A back alley where trash rolled about carelessly.
After leaving the gambling den, we walked down the filthy road.
‘Looking at it like this, Creed’s room was practically another world.’
The tea fragrance that had tickled the tip of my nose quickly scattered.
Only the small token in my hand—the auction invitation—dug heavily into my palm.
“Ri-Ritak. Shouldn’t we try talking to that woman a little more......?”
Yoanes kept looking back at the gambling den.
“About what?”
“About where Jacqueline is, exactly......”
Yoanes clenched her fist again.
Veins bulged on the back of her hand.
“......If I’d taken charge of her, I could have found out enough.”
Yoanes’s voice grew ominous.
It felt as though cold sweat was running down my back.
‘Does the guild only recruit people like this?’
My first client, Jekus, had been quite hot-blooded too.
‘Once the city story is over, I should hurry and run to another region.’
What good could possibly come from getting tangled up with bastards like bulls?
Though I would have to stay for at least a week.
“Relax your hand. We already heard the answer.”
“That woman only talked in circles......!”
I shook my head.
Because Creed had clearly answered.
She had even answered Yoanes’s questions in order, quite kindly.
“Remember? She said that if someone is an auction participant, they can put anything up for sale, and that the list is kept secret.”
“W-well, of course. She suddenly started talking about some suspicious auction.”
It seemed she was getting angry all over again just thinking about it.
The bridge of her nose was gradually turning red.
“You asked whether you could meet your sister too.”
Before Yoanes’s face grew even redder, I decided to point out only the key point.
I raised two fingers.
“There are two possibilities we can think of.”
Affirmative and negative were not the only answers.
Especially if it was something that could not be said openly.
“Jacqueline is either participating in the auction or being put up for sale.”
If she was being put up for sale, did that also count as participating in the auction in the end?
Their positions were different, but still.
In any case, the fact that she could be found at the auction was the same.
If the information Creed had given was accurate, that was.
“Put up for sale......”
The shadow beneath Yoanes’s eyes darkened again.
Her younger sister had ruined herself through gambling, then disappeared, saying she would receive her salary in advance.
The chances that she had formally presented an invitation and joined the social gathering were low.
“If you understand, let’s head back now.”
“Wh-where?”
“To the guild. We don’t have time to tour the city, do we?”
There was one week left until the auction.
That was not short, but it was not especially long either.
And the cost of sightseeing was a waste too.
‘We somehow ate skewers for free, but they’re too expensive.’
The first price the merchant had given was 4 vanus per skewer.
It stung to trade eight Health Recovery Potions for a snack.
Jekus had paid five times the market price, but that had been after I showed him the skill.
The usual market price was 50 copper for one potion.
‘Now that I think about it, it wasn’t free either.’
In the end, I had gotten involved in Yoanes’s matter.
Though thanks to that, I had seized an opportunity.
‘I need to increase my assets.’
A social club where the city’s upper class gathered.
Even if one faithfully followed the story, it was a place unreachable in the game.
At most, one could pick up rumors about an auction where even legendary weapons appeared.
And even that was merely a side script meant to set the game’s atmosphere.
‘The auction definitely happens.’
A story flowing in a place unrelated to the protagonist.
The Elixir of Luck had been prepared to poke around near it.
I had found the point.
What remained was bait to catch a big fish.
“I said let’s hurry and go.”
“Th-that’s the opposite direction.”
***
Yoanes’s room was simple.
A bed, a table, and one chair.
It did not even have the common desk.
-Chomp, chomp, chomp......
Wer sat on the table and tore into a goose leg bigger than his own body.
“Mmm, yes. Now my stomach is a little full.”
Just looking at the five plates stacked on top of one another was enough to make me sick.
Perhaps I would end up breaking my back paying for Wer’s food.
Bang!
Abellana entered, carrying another tray piled full.
“Have you finished? Try some stew too!”
“......I just hope Lord Wer isn’t eating the entire guild kitchen bare.”
