Did You Think Before You Dug the Trap?
Chew on solitude long enough, and speaking first starts to feel impossible. What are you even supposed to lead with? Say it like that, and maybe they'll hate you for it. Worry long enough and opening your mouth is already a failure, so you keep it shut until the other person talks first.
And so Lupin spent two days on the train in a forced vow of silence. They weren't monks. How did a person go two whole days without a single scrap of small talk? The first day she'd thought they might actually manage a conversation. From the next day on they were quiet even at meals, quiet when the carriage rocked, quiet when the train stopped to take on coal.
Why? Do they just not want to talk to me?
That was the thought Lupin always landed on, hopeless as she was with people. She was bored, but she bit it back and said nothing, afraid that if she opened her mouth for no reason they'd call her oblivious. She hadn't the faintest idea that the other two were swallowing their own chatter precisely because she was sitting right there in front of them.
Vatslava had barely held the right to speak since the day she joined the party. Yegor had been half-strong-armed into playing mute in front of Lupin. Say one thing and the explanation ballooned to three times the size; it stressed the one talking and the one listening both.
Unable to endure the dreary air, Lupin tried to force herself to sleep. Thanks to the Jade of Spontaneous Life, though, she neither tired quickly nor stayed under once she did, and that was a stress all its own. From the rear of the train, where she sent up pigeons whenever the mood struck, she felt for the first time in her life that short sleep was an inconvenience.
"Haaaaaah..."
"You yawn after sleeping that much."
"It's because I slept too much. And whose fault is that."
"...What did I do wrong?"
If you were going to talk, you could've started sooner.
Grumbling, Lupin claimed two seats of a bench in the station.
The station was fairly large, and yet the passengers who'd gotten off with them were hard to find. All told, her party included, there were ten people. The troops spread across the station, by contrast, were considerable. Fences and barricades meant to halt an advance stood two deep, three deep.
Put those up all you like — a Master shows up and the whole thing comes crashing down, doesn't it? Do Masters not deign to visit the countryside?
"I mean, though. If the city's in this shape, couldn't they just send someone to clean it up?"
"Cases like this, odds are high the cult's mixed up in it, or they've already tried and failed."
"Then send a Grand Master."
Yegor shot her a look that said not to talk nonsense. A Grand Master, in chess, was the queen — the most powerful piece on the board. Sending the queen out to chase pawns, only to have your own camp stripped bare, didn't even qualify as common sense.
"The train for Novi Rastov gets in two days from now, so we'll need somewhere to stay until then. Vatslava and I will look. Meet us back at the station in about two hours."
Fine. You two go have fun.
I've got plenty to do anyway. I'm busy!
I should've known the moment they said just the two of them would put on the robes. This is them ditching me, right? It is, isn't it?
Lupin grumbled her way toward the restroom.
"Figures. My only real friends are pigeons and treasure chests..."
In a gloomy mood, she called down a pale-green pigeon.
"Nice to meet you."
Right. People said that once you got busy, pain and worry were forgotten for a while.
Having, for once, recalled a piece of actually useful information, Lupin climbed out the restroom window, up the wall of the adjoining building, and onto a low clock tower. She hadn't taken the direct train for nothing. Wasn't the whole point peak efficiency — collecting safes and meeting pigeons? No reason to mope just because she hadn't managed much conversation with Yegor or Vatslava. If they wouldn't play with her, Lupin could play by herself!
From the top of the clock tower, about four stories up, she flung out a hand.
Fly, pigeon.
The city had been built long and rectangular along a slope. Its highest reach touched the forest of the valley; the station sat at the very bottom of the incline. So even though the clock tower wasn't particularly tall, the whole city lay open below. The Central Army hadn't garrisoned the station in ignorance of the low ground's disadvantage — not for nothing.
Anyway, the pale-green pigeon flew a good long while, then slipped out of sight into the tall chimney of a certain building. Set against the low houses around it, the place was considerable in both height and bulk. The main hall alone had three wings, and several spires rose in a similar style. If she had to name it, it was closer to the palace of a small country.
Lupin had already explored the palace basements of this empire and that. Her mind went, naturally, to something hidden underground.
"Yeah. Be a shame if a mountain hollow like this had nothing in it."
She didn't let it show, but she was praying something — anything — interesting would happen.
She landed lightly and was striding boldly past the Central Army checkpoint when a voice cut her off.
"You there. Halt."
A gun with a greatsword fixed to it shot out sideways and stopped her. A soldier on watch at the post.
"Stand right there and don't move."
"Me?"
"You."
Lupin stood there blankly, and another soldier brought over a long wooden rod marked with gradations and set it beside her.
"Same height."
"Height?"
"The woman in this composite. Your build and a number of other things match. You'll have to submit to inspection."
A bounty notice was shoved in front of Lupin's face.
