Safekeeping of Valuables (2)

Besides the Shah Zar Kingdom sitting directly across from it, there was another nation that shared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a border with the Bastien Principality.

It was a small country called the Behend Kingdom, which touched borders in modest stretches with all three of them — the Bastien Principality, the Estire Kingdom, and the Shah Zar Kingdom. It wore the title of kingdom, but it was even smaller than the Bastien Principality itself.

The reason a nation that tiny faced no real threat from either of the two great powers — or from Bastien, for that matter — was that this little country played a critical role between all three.

Think of it as a real-world Switzerland, and the picture becomes clear. Vast sums of money and goods from all three nations flowed into the Behend Kingdom, and that capital then flowed right back out into Shah Zar, Estire, and Bastien. Dark money from the Shah Zar Kingdom, which was thick with underworld organizations, even got laundered there.

On top of that, Bastien and Shah Zar got along so poorly that anyone trying to reach Estire from Bastien had to pass through Behend — a fact that proved extremely useful. Merchant caravans that traveled from country to country could rely on it as a thoroughfare, and they did so faithfully.

Countless caravans passed through the Behend Kingdom as a result, and despite its weak domestic production, the kingdom had built up an enormous distribution industry. In terms of raw capital, it actually outstripped the Bastien Principality.

…Or so Freya had explained in a cheerful stream of chatter, bored out of her mind inside the carriage.

"It's been a long time since I've been to the Behend Kingdom. Not since the missionary work I did there years ago."

"How long ago was that?"

"More than five years, I think?"

In other words, this would be her first visit since the Hero's Party had been formed.

"No dungeons around here?"

"The territory is so small that there weren't any dangerous ones."

Freya's answer left me a little puzzled. I was pretty sure the Behend Kingdom had an enormous dungeon…

Has it just not appeared yet?

This world had diverged in so many ways from the Extreme difficulty I'd played that it was entirely possible the dungeon simply hadn't shown up.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

But if that were the case…

I was planning to meet that guy and pick up a Hidden Piece, too.

Getting a Hidden Piece out of a dungeon might get a lot harder.

The place where a Hidden Item was generated — triggered by the book The Connection Between Ancient Relics and Magic that I'd browsed in the Estire Kingdom's library — was the Behend Kingdom's massive dungeon.

The item had already registered as generated. So why hadn't the dungeon appeared yet…?

According to the original narrative of Dungeon in Evil, around this point in the timeline the Behend Kingdom was supposed to be tearing its hair out over the sudden appearance of a giant dungeon.

Like Bastien, Behend was a small nation without a Hero's Party of its own, so it would commission a foreign Hero's Party to clear the dungeon. That was how the player's party ended up heading to Behend.

This time we were visiting for a different reason, but I'd still assumed the dungeon would be there. Apparently not.

This just got complicated.

We had about a month left. If I failed to get this Hidden Piece, it would put a serious dent in my chances of winning the bet I'd made with Erinn. But if the dungeon hadn't appeared, how was I supposed to obtain it…?

"Allen."

Letisia spoke to me quietly then. She was keeping her voice down because the others were asleep — everyone except Freya, who had been chattering away nonstop.

"What about your magic lessons?"

"Ah…"

I still needed to keep learning, after all.

"Looking at the schedule, we'll probably camp overnight somewhere. Want to sneak out then?"

A lesson during camp watch? I was more than happy to take her up on that.

"…But we don't need to sneak around anymore."

"Pardon?"

"Freya knows now, too."

"What? Then why did we go through all that trouble of hiding it…?"

Good question.

"What are you two talking about?"

"Ah… me learning magic."

"Oh, so Letisia was the one teaching you?"

Letisia gave a small nod. Freya spoke up.

"That's wonderful. Allen might actually end up supporting us someday."

"That's the plan."

"Such good resolve, Allen. I'll give you a reward for working so hard."

"…No thanks."

I cut her off flat, and Freya looked startled.

"What? You're turning it down without even hearing what the reward is…?"

"It's the same kind of thing as last time, isn't it."

"…Allen, reading a Saintess's thoughts is a blasphemous act."

What was she talking about? I hadn't read her mind — the whole thing was just that obvious.

"What kind of reward is it?"

"…It's nothing."

"Would Letisia like to receive it instead?"

"Why would I suddenly…?"

