Beneath the Dust and Flames
Er let out a small murmur.
If there was a basement, this direction had to be right…
There was only one path leading underground.
Having seen Haru head that way and confirmed it with Jina, there was no room for error.
Still, something felt off. The stairs to the basement of an ordinary building were unusually long.
As Er tilted her head in curiosity, unlike the pitch-black corridor, a faint light leaking from a single door lit up her face.
The torch light, which hadn’t been maintained for quite some time, was dim, but it clearly illuminated the surroundings.
Seeing the door slightly ajar let even more intense light spill out, Er’s expression brightened as she pushed it open and spoke.
“Haru, I’m here—”
Bond Activation
The scene of an underground room engulfed in flames greeted Er.
Just as she was about to panic at the sight of the entire basement wrapped in scarlet flames from floor to walls to ceiling,
“H-hey, Haru!! What are you doing?!”
She grabbed the wrist of the girl staring blankly at the flames and shouted.
“Let’s get out first! Then—”
“…No problem.”
“What do you mean…!”
“This is magic. Nothing to worry about.”
“…Huh?”
Er stopped dragging her, stunned by Haru’s calm words, and stared intently at the flames that roared to life.
They burned fiercely.
As if trying to burn the walls themselves, the flames licked higher without hesitation.
Er observed them, and realized something.
“…This is similar to what you used on the first floor, right?”
“Yeah… But it’s underground. There’s a lot of dust…”
“…You said you usually manage it, didn’t you?”
“…”
As Er narrowed her eyes while watching Haru fall silent, Haru’s light gesture made the flames that had been burning fiercely instantly die down.
Only then did the basement reveal its true form.
It had a fairly normal room structure.
A bed of appropriate size, shelves packed with books.
Even the desk with glass bottles containing unknown liquids.
It was nothing like what Er had imagined.
“It’s more ordinary than I thought?”
“Here, you can just sleep for a bit…”
“That makes sense… But the state on the second floor was terrible, though.”
“…What’s going on here?”
Now that she was here to find out why, Er handed Haru the junk bag she had tossed by the door in surprise at the flames.
“The junk that came out from the second floor. It looks like it could fetch a pretty high price.”
“…I don’t know about that.”
“I thought you said you didn’t buy it, but then whose is it?”
“Probably… the previous owner…”
“The previous owner?”
Er, puzzled, recalled a memory from the past.
“This house… its owner went missing.”
“…Huh?”
“It had been abandoned for a while… So I bought it.”
“…You bought this building with that money?”
Recalling the purchase price Er had heard from Haru earlier, she asked.
“Money, there’s plenty. I just wanted to sleep early…”
“…”
Er’s dumbfounded expression at the reply soon turned to a shake of the head.
“Hah… Anyway, the basement is clean now, so let’s go up. The first floor is a complete mess. We need at least one more person.”
“Before that, wait a minute.”
“Is there a problem?”
Er’s question was met with rare intensity in Haru’s eyes as she spoke.
“When Ahin isn’t around, I want to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“Bond.”
Er’s words stopped at the name.
Haru, sensing her confusion, spoke in a voice unlike her usual sleepy tone.
“That’s where two people connect. Mana… and souls.”
“…Souls?”
Er knew that in the Bond state, the mana flowing from Ahin—his divine power—entered her.
Thanks to that, her mana, skills, and physical abilities were strengthened.
But souls?
Stunned by the meaning, Er listened as Haru continued.
“When Ahin uses his abilities, he spills his soul. And… when the Bond state is active, you connect with him.”
“Connect…?”
“At that moment, you and Ahin become the same in essence. Your mana… becomes his divine power.”
Haru laid out her intentions.
“Er, you’ll be the test subject too.”
“…Please don’t say such eerie things. Especially when you don’t have a weapon.”
“Research and cooperation… there’ll be benefits.”
“Benefits? If it’s money, I can—”
Reluctant to say it, Haru continued.
“You might be able to control Ahin’s abilities.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Ahin can’t be discovered. So he has to be handled even better.”
Though she seemed clueless, Haru was a veteran Silver-rank adventurer from the Adventurer Guild and a mage who had reached the pinnacle of magic.
She had realized that Ahin’s ability was one that couldn’t be hidden like magic, so it had to be concealed even more.
She spoke in a stiff voice that didn’t match her usual lazy demeanor.
“I don’t want more competitors. So I’ll cooperate. In return…”
“…For researching Ahin’s abilities?”
“Yes, then I’ll—”
Haru stopped there and her sky-blue eyes sparkled.
“Er, I’ll join your rebellion.”
“…You.”
“I asked you to join the party in the first place, didn’t I?”
“…How much do you know?”
“Just a bit.”
Haru tilted her head, and the intensity was gone from her eyes.
