Into the Sewers
The group slipped into the underground of Middlemarch under the deep cover of night.
Elbridge, Marcus, and their three clients—five people in total—vanished into the city's subterranean passages.
They moved in a somewhat tense silence until Elbridge broke it with a question.
"Mister Mitchell. When will we reach the sewers?"
Mitchell, Milia's older brother, looked slightly puzzled as he answered.
"We're already walking through them, aren't we?"
"This is the sewer?"
"Of course it is... What exactly did you picture when you thought of a sewer, Mister El?"
"A narrow passage so tight you'd have to crawl, filled with filth..."
Milia, Mitchell's younger sister, burst into laughter.
"You thought the sewers were that narrow?"
"...Yes."
"Soleneon really must be less developed. This is what the sewers of Middlemarch look like. We've been walking through them this entire time."
The sewers of Soleneon were barely wide enough for one person to crawl through. Even that was an impressive feat for the era—most ordinary cities didn't have sewers at all. People living outside Soleneon often didn't even know what a sewer was.
But Middlemarch's sewers were spacious enough for two people to walk side by side. A deep channel ran along the left side of the walkway, its depth impossible to gauge at a glance. The filth flowed only through that channel.
...The scale is far beyond what I imagined.
Mitchell chuckled and asked Elbridge, "Then how exactly were you planning to move through the sewers, Mister El? Crawling on all fours the whole way?"
"I didn't think it would come to that. The sewers I imagined weren't this wide, but they weren't this long either. I assumed we'd only need to crawl for short stretches at certain points before reaching our destination."
"Haha! I suppose that's one way to think about it."
Elbridge's slightly awkward display eased the rigid atmosphere. It hadn't been intentional, but it was a welcome change. People tended to grow exhausted quickly in oppressive silence.
The five continued onward, maintaining their vigilance while occasionally exchanging quiet words.
Then Milia suddenly raised a hand, signaling them to stop.
"There's an underground barrier here."
"A barrier in the sewers?"
Marcus glanced around, searching for it.
Elbridge, however, noticed it immediately—a faint shimmer blocking the passage. From its shape and color, it didn't appear to be particularly powerful.
"The sewers connect to every corner of the city, so thieves could potentially use them. The Magic Tower installed barriers to prevent that."
"How do we get past it?"
"You and Mister El don't need to worry. If you possess a certain level of mana or divine power, you can pass through without triggering the alarm."
"...You can just walk through? Then why bother making the barrier at all?"
"Accumulating enough mana to break through a barrier requires a considerable fortune. Anyone wealthy enough to do that wouldn't need to resort to petty theft."
With Milia in the lead, the entire group crossed the barrier. As expected, it remained silent.
Milia then cast a spell, creating a compass that floated in the air.
"From here on, I don't know the way either, so we'll have to navigate by direction alone. Follow me."
Their pace slowed.
Before the renewed tension could weigh too heavily on them, Elbridge spoke up.
"Miss Milia."
"Yes?"
"Until we met in front of the Mercenary Guild yesterday, I assumed you three wouldn't be coming into the sewers with us."
"Why is that?"
"A request is meant to hand unpleasant tasks off to someone else. Why did you decide to enter the sewers yourselves?"
Milia smiled with her eyes.
"To be honest, if we had full confidence in our abilities, we wouldn't have hired you and Mister Marcus. The fewer people involved in a covert operation, the better, right?"
"That's true."
"But among the three of us, only Patrick has any real combat experience. I've spent my time doing research at the Magic Tower, and my brother has only trained and practiced mana infusion."
Elbridge had heard a similar tone the day before.
Still, Milia's words struck him as somewhat surprising. It was common for mages to lack practical combat experience, even in the old days. But for a knight to amass that much mana without any battlefield experience was extremely rare.
"...In the end, the only one we could truly rely on was Patrick. Rather than burdening him alone, it seemed better to bring in experienced mercenaries."
Elbridge gave a calm assessment.
"A wise decision."
The greatest flaw of those lacking experience was their inability to accurately gauge their own limits, often leading them to act recklessly. But Milia and Mitchell clearly recognized their own boundaries and had sought out capable help. Their inexperience didn't make them careless.
"There's one more reason."
"What is it?"
"If we get lost in the sewers and get caught, you and Mister Marcus will get captured while we escape."
"...?"
The sudden shameless remark caught him off guard.