Freya lifted her hips slightly and crawled over to Letisia on all fours. She was probably trying not to wake the sleeping party members, but the way her body moved made the whole scene… extremely alluring, in more ways than one.

"Freya?"

"Here, your reward~?"

With that, Freya pulled Letisia into a light embrace. She grinned and said,

"Well? Doesn't it feel nice?"

"…W-what exactly is supposed to feel nice?"

"Isn't the warm embrace of a Saintess lovely?"

Letisia sat there in Freya's arms with a face that said she had no idea what to make of any of this. Two girls doing that to each other — what was supposed to be nice about it?

"……"

…Though my eyes were getting a bit of a treat, I had to admit.

"But this is a reward?"

"Allen seemed to like it."

"Pardon?"

"…When did I ever?"

Hearing Freya's comment, Letisia narrowed her eyes slightly and looked at me. I had no idea why she was giving me that look… but for the record, that had never happened.

"…Anyway, take the night watch with me. I'll teach you then."

"Alright."

If she was offering, I was more than glad to accept.

As expected, we didn't make it all the way into the Behend Kingdom and ended up camping for the night. Naturally, someone had to guard the coachman and the carriage, so we set up a night watch rotation. Letisia and I volunteered for the shift.

"Puhaha! You two have been getting along awfully well lately!"

"Getting along is a strong word."

"…You're going to learn magic?"

I nodded at Clara's question. Ser-Aria turned to Clara with slightly flustered eyes.

"Huh? Wait, is it okay to say that out loud?"

"Everyone knows by now anyway."

"What? When did everyone find out?"

My thoughts exactly.

"Learning magic is fine and all, but you'd better keep a proper watch, okay~? Even a dummy like you hasn't forgotten how many gold coins are in that carriage, right~♡"

"I know. And we've got this lizard here either way."

Caesius looked at me with mildly startled eyes.

"…I am to do this as well?"

"You think you're going to sleep while I'm awake?"

Bound by contract, she and I were a set.

Besides, she was a dragon well-versed in magic. I figured she might be able to offer some advice while watching me learn from Letisia.

"Then I'll leave it to you."

"I'm trusting you and going to sleep first!"

Once the coachman and the rest of the party had fallen asleep, only Letisia, Caesius, and I remained outside the carriage, a campfire crackling between us.

"Today I'll teach you a bit about elemental magic."

"So the basics are done after last time?"

"You said you'd practice on your own, so I was planning to move straight ahead. Is there anything you still can't do?"

I'd managed drawing out mana and wrapping it around a weapon. What I hadn't gotten a chance to try was the basic magic she'd taught me…

"I haven't actually cast any spells yet."

"You didn't try this time either?"

There hadn't been an opportunity…

"Couldn't. I did manage loading mana into a weapon, though."

"Then shall we try it now?"

Letisia pointed to a tree up ahead.

"You can knock it down."

"That'll wake everyone up."

"I'll keep it quiet."

In that case…

I drew out my mana without worry. Letisia gave a small nod of approval.

"Your mana control is clearly more natural than before."

"I just figured it out after doing it a few times."

"Well done. Do you remember the magic I taught you?"

"Yeah."

There had been a few basic spells Letisia had shown me back in my room. One of them was an offensive technique — the non-attribute spell Energy Ball.

Recalling what she'd demonstrated, I moved my mana. It formed into tiny points, then circles, and those circles gathered into a Force.

I converted the single Force I'd created into a spell, then murmured the short incantation.

"…Energy Ball."

With a sharp crack, the mana surged as if about to detonate. I hurled the sphere resting on my palm forward with everything I had.

BOOM!!!

An explosion rocked the air, and the tree lurched. Letisia shot from her seat in an instant and caught the falling trunk bare-handed.

"…Good. Well done."

I was a little taken aback by the sight. Why had she blocked it with her bare hands?

"H-hey, is your hand okay? You could've just blocked it with mana."

"Did you forget? When you use mana, it pulls all of mine away."

Ah.

I'd completely blanked on that for a second. Magic Condensation — that trait was almost certainly the cause. Whenever I used mana, Letisia couldn't use hers.

"Anyway, you remembered what I taught you well. Then…"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Caesius, sitting beside us, asked with a puzzled look.

"It pulls mana away?"

Caesius pressed the question in a more serious tone. I nodded and answered her.

"Basically, when I'm using mana, Letisia's mana gets dragged over and tangled up with mine."

