Uncomfortable Cohabitation (8)
I roughly brushed off Young Master Maximilian and Priest Daniel’s little display of knowledge and took Sister Mary and my older sister out to hunt monsters.
“Miss Julian?!”
“S-Saintess?”
The two of them only realized what was happening after the fact and came chasing after us.
“Men really are pathetic, aren’t they?”
Sister Mary’s words made me burst out laughing.
“Come on, they’re cute.”
The moment I said it, Sister Mary and my sister both looked at me with worried expressions. Had I said something wrong?
“I-I’m sorry.”
The Young Master, who had scrambled after us, apologized in a rush.
“There’s nothing to apologize for.”
“Let’s finish this up quickly and rest a bit.”
Consulting the map, Maximilian suggested that if we cleared two or three more zones we would reach an exit, so we should step outside for a while.
“Thanks to the light magic it’s bright, and the purification magic keeps the smell almost gone, but it’s still stifling. Let’s get some air.”
“We need lunch anyway, so that works.”
I had eaten such a solid breakfast that I wasn’t hungry yet, but the others clearly felt differently.
“All right.”
We finished the remaining zones and stepped outside for a short while.
“Ugh, the air is so clean…”
No matter how thoroughly you used purification magic, the difference between the open air and the underground was enormous.
“Haah, it really was stifling.”
Sister Mary looked genuinely exhausted.
“If it was that hard, you could have just said we shouldn’t do this…”
“How could I possibly say that?”
Her eyes were smiling, but her expression was terrifying.
I turned my head away. Yikes, scary…
We grabbed a rough lunch at a nearby restaurant. The women generally ate lightly, while the men, after only that short bit of movement, put away lunches nearly as large as their breakfasts.
“Doesn’t that sit heavy?”
“It’ll settle once we start moving again.”
Well, once we got back to work it would burn off soon enough. We even ordered dessert and took our time relaxing right there in the restaurant.
“The underground waterways were impressive. Do other places not use them?”
“Once a territory reaches the size of a great domain, they will.”
“Is that so?”
“The construction costs a fortune, and maintenance is difficult. With fewer people the need is lower as well.”
In the surrounding farmlands the waste was probably used as fertilizer, which made sense. The management problem I understood too. Even in the capital they couldn’t find proper caretakers and had to hire adventurers, didn’t they?
In other territories it would be even harder. Adventurers might not shy away from dirty work, but there were still jobs they preferred to avoid.
The only reason we had been able to take this request was because other people had turned it down.
“That makes sense.”
Once we finished dessert and felt we had rested enough, we rose and headed back into the underground waterways.
The moment we descended, Maximilian spread the map, confirmed our position, and set the route.
“If we loop from here to here, that should cover it.”
“It’ll take a while.”
To finish the request by tomorrow we would have to spend tonight in the waterways. We could have stretched it over several days, of course, but…
“We packed dinner boxes, so let’s push hard.”
I had no desire to come back down here tomorrow.
“Yes. Let’s pick up the pace.”
In the morning we had moved cautiously because we didn’t know the waterways well. There was no longer any reason to dawdle.
We pressed forward steadily, cutting down every slime or other monster that appeared. Among the creatures—no, animals—living underground were even dogs and cats. How they had ended up here I couldn’t say, but…
“It’s pitiful, but…”
We had no capacity to take them with us. And with the place crawling with germs, releasing them outside would be dangerous too.
I used blades of wind and ended the animals cleanly.
“Tsk. If they’d managed this place properly, animals wouldn’t have wandered in like this…”
When I clicked my tongue, Maximilian disagreed.
“If you think about why the animals came down here in the first place, proper management probably wouldn’t have kept them out.”
“Really?”
“Yes. They came seeking safety. Even with management, the animals would still have entered.”
I wasn’t sure, but he was probably right. I gave the pitiful corpses one last glance and turned away.
Down underground it was impossible to tell how much time had passed.
“Has the sun set yet…?”
“Not yet, I think.”
Having only our internal clocks to go by left us unable to know the exact hour, and a faint unease began to settle in. I finally understood why people said prolonged darkness could drive a person mad.
“By the way, I hear something like footsteps in the distance.”
“Footsteps?”
Footsteps meant… something was moving.
“They sound human.”
Everyone started at Maximilian’s words.
People? In this underground waterway, in this suffocating space? It was almost impossible to believe.
“Let’s hope we don’t run into them.”
My sister gripped her sword tightly and stayed on guard. Priest Daniel still looked skeptical, frowning. Sister Mary and I simply prepared ourselves calmly.
Maximilian had undergone Marrow Cleansing and become superhuman. If his ears had caught the sound, we had to trust him.
