Eternally Regressing in Another World

Chapter 33: Square 27: The Girl’s Crisis

"Fufufu, welcome, at last! To the hideout of yours truly, Flaut Beyonetta!"

Beyonetta, a name I’d definitely heard before.

"Wait, are you maybe...?"

Considering his age, could this kid be Elizabeth’s little brother!? Ah, yeah, looking closer, the mouth and eyebrows really do match hers.

"That’s right! I’m the eldest son of the Beyonetta family, Flaut Beyonetta! The actual son of Luganis Beyonetta!"

"...Who’s Luganis?"

At my innocent question, the boy’s face filled with shock.

"Wait, wait, hold on! No way!? You don’t know my dad... how!!?"

Asking "how" wasn’t really fair. All I’d ever heard about Elizabeth’s father was that he was some kind of distinguished knight. I’d only been in this country for a few days, no need to grill me over my ignorance.

"Well, I do know Elizabeth, at least."

Elizabeth’s little brother let out a heavy sigh, speaking with an exasperated expression.

"Listen up, mister. Luganis Beyonetta is the strongest knight in the entire Parrot Kingdom right now. Position wise, he’s the captain of the Royal Knight Order, called the King’s right hand!"

So basically the king’s trusted enforcer. Position wise, probably something like a police commissioner or a cabinet minister? Though with someone like that around, the country’s public safety still leaves a lot to be desired.

"D-don’t tell me you don’t believe me? You totally don’t believe I’ve got Beyonetta blood in me!?"

If anything, it clicked into place perfectly. That overblown confidence was a spitting image of Elizabeth’s.

"No, I believe you. You act exactly like her."

"Her?"

"Your sister. Elizabeth Beyonetta. I actually know her."

At that, Flaut’s face went pale instantly. His whole body started trembling.

"What’s wrong!?"

"M-mister, are you Eliza sis’s friend!?"

"Well, something like that. Fought alongside her, got invited to her place, so I’d say we’re on decent terms. Only met her recently though."

Flaut’s face went even paler. ...Was he scared of Elizabeth or something? Just as I was thinking that, Flaut suddenly started apologizing.

"WAAAAAAAAH!!! I’M SORRY, I’M SOOOOORRY!!!!"

"Wha!? What all of a sudden!?"

"IT’S OVER!!! SIS IS GONNA FIND OUT!!! She’s gonna find out I built a secret hideout and skipped school!!! IT’S ALL OVER, OVER, OVEEEEER!!!!"

The crying was loud enough to hurt my ears. Sure, Elizabeth probably was scary when angry, but did he really need to wail this hard...

"Please don’t tell sis! Please don’t tell dad either!! Please don’t tell Tender either!! Please don’t tell Rick either!! Please don’t tell Selva either!! Um, and also..., also~~..."

Quite the list of demands. Just how badly did he not want to get scolded. There was one thing I wanted to ask, though.

"Tender specifically shouldn’t be that scary, should he?"

"He’s got dirt on me, makes me help with his pranks."

I couldn’t help but sigh. What is that guy even having a kid do? Maybe I really should’ve punched him back in the bathhouse.

After that, Flaut fussed for about five minutes before finally calming down.

"It’s fine, I’m not telling anyone!"

"Really? Not lying?"

"Yeah, man to man promise!"

"But adults lie all the time."

Couldn’t argue with that. How many times had I lied since coming to this world...

"...Alright, if I break my promise, take this."

He pulled a writing tool out of his bag and handed me a single ballpoint pen.

"Huh, what’s this? A pen?"

"Yeah, the only one of its kind in the whole world. Super rare."

Well, it was just an Earth ballpoint pen, so no lie there technically. And this particular pen had cost about 3000 yen, a pretty decent one, so it should carry at least some believability.

"Hold onto it. If I break my promise, keep it, it’s yours. Once you can trust me again, you can give it back."

"...Alright. If you’re going that far, I’ll believe you."

We’d talked about all sorts of things, but hadn’t actually gotten to the real point yet. Why he’d called me out here in the first place. And more importantly, I wanted him to tell me about Shiran.

"Alright, mind explaining now?"

"You mean about Shiran?"

"Yeah."

