The Bird's Trap (4)
Thanks to Aquaril, I now knew that the Palos's Bird bastards had infiltrated the palace as well. I also knew exactly what kind of scheme they were cooking up.
How should I use this...?
I had no intention of simply handing this precious information over to Kanisia. Turn the enemy's plan against them, and I could reap far more while sacrificing far less.
What do I need right now?
The fortune the Blood Axe King had piled up during his reign as the ruler of Chinnimoni, obviously. In a city where goods flowed without rest, there would be wealth sleeping in those vaults that Indigo couldn't even begin to match.
I wanted that money.
I'd like Growth Stones too, but...
Originally, Growth Stones had been my number-one priority. In a world crawling with powerhouses far stronger than me — thick as grains of sand — I needed them if I was going to get any stronger.
But the odds of finding the Medium Growth Stones I actually needed were vanishingly slim. The Blood Axe King would have gobbled those up a long time ago.
So I'd shifted my top priority to money. For me, money was gems.
Haa... Let's keep this simple. I've got two options right now.
The first was to tell Kanisia that Palos's Bird had slipped something into the food. She'd clash with the infiltrators hiding in the palace, and in the meantime I'd go looking for the Blood Axe King's vault with Aquaril.
The second was to tell Kanisia nothing. She'd be left completely unguarded, and Palos's Bird would move to achieve their objective. I'd still go looking for the vault either way.
"...So it doesn't matter which one I pick?"
In that case, I was going with the first.
I couldn't be sure how many of them had slipped into the palace. That meant I couldn't let our biggest assets — Kanisia and Abraham — touch that food.
"All right. Aquaril."
"Yes, Master."
"For now, you..."
Having settled on a course of action, I laid out the operation I'd put together. She nodded and parted ways with me.
"What took you so long? Constipated?"
When I returned to the dining hall, Kanisia greeted me with a sly grin.
"Where's Aquaril, though?"
"She had something to take care of. More importantly, Kanisia."
"Hm?"
"I need to talk to you for a minute. Is there somewhere we can be alone?"
"Plenty of places for that. What did you want to talk about?"
Kanisia tilted her head.
"...Hah?! D-don't tell me...?!"
Whatever she'd just imagined, her face went scarlet. Why was she suddenly acting like that?
"I-is it something important?"
"Yeah. Extremely important. We have to talk about it — for the sake of your future and mine."
"F-for our future..."
Now her face looked ready to burst.
What the hell is she even imagining?
"Th-then come this way..."
Twisting herself into knots, Kanisia led me to a nearby room. I scanned the surroundings, confirmed nobody else was inside, and looked at her.
"Kanisia."
"Y-yeah... Go ahead... I've prepared myself..."
She drew a deep breath and nodded. I started talking.
"Someone has infiltrated this palace."
"W-we're just friends, though... Wait, what?"
"Aquaril saw the infiltrator putting something in the food. Poison or a sleeping agent, most likely."
"...Ah? Whaaaaat?!"
Kanisia shrieked, spun around, and crumpled into a squat on the floor.
"Waaah! I don't know anything!"
"....?"
What was wrong with her? Had she eaten something weird while I was in the bathroom?
"Uh... Kanisia?"
"Just a second! Don't talk to me! I am so embarrassed right now!"
"O-okay..."
For reasons I couldn't fathom, I had to stand there and wait while Kanisia died of mortification. After a while she seemed to compose herself and stood up.
"Someone put something in the food?"
Her face was still flushed, but her expression had turned deadly serious. I was tempted to tease her about the blush, but every second counted from here on, so I held back.
I was a man who knew when and where to joke.
"Yeah. Aquaril saw it in the dining hall. Something's going to go down today."
"Who the hell would do something like that..."
Kanisia's pretty face crumpled. I knew exactly who, but I didn't say so. If I knew the identity of enemies even she didn't, she'd naturally start suspecting me.
I'd give her a hint instead. I needed her help to make this go smoothly.
"They might not be ordinary people."
"What? Why do you think that?"
"Think about it. Today the Blood Axe King took every last fairy and Master under his command to clear a C-rank dungeon. A man who has never once left his post is gone — and the people who've been hiding in the palace until now choose this exact day to make their move? That's a little too perfectly timed to call a coincidence, don't you think?"
"Well, yeah, but..."
"Anyway, who they are isn't what matters right now. What matters is that unidentified enemies have already infiltrated the palace."
"You're right. First we need to catch the person Aquaril saw."
"Hold on, Kanisia."
"Why?"
I grabbed her just as she was about to charge out the door.
I knew Palos's Bird had infiltrated the palace, but I still didn't know how many of them there were — or how many Masters among them posed a real threat to Kanisia and me.
"We don't know how many of them got in. Moving rashly in a situation like this is a bad idea."
"Then what do you want to do?"
"Hmm... You've got antidote potions here, right?"
"Antidote potions? Yeah, we do."
"What grade?"
"The best ones are high-grade... but Grauss probably took those. What's left is just regular-grade."
"That so?"
I couldn't hide my disappointment.
Consumable items like antidote potions didn't carry star ratings, but they did have grades. Naturally, the higher the grade, the better the effect.
