Chapter 17: Square 14: The Country That Shouldn’t Be Spoken Of (1)
Rather than shouting in triumph, I found myself collapsed on the ground. Maybe the tension finally snapped, but my legs gave out and I just sank down where I stood. Nest’s eyes, that last look she gave me. It stuck in my mind and wouldn’t let go.
"What a pathetic sight."
"...Even so, I’m still new to actual fighting."
I grabbed Elizabeth’s outstretched hand and pulled myself up.
"More importantly, can something be done about this noise? It’s unbearable."
"Ah, right, I’ll turn it off now."
Radio calisthenics, part one, had been blaring nonstop this whole time. Since I’d set it to loop, it would have kept going for a while longer if I hadn’t stopped it. I picked up my phone and killed the alarm immediately.
"Now then, do you happen to know where Tender went off to?"
"I think he went to get the carriage, if I remember right."
"Oh, is that so? I was about to ask him to do exactly that, so that works out well."
Even after a fight like that, she’d already composed herself completely. Beneath that appearance, she must be seriously used to combat.
"Can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"This counts as a favor owed, right?"
I figured, given that an outsider had contributed to keeping the peace and even risked his life lending a hand, it wouldn’t be out of line to ask for something in return.
"Ah, that matter?"
Elizabeth put a hand to her mouth and began speaking louder and more grandly than usual.
"Very well. Providing information on Nest, along with your assistance just now. I will acknowledge this as an achievement significant enough to put me in your debt. Ohhohohohohoho."
This woman really never changed. Even if the world ended, Elizabeth alone would probably survive just fine.
"Phew."
I stretched my body fully, savoring the afterglow of victory. It had been such a long road to get here. In real time, I hadn’t even spent two full days in this world yet. And yet it felt like I’d already lived through a lifetime’s worth of hardship.
"Ah, that’s right!!"
Elizabeth suddenly raised her voice. Startled, I nearly lost my balance and fell over.
"You wouldn’t happen to know where my fan went, would you?"
"Huh, your fan?"
Now that she mentioned it, the fan she’d always been fluttering near her mouth was nowhere in sight. Then again, managing to hold onto a fan through a fight that intense would be its own kind of miracle.
"The one I was holding until just a moment ago!"
"Wait... you want to search this place for it?"
"Of course!"
The room was a wreck, thoroughly wrecked, a clear testament to how fierce the battle had been. And more than anything, Nest’s corpse lay sprawled out in the middle of it all. Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to get out of this place as fast as possible. Completely unaware of how I felt, Elizabeth started rummaging through the room.
"It had better not be stained with blood..."
Saying that, she began checking underneath Nest’s body. Given who we were dealing with, I didn’t think it was disrespectful exactly. Even knowing it was fine, there was something unsettling about it, like the body might suddenly spring back to life.
"Hm, what are you doing! Hurry up and search!"
Elizabeth’s scolding came flying at me. Grumbling to myself the whole time, I started digging through the rubble. But the fan was nowhere to be found easily.
"Um, huh? Is this..."
What came out of the rubble wasn’t a fan, but a die. Covered in blood, hard to make out the number, but it showed a two. But rolling this die was supposed to kill me.
"Even thinking back on it now, it still chills me, how sudden all that was."
It had rolled across the floor, landed with a number showing. And yet, somehow, here I was, still fine.
"...Maybe it doesn’t count unless I’m the one who rolled it?"
There was still way too much mystery surrounding this die. I picked up the small cube. And just like that, it melted away into thin air, as if dissolving from body heat.
"Found it?"
"Not yet."
I wiped the blood off my hand with a tissue and resumed the search with a sigh. As I kept at it, the sound of a horse’s neigh reached us from a distance.
"Lady Elizabeth, sorry to keep you waiting!"
It seemed he’d managed to secure a carriage successfully. Unfortunately, it looked like we still couldn’t leave this bloody scene behind just yet.
"Hm? What’s going on with you two?"
"My fan has gone missing somewhere! You search too."
Hearing that, Tender’s face went blank, and he pointed straight upward.
"...Um, isn’t that it, stuck up there?"
"Huh!?" we both said at once.
I turned my eyes in the direction Tender was pointing, at the same moment as Elizabeth. And there it was, the fan, driven cleanly into the ceiling.
"Why would a fan end up stuck in the ceiling..."
Saying that, I pulled it free from the ceiling and handed it to Elizabeth.
"Well spotted, Tender. Now we can finally head back."
Hearing the word "back," it hit me all at once. ...I didn’t have a home. There was no place for me to live in this world. Worse than that, right now I had absolutely nothing, no food, no clothes, no shelter! On top of that, no money, no job, a homeless man with no fixed address!!
"Why the pale face? Hurry up and get in."
"No, that’s really not what I’m worried about right now... wait, what?"
Elizabeth stood by the carriage, waving me over.
"...You mean I’m coming along too?"
At my words, Elizabeth let out a heavy sigh.
"You seem to have completely forgotten why I lent you a hand in the first place. Perhaps I should crack open that head of yours and take a look inside."
Ah, right... (Information as payment, then?) That line I’d blurted out earlier slowly came back to me.
"Wait, wait. Just kidding, kidding."
"...Good, then."
Her face very clearly said otherwise. Well, I’d just have to flatter her a little to smooth things over.
"...Information, huh."
Come to think of it, this girl still thought I was an assassin. I’d just have to keep bluffing my way through somehow.
"Feels like out of one crisis and straight into another..."
"Did you say something?"
"No, nothing."
I let out a shallow sigh and put my foot on the carriage step. That was when a voice from behind called out to me.
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