I had no idea how many meals he was sweeping up in one sitting.
At this point, it was embarrassing.
I shot Wer a sidelong glare, but he did not seem to care in the slightest.
His forefeet receiving the tray were practically flying.
Abellana waved her hands.
“Oh, why worry over this much between us?”
“Between us?”
She said something that made cold sweat run down my back as though it was nothing.
What exactly was there between us?
“I’m joking, joking. I’m just very grateful you helped Yoanes.”
Abellana covered her mouth and laughed.
If someone who did not know saw her, it would have looked cute, but well.
Having seen those little hands wreck a person, it was difficult to laugh along.
Yoanes probably would not even be able to lie down and sleep properly tonight.
Her back would be in tatters.
-Did you have fun? Yoanes showed you the plaza fountain, right? It’s a famous sight in the city!
-Really? The gambling den was pretty interesting too.
-Ri-Ritak! If you say that......!
I, who had sent Yoanes away with a single sentence, would probably not be able to sleep easily tonight either.
Only after hearing the whole story did Abellana calm down.
Though she had glared at Yoanes as if she would kill her for hiding such circumstances.
In any case, the beating stopped.
“Anyway. Jacqueline—I knew that girl would cause trouble one day.”
Abellana flopped down onto the bed.
Because she shook her head so hard, her curls flew through the air.
But it seemed this girl Jacqueline’s usual behavior was not very good.
Mister Bain at the skewer shop had not spoken well of her either.
“You know her?”
“I saw her often in the past. She came every day to get pocket money from Yan.”
“I guess she hasn’t come recently.”
“She started living more luxuriously herself. If she still came to leech off Yoanes after that, would that even make her human?”
“A-Abellana......”
Yoanes, who was lying facedown on the bed, barely lifted her head.
Abellana slapped the bed repeatedly.
“Don’t even get me started. After she started hanging around with Lady Detra, she went around dripping in jewelry......”
“Detra?”
My ears perked up in an instant.
‘That name comes up here?’
The City of Traders was an autonomous district spanning three territories.
It was not an environment where any one person could wield power alone.
The lords of each territory were busy keeping one another in check.
One of those lords was Detra.
The bastard who ended up nurturing the second calamity.
“Y-yes. Jacqueline became a maid at the Detra estate half a year ago.”
“She said she would repay the pocket money Yoanes had given her, and I thought, as if!”
Abellana huffed.
“But then she shoved her debt onto her? Is that even human?”
“She didn’t do it on purpose......”
“Stop covering for her! Because you keep accepting everything, that girl—!”
At this rate, Yoanes was about to get hit again.
I quickly picked up Wer and placed him in Abellana’s arms.
“Now, calm down. In any case, you’re not planning to abandon Jacqueline, are you?”
“......Well, no.”
To be honest, I did want to abandon her.
If she was a hopeless layabout beyond redemption, was there any need to pick her up again?
Of course, it was not something to say in front of Yoanes.
There was such a thing as familial affection, was there not?
‘Though I don’t really know.’
Wer, who had no idea what was happening, was squashed in Abellana’s arms and merely blinked.
I put some salad in his mouth.
He had already eaten all the stew, so he should cleanse his palate with vegetables.
“Since we obtained a clue, I want to prepare.”
“If the auction is being held in one week......”
Abellana tapped the back of her hand as though pressing a calculator.
Soon, a line appeared between her brows.
“No matter how I think about it, that’s tight.”
“That’s why I’m asking. Is there any dungeon near here that’s good for making money?”
“It’s difficult to get a large sum from dungeons near the city.”
Abellana crossed her arms before her chest.
“Leaving aside that everything worth digging out has already been dug out, all of them have owners.”
This, too, was a setting I knew.
A city mad for money was different in every way.
A region where dungeons were privatized and entrance fees were used to make money.
It was a case difficult to find across the entire continent.
There were even dungeons that took a set portion of the items obtained inside.