Elbridge stared at Milia. She responded with a mischievous grin.
"As I said yesterday, our family has plenty of money. Even if we're caught down here, there won't be any solid evidence of a serious crime, so we could just buy your release."
"What a creative joke. The kind that would never occur to someone with ordinary decency."
"There's actually a bit of truth mixed in. Would you hold onto this for me?"
Milia removed the necklace from around her neck and placed it in Elbridge's hand.
"Why are you giving this to me?"
"If it looks like we're about to be caught, drop this necklace into the sludge, then retrieve it. If I then claim I hired you to find it for me... wouldn't that be believable?"
"I'm not sure. The excuse itself is fairly plausible, but it's the kind of story no one would want to accept at face value..."
Elbridge had been gently scolding Milia when his steps suddenly halted.
"Wait."
"Hey, don't get mad. I wasn't seriously asking you to get caught. It was just in case something like that happened, as an excuse..."
"Shh. Everyone, stop."
The moment both footsteps and conversation ceased, only the slow gurgle of flowing water remained.
But Elbridge detected something else amid the sound of the water.
A rhythmic noise.
Something is approaching.
In the sewers, sound echoed, making it difficult to pinpoint direction. Still, after listening carefully, Elbridge managed to determine its source.
From the right side of the intersection ahead.
But this wasn't the sound of shoe soles striking the ground. It resembled bare feet slapping against stone, or hands brushing along wet walls.
Who would wander this vast sewer barefoot?
No one.
Elbridge kept his gaze fixed forward while tracing letters on the sewer wall with his finger.
Magical beasts. Three of them.
The mood grew heavy. Elbridge gestured behind him.
Understanding the signal, one person moved up to stand beside him—Mitchell, Milia's brother.
Elbridge mouthed silently.
Take one.
Mitchell nodded.
The wet, slapping footsteps drew closer. Elbridge steadied his breathing and waited.
Then, from the right side of the intersection, the magical beasts revealed themselves.
Rats.
Three oversized rat-like magical beasts. The mutation had begun very recently. For now, they were literally just oversized rodents.
Elbridge waited for Mitchell to choose his target first.
Mitchell's eyes locked onto the nearest beast. The instant Mitchell drew his sword, Elbridge kicked off the slightly slippery ground and shot forward.
His targets were the two rats Mitchell hadn't chosen.
His sword slashed through the air. The sewer was too dark for any gleam to show.
A silent, stealthy strike.
The two rats couldn't even squeak before their heads tumbled to the ground.
"Squeak!"
But Mitchell was different. Instead of aiming for the neck, he drove his blade deep into the creature's side.
It was certainly a fatal blow, but not one that would prevent the beast from making noise.
"Squeak! Squeeeak!"
The wounded rat shrieked and, driven by instinct, began to flee.
"...!"
Mitchell finally realized his mistake and fumbled in panic.
When an inexperienced ally blundered, it fell to the veteran to clean up the mess. Elbridge instantly hurled his sword, severing the beast's hind leg.
He then retrieved the blade from the rat's leg, stepped onto its back, and leaped upward.
With a final somersault, he swung his sword. The last rat's head flew off as well.
Marcus watched the display with the resigned thought, Well, it's Elbridge, so of course he can do that. The three clients, however, reacted quite differently.
Milia hadn't even registered what she'd seen. Mitchell looked stunned by Elbridge's movements, which had far exceeded his expectations. Patrick's face had gone rigid.
Elbridge kicked the rat carcasses into the channel, then returned to the group.
"Mister Mitchell. That was a good attack. However, in this situation, aiming for the neck to finish them quietly would have been better."
Mitchell nodded dejectedly.
It would have been nice if that had been the end of it. Unfortunately, the situation refused to resolve cleanly.
The magical beast's dying squeals must have carried, because faint signs of movement began approaching from the distance.
"People are coming," the usually quiet Patrick said.
"What do we do? Should we retreat?"
Not only Patrick, but Mitchell and Milia as well, turned their eyes to Elbridge.
It was only natural to defer decisions to the one who had proven his skill.
"There's no need. It will actually be easier for us to slip in once the Magic Tower people start moving."
Milia and Patrick nodded again.
But Mitchell still looked grim, clearly blaming himself for complicating the situation with his mistake.