The antidotes in the palace were regular-grade — the lowest — but we'd have to make do.
"Listen carefully. From now on..."
"Yeah... wait, what? But if we do that, the soldiers will..."
"We have no idea where they're hiding. If we start worrying about the soldiers' safety on top of everything else, they might catch on. We have to accept that much of a sacrifice if we want to wipe them all out in one stroke. And they probably aren't trying to kill everyone. If we deal with them quickly, we can still save the soldiers."
"Mm... All right."
"After that..."
I laid out the operation as I talked her around.
Please let them move the way I think they will...
I hoped for it desperately.
Having extracted additional information about the dungeon from Halla — the fairy of Prince Kevin, who was supposedly hovering at death's door from his grievous wounds — the Blood Axe King entered the C-rank dungeon Wood Corpse Army at once.
He didn't get cocky. This was his first time tackling a C-rank dungeon as well, so he brought only his own fairies and Dominique, Prince Aeson's healer fairy. None of the Blood Axe King's fairies were healers.
His plan was to proceed with a party sized to the dungeon first, then decide whether to artificially raise the difficulty once he'd taken the measure of the place.
"....."
Halla watched the Blood Axe King disappear into the dungeon with his fairies to the very end, then returned to her master. A man whose face was wrapped in blood-soaked bandages lay on the bed as if dead.
"Master. The Blood Axe King has entered the dungeon."
"...Has he?"
At Halla's words, the man — Prince Kevin — opened his eyes. For someone supposedly at death's door, his gaze was perfectly clear.
"Then it's about time we started moving."
A thin, unpleasant smile on his lips, Prince Kevin sat up. He was, in fact, a member of Palos's Bird.
"Figures."
Just then, someone entered the tent. Seeing Prince Kevin looking perfectly fine, he nodded as if he'd expected as much. It was Prince Aeson, Kevin's closest friend — and also a member of Palos's Bird.
"You're here?"
"Yeah. So when are you planning to move?"
"One hour."
The Blood Axe King was undeniably strong. As Chinnimoni's one and only 4-star, it would have been stranger if he weren't. Even if he couldn't take down the boss monster, he'd at least reach the mid-boss.
But the C-rank dungeon Palos's Bird had prepared was no ordinary one either.
Extremely troublesome monsters would appear as enemies — and more importantly, the dungeon wasn't the only trap Palos's Bird had set to capture the Blood Axe King alive.
"By the way, where's your fairy?"
"Don't even start. That bastard took her with him. This fat pig thinks my fairy is his fairy too. So..."
"Kyah?!"
Mid-complaint, Prince Aeson suddenly yanked Halla into his arms. Then, as he pleased, he kissed her and groped her breasts, toying with her however he liked.
"Let me borrow your fairy for an hour."
"Haa... You crazy bastard."
Prince Kevin sighed at the sight of Aeson fondling his fairy as if she were his own. But he didn't stop him.
"This isn't so bad either. Let's play together."
Instead, he latched onto Halla's legs and started fondling her as well. Trading fairies and spending sticky hours together wasn't anything new for the two of them.
And one hour later—
Shnk—!
"Ghak?!"
"Master!!!"
Prince Aeson driving a blade into the throat of a Master who was not a member of Palos's Bird marked the beginning of the assault on the Blood Axe King's forces. Blood and screams ran rampant through the encampment.
When lunchtime arrived, Kanisia and I headed for the dining hall. After wandering the palace and coming back around, we found the place already packed.
We loaded our trays with a reasonable amount of food and took a seat in the corner.
"Whoa~ Looks delicious~"
Sitting across from me, Kanisia rubbed her hands together and licked her lips at the mouthwatering spread. But her eyes were sweeping the dining hall, searching for the hidden enemies.
"Calm down. You think they're going to pop up and say, 'Here I am'? They won't move until something actually happens."
"I know that, but... haa..."
At my quiet whisper, Kanisia sighed and nodded. I understood how she felt, but this was the time to wait until the enemy showed themselves.
"You remember, right?"
"Don't worry. I'm not an idiot."
I cautioned her again just in case.
Before entering the dining hall, we'd both drunk antidote potions. I wasn't sure they'd actually work, but looking at it another way, Palos's Bird wasn't likely to use a high-grade poison either, so it should be fine.
Even so, drinking the antidote didn't mean we could eat a lot of poisoned food. We'd eat just enough to keep the enemy from getting suspicious — a tiny amount.
I was picking at my meal and watching the room when it happened.
"Hnnngh~ I'm suddenly so sleepy..."
Thud—!
"Huh? Hey, what's wrong with you? You were just eating, why'd you... ahhh..."
One of the soldiers eating nearby slammed his face into his tray. The soldier next to him followed, collapsing onto the table.
"Why am I so... slee...py...?"
"Ahhh..."
"Flop!"
"Night-night, sleepy-bye!"
One after another, everyone who'd been eating lost consciousness and collapsed. The only ones still standing in the dining hall were Kanisia and me.
"....."
No — not just the two of us. From the kitchen and from outside the hall, people walked in looking perfectly fine. Their faces were expressionless, and the eyes they fixed on us were deeply unsettling.
"...Kanisia."
"Yeah."
We rose from our seats. It was time to throw down.