by Fujino Omori
THE CITY GIRL’S SECRET
“—All done!”
Black smoke rose from the cramped kitchen.
Not only the various ingredients of the dish but many of the cooking tools themselves were either singed or charred. The culinary combat that had just taken place was extremely intense.
Apron tied around her waist, the silver-haired girl, Syr, emerged from the kitchen with a satisfied smile on her face.
Neither her coworkers nor the café owner was around.
Syr didn’t even taste her creations—an oddly colored meat pie and several sandwiches that didn’t smell like they should—before cramming them into containers. Then she piled all the containers into one large basket.
Humming a happy tune to herself, Syr changed clothes before leaving the café with the basket in her arms.
“I wonder if I’ll get to see their smiles today.”
A smile of her own on her lips, she went out into the city.
It’s evening at Guild Headquarters.
Many adventurers, home from the Dungeon, are taking care of their own business inside the white lobby, which has fiery beams of sunlight from the west slanting in from the overhead windows.
“I’m going to go talk to Miss Eina.”
“Understood. Lilly will take care of things at the Exchange.”
“I’ll just hang around.”
I get in line to see my adviser, Eina. Lilly, carrying a backpack stuffed to capacity, Haruhime, her own tubular backpack bursting at the seams, and Mikoto walk over to the Exchange with the magic stones and drop items we brought up from the Dungeon today. Welf doesn’t really have anyplace to go, so he decides to just kill some time. All of us go our separate ways in the lobby.
Just like all the adventurers around us, Hestia Familia has errands to attend to at Guild Headquarters.
Normally we just take care of our drop items and magic stones at the Exchange located in Babel Tower, but today we need to take care of the familia tax levied by the Guild. So, everyone decided to come here and take care of everything at once. I mean, we might as well get everything done at the same time as long as we’re here.
Off on my own, it’s really surprising to see the long lines in front of the reception counter. The Guild employees behind it are practically flying back and forth, trying to help everyone. Once it’s my turn, I give Eina a simple update and leave it at that. I shouldn’t waste her time with meaningless conversation, so I get in and out quickly.
But it looks like the girls aren’t finished at the Exchange yet, so I’ve got a little time on my hands. It might be a good idea to head over to the bulletin board and see what’s posted.
Guild Headquarters has loads of information about the Dungeon and many other things that are useful to adventurers, including the advice that advisers provide. There’s no reason not to take advantage of everything the Guild has to offer.
I work my way into the crowd already gathered around the bulletin board and take a look at the many quests and mercantile familia advertisements for the latest posted items.
It’s hard to believe we’re under attack from Rakia…Everything seems so normal here.
I’m pretty sure the battle against the Kingdom of Rakia is still going on outside the city wall. But there’s no difference between a day “at war” and a regular day at the Guild—all races of demi-humans are just bumping shoulders and talking among one another as far as I can see. The invasion has no impact on our day-to-day lives as adventurers.
I mean, I’m sure the top-tier adventurers are out there fighting for us, but not everyone in the middle of the pack and below has been called to the front. Probably the city of Orario—well, the Guild, since it’s the governing power—is trying to maintain a constant incoming flow of magic stones to continue producing magic-stone products. Too many of us fighting on the front lines would have a direct impact on the economy, so the Guild probably wants as many adventurers in the Dungeon as possible.
At least, that’s my theory as I stand here looking at all the adventurers fully equipped with different types of armor and weapons.
“What, seriously? Again?”
“Somethin’s fishy here.”
…?
While my brain was busy thinking about the Rakia invasion, my ears pick up a conversation just in front of me.
Actually, it’s happening right in front of the billboard. Other people notice, too, standing on tiptoe and craning their necks to see what’s going on.
I do the same, stretching up many times, trying to get a glimpse of the sheet posted on the billboard.
“Looks like there’s a monster down there with a taste for armor and weapons.”
“Ah, Welf.”
Welf comes right up next to me.
He’s a bit taller than me, so he can see over the crowd better than I can. He can read the posting, too, by the sound of it.
“…A ‘taste for’? As in stealing?”
“That’s right. Some of them take equipment off dead bodies, but this one likes to take equipment off adventurers in battle.”
That’s a real surprise.
Monsters stealing from adventurers?
When you think about it, it’s not all that strange, considering monsters use landforms and other natural things in the Dungeon as weapons, but the thought of one of the beasts in armor is shocking. If it’s true, I’m sure more than one adventurer wants to cry.
All of us work hard, shedding blood and tears to find a combination of equipment that suits us the best…If mine got stolen, I don’t know what I’d do. Especially if one of the weapons I’ve gotten used to was suddenly gone.
A monster that steals an adventurer’s weapons—the lifeblood we need to survive. It’s frightening to think about.
—An image of a Minotaur wielding a greatsword suddenly flashes through my mind.
S-scary.
The memories I have of that day send shivers down my spine.
I shouldn’t be scaring myself like this. Shaking the images out of my head, I turn to Welf.
“Wh-where was it spotted?”
“Deep Zone, mostly. From what I can see, the highest confirmed sighting happened on the twentieth floor.”
