Underworld Cleanup (1)
"…Hey. Is this really okay?"
"Shh. Do you want us to get caught?"
"No, I mean—do we really have to go dressed like this?"
Freya answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"There's a saying that when in Rome, do as the Romans do. In the underworld, you follow the underworld's rules."
…How do you even know about Rome? Is it just because this is a game world?
"And those rules involve this outfit…?"
"If we'd shown up looking the way we usually do, we'd have drawn suspicion immediately."
We were in disguise. Instead of our usual gear, we were wearing clothes that looked suspiciously like traditional Indian or Southeast Asian dress.
There was a reason for it. This was the common everyday wear of the Shah Zar Kingdom.
We were currently in Mahendra, the Shah Zar Kingdom's infamous lawless city—hunting down the missing Dragon Jade.
If we'd walked in dressed as usual, anyone with eyes would have recognized the Hero's Party on sight. The idea was to keep as low a profile as possible.
My own opinion, however, was a little different.
"…From where I'm standing, this draws more attention."
None of these girls had ordinary looks to begin with. Every one of them was beautiful, with that unmistakable air of quality. In armor or robes, at least they looked like adventurers. Dressed like this, they looked like Shah Zar nobility.
Clara and Caesius especially—something about their quiet, composed presence only made it worse. Clara's copper-toned skin and golden eyes matched the vaguely Middle Eastern cut of the clothes almost too well…
"What are you talking about? Sure, people are looking—but nobody's figured out we're the Hero's Party, have they?"
"……."
The Freya saying that was dressed like a dancing girl.
A crop-top-style upper piece, a short skirt, and a sheer veil covering the lower half of her face—the classic dancer's costume straight out of every Middle Eastern-set production ever made.
…No matter how I look at it, you just wanted an excuse to wear something revealing.
"So where was it again?"
"Mahendra, Thirteenth Street alley."
That was the information Erinn had extracted through thorough interrogation of their collaborator. The reason Freya was answering instead of Erinn herself was that we'd split into two groups for the approach.
Our team would hit the organization head-on with Caesius, while Erinn, Letisia, and Ser-Aria sealed off the escape routes. On this side: me, Freya, Clara, and Caesius.
Splitting our forces might have sounded risky, but honestly, this combination could walk into a dungeon without breaking a sweat.
A cleric capable of long-range firepower. A damage-tank who could handle both melee and ranged. A scout. And one completely useless porter.
"……I feel like I'm the only one here with no purpose."
"Without Allen, the whole plan falls apart from the start. What are you talking about?"
Right. If I had to name one useful thing about myself, it was that the damage-tank who could do both melee and ranged only listened to me. Like a summoner's pet in any other game. I'd heard summoner players enjoyed bossing around something that powerful—I still couldn't quite feel the appeal.
Still, I was grateful she said it. Someday, I hoped comments like that would be about my own skill.
"…This is the area. Mahendra, Thirteenth Street."
Just as Clara said, a sign marked with a thirteen stood a short distance ahead. I gave a small nod and ran through the plan one more time.
"We hit them from the front, Erinn's group seals the exits… is this really going to work?"
"What more do you need?"
The plan doesn't have nearly enough detail, that's what.
I'd brought it up before we left, too. They'd all waved it off and dismissed my insistence that we needed something more concrete.
Whether that meant they were that confident, or just that thoughtless…
"Worry not, Allen. This body shall handle everything."
And then there was this dragon, deep in the throes of her chuunibyou phase, who'd agreed that a simple, clean plan was exactly to her liking. That left me with nothing to say.
When the one actually carrying out the role was talking like that, what was I supposed to argue?
"Just give the command."
"…Fine. Got it."
Half worried it wouldn't work, half resigned that it would somehow work out anyway, I stepped into the Thirteenth Street alley. The moment we entered, I—and the rest of the party—were a little taken aback.
This really is the underworld.
The alley was dim even though the sun was up, thanks to the shadows of the surrounding buildings.
Vagrants who might have been dead or merely sleeping littered the ground. Clustered nearby, tattooed thugs snickered among themselves as they looked down on them.
There were men with strange eyes casually carrying weapons in their hands, and gaunt women fawning over those same men.
People who lived in the dark—you could tell what they were at a glance. Even in disguise, we stood out the second we stepped into a place like this.
"The hell are those?"
"Oi. If you took a wrong turn, get lost. What're you staring at?"
"Hold up—those girls look like they'd fetch a price. The guy's useless. Kill him."
We'd been in their sight for maybe thirty seconds, and they'd already finished calculating how to kill me and sell the others.
Really… there was a reason people said humans were the scariest monsters of all.
"…Caesius. Deal with them, but don't kill anyone."
"What a bothersome demand."
"They might not even be the ones we're looking for. Once we're inside the organization's building, I won't stop you."
"Understood."
As Caesius stepped forward, the men drew their weapons and closed in. Basic blades, of course—but also a vicious-looking curved sword, and a hand axe already stained with blood from some previous job.
Looking at that, I changed my mind.
"…Never mind. Do whatever you want."
"Truly?"
"Yeah."
These were the kind of people who went around hurting others. For people like that…
"No need to hold back."
