The Variable (3)
“Haa… Good thing no one followed us.”
The moment they reached the safe house, Charlotte heaved the tightly bound bundle of cargo into a corner with a dull thud.
…The road here had been long. And brutal.
Thanks to Charlotte moving like some spy straight out of a movie, a twenty-minute walk had stretched into a full forty minutes of detours.
At first I’d thought, Well, with her status she must have a lot of exhausting precautions to take, and I’d carefully followed along.
I was wrong.
Halfway there she suddenly stopped dead and claimed someone was tailing us, that we had to check. When I told her I could just use Qi Sensing, she snapped that that was cheating—that real romance meant going up and confirming it yourself—and vaulted onto a rooftop.
I frantically widened my senses…
…and found the imperial princess on the roof, smoking a cigarette and snickering to herself. That was when the truth hit me.
Exhausting precautions, my ass. She’d just been bored.
Give me back my childhood innocence…
“Haa… I’m stressed.”
Beside me, Rubia let out a long sigh and carefully set Hepais down from her back.
“G-good work, Rubia…”
I patted the small of her back where beads of sweat had gathered.
“You too, Noah. You worked hard.”
“Right? I offered to carry her—why did you insist on doing it yourself?”
“Because I saw those damn hands of hers groping Hepais.”
The gentle smile Rubia had been giving me vanished in an instant. She ground her teeth and glared at Charlotte with the face of a yaksha.
“Watch your mouth. I wasn’t groping—my hands just slipped. Who’re you calling a pervert…?”
No matter how you looked at it, she absolutely was a pervert, but I stayed quiet. Nodding along might get me arrested for insulting the imperial family or something…
She had more power and more money than Rubia, after all.
Rubia, however, did not hold back.
“Everyone in the world already knows you’re a pervert.”
“Hey… Rubia, that’s lèse-majesté—”
“Yes. Arrest me, then.”
Rubia thrust her arms out and pressed her wrists together, as if offering them for handcuffs.
“Haa… You weren’t like this when you were little. Now that you’re grown you’re all weird. What am I supposed to do with you, my little Rubia?”
Charlotte watched the display, pressed a hand to her forehead, and shook her head.
When she was little?
So they’ve known each other for a while?
“We’ve only known each other two years. What’s this ‘when you were little’ nonsense…?”
Rubia shuddered with genuine irritation, then swiftly pulled me into her arms. Her sweet voice brushed my ear.
“Noah. Punish her for me.”
“E-ehh…? N-no, I can’t…”
“It’s fine. If there are no witnesses it’s just an assassination. Nothing to worry about.”
“W-what are you even saying…?! Even if there aren’t any witnesses… you still can’t kill people…!”
I shook my head hard and pushed her away. Rubia’s expression twisted, just a fraction. On the sofa, Charlotte’s face crumpled the same way.
“Noah… You mustn’t kill the innocent. But people who deserve to die? Those you can kill.”
“Y-yes…?”
“Because those aren’t people. They’re beasts. It’s fine.”
Is she seriously calling the imperial princess a beast right now?
Well… uh… if you only listen to the way she talks, she does sound a tiny bit like one…
But still, no!
“Hey, hey. Enough. Noah, go wash up. You reek—I can’t stand being near you.”
Huk… I-I reek?!
“What’s with that face? It’s obvious, isn’t it? Think about where you two just were. You expect not to smell?”
“Uh… n-no, but… Rubia already took care of the smell earlier…”
I’d wiped off the blood with drinking water, and Rubia’s divine power had scrubbed away the stench…
I lifted my arm and sniffed.
Nothing but a faint peach scent.
“I… I don’t smel… ah… t.”
I wanted to shout I don’t smell!, but Charlotte’s posture and expression radiated so much force that I ended up hiding behind Rubia and murmuring it quietly instead…
“Huh? You’re refusing an order from the imperial princess?”
Charlotte shot up from her seat.
“U-uh…”
I pressed myself even tighter against Rubia’s back.
This time Rubia gently pushed me forward.
“You only smell nice to me, Noah… but I still think you should wash.”
“R-really…?”
“Heheh… Yes. After all… mm… you took down so many magic beasts by yourself. A bath will help you recover, won’t it?”
“Exactly, exactly. And the hot water here runs great, so washing’ll be easy.”
Caught between Charlotte and Rubia’s pincer attack, I reluctantly nodded.
It wasn’t that I hated bathing.
It was just… my… u-underwear was a little…
After a bath you want clean, fluffy underwear, right…?
And, uh…
The bandages wrapped around my chest were already torn and barely holding on…
If I undid them there’d be no going back!
