10. There Are Times When a Man Must Risk His Life
10. There Are Times When a Man Must Risk His Life
'Never enter the basement.'
As if I could've forgotten.
The woman who'd been stammering with clouded eyes had, in that single instant, looked straight at me and spoken in a voice honed razor-sharp.
A shift in demeanor that would've sent a chill down anyone's spine.
But when the subject of that warning was a member of the Mage Tower, violating it would put you on a path far worse than anything death could ever settle.
All just rumors, of course, but they said there were even cases of people ending up as brains in jars, subjected to electric stimulation experiments...
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"
So then, who the hell.
Who could have done something to make someone that dangerous scream like that—and in the single night I hadn't noticed?
"I-It's gone."
As if the unlocked door wasn't enough, the inside of the basement had been ransacked.
Here and there across the floor, bare patches swept clean of dust hinted at the spots where something heavy and massive had once sat.
"Gone. All of it. Everything I achieved, all of it...!"
Vivian had collapsed at the center of it all, wailing.
A sight I never could've imagined back when she'd shown me simple, heartfelt gratitude while her mind was still fixed on her research.
She was just shedding tears, like someone feeling a pain that was ripping her heart straight out of her chest.
"Vivian... miss. Are you okay...?"
Pity at the sight made me unconsciously step forward to offer some encouragement—but I froze right where I stood.
Shit. What the hell was I about to do?
This was someone with the potential to go completely mad, and here I was trying to approach her and comfort her in the middle of an emotional breakdown.
-Kugugung!
Of course, even that hesitation barely lasted a split second—but this goddamn world wouldn't even give me the chance to flee. It snatched that away too.
Kurrung—the moment debris from the collapsing ceiling twisted and blocked the staircase, I understood instantly that the cause was the woman sitting collapsed and weeping in that empty room.
The moment our eyes met.
"...It was you."
Because I recognized, right then, that those eyes—burning with a viciousness I'd never faced head-on since coming to this world—were aimed entirely at me.
"You're the one... who stopped me from meeting Mother...!"
"No, Miss Vivian. I didn't—"
-Kuwung!
The excuse trying to escape my lips was crushed by something pressing down on my whole body.
Had more of the ceiling collapsed to bury me?
No. That wasn't it. This was pure magical power.
The mana stirred up by her emotions was bearing down on the entire space around us.
Not even a direct attack—just energy roused in response to her rage.
"Kuh—hnrk. Urk...!!"
But was something like this even possible?
From what I knew, mana was energy that exerted physical force by responding to will. Without precise control and the power to handle it, you couldn't draw out proper force.
A power that could very well destroy you if wielded without clear purpose and proper technique.
That was why only people with high intelligence aptitude were given the chance to learn it in the first place. Unleashing this much power just from losing your reason went against every bit of common sense this world had.
If it was possible, there was only one explanation.
It could only happen when the other party's ability existed on a level that transcended humanity itself.
"Speak."
A woman with such absurd power...
A woman who could be called a monster in human skin without a shred of exaggeration—she took a step toward me and spoke, her voice low.
"Tell me right now. Where did you take everything that was in here...?"
Her previously passive demeanor was nowhere to be seen. In its place was pure murderous intent and madness.
"Tell me right now why you stopped me from going to see Mother...!"
And with that, she screamed at me the desperate reason she'd thrown herself into her research—a reason I couldn't even begin to guess at.
-Kkeudeudeuk, deudeuk.
The closer she got, the heavier the pressure crushing my body became.
Every joint ached like it was being wrenched out of place. My muscles, reflexively tensing against the danger, were growing rigid and hard.
But even that was nothing more than pathetic resistance.
If this kept up, the sheer oppressive force radiating from her would flatten my body like dried squid and kill me.
Even feeling the injustice of the situation, all I could do was vividly sense my life being snuffed out.
Just like with everyone I'd met until now...
"Miss Vivian. Calm down."
But I still had the will to live.
Because I had the will to keep living, even in this shithole of a world.
"Calm down, I..."
So with the only means left to me—my mouth—I squeezed out my voice, struggling to reach her.
"Re-mem-ber..."
Begging for my life wouldn't work.
She was already out of her mind, about to tear apart everything in sight. There was no way an explanation built on alibis or logic would get through to her.
"Remember who I am!"
But a name.
Even in her current state, she'd surely be able to recall my name.
"You remember me, right? Who I am...!"
Existence Imprint.
An ability that makes anyone who's met me unable to forget my existence—no matter who, no matter the situation.
If this power was real, it could guide even someone who'd lost all reason to recognize who I was.
If the goodwill she'd shown me all this time was real, then maybe relying on this ability could still turn things around...
"Housekeeper...?"
A question slipped from her lips as she stared at me, hitting the mark of that expectation.
Having belatedly recognized me, her eyes went rigid, and the tears streaming from them began to deepen.
"It really was you, Housekeeper?"
Were those tears from confusion over the situation? Or from a sense of betrayal?
Maybe she was reacting that way because the catharsis of thinking the cause of this whole mess was right in front of her had been ripped away at the last second.
"It really... was you who stopped me... from meeting Mother, Housekeeper..."
"No."
But that disruption in her emotions had weakened the force crushing my body.
Finding an opening in that, I poured my sincerity into her through my gradually clearing throat.
"I didn't do anything that would cause you trouble. And I never will."
In a world overflowing with bastards who wouldn't listen to a single word I said even if they remembered me, she was one of the rare, precious people who had faced me head-on.
She'd been someone who listened to my voice, and that was exactly why I'd caught myself thinking I wanted to work under her for as long as possible.
"...So please, calm down. Miss Vivian."
So if you don't harm me, I won't hate you.
