Chapter 51
A dark room somewhere in an alley.
While Mirian was out.
Beatrice crossed her legs and answered Lydia.
“Hmm, that alley?”
Beatrice gulped down the water in her glass and continued. A droplet slid alluringly from between her red lips.
“It was a place thrown into turmoil by a series of kidnappings a few years ago. Men, women, old folks, children—people disappeared without distinction, and it caused quite a commotion. I think it was around the time you’d just become a Sword Master, Princess.”
“….”
“Some people took advantage of the chaos, thinking it was the perfect chance to kidnap people themselves, and got caught. Others rushed in because they thought it was some new ‘business’…. Saintroix was in an uproar. It was so bad the Gallian royal family sent an elite force from the Royal Knights.”
“….”
An incident from eight years ago.
It was around the time Lydia was training hard to reach the Aurora Realm. It was also when her twin brother Leonard was going around studying with Mirian’s help.
Beatrice spoke, recalling those days.
“The outcome… was a complete mystery. Those guys spent over three months chasing their tails and left. In the end, they wrote it off as an attack by monsters living in the underground sewers.”
“….”
“But everyone instinctively knew it wasn’t the work of monsters. Something was off.”
Recalling what she knew from the original story,
Lydia pieced together what she knew and spoke.
“Was that kidnapping incident carried out to sell people as ‘merchandise’ at the ‘secret auction house’?”
“I doubt it. People who buy and sell humans wouldn’t pull something like that. If they wanted to keep a place whose name we don’t even know hidden, they’d be even more discreet than that ‘secret auction house.’”
Beatrice spoke with a cynical expression.
“Gathering the most conspicuous ‘goods’ in the world—the kind most likely to escape—in a back alley full of eyes and ears seems like the wrong choice. There are plenty of people willing to sell themselves, after all.”
“….”
When you live in a back alley,
you learn an ‘efficiency’ you’d rather not know.
Beatrice shrugged and returned to the logic of the ‘outside world.’
“…Besides, there’s no way anyone would carry out something that big in Saintroix, which the Kingdom of Gallia directly oversees.”
“I see.”
Lydia nodded.
But Beatrice wasn’t finished.
“I looked into it because it bothered me personally, and every single person who’d been kidnapped had disappeared somewhere without even ‘resisting’…. Even when I asked their families or siblings, they had no idea.”
“They were kidnapped, and they ‘didn’t resist’…?”
“Weird, right? But it happened.”
It was strange.
And she felt a chill, as if something were squeezing her heart.
‘Usually, the cause behind things that happen in this damn eroge world is….’
Lydia murmured grimly.
“…The Black Temple.”
“Yeah. The world’s chaotic enough without them, but whenever something feels especially unsettling, suspicious, and reeks of filth, it’s usually them.”
“But the evidence was too vague to narrow it down based on suspicion alone, so you gave up?”
“Exactly. You really get it~!”
Clap!
Beatrice smiled brightly and clapped.
“You’re the only one who understands how I feel, Princess! Let’s kiss~”
“!”
Lydia sensed the impending physical affection.
Sure enough, the thirty-something beauty in a black dress puckered her lips and leaned in, but Lydia evaded her with a graceful movement.
“Mwah~!”
“…Enough.”
Her movements were restrained and precise.
Lydia merely shifted her feet slightly from side to side, but Beatrice couldn’t get her lips to touch Lydia’s skin. It felt like she was swishing at mist.
As expected of a Sword Master.
Even her evasive skills were formidable.
Beatrice puffed out her cheeks and said,
“Tch, you were so tiny at ten, you could fit right in my pocket. When did you get so big?”
“I wasn’t that small even then.”
“It’s just a figure of speech….”
“I see.”
Lydia coolly wrapped up the conversation.
“Anyway, to sum it up… the past incident reeks of the Black Temple, but there’s no proof, and it caused quite a commotion….”
Beatrice said, “Ah!” She’d almost forgotten the most important thing.
“And I looked into the secret auction house after you told me about it, Princess.”
“?”
“If you hadn’t given me that ‘information,’ even I, a local, wouldn’t have known such a thing existed. They call it this among themselves.”
The Triangle of Desire.
It was an ominous name just to hear.
Lydia murmured.
“The Triangle of Desire….”
And thought,
‘The Black Temple’s stink is all over this.’
*
One of the inn’s rooms.
Morgan was lost in thought in her room. What came to mind was what Lydia had said yesterday after going out with the country bumpkin.
-Are you happy?
“….”
