Please Give Me a Plus, Young Master
One of Rich's underlings, catching sight of the flickering purple and indigo magic circles, shouted in a rush.
"Mages!! Don't close in—cut them down from as far off as you can! If a blade so much as bites once, their mana will burn out!"
He was loud enough that the cry carried all the way to Hervena and Yulia. The moment they heard it, the two glanced at each other and let out a short, scoffing laugh.
In principle, the man was not wrong. A physical blow did drain a mage's mana with brutal speed. But that was only true once an attack actually landed, and Hervena and Yulia had no intention of standing politely by while those crude strikes were allowed to touch them.
"Pour it on!!"
With the shout, shoddy arrows and daggers—even stones—came whistling in.
Hervena dropped the spell she had been casting and substituted another in its place.
"Kinesis."
⟨ Kinesis ⟩
Every projectile hurtling toward them froze in midair, as if time itself had stopped. Before their mouths could even fall open, Hervena sent the halted objects screaming straight back the way they had come.
"Gyaaah!"
The death cries of those who failed to dodge filled the alley. In that same moment Yulia Edfolk took one step forward and called out in a voice clear enough to ring down the whole length of it.
"Go to the city guard and turn yourselves in. Right now. It will be the only chance you have to walk out of here on two feet."
In case anyone had missed it, she kindly said it once more.
The mansion's front gate swung open, and hulking brutes—men so massive that four or five of Yulia could have fit inside a single one of them—came stalking toward them, cracking their necks loud enough to hear.
"Who sent you? That bastard Grown—"
"Shut up and tell us where your boss is."
Hervena stepped in ahead of Yulia.
Seeing her close to within arm's reach, the brutes barked out incredulous laughs, then ground their teeth and roared.
"Walking right up and handing us the distance—your guts must've fallen clean out of your belly!"
A massive axe blade flashed and came crashing down toward her.
Hervena let out a light sigh, as if the whole thing bored her, and spread a magic circle across her left hand.
"Gravity."
⟨ Gravitational Action ⟩
The words had barely left her when the ground beneath the brutes split like a spider's web. A hideous sound of bone crushing and muscle tearing rolled through the alley, and every one of them slammed into the earth in a wretched heap.
"Guuugh!"
Blood leaked from mouths that couldn't even manage a scream, and a few of them had already blacked out.
Subdued so easily, the men still hiding throughout the building didn't so much as think of fighting back. They only watched one another's eyes. Yulia raised her voice to them again, clear as before.
"If you decide, this instant, to turn yourselves in to the city guard, you can walk in with both legs intact. If you'd rather not end up pulp like these men, come out. All of you."
One by one they formed up, faces rigid with fear.
Yulia summoned rope and bound the lot of them in a single motion. Hervena came up beside her and asked, with a meaningful smile.
"Senior, what shall we do about the ones who still haven't come out?"
"If they aren't out in ten seconds, break one of their arms. The three hiding inside that tower-shaped building, for instance."
She had hardly finished before every last one of them came scrambling out, both hands clapped to their heads in surrender.
The smile was already gone from Hervena's face. She strode up to the man who looked to be their leader and shoved her face in close.
"Is your boss here?"
"Kuh..."
He avoided her eyes and gave no answer. Hervena's gaze flashed, vicious, and she drove a single razor-thin jet of water into his thigh.
"Aaaagh!!!"
"Don't test my patience any further. Is your boss here, or isn't he."
"Just kill me!"
"Touching camaraderie."
Hervena reached toward the scrawny man standing beside him. The instant he saw her hand move, he went deathly pale and shouted in a panic.
"Th-the boss is inside the mansion!"
"You'll have to tell us where, too."
"F-first floor... the deepest room on the inside..."
"Good."
While the rest of them glared at the scrawny man as if they meant to kill him, Hervena snapped her fingers.
Vines erupted from the ground around every one of them and cinched their legs tight.
"Senior, thirty minutes ought to do it, right?"
"If we're dealing with that man Grown as well, I think we'll still need to allow a full hour."
"Is that so? Nothing to be done, then. By around then, these plants will have taken all of their legs..."
"I'll guide you!!!"
While the scrawny man cried out in desperation, Hervena drifted quietly up to him.
"Really?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"All right. In exchange, I'll make certain you aren't locked in the same cell as the ones looking at you like they want you dead."
He swallowed dryly and led the two of them all the way into the inner mansion.
