Rude of Me? I "Borrowed" It

The cult had garrisoned troops in twenty places all told. Quantity was all they had, though, and by Lupin's measure the work was easy enough to yawn through. Test subjects came along four or five at a time, but she had already fought their kind without aura, and she made absurdly short work of them. If anything, the only blow that landed was a mental one, courtesy of that Sacred Heaven, Dark Heaven, whatever-it-was spiel.

And there was a problem far worse than the enemies being easy.

There wasn't a treasure chest anywhere.

How grave a crisis was that? Garrison the men and don't even bother dropping off supplies. It was a logistics situation that would have knocked Teacher ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Mojeon Guryeomya, that independence activist of the dark, clean out of his chair. Were the things she'd cut down, test subjects included, all zombies? They had waited in those places for days on end without a single resupply. The cult bastards really were a necromancer convention. She'd seen it coming, mind you, from the moment they started hollering the Dark of all Darkness under that emblem with five skulls hammered into a pentagram. The masked men, blanched zombie-white—as if they'd been manufactured by draining every drop of blood—only snapped in half when cut, and nothing resembling blood ever ran. Test-subject blood, or something like it. The purple synthetic blood used to make the veils seemed to be what went into the muscleheads.

Thinking any of it through on her own made Lupin's brain ache. She had no wish to take another great needle to the skull, so she chose to abandon the thought and close out the mission. As a bonus, she would have to knock Yegor down a peg while she was at it. Still with the National Assembly clerk slung across her back.

And so it was nearly nine at night before Lupin appeared in front of the tailor's shop, long since closed. Tasili, perched on the semicircular wall out front, saw her touch down and drifted over beneath the streetlamp. The instant those dress shoes entered her sight, Lupin folded into a deep bow.

"Uwah. Master. I'm sorry. This worthless disciple of yours. So late."

"No. It's all right. We never set a time. Had things gone another way, I might have been the late one."

"Hehe. If that's how it is, then I'm glad."

"And the person on your back?"

"Ah. If I had to put this one a certain way..."

"Originally a key officer under the action ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠captain of a civic group, a plant dispatched into the National Assembly, who colluded with the cult and attempted to overthrow the state... she has dramatically turned, and now stands as a whistleblower of distinguished service in purging the cult forces garrisoned all across the capital."

Once Lupin had delivered it that way, Tasili asked in surprise.

"I'd already heard through Mr. Yegor, as it happens. Received the documents, too. But you're saying you've already swept up every force they stationed?"

"Yes. To say it once more—this person here, through two betra—no. Through betrayal, and through blowing the whistle, she helped me a great deal in wiping out the cult."

The clerk was already asleep from exhaustion. There was no need to keep hauling her around, so Lupin was the one to suggest it.

"Let's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠leave this person at a hospital. Then shall we finish our talk?"

Tasili hadn't expected her to bring that up first. Even so, it looked like a good sign to him. Lupin was treating a human life as something precious.

The two of them made a circuit of the rally points belonging to the cult forces, now thoroughly purged. The last place they came to was the basement where the action captain had died. Tasili checked the corpses left where they lay, one by one, and let out a quiet sound of admiration.

"Set aside the few with shattered jaws, and you cut them down remarkably clean. At this level, I wouldn't be ashamed to introduce you as my head disciple."

"Oh, come on. Even though I only know a single form?"

"I was sounding you out. You even know how to play humble. You've come a long way."

"Hehehe. Have I?"

The girl who, after learning one form, used to put on a shameless act—At this rate, aren't I a Sword Master too?—was now letting a word like pathetic pass her lips. For Tasili, it was moving. He hadn't even looked after her properly for a month. And yet she had met two good friends, and was settling into a place of her own. Wasn't that truly something to be proud of?

"That said. You still have more to learn."

Sensing a crisis by instinct, Lupin hunched in on herself.

"Urk. There's something else, isn't there."

It was true that Lupin had come to live like a person, compared with before. But she had only come to live like a person. She was someone with the potential to climb higher still, and like it or not, what she had to learn was a mountain. Had she been a Grand Master by birth, the people around her would have bowed and scraped of their own accord and brought her this and that as offerings. She wasn't at that level yet, and so she couldn't simply spit in the eye of the existing order.

"This matter does not end at merely having repelled the cult."

"Hah—! Is something even bigger waiting? Are massive forces actually getting ready to invade? A war?! Don't tell me it's the Call of the Stalwart...!"

"Not a fight. This is a matter of aristocratic society. And of high society."

"Nobles? I don't have any ties to nobles."

There was, in fact, one person close at hand who had business with that world. In any case, it was a story Lupin didn't know.

"High society. I feel anxious just hearing it..."

