83. The Pursuer
83. The Pursuer
Though ordinary people wouldn't have known, the Empire's archaeological community was in an uproar.
The Snow Country Expedition Team, once derided as a suicide squad, had truly discovered the ruins of an ancient kingdom buried in the Snow Country and returned.
And they hadn't just returned empty-handed—they'd come back with their subspace pockets stuffed full of relics and treasures.
Not a single scholar had predicted that traces of an ancient kingdom, passed down only in legend, would actually be found within the Snow Country.
Even if the ruins had existed, no one had imagined there would be lunatics capable of exploring that place.
Everyone was slowly sorting through the treasures they had brought back, looking forward to a rosy future.
The archaeologists who saw the Snow Country Expedition Team return to the capital recalled a fact.
The peculiar leader who had guided them was no longer among them.
He had been a leader with strikingly beautiful golden hair and a short stature.
In the Snow Country, where the snow piled up to an adult's chest, his physical condition was extremely disadvantageous, so people had been reluctant to join the Snow Country Expedition Team he was recruiting. But somehow, as if by magic, it had become a decent team at some point.
When they returned from the Snow Country, no one knew where he'd gone, as he had been nowhere to be seen.
Atlas was gone, but the Snow Country Expedition Team still gathered regularly at the office Atlas had set up.
Truth be told, they all wanted to grab their shares of the gold and treasures and head back to their hometowns, but disposing of the treasures they'd brought back required time.
"So, when is the auction starting?"
"Even with the best appraisers rushing in, there are just too many. It'll take at least three months."
"Heh heh, once I get all the money, maybe I'll buy myself a title and play at being a noble? My family name... yeah, let's go with White Bones."
"You, old man?! Ugh, how dreadful. And what's with White Bones?"
"My parents ran a butcher shop. The freshly stripped white bones were my toys."
They could have just disposed of them as gold or precious metals, but there were too many relics that were too valuable for that.
They were going to have them properly appraised and put up for auction as ancient kingdom relics and artifacts.
They were gathered together because of those procedures, but there was actually a bigger issue.
The people in the industry already knew that they had become overnight millionaires.
They had hired guards, but the Snow Country Expedition Team, composed of individuals with at least Gold Plate-level skills or higher, were in a situation where they were guaranteeing each other's personal safety.
"Three months, huh... Once I get the money, will it feel a bit more real?"
"I wonder what the Captain is up to?"
"Well, he's probably off somewhere looking for some height-growing drug again, isn't he?"
"I never thought he'd leave right away without us even getting to hold a proper farewell party... I'm a little sad about it!"
"What can you do? He's the type who appears suddenly and disappears just as suddenly."
They said they were sad, but they understood.
During the short time they had spent with Atlas—short if you called it that—they had understood just how much he cared about his height.
And they remembered the despair on his face when he'd found out that what they'd discovered in the ruins wasn't the potion he wanted... and how, when everyone had gone into a tavern to laugh and dance together, he'd been the only one off in a corner, sighing deeply.
Their expedition had ended, but Atlas's expedition was not yet over.
-Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the only door in the office.
"Were we expecting someone today?"
"The appraisers said they're coming tomorrow..."
There was a guard stationed outside the building.
He verified the identities of anyone entering and checked with the team before admitting them.
It might have been the guard, but if it were him, he would have knocked and announced himself at the same time.
"Then who is it?"
The office, which had been filled with casual chatter, suddenly fell into a state of tension.
"...I'll open it, for now."
Bryan, a red-haired member of the Snow Country Expedition Team who held a Platinum Plate as an adventurer, slowly opened the door.
Everyone tensed up, one by one picking up the weapons they had kept within arm's reach, and prepared to greet the uninvited guest.
The well-oiled door opened smoothly without a sound, and Bryan had no choice but to lower his head the moment it opened.
"Are you the Snow Country Expedition Team?"
The one who had knocked on the door was a small girl.
She wore a grey robe, but the silver hair poking out from her hood, a voice like the ringing of a tiny bell, and her doll-like frame that looked like it could be tucked snugly into someone's arms made her seem almost like a fairy.
Perhaps she was a young lady from some noble family; an air of nobility flowed from her that the oversized robe couldn't quite conceal.
She was a person who was extremely out of place in the Snow Country Expedition Team's office, which, except for Bella and three others, was entirely a dreary den of men.
"Ah, what, I got all tense for nothing..."
The team members, who had been on edge, all breathed sighs of relief.
"Haha, that's right, we're the Snow Country Expedition Team that broke through the Snow Country! Want an autograph or something?"
"Old man, don't scare the kid!"
Bryan lowered his stance towards the girl.
Meeting her eyes, Bryan grinned, showing his teeth.
"Bella, I think she really is looking for us, so what's the harm~"
"Looking for us? That's good."
The fairy-like girl giggled and covered her mouth lightly with her hand.
Her slender fingers hiding cherry-like lips were an unreal sight.