"The command is simpler now. Good."
Caesius, whose eyes had been dull with disinterest just moments before, widened them slightly—then shot her hand out at the nearest man with startling speed.
Slash!!
In an instant, claws sprang free, and Caesius's hand tore the man's abdomen wide open.
"Gyaaaaah!"
"Wh-what the hell is this bitch?!"
"Shit—!"
The sight of a torso ripped open from navel to flank was grotesque enough to turn the stomach, but I felt no pity.
With the lead knife-man taken down in a blink, the other two faltered and tried to back away. But Caesius, already under orders, did not stop.
"Do you vermin truly believe you can flee simply by running?"
…Still hasn't fixed that way of talking. I need to make her do more headbutts.
While Caesius cleaned them up, I turned to Clara.
"Clara, find the entrance."
"…Okay."
Clara scaled the wall at a speed the eye could barely follow, then began leaping from wall to wall on either side of the alley, scanning every corner.
"…That's practically acrobatics."
"Looks like we don't have anything to do, Allen."
Yeah.
We didn't wait long. Clara came back quickly.
"…Further in."
"Good. Caesius, that way!"
"Mm. Understood."
In the short time we'd been talking, Caesius had already slaughtered all three men. Young or not, a dragon was a dragon.
Following Clara, we arrived at a high wall. A wall—not a door…
"Where's the entrance?"
"…Here."
Clara pulled a set of lockpicking tools from her pocket and jammed them between the bricks. She worked the tools back and forth with hand movements I couldn't begin to follow.
Then, with a low rumble, a section of the brickwork sank inward and split to either side, revealing an entrance.
To my eyes it had just looked like she was poking around at random, but apparently that was trap disarmament. Leave it to a thief when it comes to dismantling mechanisms.
"They said it was moved to an underground vault, right?"
"That's right."
"Caesius, go in and deal with anyone who comes out. We'll head straight for the underground vault."
"Understood."
"And make it as obvious as possible that you're a dragon."
Caesius gave a slight nod.
"That much is no trouble."
"Good. Let's go."
The sun had not yet reached its zenith.
We stepped into the building of Tin Tara—the Three Stars—the organization that had stolen the Dragon Jade, and the shadow organization of the Shah Zar royal family.
Barman, leader of Tin Tara, was having a thoroughly satisfying morning. When he'd first received the order to infiltrate the Bastien Principality auction and reclaim the Dragon Jade, he'd thought the job might be impossible.
And for good reason—the auction house had been under the watch of Hero Erinn's party. As the Dern Empire's only Hero's Party, they were quite famous.
They had appeared like a comet in an empire that had been diplomatically weak for lack of a Hero, racking up overwhelming achievements at a blistering pace until they ranked among the most formidable Hero parties in existence.
In particular, Erinn was the Hero chosen by the Holy Sword—the greatest of all holy armaments—and she was also the sole aptitude holder and successor of the Hegemon Sword Art.
Being ordered to rob an auction house guarded by a Hero like that had felt no different from being ordered to die…
"Who would've thought they'd be stupid enough to leave their post."
Even if they'd used spirits to dig a tunnel in an instant, they never would have gotten away with it if the Hero had been nearby.
But lo and behold—the biggest headache of them all had vacated the premises. Thanks to that, they'd executed the operation swiftly and seized the Dragon Jade.
He'd stashed it in the underground vault—the deepest, most secret place in the organization, accessible only to himself and his brother, the deputy leader Babur.
Once the fuss over the Dragon Jade died down, they'd sell it on the black market and hand the money over to the royal family. And the royal family had promised to grant them a full third of the proceeds.
"Heh heh."
Just thinking about that rosy future was enough to make him laugh out loud. Two of their members had been captured, but as people raised to be the royal family's shadows, their loyalty was absolute. They would keep their mouths shut and take their own lives.
…That was how it should have gone.
"Boss! Boss!!"
A subordinate pounded urgently on Barman's door.
"What is it?"
"We've got a problem! The Principality's people are here looking for the Dragon Jade!"
"…What?"
That was impossible. The organization's location had never once been exposed, and the captured men would have killed themselves—there was no way they'd said a word.
So why…
But Barman didn't know. He didn't know that the Hero was rather skilled at interrogation. Or that she'd even removed the poison sacs hidden in the molars they'd prepared for suicide.
"Block them immediately! And draw their attention away from the underground vault. They won't know the path to the vault—lure them in the opposite direction and buy us time."
"Got it, Boss!"
"I'll contact the royal family. Pass this on to Babur as well. If he runs into the enemy, tell him to stall as long as he can!"
"You be careful too, Boss!"
The path to the underground vault was extremely complex. The above-ground floors connected through ordinary staircases, but the basement was another matter entirely.
The building's underground levels were a kind of maze, designed against potential intruders. Anyone who wasn't part of the leadership would inevitably get lost.
"Damn it. How did they find this place…"
There was only one possibility he could think of. Either the suicide had failed, or they'd turned themselves in because they didn't want to die.
The latter was vanishingly unlikely, so Barman muttered under the assumption of the former.
"They figured that out…? It was inside the molars—it shouldn't have shown in their speech or on their faces."