Er glared at such Haru.
She desperately wanted to question her further, but
“…Let me say one thing.”
“I said to say it…?”
Finally, Er gave up on interrogating her and spoke with a stern face.
“Don’t tell Ahin.”
“…Why?”
“He’ll misunderstand. That I approached him on purpose.”
“…No?”
“I know you’re not. Absolutely not. Definitely not.”
Er said this while recalling the man she had left on the first floor, still covered in dust and sweat.
“I’ll tell him myself when the time comes.”
“…If it’s too late, I don’t know what’ll happen.”
“I know that too. But right now, it’s not the time. And maybe it’s better not to reveal it forever.”
“…If you say so.”
Haru, after speaking, walked quickly to the desk and opened the drawer.
After rummaging inside for a moment, she smiled faintly.
“Then, give me some blood.”
She held up a syringe the size of her forearm, grinning.
“W-wait a second! What are you suddenly—!”
“Nothing is free in this world… So, blood.”
“D-don’t throw it away?!”
Er dodged the needle in disgust, while Haru reached out without hesitation.
The chase that seemed never-ending ended thanks to a scream coming from the man heading down the path to the underground.
“Gyaaaaah!!!”
“…This voice.”
“Ahin!!!”
The joke was over.
Er sprinted up the three sets of stairs to the first floor in one breath and saw something far from impressive.
The walls and floor, which were unbelievably clean.
And—
“Ko-ro-ro…”
“Oh, you’ve gotten a lot weaker since I wasn’t looking.”
Ahin, foaming at the mouth and passed out, and a woman in a white robe who shrugged her shoulders helplessly while looking at him.
Er jumped in between the woman and Ahin, guarding her as she asked.
“Who are you?!”
“…Hmmm?”
The woman couldn’t continue her sentence, stunned by Er’s face.
Er shouted at her, who kept hesitating and couldn’t close her mouth.
“If you made Ahin like this—”
“M-M-M-M-Master?!”
The familiar voice cut Er off at that moment.
Clang.
The sound of a bucket hitting the floor accompanied the voice, and Er realized it was Jina, who had been cleaning the first floor with Ahin.
“…Master?”
“…Sorry, I was startled for a moment.”
She said this, then pulled down the hood covering her face.
As if she had forgotten to breathe, Er stared at her with wide eyes while she spoke.
“Introduce yourself. I am the master of these idiots—Veronica.”
●
Just before Veronica revealed her face and name to Er.
Jina, with a pained expression, moved her broom, and a man who was clinging to her back like a shadow kept scolding her.
“Don’t be so sloppy. Sweep all the dust away with proper angles.”
“…Like this?”
“No, that’s not it…”
Perhaps it was the backlash from living on the backstreets since childhood and having no connection to cleaning.
Jina’s cleaning skills were terrible.
Knowing this situation, the attempts to teach her kindly had been tried a few times.
Now, after giving up, Ahin spoke in a weary voice.
“…Jina, it’s fine. I’ll do it.”
“No, I can do it!”
“Even like this, it’ll take a million years to finish. Instead, there’s a bucket and cloth on the second floor? Bring them.”
Ahin’s expression was resigned.
Jina, looking at Ahin’s face, blurted out without thinking.
“Your tired, worn-out expression… is so cool, so attractive.”
“Stop messing around!”
“Kyaa, Ahin’s angry!”
“This is really—”
Then, before Ahin could even grab her, Jina dashed up to the second floor.
Ahin, shaking his head at Jina’s playful back, was about to take over the unfinished broom sweeping when
Knock knock.
The door, as if its handle had already broken off, had to be knocked hard.
Especially at a time like this.
Haru was in the basement, and the others were each doing their own things.
When a guest or intruder arrives, Ahin realized he was the only one to meet it.
He grabbed the broom and raised his voice.
“Who is it? What’s going on here?”
Knock knock.
The door continued to be knocked on without answering Ahin’s question.
At that moment, Ahin felt an inexplicable eeriness.
He should have trusted his instinct that if he opened the door now, he would face catastrophe.
“Um, the door looks old. It didn’t open even after knocking.”
Creak. The unpleasant sound of an old door opening, and the guest’s appearance.
The guest, whose voice didn’t match her elegant look, wore white robes like snow and had her face covered by a hood.
But Ahin could tell just from that.
The robes were those given to priests of the Grand Temple in Arcadia, and the brooch hanging at her chest indicated membership in the Heresy Inquisition.
And.
“Ah, you were here.”
The moment he saw the pinkish light eyes sparkling from inside the hood as he said this and looked at him.
All Ahin could do was one thing.
“This guy Ahin suddenly jumped out—”
“Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Ahin screamed and tried to break the window and run, but was knocked out by one blow from the guest.
Er’s voice rose right after seeing this scene.