"This isn't your fault, Mister Mitchell. Those rats would have attacked us anyway, and we had no way to dispose of their bodies silently. We would have been discovered sooner or later. It's better to take the initiative now and push deeper inside."
Elbridge wiped his blade on the fur of the two rats that hadn't yet been pushed into the channel, then shoved their corpses in as well.
The filth in the channel didn't completely conceal the bodies, and beneath the stench of sewage, the faint metallic scent of blood lingered.
As Elbridge stood still, Marcus asked, "El. Shouldn't we hurry?"
"The echoes will have made it difficult for them to pinpoint our exact location. Better to assess the situation properly before moving."
Elbridge thought to himself.
The buildings in Middlemarch are arranged in a grid pattern. It's highly likely the sewer layout follows the same grid.
The direction the presence is coming from is to the right. The research facility the mages were guarding is probably in that direction as well.
We'll circle around the approaching mages and head straight for our objective.
Elbridge turned and began walking at a measured pace, issuing instructions.
"Follow me. There's no need to rush. It's more important to avoid making noise. Keep conversation to an absolute minimum until we reach our destination."
"Understood."
The tension was evident in Milia's voice, which had been light and teasing only moments ago. The employers had completely surrendered control to their hired help.
Oddly enough, this feels more comfortable.
Elbridge paused occasionally, gauging the enemy's position from the faint footsteps echoing in the distance.
"This way."
As he moved, he continued his analysis.
Magical beasts tend to appear in large numbers near places where demons exist. The fact that three rats in the early stages of mutation appeared simultaneously is clear evidence that a demon is present nearby.
Since ancient times, sealing demons has always been the domain of mages. Did the Central Magic Tower seal one on its own?
There's zero chance an incident of this magnitude has nothing to do with the Tower Master. Did the Central Tower Master secretly seal the demon to prevent unrest among the people of the Central region? Are the mages here guarding the seal?
It was a plausible theory. But he couldn't relax until he confirmed it himself.
Confrontations with demons rarely ended quickly. It was entirely possible a stalemate had been dragging on.
If a demon appears beneath the Magic Tower and causes it to collapse... the casualties would be catastrophic.
Lost in thought, Elbridge stopped at another intersection.
He cautiously peered around the corner to the left. Two young mages were scanning the area with tense expressions.
"Miss Milia. I'd like you to cast an acceleration spell."
"Understood."
Milia whispered an incantation and waved her staff. The mana flowing from it streamed toward Elbridge.
The divine power within him instinctively tried to repel the foreign mana, but Elbridge skillfully controlled it and accepted the spell.
It had been a long time since he'd felt this sensation.
He glanced back at the group, observing the rhythm of their breathing. It was no different from normal. That meant—
With Milia's skill level, accelerating thought processes is impossible.
Even so, this was more than enough.
Elbridge took a steadying breath.
Then—
He kicked off the ground with explosive force, shooting across the intersection.
With a single powerful step—
The physical capabilities of a paladin who had transcended human limits, enhanced by magic.
Mages with no combat experience had no hope of reacting to Elbridge's ambush.
"Uh..."
Before the two mages could even register his face, Elbridge's form brushed past them. They collapsed unconscious without a sound.
Elbridge immediately threw open the door behind the fallen mages.
Mitchell and Milia burst forward in excitement.
"Hurry!"
But Marcus and Patrick reacted differently.
Patrick watched Elbridge with a grave expression, while Marcus voiced his doubts bluntly.
"El. If we go in now, won't we just get surrounded? That doesn't seem like it'd end well."
"It probably wouldn't."
"Then what's your plan?"
"We just need to hide a little longer."
The five concealed themselves in the shadows and waited quietly.
A short while later, the mages who had come to investigate the noise returned.
They discovered the two unconscious mages and the wide-open door.
"An intruder knocked out Henry and Giovanni!"
"Paul! Go inside and alert everyone! The rest of you, search the likely hiding spots carefully as you move inward!"
The mages began their search from the entrance, meticulously checking every corner as they advanced deeper.
All the while, Elbridge's group remained hidden in the darkness, watching their movements.
Elbridge quietly suggested, "Now we follow them at a suitable distance."
This was the surest way to avoid detection during the mages' own search and head straight for the most critical location.
Marcus gave Elbridge a suspicious look and whispered, "...Sir Elbridge. What exactly did you used to do for a living?"
Elbridge answered with complete confidence.
"There were times when supplies ran low."