He couldn't quite understand it, but the situation had already exploded. Still, if they could just protect the Dragon Jade, it wasn't hopeless.
Barman had absolutely no intention of handing over the Dragon Jade. After a life spent doing every filthy job imaginable, this might finally be the chance to grasp a single ray of light.
If he grew the organization a little further and secured a firm place even in this underworld, then even as the royal family's shadow, he could live a life of considerable comfort. With that money, he might even break free of the royal family's chains entirely.
In every sense, the Dragon Jade was a savior for Barman and his organization. He would never give it up.
"They won't find it anyway…"
"Brother!"
"Babur?"
At that moment, his deputy and younger brother Babur arrived. This time Barman opened the door himself to receive him.
"Babur. Did you not receive my orders? Why are you here?"
"That's not the problem, Brother! Some dragon just crashed into the building…!"
"What? A dragon?"
"It's true, Brother! It's in human form, but it's got horns on its head. That's a polymorphed dragon!"
Why would a dragon suddenly appear in a place like this? According to the Bastien Principality's official announcement, the Hero's Party had killed a dragon and obtained the Dragon Jade.
"…They didn't kill the dragon?"
"What? That can't be…"
"Damn it, that's the only explanation! If that dragon came here, it must have made some kind of contract with the Principality and…"
Barman was piecing together the background when he suddenly paused. Then he muttered,
"…Can the Principality even tame a dragon? Even with the Hero's Party helping, a prideful dragon wouldn't submit to something weaker than itself."
"Brother, what?"
"Think about it. How could the Bastien Principality—which doesn't even have a Hero—subdue and tame a dragon?"
Babur shook his head slightly at Barman's question.
"Even a young dragon…"
"…Babur! Grab what you can and run. Now!"
"What?"
"It's the Hero's Party!"
Barman had arrived at a deduction that was nearly correct.
"Like you said—even a young dragon couldn't be subdued and tamed by the Principality's forces alone! The Hero's Party didn't kill it. They tamed it, and now they're using it to attack us!"
"…Then we have to run?!"
"That's what I'm saying—grab what you can and run! We'll go to the royal family. His Majesty will figure something out."
"R-right!"
Barman and Babur didn't even consider fighting. The Dragon Jade, everything else—none of it mattered. If the Hero's Party was here, their lives were in immediate danger.
As befitting the royal family's shadows, both Barman as leader and Babur as his second-in-command were highly skilled—but they were nowhere near the level of a Hero's Party.
They scooped up a few treasures they'd kept as emergency funds and prepared to escape at once. Barman's office had an escape route known only to the two brothers.
"…Coming this way, are we~?"
But why, then, was some little girl blocking the mouth of that escape route?
"Pfft. Building a damp little passage like this… you're like ants♡"
"Who the hell does this brat think she is—get lost!"
"…Babur. Run the other way. Now."
"What?"
Babur looked at his brother in confusion. But Barman's expression was deadly serious as he shouted,
"I said run!!"
"Wh-what are you talking about, Brother!"
"I'll take this side—you run that way! Hurry!"
The Barman brothers were thorough by nature, and the escape passage split into two paths—so that if one was blocked, they could still get out through the other.
"B-Brother, you have to survive!"
Babur fled down the other path in a panic, and Barman stared at the small girl in front of him, cold sweat dripping down his face.
Barman knew exactly who she was. He'd never seen her in person, but her features were famous enough.
Shimmering platinum-blonde hair and eyes like amethysts. And a chest that was startlingly large for such a small frame. Every detail pointed to one person.
"Hero Erinn…"
"Oh, you know me~?"
It was Erinn, Hero of the Holy Sword. She smirked at Barman for recognizing her.
"Then you already know what's about to happen to you~♡"
"……I won't go down easily."
Barman drew a pair of daggers with blades of unequal length from his waist and crossed them.
"If you underestimate the leader of Tin Tara, your throat will be—"
"What was that~?"
Erinn giggled.
"I can barely hear what a scrub like you is saying~♡"
"…Arrogant little—!"
Barman moved fast. It was the swift, unpredictable footwork of a man who truly was the leader of the royal family's shadows. Nine out of ten people who faced him would fail to read his movements and lose their throats to his daggers.
Unfortunately for him, the person standing in front of him was the one in ten.
"Heh♡"
A light snicker. And then Barman's eyes went wide.
A sword was drawn in a flash and cut precisely through the spot where Barman was about to plant his next step. The leg he'd extended to move was severed clean through, and of course his stance collapsed.
And Barman saw it—the pure white blade crashing down onto his head the instant his balance broke.
"……Damn."
Shhk!
A clean cutting sound, and Barman's vision flooded dark red.
"You really are just a scrub~♡"
Through the gaps in a vision drowned in his own blood, he could see Erinn giggling. That was the last thing Barman registered before his thoughts cut out entirely.
Just as Barman crumpled, a short scream rang out from the direction Babur had fled. Then Letisia walked out from that path and looked at Erinn.
"Ah, so you're finished over there as well."
"Yep~."
Erinn smiled lightly.
"Now we just need the loser to find the Dragon Jade~♡"