2
In a certain city district, the moon had already set, but there was still no trace of the sun. A flurry of wind could be heard in the early dawn. The high-pitched gusts sounded over and over, trembling in the air for a moment like a birdcall or a reed pipe before the darkness returned to silence.
A slender elf woman was swinging a wooden sword nearly as long as she was tall. Her movements were swift and sharp as her elegant arms whipped the sword from overhead straight down with impeccable form. An instant later, she reversed the edge, slicing diagonally upward with a speed rivaling any quick-draw technique. If she were in an actual fight, her opponent would probably have run away in the face of such deft skill.
Her dyed, pale green hair swayed as her sword flashed. She wore a light tunic and short pants that fluttered when she moved. Her fair skin stood out under the dark sky.
“…Is it time?”
The sound of one last, particularly sharp practice swing echoed as the elf—Lyu Leon—finished her morning practice.
Inside the giant city walls, her eyes narrowed once the sun started to reveal itself in the eastern sky. Her body glistened with a thin sheen of sweat as the early morning air cleared.
This was the Labyrinth City, Orario. It was a well-known metropolis that prospered as the Center of the World, sitting atop the only underground dungeon in the world. Lyu was employed at one of the taverns in the city, The Benevolent Mistress.
She was an early riser. The restaurant’s preparations started early in the morning, but she swung her wooden sword in the dark every day well before that, when the sun had yet to climb above the horizon. Even as a former adventurer who had washed her hands of delving into the Dungeon, Lyu was still meticulous in her training.
Perhaps it was because the elf warrior had found herself in peril several times since she had arrived in Orario, but regardless, she had not forgotten to be diligent in her studies.
Frankly, one should pursue self-improvement and similar ideals until they become habit.
The tavern’s courtyard was wide, surrounded by wooden structures not connected to the main building. Originally there were plans for another expansion, so the area had been cleared out and part of the ground was paved with stones. The shop’s outdoor storage shed was also in the courtyard. Already sweaty, Lyu looked down at her slender arms.
“This isn’t enough…”
Her true feelings unconsciously escaped from her lips in a whisper. Once, she had invited her coworkers, who were plenty strong themselves, but they refused to come a second time. Apparently, she had not controlled herself enough. They had called her a training junkie and complained that she did not hold back. She was always overdoing it. Remembering the abuse that had been hurled at her in the past, Lyu unconsciously sighed.
“Maybe I should ask Mr. Cranell to join me next time.”
Looking up at the slightly dark sky, Lyu thought of a certain adventurer. She had only just gotten to know him—though it had already been two months since they met. He was a young human boy, still wet behind the ears, but he was also making progress at shocking speed, both figuratively and literally. For a number of reasons, he had caught Lyu’s eye. He seems to be working toward some kind of goal himself, so training together could work out well for both of us.
But after thinking that far, Lyu suddenly shook her head. No, I couldn’t do that to Syr. The boy was her friend’s sweetheart and perhaps even a future lover. Spending her early morning practice alone with him while knowing that would be dishonorable. At least, that was how Lyu felt.
On the other hand, I don’t have any ulterior motives. If it was only training, then… Her thoughts drifted, but as she imagined Syr’s face, a sense of guilt welled up in her heart.
Conflicted, Lyu cleared her mind and headed toward her room among the wooden buildings. First she had to clean herself, then change into her uniform. The sun had already cleared the city wall, and dazzling light was starting to shine on the city as Lyu prepared for another day as a waitress at the tavern.
It was another bustling day at The Benevolent Mistress.
The three-story stone building gave the impression of a tidy little inn that was bigger than it seemed from the outside. Its location on West Main Street made it convenient for customers to come and go.
During the day, the clientele was largely female and consisted primarity of regular city residents, while after dark, the bar and tables were usually filled with adventurers returning from the Dungeon. It managed the different groups of customers well: The menu changed as morning became evening, charging adventurers who had more money to burn with higher prices.
As the restaurant’s dwarf owner, Mia Grand, liked to say, “We’re treating them to our delicious food and drink, after all. If they can’t pay, then they don’t get any!”
In reality, a great deal of adventurers were regulars who visited often, many obsessed with her special fruit wine (which was guaranteed to taste amazing).
“The morning is better, though, meow…”
“When it gets late, the beer-starved adventurers swarm us…Ugh, it’s depressing, meow.”
