by Fujino Omori
“Sir Bell…?!”
The identity of her attackers was still a mystery, but she was fairly certain that Bell had been their target. The fact that they had used such a violent method to capture him filled her with dread and foreboding.
She might be trapped, defenseless in a dark room, but…The speed and unusual rhythm of the footsteps outside the door let her know something was amiss. There was panic in the air. Mikoto’s eyebrows sank as she focused on the sounds.
“The rabbit and Phryne…Can’t find…Lady Ishtar’s order…”
Ears empowered by her Status, Mikoto managed to pick up valuable pieces of information.
First off, the attackers belonged to Ishtar Familia, which meant that this was most likely their home. Second, that there was a high probability that Bell had been captured like her but had somehow escaped. However, she couldn’t confirm any of that just yet.
Mikoto knew it was too early to relax, but the knowledge that Bell was still alive made her breathe a sigh of relief.
The new information helped her regain a small sense of calm.
“Be that as it may…something must be done about these shackles.”
Mikoto’s gaze locked onto the chains that bound her. A quick pull was enough to let her know she couldn’t break free on strength alone. So she lifted her head and scanned the room for any kind of tool that could assist her. It wasn’t long before—
“…Keys?”
She spotted a ring full of keys lying on the ground just in front of the tightly shut iron door.
Shocked by this stroke of luck, Mikoto slithered her body toward them. Under the faint light of the door’s barred window, she grabbed hold of them and maneuvered the top key into the lock just under her left wrist and, with great difficulty, thrust it inside. Click.
The shackles instantly popped open and her arms and legs were free. Mikoto sat up and stared down at the open lock on the floor.
“…Lady Haruhime?”
Mikoto immediately thought of the renart who belonged to Ishtar Familia. There was no proof, but there wasn’t a shadow of doubt in her mind.
It was the kind girl who gave her a means to escape.
“I am in your debt…Lady Haruhime.”
Feeling a smile growing on her cheeks, the now free Mikoto climbed to her feet.
She needed a plan.
Reuniting with Sir Bell takes priority, then our escape…Other objectives: acquiring weapons would be useful.
She was completely unarmed. Her once proud violet battle clothes were nothing more than tatters around her body.
While finding weapons was high on her list, her appearance bordered on the obscene. Wearing the equivalent of bloody rags that revealed so much of her bruised yet silky white skin, Mikoto was one step away from resembling those debauched ladies.
Covering her body as well as she could with her thin arms, Mikoto started scanning the room once again.
There was a dark magic-stone lamp above her head. From what she could see, Mikoto figured out that she had been locked in some kind of large storage room. Of course there weren’t any weapons in here, but there were closets full of clothing used by the prostitutes and drawer upon drawer of their accessories and goods. “My apologies,” she whispered to the closets before throwing open each of them and searching from end to end until she found what she sought.
It went without saying that the first articles of clothing she found were very suitable—for the Pleasure Quarter. However, it didn’t take her long to stumble across outfits worn in the red-light district.
Mikoto ran her fingers down the sleeve of a kimono from her hometown and pulled it out without any hesitation. Considering her only other options were Amazonian garb that amounted to little more than lingerie, it was an easy choice.
Blushing in the darkness, she quickly removed the remains of her battle-cloth armor and donned a short-sleeve, thigh-length robe over the long strand of cloth she had wrapped around her chest. She finished the ensemble with a matching skirt.
“This is to be expected…”
The fabric of the shin-length skirt and the top of the kimono rustled every time she moved. It felt cheap and itchy against her skin.
Deciding it was much better than the alternative, she ignored the strange tugging of her new clothes and set out in earnest.
There was only one way in or out of the large chamber, the iron door. Mikoto cautiously approached it and peered out the window.
She saw groups of two or three people rushing past the door, but no one was stationed outside. Then she found the lock on the inside of the metallic barrier and used the same set of keys to release it. She didn’t linger. A quick check up and down the hall, and she left the storage room without a sound.
Her nose picked up a faint trace of musk in the air as she disappeared down the palace’s hallway before anyone else arrived.
Mikoto started her search of the expansive structure.
“Hey, find ’em?”
“!”
The moment that she heard a voice or felt anyone’s presence, Mikoto dove around the closest corner or hid in the shadows out of sight.
Able to conceal her breathing and slow her heart rate to a crawl, she watched noncombatant prostitutes and even the fearsome Berbera walk right past her many times without noticing a thing.
I am not much of a ninja, however…
Takemikazuchi had trained her in many styles of combat even before leaving their homeland. Ninjutsu was one of them.
She had mixed feelings about these techniques of espionage being useful as she dropped down from the ceiling and landed silently on the floor after another group passed beneath her.
Stealth, walking on tiptoe, silent motion. Deftly avoiding the attention of sprinting Amazons and her current attire were very fitting of the name ninja.
“…Now is as good a time as any.”
Mikoto found stairs going up and down—and activated her Skill.
