13. O Sole Mio (3)
13. O Sole Mio (3)
- 1 -
"It probably won't work."
"Excuse me?"
Maria's eyes, as she looked at me trying to dissuade her from searching for kin, were filled with both doubt and anger.
If she had been even a little less patient, or if she hadn't seen Sonia and me holding hands.
The emotion was so violent she seemed ready to pounce at any moment.
She was a different kind of sister from Lemia, who had seemed cold-natured until the very last moment.
It was like the moon and the sun.
"After hearing Miss Sonia's story and searching together with her, either her memories were distorted or they hid. We could not find the dungeon's location."
I spoke calmly but with certainty and firmness, trying to soothe her. The anger faded, but she still looked at me with doubt-filled eyes.
"I don't want to dismiss it, but she's just an apprentice adventurer..."
"She is also a guild-affiliated mage who has learned detection magic. You must be aware that guild mages are more proficient with magic than ordinary mages."
"Ah."
Maria let out a voice of realization and fell into brief contemplation.
In truth, she couldn't find the dungeon because of the tricks I had placed while working with Sonia, but no one here could guess the cause and effect.
So my and Sonia's opinions carried weight unavoidably.
"I am in favor of additional searches. After all, we merely failed to discover them — the possibility that they are still alive does exist. However, you will need to bring in additional trap-detection personnel from the city. For now, it seems your party is composed primarily of trackers."
Judging by appearances alone, Maria's party members all seemed to be bounty hunters specialized in tracking people's traces, or of assassin origins.
For finding dungeons and traps, what mattered most were the abilities of mages skilled in detection magic or knowledgeable in barriers, or rogues adept at locating treasure and dungeons. So my argument was reasonable enough and a plausible piece of advice.
"But still..."
Even despite my strong assertion, Maria remained thoroughly skeptical.
What could have happened?
"I don't know what's going on, but the city was in disarray, and the guild in Solemio was uncooperative in searching for my sisters. They wouldn't tell me the reason, either."
Fate.
Whatever the reason, the Solemio adventurers' guild seemed to lack the capacity to spare any resources for finding novice adventurers.
This meant hers was the only search party aside from the guild.
The dungeon's safety rating rose a little further.
"Since I've come in person, they will certainly cooperate, but I'm not sure if they'll even properly broker a deal with a mage."
"Why not request help from a truly trustworthy guild? Miss Sonia's guild... 'Truth-Groping Eye,' was it?"
"Fate... That guild might indeed help. My benefactor's, ah."
Having spoken that far, Maria stopped as if she had realized something.
I could tell what she was thinking by the way she spoke next, glancing at me with a somewhat apologetic tone.
"Come to think of it, I haven't even asked my benefactor's name until now. I'm sorry."
"I understand. A cherished person's life is at stake."
"Thank you. I am Maria Olas, the older sister of Sonia's friend Lemia. I originally belong to the 'Shadow Blade' mercenary guild in the kingdom's eastern region."
"Daniel Smith. Likewise."
There were many types of guilds.
Adventurers, mercenaries, mages, even stonemasons and merchants.
It was this world's fundamental culture that any occupation with potential to spread beyond the city formed an association called a guild and operated through it.
The most versatile among them, of course, was the adventurers' guild.
A mercenary guild, strictly speaking, was different from an adventurers' guild, but it was sometimes treated as a type of adventurers' guild that mainly performed combat duties like guarding merchant caravans or engaging in national front lines rather than standard adventurer work.
Because of that, I knew there was a slight rivalry between those who considered themselves adventurers and those who considered themselves mercenaries.
Though, naturally, more people didn't care about such distinctions.
"I can't quite... say it's a pleasure. Given the circumstances. I am Angelita Mare. A wandering mage."
"You don't appear to be an ordinary person, though."
"I was staying nearby during my travels and detected Miss Sonia's presence and rescued her. There's nothing else to it."
"Hmm..."
She seemed to find my identity suspicious no matter what, but at the same time, she didn't seem to consider me a hostile creature at all.
