Dark Clouds Gathering (1)
The topmost floor of the Adventurer's Guild housed the Guildmaster's office.
Too cramped, and far too modestly furnished, to be called a proper executive suite, the room was already packed to bursting with five people who had squeezed their way inside.
The Guildmaster, Mary, Ludwig, Vigrind, and Scarlet.
The five of them sat in a circle on the sofas, maps and document folders spread out before them, their expressions grave.
"So you're telling me that this anomaly has occurred in those catacombs. Is that correct?"
Even after Mary's explanation had ended, Ludwig remained deep in thought for a long while before pressing a finger down on the map.
The map rendered the geography around Evian in considerable detail, and the spot Ludwig indicated was the Western Catacombs.
Then he drew a wide circle around them, with the catacombs sitting at its center.
"You're saying the fog extends this far... and that at first, it was..."
He drew a second circle, far smaller this time—barely large enough to cover the catacombs alone.
"This was the original size, and it has been steadily growing. Is that right?"
"That's correct."
When the Guildmaster nodded, Ludwig gave a thoughtful grunt and stroked his chin.
He hadn't had the chance to shave in days, and as he rubbed at the dark stubble growing there, he turned to look at Vigrind seated beside him.
"What do you make of it, Saintess?"
"...For now, I believe it would be best to gather more information. We should also request the cathedral's cooperation."
"As for the cathedral, I've already paid them a visit to investigate. The Evian diocese's answer was that they could not determine its nature. What is certain is that the fog carries miasma—but miasma can be sensed even from weak monsters."
So claimed the Guildmaster, who insisted he 'used to be' a rather successful adventurer in his day.
The man of that era was long gone, buried under rolls upon rolls of flesh, but watching him handle the situation with reasonable competence, he was clearly no slouch.
"Did you have the opportunity to observe how the cathedral conducted its investigation?"
Ludwig asked the Guildmaster again.
He had his suspicions.
Marlene had a grand cathedral as well, and while he hadn't been particularly close to the people there, he had still seen cathedral staff going about examining ruins often enough. Which was precisely why he knew better. He knew exactly how they carried out their investigations, and that was exactly why he didn't trust them.
"Observe them, did I..."
The Guildmaster heaved a long sigh.
At the sight of it, Ludwig became certain his hunch was right.
They hadn't actually done anything.
"...They didn't enter the fog itself, did they?"
"No. They circled around the outside, conducted their survey, attempted some things with divinity... and that was the extent of it. A few Paladin Knights did go in to investigate... but they never came back."
"I see."
Figures. As if that counts as an investigation.
Ludwig wanted to let out a long sigh of his own, just like the Guildmaster.
But he couldn't quite bring himself to, not with Vigrind sitting beside him.
From the very moment the Guildmaster had let that sigh loose, Vigrind's expression had turned sour—something obvious enough that he didn't even need to look closely to notice.
"Well, I understand. The cathedral folk needn't set foot inside the fog to make their determinations through divinity. Detecting that the fog carries miasma is well within their capability... and above all, if they've already lost Paladin Knights to it."
Perhaps it had been difficult for the cathedral to do much more.
And of all times, the Hero and the Saintess had chosen that very moment to appear, so it was only natural they would pin their hopes on the newcomers.
I can't exactly blame them for that.
Living under the weight of such expectations was simply what it meant to be the Hero, and the Saintess.
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"What is your assessment, Sir Scarlet?"
On the walk back to the cathedral after leaving the Adventurer's Guild, Vigrind quietly posed the question to Scarlet, who was walking alongside her.
Unlike Vigrind, who had spent her life in the Evian diocese, Scarlet had lived in the Church Territory—surely she had heard and seen far more, and perhaps had even encountered a situation like this before. That was what Vigrind thought.
"I am told there are a fair number of monsters that produce fog. Though I have never faced one myself, most of them are spectral creatures that lure humans in, lead them astray, and drain their life force once exhaustion claims them. However..."
"However?"
As Scarlet paused mid-sentence, deliberating, even Ludwig's gaze turned to her.
Among this party, Scarlet certainly knew the most about monsters, so Ludwig was waiting on her words as well.
"Did you not say that all the victims this time were found with their bodies perfectly intact? A corpse drained of its life force does not look like that. It withers into something like a gnarled, dead tree."
"Like a withered dead tree..."
"Yes. The very source of life is sucked out root and branch, and so the body loses its vitality and wastes away with it. Which is why, this time, the culprit is unlikely to be an ordinary monster."
Vigrind gave a slight shiver, a chill running through her.
Once again, it felt like that darkness from her memories—coiling in on itself, slowly lifting its head.
"Even if it is no ordinary monster, that does not necessarily mean it is a demon. Do not be so frightened, Saintess."
Vigrind looked up at Ludwig as he flashed her a grin.
The difference in their height was such that she couldn't see his face at all unless she tilted her head back like this.
Maybe Sister Aize would know something.
