Ratstein Foundation Party (1)
Camilla came striding through the dense crowd, cutting a straight path toward me.
Without warning she beamed and reached out to ruffle my hair.
"It really is our adorable little Loti! The world truly is small. I figured you'd make it to the capital someday... but heehee! I never imagined we'd run into each other this soon!"
Her soft hand slipped slyly toward my round mouse ears, ready to give them a fond squeeze.
I twisted my head just enough to dodge that sly touch.
"I'm past the age of being treated like a kid, you know."
"Oh my, sorry, sorry. Rodent beastmen are just so tiny and cute... I couldn't help myself!"
Camilla shrugged sheepishly and pulled her hand back.
We left the bustling thoroughfare and settled across from each other in a quiet, shabby teahouse tucked down a side alley.
The skeleton that had been playing porter was left standing stiff as a utility pole outside the entrance.
"If I keep him looming around inside, people choke on their food."
I ordered milk with honey; Camilla took herbal tea.
Nice. Free food.
We caught up on everything we'd missed.
After the usual small talk warmed things up, the conversation naturally drifted to the Hamster Wheel Village I'd founded on the outskirts, the Rat Rangers, and the string of incidents that had recently shaken the north.
Polly's kidnapping and the true face of the Blackstone Mine.
The nauseating hypocrisy of the Ratstein Charitable Foundation.
And the one coiled at the heart of it all—Baron Schwarzenstein.
With every fragment of the truth that fell from my lips, Camilla's bright expression, fingers still wrapped around her teacup, grew colder and harder.
"...Beastman abductions and forced labor?"
She set the cup down with a soft clink.
"They're completely beyond saving! How could they do that to such adorable children...!"
A murderous glint flashed in Camilla's eyes when she opened them again.
But the blazing fury soon sank into something heavier and more complicated—resignation.
"I'm sorry, Loti."
Camilla lowered her gaze and exhaled a long, weary sigh.
"I'd love nothing more than to march in there right now and wring their necks... but unfortunately this isn't a board our Heresy Inquisition can casually sit down at."
"The Heresy Inquisition can't step in? Why not?"
"Because of those damn rules."
Camilla grumbled.
"Clergy and inquisitors of the Pantheon have to respect secular authority first. If we start shaking this kingdom's constitution and noble hierarchy whenever we feel like it, chaos follows. Besides, I'm stationed from another country. An investigator barging onto a royal noble's private estate without airtight justification? Instant diplomatic disaster."
Ah. So even with a god at your back, you can't just charge around however you please.
Perhaps both the gods and their churches had deliberately collared themselves with these rigid rules to keep divine power from meddling too deeply in mortal affairs.
Tch. I was hoping we could lean on the Inquisition somehow...
While I chewed on the disappointment, Camilla raised a single index finger.
"However. There are a few exceptions."
"Exceptions?"
Her violet eyes flashed sharply.
"If clear proof surfaces that they've contracted with a demon or attempted a summoning—then it's a different story."
Seeing my expression, she continued.
"That stops being a secular matter. The Pantheon can intervene immediately. Faith and spiritual affairs fall under our jurisdiction."
I nodded silently.
The odds that the Ratstein Charitable Foundation was tangled up in demon worship looked vanishingly slim.
"Understood. I'll keep that in mind."
"And Loti—about the goddess you serve, Rodentia."
Camilla toyed with her cooling cup and changed the subject.
"Honestly, headquarters is in an uproar right now. Even the Pantheon's vast archives don't have a scrap of record about her."
She stared into empty air, looking troubled.
"The higher-ups say they need to meet her in person before they can decide anything. So I'm trying to arrange a secret audience with the high bishops here in the capital first. I've already pushed hard to get her divinity registered up the chain, so in the long run it should be a huge help to your church."
That was the exact moment.
"Good! Explain further, it is!"
Rodentia popped into existence right behind me. Since no one else in the teahouse reacted, she was probably only visible to us.
Camilla froze mid-sip, teacup still raised, as rigid as a statue.
