Auction (5)
Hitting on the Spirit King? What the hell was that supposed to mean…
I couldn't tell whether the Spirit King's story had been serious or a joke. A moment later she herself burst into light laughter, as if to say it had all been in fun.
"Puhah, still so easy to tease."
"…Excuse me?"
…What, so she was just messing with me?
"It was a joke. You're the only man in this party, so who else am I supposed to make that kind of joke with?"
For a joke, the way she'd said it earlier had sounded awfully genuine. More than that, Letisia beside me had looked genuinely startled.
It felt too ambiguous to be pure banter, yet I had no grounds to press her on it. I didn't remember a thing, after all.
"…Is that so."
"That's enough joking, Elysia. I have a request."
Letisia pointed at the people around them and made her appeal to the Spirit King, Elysia.
"Check whether there's a spirit mage among them."
"Hmm. I'm not fond of meddling in my subjects' contracts."
"Even if they were used for evil?"
"Evil, you say."
"Spirits were used in the theft of the auction goods."
The Spirit King regarded Letisia for a long moment before answering.
"I see."
She swept her gaze over the crowd. Then, wearing a faint smile, she approached a certain man standing among the laborers.
"So that's why your face has been so sour ever since I appeared."
"…!"
"This one has contracted with a child of the earth."
"Tch, damn it!"
The man immediately yanked something from his coat, grinding his teeth.
"How can a Spirit King be here…!"
"Smoke bombs, is it."
He had clearly planned to set off a mass of smoke bombs and slip away in the chaos. But he never even managed to throw the ones he'd pulled out.
One entire arm had frozen solid. The man stared at the Spirit King in front of him with a startled expression; she smiled mischievously, as if savoring his reaction.
"I don't much care for the look of someone thrashing about."
"Guh!!"
No skill-activation message had appeared, yet she had frozen an entire arm in an instant.
So this is the power a Spirit King wields…
That single display taught me something new. The gap in combat strength between Letisia when she summoned the Four Great Spirits and when she summoned the Spirit King herself was going to be enormous.
I had known it wasn't her full power, but I never imagined the difference would be this large…
Can I really manage to support these people within a month and a half?
Thanks to the Spirit King's suppression we had one culprit in custody, and we immediately began the interrogation.
"I don't know anything!"
"If things stay like this, you'll take the entire fall and die for it. You're fine with that?"
"Don't make me laugh. Even if the blame gets split, I'm still dead either way!"
The man was more stubborn than expected. Whether he was trying to keep some code of loyalty or whether rewards were waiting for remaining friends and family even if he died, I couldn't tell…
"…He's not going to talk easily."
"How troublesome."
"What?"
When I asked back, Caesius spoke.
"Wouldn't applying a little pain solve the matter simply?"
"…You want us to torture him?"
"Is that not a method humans frequently employ?"
In a world like this it might be ordinary. Still, having lived a life far removed from anything resembling torture, I felt a genuine reluctance.
While I hesitated, Erinn stepped forward.
"The dragon's right."
"…Erinn?"
"I lost it, so I'll take responsibility and get the answers~?"
Erinn seized the man by the scruff of the neck, then dragged the larger man off somewhere as if he weighed nothing.
Where is she taking him?
"…Allen, then the rest of us should look around the area a bit. Aria and Clara already swept everything, but you never know. They say criminals return to the scene, right?"
"Ah, yeah."
"Elysia, please return now."
At Letisia's demand the Spirit King sounded put-upon.
"You finally summon me after so long, and now you tell me to leave before even an hour has passed?"
"My mana is insufficient."
"Nonsense. We're not even fighting—I'm only manifesting. What could possibly be the problem?"
"Are you allowed to ignore your contractor's words like this?"
Faced with Letisia's firm stance, the Spirit King let out a small sigh.
"How cruel."
She expressed her regret, yet she clearly had no intention of defying her contractor. Starting from the tips of her hair she began dissolving back into particles of light, until her entire form scattered into tiny motes and vanished.
According to the Spirit King, mere manifestation shouldn't have been that great a burden, so I found myself wondering why Letisia had been so adamant about sending her back.
"Is it that hard?"
"Pardon?"
"I was curious whether just keeping her manifested drains that much mana."