A woman with messy bangs like Lupin's, and a long ponytail. The fierce cut of her eyes was striking, and the irises were a furious red, as if they were reflecting her character. Pretty, sure — the kind of intense older sister you'd find yourself wanting to look away from if you actually met her. Looked like she smoked two packs a day. Probably had piercings somewhere you couldn't see. That sort of thing.
Anyway, Lupin didn't know her, and they looked completely different. Lupin's eyes weren't that sharp. She had no idea how to doll herself up, but she'd seen her reflection in water and mirrors often enough to know her own face.
"The eyes are completely different. Isn't this a bit of a stretch?"
At that, the two soldiers at the post stared holes through her face.
"Still, take the eyes away and she's roughly similar, wouldn't you say?"
"True enough, but the eye color, the hair..."
"The man who drew the sketch might've gotten it wrong, no? I heard the cult's Shrine Maidens are so elusive there isn't even a proper composite of them."
Then a soldier appeared with a single gold cord on his helmet. Lupin didn't know this world's ranks, but the way they saluted each other told her at once who the superior was.
"What are you lot doing? She isn't in cult vestments, and she isn't barefoot. You can't go grabbing innocent people!"
Sensing her moment, Lupin piled on.
"Right? Look how gentle my face is."
"...Not that gentle."
"Excuse me?"
Lupin deliberately dropped the corners of her eyes. A useless effort from someone who, since her office-worker days, had considered a mild impression her greatest asset. A Dimensional Drifter's eyes ran close to a cat's to begin with, though; drag them down by force and there was still a limit.
"Anyway. This one's eyes are nothing like Parmenia's — sharp and refined. That's enough, all of you. Stop forcing it."
What is this. Feels weirdly like I'm losing a comparison.
Lupin tilted her head, but she still threw a line at the soldiers.
"If you two want the bounty that badly, you shouldn't be standing around here. You ought to become bounty hunters."
"N-no! It's not that we want the bounty! It's just that, for an actual Shrine Maiden, the sketch isn't perfect!"
"Not perfect?!"
Lupin pointed at the composite and glared at the guard. It was, at a glance, drawn far too perfectly. Like a photograph.
"Just looking at it, it's a perfect sketch. Captain, what do you think?"
Suddenly possessed by an art critic, the guard captain propped his chin and began pouring out his expert opinion.
"I agree with you. Parmenia's charming eyes are rendered so beautifully — a real masterpiece. I hear she marched boldly into the capital and commissioned a famous painter..."
As the captain naturally launched into praise of Parmenia, the other guards' eyes swung toward him. The flustered captain scrambled to explain.
"No! What I mean is the painting is perfect. Not that this cult's Shrine Maiden is perfect! What about you, miss? Honestly, the Parmenia in this sketch is really... huh?"
Naturally, Lupin was already gone. She was far too busy to stand around waiting blankly.
Face flushed scarlet, the captain bellowed.
"You bastards have let your discipline rot clean through!! Everyone except the post guards and the artillery — drop and push!!"
Meanwhile Lupin crossed the rooftops like stepping stones and reached her destination in a flash.
"Was it here?"
Unlike the other buildings sending up smoke, the chimney was quiet despite the rather chilly weather. Wide enough for three adults to fit with room to spare, so she threw herself in lightly.
A light landing.
"?!"
Or she tried — and the floor gave way. She dropped a long way farther and hit with a thud. She'd stepped on something soft.
"———!?"
Suddenly deep underground, Lupin looked around. A few torches stuck in the walls lit a pitch-dark cellar that looked exactly like a prison. And hadn't she just heard a groan? Her gaze dropped of its own accord.
A person lay on a flat stone. A middle-aged man, hair and beard unkempt from long neglect. Crushed under Lupin's boot, he swallowed the pain and trembled. His clothes were a single pair of thin pants gone to rags — the sort of underwear shorts called drawers, vanished from the hometown where Lupin had lived about a hundred years ago.
Uh. And she was stepping on a rather unfortunate place. Of all the spots for a heel to come to rest...
"P-please... step aside..."
"Oh crap. Did it burst? It didn't burst, right?"
"I'm... I'm fine. I'm an Aura User..."
Lupin sagged with relief. She'd nearly massacred hundreds of millions of an innocent man's lives.
"Anyway. Why are you stripped like that? And why are you locked up in here?"
The man let out a long sigh.
"A few years back I was taken by an armed band of bandits, and I've been imprisoned here ever since. They locked me up — I'm the mayor — and they've been turning this city into a wreck..."
"Oh dear. Is that so."
For once, Lupin actually listened while she looked around, out of guilt at having nearly made someone a eunuch for life. The story wasn't particularly interesting, of course. She was no authority on stories, but it looked an awful lot like he was about to hand her the obvious quest: please liberate the village from the bandits.
A flutter of wings.
In the meantime Siweed Gu, come down from the chimney, circled above the man's head.
"Eh? A pigeon...?"
While the man looked puzzled, Siweed Gu spoke.
Lupin, who'd been grumbling that the story was boring right up until that moment, bulged her eyes.
Hey. Doesn't the pigeon know what a spoiler is?
