Hawawawa Rainbow (2)
Oh, Miss Beatrice was so mortified about spewing a rainbow that she pressed a gold coin into my hand as hush money.
Much obliged.
Even a pale, exhausted Miss Beatrice was rather cute.
Her humiliating display was worth a full thirty-three Annas!
"If you keep on like that, this mother of yours will feel wounded. Ah. I cannot fathom how a rite meant to find a saintess has been reduced to an empty shell that only breeds sorrow."
Oh, Auntie's slipped into mental-breakdown mode again.
Perhaps I should stop bringing up Annas?
I went with Miss Beatrice to the Guide Guild and presented the bloodstained adventurer's plaque we had found. We were promptly shown into a room deeper inside.
The chamber had the feel of an office — a handful of staff and stacks of documents everywhere.
Lorca had insisted she was not an employee, yet she drifted over to a table as if it were her own seat and sat down without a second thought.
"Kee… An uncharted zone, huh. Still finding those on the first floor."
She compared the map I had submitted against the zone marked on Miss Beatrice's map as she spoke.
"But that isn't right, is it?"
"Oh my? Whatever do you mean?"
Lorca fed the blood-caked wooden adventurer's plaque into a machine, checked the result, and let out a long sigh. Then she fixed me with a piercing stare.
Stare all you like — I have Miss Beatrice, a pure and spotless witness, so I am perfectly at ease.
"O~hohohohohot!"
A ringing peal of laughter filled the room. Everyone present turned to look at Miss Beatrice.
Having escaped the labyrinth, she seemed brimming with energy. She strode forward with theatrical flair, planted her hands on her hips, and slammed a palm down on the table where Lorca sat with a sharp bang.
"How dare you! How dare you cast such blasphemous suspicion! Even if you are 'Shadowless Lorca,' that attitude of yours — are you picking a fight with House Ignisia?!"
"Whoa, whoa, settle down, Your Ladyship."
BANG!
Sh-Shadowless Lorca!
Whatever that means, she has an epithet!
I had an embarrassing nickname in my previous life too, come to think of it.
Miss Beatrice had shed every trace of the terrified coward she had been inside the labyrinth and was now standing firm with remarkable force.
Wait — so she was the daughter of a ducal house?
Then why did she go around alone like some outcast?
Where were her escorts?
I tilted my head and watched Miss Beatrice fume and snort with indignation.
"How dare you, how dare you — toward Lady Lua, my benefactor!"
"Ah, no, Your Ladyship. It isn't like that. I just wanted to check, that's all. Sorry. Sorry. Heh heh."
Lorca scratched the back of her head as she spoke.
"Kee. I'll send a search party first, and once we confirm, I'll add a bonus. Thirty silver as advance payment — twenty for the uncharted zone, ten for reporting the bodies. We'll verify the site and put out a wanted notice; if those scum get caught, you'll get a cut of the bounty too. It's the first floor, so even an uncharted zone isn't worth a fortune. Sorry."
She jangled silver coins from a drawer, poured them into a small pouch stamped with the Guide Guild's symbol, and handed it over.
Eh. Barely ten Annas.
Not even a match for the thirty-three Annas of hush money for Miss Beatrice's rainbow.
"D-Daughter?"
Ah, right. I said I'd stop thinking about Annas. Sorry, Auntie.
I discreetly shifted my gaze to the adorable Miss Beatrice, who was still snorting with righteous fury, and gave her shoulder a light tap.
"Hawa… L-Lady Lua."
The inflated bluster deflated at once, and she shrank back into that timid little coward again.
"This is more than enough. Thank you for looking into it, Lady Lorca."
"I told you to call me big sis. Anyway, be careful. Scum like that do turn up now and then, but not even reporting an unexplored zone… Ugh. I should have covered that danger in the basic training the other day."
Lorca grimaced as if her head ached and pressed her fingers to her temple.
"All right, everyone out. This big sis is about to get busy."
"Do take care."
"Hmph! You take care as well!"
Lorca waved goodbye as she rose from her seat.
Looking at Miss Beatrice — arms folded again, pride puffed back up — I couldn't help a small snort of laughter.
Just a little while ago, right up until we left the labyrinth, she had been a complete coward.
With the sounds of Miss Beatrice spewing rainbows as my background music, I rummaged through the corpses.
They had scraped away every weapon and anything of value, so this was probably about money.
Still, the wounds mixed two distinct impressions — clean cuts that felt like a skilled hand had severed life in a single stroke, and frenzied, unhinged hacking.
Could be a party.
Well, this sort of thing was common enough even at the Gates.
A wooden adventurer's plaque like the one I had been issued today lay pitifully soaked in blood. I decided to take a few for the report and tucked several plaques into Black.
Nothing else of worth, as far as I could tell.
I clicked my tongue in mild disappointment and looked up — only to meet the eyes of Miss Beatrice, who had just barely finished her rainbow and was dabbing her mouth with a lace handkerchief.
"Are you all right, Lady Beatrice?"
"Th-Th-Ulp. I-I am quite all right."
"We will have to report this place to the guild. Shall we hurry out for now?"
"What?! Y-Yes. As you say, Lady Lua."
Unable to look at the heap of corpses, Miss Beatrice scurried over and once again clutched the hem of my cloak.
Seeing her face so thoroughly cowed and adorable, I took the hand that held my cloak.
"Hawa…"
Her fingers had grown rather cold.
The top student is such a soft little thing. Hee hee.