—Yatano White Crow.
At this time, Mikoto had two Skills at her disposal.
The first, Yatano Black Crow—a Skill that allowed her to sense the presence of a monster she had already received excelia from in the past. While it wasn’t perfect, this Skill protected her from most monster ambushes and sneak attacks.
The second, Yatano White Crow.
The complete opposite of the former, Yatano White Crow gave Mikoto the ability to sense her allies.
…Sir Bell doesn’t appear to be on this floor.
This Skill detects only those with the same ichor as her own—others who have received a Status from the same god.
Meaning she could easily find members of her own familia.
Even if she were lost in the deepest tunnels of the Dungeon, Yatano White Crow could guide her back to the rest of her party by giving her a mental picture of their location.
She’d used this Skill to follow Bell during the ambush.
Even at full strength, thirty meders might be my limit right now…
The range of Mikoto’s two Skills varied, based on her Status and condition.
Also, activating them drained her Mind. Therefore, she chose a direction after using Yatano White Crow for a few seconds and then traveled to the edge of its range before activating it again. This strategy helped her to avoid constant strain on her magical energy.
“…?”
Avoiding the eyes of passing prostitutes, Mikoto made her way down to the lower levels of the building.
That was when she felt it: a presence just within range.
“Sir Bell? No, but what is this strange sensation…?”
It was the presence of an ally she’d never felt before.
Putting aside her confusion, she set off to find it.
Mikoto traversed several hallways and descended even more sets of stairs until she found a room tucked away in the corner of a dark floor.
“A vault…?”
Circumstances were in her favor: no guards, and she already had a
fully loaded ring of keys. Making sure she was alone, Mikoto found the correct key, opened the door, and slipped inside. Her eyes were greeted by weapons of every size and shape, potent items, and piles of jewels. Vast shelves lined the walls in each direction. A large bag in the back corner of the room glinted with the sheen of thousands of valis in the dim light.
Her surprise was apparent as she made her way deeper into the vault…and located the strange “presence” on a table next to a set of golden scales.
“This is…Sir Bell’s.”
Mikoto reached out and grabbed the black sheath of the Hestia Knife.
Only when her palm touched its handle did hieroglyphs respond to her Falna by glowing purple all the way down the weapon.
“Lady Hestia’s knife…So that’s why.”
The value and origin of this weapon had caused quite a stir on their recruiting day. That had been her first clue.
This weapon, specially made for Bell, shared the same Blessing and ichor as her own and was responding to her touch with a violet glow.
It was alive and indeed one of her allies. Mikoto smiled as she basked in its light.
“I should collect Sir Bell’s other weapons as well…”
It didn’t take her long to spot both Ushiwakamaru and Ushiwakamaru-Nishiki lying on the same table.
Mikoto reasoned that after they were captured and stripped of their equipment, their attackers planned to sell anything valuable—particularly the knife branded with the Hephaistos logo—and put them here for safekeeping.
Collecting all three knives as well as Bell’s belt, item pouch, and leg holster still filled with potions, Mikoto strapped everything to her body.
Then she took another look around the vault. Excuse after excuse for what she was about to do escaped her lips as she approached one of the shelving units filled with items.
She drank two potions: one to heal her remaining physical injuries and the other to restore her Mind. Lastly, she filled the empty spaces in the leg holsters with as many high potions as she could.
Mikoto found a vast array of flash grenades and smoke bombs a little farther down the same shelf. Wanting to be as prepared as possible, she filled Bell’s item pouch right to the top.
“Haa…These are the actions of nothing less than a coarse burglar…”
While feeling genuinely sorry, she didn’t stay her hand.
Mikoto had come to fully understand how difficult it would be to escape from Ishtar Familia’s home. No matter how well-equipped she was, a fierce battle could be waiting for her at every turn.
Her tear-filled deep-purple eyes passed over so many things that she immediately thought of Lilly, who would gladly load them into a backpack without a second thought.
“No reason…to stay long.”
Another round of hurried footsteps echoed from the other side of the vault’s iron door.
While there weren’t any windows, Mikoto caught a glimpse of air ducts just above her head. Using the shelf as a handhold, Mikoto jumped right for it. WHAM! Both her feet slammed into the small iron grate and broke it in two.
Another quick jump and twist, and the human disappeared into the vent without a trace.
“The girl escaped?!”
Aisha, who already had her hands full tracking down the whereabouts of Bell and Phryne, turned to face an extremely nervous messenger.
“How could that happen? The hell were you doing?”
“Y-y-you see, I left to search for Phryne and, well…I was careless, sorry.”
The young, long-haired Amazon who’d been in charge of keeping an eye on the storage room let her head droop in shame.
Aisha sighed as all the other Berbera raced around them.
“Hold it, Rena. The girl was bound by mythril, was she not? The Eternal Shadow is only Level Two. Would be impossible for her to break free.”
“Th-that’s what I thought! She couldn’t go anywhere!”
