Via Agra (2)
Upon arriving at the mansion, we were shown straight to the drawing room.
Waiting there was the head of the Agra family — Beyond Agra.
Been a while since I've seen that face.
Beyond was someone I'd run into constantly while playing the game, so seeing him now stirred an oddly fond feeling.
Beyond Agra. Lord of an entire city, and an exceptionally gifted mage. He was the foremost authority on magic-tool craftsmanship and enchantment, which meant players sought him out more and more as the story progressed into the late game.
He offered a kindly smile and spoke to Kyle.
"A pleasure. I am Beyond Agra."
"Thank you for welcoming us."
After exchanging a few courtesies with Kyle, his gaze shifted to Layla.
That look alone was enough to put me on edge. He was greeting the next master of a rival organization — given his famously blunt temperament, I'd expected the atmosphere to turn sour fast.
"Layla! It's been far too long!"
Instead, he welcomed her with a bright, genuine smile. Even Layla returned it with a warm little grin of her own.
"It's good to see you again, Lord Beyond."
"And how is the Mage Tower Master? Keeping well, I hope?"
There was nothing forced about it. The two of them looked like they genuinely got along.
Beyond continued.
"I hear you rescued my daughter. Leaving our benefactors standing about like this would be poor manners. It's nearly dinner — shall we continue this conversation in the dining hall?"
He was so different from the man I remembered that I leaned toward Layla and whispered.
"What gives? Weren't you two on bad terms?"
"No? Lord Beyond leads the faction that's friendly toward the Mage Tower. I've known him since I was little."
Her answer made me realize I'd gotten something completely wrong.
Come to think of it, Layla never once said she didn't want to come because of bad blood with the Agra family.
I'd just assumed it based on the game's setup. Not that the assumption was entirely baseless — the Beyond I'd known while playing had been a completely different man. After his daughter was attacked, he'd spent every scene seething with rage and grief. I'd never even known they were this close.
Which meant the real reason Layla had been so reluctant to come…
It was Via.
Remembering the vicious way those two had faced off, I asked Layla.
"So why do you and Via hate each other so much?"
"Hate each other? That's just her twisted personality. I don't hold any particular grudge."
Yeah, right.
The look on Layla's face when she'd been tormenting Via had been the real deal.
"Whose personality is twisted, exactly?"
Via appeared right on cue, picking up Layla's words. She'd sent us to the drawing room the moment we arrived and gone off to change — but she'd finished getting ready faster than expected and come back already.
Layla beamed at her.
"My, Via. Eavesdropping on other people's conversations? You really are just like a little rat. What happened to all that etiquette you always go on about?"
"And gossiping about someone in their own house — what kind of etiquette is that? Must you always advertise how poorly you were raised?"
Watching the two of them smile while glaring daggers at each other, I came to a simple conclusion.
Two people with rotten personalities had just met and decided to hate each other for no good reason.
I skipped the dinner gathering. Sitting there as a fifth wheel was a given, and I had something else I needed to do.
Around here, right?
I made my way to a quiet corner of the estate grounds, a spot people rarely passed through, and started digging. With a body this sturdy, bare hands were enough — the earth came away in big fistfuls.
I dug down until something brushed against my fingertips. Pulling it free and brushing off the dirt, I grinned.
"Found it."
What I'd unearthed was a magic stone stained pitch black. Even at a glance, it radiated an ominous mana — the device that would have triggered the absolute worst outcome of this event. It was a remote conduit for a demon's power.
When it activates, monsters pour out, if I remember right.
Progress the quest, track down the mastermind, and a fight breaks out. Beyond shows up as backup, so the battle ends easily — but that's the trap. The mastermind laughs in your face and offers himself as a sacrifice. The scene cuts back to the mansion, and monsters start spawning right here. They tear the place apart. Via, still recovering from her injuries and left behind at the estate, dies fighting them to protect the others. That was why the kindly Beyond turned into a vessel of pure rage.
"Shame, but it can't be helped."
A magic stone this size would have fetched a hefty price, but without purging the demon's power inside it, it was nothing more than a ticking time bomb. Pointless to keep.
I set the stone on the ground and stomped down with everything I had.
Crack.
A low, guttural roar followed as the stone shattered and the demonic mana within billowed free. It writhed in the air for a long moment, almost like a living thing. But mana without an activation word was nothing more than a clump of condensed energy. The power shimmered like heat haze, then faded away.
One problem down.
I was about to head back to the mansion, feeling rather pleased with myself, when someone pushed through the underbrush.
"…You?"
"What are you doing out here?"
It was Via. Mana rippled around her — she'd already prepared an attack spell.
"I sensed a strange flow of mana, so I came to check…"
She eyed me with open suspicion, then scanned the ground behind me. Fortunately, the magic stone had vanished along with the evaporating mana, leaving no trace. Someone as sensitive to demonic energy as Emily might have picked something up, but tracking the residue of dissipated mana was beyond anyone without a tracking spell from another great magic house.
