Night Has Fallen, Beastfolk Please Raise Your Heads
"You said you’d reward me for subduing that young lord last time."
Her eyes swept the dark room, flashing yellow.
"And in the end, what you do is secretly summon me to your bedroom? And in plain clothes instead of a maid uniform, at that?"
A sharp killing intent.
Was this how my ancestors felt when they ran into a tiger in the mountains in the middle of the night?
"Hey, hey, wait a second. I'm serious, this'll help you. If it doesn't, you can kill me."
"!"
"!"
Both of us—me, who'd blurted it out, and her, who'd heard it—were flustered at the same time.
"I mean... that's just how it came out. Don't get so shocked."
Maybe because something struck a nerve, she didn't say anything more.
I checked the time, partly to hide my own flustered expression.
It was almost midnight.
I grabbed Taira's hand.
She glared at me.
But maybe because of what I'd said earlier, she only ground her teeth and stared. She didn't shake my hand off or swing her claws.
The moment the hour hand, minute hand, and even the second hand all pointed at the 12.
I put the black-market ticket in my mouth and blew.
"Hoot~ hoot~"
"...What are you doing?"
Was that not it?
I'd followed the in-game text exactly.
Maybe the method was different ten years ago—
—Hoooot!
Along with a strange cry ringing out in the middle of the night, the space before my eyes changed.
Iron bars reminiscent of a prison.
The bars stretched upward, curving to meet at the top.
This place was a huge birdcage.
"Where... is this? Your Highn—."
"Sean Po. Call me Mr. Sean Po."
At some point, the ticket I'd had in my mouth had turned into a feather.
I used the quill tip as a key and inserted it into the lock hole, and the cage opened.
"This is the empire's biggest black market, the 'Night Owl.'"
"...Mr. Sean Po. So why exactly is coming here a reward for me?"
"Here, they sell everything except what doesn't exist. For example, they also sell information like someone's whereabouts."
"...So? How does that help me?"
Her toes bounced as if she wanted to dash off at any moment, but she put on a bored expression and pretended not to care.
Pretending not to care.
Cute.
"Don't you want to find your little sister? The one you mentioned last time."
"...My sister is dead."
"Did you see it yourself?"
Her expression went cold.
Taira's eyes darkened.
I could almost hear the sound effect for dropping Affection like an auditory hallucination.
If I hadn't been certain that Taira's sister would appear at the auction house, I wouldn't have dared say it.
"What kind of outrageous thing are you saying right now? There is no one here to protect you. Watch your mouth—."
"If you didn't see it, then you don't know yet."
Taira closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.
Her ragged breathing steadied somewhat.
"I didn't see it. But she fell off a cliff... so it won't be any different from what I expect."
"Then you should at least find the body."
"Haah... You don't understand. Finding my sister's body is as difficult as recovering the corpse of a magical beast that's fallen into an alchemist's hands."
Taira's eyes were the eyes of someone who had let go of many things. The eyes of someone who had given up.
I understood her reaction.
Because if it was the corpse of a beastfolk with so many uses, the odds that anyone would have buried it properly were low.
Even more so if the one who found it was a hunter.
After searching and searching for traces amid the torture of hope, when she finally learned the truth—that her sister was dead.
When she confirmed with her own two eyes what had been done to her beloved sister's body, and that it had never been able to return to the earth.
I couldn't even imagine how that felt.
So I would stop it.
"So you’re going to give up? She might be out there somewhere looking for her big sister, maybe even asking for help. Are you really giving up?"
"......No. I'll find her. And if I'm too late, then at least revenge."
Hope, sorrow, and killing intent flickered through her eyes in turn.
Then her gaze returned to its usual indifferent look, and she raised the corner of her mouth slightly as she spoke.
"It was good of you to provoke me, but my sister doesn't ask for help. She's the type who always tries to endure alone."
Longing welled in her eyes.
Taira bowed her head to me in thanks and walked away.
Huh...?
"Hey, w-wait a second! Where are you going?"
"Where... do you mean? Didn't you tell me to go look for her?"
"You just said it yourself. There's no one here to protect me."
"So?"
"You're my escort. Guard me until thirty minutes before the black market closes, and you can do whatever you want with the rest of the time. If you want, I won't even watch you."
She looked down at me with cold eyes.
"So... one hour?"
***
The black market opened every seven days and operated from midnight until 5 a.m.
So excluding her one hour of free time, the total time I could move around under her escort was four hours.
I'd been generous enough to give her an hour, but Taira was expressing her dissatisfaction.
Apparently she didn't like that I was giving her the hour before closing rather than right after opening.
"What if it's too late and I can't get the information?"
"Information isn't the kind of thing that sells out. You can get it just fine even after four."
If anything, since people crowded the information shops right at opening, going after four meant she wouldn't have to wait long.
If I gave her free time as soon as we arrived, she'd spend the whole hour standing in line.
She didn't appreciate my consideration for her.
"Did you come here because you have something to buy? Something worth spending four hours to find?"
"The opposite. I came to sell."
Part of the reason I'd come here was to save Taira's sister, but my top priority was selling potions.
Whether I bought Taira's sister or bought ingredients, I needed money either way.
"The item you're selling... is it potions, after all?"
No matter how secretly I made them, I couldn't hide it from my personal maid.
"Right. Since I don't have an alchemist's license, I have to sell them in a place like this."
"I thought potions could only be made by nobles. Are there actually people who sell them?"
"More than you'd think. Unlike magic, potions can be made by commoners too, as long as they have the recipe and ingredients."