“Hey, kitties, you’re being slow. Mama Mia is going to yell at you.”
The former top-tier adventurer Mia had gone into semi-retirement and opened The Benevolent Mistress, where several women lived and worked. Lyu was one of them.
The catgirls leaning on the counter were Ahnya and Chloe, while the human warning them like always was Runoa. Lyu didn’t pay them any mind as she carried a fruit tart on a platter.
“Two guests coming in!”
The girl with light blue-gray hair guiding the two new customers was Syr. She was the only employee who didn’t room at the tavern. She was a human girl with standout looks; the tavern used her as a cute salesgirl to lure in traffic from the street. Unlike Lyu, who was brusque and difficult to approach, Syr graciously treated everyone equally. She had won the adoration of the male patrons as a straightforward, honest local girl. Even rowdy adventurers who had too much to drink calmed down when confronted with her surprising stubbornness and fearless smile. Thanks to the tavern owner Mia, as well as Lyu and the rest of the employees, The Benevolent Mistress was running smoothly like always.
The inside bustling with demi-human women made for a picturesque sight as sunlight shone through the windows. It was almost noon, and traffic on the street outside was picking up when the shop’s moment of peace was shattered.
“Then what? Are you saying you sold Anna?!”
Lyu, the other staff, and all the customers in the tavern glanced over at a human couple Syr had just seated.
“I didn’t sell her—she was taken.”
“That’s the same thing, isn’t it, you idiot! That’s why I kept telling you to stop gambling…”
The woman with her flaxen hair tied back had seen many years come and go, but she had not lost her beauty. She raised her voice as the man sitting across from her responded listlessly, an unkempt five-o’clock shadow noticeable on his face.
“What kind of father puts his own daughter up as collateral for a bet?!”
The mother shouted one last time before burying her face in her hands and bawling.
An awkward wave of unease swept through the restaurant. Ahnya and Chloe, who were diligently going about their work, peeked their heads out of kitchen at the loud sobs. Runoa stopped in her tracks as she, Lyu, Syr, and the catgirl chefs all exchanged glances.
The middle-aged man noticed all of the gazes focused on their table, and finally looked up as he jumped to his feet, kicking away his chair.
“What are you looking at?! This isn’t some spectacle! Just eat your crappy food, assholes!”
“W-wait, stop that!”
The woman tried to hold him back as he flew into a rage, but he would not be subdued. He clenched the glass of water that had been placed in front of him, flinging the contents everywhere. As he continued swinging it around, the customers nearby shrieked, followed by an immediate thump —something caught his flailing arm.
“Pardon me, sir, but if you are going to make a scene, could you please pay now and leave instead?”
“What did you—Oww?!”
A sharp cry of pain cut off the question. Runoa had apparently approached without a sound, and she squeezed tighter. She seemed like any other girl her age, but her grip convinced the man his arm was at the breaking point.
“Hey, who do you think cleans this floor, meow?”
“A clown who wastes the food and water we prepared for him can go get cursed by the gods and drop into hell for all I care, meow.”
More thump s echoed as a wickedly smiling Chloe and a visibly furious Ahnya came up from behind the angry man to grab hold of his shoulders. Then they whipped out one leg each, smoothly tripping their quarry. With his support knocked out from under him, he fell straight the floor.
“Wh…what?”
As soon as he hit the ground, the man’s body rose back into the air as the towering dwarf mistress of the establishment grasped him by the collar of his tunic. He was a full-grown man, but she needed only one hand to hold him up. When he saw Mia’s dangerous expression up close, all the color drained from his face.
“It’s pretty ballsy to call our food bad before you’ve even had any, don’t you think?”
“Aaaahhhh…!!”
“—You’re annoying the other customers, you idiot!”
The next instant, she tossed him in a smooth arc through the entryway and halfway into the main street, while the man screamed all the way. A carriage suddenly came to a halt, horse neighing, when the man rolled out of nowhere into the middle of the street. The throng was startled for a moment, but as soon as people recognized what tavern he had flown out of, everyone carefully avoided him and moved along as though they were used to it.
The Benevolent Mistress. It was a place where the women Mia employed all had special circumstances , and most were accustomed to fighting.
Adventurers who didn’t know better were often drawn in by the tavern’s reputation for sweet and beautiful girls. It was a familiar scene in the neighborhood to see customers who made foolish mistakes come flying out the door looking the worse for wear.
