Ratling (1)
“No suspicious items were found.”
“Aside from tobacco, alcohol, and bringing a woman back to the lodging house, there wasn’t anything that really looked like a problem.”
The magicians finished their report in a businesslike tone.
Not a single suspicious object had turned up in the mercenaries’ lodgings, not even a mana stone.
Emily’s mana-stone detector had come up empty as well.
No mercenary showed any trace of mana stones.
“Understood. Everyone, thank you for working this late.”
“Not at all. This hour is familiar to us.”
“That may be true for you as well, but it’s also the time you’d normally be deep in your research. Dean Androp gave the order. If there’s anything we can do to help solve the case, please don’t hesitate to tell us.”
Lawrence dismissed the magicians from the Magic Tower for the time being.
After tidying the area, Emily came up beside him.
“The Magic Tower has contacted us. No culprit was found. Once daylight comes, they’ll search the entire area with Dig magic.”
Dig was an earth spell that overturned the ground.
In other words, they were planning to turn the land around the Magic Tower completely inside out.
“Once the sun comes up, the real search will begin.”
Her gaze was steady.
Her face showed no sign of fatigue.
Though it was deep into the night, there was nothing disheveled about her at all.
“It’s not certain, but there’s someone I find suspicious.”
The silver-plate mercenary Maris.
When Emily heard Lawrence’s words, she brought her hands together.
“May I ask why you think that?”
“Before coming to the Magic Tower, I took a protection job with Maris. The partisan and appearance were the same as they were then, but the voice was different.”
“If it’s only the voice, then it could simply be your mistake.”
“That’s possible. But a person’s accent doesn’t change so easily. The way someone from the countryside speaks is different from someone from the city. The Maris I met while escorting that trading caravan and the Maris I just met had different accents.”
An accent wasn’t something you could just decide to change.
Just as Isolde, who had lived her entire life in the Ulbazar Swamp, could never imitate the speech of Emily, a maid from the Laynald family.
A person’s roots didn’t change in just a few months.
“Lord Lawrence. That escort job you mentioned... was it the one commissioned by the Black Rose Trading Company?”
“Yes. It was a request from the Black Rose Trading Company to escort them on the road from Frang to Mistra.”
“Then I think your suspicion is probably correct. The trading company that commissioned us to procure the mana stone was the very same Black Rose Trading Company.”
“……”
He’d thought the scale of the escort was odd.
He’d suspected there might be something else in the wagon besides the byproducts of the horn boar. He had never dreamed that it might be a mana stone worth an astronomical fortune.
“Then perhaps they were after the mana stone from the beginning.”
“As you say, Lord Lawrence, we can’t dismiss the suspicious circumstances. Even if he isn’t the culprit, there’s definitely something fishy about him. This is a clue we finally managed to catch. It’s more than worth investigating.”
Emily rose from her seat.
“I’ll get the Magic Tower’s cooperation right away.”
“No. First, please calm down and sit back down, Emily.”
“Lord Lawrence, this is an urgent matter.”
“Exactly why I want you to sit down.” Lawrence’s voice stayed even. “This case isn’t going to end just because we catch the culprit.”
Emily did not sit.
Her eyes kept asking him for his reasons.
“More important than the culprit’s identity is the stolen mana stone. If Maris really is one of that organization you mentioned, then even if we rush in all of a sudden, I don’t think we’ll be able to recover the stone.”
The culprit wasn’t a fool.
And if he belonged to an organization whose name Lawrence didn’t even know, then he had clearly been cautious enough to avoid ever leaving a trail.
If they moved now, they might be able to catch Maris.
But the chance of recovering the mana stone would be vanishingly small.
“When we examined Maris just now, the artifact didn’t react. If the trace has disappeared, that means the mana stone has been kept away from the body for a long time. As for a mana stone deliberately hidden away, who knows how long it would take to find it—or whether it can be found at all?”
Only then did Emily sit down.
“I spoke too hastily. Then do you have a good way to catch the culprit?”