It was natural, since Sonia was perfectly fine while her other two companions were missing, and that same Sonia appeared to trust and rely on me.
She probably thought I was someone with a past, like a fallen noble. My gestures caused by 'Nobility' simply could not be hidden by Fate, after all.
Perhaps this trait considered it beneath nobility to hide oneself through Fate.
"I understand what you're saying, benefactor. But still..."
She was more stubborn than I thought... No. That wasn't it.
It was about her younger sister, so logic didn't apply.
Having been separated from my family for so long, I was somewhat distant from ordinary familial psychology.
So... if I compared it to Eve and myself, I'd undoubtedly feel nothing but the desire to see it with my own eyes too. As I had said before, when a cherished person's life is at stake, there's no helping it.
Thinking persuasion would not work, I was about to just nod, when assistance came from an unexpected direction.
"There's no need for all of us to go, Maria."
"Daniel?"
"A couple of us will stay behind with me and search a bit longer before returning. You take the two others, the benefactor, and that young mage with you, Maria."
"But..."
"That mage looked really unwell. You're not going to make our benefactor track down a priest too, are you? That'll cost a lot."
Some unease might remain, but there was no reason to object.
The man in front of me was a high-rank adventurer, but the forces and traps I had gathered in my dungeon were sufficient to handle one high-rank adventurer. The difference between a party with both a vanguard and a midguard and one with only a midguard was significant.
Even if the other two were variables, they weren't major variables.
Moreover...
'In the first place, even if they have magic tools, entering through that entrance in its current state is absolutely impossible by ordinary means.'
I trusted the method I had used to hide the dungeon.
At my silent assent, Maria eventually agreed to Daniel's proposal.
"...You're right. Thank you, Daniel. Take care. If it gets dangerous, you have to get out immediately."
"Don't worry."
And so, the combined adventurer party split into two again.
I, Sonia, and Maria headed northeast toward Solemio.
Daniel headed toward the southwest, near my dungeon.
"..."
I met eyes with Daniel, who was staring at me expressionlessly. When I gave a slight bow in silent greeting, the man flinched and averted his gaze.
What filled those eyes was unmistakably suspicion.
But as I had already asserted, there was no problem.
- 2 -
A dungeon is a monster that grows by devouring the adventurers who come seeking it. And this was equally true for the dungeon lord connected to the dungeon by Fate.
Therefore, no dungeon lord avoided the adventurers who came looking.
The ingrained hostility and the predator's instinct compelled them to welcome their foes unconditionally.
All the dungeon lords she knew, especially the young ones, were like that.
'But...'
Scarlet, who had been scribbling on a board with her quill pen, continued her thoughts with the nib still held in her mouth.
What lay before her was a paper filled only with scribbles that had not become words, the result of an unconscious habit when she was lost in thought.
'It's not a mistake because it's been too long since I saw a novice.'
The newbie dungeon lord who had become her latest client, the necromancer Lady Libertas, was different.
She acted as if she lacked such instincts entirely from the start.
From the fact that she had killed people, seized their souls and flesh and put them to proper use, it didn't seem she was completely without those instincts, but...
That wasn't all. Despite having barely begun her life as a dungeon lord, she was already showing moves to deceive humans.
That was why.
Even though funds were tight, Scarlet had spent more of her own savings to procure everything the lady wanted.
'From the first time I saw her, she didn't even flinch. Even though I'm clearly far stronger, and even though a dungeon lord would certainly have sensed that much.'
Such lords were not common.
Though she maintained the arrogance characteristic of a demon lord candidate, for Scarlet, who had only seen the young and green ones, Lady Libertas's appearance was refreshing and...
Beautiful.
'Yes. Beautiful.'
An appearance that seemed to hold coldness and frailty simultaneously.
The expression of someone standing with a perfectly straight back, staring down at her directly even though she was clearly much shorter.
A mental fortitude so strong that charm skills didn't work, and eyes that never wavered even though there must have been an impact.
Among all the dungeon lords who took humanoid form, a uniquely outstanding beauty; a low voice that was gentle, benevolent, and dignified, as if showing the caliber of a leader, while holding a hint of cruelty deep within.