As the shop calmed down, Lyu thought she had been too slow to react.
“I’m sorry, it sounded like a bit of a distressing story, but…did something happen?”
Syr calmly approached her, head tilted slightly, but the dumbfounded woman froze and was unable to answer.
* * *
“…Gambling with his daughter as collateral…”
Lyu unconsciously furrowed her brow. After collecting the man, who had fainted in the street, she joined Syr in a corner of the tavern to listen to their story.
The woman’s name was Karen and her husband’s was Huey. They were a couple who made their living day to day in the magic-stone manufacturing business by helping out in a small store. They had lived in the city’s western district until that very day—Huey liked to gamble, and had gotten involved in an incident as a result.
“I had no choice…By that point, there wasn’t anything I could do. I had to. Why else would I wager my daughter, Anna…?”
After coming to, the battered Huey lifelessly explained the situation as he sat in a chair.
He had somehow ended up wagering the daughter he had raised with Karen as collateral in a gamble—and lost. Lyu, an elf known for her strict standards, couldn’t hide the scorn and contempt in her gaze. Syr put her hand on Karen’s shoulder to comfort her as she held back tears. Ahnya was shocked, as were the others listening as they went about their work.
“What was so unavoidable? This happened because you were playing with fire—didn’t it?!”
“Th-that’s…B-but, at first they were saying ‘it’s just a game.’ But when I kept losing, the atmosphere changed all of a sudden! They talked about kicking in the door of our home if it seemed like I couldn’t pay up what I lost. One thing led to another, and then I couldn’t undo it…”
When he noticed Karen’s teary-eyed glare, Huey swallowed the rest of his excuses. From what he had said so far, it was clear he had failed the last big gamble, losing his daughter and his house in the process. Earlier that morning, a bunch of thugs kidnapped his daughter, while Karen, dazed from being thrown out of her home, went to the only place left where she could calm down—The Benevolent Mistress. When she heard the details from Huey, they started bickering, and the rest was obvious.
Huey was talking about waking up with a massive hangover, handcuffed after the party ended, when Syr abruptly asked, “The others involved in this gamble, did they happen to be adventurers?”
“…Yeah, they were a bunch of delinquents from several different familias. They threatened me and wouldn’t stop glaring…‘If it’s a wager for your beloved daughter, then we can give you one last chance…’ ”
Hearing that, Karen bent over the table, crying again. “You shameless…!”
As her insults came out as sobs, her already hopeless failure of a husband became subdued and bowed his head again and again. However, Lyu’s eyebrow rose slightly in surprise. There was one part of the story that did not sit well with her. To be more precise, she had seen an operation that resembled this in the past.
“Your daughter, Anna, could you tell me a bit more about her?”
At her question, both Karen and Huey managed to raise their heads and exchange glances. Gradually, they answered the elf who stood on the other side of the table, staring intensely.
“Well, like I said before, she is my pride and joy…”
“Yes, she is very pretty, like I used to be, and she’s good-natured. A little reserved, but she’s a good girl.”
Just as Huey started, Karen wiped her eyes and spoke up, full of confidence, while Syr politely nodded, encouraging them to keep going.
“In the western district, she had a stellar reputation. Some male gods even proposed to her. Of course, she turned them down with ‘Please don’t tease me,’ and so on.”
“And going out?”
“Hmm?”
“Did she go out much?”
“Well…At the flower shop she worked at, Anna spent a good bit out and about delivering things.”
Karen responded, clearly confused by Lyu’s line of questioning.
A good disposition. Attractive. Charming enough to catch a god’s eye at a glance. And her job involved traveling through the city enough to be noticed. After hearing that, Lyu’s confidence increased. Most likely, they were after the girl from the beginning.
“…A girl that cute would have definitely been sold to the Pleasure Quarter. Argh! Who knows what is happening to her now!”
“Have you tried asking the Guild or Ganesha Familia for help?”
“It’s hopeless. The city is overflowing with similar reports. This happens every day. No one will be able to respond immediately.”
Karen shook her head as she shot down Syr’s suggestion to seek help from the Guild—the city’s highest administrative authority—or a well-known familia that worked closely with them to police Orario.
Even if they tried to request an unofficial quest, it could only end in heartbreak because they did not have nearly enough money for a suitable reward.
“If only Astrea Familia were around…”
Lyu struggled to rein in her feelings so they would not show on her face as Karen absently whispered her plea.