Bella was a young lady from a noble house herself, but she had never seen anyone who gave off such an unrealistic impression.
However, the calluses on those slender fingers reminded her of the reality that this girl was someone who handled weapons.
"I'm looking for a person."
The girl in the grey robe continued speaking in a clear, bright voice that echoed through the spacious office.
"He's shorter than me and has very beautiful blonde hair. His eyes are blue, and he carries a sword as tall as he is. His personality... at first glance, seems very good, but if you mess with him the wrong way, he explodes without warning, which is troublesome."
As she continued, the atmosphere among the team members shifted.
Because they knew exactly who the girl was talking about.
"I was told he was definitely here."
"I don't know what... you're talking about..?"
The girl was certain.
"Why are you looking for him?"
"I'm from the Imperial Knights. I'm pursuing a deserter."
When the girl unfastened her robe, pale silver armor was revealed beneath it.
A cold metallic sound rang out.
In her hand, she held a silver rapier.
Her appearance was unmistakably that of a knight.
"Mister, move!!"
Bella shot to her feet and fired ice bullets at the girl knight.
The girl knight, who had introduced herself as being from the Imperial Knights, easily dodged the sharp ice bullets, but those were the signal flare for everything.
"Hey, hey, grab her!!"
The team members drew the weapons they were still holding and rose to repel the outsider who had barged into their hideout.
The relaxed atmosphere of the office instantly became a scene of chaos.
"...Tell me where the old man went."
"Why are the Imperial Knights looking for someone like that..!!"
The girl knight, with her small frame, weaved through the burly men, dodging this way and that, and with the rapier in her one hand, she slashed at the team members' legs.
"Ugh!!"
"When you bunch up like that, old men, I can't even aim!!"
"Well, what do you want us to do in this cramped space!!"
Though more than ten fighters, each at least a high-ranking Expert or above, rushed at her, they couldn't even scratch the girl knight's armor.
The team members who had been slashed on the legs limped.
Watching her movements, Bella felt a sense of déjà vu.
Because she was sure she had seen someone fight like that before.
'Atlas..! When I see you later, I'm not letting you off easy...!!'
Cursing the source of that déjà vu, Bella fired ice magic at the girl knight again.
The girl dodged the ice shards and the charging team members with bizarre movements, then approached right in front of Bella and kicked her down.
"Kyaah?!!"
"Don't move. You'll get hurt."
The sharp silver rapier touched the neck of the fallen Bella.
No matter how much her courage had grown through exploration, Bella was still just a noble young lady who had studied some archaeology and magic.
As she vividly felt the blade's sharpness, which seemed like it would slice through her skin if she moved even a little, her face turned deathly pale.
Only at this point was Bella able to properly face the girl knight who had shed her robe.
'She's cute...'
The beauty that had been impossible to hide even when covered by the large robe was even more unbelievable now that it was off.
Beneath her bowed head, amethyst-like violet eyes sparkled through long, trailing strands of silver hair, and her lips, positioned below a high nose bridge, were as red as cherries.
With her small face packed with delicate features and her body clad in silver armor, she looked like a porcelain doll dressed up in armor.
"Tell me everything you know. If you don't talk, you'll all be treated as traitors too. I'll execute all of you on the spot."
The team members were all still gripping their weapons, but seeing the rapier aimed at Bella's neck, they couldn't recklessly charge forward.
"I don't know what you're talking about... The Captain disappeared without even telling us where he was going..."
"That's right..! He vanished on the way back after we got the treasures from the ruins!"
"He just told us to take care of the rest and left, okay?"
"We really... don't know where he went..."
Even if they wanted to tell her, they truly didn't know where Atlas had gone.
The only thing they remembered was Atlas, in the middle of a drinking session, saying he had something to attend to and calmly slipping away.
Looking at the Snow Country Expedition Team members, who were saying they genuinely didn't know, the girl knight wore a forlorn expression.
"...So you were abandoned too."
"What?"
Just as that standoff was continuing, a piece of paper suddenly slid out of her shadow with a rustle.
Bella thought that sight reminded her of how Atlas had disappeared the last time he'd left the Snow Country Expedition Team.
The girl knight skillfully opened the letter with one hand, read it, and finally lowered her rapier.
"...I'll go. He really isn't here. I'm sorry for being so rough."
The girl knight tucked the letter into her bosom, picked up the robe she had discarded, and walked out of the building.
Bella couldn't just let her go like that.
"Wait...! You!!"
"...?"
The girl stopped at Bella's cry.
"What are you planning to do if you meet Atlas...?!"
Upon hearing this, the girl knight answered without a moment's hesitation.
"....I'll kill him."
Leaving those words behind, she walked outside again.
When they followed to check, the guards were already all knocked down.
Watching the girl knight who had stormed in and then left just as suddenly, Bella saw another person overlapping with her image.
"Atlas...!! Just what have you been up to, and where?!!!"
She resolved to hit him hard the next time she saw him.
If he was safe then, of course.