There was no continuous trail of blood, but plenty of signs that people had moved through often. They had probably stuffed the bodies into something like Miss Beatrice's bag earlier and dumped them here.
Hmm.
That would mean the crime scene covered a fairly wide range.
Well, the guild would handle it.
I walked while reversing the map in my head, and sure enough, a dead-end stone wall appeared at the end of the passage.
"Hawa? L-Lady Lua? Th-The way is blocked."
Miss Beatrice released my hand with an anxious look and edged carefully backward.
I regarded the pitiful girl, then grinned and gave her cheek a light poke.
"Hawat! Wh-What are you doing?!"
Her face flushed crimson and her cheeks puffed out like buns.
Hee hee. Exactly as cute as I imagined.
"Watch carefully, Lady Beatrice. See the marks at the base of this wall?"
"Hawa?"
Faint drag marks lingered on the floor.
After tilting her head for a long moment, Miss Beatrice crept toward the stone wall as well. In the vermilion light cast by her fire spirit, she spotted the traces, and her face lit up.
"Ah! So there are!"
I gripped a slightly protruding section of the wall that served as a handle and pushed it sideways.
Ssslick.
With a smoother scrape than expected, the passage opened, and the faint glow of mana-stone lamps came into view.
Ah, so this is the usual setup?
But why on earth would a place meant to purify the surface have secret doors like this, Auntie?
"Ahem. Ahem. W-Well, Daughter? The labyrinth itself has existed since our era. This mother merely… made use of it, purifying the unclean things of the surface and casting them in."
Huh. Somehow that paints a picture of lazy people tossing trash into a room where it won't be seen.
And then you took a long nap, and humanity went to ruin, did it not?
"It wounds me when you blame your mother so. Still, I believe righteous souls remain somewhere. If you are willing, find the Holy Sword and place it in such a person's hands. It is only this mother's selfish wish, but I would prefer a sturdy young man with black hair."
Well. Setting Auntie's preferences aside, I'll treat it as a pastime.
"Yes. That is enough. Do as you wish, Daughter."
"Hawawa."
At the sight of the mana-stone lamps, Miss Beatrice seemed to melt with relief and crumpled on the spot.
"C-Can we leave now?"
"Er… Leaving already? The nearest portal should take about twelve minutes."
I calculated the distance from the map in my head against Miss Beatrice's hawa-huff running speed and told her so.
"Uuu. I entreat you, Lady Lua. N-Next time I shall prepare better… and bring Elise as well…"
The spirit soothed the thoroughly shrunken Miss Beatrice.
Spirits truly are marvelous. Burning that brightly, yet they can choose not to set anything on fire.
Catching my eye, the spirit ducked behind Miss Beatrice again.
Ahh. What a shame.
And so we found a shimmering golden portal. Miss Beatrice shed a few quiet tears of relief, handed me a gold coin that might have been a tip or more hush money — I couldn't tell which — and we left the labyrinth.
The two of us stepped out of the Guide Guild.
"Lady Beatrice, shall we use the money we received and have a meal together?"
"Hawa? Would that be all right?"
I extended the invitation to Miss Beatrice, whose cuteness had dipped a notch after she dismissed her spirit. Even so, her face and mannerisms were still a pleasure just to look at. I rather liked them.
A scatterbrained ducal daughter as the top student — is the Academy truly a flower garden?
"I ought to give you your share first, of course."
"Hawa? N-No need. I have only been a burden to you, Lady Lua…"
"One must always settle accounts properly, Lady Beatrice."
I took out five Annas and offered them to her.
Her cheeks pinked as she accepted the silver coins in both hands.
"Hehe."
Watching her beam so happily over mere silver coins made me happy too.
In the glittering, highest-class inn at the heart of the Labyrinth City — a place that charged the outrageous sum of one gold coin per night, though its guests scarcely seemed to care — lounged Tenes Alto Lucretion, second son of Viscount Lucretion.
He sat on a luxurious sofa, guzzling expensive wine straight from the bottle, his expression hazy and unfocused. His bare upper body was covered in red kiss marks, souvenirs from wherever he had been carousing in some corner of the city.
Lucretion. One of the nouveau-riche houses that had struck it rich in finance down in the capital's southeast, where they were called Golden Lions.
Among the public, the nickname Golden Pigs was rather more famous.
"Branco. I heard at the tavern that thirty of those wooden brats got killed on the first floor."
Tenes spoke after picking up the rumor that had spread from the central Adventurer Guild — via a woman of the night.
"Yes, Young Master. It seems some dangerous sort is on the prowl, so it would be best if you refrained from entering the labyrinth for a while."
"What? What kind of idiotic nonsense is that!"
BANG.
Tenes slammed the wine bottle onto the table as he shouted.
"What the hell. I used to hunt bugs on my own estate too. Khh. Taking down thirty of them… I'm jealous — no, how insolent! I can't just sit still while some bastard tries to ruin my Academy field exercise."
He shuddered, savoring the remembered feel of killing commoners back on his lands.
Branco, who had often accompanied him on those little hobbies, grinned and answered with ready flattery.
"Ah, of course! As expected of the brave Young Master! This Branco is learning yet another lesson from you."
"Right? Just picture me catching that so-called great murderer. Wouldn't I be a hero? A hero! Luck is on my side for this field exercise! Hahaha!"
"Indeed! You need not worry. This Branco shall serve as your steadfast shield."
Branco, a Sword Expert, thumped his chest as if to say the Young Master need only trust him.
Tenes answered with a glassy-eyed, self-satisfied smile.