“Just stop it already! Talking about a familia that doesn’t exist anymore…”
“But if Goddess Astrea were around, I know she would help people like us! Why would such a kind familia just disappear…?”
After she finished speaking, Karen clutched her chest and broke down into tears. Huey’s gaze shifted into the distance as he went silent.
Astrea Familia. The faction of the goddess whose emblem was the winged sword of justice. During the Dark Age when the Evils ran free in the city, they worked to maintain Orario’s law and order, fighting the strong and protecting the weak. This familia of justice no longer existed.
The familia that Lyu used to belong to.
“…”
Lyu stayed silent as Karen sobbed. Syr, Ahnya, and the rest who knew Lyu’s past studied their elf coworker with mixed expressions.
Busily working at the middle of the counter was Mia, who had yet to bat an eye at the story. She pretended not to hear the conversation, as if she didn’t want to know how things shook out.
Lyu questioned herself as she heard their sad voices.
I quit already. No more helping strangers I’ve never met without asking for a reward or any compensation. I decided it would only be for the people around me. No more, no less. I can’t be the one to bear the standard of justice anymore.
Lyu recalled the conclusion she had reached after falling into a firestorm of vengeance once.
Even though it would only be more hypocrisy…
The smile of a goddess who adored children flashed through her mind, along with images of her comrades in the familia. Above all, she remembered a close friend, a red-haired girl who had argued with Lyu— If you ever feel lost, stop thinking about complicated stuff! Just be true to yourself! Her goddess’s blessing, still engraved on Lyu’s back, suddenly ached.
Lyu closed her sky-blue eyes and sighed at the budding emotions she could not hide in her heart.
That evening, the sky was a dark blue. The moon watched over the giant walls that enclosed the city. Around midnight, Lyu walked along a side street by herself. The Benevolent Mistress was closed, and cleanup had ended. Syr had gone home, and the others split up to go to bed like always. The only one not back in her room yet was Lyu.
She had secretly left the tavern, wearing a long hooded coat and a lengthy skirt. Dressed as though she was selling flowers around the slums, she walked past dwarves and animal people drunkenly snoring by the side of the road. Many shops were closing, but the Shopping District and the Pleasure Quarter were just getting started. Orario didn’t sleep, no matter how late. Even on this backstreet, the light of magic-stone lamps leaked out from several taverns out onto the street as they continued serving laborers or adventurers searching for a cheap place to drink. Her hood pulled over her head, Lyu stopped in front of a certain bar nestled in an alleyway where the hustle and bustle of the main street did not reach.
“…”
She descended a set of stairs and opened the beaten-up wooden door.
The scene that greeted her could only be found in a run-down, hole-in-the-wall establishment like the one she just entered. She saw a bony, guffawing chienthrope, a provocatively dressed Amazon who brushed off advances with her smile, and various demi-humans, their deep voices booming, huddled together at wooden tables. A smoky odor wafted in the air, as if something was burning.
A group of men in armor who seemed to be regulars were drinking and accosting every woman who passed by. Whether they were adventurers or not, clearly they were troublemakers. The place was a true den of iniquity.
As all the patrons inspected the new arrival in their midst, Lyu cut through the interior with practiced ease. Attracting suspicious gazes, she stopped in front of a table with a mound of gold coins and cards spread across it, where several men were gambling.
“You’re a new face…Something you want from a place like this, Miss Elf?”
The one who spoke was a large human man with a sword at his waist. A grin crept across his face as he examined her attractive features and distinctly elfin ears peeking out of the hood. Demi-human men and women who appeared to be adventurers surrounded him. With subordinates on every side, he was clearly the one in charge.
“Does the name Anna Kreiz mean anything to you?”
As the distressed couple was leaving, Lyu had asked Huey where he had gone to gamble. At first, he had been drinking at a tavern on a major avenue, but after he had accrued losses he couldn’t afford, he was taken to a back-alley bar—this one.
“What, you her friend or something?”
The man’s grin widened as if he had just found an interesting new plaything. His underlings moved toward the exit, blocking Lyu’s way out.
“That girl’s a jewel, you know. No one would believe she was just some ordinary city girl, just looking at her. I wanted to give her a go, too, ha-ha-ha!”
“I’d like you to tell me where she is now.”
“Oh, I see, I see…And you were expecting that for free, I suppose?”
