Yoanes’s face stiffened.
“If you’re scared, I can go alone.”
I did not know what Jacqueline looked like.
But since they were sisters, would she not resemble Yoanes?
Even if they did not resemble each other, how many people could there be behind the curtain?
The black masks were employees, so the remaining person would naturally be Yoanes’s younger sister.
If two or more humans had been put up for sale, then this method would not be enough to find her, but...
‘Surely no one besides Jacqueline is going up for auction?’
If so, this city was not merely a city mad for money, but a garbage city.
Or a city in a state where the heads at the top needed to be cut off before it became a garbage city.
“S-so if we light that candle, we become beings without bodies?”
“If you breathe in the fragrance, you’ll be able to enter behind the stage without being discovered.”
Yoanes pressed her lips tightly shut for a moment, as though holding her breath.
She picked up the candle that had been lighting a nearby table.
Her rough hand tilted.
The flame moved from one candle to the tip of another.
The Phosphorfire Incense Candle began burning with a flicker.
It was light resembling the will-o’-the-wisp I had seen in the dungeon forest.
“......What do I do now?”
“Breathe in comfortably.”
“L-like this?”
“A little closer.”
Yoanes lowered her head until she was almost touching the candle’s tip.
When her lips parted, it looked as though she were swallowing light.
Each time she breathed, I felt her presence gradually grow faint.
She was right before my eyes, yet she flickered like a lamp before the wind.
I quickly breathed in that light too.
Inhale and exhale, then inhale and exhale again.
Float began.
‘What a strange sensation.’
I took one step away from the world’s gravity, and my presence grew thin.
My hand did not feel like my hand.
Even the awareness of myself became faint.
Only by focusing hard could I affect reality.
‘Like right now.’
I took the incense candle, which was still giving off faint light and smoke.
It would be a problem if someone passing by suffered the status ailment because I left it there.
What would happen if someone suddenly became faint while falling into a sense of floating?
They might drift around in confusion, then grow too distant from reality.
The duration of Float was 20 minutes, but well.
There was no knowing how great the gap between thought and body might become.
There was no need to harm anyone around us.
‘Let’s go.’
I slowly moved forward.
There was no sensation of stepping down or moving my legs.
The surroundings slid backward on their own.
Just as I silently climbed the stage and was about to enter inside...
‘Where is that girl?’
That girl.
The one who had been worrying about her sister to the point of frustration.
That girl was......
-Yoanes.
When I called her name, a faint light shimmered beside me.
-Ritak.
Yoanes’s voice touched my ears.
Ritak.
The moment I heard that name, my faint presence flashed like static electricity.
‘Right. I’m Ritak.’
So I would not float too far away, I pressed the thought down and repeated it like carving an inscription.
Only then did I slowly move my consciousness and enter the space behind the stage.
Several black-masked employees were still coming and going.
It seemed someone else was trying to put a precious item up for auction.
A guest with a splendidly groomed mustache was waving a blue jeweled necklace.
“This jewel was owned by my ancestor 275 years ago......”
JINGLE, CLATTER!
The sound of the jewel shaking suddenly cut off as though cleanly carved away.
The guest’s boasting stopped too.
The pen tip that had been busily scratching along, and the sound of dress shoes going click-clack, vanished in an instant as well.
Silence, quite literally.
“......Wh-why did it suddenly get so quiet? How creepy.”
“In any case, to continue what I was saying......”
We passed by.
We crossed the curtain and entered inside.
It was the space where the items put up for sale were stored.
Strangely colored fur, a golden cup and bracelet glittering with dazzling jewels embedded like grains of rice.
And Jacqueline.
-That girl is Jacqueline.
Her face looked just like Yoanes’s.
But there would be no confusing the two.
While Yoanes wore her dull hair long and tied tightly back, Jacqueline had cut hers short enough to reveal the nape of her neck.
Thanks to that, her broad forehead and high nose bridge were plainly exposed.
-N-no. But why is her hair in such a mess?
Looking closely, her hair looked as though it had been gnawed by rats.
Even her wrists and the nape of her neck were mottled with bruises.
The traces of having been tied up and suffering hardship for quite some time were clear.
It looked as if someone had vented their anger on her.
-Let’s get her out first.
-R-right. I’ll carry her.
I waited until Yoanes grabbed Jacqueline.
After that, I placed the incense candle right before Jacqueline’s nose.
You need to leave.
As I repeated that several times inwardly, Jacqueline also began gradually becoming faint.
-Jacqueline! Sh-she was definitely here!
Yoanes cried out in a shrill voice.
At that, the Float state she had maintained well until now began to shake.
I found Yoanes and grabbed her.
-There’s no need to be anxious. Try to feel properly. You’re holding her.
Since we were all faint anyway, there was no need to be newly startled.
Jacqueline had simply crossed over to our side.
-Hold my hand. That should help a little.
-M-mm......
The incense candle was not a medicine that negatively affected the body, but the floating sensation was quite long.
It might be best to step back onto the ground before we became too accustomed to this state.
We slipped out from behind the stage like the wind.
As if nothing had happened at all.
-How is your sister?
-Sh-she isn’t moving.
It seemed she could not regain consciousness at all.
Even at a glance, she was fairly large, resembling Yoanes.
Her sturdy body had grown so thin that her joints jutted out.
She must have been extremely weakened.
After thinking for a moment, I opened my mouth.
-You should take your sister and leave.
After all, even if we kept Jacqueline inside here, we would only be discovered.
