One difference between yakuza and nobles was that yakuza valued ability over bloodline.
Then again, I’d become a candidate for the next underboss despite being nothing more than Resina’s friend, so naturally, bloodline couldn’t matter that much.
Hmm?
Resina and I were only friends. It wasn’t anything beyond that. I knew nothing about any “established facts.”
Inside the carriage, as I thought about such hopeless matters, Resina let out a long sigh beside me.
“One problem after another. If you hadn’t appeared, Crow, the Cineraria Family would have torn itself apart long ago.”
“I’ll admit that much. If you and the boss had died from the poison, everything would have gone exactly as the mastermind intended.”
Even so, turning me into a candidate for the next underboss was going too far. Ideally, I would have received an appropriately generous reward and left for the frontier.
In truth, I’d already prepared most of the abilities and tools necessary for a frontier slow life. The only thing I still lacked was the money to buy supplies. My plan had been to save quietly and steadily until adulthood without attracting attention.
How had I become so deeply involved in murderous conflicts among yakuza?
“…Before you came, the Cineraria Family had eight young people called candidates for the next underboss, including me. But none possessed a decisive advantage. Until this incident, we were constantly dragging one another down.”
“Why does everything have to become so violent?”
“Exactly. It’s deplorable. Honestly, I believed the mastermind behind this incident was one of the other seven. Among them, the most suspicious were members of the three families called the Great Houses under the Cineraria Family.”
The Three Great Houses…
If I remembered correctly, the Banksia family—the birth family of Penne and Hyadal—was one of them.
Our careful questioning of Hyadal had revealed a small amount about the mastermind’s hidden circumstances, so we immediately sent letters reporting the information to the boss and underboss. But still… I hadn’t expected this.
“Thinking about it again, things were rather close to disaster. Honestly, I think the situation was extremely dangerous.”
“Yes. Once the Winter Tour ends, we’ll need to conduct a thorough cleaning of headquarters. To begin with, I gave Grandfather and Father Lie-Detection Magic Tools.”
“Yes. Headquarters is about to lose a great many people.”
What Hyadal honestly told us was rather interesting.
The compound magical poison administered to the boss and Resina had been created on the mastermind’s orders by the man who served as the Cineraria Family’s chief alchemist.
Unexpectedly for the mastermind, the two targets believed impossible to cure were treated by a peculiar commoner boy. Their highly capable alchemist was eliminated as well, leaving them battered by one misfortune after another.
—Kill Resina. If that proves impossible, eliminate the commoner boy in question.
Given those orders by the mastermind, Hyadal had made a tearful effort despite his inexperience. He cultivated wolfsbane, extracted magical poison from it, and mixed it into soup he knew I would taste for poison.
That was apparently how the incident unfolded.
Hyadal, you did remarkably well starting from zero knowledge. Perhaps you had talent as an intellectual yakuza.
As we discussed all of that, Penne sat nearby with her eyes closed in concentration.
She was currently training the Meditation skill. Normally, the body obtained magical elements through food. This technique drew them from the air through breathing and sent them into the jewel-like organ below the navel—the mana organ. Simply learning to do that greatly increased mana production.
“How is Penne’s training progressing?”
“Very smoothly, I’d say. Apparently, Penne already used physical reinforcement frequently, so she understands the feel of mana control. Skill proficiency can only be improved over time, but she’s acquiring the necessary foundations at a remarkable pace.”
“I see. Then I can’t afford to fall behind.”
No, no. When it came to training, Resina was several steps ahead.
Even now, she seemed to be using Parallel Thought to meditate in the background while holding this conversation. She also appeared to be using Mana Concealment, and her intimidating pressure had weakened considerably.
“Hehehe. I still have a long way to go compared to you, Crow. You’re controlling the driver of this carriage—that knight-doll magic tool—with Parallel Thought, aren’t you? At least several parts of your awareness must be devoted to maintaining your subspaces too, and you’re constantly performing mana-expansion training.”
“That’s true. But I’ve simply spent far more years training. Besides, subspace magic is so incredibly inefficient that I can’t even operate it normally without using various skills.”
As I spoke, I patted the wooden box stationed beside us.
The box-shaped magic tool where Garnet had shut herself away—this mobile alchemy workshop—also used my mana to maintain the subspace inside it. I couldn’t supply the necessary amount any other way.
If I died right now, the tool would stop functioning after several minutes. The subspace would collapse, and the alchemy workshop would appear in real space.
Ah, incidentally…
Hyadal had confessed every detail of the incident, so he was currently living in a subspace prison. Instead of the locker-shaped space from before, it was a comfortable room about six tatami mats in size. He was quietly spending his time reading books, but we were waiting for headquarters to decide what to do with him.
“Now then… Crow. If they intend to make a move, should it be soon?”
I quietly nodded at Resina’s question.
At the midpoint between Maypool and the next village, the carriages would stop to rest the horses. They would probably take some kind of action then.
“They” were the additional personnel from headquarters who’d joined the tour in place of Jairo’s group.
Jairo’s Chivalrous Band had an extremely important task. They needed to replace purification-barrier cores in secret from the Spirit Temple. For that reason, they had to operate using only trustworthy Family members carefully selected with the Lie-Detection Magic Tool.
Those who failed the selection—in other words, the people judged “untrustworthy” during their preliminary interviews—were peacefully isolated before they could learn what the chivalrous band was doing.
At that very moment, they were riding in the other carriages as the Winter Tour’s new attendants.
That’s right.
We’d brought every single traitor with us on this journey.
Tee-hee.
“What an incredible selection, isn’t it? An investigator working for the temple, a covert knight loyal to a noble, a member of another yakuza organization, subordinates of other underboss candidates, a hired assassin, a madman, and the mastermind’s agents.”
“Hehehe. It’s like an exhibition of traitors.”
“And Resina’s magic identified all of them. Wouldn’t it really be better for you to become the next underboss?”
Mind-reading magic truly was extraordinary.
Until now, she hadn’t been able to face her magic properly. But magic could become endlessly useful with enough ingenuity. We could create all sorts of things like the Lie Detection derivative magic in the future.
“Crow makes it sound easy, but creating derivative magic is much more difficult. Come to think of it… have you also devised a use for Penne’s magic?”
“Of course. Her magic is incredibly convenient, but apparently, she barely used it before. I asked her to change her perspective a little and practice derivative magic.”
As we spoke leisurely, the carriage slowed exactly as planned.
As I continued sensing the surrounding presences, the Family members split into several groups.
At last, they seemed to have begun moving.