"...I have a favor to ask."

Saying that, Flaut pressed his forehead against the dusty attic floorboards.

"I need your help saving Shiran!"

Even with his head bowed, there was a certain intensity to him. Not a trace of the childish attitude from before remained.

"From bullying?"

"It’s worse than that!"

...Worse than that? Did that mean abuse? But Shiran’s parents were supposed to be dead... Wait, hold on...

(Your parents?) (Not here. Mom died too.)

She’d said "mom too" that time... Normally wouldn’t you say "mom and dad"? Saying only her mother meant, was her father still alive? If so, why was Shiran living in a run down inn like that?

"Is it possibly because of Shiran’s father?"

"Yeah!"

Flaut looked up sharply. Large tears spilled from his bloodshot eyes. But his expression wasn’t crying. He held my gaze firmly, not looking away for even a moment. Flaut took a breath and spoke words that hit like a shock.

"At this rate, Shiran’s going to become a slave!!"

In that moment, my fate was dragged once again into the middle of a battlefield.

—-

"A slave, what does that even mean..."

The whole thing was too outlandish to fully process. Normally, not many people would take a kid seriously saying something like this. But there was Shiran’s abnormal treatment. That word, "ghost." With this many strange pieces already on the table, dismissing it just because it sounded unbelievable felt like the wrong call.

"...Alright. I’ll believe you."

"...Really?"

Flaut wiped his tears, looking at me with a somewhat surprised expression. He probably hadn’t expected me to believe him.

"Anyway, walk me through it in order. Did you hear about Shiran becoming a slave from someone?"

"Yeah, I heard Shiran’s dad talking with some noble."

"...Do you remember what they said?"

"It was quiet, and once I heard ’make Shiran a slave,’ I got scared and ran off right away."

Flaut clenched his teeth, looking frustrated. I spoke gently to the boy.

"Anyone would get scared hearing something like that. If anything, thanks for telling me about it."

Flaut kept his head down, not looking up. His voice, still muffled from crying, gave a small "yeah."

"So, when did you hear this?"

"...Maybe two days ago."

More time had passed than I expected. But so far, Shiran didn’t seem to have suffered any actual harm. The only real damage so far was the bullying at school.

"Shiran was called a ghost at school. Is that connected to the slave thing too?"

Flaut shook his head firmly.

"I didn’t even know things had gotten that bad for Shiran either. Seems like she’s been called that at school for a while now. We’re in different classes, so I don’t know exactly when it started. But it sounds like the ghost thing was happening even before I heard about the slave stuff."

From what he was saying, maybe the bullying and the slavery plan weren’t actually connected. If that’s the case, I should probably treat them as separate issues. Which left the real problem, that father who’d been having such a dangerous conversation.

"Shiran’s father, huh..."

The moment "sell your own kid into slavery" comes up in conversation, there’s no way that person is anything close to good. If it came down to it, there might be a use for that revolver after all.

"I know a little about Shiran’s dad."

Flaut, still looking down, muttered as if remembering something.

"Tell me, what kind of guy is he?"

"Shiran’s dad is a guard in this country. And a pretty high ranking one, too."

I wasn’t even that surprised, it made sense. So that’s why Flaut had come to a total stranger like me instead of relying on the guards.

"He’s really scary. Not long ago I saw Shiran get yelled at and dragged off somewhere by force..."

"Where to?"

"I don’t know. She got put in a carriage right away... But she was back at school the next day, I went to check on her class because I was worried."

"When did that happen?"

"Um, about two weeks ago."

So Shiran had still been going to school two weeks ago, meaning that was probably before the ghost rumors spread. Putting the timeline together, she gets dragged off, then the ghost rumors start, then the slave conversation. Things were starting to connect.

"This is just a guess, but maybe something happened when she got taken away. If it was two weeks ago, there should be plenty of people to ask around."

Never thought I’d end up playing detective in a place like this. But having gotten this involved already, there was no way I was backing out now.

"Have you told anyone else about this? Elizabeth, for instance?"

"I was gonna tell her. But there’s been a big fuss lately about an oil field found in a nearby village. Because of that I can’t even see dad. And if I told Eliza sis, she’s probably too busy to do anything anyway."