“Are you trying to avoid them?”
“There’s no reason to force a confrontation.”
“That doesn’t seem like the only reason…”
His expression was suspicious. There was clearly more to it—why wouldn’t he just say so?
When I stared at him with open doubt, his face shifted moment by moment.
“Ugh…”
After a long internal struggle he finally spoke.
“Anyone lingering in the underground waterways at this late hour is unlikely to be a decent person. High probability they’re criminals.”
Criminals…?
“Why would criminals…?”
“When you consider the nature of the waterways, it’s only natural.”
A place no one looked at and no one visited—perfect for criminals to hide.
“That’s…”
“If that were all, it would be fortunate, but there’s a larger reason.”
He pulled the map from his coat and showed it to us.
“The map…?”
Sister Mary took one look and gasped.
“Ah—!”
“What is it?”
“Miss Julian, think about it. These underground waterways lace the entire capital like a net. And there isn’t just one entrance.”
Hmm…?
The instant I heard Maximilian’s words I understood what he was driving at.
“So that means…”
“Yes. It’s a path that lets someone travel the entire capital while avoiding every eye.”
A chill ran down my spine.
“Then…”
“It’s only a possibility, but anyone who would come into a place like this is almost certainly not a proper person.”
So that was why he had wanted to avoid them…
And I finally realized that his earlier remark about management being difficult had carried several layers of meaning.
A potential highway for criminals…
“Does the royal family know?”
“They must. But would criminals—especially thieves—be insane enough to touch the upper classes? At most they prey on the lower districts.”
So they knew and simply left it alone. That was Maximilian’s assessment.
“That’s…”
“If they sealed the waterways, though, there would be no way to handle the filth the capital produces.”
Both advantage and disadvantage, then…
“A difficult problem.”
Priest Daniel shook his head. I completely agreed.
“Well, if they’re caught the punishment will be severe.”
According to Young Master Maximilian, the guards didn’t patrol deep inside, but the entrances were included on their routes.
“Of course, that alone isn’t enough…”
If you knew the map of the waterways and the patrol schedules, you could move freely through the capital without ever being seen…
I understood the situation well enough.
Now we had a choice to make.
Head toward the footsteps… or simply continue clearing monsters as planned…
Either way, as we worked through the zones the chance of running into them was high.
In the end it was the same as choosing whether to take the beating now or later. Only the timing differed.
“Let’s go straight there.”
I didn’t hesitate. If we were going to meet them anyway, better to face them first, settle it, and then hunt monsters with a clear mind.
“Understood.”
Maximilian answered with a faintly worried look, then led the way.
We left the planned route slightly and began moving. A glance at the map showed we were heading toward another entrance.
As we advanced little by little, a light that was not our own magic appeared ahead.
A cluster of flickering lights in the pitch-black darkness…
It was as good as proof that people were there.
“What do we do?”
I whispered. Maximilian drew a deep breath and let it out.
“We approach openly.”
Even if they were criminals, we couldn’t ambush them, so we would go forward boldly. First we would try talking.
As we drew near the light, the other side reacted as well. With our surroundings lit by magic, it would have been stranger if they hadn’t noticed.
When we arrived we found people huddled together around a small lamp.
“Who are you?”
Maximilian, standing at the front, addressed them.
“W-we’re just homeless. W-we’re not criminals at all!”
H-homeless?!
I brightened the area with light magic, and their appearances became clear.
Every one of them wore filthy, tattered clothes, and grime streaked their faces.
“Homeless? How are we supposed to believe that?”
Outwardly they certainly looked the part…
“I-it’s true! Winter’s coming and it’s too hard to sleep outside, so we came in!”
Apparently the underground was warmer. The man who seemed to be their spokesman rushed to explain.
Looking at them made my chest ache. There were even small children among the group…
I jabbed Maximilian in the side.
“Miss Julian?”
“They really do seem to be homeless. Let’s just go…”
Real criminals wouldn’t settle in one spot; they would keep moving. From the state of these people, they truly looked like the homeless.
“Hah… very well.”
He accepted it reluctantly. He wanted to help, yet couldn’t think of how, and feared what might come of it later, so he chose to ignore them.
“I hope we don’t see you elsewhere.”
He left that final warning-like remark and led us past them into another zone.
A soft “thank you” drifted from behind.
Something about it left a sour feeling in my chest. Why thank us?
“If we had been the city guard, we would have driven them out.”
Was that it?
Were they grateful for something so small?
My heart felt truly unsettled.
I decided to take this stifling feeling out on the monsters.
Come on out, you damn monsters—any of you.