Hadn't a commoner head chef succeeded?
And the ingredients were surprisingly easy to find in the mountains and fields.
If you were lucky or persistent, you could at least make something worthy of being called a potion.
"There must be... a lot of buyers. Potions are the exclusive property of nobles, after all. Why do nobles monopolize potions? If everyone could buy potions... so many people wouldn't have to suffer."
She must be thinking about when she lost her sister.
If only she could have healed the wounds from the surprise attack with a potion, it would have been the hunters who died.
"That's because potions are power. What lets people train without fearing injury, and what lets knights wounded in war return to the battlefield, is potions."
These days, with no wars, they were said to be used more for nobles' skincare.
They say the more money you have, the more obsessed you become with youth.
But I deliberately didn't mention that fact.
No need to feed her hatred of humans any further.
"Anyway, that's how commoners with money but no way to buy potions, and commoner alchemists who know how to make potions but aren't nobles, end up gathering at the black market."
"Then what about Your Highn—, Mr. Sean Po?"
"I'm a noble too, but I don't have an alchemist's permit. So this place is perfect, isn't it?"
If the number one reason for visiting the black market was selling potions.
The number two reason was securing ingredients.
Money and herbs were nice, but what I wanted most was beastfolk byproducts.
I needed those to make high-grade potions.
Some said a retired imperial mage built it on a sky island.
Others said the imperial family seized and operated an underground space where a dark mage had conducted secret research.
There were various hypotheses like that, but the truth was that a certain Mythical Beast had made it for nocturnal beastfolk.
Right—for those very 'beastfolk' I was looking for.
Most shops closed at sunset, so nocturnal beastfolk couldn't buy from them.
So that being had opened a market that only operated at night.
Literally a dark market.
So they ran it with all the lights off.
Because of that, those who weren't nocturnal had to use an owl-mask artifact with night-vision functionality that could be rented at the entrance.
But....
"Why is it so bright?"
All the lights were on.
Not just a soft glow, either—bright enough to see a shopkeeper's face far away.
On top of that, the rented owl mask was just an ordinary decorative mask with no function at all.
I could let that much slide.
The biggest problem was that there wasn't a single beastfolk! Not even one! In sight!
Since this was a black market for nocturnal beastfolk, I'd naturally assumed there would be beastfolk here.
But all I could see were humans.
'Did Leoport's bullshit change the whole worldbuilding?'
Wondering if it was just the entrance that had no beastfolk, I walked around and looked, but I couldn't find a single tail or wing.
"Are you looking for something?"
"Hm, no. Just looking around."
She must have asked because I kept glancing everywhere.
Wait a second.
I turned my head to the side.
I saw Taira, wearing an owl mask like me.
To anyone's eyes, she looked human.
But in essence, she was beastfolk.
'Oh, right. They redid the character art, didn’t they?'
At this rate, I was going to end up playing a mafia game all by myself.
Damn it.
***
There wasn't even a host to say, 'Beastfolk, please raise your heads.'
I had no choice but to get to my top priority: selling potions.
In the black market, there was a place that sold only potions, like a food alley.
I headed there, but....
"This is different from what I knew."
Maybe because the time period was different, the buildings and alley layout were different.
And since the viewpoint was first-person instead of third-person, it was even more confusing.
If I treated it like traveling abroad and took my time, I could find it.
The problem was that it was night.
This damn Petrification Disease.
It really went wild at night.
Every time I walked, my body felt like it was cracking apart like dry clay.
It had hurt even when I was lying still in bed, but moving made it even more agonizing.
"Are you all right? Your condition seems to be worsening. It might be better to turn back now...."
"No way."
If I missed this chance, I'd have to wait a whole week!
Even if it hurt now, I had to establish a foundation for selling potions somehow.
Only then could I earn money and buy the ingredients for a pain-relief potion.
"Then tell me what you're looking for. If you sit and rest, I'll go find out where it is."
Oh, that was a good idea.
If only she hadn't said it while sneaking glances at the path we'd walked.
That direction was where the information shops were.
I didn't need to see what would happen if I gave Taira her free time.
I'd sooner leave Churu in the care of a cat.
"No, I'll keep moving."
But I did agree that I needed help.
And conveniently, there was someone who caught my eye.
While everyone else was bustling around looking for what they wanted.
An old man sat alone, with an air of aloof dignity.
He smelled like a veteran player.
Maybe because he didn't want to stand out, he was dressed darkly from head to toe. I approached and asked,
"Where can I sell potions?"
"Are you a noble?"
My face was covered by a mask, so how did he know my identity?
Did he even know I was a prince, not just a noble?
"Heh heh, don't be alarmed. Everyone knows that many nobles have been coming in lately. I only asked if you were a noble because you happened to be with someone who looks like an escort."
If a noble was capable, they could get an alchemist's license and sell their potions to other nobles.
Meaning there was no need to risk danger and crawl into the black market.
But nobles were visiting this place often?
"I'll need a bit of an explanation as to why nobles come here."
"Ahem."
When I gave him a coin I'd extorted from Young Lord Lawrence, his face lit up and he explained.
"Didn't all exchange between humans and beastfolk get cut off because of that lunatic Third Prince? Among the beastfolk with rough hands, there's no one who can heal. When they get sick, they need potions. So where would such people go?"
"The black market...."
"Exactly. Aren't merchants the ones who chase demand? Beastfolk who need potions, and noble alchemists who want new clients. Everyone comes here."
Found it.
A way to approach the beastfolk.