"You mean you are stealing mana, Allen?"

"No. Not ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that. I can't use it either… it's just bound up."

"It slips free of control, then?"

Caesius looked at me with faintly startled eyes, then asked one more thing.

"Could you show me once?"

"Huh? Why?"

"There's no reason we couldn't…"

Letisia carefully set the fallen tree down on the ground. How had she held up a trunk that size with a frame like hers? Our Strength stats weren't that far apart.

"Allen, draw out your mana."

"Okay."

I gathered my mana again, and this time Letisia raised hers as well. A message appeared.

And remarkably, just like back in my room, Letisia's mana shuddered and then scattered apart. That mana was absorbed straight into the place where I'd gathered mine.

"It works like this… Caesius?"

Caesius's eyes had gone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠round, as if she'd just witnessed something shocking.

"…How is this possible? Allen, what did you do?"

"Huh? I didn't really do anything."

A strange trait had simply appeared one day, and it activated automatically whenever I drew out mana.

"You don't know?"

"…It's been like this for a while now."

"Even a dragon doesn't know about this phenomenon?"

Caesius rested a hand on her chin and studied the clump of my mana and Letisia's for a long time, as though observing some mystical occurrence.

"This body has not been long in the outside world, so my knowledge is lacking — but I once saw my father do something similar."

"Your father…"

"My father is an Ancient-class dragon. When he suppressed my elder sister's rebellion, he stripped her of control over her mana entirely. At that time, her mana moved according to his will."

An Ancient-class dragon… that was one hell of a bloodline.

"But this is a different case. The bound mana hasn't become Allen's. So he can't freely use it either."

"Indeed. My father had outright stolen my sister's mana. But this is not theft…"

Caesius continued.

"It is simply bound — and rendered uncontrollable. This is a phenomenon even I am seeing for the first time."

She looked back and forth between me and the mana with clear fascination.

"Remarkable."

Remarkable, huh… Was this trait that had suddenly appeared some kind of possession perk? Or had this body always had some latent talent related to mana?

"…Remarkable or not, this ability doesn't really help me, does it?"

"Why do you think that?"

"All it means is that when I raise my mana, other people can't use theirs. I'm supposed to be supporting these guys… instead of supporting them, I'm just going to be a troll."

"Think of it the other way around."

Caesius said.

"If you raise your mana, other people — meaning enemies — also cannot use theirs. Is that not so?"

"…Huh?"

Put that way, she was right.

It wasn't only Letisia's mana that got pulled in. Mana being dragged away meant the opponent couldn't cast magic at all…

"And yet you can still use your own mana, can you not?"

"…You want me to try using it in this state?"

"Move only a portion of it, not the whole."

Move only a portion of my mana? I'd never tried that. I was still turning it over in my head when Letisia stepped closer.

"Think of it as dividing your mana. To make it easier… picture a big wheel of cheese being split into two pieces."

Cheese? That was an oddly cute analogy. Did Letisia like cheese?

It did make the idea a little easier to grasp, but I still couldn't quite get a feel for it. Separating cheese wasn't anything special — you just pulled it apart like this…

"Oh."

…It worked.

"You did it?"

"Uh…"

"Form a spell with that."

"But I can't make a Force with this."

The separated mana wasn't enough to construct the Force needed for Energy Ball. Caesius spoke up.

"Forget Energy Ball. Even the simplest magic you can manage will do. You simply cannot do it yet — once the mana you can handle increases… no."

Caesius asked,

"It would be faster to first test how much mana is required to keep an opponent's mana bound."

"…You mean keep peeling pieces off?"

"Yes."

I separated my mana again, peeling it away like slices of cheese. I was carefully dividing it piece by piece when—

THOOM!

"Wha—!"

Letisia's mana, which had been gathered on this side, came free — then shifted and re-collected around the new portion I'd just separated out.

"That appears to be your limit."

Caesius said.

"As you can see, Allen — you can bind an opponent's mana while simultaneously wielding your own. Do you understand how great an advantage that is?"

"…Yeah."

If I honed this properly, I could counter every attack that relied on mana — and against mages, whose entire arsenal was mana-based, it was practically a hard counter.

"If you wish to grow stronger, refining this seems wise."

Caesius's advice was spot on.

Come to think of it…

…I think I've found my path.

I finally had a sense of how I needed to get stronger.