Or support you however much you need. You wouldn’t have to suffer like this when you could be living comfortably.”
Her words were kind.
With the Valderk family’s wealth, they could easily let me loaf around for the rest of my life.
“I appreciate the offer, but I’d rather stand on my own than live comfortably by relying on someone else.”
“On your own?”
“My dream is to earn money with my own hands and use that money to become even richer. Help from others eventually runs dry, but strength I gain for myself won’t disappear.”
At my firm answer, Ellen fell silent.
She stared at me with a strange expression.
“You’re... really different from the commoners I knew.”
She smiled bitterly and lowered her head.
“I’m jealous. Of how you can have such a clear goal and such confidence.”
Come to think of it, her voice lacked its usual force.
Gone was her normal confidence; her shoulders had slumped.
She had to be worried about something.
“Is something troubling you?”
I asked carefully.
“Are you stuck in your magic studies?”
“No. If it were something like that, I would’ve asked you ages ago. This is... a different problem.”
Ellen gave a long sigh and sank weakly into the chair.
“Next week, there’s a reception in Rowen to welcome the crown prince. There’ll be a ball then.”
“A ball? Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It would be, if Sophia weren’t involved.”
She bit her lip.
“Did you hear the rumor? Sophia brought a genius tailor named Duel all the way from the East.”
“You mean that tailor from the East.”
“Exactly. Sophia’s been bragging about it everywhere. She says that at this ball, Duel will make her the star of the night with a dress he designed.”
Ellen’s face darkened.
“The dress Sophia’s going to wear isn’t ordinary, either. I heard the pattern ripples with the light and shines all on its own even from far away. At the demonstration, everyone supposedly just stared at that one dress. The person standing next to it might as well not have existed.”
The pattern rippling with the light is no big deal, but... shining all on its own?
The answer came quickly.
“It’s a magic that layers an illusion over the cloth. The fabric itself isn’t changing; it’s deceiving the eyes of whoever looks at it.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s the only magic that can produce that kind of effect on cloth. It’s a trick of the eye. Flashy, but in the end, nothing more than an illusion.”
Of course, even as a trick of the eye, it was still a remarkable spell.
“Do you already have a dress prepared, my lady?”
“I do have one I’m supposed to wear this time. Father had it made by an artisan in the imperial capital. It’s pretty and refined, but....”
She lowered her head.
“If this were just about me being embarrassed alone, that would be one thing. But that isn’t the problem. This is a venue held before the crown prince. If I lose there, it means the Valderk family lost to the Bergen family. Our family’s honor is on the line.”
Even if she’d won the theory and practical exams, if she lost at the ball—the crown jewel of noble society—those victories would lose their shine.
Especially at an event attended by the crown prince. That defeat would be remembered for years to come.
For noble families, a ball was no different from a battlefield.
“Would you like me to help?”
“You? But Hans, you’re a tailor. Making a dress from scratch would be impossible.”
“Nothing’s impossible, though... I’m more of an alteration specialist.”
“Alteration?”
“Bring me that dress. I’ll make whatever illusion magic that Duel fellow used look like a cheap party trick.”
“Really? You can really do that?”
“Of course.”
My confidence made Ellen’s eyes tremble.
She must have been desperate enough to grasp at even a straw.
“What do you need? Anything you want.”
“I need magic stones. The more, the better.”
“Fine. Anything else?”
I was just about to name some additional materials when—
“And what exactly are the two of you doing here?”
A cold voice came from behind me.
It felt as if my heart had frozen solid.
I whirled around in shock.
At the entrance to the secret passage, someone stood in the darkness.
“F-father!”
Ellen’s face went white as a sheet.
It was Count Valderk.
Behind him stood two figures, silent as shadows.
Both were familiar.
One was Sebas, the Valderk family butler who had once visited the cloth shop.
And the other was the maid Nnen.
The count’s expression was icy.
The kindly smile he usually wore when looking at Ellen was gone without a trace.
“Ellen, have you forgotten what this place is?”
“F-Father... it’s not like that....”
“You brought an outsider into this forbidden place? And not just anyone, but some lowborn commoner of unknown background? Have you lost your mind?”
His roar echoed through the underground chamber.
Trembling like a leaf in the wind, Ellen still stepped in front of me.
“It’s my fault! Hans doesn’t know anything! I forced him to come here!”
“Move aside.”
“Father, please! Hans is my benefactor! He helped raise my grades, and he’s helped me before too.”
“A benefactor? There is no such thing for someone who has violated the family’s rules.”
The count’s eyes shifted to me.
They were flat, emotionless eyes—the kind one might use to look at a bug, or at someone already dead.
“Drag this one out immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
The answer came, and at the same moment, the wind stirred.
No, I only thought it was wind.
“Ghk!”
In an instant, both my arms were twisted behind my back.
The grip was monstrous.
Before I could even turn my head, I was slammed into the floor.
“I’m sorry, Hans.”
A quiet whisper brushed my ear.
It was Nnen.
She had already climbed onto my back and pinned me down.
She was no gentle maid now.
She was a beast.
The strength in her hands was so overwhelming it could only be called inhuman.
“Let him go! Hans did nothing wrong!”