At this point, everyone in the bar was watching Lyu and laughing or grinning scornfully. Finally, the man hauled himself from his slouch across the chair into a proper sitting position.
“So, missy, know how to play cards?” he asked as he drew a card from the deck on the table. “Since you came here all alone, you must be pretty confident in your strength, right? I’m not fond of brute force, though, so I was thinking maybe we could play a game. I’ll bet the information you’re after. You can bet money, maybe even put yourself up if you don’t have enough to cover the wager.”
“…”
“That’s how this started, after all. That poor excuse of a father bet his only daughter, played a game, and wound up handing her over to us.”
The man recognized that Lyu was an adventurer, or at least someone comparably powerful. He was taking precautions while simultaneously trying to draw her onto his home field with gambling. Meeting his gaze, she nodded.
“All right.”
Placing a bag full of gold coins on the table, she sat in the chair across from the burly man. A split second later, an uproar broke out around her. The adventurers cheered for the spectacle that was about to begin.
“If I win, you’ll tell me everything.”
“Ah, no problem, no problem. That’s if you win, though, missy.”
Before long, their table was completely hemmed in by spectators excited to watch the game, but also preventing the gorgeous elf from escaping. Lyu squared off against the thug leader, surrounded by a wall of people.
“What are we going to play?”
“How’s poker sound?”
Lyu didn’t object as the man started to shuffle. Ordinarily, for the various people in the mortal realm, cards meant a standard deck. It was made of fifty-three cards in four suits with twelve cards each, plus one joker that could be used in place of any card. The suits were swords representing war, fruits meaning fertility, coins signifying wealth, and blessing in the form of chalices. One theory was that they originally dated back to the Ancient Times and had been adapted to games in their current form, while another theory held that the gods who descended to the mortal realm brought the designs with them.
Poker was one of many possible games. After cards were dealt from the deck, it was a contest between players to see who could assemble the best hand.
“What’s in the bag, missy?”
“Fifty thousand valis.”
The man whistled at her response. He furrowed his brow deeply as he cut and shuffled the cards in an easy, practiced manner.
“You should have said so sooner! If you happen to lose that money and still want to continue gambling…Well, then, like I said before, just wager yourself.”
“…”
“I’ve lost count of the number of elves I’ve sold to the Pleasure Quarter like you. But please don’t misunderstand. I didn’t do anything to them until they couldn’t pay back what they owed, you know?”
The man licked his lips as his gaze shifted to Lyu’s slender neck, crawling across her pale skin.
Vulgar jeers and laughter assaulted Lyu’s slender ears. It was intimidation. An attempt to agitate her. The psychological battle had already started. The leader of the toughs laughed as he started doling out cards.
“One thing I should tell you.”
“Oh-ho-ho, and what’s that?”
As her opponent finished dealing, Lyu’s sky-blue eyes narrowed beneath her hood.“—I won’t tolerate cheating.”
As she said that, she drew the shortsword at her waist and, faster than anyone could react, stabbed it down into the table.
The entire bar fell silent after the loud crash. Her opponent’s eyes went wide and he started to sweat as the naked blade stood right between two of his fingers, a hairbreadth away from piercing his skin. His arm trembled as the card that he had hidden in the palm of his hand fluttered to the table.
“Next will be your finger.”
The man went pale as Lyu retracted the sword after her calm declaration.
“Be careful. I always end up going too far .”
With a sharp gaze, she offered one final warning. The people around the table nervously gulped.
Naturally, it was only a bluff. Lyu was neither cruel nor brutal enough to actually commit such violence over a game. However, the results were immediate. The man and his henchmen who had lost their insurance broke into cold sweats. She had thrown them off balance, and they could not read her. All that was left was to amuse herself with a normal game. Holding her cards so that the people around her couldn’t see, she matter-of-factly built her hand. Lyu knew that in a gamble, someone who had been shaken once would keep jumping at shadows.
“Just as you wrote in your letter, the Marketplace—or rather the corporation—took custody of Anna Kreiz. However, by the time I investigated, she had already been sold.”
“To the Pleasure Quarter?”
The Marketplace served as a gateway to the city’s distribution network. Various goods passed through here on their way in or out of Orario. The sale of people to the Pleasure Quarter was a closely guarded secret, though it happened with great frequency. The Guild turned a blind eye to these practices.
Lyu’s face was strained as Asfi responded in a soft voice.