Then he says that second-tier adventurers gathered all the information.
He seems to be getting a kick out of this, and he’s not the only one. Quite a few people in the area are laughing it off like it’s a funny rumor. They don’t believe the reports.
In fact, a few of them are taking it as a joke.
“There’s some more interesting info about that, though.”
Welf grins as he looks over at me.
“This one’s from a while back, but apparently a Black Minotaur wearing armor showed up in the Dungeon.”
“Black…Minotaur…?”
“Yeah. Word spread around real quick but then disappeared just as fast. Now it’s only a rumor I’ve heard.”
Usually, Minotaurs are a rusty, reddish color.
I’ve never heard of a black one.
A subspecies…I ask him if it’s a rare offshoot of monsters. Welf tells me not to take it seriously, grinning as he shrugs.
It makes me nervous whenever I hear the word Minotaur…I follow up with another question.
“When was that rumor going around, Welf?”
“About two months ago, maybe?”
Two months ago…That’s about the time that I leveled up to Level 2.
Welf adds that that story was circulating at about the time he joined the battle party, so that’s why it’s stuck in his memory.
“…”
I look back at the board, the voices of countless adventurers around me.
There’s an artist’s rendering of a monster wearing armor and holding a sword. I stare at it until the girls come back from the Exchange.
“Um, is Syr taking the day off?”
The day after we paid our familia tax for the month, I decided to visit The Benevolent Mistress. As soft morning sunlight brightens t
he sky, I arrive at the front door.
“That she is, meow! Syr’s playing hooky again, meow!”
The catgirl Ahnya is standing right in front of me, her long, thin tail twitching behind her. She looks irritated.
Even after I moved into Hestia Familia’s new home, I still swing by here to pick up a lunch from Syr before going to the Dungeon.
Now that my familia has more members, especially Mikoto with her great cooking skills, I didn’t want to bother Syr. Making a lunch for me every day is just one more thing on her to-do list, but Lyu and a few of the other waitresses visited Hearthstone Manor directly and practically begged me to keep coming.
“Just because you’ve picked up a useless way to sense danger…!” “Think of the guinea pigs, think of their pain, meow…!” Runoa and Chloe pleaded with me as Lyu looked on with a blank look in her eyes. For some reason, all of them had been clutching at their stomachs.
Anyway, since then, I’ve kept coming here every day like usual…but I haven’t gotten a lunch from Syr in a while.
I’ve been wondering what’s going on, so I came here today to ask some of the other waitresses about it and found out that Syr was absent today as well.
“Syr has a way of going ‘poof’ and disappearing, like today.”
“Hee-hee-hee, sounds like our young maiden has some secrets, meow…But she doesn’t want us to work too hard and always comes back, meow! I don’t know the first thing about accounting, meow!!”
Other waitresses—the human Runoa and another catgirl, Chloe—are on break and come to join Ahnya and me at the front door.
I remember them saying something about it when we stopped by to get the recipe for Mikoto’s cake, but Syr’s been absent ever since then…That had to be at least ten days ago.
“You must understand, Syr is not like us, in that she does not reside here. She has her reasons, so this situation is bound to occur occasionally.”
The catgirls and Runoa keep talking among themselves as Lyu calmly explains the details over their voices.
The other waitresses are all excitedly grinning as they speak, but there’s a centered composure in Lyu’s sky-blue eyes.
“Um…Couldn’t you just go to where she lives and ask her…?”
“…”
I question why they don’t just go get a direct answer from Syr…but then Lyu and the others fall silent.
Well, that’s weird. I tilt my head in confusion, but the waitresses look just as lost as I am.
“Now that you mention it, we…meow…”
“No one knows where Syr lives?”
“Well, that, and nothing about what she does in her free time, meow.”
Ahnya, Runoa, and Chloe all speak in turn. I can’t hide my surprise.
These girls work together at this café and bar, so the fact that no one here knows anything about Syr outside of work surprises me.
Lyu stays quiet for a moment as I look around in shock. Then she confirms what her coworkers had been saying.
“We have tried—we’ve asked her about her private life…She says it’s a secret and quickly changes the subject every time.”
Lyu looks slightly off to the side before explaining.
“Only one thing to do, meow—A quest, boy! Find Syr, trail her, and discover her secrets, meow!”
“Huh?!”
“Oh! Great idea! We might find out a few of her weaknesses at the same time! Two birds, one stone!”
W-weakness…?
Chloe and Runoa enthusiastically jump on board right away. I break out in a cold sweat at the prospect.
Lyu cocks an eyebrow. “Stop this at once. You are putting Mr. Cranell in a difficult spot.” But that doesn’t put an end to their excitement.
“As long as there’s a reward, what’s the problem, meow? What should it be, meow…I could sing you a song, meow!”
“Huh? Ahnya, are you a good singer?”
“The best! Why don’t I give you a little taste, meow? My throat’s feeling great today—”
“Stop that, tone-deaf kitty!”
“We told you, customers won’t come if you sing, meow!”
Ahnya was all set, ready to start humming a few bars, when the other girls descended on her with a vengeance.