Whether by the auction consignor or another participant, it was difficult to imagine a good situation.
It was better to hurry up to the surface while the Float effect remained.
‘The City of Traders isn’t an utterly lawless region......’
It was far from the sort of atmosphere where people could openly kidnap or sell others.
At least above ground.
-Ritak, what about you?
-I even put something up for auction. It’d be a waste to miss it.
There was also an item I absolutely wanted to obtain from the underground auction.
In truth, that had been my earliest goal.
It was something I had planned long before meeting Yoanes.
-Hurry and go. We don’t know when the incense candle’s effect will end.
It felt like Yoanes nodded.
A sharp, ringing voice from somewhere dragged me back to reality.
“How in the world are you managing things?”
The sound came from behind the stage.
I stepped onto the ground.
People wearing masks were glancing around.
“Where did the item I put up for auction disappear to?”
“O-our apologies. We have no excuse.”
It seemed they had already discovered that Jacqueline had been smuggled out.
I picked up a random plate and walked near the stage.
Through the open door, I saw a woman stomping her foot.
She wore a splendid golden mask, so of course she was not an employee.
“We are searching every corner of the area. It cannot have gone far.”
“Are you saying you can find it, or is that just your wish?”
“We are m-making every effort.”
“Then bring it to me right now!”
The woman jabbed the employee’s chest with the tip of her fan.
“Answer clearly. By when can you place it back in front of me?”
“That is difficult for us to guarantee......”
“I don’t want to hear it! Delay the auction by two hours at once.”
The employee was shoved away roughly.
The woman left the backstage area with quick steps.
“I can’t put nothing up for sale. What will the other participants think?”
“Madam, where are you going?”
“I’m returning to the estate. I need to bring some other item.”
“N-now?”
“I already told everyone around me that I was planning to put up something special!”
The madam, throwing all the irritation she could, brushed past me.
She was probably Lady Detra.
Judging by how she emphasized “special,” it seemed humans being put up for auction were not common.
If so, the underground social gathering might not be an utterly garbage gathering.
It might simply be one angry madam causing trouble because she trusted in her status.
“She truly is like a storm!”
A familiar voice cheerfully raised itself.
When I looked back, Creed was lifting the corner of her mouth.
Today, her eyes were covered by a bright red fox-shaped mask.
As if painting it with gold were not enough, golden threads had been woven and hung down from it, making it conspicuous to anyone.
“That’s quite a fine mask.”
“Oh my! Thank you. But there’s something I’d rather hear.”
“......I made good use of the information. You said you’d put it on my tab, right?”
“Hehe. I like that you’re quick on the uptake!”
Creed tilted her head.
The bells hanging from the tassels on her mask jingled.
“You look more delicious than that older sister from last time.”
I would prefer if she bit Yoanes instead.
That side had avoided being completely penniless too, in her own way.
I could guarantee that much, since we had been clearing dungeons together for a while.
“By the way, did she not come with you? Did she leave you alone and go back?”
Creed heard and grasped everything that happened in the city.
But it seemed even she could not see into the world of Float.
“Yes. I thought it would be better for her to feed her sister something.”
“It seems the poor thing was starved. Pitiful.”
“It seems the person who took care of her sister had quite the eccentric personality.”
“What a shame. I wanted to have another amusing conversation.”
Yoanes would never agree with that.
An amusing conversation, she said. Yoanes probably only remembered being teased.
“There are still two hours until the auction, so I should play with you!”
Jingle!
The bell beneath her mask rang cheerfully.
To deal with this woman without Yoanes already made me feel as though my throat was tightening.
When she had been beside me, she had been frustrating, but now that she was gone, I missed her terribly.
“I’m not all that interesting.”
“Is that so? Is it not interesting when light suddenly flashes from a person’s hand?”
She had definitely seen something in the back alley after all.
She began biting here and there.
“Hmm. What effect does the medicine you put up for auction have?”
I truly miss you, Yoanes!
***
“Thank you very much for keeping your seats despite the delayed schedule.”
Before I knew it, quite a few people had gathered underground.
There were around thirty or forty.
While Creed chewed me up, more than four or five people had come to greet her, but I could not tell what sort of relationship they had with Creed.
To be precise, the information I had gained from this woman over two whole hours was almost nonexistent.
What was I supposed to do with the fact that Creed could not eat shrimp and liked cheesecake?
It would have been more interesting to eavesdrop on the conversations whispered nearby.
“Did we wait because we were understanding? It’s always whatever they want.”
“What is this, every time that region’s lord hosts?”
Yes, things like this.
It seemed the underground social club was hosted in rotation by the lords of each region or powerful figures of equivalent standing.
Among them, there was one name I heard especially often.
“The host is entering!”
What use were masks?
Even while watching one another’s reactions, everyone whispered the name “Detra.”
A man wearing a glittering golden mask climbed onto the stage.
Behind him was a woman walking while gathering the hem of her dress.
As expected, she was the person who had delayed the auction.
Lady Detra herself.
‘Jacqueline disappeared because of that person.’
However, my doubts were not completely washed away.
If Jacqueline had gone around indulging in overflowing luxury, the relationship between master and maid should not have been that bad.
“......We will begin the auction!”
It seemed the host’s boring speech had ended while I was lost in thought.
‘Jacqueline and the madam can wait for now.’
It would not be a problem to think about them later.
At last, it was the auction.
The legendary weapon was right before my eyes.