The Snake and the Trap
I reached out toward the tall building in the distance that Ash was pointing at with the tip of his sword.
When I focused, I could faintly sense someone on the rooftop. I summoned a hand made of water, grabbed the fleeing figure, and squeezed with all my might.
“Did you catch them?”
“Yeah.”
They were probably dead.
Ash shifted the sword from his right hand to his left and scanned our surroundings warily.
Only then did I take a proper look at his blade. It wasn’t anything special—just a common iron sword you could buy on any street.
Ash flexed his scarred right hand a few times before our eyes met.
“Does your hand hurt?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“Liar.”
“……It just aches a little on rainy days.”
I didn’t mind a man who couldn’t lie. But the fact that the hand he used to hold a sword ached was a pretty serious problem.
“Why? I thought you would’ve received the best treatment.”
“The treatment was excellent. It’s just……”
“Just?”
His eyes met mine as he debated whether it was okay to keep talking. Then, as if anxious, he scanned the area again and moved only his lips.
“The dagger that pierced my hand was enchanted. It was a kind of curse magic that prevented the bleeding from stopping.”
“Ah.”
“By the time I saw a priest, more than a day had already passed. The curse had taken root.”
That made sense. When the delegation members had rescued Ash alongside me, none of them had guessed that the boy was an imperial prince. It was simply unimaginable.
“I received the finest treatment, but it couldn’t be completely healed.”
“I see……”
“Thanks to that, I’ve become ambidextrous, so it’s not all bad.”
What a positive guy. Well, I didn’t dislike him anyway.
“Ash.”
“Yes.”
“You can speak casually. I’m younger than you.”
“……I don’t recall ever telling you my age.”
“But I know it anyway.”
Unlike me, who was full of certainty, Ash still seemed to have some confusion left.
We were both making assumptions about each other without confirming anything.
“Since Lox isn’t here, I’ll say it.”
I stepped right up to Ash. There was no one around anyway, so I got extremely close—close enough to count his eyelashes.
“I know your real name isn’t Ash. That was the name you used when you were little. A childhood name…… or a nickname.”
I whispered secretly, watching his plain brown eyes widen in shock.
[Master! Master!]
⟨ Adore ⟩
“Adore?”
“O noble one! I have discovered something!”
[This guy says he found something!]
A man who was clearly part of the slave trader’s crew came running toward us in a panic. Ash instinctively raised his sword.
I gestured for him to lower it and walked toward the man. I could feel Ash sticking unusually close to my side.
In the meantime, Adore flew ahead impatiently before realizing his mistake and returning to hover above the man’s head.
“What did you find?”
“The girl you were looking for! I’ve located her whereabouts.”
“Oh, you’re actually useful?”
“There’s a large safe in the boss’s office. They said they put her inside it!”
“……Are you insane? She’ll suffocate and die!”
Typical slave trader. They treated people like trash.
“I also know where it is. And I’ve learned the boss’s plan!”
“Plan?”
“They’re setting a trap. They intend to lure you to an empty lot over there and kill you. An archer unit is already waiting on the rooftops.”
“How sneaky. Not that I’m one to talk.”
So that’s why they were avoiding direct confrontation. Since they couldn’t get close, they decided to overwhelm with numbers. Arrows were annoying, but they were basically toothpicks to me.
I listened quietly and glanced around to make sure no one was watching us. Fortunately, the archer I’d taken out on the rooftop earlier seemed to be the last one.
For a brief moment, I wondered if revealing the existence of the trap was itself a trap.
[Adore, is this guy telling the truth?]
[He is! Someone told him to bring arrows to the empty lot.]
[Guess I’ll believe him.]
Even if this was a trap, it didn’t matter. To pose any real threat to me, they’d need ten times as many people.
Most importantly, what mattered right now was dragging out Grack, who was hiding somewhere without showing his face, and killing him.
[Ugh, what a sneaky bastard. He kidnaps Einy to lure me out and then hides behind his underlings.]
[He must be terrified of Master.]
[Maybe he developed a phobia of snakes. I’m already looking forward to how happy he’ll be to see you, Rai.]
I wasn’t afraid of anything.
If it was a trap, I’d just smash the entire trap. You can’t catch a tiger with a cat snare!
Rai chimed in proudly as well.
[Kyahaha! Now all that’s left to tear off is his head!]
[No, there’s one more thing.]
[What?]
[That thing between his legs……]
[Master, could you please not ask me to do something so inhumane?]
[You’re a spirit.]
