Crimson Lament (2)
Pinpointing their location hadn't been all that difficult. I'd worried it might feel awkward since they looked so human, but once I started thrashing them, they transformed into these grotesque forms.
So the human appearance was just a disguise.
This ugly visage must have been their true form. The dark witch had kept her appearance even in death, so maybe it was a difference in the quality of the polymorph magic between lower and higher-ranked monsters.
"H-hiiik... S-save me...!"
"What kind of monster begs for its life?"
Thwack!!!
I chased down the last fleeing witch and brought the Geumswaebong down hard. Its skull cracked with a satisfying crunch, and the witch collapsed to the ground, revealing its hideous true face.
"That all of them?"
"...Yeah, we got them all."
Clara said to me with a soft smile.
"...You worked hard, Albrecht."
"Thanks."
I looked over the witches' corpses. The request form had clearly said that bringing back the spoils along with proof of completion would earn us a reward.
"So what exactly are we supposed to take as loot?"
"...Just grab the witches' staves."
"Staves?"
When you thought of witches, that was the first thing that came to mind. But from what I'd seen when they cast their magic earlier, these witches hadn't been using staves at all.
"There aren't any staves here."
"...They're probably back at the witches' lair."
Clara explained in her quiet, measured voice.
"...A witch links her body to a staff and draws mana through it."
"So the witch herself doesn't actually possess mana?"
"...Yeah."
That was news to me. There had never been any reason to learn the racial traits of witches when they were nothing more than trash mobs in Dungeon in Evil.
Unlike me, Clara had been working as an adventurer for a long time, so she seemed well-versed in details like this.
"But..."
I surveyed our surroundings. This might have been the mountain behind the village, but it was still a mountain. Scouring the whole place like we were hunting rats would be a complete waste of time.
"Finding the witches' lair is going to take forever."
"That won't be a problem."
Caesius spoke up after hearing my concern.
"This body shall locate it for you."
"You have a method or something?"
"It is simple."
Caesius rummaged bare-handed through the corpse of the witch I had just clubbed to death.
"Hey..."
Strictly speaking she was a dragon, so there was nothing particularly strange about her rooting around in a monster's remains... but watching someone with such a beautiful exterior dig through a witch's corpse with her bare hands was deeply unsettling.
...She's got a strong stomach, I'll give her that.
Caesius soon raised her hand as if she had found something.
"This is it."
"Huh...? Ah!"
For a moment I wondered what it was, but a closer look revealed something I already knew. The glittering, stone-like object was none other than a mana stone.
In Dungeon in Evil, it was an enhancement material used to upgrade mage characters' equipment. Not every monster dropped them, but "magic-type monsters" that utilized mana had a chance of yielding one.
Witches were only lower-ranked monsters, but they were still magic-types, so it made sense one might drop. The reason I hadn't thought of it wasn't a memory problem—it was simply that I hadn't seen a single one since arriving in this world.
...It definitely wasn't because I was an idiot.
"With this, we can reverse-trace the path the witch traveled."
"Ahh."
"Shall you try?"
"I can do it too?"
"Anyone who knows how to handle mana can do it."
Caesius held the mana stone out to me. Taking something she'd just pulled from a witch's corpse felt a little gross, but if I was going to keep adventuring, I would see far dirtier things than this.
I can just wash my hands later.
I accepted it and asked,
"How do I do it?"
"Infuse the mana stone with mana. Then the path it has traveled will begin to appear as a faint trail."
The path the mana stone had traveled—in other words, the route taken by the witch who had been carrying it.
"So reverse-tracking where a mana-stone-bearing monster came from is easier than I thought."
"Indeed."
I infused the mana stone with mana just as Caesius had instructed. A rather fascinating sight unfolded before me.
"Oh."
"Do you see it?"
Just as she had said, a hazy light stretched out behind us. I nodded and answered.
"Yeah, I see it. That's the one."
"Then simply follow it."
Following the faint trail of light exactly as Caesius had said, we soon arrived at the lair where the witches had been staying. Whether the ones that had appeared before me earlier were all of them or not, there were no other witches lingering here.
"Here they are!"
"Well? All thanks to this body, no?"
"Yeah, good job. Thanks for showing me."
Since Caesius's tip had made finding the place so easy, there was no reason to skimp on praise. But the moment I complimented her, Caesius's chuunibyou flared up again; she gave a low chuckle and said,
"Fufu. Extol the vast knowledge of this body. To conceive of something mere insects could never easily imagine—is it not magnificent?"
"...Want me to bash your head in again?"
"...I do not understand why the conversation always turns that way."