“It wasn’t the Pleasure Quarter. Leon, I don’t know what you’ve stuck your nose into, but it would be better for you not to get involved any further.”
“You’re beating around the bush, Andromeda. Who bought her?”
Asfi’s blue eyes narrowed behind her glasses as Lyu’s tone hardened.
“The one who bought Anna Kreiz was from one of the casinos’ people.”
“!”
Lyu went wide-eyed.
“…A casino in the Shopping District? That’s not just any gambling den…”
“Yes. Due to investment from sources outside the city and even beyond the country, it has grown too much. Gambling’s the biggest industry in the city after magic-stone items. The Guild has no oversight there, so it’s the one place in Orario that the law can’t reach .”
In the past, Orario—often called the Center of the World—was missing just one thing: entertainment. In order to meet to the deities’ insistent demands, city authorities welcomed foreign capital and know-how from Mayrustra, the Country of Opera; the Paradise City, Santorio Vega; and other famous countries or cities. Thanks to that, countless entertainment options had been constructed in the Shopping District. Foremost among them were the Theater and the casinos.
Within Orario, where people and goods from all around the world gathered, those facilities ended up growing far beyond the control of the city where they were established. Business was booming, and the entertainment venues were set to overtake the magic-stone-goods industry Orario was so proud of. At this point, the Guild had to tread lightly around them. Consequently, the foreign entities that had originally provided the investment capital had complete oversight. It was fair to say these areas were extraterritorial.
“The casino I’m talking about has cooperation from the Guild, and it has contracted Ganesha Familia for security.”
“…”
“Infiltration is not feasible. And even if that could be done, you would definitely be caught. It’s not possible, Leon. Even for you.”
This particular casino was where upper-class adventurers, gods, and the wealthy visiting from outside the city went to spend their money. If anything happened to the richest patrons, the city’s prestige and reputation would be affected. Strong adventurers were employed to keep out anyone who wasn’t properly authorized. Ganesha Familia boasted many first-tier adventurers and was one of the preeminent factions in Orario. For a Level 4, second-tier adventurer like Lyu, it would be difficult to evade their guards, and on the off chance it came down to a fight, it would not end easily.
Exchanging glances with Asfi, Lyu was silent for a short while.
“Before anything else, consider that if a scandal occurs, it might even become a diplomatic problem. Orario can act as cocksure as it wants, but…well, at that point you can just call it the Guild’s problem…”
“There are branch casinos from several countries in the Shopping District. Which one bought her?”
“El Dorado Resort—the largest one in Santorio Vega. It’s known as the Paradise City’s Grand Casino.”
Lyu’s face finally scrunched into a scowl. El Dorado Resort was Orario’s most powerful casino.
“The one who bought Anna Kreiz was the owner, a dwarf named Terry Cervantes. It appears he was the one pulling the strings behind the Corporation as well as the street toughs.”
In other words, he was the one who first saw Anna and worked behind the scenes to avoid suspicion.
“El Dorado Resort…Terry Cervantes.” Lyu whispered the two names.
“A piece of advice, Leon. It’s in your best interests not to get involved.”
Ending the conversation, Asfi left her payment on the table and exited the restaurant. Lyu remained seated, silently watching Asfi walk away.
“…Hey, Ahnya, do you know what Lyu talked about with her?”
“…Myeah…I heard something or another about a casino, meow?”
Syr watched Lyu from the kitchen entrance. She was washing plates with Ahnya, whose cat ears were quivering. Looked slightly up toward the ceiling, Syr murmured.
“A casino, hmm…?”
Two days later, Lyu was lost.
Her thoughts kept going in circles as she carried out her duties in the restaurant. But it wasn’t because she was hesitant about breaking into the casino.
I could force my way in the back of the building from the Pleasure Quarter side…No, that won’t work. I heard the security has been strengthened after another familia tried to break in. Digging up from below isn’t realistic, either…
In fact, it was the opposite. Lyu was completely committed to helping this total stranger. To fund her campaign, she traded the magic stones and drop items she had been saving to an intermediary, and she had made good progress in gathering the needed equipment. She hadn’t thought at all about what would happen after the breakout.
“Stop thinking about complicated stuff.” Lyu was being true to her old friend’s advice.
The only thing that troubled her was the question of where to break into the casino.