To sum it up, a 'beauty that changes one's taste in people.'
"And though still clumsy, she knows how to devise a fine stratagem."
Smiling, Scarlet pulled the pen from her mouth and began scribbling something on a fresh sheet of paper.
"It really makes me look forward to her future."
What she drew was the shape of a great gate and something unidentifiable that was obscuring the area in front of it immensely.
"Truly."
Thinking about looking forward to the future of this new prospect, Scarlet pictured Rita's face, and the smile never left her lips.
For a cool newbie was always welcomed by the veterans.
It was right then.
"Seniorrr..."
A familiar voice sounded, and as Scarlet turned her attention there, the form of a succubus came into view.
A blue-haired succubus.
Since she was a rare fellow demon within the Mammon Trading Company, being a bit more amicable in conversation would have been acceptable, but the tone that came from Scarlet's mouth was not that.
"What is it, nepotism hire?"
'Nepotism hire.' That was the reason for her stiff tone.
Although she was a low-ranking employee without any special authority, the newcomer before her had been revealed to be the illegitimate child of the Mammon Company president and had entered without an interview or test, purely by connections.
Because this girl had been assigned as her direct junior, Scarlet had lost the chance to welcome a good newcomer. For the section chief, there was no reason for her to look kindly upon this.
It was ironic, then, that Scarlet was actually the one treating her the most 'kindly.'
"Well, you seee... I've got a bit of a tricky request, so I wanted to ask for your advice..."
"A tricky request?"
Whether aware of that or not, the junior handed her a document as she stated her business.
"That mercenary listed there... he said he absolutely wants to go to this one dungeon, wellll..."
"Hmm."
Hearing a plausible reason, Scarlet almost nodded before catching herself and lifted her chin with an air of superiority, looking down only with her eyes at the document.
It was an action taken because she disliked giving the newcomer a positive reaction.
But then, her eyes widened and she buried her head in the document.
"He really wanted to go to this dungeon?"
"Yesss... he's a mercenary I was managing, and I have nooo idea why he wants to go to such a young dungeon."
"Hmm..."
She knew well about the mercenaries this junior managed.
They were mercenaries the company president had secretly slipped to his illegitimate child after declaring he wouldn't grant her any unfair advantages.
Mercenaries in the demon realm referred to two types of beings.
Corrupted humans, or demons who moved independently according to money or their own values rather than belonging to the 'true' Seven Dukes of the demon realm.
They were often dispatched to surface dungeons or demon-realm battlefields to perform combat service, raising their own value and seeking individual wealth and glory rather than that of a group.
Among these, the mercenaries the junior managed were all talented humans the president had personally tainted with corruption and brought under his wing.
Because of that, the mercenaries' loyalty to this junior was inevitably high... and now, she was saying one of those mercenaries had suddenly started acting abnormally.
It was an interesting story.
"Nooo matter how much of a promising rookie she is, I told him she's a lord who could disappear at any momenttt..."
"It'll be fine, junior."
Scarlet smiled, not even noticing that she had unconsciously referred to her junior properly.
She didn't know how the mercenary had come to know about that dungeon, or why he suddenly began acting abnormally, but in any case, this matter was not necessarily bad for Lady Libertas, in whom she was taking an interest.
Because, though she hated to admit it, her junior's mercenaries were excellent.
Sending such a mercenary along would greatly improve Lady Libertas's chances of survival.
"Huh? But..."
"I guarantee it, so send him just this once. It might become a proper investment."
"That just means it could still end up ruined toooo..."
"Oh my, oh my. Since when did you become such a nitpicker? Investments are always inherently risky, aren't they?"
"...Well, that's trueee."
After confirming that the junior, though still grumbling, had signed the document, Scarlet smiled a genuine smile.
She planned to take over and deliver the gift personally. She was curious how that noble young lady would take this gift and how she would react.
"Seniorrr... heh heh."
Because of that, she failed to notice the blue-haired succubus watching her with intrigue.