Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Four: Beginning the Search
After seeing Waltride off, Karen stood up from the bed. Thor supported Karen, who was unsteady from having been lying down for so long. Karen thanked him, put on slippers, and opened a box at the edge of the tent—her luggage chest.
She pulled out a change of clothes and began removing her nightwear, while Thor started talking without paying it any mind:
“Sis, you heard about the guy who summoned the monsters, right? Julius and I asked him where he got that black stone that calls monsters.”
“Didn’t he get it from the trading company?”
“If that were true, the whole Gubert Company would be rotten. But he didn’t say that. He said it was a short nobleman with a cane. Julius and I both felt he wasn’t lying.”
“…A short nobleman with a cane.”
While putting her arms through her shirt sleeves, Karen immediately thought of Horst. It was easy to imagine that Julius had similarly thought of Horst.
“When Julius heard this information, he made a face like something clicked. He was vague about the details, and when I asked if I should go with him, he said, ‘The other person has almost no magical power and has a bad knee, so there’s no problem.’ When I looked into who Julius might go meet, there was this guy, Horst Brahm, currently in the dungeon. Since he is from the Ehlertt’s territory, Julius probably avoided saying it outright, and I think that’s why he went to meet him alone.”
“I see. I think that’s how it went too. If people suspected Ehlertt Earldom was involved in all this, it would be troublesome.”
“So it would trouble you too, Sis?”
After a moment of confusion about whether she should be embarrassed, Karen looked at her serious-faced brother and nodded with a straight face.
“Yes, it would be troublesome—but it’d be much worse if Mr. Julius didn’t come back. So let’s share this information with everyone.”
She took off her slippers and changed into socks and boots.
Karen also wondered what Horst could possibly do against Julius, even if he was the culprit who gave Isaac that suspicious magical tool-like black stone. Even if Horst tried using another magical tool, could he really pose a threat to the vigilant Julius?
There was a possibility that Horst was completely unrelated to this incident. But if there was even a little chance, she wanted to check every lead and secure as many available people as possible.
“Alright, then I’ll tell you one more thing I dug up. If we use it right, it shouldn’t put the blame on Ehlertt.”
“One more thing?”
“A short nobleman with a cane. Among those who fit this description and are on this floor of the dungeon, Horst isn’t the only one.”
“Really? But I can’t frame someone else for a crime that Earl Brahm likely committed, can I?”
“What if it turns out it’s not a false accusation?”
“Um, you mean there’s someone who seems more like the ringleader than Earl Brahm?”
Thor tilted his head with an "hmm," but shook it sideways. To the confused Karen, he prefaced with "I don’t really get it either" and said:
“When I looked into it, there are more than ten other people who seem to fit the description of a short nobleman with a cane that the merchant bastard mentioned. If we mean shorter than average rather than shorter than that merchant, there are more than twenty people. They’re nobles from various territories. Moreover, including Horst, they’re all hot spring therapy buddies, and maybe because they’re buddies, they all have similar canes, and they’re all guys with too little magical power who are treated poorly in their respective territories.”
Karen felt an eerie chill run down her spine. Thor also furrowed his brow, showing his discomfort.
“Every single one of them doesn’t look like someone who could do anything in a dungeon. You can tell just by looking. They’re incredibly weak guys. They might die if they even fought a slime. They don’t look like they have any right to influence even a fragment of the dungeon. I don’t think the Goddess would grant them that right. But still, it’s suspicious, isn’t it?”
“…It’s extremely suspicious.”
“But not a single one of them looks like they could do anything in a dungeon… even with guards, what could these guys possibly do?”
“I think there are things you can do even without magical power, various things.”
Karen knew Harald. He was a child with tremendous memory and intelligence, even without magical power.
“But this is inside a dungeon, Sis.”
Thor spoke to Karen in an unusually firm tone. Seeing Karen looking blank, Thor made a startled expression and said with a grin:
“Anyway, Julius probably went to meet Horst, but that doesn’t mean Horst is the culprit who summoned the monsters. So we don’t know if Ehlertt is at fault—that’s the story.”
Thor reached for Karen’s earring while she was checking the contents of her pouch.
“It’s a rescue-signal magical tool that heats up when you pour magical power into it. It was supposed to be paired with Julius’s, right?”
“Yeah… what if Mr. Julius called for help while I was sleeping and I didn’t notice?”
“That’s not possible. This type of magical tool keeps emitting heat until the magical power poured into it runs out, and if it’s the glowing type, it keeps glowing. Even with tiny amounts of magical power, they’ll keep the heat for a week or so.”
“Then that means Mr. Julius isn’t in a situation where he needs to call for help yet.”
After breathing a sigh of relief, Karen remembered the time when she had poured a tremendous amount of magical power into it before. Had that earring stayed hot on Julius’s side the whole time—?
“Well, men have their pride, so there’s also the possibility that no matter the situation, he just doesn’t intend to ask you for help.”
Thor shrugged and brought Karen back to reality.
After being dumbfounded, she glared sharply in a random direction.
“…If he needs help but is too stubborn to ask for it, I’ll lecture him even if it is Mr. Julius.”
“Ooh, Julius made you angry.”
After laughing amusedly, Thor returned to a serious expression.
“Actually, when Julius didn’t come back the next day, I started investigating, and by afternoon, I’d tracked down Horst’s location and had my party members take turns watching him. Apparently, he just looks like he’s leisurely enjoying hot spring therapy. But what do you want to do?”
“First, I’ll share your information with everyone, then go question Horst.”
“Alright. Then I’ll skillfully convey to the prince why I kept quiet these past few days, so Sis, just go along with it.”
“That helps. Thanks for everything, Thor.”
Karen put on her cloak and attached the brooch she usually kept off for fear of losing it. There might be situations where she’d need to use the fact that she was a C-rank alchemist.
Thor combed through Karen’s hair at the back that had gotten tangled and disheveled in her cloak collar and said:
“No need for thanks. We’re family—and Julius might become my brother-in-law, right?”
“We don’t know that yet!?”
After protesting with a bright red face to Thor, who grinned mischievously, Karen cleared her throat to regain her composure and departed from the tent with a resolute expression.
No comments:
Post a Comment