Caesius cleared her throat and changed the subject. It was almost absurd how I had to remind her every so often just to snap her out of it. What kind of dragon had a middle-schooler complex...?
Poke.
A strange sensation on my arm made me glance sideways. Clara was prodding my arm with her finger.
"Clara?"
"...I knew that too."
"Uh... you did?"
"...Yeah."
I stared at her for a while, wondering what kind of response she wanted. Then a thought suddenly struck me, and I spoke up just in case.
"I'll ask you next time?"
"...Yeah."
Clara smiled as if satisfied. She must have been hoping I would ask her.
Veterans always get the urge to teach newbies something and want to be asked for advice, don't they? Clara seemed to have been feeling the same way.
I just hadn't picked up on it. Realizing she had been waiting for me to ask her something like that...
...Kinda cute.
From now on, I should start by asking Clara about everything.
"How many are we taking?"
"Let's take them all."
We gathered every last witch staff. The fact that they counted as loot meant that beyond serving as proof of a completed request, we could also sell them to the guild for money.
No reason to leave any behind, then. Once I had them all strapped to my back, it felt roughly the same as carrying the party's luggage bags.
"...Isn't it heavy?"
So when Clara asked, I honestly told her I was fine. She replied with something like admiration.
"...Albrecht is strong."
...Me?
Hearing that from Clara, whose Strength stat was a full forty points higher than mine, didn't really land. But her expression was so pure that I could tell she genuinely meant it with no other intent behind the words.
That aside, knowing both Clara's and Caesius's Strength stats, I couldn't exactly smile and accept the compliment. So I just suggested we head back.
"Let's hurry back. We need to collect the reward, buy what we need, and get settled."
"...Okay."
"Do not forget the food, Albrecht."
"...I know."
You little glutton.
"You finished so quickly! That's amazing!"
When we returned to the Adventurers' Guild, the receptionist greeted us with a thoroughly astonished look.
"You must have done this kind of work even before registering as adventurers."
"Well..."
I had been tagging along with people who did far more dangerous things, sure.
I set the witches' staves down in front of her and said,
"We can exchange all of these for the reward, right?"
"Yes, of course. The current market rate for a witch's staff is sixty copper each, so I'll add three silver to your payout!"
Not exactly a fortune. Then again, for the spoils of lower-ranked monsters, this was more than generous. The staves still allowed a bit of mana to be channeled through them, which was probably why they fetched any price at all.
"Here is your ten-silver reward, plus three silver for the loot exchange—thirteen silver in total!"
"Thank you."
Still, a single request had brought in a decent sum. Enough to put a bed in the room right away, at least.
"Thank you for your hard work. Please come again tomorrow!"
Leaving the receptionist's farewell behind us, we stepped out of the Adventurers' Guild.
"So what should we buy first? We already have a table and chairs..."
"...A bed."
Clara seemed to prioritize a comfortable place to sleep as well.
"Thought so, right?"
"Mm, I agree."
Caesius chimed in with her own opinion.
"One must have a proper place to rest."
"Then it's decided."
We would buy a bed first. Since Clara and Caesius shared a room, we would get theirs today and maybe take another request tomorrow to buy mine.
"We'll need a big one."
"...A big one?"
For some reason Clara was staring at me with wide, round eyes.
I didn't think I had said anything strange. Why was she looking at me like that?
"Yeah. So you and Caesius can both lie down on it."
"...Ah."
Clara's face said she had only just realized. Had she forgotten Caesius existed?
Or maybe not—she flushed faintly and answered,
"...Y-yeah. That's right."
"...?"
Leaving Clara's puzzling reaction behind, we headed for the furniture shop to buy a bed. It was a store that sold only furniture, much like the ones back in reality, though of course far smaller than any of the big-box furniture retailers I remembered.
"Welcome."
"We're looking for a bed."
And even calling it a bed, I couldn't expect anything as soft as the ones from my old world. The beds used by royalty had been every bit as plush as modern ones, but those cost astronomical sums.
An ordinary bed in this place meant...
"A bed, you say. This particular item has been selling quite well lately."
...something like this crude wooden frame topped with a modest feather mattress. The truly cheap ones stuffed their mattresses with straw.
"We're looking for something a bit larger."
"Pardon? Ah."
The shopkeeper looked us over once and seemed to understand.
"Ahh, so you'll be sharing it."
"Yes."
It was the bed Clara and Caesius would share. When I confirmed it, the shopkeeper gave a strangely pleased smile and said,
"Then this bed should suit you."
The one he introduced next was certainly spacious. In quality—frame and mattress alike—it looked better than the previous one, not worse.
"How much?"
