The Client and the Underground Expedition (2)
Mira Shadow was a coward. Of that, there was no doubt.
No tremendous monster lurked nearby, and no ghost drifted through the air, yet simply standing in a dark, dismal corridor of black brick was enough to leave her this afraid. A hollow wind dragged itself down the passage—whoooosh—and dungeon or not, for a mage, and a fully grown teaching assistant at that, to look like that...
Child, ordinary people are meant to be afraid. You are the strange one.
Levian let the administrator's scolding go in one ear and out the other, and slid his gaze aside. Mira stood glued to his side, flinching so hard she looked suspicious, and she kept rolling her eyes to steal glances at him besides. Something was clearly gnawing at her.
Wait. She doesn't actually not have the money, does she?
A commission, by principle, was paid only after the job succeeded. As if Mira's anxiety were contagious, resentment rose in Levian too. What if all this effort came to nothing?
"So. When do I get paid?"
At the sudden voice Mira jerked, flinching out of habit.
Don't tell me she means to take the money and run...?
A perfectly reasonable suspicion. She could wander all day through this maze of a place and still have little hope of finding a way out, so she was in no position to trust a student who already looked this dubious.
"And what am I supposed to trust enough to pay you already?"
"...Pay me."
"Even so, what can't be done can't be done."
"If you don't pay me, I'll leave you behind."
Mira went rigid. At Levian's ruthless ultimatum her face froze—and not only her face. She seemed to forget how to walk entirely, stopping dead where she stood.
Tch. I knew he was rotten on the inside!
She had never expected a threat like this. For all she knew, even his approach to Ivy had been aimed at the woman's money.
This gold-digging snake!
She had no choice.
"W-wait! I'll transfer it right now!"
Better to scrape out a salary no bigger than a mouse's tail than be trapped in this damned maze again. She would lose the chance to buy Ivy a snack and watch that innocent smile, but even so—
I'll expose your true colors if it's the last thing I do!
Mira did not give up.
At her answer Levian stopped as well, and Mira pointedly drew out her Ouija Board and connected to the bank.
"Watch closely. Don't you dare change your story later."
Using the account number he had given her, she deposited two hundred thousand florins: the hundred-thousand commission, plus a bonus on top of it.
"There. I paid extra, so I'm changing the terms."
He had just earned two hundred thousand of the two hundred thirty thousand florins in interest he owed, and Levian nodded without the slightest hesitation. It was perhaps the most positive reaction the administrator had ever seen from him.
"Ahem. I'm a new assistant, so I don't know my way around the academy. I'd like to follow you and memorize the paths."
Whatever her real motive, it was not a bad commission for Levian. Taking her back to the surface and only then resuming his exploration would have wasted time, and dragging Mira along would cost him nothing. He would make money and settle two matters at once.
Then the treasure vault can wait until next time.
Levian was no fool, of course. He knew perfectly well how greedy humans were, and he had no intention of taking her into any place that mattered. So, without hesitation, he refused the commission.
"No."
"...Huh?"
What was he thinking behind that blank face? A moment ago he had looked ready to accept. Was he teasing her again? Having just lost a small fortune, Mira huffed before she could stop herself, pulled the name badge from inside her clothes, and thrust it at him.
"I suppose speaking nicely this whole time made me look like a joke. I'm an assistant, and you're a student. If I compel you to—"
"Just another thirty-two thousand eight hundred florins."
Astonishingly, he was not joking. He had even furrowed his brows, an awkward imitation of a deeply serious expression.
"Uh..."
Even Mira, halfway through her anger, lost the power of speech. A vacant little sound slipped out of her.
...Is this student even in his right mind?
Mira herself heard it from Ivy often enough: Why are you scowling with such a pretty face? Smile! And yet the moment she dealt with Levian, even she went blank and foolish.
"Haa... Fine. I sent another forty thousand florins."
It was not a large sum, and not a small one either. In the end, Mira was the one who conceded defeat. She had meant from the start to skulk after the student and dig information out of him, so if trouble arose, she would be the one at a disadvantage.