"What were you doing here?"
Her interrogation was getting on my nerves, so I hit on a brilliant idea. I gave her the greasiest smirk I could manage and adjusted my waistband.
"What else would a guy be doing alone in a secluded spot?"
"What?"
…
Via just blinked back at me with a completely innocent face. This kid was a piece of work in her own right.
My expression went slack with defeat, and that seemed to put Via at ease as well.
"So why didn't you come to dinner?"
"Wasn't hungry."
"Hmm."
She fell into step beside me and, apparently bored, started chattering about everything under the sun.
"Father said he'll put in a word at the magic workshop as thanks. You said you were going to process magic stones, right? You look like you're in good shape for it."
Permission to use a magic workshop, huh.
"And he requested a full investigation into the truth behind this incident. Of course, I'll be joining. Looking after the people's welfare is a noble's duty, after all."
Updates on the event's progress, and so on.
Via joining the investigation was unexpected. Probably because she hadn't been injured in the attack this time around.
I found myself looking at her with fresh eyes.
Does this kid not have any friends?
The way she was rattling on about whatever came to mind, like a child who'd finally found someone to talk to, reminded me of my little cousin back when we were kids.
And just a little while ago she couldn't even look me in the eye.
After learning who I was, she'd stayed wary of me all the way to the mansion — fretting over things like "enemy of women" and "use formal speech." But something about the way my companions treated me must have reassured her, because now she'd dropped her guard and was talking to me freely.
"More importantly — looking at how Layla speaks casually with you, you must be quite trusted."
"…Yeah, something like that."
No need to mention it was actually the opposite.
"Hmm?"
Via studied me with open curiosity, clearly trying to figure out what about me had earned Layla's trust.
Just in case, I asked her the same question.
"Why do you and Layla get along so badly?"
"What are you talking about? That's just because she's the one with the awful personality. I was nothing but nice to her."
Liar.
My feelings must have shown plain on my face, because Via got angry.
"It's true! Do you have any idea how much of a mess she was as a kid? I taught her all her manners!"
She launched into a long stream of childhood anecdotes. Eventually the emotions boiled over and she raised her voice.
"And do you know what she said to me after all that? 'What does any of that have to do with casting magic?' After I went out of my way to teach her so kindly!"
"Who cares."
I genuinely did not care.
I was about to tell them to sort out their own problems when I stopped walking. Via followed my gaze with a puzzled look.
"Is something there?"
She narrowed her eyes and drew up mana to enhance her vision. The moment she spotted something writhing in the darkness, her face went rigid. After being attacked just earlier that day, she couldn't help but be hypersensitive to anything in that direction.
She tensed into a defensive stance, but I held her back.
"It's fine."
I already knew who they were. As I quietly stared them down, they carefully stepped out of the shadows.
…
Kyle and Emily. They turned their heads away, unable to meet my silent stare.
"What were you two doing in a dark, secluded spot like this?"
It wasn't a question. I'd seen exactly what they'd been up to — this was an interrogation.
Kyle forced a smile.
"We were waiting to fill you in on what we discussed with Lord Beyond, Hex."
"And while you were waiting, you got bored and started sucking face?"
Kyle looked away, thoroughly ashamed. Emily answered in his place.
"We weren't biting!"
"Good for you."
What happened to all that spiritual connection I'd stressed so hard?
When I asked as much, Kyle scratched his head sheepishly.
"Well… they do say a healthy body houses a healthy mind, right? Maybe physical intimacy fosters spiritual intimacy too?"
"You know that's complete bullshit, right?"
"…Yeah."
What really left me speechless was something else. If they were doing this kind of thing in a place like this, how much further had they gone elsewhere? Don't tell me they'd been sneaking off every time we made camp on the way here, out of our sight?
All that outdoor adventuring might have worn down their resistance to outdoor play.
Come to think of it, their first time almost happened outdoors too.
At this point, it was a perfectly reasonable suspicion.
…
But I couldn't quite bring myself to press them on that, so I pointed out something else instead.
"If you're going to do it, at least do it in a room."
"Going into a room together would look a little… you know, to other people."
"And getting caught like this is better?"
Kyle and Emily both flushed red with embarrassment. As I sent them back toward the mansion, my feelings grew complicated. Not long ago they'd been too shy to even hold hands, and now here they were making out. It left me with a strange mix of relief and worry — somewhere right in the middle.
I really need to keep an eye on her lewdness meter…
Judging by the look on Emily's face just now, she was about two steps away from maxing it out. I never should have let her near that romance guidebook…
Well, future problems for future me.
I turned back to Via — and found her face flushed bright scarlet, both hands clamped over her mouth.
"What was that just now…? S-se…x?"
"No."
These kids were giving me a headache.