The young Amazon’s anger and frustration flared up for a moment but then dissipated as she continued.
“But they’re completely intact…And also, the keys were missing from the hook, the one that released the shackles.”
Aisha considered for a moment that the escaped “rabbit” might have set the girl free…But then the look on the renart’s face after they’d captured Bell and Mikoto in the Dungeon earlier that day flashed through the back of her mind.
“…Haruhime—where is she?”
The young Amazon was caught off guard for a moment and stopped to think. Her head tilted to the side briefly before she said:
“She said something about purifying herself for the ritual, but…she wasn’t in her room last I checked.”
Aisha frowned, realizing what just happened.
“Um, Miss Haruhime?”
Our footsteps echo through the dark passageway.
I’m pretty sure it’s been at least twenty minutes since we escaped from Phryne’s room.
Haruhime and I have been traveling through these secret underground tunnels since then.
I think we’re headed in the opposite direction of Ishtar Familia’s home…but we’ve doubled back a few times and gone through so many intersections that honestly I have no idea which direction we’re going. Although, I can tell that these paths are connected to many different places in the Pleasure Quarter.
It seems like Haruhime, who isn’t allowed to leave the brothel area, really does come down here from time to time—in the early morning hours when the Night District is asleep—through a passageway that connects with the red-light district. She told me we were going to the most secluded exit, but that feels like forever ago.
Daedalus Street’s architect…It’s said that his insanity went into the design of the district that bears his name. Who would’ve guessed he included secret passages to the Pleasure Quarter?
The thought that one man could design and build something as complex and expansive as these tunnels makes me shudder.
“What troubles you, Master Cranell?”
The slowly swishing golden tail I’ve been following comes to a stop as Haruhime looks over her shoulder at me.
“Is this…really okay? Letting me get away.”
Looking back on Aisha’s methods and tone in the Dungeon, I have every reason to believe that it was Lady Ishtar who ordered them to capture me.
The will of the god is the will of the follower. Going against that to rescue me will put Haruhime in a very tough spot.
She told me about Mikoto as well—we can’t do anything with a top-class adventurer like Phryne lurking down here, though—but I can’t help but be more concerned for the person in front of me.
“Please pay it no mind, Master Cranell.”
Haruhime smiles back at me, completely ignoring my unease.
She stops walking and turns to face me. Her silky golden hair flows like water around a river bend as her green eyes meet mine.
“It is my final desire. There is no doubt that Lady Aisha and the others will turn a blind eye.”
Her tone sounds like a mother trying to comfort a child, her smile soft and gentle. And yet, something seems off.
Could it be my imagination?
Then there was her choice of words: final desire…What did she mean by that?
I have no idea what this strange tingling is in the back of my mind, but I shove it aside and try to liven up the mood.
“Oh yeah, Miss Haruhime! Actually, we’re going to give you a redemption!”
I tell her all about what we decided as a familia.
A smile grows on my lips as I excitedly say that she won’t have to be a prostitute anymore. If this topic doesn’t change the atmosphere down here, I don’t know what will.
“Eh…?”
Haruhime’s green eyes widen.
She looks confused, so I explain again.
“Miss Mikoto already convinced our goddess to help you! It might take us a little while to get enough money, but…”
I wanted to make he
r happy.
Not some fleeting happiness, but beaming joy that would come from the bottom of her heart.
“Our goddess and everyone in my familia wants to help you, Miss Haruhime!”
I didn’t want to see that aloof smile.
I was hoping for the childish one, that blissful expression she wore when we talked about heroes and their adventures.
“Miss Mikoto…and I want to help you!”
I want to see that smile again, just like Mikoto.
I want only to laugh with her, joining hands and forgetting our problems for a few jubilant moments.
“It cannot be so…”
But Haruhime…
…quietly sheds a tear.
“…Miss Haruhime?”
Shiny streams of tears roll down both cheeks, her green eyes wide open.
My words leave me as I see her standing there, looking at me as if lost in time.
“Aah…”
Haruhime presses both her hands against her chest and releases a sigh completely devoid of emotion.
Slowly closing her eyes, a fresh tear rolling down her cheek, she says:
“I…Haruhime, am truly grateful.”
Her delicate lips arc upward.
“To receive such words from you…From Miss Mikoto.”
Her upper body quivers as she takes a deep breath. She might have fallen to pieces if both her hands weren’t clutching her chest.
“…I have no regrets.”
The green orbs of her eyes come into view, glistening in the dim light as she smiles at me once again.
“……”
Tears of joy?
Really?
If I didn’t know better…I’d think she was saying a final farewell.
“Thank you, Master Cranell. Let us be on our way.”
With that, she turns her back to me and faces forward.
I can’t say anything to her back, only try to keep up.
Try to follow that golden tail as it slowly disappears deeper into the darkness, desperately try.
This doesn’t feel right.
I can sense it in my chest.
In a different building.