"Thank you. Please follow carefully, then."
Only then did Levian begin adding helpful explanations, for all the world as if he had truly become a guide. And so began the company of two people whose intentions could not have been further apart.
"It helps to think of the entire building as wrapped in Mystery. If you mean to go up while you walk down, you arrive on an upper floor before you realize it."
Even Mira, a teaching assistant, was hearing this for the first time.
"Then what happens if someone who doesn't know the way tries to reach a destination?"
"They get lost. Just as you did, Client."
Then again, she knew perfectly well that the failing student ranked first on the written exams. Sometimes, after remedial class for the failing students ended, Ivy would come pattering into the laboratory at a run—Look at this! He might actually be a genius!—fussing over him until the memory rose fresh and clear. So it would hardly have been strange if he had picked up this odd scrap of knowledge somewhere in the library.
The problem lay elsewhere.
"Ah. By the way, is that thing behind your back a summoned creature?"
"...Wh-wh-what?"
Levian's behavior was so outlandish it resisted explanation in a single sentence. She had sworn to uncover who he was, and what he wanted.
"Above your right shoulder. Ah. Or is it stuck to the ceiling?"
"...Aaaah!! Wh-what is that?! I'm scared!"
As if something had suddenly come into view, he held a steady gaze on the space behind her. A chill prickled over Mira, the feeling of ants crawling up her thighs and along her back. Trembling, she flailed her arms without thinking and ducked behind him to hide.
"Ah. There's no need to be that startled. The academy building is watched over by its guardians anyway, isn't it?"
"Th-then what is that...?!"
When she turned her eyes the way Levian was looking, a faint whitish mass—something you would notice only if you looked closely—was writhing against the ceiling.
"True. I don't know either."
"Th-then do something about it!!"
"Shall I capture it?"
"N-no! Let's just turn back!"
Fortunately, the unidentified mass did not come after them. It stayed where it was.
"Haaa..."
Mira Shadow. Ivy Rain's closest friend, and her companion of many years. Quite tall, solidly built, black-haired, with a cold cast to her face. That appearance had led plenty of people to assume Mira was the one who protected Ivy.
The truth was otherwise. Ivy was the one who charged in first and pinned their enemies down. Mira was only there to look the part, and wanting to press forward did not make the fear disappear.
This is insane! How is that a failing student? Don't tell me the rumor is true—that a spy slipped into the academy?
To her, Levian's calm only made him stranger. Once she began to think that way, the oddities were hardly one or two.
At first she had assumed he was approaching Ivy for the money.
If money were what he wanted, he wouldn't need to play the failing student. He could just show what he can actually do.
A sharp insight.
So maybe it isn't money. Maybe what he wants is Ivy's reputation—or her position.
Perhaps every step of his approach until now had been made under meticulous calculation. Her getting lost. His appearing, so conveniently, to help once she had. Could a coincidence this neat even exist?
And that was not all. Even after they found that unidentified presence, Levian roamed every corner of the academy's underground without hesitation. For no reason she could see, he would walk straight up to a knight puppet set along the corridor and murmur to himself.
"Hm... reinforcement magic? Impact reflection?"
His hand slid through the empty air.
"With a little adjustment, I think I could open it."
At other times he reached toward a bare wall as if something were visible there. It was not idle waving. He looked as though he were truly touching a thing and truly moving it, motions inexplicable enough to blame on a ghost, and the chill would not leave her skin.
Right. I can't just leave him be.
If everything until now had been an act... She made a show of quietly drawing her staff at his back, and at once a blatant gaze turned on her. Emotionless, jewel-blue eyes. This was not something she could let pass.
In Mira's mind, Levian settled not as someone merely to suspect, but as one of the things that were actually dangerous. She seized her Ouija Board at once and sent Ivy an urgent message.
A reply came back as if Ivy had been waiting.
For some reason, the reply sounded almost happy.
Why does she like him this much?!
Bewitched. Thoroughly bewitched. There was no other word for it.