Yulia, who had been watching her in silence for some time, spoke toward Hervena in something close to a whisper.
"Hervena, even I'm a little frightened of you."
"I learned very diligently from Lady Lisleia."
At that, Yulia pictured Lisleia's sinister smile and couldn't help a small, involuntary laugh.
The mansion they entered was all but empty—every member of the organization seemed to have already gone outside—save for a few terrified women who looked to be courtesans, and the servants.
A short while later they reached the door where Rich was supposed to be. Hervena swept her senses across it and nodded to Yulia.
"I don't feel any mana."
"Then let's open it, nice and—"
Before Yulia could finish, the door burst open from within. A massive sword flashed.
The instant Hervena saw it, she reflexively kicked the man she had put in front straight into its path.
"Oops. Sorry."
"No!!"
The heavy blade cleaved him in two, and Rich's brow tightened.
In that same span, Yulia's indigo magic circle poured out light.
"Sylph's Blade."
⟨ Sylph's Blade ⟩
With the incantation, blades of wind punched through both of Rich's thighs.
Hervena stepped in and took the hand holding his sword off at the wrist.
"Gyaa—"
Dark crimson blood spattered across Hervena's face.
She wiped it away with an indifferent palm and spoke, a faint smile on her lips.
"Opening the door after all your men ended up like that? If you're the boss, you ought to take responsibility like one."
"Kuh..."
"And why'd you have to run your mouth. You son of a bitch."
With that she drove her boot into his face, as if she were simply venting.
"To the Young Master! The Young Master! You fucking bastard!"
She ground his nose under her heel again and again as she said it. Amid the groans leaking out of Rich, Yulia couldn't help but flinch.
"Get up. You still have to walk yourself to the city guard, don't you."
"What did I even do wrong..."
The moment the words ended, Hervena's eyes flew wide. She shoved her face in close and let out a hollow laugh.
"Count yourself lucky you've got something to confess. If you didn't, I would have torn your limbs off just now."
"Ugh..."
Under that piercing presence, Rich—huge as he was—shed tears in thick drops.
Only then, as if her anger had eased a little, did Hervena draw a deep breath, straighten, and look toward Yulia.
"Senior, shall we go?"
"Let's."
"If you're tired, I can handle Grown on my own."
Hervena flicked the blood from her hand and lifted one corner of her mouth. Yulia watched her, then shook her head.
"...No. They're people who tried to harm the Young Master."
"As expected of you, Senior. We really do understand each other."
"Let's hurry. If we don't want to be late for the company dinner."
"Perfect!"
Hervena even linked arms with her, smiling brightly.
...A demon.
As his consciousness blurred, Rich muttered it while watching Hervena's back recede.
One hour after Hervena and Yulia went into Rich's mansion, a sight not easily imagined was unfolding in Dusk Block.
Dozens from Rich's crew and Grown's were being dragged toward city hall, bound in rope.
Every one of them looked hollowed out, and the people watching were left wondering just what in the world those men had been through.
And the one responsible—Blow Deblique, master of Hervena Westriver and business partner of Yulia Edfolk—was staring at the scene in a daze, mouth hanging open.
"We did well, right? Young Master!!"
"What on earth did you do to them? Every single one looks like he's seen a ghost."
"It's nothing. We only used a little basic magic. Right, Hervena?"
"Yes. From now on, if anything happens to the Young Master, I'll take care of it like this myself."
Yulia beamed. Hervena spoke with a chilly smile.
...Something has gone very, very wrong.
Thinking so, Blow fought to keep his expression in check and looked back and forth between the two of them, both standing at his sides and grinning like fools.
"There won't be any problems, will there?"
"No. We even got permission from Lady Lisleia."
"If the Young Master means to keep being a good influence on Dusk Block, this much had to be done! From here on, your image can only get better!"
...Would it really?
They had wrecked the two men who ruled the back alleys in the space of two hours. If anything, it seemed likelier that only his infamy would grow. But with Yulia's eyes sparkling as if she were waiting to be praised, he couldn't possibly say so.
One thing, though, was certain. Between the last incident and what had just happened, he had become one of the safest people in this city. Thinking of it that way, it didn't seem entirely bad, and Blow nodded readily at the two of them.
"Thank you. Senior. Hervena."
"What for! We only did what needed doing."