“However! If you go to a dungeon monopolized by Bies Guild, we can make things convenient for you, can’t we?”
Abellana drew the corners of her mouth up in a grin.
‘An exclusive dungeon?’
I had asked whether there were any dungeons among them with better conditions, and what kind of windfall was this?
I gulped.
“A guild that owns as many as five dungeons is a very, very good guild, isn’t it?”
She spread five fingers wide and waved them before my eyes.
At this rate, I might bite the bait.
“......I’ll think about it.”
It was difficult to shake the feeling that I was stepping in deeper and deeper.
But whether it was entrance fees or commissions, they were all costs I had to save.
“Now that that’s settled, Yoanes.”
Yoanes, who had been lying facedown on the bed, flinched and raised her head.
“This time, I’ll clearly designate the place you’re to guide Lord Ritak.”
“Y-yes.”
“You must not wander off somewhere strange again, all right?”
“I understand......”
I quietly picked up Wer and left Yoanes’s room.
Nagging was tiresome even when poured onto someone else.
***
How long had it been since I had opened my eyes in a bed?
At least, it was the first time since I had come to the world of Weapon of Infinity.
“Ugh, my whole body aches.”
The body that had enjoyed luxury for the first time in ages was only now screaming.
There had been times I fought like mad and came to my senses only after the sun had risen, and sleeping outdoors had practically been daily life.
So the guest room of the guild building could only stand tall at first place for comfortable sleeping.
Knock, knock.
A heavy knock.
Footsteps just as honest and heavy moved away.
“It seems Yoanes came to wake you.”
“Does she never sleep......?”
“You have lazed about too much, Ritak!”
When the body was comfortable, the mind tended to loosen just as much.
I quickly put on the robe prepared by the guild and stepped outside.
“It’s hot again today......”
Yoanes had already caught a carriage.
“Where are you headed?”
“To the Ant Nest......”
“It has been a while since you went to a dungeon, Lady Yoanes.”
“Y-yes. The matter was resolved.”
The carriage gradually picked up speed as it ran.
I propped up my chin and blankly looked out the window.
‘Come to think of it, the gambling den bastard said he had cut off Yoanes’s work, didn’t he?’
It seemed he had been persistent enough that she had stayed holed up in the guild.
I had seen how he picked a fight the moment she came out, so no further words were needed.
‘......This feels ominous.’
I glanced toward the seat beside me.
Yoanes was looking outside with an idle face.
‘Nothing will happen, probably.’
But they said bad predictions did not miss, did they?
Only a few minutes after we got out of the carriage...
A swaggering group blocked our way as though they had been waiting.
“......Move. I have no business with you.”
“We need to have business until you spill where your sister is, don’t we?”
“The m-money has already been repaid.”
“Hey! Anyone here heard that from Dan?”
It seemed they did not know what had happened to that bastard Dan.
If so, this group of thugs was the lowest of the low.
“You pale bastard over there. Yoanes is going to be busy from now on, so take yourself home, yeah?”
“Well...... I think you’re the ones who’d better go home.”
If they went back, they would easily be able to grasp the situation.
The group that had been cackling among themselves turned fierce.
“What does this bastard believe in, running his mouth?”
Their threats did not make me nervous.
They did not even know that Yoanes was no longer a target.
They were wasting effort, so I even felt a little sorry for them.
“You bastard! Did you just laugh at us?”
“I didn’t particularly mean to......”
“Why, I ought to—!”
The bastard swaggering at the very front raised his hand.
His character was not even worth laughing at.
‘What should I do with this guy?’
Crack!
“Aaaagh, aagh! Let go of me!”
The thug’s wrist bent right before my eyes.
It had been twisted beyond the limits of the joint at a bizarre angle.
‘Oof.’
I frowned and looked at the uninvited guest.
He had grabbed a person, yet his face remained indifferent.
“Ritak. Why did you come all the way to the city?”
Why are you here?