Morgan rested her chin on her hand,
trying to read the intention and emotion behind that question.
The tone that day,
the expression that day,
the incident that day….
‘What was with that weird question all of a sudden? What did she mean by it?’
But.
It hadn’t occurred to her that she could simply ask Lydia and get an answer. Truthfully, her pride—that ‘asking would mean losing’—had also been a major obstacle.
Morgan finally sighed.
“Phew.”
‘Even if I agonize over this, that girl probably isn’t thinking about it at all.’
Sometimes,
it felt stupid to be fretting all alone like this. The very idea that she could just ask honestly felt unbearably awkward.
She thought she was an idiot.
“Hmph….”
Morgan quietly stood up.
Then she headed off to eat.
‘If I just hang around, I’ll hear what she has to say.’
Thinking that,
she went down the stairs one by one.
The somewhat oversized stairs for her small frame.
And just as she was about to reach the lobby,
she heard something break.
Crash!
Crash—!
Morgan flinched.
“!”
A young man apologized as if he were screaming. He was one of the inn’s attendants. He’d fallen while cleaning and knocked over a bucket with a tremendous clatter.
“I-I’m sorry! I deserve to die!”
“It’s all right.”
The one who answered his apology was Lydia, who was eating. The area around her was littered with dishes scattered by the bucket.
She spoke calmly.
“You haven’t done anything deserving of death. It was just a mistake. Are you hurt?”
“Ah, I-I’m fine….”
“I’m fine too. Neither of us is hurt.”
“Y-yes….”
Lydia placed a hand on the dazed young man’s shoulder and said,
“Then let’s resolve the situation instead of wasting our emotions.”
“W-what do you mean…?”
It was a foolish question.
But the young man’s eyes wavered with self-reproach.
To him,
Lydia spoke gently.
“First, wipe up the water around you and gather the broken dishes. If you do your job, everything will be taken care of.”
“B-but… I should apologize first!”
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of holding you responsible for anything. So you can just return to your usual work.”
“!”
An obvious instruction.
A return to everyday life.
The confusion was not his responsibility.
“….”
The young man’s eyes gradually regained their composure.
He answered again in a calm voice.
“…Understood.”
“Mm.”
Lydia nodded in satisfaction.
Morgan sat down beside her and grumbled.
“It’s nothing, but he’s making such a fuss. If someone working at an inn makes a mistake, it’s only natural that they clean it up.”
“Don’t be so hard on him.”
Lydia said with a wry smile.
“For him, this was a moment when his job and livelihood were at stake. He was terrified because a single gesture from someone could get him thrown out onto the cold streets.”
“…Hmm.”
Morgan pursed her lips.
Hmph.
I knew that too.
‘I only said something because the whole situation was pathetic, but now it makes me sound like the bad guy again.’
And….
‘…I’m an idiot for thinking there’s something nice about the way you understand people like that.’
To Morgan,
Lydia quietly spoke.
“Morgan.”
“Yeah?”
“Is there something you want to say to me?”
“….”
Morgan sulked for no reason. She didn’t like how Lydia kept making her thoughts waver.
“…What? If you’ve got nothing to say, should I go?”
“No. You may do as you wish.”
“….”
That ‘your own will’….
She gave in eventually.
But she couldn’t admit it right away.
“…It’s not like that.”
“I see.”
As embarrassment washed over her,
Morgan crossed her legs for no reason and propped her chin on her hand.
The girl sitting in a slovenly posture,
and the girl sitting primly fell silent.
“….”
“….”
Morgan was the one to break the silence.
“Lydia.”
“Why do you call?”
“Why did you come to Saintroix? You care about efficiency, so it’s strange that you’ve spent days just lazing around. It doesn’t seem like you came just to spend summer vacation with your friends.”
“….”
Lydia answered honestly.
“There’s something I’m looking for.”
“Really?”
“I know it exists, but I have no idea where I should go.”
“Hmm….”
Morgan tapped her finger on the table. A few seconds later, she spoke.
“Then don’t worry about the location for now. Start by figuring out what the items have in common, or what kind of people are selling them. If you work backward from there, you can narrow down the right place.”
“….”
Lydia’s eyes widened.
At that reaction, which somehow made her heart flutter,
Morgan spoke in a small voice.
“I’ll help you look.”
“Because we’re friends?”
“….”
Again.
Like this again….
But looking flustered now felt like losing.
“W-well… yeah.”
“Thank you.”
“….”
Morgan turned her head sharply away.
“…Hmph.”
But the corners of her mouth had lifted a little.