Ellen tried to rush forward, but Sebas blocked her path.
“I will escort you to your room, young lady.”
“No! Father, please! If you touch Hans, I won’t just sit here and take it! I won’t ever see you again!”
Ellen’s cries faded into the distance.
I was dragged away, restrained by Nnen.
Resistance?
Impossible.
I didn’t even have time to use mana.
“Keep your mouth shut and stay still.”
Nnen whispered quietly near my ear.
“If you try to explain yourself now, you’ll only make the head’s anger worse. If you don’t want to die, come along and act dead.”
At her words, I bit my lip and nodded.
Clank.
The heavy iron gate slammed shut, its sound echoing through the cave.
I was thrown to the floor.
“Ugh....”
The cave was damp and dark.
Water dripped from the ceiling in steady, hollow drops.
The air was thick with mold and the smell of old dust.
So there was a place like this beneath the Valderk mansion.
This was no workshop. It was a secret prison no outsider could ever hope to discover.
“Hans.”
Nnen stood in the darkness beyond the bars.
Her expression looked complicated.
“You’ll have to stay here for a while.”
“What happens to me? Am I going to die?”
I asked flatly.
In truth, I was only pretending to be calm.
Cold sweat was already running down my back.
“Who knows.”
Nnen pushed a small basket through the bars.
Inside were a bottle of water and some bread.
“If the head had intended to kill you, he would have cut your throat on the spot back then. The fact that he brought you here and locked you up means... there’s still some room for leniency.”
“Leniency...?”
“Lady Ellen is fighting desperately for you. To keep you alive. So don’t give up hope.”
She turned as if to leave, then stopped again.
“And... it may feel unfair, but endure it. Knowing a noble family’s secrets has always been a matter of risking your life. I’ll come again tomorrow.”
Nnen’s footsteps grew distant, and even the torchlight vanished.
Perfect darkness descended.
“Haah....”
I sank to the floor with a thud.
Things had gone wrong so thoroughly it was almost impressive.
...I have no idea what I’m supposed to do now.
The seed money for the stock I’d only recently started expanding.
The Cleanliness Handkerchief recognized by the Rowen magic tower.
The mana core that had started at 1st Tier beginner level was already approaching mastery.
If I could just get past this wall, 2nd Tier wouldn’t be a dream anymore.
I’d only just begun.
And now I was going to die here, this absurdly?
No. I can’t die.
If Nnen was right, then it still wasn’t over.
If the count had wanted to kill me, he would have done it already.
The food basket Nnen had left me.
For now, eat.
If I wanted to survive, I needed strength first.
I tore off a piece of bread, shoved it into my mouth, and chewed.
After washing it down with water, my mind seemed to work a little better.
But once I sat still, anxiety began creeping back in.
No good. I need to do something.
When it came to steadying my mind, nothing beat imagined training.
Being locked in a prison didn’t mean my time had to stop.
If anything, I’d been given uninterrupted time.
I sat down and closed my eyes.
In my head, I summoned Paim’s gang into a virtual space and began the battle.
Strike first before the enemy can attack.
Space-sealing needles.
Transparent threads.
Maybe it was thanks to all my training so far.
Now I could handle Paim’s crew with my eyes closed.
But what about someone strong like Nnen?
If a situation like that came up again, could I dodge in advance?
A movement as swift as the wind, striking before I had time to predict it.
It had been terrifyingly fast.
There doesn’t seem to be an answer right now.
Still, I kept training responses.
Wrapping the front in transparent threads ahead of time.
Firing space-sealing needles.
I tried everything I could in my imagination.
After a while, my mana ran dry.
It would take a long time to recover.
The flux magic circle was in my workshop.
No choice. I’ll draw one here.
I leveled the dirt on the floor and traced a magic circle with my fingertips.
Without a magic stone as the core source, the recovery speed would only improve by a tiny amount.
Still, it was better than nothing.
Done.
Seated inside the magic circle, I focused on the sensation of mana seeping into my depleted core.
But then—
...Huh?
Something was odd.
The recovery was faster than expected.
Only by the tiniest margin, but still.
That means mana is flowing somewhere in this cave.
My heart pounded violently.
Could there be a hidden magic stone here somewhere?
A threadlike current of mana that I would never have noticed without laying down the flux magic circle.
It led deeper into the cave.
Toward the farthest dead-end wall from the entrance.
The rock face was smooth, but...
There was a faint sense of something out of place.
Hmm... what are these curves?
My eye, the same eye that could catch even a single stray thread or loose stitch in a bolt of fabric, had found traces.
Grooves thinner than hair.
Spaced at regular intervals, cut at calculated angles.
These weren’t formed naturally. Someone made them.
Brush.
As I cleared away the dirt and dust, countless lines emerged one after another.
A sealing circle! No doubt about it.
Complex formulas.
Not just one—dozens of them overlapped on top of each other.
Why would anyone go to such absurd lengths?
What exactly had been sealed away here?
I thought about it for a moment.
Breaking the formula wouldn’t be difficult for me.
Could this be an exit?
If there was space beyond this wall... maybe this was a way out?
There was no time to hesitate.
Let’s do it.
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