I struggled to lift my head and meet her eyes squarely, hoping that sincerity would get through to her, and at last, her shaken heart made her stagger backward.
-Seureureuk.
The moment the violent force pressing down on my body gradually subsided.
As I felt the tension finally ease and my body slowly relax, the woman who'd stumbled back from me and collapsed began to sob, clutching her own face.
"I'm sorry."
She started with an apology.
"I'm sorry, Housekeeper. I..."
She struggled to choke out her guilt toward me.
Just hearing that was enough to know.
She wasn't simply a lunatic who'd lost her mind—she was someone with enough heart to feel sorry toward another person.
"...It's alright."
Right. She wasn't dangerous right now.
Suppressing my fear by keeping that firmly in mind, I approached her, placed a hand on her shoulder, and spoke as if soothing a child.
"It's alright, so first... could you tell me what happened?"
"..."
Wordlessly, she looked up at me with vacant eyes.
Then her gaze gradually dropped, and her trembling hands began to rise toward her own head.
"I was going to see Mother..."
"Yes, to see your mother... you've been researching for that purpose all this time, right?"
"R-Right. I've been researching all this time, but when I woke up... all the research materials I'd gathered in the basement... they were all gone."
Vivian clutched her head like she couldn't accept reality.
Her disheveled, tangled hair was being pulled taut against her scalp, as if she was about to tear it out.
"Soon, I might have been able to see Mother... I've been researching all this time for that, and it's all disappeared..."
"...If you tell the Imperial Guards, they'll be able to find them soon."
I didn't know the full story, but if it was tied to a parent, it must have been something of utmost importance to her.
Having watched from the side as she desperately researched all this time, I genuinely wanted her to get her results back.
"Wh-What if the Guards are in on it?"
But even my advice, offered with that intent, was something she couldn't accept as she turned her head away from me...
"In on it... what do you mean by that...?"
"The Guards... could be in cahoots with the ones who ransacked this place. Th-They should've protected it properly in the first place—then this wouldn't have happened."
A voice shaking uncontrollably.
As she lowered her head, I caught sight of her face between her fingers—around her violently trembling eyes, the whites were visibly bloodshot.
"Th-That's right. Can't trust anyone. The Guards, the Empire, e-everything... it's all untrustworthy. The only person I can trust in this world is Mother. That's why I have to meet her again. Because I can't trust a single thing in this entire world."
Slowly, the corners of her lips curled upward.
"Even if I have to blow this entire Empire away."
The words she spat out alongside that smile were surely no bluff or exaggeration.
I'd guessed as much the moment I came face-to-face with her madness.
I didn't know if she could actually topple an empire, but her will to attempt it was absolutely genuine.
"If I blow it all away... then I can search through the empty space left behind, right? My research... and whoever the bastard is who stole it..."
Heh... heheh.
The moment that faint, creeping laugh sent a chill down my spine.
I knew what she was saying was wrong, but even so, I couldn't help hesitating to say anything more.
Stop. Wait. Everything will be alright... If she took offense at words like those, the murderous intent from before would bristle right back up and aim itself at me again.
And worse—because she remembered my name, her loathing toward me would only grow stronger.
That was something I'd felt in my very bones over the two years spent in this world, dealing with people's malice.
"...I think I might know who it is."
But if I couldn't choose silence just because my life was precious, there was only one option.
As the only person she might still listen to, I would take the Guard's place and find evidence of the culprit right here, right now.
"Might... know...?"
"Because I've seen traces like this before."
I slowly shifted my gaze and looked around at the things scattered across the floor.
Inside this room that showed signs of having held heavy, bulky objects, I took a personal item from my pocket and activated its function amid the gaps in the dust.
A magic tool with a simple light spell built into it.
It cost a fair bit, but since I did occasional Scout work alongside porter jobs, it was something I used often enough.
"Thought so."
What the tool illuminated were thin threads scattered across the floor.
Shining light on their surface drew out a reflection, faintly revealing their structure.
Unlike typical cord, these threads weren't drawn from a single strand but intricately twisted from multiple thin filaments—like spider silk.
Since such precise tools were handled by only a limited few even in the underworld, it narrowed the suspects considerably. But if someone had the nerve to reach this far against a member of the Mage Tower, their backing wouldn't be anything small-time.
If a criminal organization of that scale existed not outside the Empire but within it, there was only one suspect I could think of.
"...Blood River."
A brutal criminal organization that, true to its name, left a river of blood in its wake.
Their home base wasn't even that far from here.
No need to go anywhere else—they'd brazenly set up shop in the Slums on the outskirts of the Empire.
"D-Do you know where it is?"
"Yes, I know the location, at least."
I wasn't certain, but for now, we needed to go look.
I pocketed the wire in my hand just in case, then quietly met Vivian's eye level and spoke softly.
"So, there's no need to go on a rampage with the whole city turned upside down. If anything, rampaging too hard will just tip off the enemy and let them escape."
"...Really?"
"To get your results back in one piece, that's exactly what we have to do."
Her hands, slumped against the floor, were trembling violently.
That probably meant my words hadn't brought her any real comfort. But to try and calm her down however I could, I quietly took hold of that trembling hand.
"So please, just hold on a little longer. Until everything's sorted out... I'll stay by your side."
Our contract period wasn't even over yet, and even with all this trouble, she hadn't thrown me out.
Yeah. So the thought crossed my mind that maybe... maybe I still had a chance.
"You really... aren't going to leave?"
"I won't leave."
Using that trust like a painkiller to endure the throbbing in my body, I smiled the best smile I could manage right then.
"When a woman's crying right in front of me, doing nothing just isn't in my nature."
She was one of the very few women I'd come to like since arriving in this world.
Wasn't that enough of a reason to risk my life helping her?