Letisia's mana stat was on par with a hero's. If even that level of mana struggled simply to maintain the Spirit King, the efficiency seemed terrible.
Her answer, however, was unexpected.
"It's larger than the Four Great Spirits, yes."
"Uh… well, of course it is? But that wasn't really what I was asking."
"Whether just manifesting her leaves me short on mana? Of course not. Once combat starts it's a different story, though."
"Then why bother…?"
She had seemed so eager to stay outside. I thought she could have granted that much of a request.
To my question Letisia answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I can't whip the Spirit King."
"……?"
Ah.
I had momentarily forgotten a certain fact. Lately she had only been showing her normal side, so it had slipped my mind.
"Spirit Reinforcement doesn't work on the Spirit King. Swinging a whip at her is completely meaningless. So I can't use the whip."
Letisia was a severe sadist who had become a spirit mage precisely because she loved whipping. A spirit she couldn't whip held zero appeal for her.
…Crazy woman.
She was casually choosing a weaker option just to indulge her preferences. It had been a while since I was reminded that she, too, was completely unhinged.
"Let's head outside for now."
"But is it really okay to leave it all to Erinn?"
"…It should be fine."
At Letisia's reply Freya also gave a small nod.
"He won't last long, most likely."
Was it really that bad? That little brat could be a handful, but I still had trouble picturing her torturing someone…
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"
A scream tore through the air from deeper inside the auction house. Startled, I looked in that direction—the same way Erinn had dragged the man earlier.
"See?"
"…Yeah, looks like it."
Just from the sound I could already imagine the man's face. The image of him contorted in agony, whimpering, rose unbidden in my mind.
…These women really were terrifying, every last one of them.
Freya stayed behind inside the auction house, both to soothe the people still trapped there and to keep watch. Only Letisia and I stepped outside.
"Where are we going?"
"Let's check the places connected to the tunnel."
That seemed like a solid idea. After walking a short distance we came upon a gathering of the Grand Duke's soldiers. As we approached, an especially enthusiastic soldier blocked our path.
"You there, do not approach! This area is off-limits!"
"Ah, it's fine. They're companions of the Hero."
"Ah."
The soldier bowed deeply in apology.
"My deepest apologies! I failed to recognize you!"
A young, lively face and rigid military bearing… everything about him screamed fresh recruit.
"It's all right. We just wanted to take a quick look at the scene, if that's okay?"
"Yes, of course!"
The soldier stepped aside. I quietly remarked to Letisia,
"Looks like a rookie."
"Seems so."
Letisia smiled lightly.
"People are always passionate when they start something new."
"…Was I like that too?"
"Pardon?"
My question left Letisia looking slightly flustered. Why the fluster?
"…Allen was… well, something like that, I suppose."
She was acting as if there really was something there. Not just Letisia—everyone got that same subtle reaction whenever they talked about me… or rather, about the old "Allen."
Watching those reactions, together with what Caesius had once said right beside me, forced a certain possibility into my mind.
A soul swap…
The possibility that the party members had swapped the soul of the porter "Allen" with "mine."
I couldn't see why they would bother, and the odds of them knowing some secret magic locked away in a royal library's forbidden section seemed low, but…
Then why did they react like this? Even when I failed to remember things I should obviously know, they treated it as nothing unusual.
…Once this whole affair was over, I would have to ask. The unease was too strong to ignore.
Letisia examined the tunnel exit and the surrounding area thoroughly, yet she rose without finding any decisive clue.
"Aside from traces of spirit power, there's almost nothing. Waiting for Erinn to finish her interrogation will probably be faster."
"That so."
"Allen! Letisia!"
Someone called our names. The bright, energetic voice that also carried a distinct whiff of alcohol told me instantly who it was.
"Aria? You're back already?"
"Puhaha! I moved quick!"
It was Ser-Aria, who had gone out to track externally. For someone who claimed to have returned so swiftly, her hands were completely empty.
"You didn't bring anything back?"
"Ah, I stuck it in my pocket!"
She rummaged through her pants pocket and pulled something out.
"This!"
"That's…"
What even was that? A white rod ornamented with three black stars.
I didn't recognize it, but Letisia narrowed her eyes slightly.