Yulia answered in a voice that was, for some reason, delighted. Meanwhile Hervena hesitated, then pressed in close to Blow and whispered in a voice that was barely there.
"Young Master, please give me a plus."
"Ah."
"I suffered last time, too, so... please?"
She said it with a face red as a beet, embarrassed by her own words. Blow stroked his chin with one finger.
"All right. A plus. Eight hundred and twenty points."
"That feels a little stingy."
"Hmm. Fair enough. Then one thousand one hundred and fifty-two."
"...Yes. I like that."
Whatever pleased her so much, her expression brightened even further.
Yulia, who had been listening from the side with open interest, cleared her throat and asked him.
"What's a plus, Young Master?"
"Ah, well, around the time of the Black Bridge Gathering it started as a joke, and—"
"It's something the Young Master only does for me and Jane! His retainers!!"
Hervena cut him off, face gone deadly serious.
Yulia glanced at her sidelong, seemed to think for a moment, and answered at her leisure.
"Is that so. Well, as for me—if Young Master Blow were keeping score, it would always be a plus."
"What? And what is that supposed to—"
"I've never once done anything that would make the Young Master give me a minus, you see."
"And how can you be so sure of that, Senior?"
"Whenever I speak to the Young Master, or do anything at all, I think it over three times first."
Blow, recalling the time she had suddenly brought up marriage—and the memory of a bitten finger—tilted his head toward her.
"Senior, back then, after you'd been drinking—"
"Young Master! Young Master!! You know how I just used magic, and now I'm so-o-o hungry?"
Yulia cut him off in a rush. Hervena pouted, as if to say those two were hiding something again.
...Still, they don't look awkward. That's a relief.
Blow decided to take it in that spirit, and threw open the door of Hills, which they had reached before he noticed.
"After you."
"...Yes."
"Yes."
The company dinner drew the largest crowd yet, in proportion to how far his business had grown.
The staff, Traffic Light Trio included, were there of course—and so were the beastkin, Haghia and Lil, and even the alley children, every one of them occupying a seat as if they had every right to it. The barbarians were absent again this time, but Blow had already decided to look after them separately, the way he had before.
Melo, too, was seated between Rowbedi and Liz. Blow had always felt sorry that she spent every company dinner stuck in the kitchen without a rest, so he had specially asked the head chef of Skadi's mansion for just this one day.
And so Hills was packed, save for a table or two.
Blow looked over every table with quiet satisfaction and raised his glass to the room.
"Everyone—thank you for all your hard work this time. And I'll see to it that nothing like this happens again."
"Yes!!"
"Eat well today, and enjoy yourselves."
The moment he finished, glasses met all around in high spirits.
He returned to his own table for the time being and took his seat. As always, Skadi, Hervena, Yulia, and Jane were sitting there.
Around the time Blow was filling everyone's glasses, Yulia, beside him, opened her mouth softly.
"Young Master, you'll stop by the other tables as well, won't you?"
"Yes. I suppose I ought to."
"Then..."
"I'll make a round with Jane and come back, so please eat at your ease."
The words had barely fallen before Jane attached herself to him as a matter of course and whispered, barely audible.
"There were no sales for days. Will you be all right?"
"Lady Rachel left us a kindness when she settled up and went. Thanks to that, we've got money to spare."
"True enough."
"First, let's start with Cunsai and Liliane's table."
"Yes."
The two left a nod of greeting and headed for the beastkin table. Watching them go, Yulia sighed and muttered.
"...He always takes Jane with him at times like this."
"Senior! It's not as if they can be completely at ease with us. Not the way they are with Jane! We're not even employees."
"Then what about me?"
When Hervena shot back at Skadi in an aggrieved tone, Skadi's and Yulia's eyes narrowed at the same moment—and then, with neither waiting on the other, they both broke into a stifled laugh.
"And who, exactly, could ever treat you carelessly?"
"The Young Master and Lady Lisleia? Meigan...?"
"Let's not talk about it."
"Why? It's true."
Hervena pouted as if she'd been wronged, while Blow poured Liliane a drink and told her she'd worked hard studying for her exam.
Meanwhile the door of Hills opened with care, and people in neatly pressed clothes came pouring in.
At faces he almost recognized, Blow narrowed his eyes and looked them over.
Through the open door Meigan came in, planted herself squarely in front of them, and offered Blow a bright smile along with a formal salute.
"Young Master. Your head maid, Meigan Browngrass, has arrived at Hills."