Two of them pinned the catgirl to the ground and held her mouth shut. “MpFHHH!” Another bead of sweat drips down my skin.
Just how bad a singer is she…?
“Mr. Cranell, please don’t take them seriously.”
“Ha-ha…Okay, I won’t.”
Lyu was very clear. I try to smile.
I decide not to stick around much longer and say a quick good-bye. I leave the bar and café behind.
“Now, what to do today…”
The sky is bright and blue over my head. I walk among the many demi-humans on West Main Street, taking in the sights and sounds.
We aren’t going into the Dungeon today.
To be honest, the goddess and Welf insisted. “You’ve gone in every day for a while now, so take a rest,” they said, and practically forbade me from going anywhere near the Dungeon entrance.
Welf spends a lot of time in the forge, and the girls are very careful not to work too hard and spend a lot of time away from the battle party. I guess that my going to the Dungeon every day without fail must’ve really made an impression.
But she’s so far ahead of me. Catching up to her is going to take everything I’ve got…
“…Still, a day or two like this won’t hurt.”
I shield my eyes from the sparkling early summer sun and try to smile.
Everyone’s looking out for me, and they do have a point. I won’t be able to accomplish anything in the Dungeon without being well rested. Even Eina told me days off are just as important as days in the Dungeon.
Time to spread my wings. I should try something new and walk around the city for a change. It might do me some good.
I live here, but it’s amazing how much of the city I don’t know…
The small, family-run shops that have lined the backstreets for generations, the flower stores that are run by animal women who aren’t affiliated with any familia, the random Jyaga Maru Kun street stands in the most out-of-the-way places…There are hardly any adventurers here because they’re in the Dungeon. Everything I see as I look all around is new, and it’s painfully apparent that I don’t know the first thing about Orario aboveground.
The Labyrinth City is huge.
There are many different neighborhoods in the city, from the Industrial District to the Shopping District, and the one I recently became too familiar with, the Pleasure Quarter.
I’ve lived here for over three months now, but there’s still so much I haven’t seen yet. It seems like there’s a new discovery around every corner. Then again, I’m sure the fact that I’m always in the Dungeon has something to do with it.
The sky is bright blue and clear overhead. I’m in a great mood as I pass through the main streets and back alleys.
I see people I’ve never met and places I’ve never been to, and I catch new smells at every turn.
I’m really starting to enjoy this. Today’s my break from the Dungeon, and it finally feels like I’m taking advantage of it.
Why not splurge? I happen to come across a place selling meat skewers at the edge of one of the side streets and decide to buy one. The animal man behind the counter is about to ring me up when he says, “Hey, aren’t you the Little Rookie?” He’s so happy that he gives me another skewer for free.
Honestly, I don’t know if I should be embarrassed, but it’s an amazing feeling to be recognized. I enjoy the warm happiness settling in my chest while walking down the street with a stick of meat in each hand.
“Whew…”
The last of the meat juices drips down my chin as I finish satisfying my hunger, so I find a bench in Central Park and have a seat.
Amid all the trees and water features built into the city’s center, amid all the people coming and going
, I look up at Babel Tower in all its glory. The white tower of the gods stretches all the way into the blue sky, practically into the heavens. I can’t believe I forgot how awesome it is.
I see it every day, so I should be used to it. It’s just…it looks different somehow today.
“Huh…?”
I’ve been enjoying the sun’s warmth on my face for a little while.
I’m looking off in the distance at nothing in particular, watching the ebb and flow of many demi-humans passing through Central Park, when I catch a glimpse of a girl.
I recognize the silver hair waving back and forth and immediately sit up.
“Isn’t that Syr?”
The conversation at The Benevolent Mistress was only a few hours ago. I shift to the edge of the bench.
She’s wearing a clean white dress with a straw hat.
I usually see her dressed for work, so this cool, early summer look takes my breath away. She’s pretty cute.
Syr comes from the southwest, walking north into Central Park. But she doesn’t pass through the center, instead skirting around the edge toward East Main. I see her starting to disappear into the crowd from my bench on the northern rim of Central Park and get to my feet.
The voices of Ahnya, Chloe, Runoa, and Lyu are running through my head. Everything said this morning is on replay.
I think about it, but curiosity gets the best of me and I follow her into the crowd.
Not sleepy anymore, I go through the entrance to East Main Street.
“Where is Syr going…?”
I avoid the path of the horse-drawn taxis and stay close behind the fluttering silver hair and white dress.
The Guild controls many of the buildings and facilities located in the East District. The massive Coliseum stands out among all the fancy red-brick hotels that spread out as far as I can see. I have a strong feeling that this area is for hosting events as well as tourists and travelers when they visit the city.
Syr has something in her hands—a large basket, maybe? There’s a pretty big lid on it, too.
She must be taking something somewhere…I come up with few guesses as to what it might be, when she suddenly veers off the main road and onto a side street.
I follow her southeast, making sure to stay close enough to see her but far enough away not to be noticed, meaning I need to dash to catch up with her every time she disappears around a corner.