"…The underworld is involved."
"The underworld?"
The underworld—meaning the so-called back-alley world of violent criminal organizations. Apparently the item Ser-Aria had found was a membership token carried by members of such a group.
There definitely were quests that involved the underworld.
So it wasn't strange, though the timing of this particular quest felt a little early. Probably because the Dragon Jade had become a variable.
And this token belonged to an underworld organization I didn't know. The ones I was familiar with were the two I'd learned about through quests and the one I'd cleaned out while hunting a hidden piece—three in total.
None of those three used a symbol like this.
Still, even if I didn't know which group it was, the fact that it was an underworld organization might actually make things easier.
"If it's the underworld, they're a criminal organization. We can just wipe them out and grab the Dragon Jade."
"But… poking them might get messy."
"Huh? Why?"
Some unimaginably huge organization? The kind of back-alley overlords where touching them meant you were truly screwed?
"There's a rumor that the Shah Zar Kingdom—the hostile nation to the Bastien Principality—backs them. The organization's scale isn't enormous, though."
"…A kingdom is backing an underworld group?"
"They call it an underworld organization, but in reality they're the royal family's shadow, handling every dirty job imaginable."
Letisia drew her conclusion from the evidence.
"This whole incident… was a scheme by the Shah Zar Kingdom to stop their enemy, the Bastien Principality, from selling the Dragon Jade and securing a huge amount of capital."
I felt a flicker of alarm.
"So if we try to reclaim the Dragon Jade and touch them…"
"It could escalate into a diplomatic issue between the Dern Empire and the Shah Zar Kingdom. Of course the Shah Zar royal family would never admit any connection, but we can't rule out the possibility that they'll somehow drag us into it."
"But we can't just give up on the Dragon Jade either. If we abandon it…"
I glanced sideways.
"There's no reason to keep Caesius alive, is there?"
At those words Caesius flared up.
"…Hold on! I kept my promise! Failing to safeguard what was given is the humans' fault—why is the blame flying at me?!"
"I was joking."
"……Please refrain from such terrifying jokes."
She was surprisingly chicken.
"Of course we can't give it up. With that much money I could buy several robes… wait, no, I wasn't talking about buying robes."
Her true feelings had just slipped out.
Ser-Aria vigorously agreed with Letisia.
"Mm, we can't give it up! That much money is how many bottles of booze?!"
You, at least, try to hide your true feelings a little.
"But you just said we can't touch them. So what's the plan?"
"Well, we've acquired a rather useful card, haven't we?"
"What?"
"Our entire party belongs to the Empire, so if we make a move it could become an imperial diplomatic incident… but…"
Letisia looked at Caesius standing beside me.
"If a hot-blooded dragon simply wiped out some underworld organization that dared to mock her, could a kingdom really raise an issue with the Empire over that?"
"…Ah."
Letisia really was sharp. There was a reason her intelligence stat was the highest in the party.
"But we'd still need to find their base first."
"…That part's fine."
"Waaah?!"
At some point Clara had appeared right behind me. Could she please make some noise when she approached…?
"…Hm? What's that, Clara."
"…I chased one down and caught him."
In her grip a man was being dragged along. His eyes had rolled back and he was unconscious… he had clearly taken a thorough beating.
"We can probably get answers out of this one."
"We could even ask him to guide us!"
…Was that really a request?
Either way, a path forward had opened. The possibility of recovering the lost Dragon Jade had finally come into view.
"No reason to delay, then."
"Yes. Once Erinn finishes her interrogation, we'll speak with the Grand Duke and go retrieve it ourselves."
"The Grand Duke's side is the one that lost it, yet we're the ones who have to find it."
When I said that, Ser-Aria laughed heartily.
"That's just how hero-party work goes!"
"Catching petty thieves?"
"Yep! Puhaha!"
I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or not at that.
"Caesius."
"Speak."
"You heard the plan. Can you do it?"
"Are you asking about the possibility?"
"That, and more."
Caesius briefly met my eyes, then gave a light nod.
"If that is your command."
"Good."
Just to sell one Dragon Jade we now had to raid an underworld organization… making money really wasn't easy.
"Let's go get our money back."
"Yes."
"All right!"