“I’d like to loosen the net once.”
“The net, you say?”
“Yes. Rather than us hunting him down, we make the culprit bring the mana stone to us himself.”
She looked as though she didn’t understand what he meant.
“There’s a saying in the Ulbazar Swamp. The Ulbazar Jaguar, predator of the marsh, is a natural-born hunter. Those beasts are careful and cunning when they hunt, and even hunters don’t easily catch them. But even jaguars have moments when they grow careless.”
Thinking of the swamp in dry season, where he had once moved with the Ulbaniero, Lawrence said,
“It’s the instant they sink their teeth into the throat of their prey.”
A hunter lets his guard down only when—
he is certain he has caught the prey.
“The culprit will think he’s weathered today’s crisis. Anyone would, after that round of questioning. Now is the chance to take advantage of the fact that he’s the one in charge and let him slip away. He’ll think the mission was a success. We need to strike the moment he believes that.”
“I understand. You mean the opportunity will come when he retrieves the mana stone and leaves the Magic Tower.”
“Yes. If Maris really is the culprit.”
They wouldn’t know until they confirmed it.
“I’d like to inform the Magic Tower of this situation first. After that, I’d like to get the magicians’ support to form a perimeter. Would that be possible?”
“Don’t worry. We’ll have a definite answer by tomorrow morning at the latest.”
Maybe they had finally caught the tail at last.
Emily nodded at Lawrence’s question.
* * *
The Magic Tower sent a total of ten magicians.
For one man—Maris—that was a lot.
But since they couldn’t rely on any other mercenaries, the more hands they could get, the better.
There was no telling how far the mercenaries were involved.
Maris might have an accomplice, and if some loose-lipped mercenary learned about this, the information could leak out.
There was another problem once they left the Magic Tower as well.
If the man tried to meet with other allies outside, ten magicians still wouldn’t be enough to make them feel safe.
No one knew what would happen once things became real.
Lawrence surveyed the magicians gathered in the tent.
None of them were from the workshop district.
They were all magicians of the Magic Tower.
Not a sound of conversation drifted through the air.
Not even the usual chatter.
Each of them had claimed a seat and sat there, every one of them showing complete indifference toward the others.
“……”
“……”
The atmosphere was different from the mercenaries, who had clustered together by habit.
There wasn’t a trace of cooperation to be found, no matter how hard you looked.
He wondered whether they would really be able to work together when the time came.
Just as there was an enormous difference between wood plate and silver plate, not all magicians were the same either.
The Magic Tower’s magicians were plants raised in a conservatory.
Most likely, the magicians gathered here had never once experienced real combat.
The only consolation was the two magicians who kept bickering.
“I don’t know why I have to go with you.”
“You don’t need me to tell you how important this is, do you?”
“And who exactly are you talking down to? Watch yourself, so you don’t drag me down with you.”
They were Elbrick and Hasole, who served Dean Androp.
Apparently they had some standing within the tower, because the other magicians could be seen watching their expressions.
Emily emerged from inside the tent, having changed her clothes.
She had taken off the cumbersome maid’s uniform and was now dressed in a light combat outfit that favored mobility.
Her long black hair was tied back into a single tail, and a sword hung at her hip like a mercenary’s.
The blade bore the emblem of the roaring golden lion—the mark of the Laynald family.
A small scabbard was visible near her chest as well.
That, too, was embroidered with the roaring golden lion.
“I’m sorry I left you waiting.”
“No. The rat hasn’t moved yet.”
Lawrence shook his head.
There had been no report from the magicians watching the lodgings.
“He’s more cautious than I expected.”
“He’s probably waiting for a time when it’s easier for him to move. Or maybe he plans to let the situation unfold a little longer.”
His hand reached for his pocket watch.
One hour had already passed in this state of waiting.
Had he been mistaken to think the culprit might move immediately today, now that an incident had occurred yesterday?
“I think otherwise. If the rat is going to move, today is the day. Time is on our side. Once a full-scale investigation begins, it won’t be easy for him to slip out from the Magic Tower’s grip.”