Well… my body didn’t really show anything even without them, but still…
“A-alright…”
I nodded obediently and stepped away from Rubia’s back.
I’ll just cover carefully…
Then I stood quietly in front of the bathroom door.
Meekly.
Silently.
Rubia and Charlotte tilted their heads at me.
A small laugh slipped from Rubia’s lips.
“Pfft… Noah, sorry, but I think you should wash alone today. Charlotte’s going to peek, so I’ll stand guard.”
“Ah…”
“Hah, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
Charlotte roughly shoved her bangs back, stuck a cigarette between her lips, and kept talking.
“I don’t peek. I just look, nice and open.”
She lit it with a flourish and exhaled a proud stream of smoke.
“…See? Just wash alone today.”
“Mmm… Okay. I understand.”
I stood there a few more seconds, fidgeting, then simply went into the bathroom.
Mm…
Today I kind of…
wanted to wash with Rubia.
Just a little.
Disappointing…
The sound of rushing water filled the bathroom. Charlotte sank into the sofa.
“Sss—haa…”
Through the thick haze of smoke, her golden hair swayed and shimmered.
“Magic grass… Are you still dealing with the aftereffects of ‘that incident’?”
“That, and I think I’m just addicted. Heh…”
Charlotte gave a bitter smile and shook her head.
“If you need help, just say so. I’ll do everything I can.”
“Then let me feel up your tits.”
“Get lost.”
“Hiiing… Charlotte’s huuurt…”
“What brings you to Urusphier?”
When I gave her nothing, she awkwardly scratched her head and straightened up.
“Ahem… Some justice-obsessed cutie with huge tits put in a request because she was scared of scorpions, and it landed on me. Had no choice but to come.”
Charlotte blew out smoke and grinned.
“…What do you mean?”
Last time, when I’d run into Jure in Roholan, I’d linked her unique ability to myself. Through that I’d requested support for this case. She’d said five reinforcements would be sent… and Charlotte had been one of them?
“I heard you two were acquainted… Did what I told Jure end up going to you?”
“Yep. I had business in the Karahan Mountains anyway, so the timing was perfect. Got to see big tits and little tits. Love it. I’m so fucking hard. Feels like I’m gonna bust any second.”
I clenched my teeth and ignored Charlotte’s nonsense, pressing on with questions.
“Jure said five people were coming. Where are the others?”
“I ate them.”
Seeing me ignore her bullshit to the bitter end, Charlotte gave me a look that said Not bad, then laughed dryly and continued.
“Heh… Nobody saw this coming. And the late reinforcements probably thought Red Scorpion had three hundred members. How ridiculous must that feel?”
She was right. From what Jure had told me, Red Scorpion’s total numbers were a little over three hundred. The ones we’d faced this time had been around thirty.
“Then the rest of them… where—”
“They’re all dead.”
“…What?”
“All dead. The rest of them.”
Charlotte sat up straight on the sofa.
“I only just heard it myself, but apparently Kalt paid them a visit.”
“Kalt… the Black Knight Kalt?”
“Yeah. The one who went missing last time.”
Black Knight Kalt. Originally the captain of the imperial knights. After reaching Master rank he’d slaughtered the entire order and vanished. That was the story.
But… why would Kalt go after Red Scorpion?
“Heh heh haha! Yeah. When I heard the news I made the exact same face you are now. Doesn’t make sense, right?”
“…Not at all.”
“Same here… No idea why he disappeared one day and then suddenly showed up again. And even if those bastards deserved to die, did he really have to go that far…?”
Charlotte flicked the last of her magic-grass cigarette into the ashtray and ran a hand through her hair.
“But… you know who they say his next target is?”
Her gaze slid toward Hepais.
“Don’t tell me…”
“Yuria.”
A flood of questions rose in my mind even as the puzzle pieces began to click into place.
“So that’s why… Red Scorpion knew about Eliximona…”
“Yeah. They were probably planning to kill that girl. You know that little stone Yuria has? This kid’s got one too, right?”
“Ah… the artifact Yuria made for her?”
“That’s the one. Lets you check if someone’s alive. They were probably going to use it to lure Yuria out.”
“Which means…”
Charlotte lit a fresh magic-grass cigarette and growled.
“Yeah. That bastard Kalt is definitely still in Urusphier.”
The instant the words left her mouth, the bound cargo she’d tossed into the corner twitched.
Mariel, Red Scorpion’s last survivor, was waking up.
“Perfect timing.”
“Yeah. Once Hepais wakes up, send her and Noah out for a bit.”
I pressed down the heat boiling up inside me and spoke quietly.
“Let’s have a little chat with her.”