[Then please don’t ask me to do it as a spirit either. I’m begging you sincerely. I’ve never done anything that cruel in my entire life as a spirit.]
But that would probably hurt the most…… If I was going to do it, it’d be better while he was still alive…….
[Um…… I can feel everything you’re thinking, you know?]
[Isn’t that the only thing more horrible than death?]
[How about sending him off mercifully? Aren’t you the Saint……?]
[I don’t know anyone like that.]
I was absentmindedly picking at my ear when Ash, who had been watching me carefully, finally spoke up with difficulty.
“Miss Jeanie…… who exactly is this person?”
“This guy? He’s a member of the slave trading company.”
“……So he’s a slave trader?”
“That’s right. It’s a bit late, but let me introduce you. He’s the slave trader’s internal traitor. I don’t know his name though.”
Ash looked quite flustered.
“How can you trust someone like this! What reason would he have to help us!”
“He has plenty of reason to help us. I’m threatening him with his life as collateral. From what I can tell, he’s pretty attached to staying alive.”
“Even so!”
“If you don’t trust him that much, then you go with this guy and rescue Einy, Ash. If she stays in that safe too long, she’ll definitely pass out given her personality.”
Being locked in a safe was mentally and physically traumatic. For a child, it would be an even greater terror.
Especially since Einy already had enough trauma…… Was she just unlucky, or was everyone around me doomed to suffer?
“You want the two of us to go? Then what about you?”
“I need to go check out the trap. I think this whole situation will only end once I kill Grack quickly.”
“You can’t! If you go alone……”
“Ash.”
I’d noticed that he tensed up whenever I called his name lately.
“When you said I was amazing, was that a lie?”
“……”
“You said I was cool.”
“That’s true, but……”
“This guy going alone will make Einy anxious. So you go and reassure her. Einy needs stability right now. She’ll need you more than me.”
Right?
When I asked with my eyes, he couldn’t refuse. The way he pressed his lips together and furrowed his brow was honestly kind of cute. I was starting to think I might have a thing for men who listened well.
“I’ll bring her back…… as quickly as possible.”
“Good. There will probably be guards there too, so be careful.”
“That’s what I should be saying to you.”
“Worrying about me is the most useless thing you could do, so stop that and focus on rescuing Einy. I’ll take care of the revenge!”
After all, I was much better suited for a revenge story than a rescue story.
My revenge, Einy’s revenge, and the revenge of many others.
It might just be me venting my anger under the guise of revenge. But daring to annoy someone like me? He must be crazy and begging to die.
“Um…… I’m sorry to interrupt your lovely friendship, but……”
“What?”
“Well, there’s a problem.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know where Grack’s office is because you want to die.”
The moment you become useless, you’re dead.
It seemed I had a special talent for speaking with my eyes.
“Ugh, that’s not it! Of course I know where it is. The problem is the safe. It can only be opened with a key…… It’s locked with three layers, so the rumor is that you need three different keys.”
“No way!”
Ash looked visibly troubled, but I just scratched under my chin and yawned. I really didn’t get enough sleep today.
“They say the boss keeps all his treasures in there. I heard him bragging about it while drinking. He captured a dwarf and made him create it, so without those three special keys, it won’t open even if a meteor falls on it.”
“That’s the problem?”
“Yes? What do you mean ‘that’s it’?! It’s a triple-locked safe made by a dwarf!”
Looks like I’ll have to lend him my universal key.
I slipped my hand into the shadow of my hood. Rai, who had been on my shoulder, climbed onto the back of my hand, wrapped around my wrist, and then slithered out from the shadow of the hood to reveal himself.
His nearly white body gleamed with a rich golden hue depending on the light. His small, round eyes were red, and his flicking long tongue was an even deeper blood-red.
“Let me introduce you. This is my pet snake, Rai.”
“Huk.”
“If you take this snake with you, it’ll help open the safe.”
The underling who had been strangled earlier recoiled in terror.
Even Ash, who hadn’t experienced it before, looked equally horrified at the snake’s sudden appearance.
“Why is there a snake coming out of your clothes?!”
“Haven’t you ever seen a pet snake before?”
Why are you ruining my baby’s mood? I gently stroked Rai’s head.
“More importantly…… that’s not the issue! How is a snake supposed to open a safe?!”
“Don’t worry about such trivial things. Life gets tiring if you do.”
“No! It has to make sense!”
“Just shut up and take him. If I say it can open it, then it can.”
It seemed Ash still had a lot to learn about the fact that when Jeanie Crowell said something was possible, it was possible. The only thing that didn’t exist for me was annoyance.