In the evening after sunset, she was going through countless scenarios in her mind as she carried the buckets piled high with trash to the alley behind the tavern.
“…?”
The sound of people talking around the corner in the alley beside the tavern reached her. Surprised that she recognized one of the voices, Lyu peeked around the corner.
“Then I’ll take this…”
“Yes, thank you very much.”
She saw Syr bowing her head, thanking someone. The other person had finished their part in the conversation and taken their leave, just far away enough that it was difficult to make out their form in the dim light. All Lyu could see was a slender tail at the edge of her vision—probably a catperson’s.
“Syr?”
“Oh, Lyu!”
“What are you doing here?”
“Lyu, look at this!”
Dodging the question, Syr excitedly held up a sheet of paper for her to see. It was a letter with a gaudy gold leaf on a white background. It looked like an invitation to a ball.
“Syr, what is that?”
“An invitation from a casino! Someone gave it to me!”
The ever-calm Lyu couldn’t help showing her shock for a moment.
“What?!…What do you mean, Syr?”
“I happened to hear your conversation the other day. I thought it would probably be hopeless, but I tried asking an acquaintance if it’s possible to get in. And then…”
“…Unbelievable.”
“Ha-ha-ha. But if you have this, you can go to the casino, right?”
Certainly, if Lyu had an invitation letter with a pass, then she would be able to enter the Grand Casino normally from the front without breaking in. Lyu kept glancing back and forth between the letter and a smiling Syr.
“It seems that if you aren’t rich, you can’t get in…My acquaintance said ‘pretend to be the person to whom this was addressed.’ It’s a count from some small country, apparently.”
“…Was the animal person earlier the one who arranged this? Was it a man…?”
“Eh-heh-heh. Working at this tavern, you just end up making some friends…”
The invitation was originally supposed to have gone to a VIP in another country. When Lyu tried to probe further about who brought it, though, Syr just smiled and evaded the question.
Just how big is this girl’s fan club?
The mystery surrounding Syr deepened again. Lyu knew she was well connected, often receiving stellar reviews from male deities who loved her unpretentious quality ever since she started working as the tavern’s greeter.
“Anyway…is it okay if I go with you, Lyu?”
“Wha…?!”
“I’ve always wanted to see what it was like at a casino, just once~~!”
At that last bombshell, Lyu’s finally raised her voice.
“Wait a minute, Syr. Even if you really want to go, that’s just…!”
“But look, the invitation says ‘for the count and his wife, the countess’ right there. If only one person goes, it’ll look suspicious.”
“…”
Syr held the page up and pointed out where the recipients’ names were spelled out. Lyu took a deep breath, unable to argue. She recalled what Chloe and Ahnya had said before.
“She seems normeowl, but that’s a lie. Syr is a witch, meow.”
Lyu was forced to agree. Syr was supposedly just some ordinary city girl, but she was already two steps ahead.
“Very well. I can’t choose my methods, so I’ll be counting on you.”
“Yep!”
“However, don’t leave my side, no matter what. This is going to be a dangerous job.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
She felt sick again after hearing Syr’s delighted response. Giving the cheerful girl a sidelong glance, she started to modify her plan before noticing there was a word in Syr’s explanation that she had overlooked.
“Wait a minute! Syr, you said ‘and his wife.’ You don’t mean…?”
Syr merely smiled sweetly as Lyu looked agitated for once.
The sun had set behind a distant mountain range while night unfurled from the eastern sky. In the blink of an eye, Orario was swathed in twilight. Viewed from above, no one could be blamed for mistaking the Labyrinth City for a sea of stars. Lit by countless magic-stone lamps, the city put on the mask it wore at night.
Tavern girls stood in front of their respective shops calling for customers while street corners overflowed with the sounds of bards singing and playing their strings or woodwinds. The smell of grilled meat mixed with smoke wafting from pubs. Adventurers returning from the Dungeon and laborers finished with work mingled along the main street, drinking and making merry to bring their days to a close. On top of everything, excitable deities who loved their children were out and about as well. The night in Orario was just getting started.
In the midst of that, the city wall’s South Gate opened. A long column of carriages and attendants proceeded along South Main Street from outside.
The richly decorated carriages that passed the inspection point and entered the city were shockingly lavish, and the demi-humans who stepped out of them wore elegant clothes. The visitors dispersed to the hotels, the theaters, various high-class bars, and elsewhere in the Shopping District, each and every one of them scions of foreign wealth.