"This one is eleven silver."
A little steep. Buying this would mean we couldn't get much of the delicious food Caesius wanted.
"We'll take it."
But what choice did I have? Necessities had to be bought.
I handed over the payment and asked,
"Do you deliver as well?"
"Of course. I can hardly send a customer out carrying a bed, can I? Haha."
Fair enough.
"Where shall we deliver it?"
"The address is here..."
I wrote the address on a small scrap of paper and passed it over. The shopkeeper nodded.
"Confirmed. We'll get it to you quickly today."
"Yes, that would be great."
"Certainly."
He was being remarkably proactive. I had thought he was simply a kind host to his customers, but then the shopkeeper put on a slightly mischievous smile and said,
"A man needs a bed if he wants to spend quality time with his lovely lovers, after all."
What did I just hear?
I wasn't the only one startled—Clara beside me was staring at the shopkeeper with wide eyes as well. Caesius... seemed to have no thoughts on the matter whatsoever.
"...Excuse me? Lovers?"
Caught between embarrassment and sheer disbelief, I asked again. The shopkeeper looked slightly flustered in return.
"Ah... did I misread the situation?"
...You misread it by a mile.
Realizing something was off, the shopkeeper glanced back and forth between me, Clara, and Caesius before offering a belated apology.
"...My apologies, sir. I must have completely misunderstood. When a young man and women come looking at furniture together, I naturally assumed you were newlyweds..."
Hearing it laid out like that, I supposed it was an easy mistake to make.
Newlywed couples who had just found a home often shopped for a bed large enough for two to share...
"It's not like that. These two are the ones who'll be sleeping on it, so we're buying a big one."
"Ah."
The shopkeeper finally understood and apologized again.
"I-I'm truly sorry. I jumped to conclusions."
"...It's fine. Easy enough to misunderstand."
"As an apology, I'll include a full set of bedding as well."
That was welcome.
"We'll gladly take it. Payment's already settled, so we just head home and wait?"
"Yes, we'll deliver it shortly."
"Understood."
I left the shop quickly. The strange misunderstanding had made the atmosphere thoroughly awkward, so getting out fast seemed best.
"That old guy sure jumped to some weird conclusions."
I tried to brush it off lightly. Caesius answered in a completely unbothered tone.
"It happens. Many humans are simply lacking in intelligence. This body can only be understanding of such fools' delusions."
...So she was fine with it because she was looking at it from an entirely different angle.
It was an arrogantly phrased remark, but still better than standing there in awkward silence. Her casual attitude even helped me shake off the discomfort myself.
But...
"...Clara?"
"...Ah... yeah?"
Clara's reaction was radiating awkwardness so thick you couldn't even pretend she was fine. Given the kind of person she was, maybe she had no immunity to this sort of thing.
"Clara, don't take it to heart. The guy just misunderstood."
"...But..."
"If you dwell on it, you'll only get more embarrassed. Better to treat it like a passing joke and move on."
When I said that, Clara shook her head as if to say that wasn't it. Then, in a voice anyone could tell was burning with embarrassment, she murmured,
"......It means... other people..."
"Hm?"
"...saw us that way too."
Hearing Clara's words, I realized something I hadn't considered at all.
"......Ah."
Ophelia, head of the Aurum Aquila merchant guild, found herself facing an unexpected visitor.
"Hmm... you've come alone this time?"
Standing before her was a woman whose glossy black hair was strikingly alluring—yet the liquor bottle clutched in one hand created a thoroughly ironic contrast.
There was another feature that outshone even those two: the long, pointed ears extending from either side of her head. Those ears were proof that she was an elf.
"Aurum Aquila. A massive trading company with bases in countless nations, if I recall."
Even though she had arrived unannounced, Ophelia did not turn her away. The woman was her client—and a valuable one who had recently entrusted her with an enormous sum of money.
Even without that, the woman's own standing alone was more than enough reason for Ophelia to treat her with courtesy.
"I don't mean to boast, but that is correct."
She was a core member of the famous Hero Erinn's party of the Dern Empire, and the current successor to the title of Divine Archer—a princess of the High Elves.
"There's something I'd like you to look into."
Ser-Aria, that was.
"What might that be?"
Ser-Aria took a deep swig from her bottle. Then she exhaled a sigh thick with the scent of liquor.
Ophelia was not particularly fond of the smell of alcohol, yet somehow the sigh that accompanied it mixed into something rather intriguing.
She had a strong feeling that whatever she was about to hear would be a deliciously interesting story.
"Allen... no, Albrecht."
And sure enough.
"I want to know where that guy went."
Ophelia's intuition had been right on the mark.