I scratched the back of my head awkwardly and muttered,
"...The goddess herself just descended the second you mentioned her."
Camilla snapped to attention like a raw recruit under inspection and stammered,
"L-Lady Rodentia. I-I am Camilla, investigator of the Heresy Inquisition. We met in Oakwood village..."
"I remember it clearly, it is. The long-eared inquisitor who commands bones! You were most excellent and brave back then, it is!"
Camilla relaxed a fraction, the tension leaving her face.
"As for the divinity registration—once the meeting with the bishops goes smoothly, the rest of the process should open right up. The Hamster Wheel Church deserves formal recognition as soon as possible."
A brief silence settled over our corner of the teahouse.
"Squeak! Well, if it means my lost divinity is restored swiftly, I have no reason to refuse, it is! As Lord of the Hamster Wheel I shall generously overlook the faces of those old fogies!"
This is going way better than I expected.
I thought the restoration of her divinity might happen even sooner than planned.
Right then Camilla dropped another remark.
"Ah, and one more thing. Lately another divinity seems to be operating discreetly inside this capital. We haven't pinned down the exact identity yet, but—do you remember the one we saw last time? We suspect it's the black cat goddess..."
"...!"
In an instant Rodentia's face hardened like plaster.
"Squeak-squeak!! Felicia?! That crazy cat bitch has finally hidden herself here, it is?! So my ominous feeling was right after all, it is!"
Ah.
I remembered how Rodentia had nearly jumped out of her skin when we first arrived in Dunholm, shrieking that she smelled the cat goddess.
So she really is here. That obsessively clingy cat goddess.
"Loti!! We are returning to the village this instant, it is! That madwoman tries to lick me all day until my fur is soaked the moment she sees me!! It is utterly horrifying, it is!"
At that shocking revelation, Camilla and I could only smile awkwardly over our cups.
"...Same as last time in Oakwood."
Camilla glanced at me and whispered,
"Just what kind of terrible relationship does she have with that cat goddess to react like this?"
I answered with the look of someone who had bitten into a bitter persimmon.
"Beats me. It's a mystery to me too."
"Squeak! I hate that bitch more than anyone in the world, it is!!"
Once the goddess's uproar quieted, we rose and left the teahouse.
The capital's surging crowds swallowed us again.
Just before we parted, Camilla leaned in close and dropped her voice even lower.
"Loti. One last thing to keep in mind. Just in case."
"Go ahead."
"In a few of the capital's back alleys lately I've been sensing faint, sticky traces of ominous mana. Too weak to file an official report to headquarters yet. Honestly I'm not even sure it's demonic black magic."
"Black magic?"
Camilla moistened dry lips and hesitated.
"Yeah. But it feels wrong. If you happen to notice anything similar in the backstreets, don't wait—tell me first."
Back alleys. Traces of ominous mana?
Just perfect.
The Ratstein Foundation alone was enough to make my head explode, and now demon cultists might be nesting in the middle of the capital.
I'd have to hammer the warning into the Rat Rangers the moment I got back to the village.
"Understood. If I catch even a whiff, I'll contact you right away."
We exchanged a short, firm handshake.
"Take care of yourself, Loti!"
Camilla vanished into the vast crowd, the bizarre skeleton porter clattering after her in a hurried shuffle.
I stood alone with my back to the throng and coldly sorted my thoughts.
I can't keep leaning on other people's power.
I neatly folded away the thin hope I'd been harboring of borrowing the Inquisition's help.
Our village and our people were something we had to protect with our own hands.
In the village's small chapel, Mani, Sena, and Hilde sat clustered around a battered table.
"In the end there's only one conclusion. We have to force our way inside that foundation ourselves."
I rapped my knuckles on the table for emphasis.
"But I heard it's strict membership only?"
Mani scratched her chin and smacked her lips.
After working every angle through the Adventurers' Guild and the underworld information networks, we'd learned the Ratstein Foundation was an obsessively closed circle.
Even their headquarters sat far from the capital, planted on an island in the middle of a lake near the border.
A fortress ordinary beastmen like us couldn't even approach.