“I’d like that to be true, but—”
Just as Lawrence trailed off, a magician came into the tent and reported,
“The rat has moved.”
Lawrence shut the pocket watch and stood up.
“As I said earlier, we’ll be moving in three teams. Mr. Elbrick, I’d like you to read the direction the rat is taking and help form the perimeter.”
“Not a difficult task. I’ve no intention of letting that rat who dared commit this sort of filth in the Magic Tower get away.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
Following Elbrick, four magicians left the tent behind.
“Ms. Hasole, please form the rear of the perimeter and make sure no civilians near the Magic Tower are caught up in this.”
“Of course. If the Magic Tower’s reputation falls any further than it already has, the dean will be in an awkward position too.”
Following Hasole, four more magicians left the tent behind.
Now only two people remained there.
“Lord Lawrence, I really can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done in this matter.”
“It’s still too early for thanks. Bluntly speaking, we still don’t even know whether the rat is truly the culprit.”
“Suspicion eventually turns into certainty. I believe Lord Lawrence’s eyes aren’t mistaken.”
Emily lifted the tent flap.
Passing through the opening she held for him, Lawrence said,
“I hope so too.”
* * *
Maris emerged from the lodgings and left the workshop district.
He looked no different than usual.
His lower face was covered by a mask, and he was armed with a partisan.
There were no fellow mercenaries moving with him nearby.
Lawrence kept some distance and watched, just in case.
Still, no other mercenary could be seen tailing Maris.
Lawrence looked back at Emily.
At the very least, they had confirmed the minimum conditions for safety.
From here on out, it was her turn.
Emily began moving without a sound.
Using stalls the merchants hadn’t yet cleared away and the gaps between buildings, she followed Maris. Lawrence kept a little distance behind; when Maris disappeared from sight, he would trail after Emily.
This had been her request in advance.
She had told him she would handle the tailing, and asked him to follow from behind.
Lawrence had nodded obediently.
He had learned how to track traces from Neil, but he had never been taught how to tail someone.
He couldn’t go stirring up trouble and ruin a perfectly good meal.
As he followed Emily, he left a strip of black cloth behind.
It was a marker for the Magic Tower magicians coming after them.
But soon he realized that tailing someone was no easy task.
Things were manageable until they left the workshop district.
After all, there were plenty of pedestrians on the road, and plenty of places to hide among them.
But once they left the Magic Tower, the story changed.
The road opened up all around them.
There were trees once they left the road, but no terrain or cover that could conceal an entire body.
That naturally forced him to put even more distance between himself and Maris if he wanted to avoid being seen.
The problem was that he started losing sight of Emily as well.
This wasn’t just following someone from behind.
Every so often, she used astonishing methods to evade Maris’s eyes.
Sometimes she climbed a tree.
She didn’t just come down from it—she moved freely across the branches like a squirrel, chasing after Maris from above.
Lawrence clicked his tongue as he hid behind a rock.
He had already sensed she wasn’t ordinary back in the tent last night.
But this was going too far.
She didn’t feel like a maid at all; she felt more like a highly trained soldier.
How long had they been tailing him?
Emily, who had moved ahead, sent him a hand signal.
A tightly clenched fist.
It meant the target had stopped.
Lawrence approached the rock where she was hiding.
Beyond it, Maris had finally stopped walking after entering the woods.
He set down the partisan and took a shovel from the brush.
Then, silently, he began digging into the ground.
Watching him, Lawrence wrote on the earth.
It looks like he’s searching for the mana stone.
Digging, digging, and digging some more.
At last, as though he had found what he was looking for, the shovel stopped.
In Maris’s hand was a filthy pouch.
For an instant, Lawrence thought he saw something glint inside it.
He stopped Emily as she started to rise.
Someone had appeared outside the pit.
A man wrapped in a robe and mask.
Slung across his back was none other than a partisan.
It was as if there were two copies of the same picture.
A man who looked exactly like Maris stood there.