Of course she did. March those beastlike manners of hers into a salon, and she would make a perfect spectacle—a monkey at the zoo. But knowing that now was precisely the best time to prepare.

"You won't be able to avoid setting foot there. With this incident, you've become a benefactor of the imperial house—no, of the entire nation."

"That much?"

"It's reached the point where the Prime Minister himself must come and offer you his thanks. We can hardly send you out there to disgrace yourself."

"Erm. If Maaaster accepted it in my place..."

"By the measure of the empire, before the Republic, that person is His Majesty the Emperor. I can't do that."

Emperors, those bastards. A little certificate of thanks would have done just fine, but no—they have to stage some grand commendation and make a person uncomfortable. Lupin grumbled, scratching at her cheek.

A disciple muttering away with her lips pushed out was an adorable thing. But indulge the sulking forever, and she would only keep running, so Tasili soothed her in a gentle voice.

"Learn it once, and it will surely be of help. I'm not telling you to stand on uncomfortable ceremony at all times. There are moments when showing it briefly, in the places that truly require it, does more good than hiding and fleeing because you don't know how."

And as it happened, he had a sweet to set out for her.

"Come to think of it, I recently heard that somewhere in the Republic, a massive underground fortress built by the mafia was discovered. They say the bastards piled an enormous hoard of treasure down there."

The reaction popped right out.

"What!? Where!"

"Complete the full course in etiquette, and I'll tell you at once."

But Lupin was not as desperate as she once would have been. She had the pigeons now, didn't she? Like a novel that shot to fame on an odd premise, only to plunge its good name into the abyss on a disappointing plot, her interest dropped so sharply you could see it. Part of that was deliberate. Cheeky to the last, she buried her expression on purpose, meaning to cut a deal with her master.

"I mean. You seem to think I'm some beast brat who lunges the second she sees a toy. That is a grave misunderstanding. Really."

She said so, but to a veteran like Tasili, only a little resistance remained. Add one more means of hooking her interest, or one more justification, and she was balanced on a knife-edge—ready to come over, and then some.

"Come to think of it. The treasure chests you like—do those include things like treasure vaults?"

"Ahem.... I'm. Not really sure...."

"I happen to know of a treasure vault permitted only to Royal Blood. Might you be interested? If things go well, I was thinking of proposing it to the Prime Minister."

Lupin tried to play ignorant. She was truly curious, but etiquette and all the rest was a nuisance just to think about. Well—she would have managed it, if only the status window that followed hadn't cut in.

A bright little chime rang.

A tidal wave of script swallowed Tasili's face. Somehow, as if teaching her every little thing weren't enough, Master now seemed to have learned the art of summoning status windows. Lupin, who had already awakened Secret Safe detection in the course of talking with him, couldn't help the thought.

Master is a solid gold rope. Hold on long enough, and the sweet crumbs never stop falling.

In the jargon she didn't really know, that sort of thing was called a fated encounter.

"One moment, Maaaster. Let me think."

She'd read a little more of the flavor text than before, but none of it meant a thing to her, so she looked straight at the choices.

The Star's growth, blah blah, darkening her door again. Set everything else aside, and a clear sign had appeared. So Tasili hadn't spun the treasure vault out of nothing.

The Holy Ark. Roughly speaking, it was like a preorder package that God—grateful you'd tried the early access for Christianity—had stuffed into Moses's mailbox. (If it matched what Lupin had heard ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the teacher at the orphanage, anyway.) Put another way, you could call it a treasure chest. Treasure, power, mystery, left behind by a god for the sake of humans. Something along those lines. Either way, it was Lupin's new supply of dopamine.

Lupin was a wise human who could see the future, so she did not refuse what was offered. And she'd heard that a gift ought to be taken when it's given, so the one who gives is happy, and the one who receives is happy....

"This Holy Ark. The imperial house? Anyway—you can only go in with permission from the people up top, right?"

"You knew of the Holy Ark? Yes. Royal Blood, chosen by the Fragment of the Stars. Only their descendants can open the door of the treasure vault."

"I can pick any lock there is. I can't just go in?"

Tasili waved it off. Absolutely not.

"If they do not serve as guides, an uninvited guest loses the way between dimensions on the spot. Covet the treasure inside, and you will never be able to return to this world."

"Hmm. Pointlessly good security."

"Of course. Ordinary people don't even know it exists. Only those with deep ties to the imperial house, or benefactors of the nation who have rendered the imperial house a great service, are permitted so much as a tour. This time you've gained that qualification, which is why I mean to recommend you."

"Ehh. Fine."

Same as always—her Growth Values would pitch in, wouldn't they? The star spoons clutched in both hands, cheat-birth privileges above even a silver spoon, were simply invincible. That settled it. Lupin fully expected to breeze through this one, too.

"Whatever. I'll give it a try."