"You'd need noble connections just to get a foot in the door... and street-rat nobodies like us don't exactly have thick ropes like that."
That was when Sena's eyes lit up and she shot her hand into the air.
"Ah! Loti! I picked up an interesting rumor."
Come to think of it, when she'd come to the capital with me she'd mentioned stopping by the Grand Cathedral of the Goddess of the Hearth to pray.
"Yeah? Hear something at the cathedral?"
"I overheard the cleaning nuns chatting. The Ratstein Foundation is holding a patronage gala soon. They're sweeping up every high-ranking noble guest they can, and even our cathedral's bishop got an invitation."
My round ears perked straight up.
"When? Exact location?"
Sena scratched the back of her head sheepishly.
"Ahaha... I didn't catch that far. Just that it's going to be huge, so the rumors are flying everywhere."
Mani scowled hard.
"So we know a big event's coming, but no date, no place, and—most important—no invitation?"
"...If we're being cold about it, yeah."
Mani, Sena, and I all let out deep sighs that seemed to sink into the floor.
"Even if we dig up the date and place, anyone who isn't a fat-wallet patron or high noble gets tossed at the door."
A silence as heavy and stifling as a slab of iron settled over the table.
In the end, is our best option just to sneak a swarm of horned mice in and eavesdrop from outside?
Right then, Hilde—who had been leaning against the wall in the corner with her arms folded, listening quietly—let out a short snort.
"Hmph."
All three of us snapped our eyes to her at once.
Hilde deliberately averted her gaze at an angle, fished something from her pocket, and casually tossed it onto the table.
Clang!
A dull, weighty metallic ring.
Mani carefully picked up the seal, turned it over and over, then her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
"Th-this... no way?"
It was a thick pure-gold seal engraved with an exquisite family crest in relief.
Sena shoved her face close and cried out,
"She really was a noble?! Not just putting on airs and striking poses?!"
"Putting on airs?"
Hilde's brow furrowed sharply as she snatched the seal back from Mani's hand with irritation.
"How utterly rude, you backwater bumpkins! Of course it's real!"
I watched her carefully and asked,
"So... what are you planning to do with that seal?"
Hilde gave a disdainful snort and lifted her chin arrogantly.
"Well, if I just casually drop a hint of my noble bloodline, won't they come crawling out on their own?"
Her voice carried its usual arrogance mixed with a peculiar irritation.
"...Honestly, I really didn't want to drag my origins into this muddy mess."
"Hilde? If it's too much you don't have to. Will you be all right?"
"What choice do I have!"
Hilde snapped back tartly.
"They wear the noble mask of charity while enslaving beastmen behind the scenes! Leaving those honorless, pride-less pieces of trash alone is something the pride of a great Adlerheim noble simply cannot allow!"
She flicked the metal seal into the air with a slender finger and curled one corner of her mouth upward.
"I'll quietly put out feelers through the imperial embassy in the capital. I am, after all, from a high-elf house with deep roots! Once word spreads through high society that a haughty Adlerheim elf young lady is traveling incognito in Dunholm, that foundation baron will desperately send an invitation just to open a connection."
It was a brilliant reverse approach.
"Then... we'll have a free pass to walk straight into that patronage party or whatever it is!"
Mani's jaw hung open in a daze.
"Whoa, this could actually work perfectly."
Sena clasped her hands together, eyes sparkling.
"Hilde, you're the best!"
"Sh-shut up!"
Hilde spun around and snapped prickly.
"Don't get your hopes up! I haven't even contacted the embassy yet, nothing's started, so stop making a fuss!"
The tips of her pointed ears, while she fussed and pouted, had flushed bright red like freshly molten metal.
"All right, then just like last time..."
The moment I began, Hilde's expression shifted.
"Right! From now on you lot are my servants and pet beastmen! Once we're inside, you're free to do as you please!"
Mani asked,
"What about me?"
Hilde's face took on a peculiar look.
"You... right! Pet dwarf!"
Mani's face crumpled.
"...Oh, come on!"