Once a week, Orario would open the South Gate to let in the wealthy from around the world. This was the current Guild leader’s one and only political policy: invite wealthy people from outside the city, allow them to mill around as they spent their money, then reap the economic benefits. Of course, there was a strict security check in addition to the visa required to enter the city. Following that, carriages continued into Orario one after the other, carrying merchants, aristocrats, or people with wealth and status.
Inside the checkpoint, one carriage merged onto the main street from a back alley, becoming just another part of the long procession. The carriage pretended to come from outside the gate, looking exactly the same as the rest while waiting its turn to move along until it finally stopped at one corner in the Shopping District.
After opening the door, an elf in a tuxedo stepped down, his light green hair neatly styled in dignified fashion. A large eye patch covered his left eye and half of his face, evoking the image of a certain deity of forging. Even in the middle of the Shopping District where various aristocrats wandered, he stood out, exuding a mysterious allure. The ladies were rapt as the handsome man—or rather the elf woman wearing men’s clothes—took the hand reaching out from the carriage.
“Hee-hee, thank you, dear.”
“Please stop teasing me, Syr.”
“But if we don’t act like a real husband and wife, other people might catch on, right?”
Dressed in an evening gown, she took Lyu’s hand and stepped down. Syr smiled as if she were enjoying herself, not at all shy about playing the part of the young bride for the night. On the other hand, Lyu regretted going along with the plan to pose as the count and countess.
“More importantly, isn’t that dress a bit too bold?”
“You think? I asked a merchant for a favor and had it prepared in secret, but…”
The price for Syr’s long evening gown, combined with Lyu’s tuxedo, had set the two of them back quite a bit in rental fees. Needless to say, her outfit was especially revealing. Her slender shoulders and back were bare, plus her chest was barely covered. Normally her cleavage did not appear so large, but in that dress, everything was very prominently displayed. Syr did not seem to mind everyone looking at her, but Lyu was concerned by the lewd stares. Syr giggled when the men scattered in an instant under Lyu’s sharp glare.
“As someone who works at a restaurant, I never would have thought I’d get the chance to wear something so fancy.”
The long, slender stole hanging between her elbows swayed in the breeze.
Syr had traded her normal hairstyle for one more befitting an evening party, swapping her waitress’s white headpiece with an expensive hair ornament. But the person underneath all the accessories was key. With just a little bit of makeup, anyone who didn’t know better would easily mistake this girl next door for a noblewoman. Syr was too busy enjoying the attention to realize how alluring she appeared.
If I don’t protect her… Lyu momentarily seemed like a knight, earnestly bracing herself mentally for the task she had set for herself.
“Look at this, Lyu! He also prepared this fan for me!”
“Don’t forget what we are here to do, please.”
Syr had taken out a vibrant purple fan and seemed to be playing around, and Lyu tried to remind her of their mission. The local girl stuck her tongue out right before apologizing. Bemoaning her fate, Lyu took Syr’s arm, then started walking. The entrance to their goal was a massive arched gateway built to face Main Street.
“Let’s see…Today, you are Count Ariud Maximilian, and I’m Countess Sirène Maximilian, his wife.”
“Maximilian…”
Lyu repeated the name in a daze beside Syr as their surroundings became even livelier with so many people around. There were extravagantly dressed visitors strutting around in their jewels and furs while many sturdy-looking animal people and dwarf bodyguards could be seen. From the South Gate to Central Park, located in the center of the city, Guild workers and Ganesha Familia members were placed around every major establishment along South Main Street.
That’s Shakti…So she’s here, too. Lyu had been casually looking around when she noticed a familiar beautiful woman with azure hair who was Ganesha Familia ’s leader. Finally, Lyu and Syr arrived at the arch.
“Could you please show me your letter?”
“Of course. This will do, I’m sure?”
Syr showed the invitation to the human in uniform at the gate. The man glanced over the papers, then greeted them both with a smile.
“It is a pleasure to welcome you, Lord Maximilian. Please have a wonderful evening.”
They walked past the employee, as well as the formation of Ganesha Familia members facing outward, as they crossed the threshold of the arch. Inside the large plaza, there was a giant fountain surrounded by a group of ornate buildings that were highlighted by multicolored magic-stone lamps.
Far removed from the day to day, this was a gambler’s paradise.
Lyu and Syr headed into the resplendent casino.
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