Among the sisters, Sister Aize was unusual in having spent long years as an adventurer.
She was the teacher who had loved and taught every child equally, without ever favoring Yona over Vigrind or the reverse.
If anyone might have some inkling of what this was, it would be her.
"What do you think about paying Sister Aize a visit?"
"Sister Aize? You mean... the one who was, um, with us... back when we captured that demon who'd been beheaded?"
"Yes, that's right. She was the sister in charge back when I lived at the orphanage with Yona, and later when we received our instruction at the cathedral. She has a long adventuring career too, so she might well be of help."
"Is that so? Then we must go see her at once!"
Ludwig's face lit up, and Vigrind found herself a little taken aback.
He had been a Gold-Rank Adventurer before becoming the Hero, and even now that adventurer's instinct remained in him, so she'd half expected his body to move before his head did. She had been mentally preparing all sorts of reasons why they ought to go consult Sister Aize—so it struck her as odd that Ludwig agreed so eagerly, practically beaming at the idea.
"...Why are you looking at me like that, Saintess?"
"Oh—no, it's nothing. Nothing at all. Will you come along as well, Sir Scarlet?"
"I shall. We've arrived at the cathedral just now, as it happens."
It hadn't been much of a walk from the Adventurer's Guild, and yet there they already were, before the cathedral doors.
"Ah, the Saintess is here."
"Please don't call me that, Sister. I'm your student before I'm any Saintess."
"Am I now?"
Warmth spilled from the crescent curve of Aize's eyes.
A smile so soothing it settled the heart of anyone who saw it graced her face as she welcomed the party in.
"My room is a bit cramped. If you don't mind, please come in."
It was small and spartan for the quarters of a cathedral's instructing sister.
Everything the room contained amounted to one wardrobe, one bed, a table with three chairs—and a desk with a seat, a water pitcher, and a few cups. That was the entirety of Aize's room, and with Ludwig, Vigrind, and Scarlet all stepping inside, it was soon packed to the walls.
The cramped space forced them to huddle close together, but fortunately they had long since made each other's acquaintance, so there was no need for any needless exchanges of pleasantries.
"We're on our way back from the Adventurer's Guild, Sister."
At some point, the formality had drained entirely out of Vigrind's voice.
The air between them was no longer that of Saintess and sister, but of teacher and student—easy and at ease.
"It's about the fog... We wanted to ask you about it."
"The fog, hm."
Aize gently closed her eyes.
She was no stranger to that unidentified fog—the one born in the Western Catacombs, spreading its reach day by day, its only known quality the miasma it carried. If anything, Aize was the one who wanted it resolved more than anyone.
She could not accept the fact that dark clouds were gathering over Evian, the land where she had been born and raised.
She knew full well that something was going wrong, yet neither the cathedral nor the Adventurer's Guild was taking any real action against the fog, and the inaction chafed at her.
She understood it sprang from the hope that everything would somehow be resolved once the Hero and the Saintess returned—but understanding was one thing, and accepting it was quite another.
"This, too, is a phenomenon I'm seeing for the first time."
"...I see."
A flicker of disappointment crossed Vigrind's face.
"But it is on an entirely different track from the monsters that use fog. Those creatures employ it as a means to drain life force, but—"
"Ah."
Vigrind's eyes lit up.
Even with only that much said, she seemed to have grasped where Aize was going.
Unchanged, Aize thought—the girl remained as sharp as ever.
"You think it might be trying to hide something."
"That is my thought as well."
"Hide something...?"
Aize's words and Ludwig's overlapped.
That had been Aize's thinking all along, and Ludwig, though arriving at it from a different angle, appeared to have reached the same conclusion.
"Something that must not be seen is happening at the heart of the fog, and it has taken the lives of everyone who entered to investigate. And to disguise itself as a mere monster, it has suppressed its miasma as much as possible."
"It does feel a bit like you're forcing the pieces to fit, though."
Vigrind deflated at Ludwig's remark.
She had thought it made sense, but hearing him call it forced-fit logic left her feeling oddly deflated and stung.
"But it is not an impossible theory, Hero. In truth, such things happen all too often—especially as with that affair of the Dark Cult at Carpatia Port."
At the mention of the Dark Cult's name once more, a trace of tension crept into Scarlet as well.
It was information passed along within the order, but even Scarlet knew that the Dark Cult—an apostate organization—was at work across the land.
The descent of Berbaria at Carpatia Port had likewise been the Dark Cult's handiwork, and if they had now burrowed their way into Evian of all places, this was shaping up to be a very serious matter indeed.
And if it was happening in Evian—the birthplace of Saintess Vigrind, no less—it was all the graver for it.
"...So in the end, nothing will be resolved unless someone goes inside."
"Honestly, that is the most accurate answer. It's also the most efficient."
They were of one mind.
Aize smiled gently, and Ludwig smiled brightly back at her.
Only Vigrind could not manage a smile.
