CHAPTER 1
YOUNG CRANELL’S CASE FILE
“It’s awful…”
The adventurers grimace in unison the moment they see the scene.
Reddish-black stains are splattered everywhere.
In the center, sprawled like a doll, is a corpse.
It’s the body of a fellow adventurer, pitifully shredded—or rather punctured—by countless stab wounds.
I have no words as I stand rooted to the ground before this scene.
“No way…”
It’s Welf who spoke. He and the rest of my party have belatedly joined the group of adventurers who gathered after hearing about the incident. He draws his brows together as he lets out a groan.
Our current location is the eighteenth floor of the Dungeon.
We’ve returned to this safety point to seek treatment for the wounded members of our joint party—born from a faction alliance between Hestia Familia and several others—after we finally managed to overcome the Irregular moss huge we encountered in the lower levels, where we’d headed for our expedition. Right now, we should be planning a celebration to commemorate our safe return alongside Modi Familia and Magni Familia, who we met along the way.
That plan, however, has gone out the window with the appearance of this dead body.
“Oh yeah…it’s definitely a murder. This is the work of a human not a monster…”
Bors, the head of Rivira, clicks his tongue as he stares down at the corpse. He and the noisy group of adventurers are gathered at the foot of an enormous island that rises from the marshlands on the outskirts of the town.
He’s right. The wounds on the body are far too clean to have been inflicted by a monster’s fangs or claws. This could have been done only by an adventurer’s blade. Most likely, the lethal blow was what left a bloodstained hole in the adventurer’s neck.
The entire corpse is covered in cuts that speak to the ferocity of the attack. There are wounds from a blunt weapon, too, including crushed bones and broken limbs. The bloodshot eyes are wide open…as if the adventurer had come face-to-face with something terrifying but was unable to do anything to fend it off.
“Ugh…” Haruhime groans, pressing a hand to her mouth.
“Please don’t look, Lady Haruhime,” Mikoto says, wrapping her arms around her friend’s shoulders and blocking the horrible sight from her view.
Caught up in the wall of spectators, Lilly and Aisha exchange grim glances. Nearby, Ouka is standing tight-lipped while Daphne frowns. But the healer Cassandra is paler than anyone.
“Hey, Bell, are you okay?” Welf asks, sounding worried.
“…”
I can’t find the words to answer him. I’m just staring in a daze at the adventurer’s corpse.
My heart is beating uncontrollably.
Of course I’m shaken. Being at the site of another adventurer’s death—at the scene of a murder—is a huge shock to body and soul.
But just as powerful is the feeling of dread that dampens my cheeks with clammy sweat.
“It was Gale Wind! She was here! She did this…!”
My breath catches at those words.
Yes, indeed, the name causing all this uproar among the adventurers is none other than Gale Wind.
“I saw it! I saw a hooded elf stab Jan like a crazy person and then run off!” screams the male werewolf, a resident of Rivira and the first to discover the corpse.
As he speaks the name of his deceased acquaintance, he hugs the body, drawing the gazes of Bors and the gathered adventurers.
“I’ve seen Gale Wind once before, with a bunch of Astrea Familia members. Those guys were as strong as monsters. Her face was hidden the whole time…but the sky-blue eyes I saw deep inside the mask were the same eyes I saw today!”
Perhaps because he is reliving the experience, the werewolf adventurer is shaking from head to toe as he speaks.
There’s no doubt about it—the description matches hers.
But I still can’t believe it.
I don’t want to believe it.
How could Gale Wind—how could Lyu—do something like this?
“I’m sure of it! Gale Wind killed Jan!” the werewolf shouts.
Just as I’m about to shoot back, “Wait a minute now!” another adventurer speaks up.
“Now that you mention it…I saw someone in a mantle running across the fields.”
“Oh, me too! They went straight to the Central Tree…and down onto the floors below!”
I lose my chance to interject as the witnesses speak up one after the next. It seems that multiple adventurers saw someone who looked like Gale Wind from various vantage points in Rivira, which is carved into a cliff and has excellent views of the surrounding terrain. Lilly, Welf, Mikoto, and Haruhime—all who know about Lyu’s background—are stone-faced.
For some reason, Aisha is silent, too.
“…But didn’t Lady Leon of the Gale Wind die five years ago? And even if she’s still alive, why would she be causing trouble now?” Mikoto asks. She’s among those who were won over by Lyu’s struggle, and she’s made up her mind to express her doubts.
“…I’ve heard rumors that the Guild and Loki Familia are planning a large-scale operation in the near future. Word on the street is that they discovered the secret hideout of the Evils’ Remnants,” Bors says in an uncharacteristically serious tone.
The words secret hideout give me an idea.
Knossos, the man-made dungeon.
The violent hunters who captured Wiene and the other Xenos were using that awful place as a base camp. It’s a real incubator of Evil.
There is definitely some connection between the Evil that grew rank in Orario five years ago and Lyu, who was a member of Astrea Familia. I heard it from the elf herself on this very same eighteenth floor.
“If Gale Wind is alive and taking advantage of this new campaign by the Guild to become active again…this could all make sense.”
“…!”
“Gale Wind is a crazy adventurer, driven by hatred for those who killed her familia members to crush anyone suspicious without giving them a chance to argue back. She’ll kill anyone she deems to fall in the gray area…including merchants and Guild members,” Bors continues, crossing his arms and gazing around at the crowd.
“Plenty of residents of this town know all about Evil. Actually, everyone here is a shady character. We’re here in this Rogue Town because we couldn’t make it on the surface with the Guild’s crackdowns, and we had no other choice.”
I’ve heard about the underground markets that exist here in Rivira, beyond the Guild’s oversight, engaging in rampant illegal trading with adventurers. There are rumors that it’s possible to buy illegal goods and even rare items like Status Thief, which is made from the ichor of deities. It goes without saying that it’s all a gray so dark it’s almost black.
Setting aside adventurers like us who stop here on our way to take on various floors, the people who live in this town are all involved in risky business. Bors’s words must have hit home, because almost everyone standing around me shudders.
“Gale Wind may have decided that all of us, including Jan lying over there on the ground, fall on the black side,” Bors says.
“Th-this isn’t a joke, Bors! Sure, we’ve done more shady things in our day than we can count, but are you gonna stand for murder on the basis of suspicion alone?” the animal-person proprietor of an inn shouts.
“Yeah, we may be bad, but we’re not connected to the Evils’ Remnants!” an Amazonian merchant yells in a voice so shrill it’s practically a scream.
That brings all the other residents of Rivira to start shouting as well.
In an instant, the level of excitement and the anger toward Gale Wind have ballooned.
“Bors, let’s get her!”
I can’t believe what I just heard.
“Jan, our fellow townsman, has been killed for something that makes no sense at all! Even if we live in Rogue Town, can’t we at least fulfill our duty to the community and avenge his death?!”
Perhaps out of anger over the death of his acquaintance, the werewolf who first discovered the body is arguing furiously, his face bright red. As the heat of his argument spreads to the people around him, Bors crosses his burly arms and responds in a troubled voice.
“What you say is true…but I put my own life first. What happens to other adventurers is no concern of mine. You think I’m going to go after a Level Four monster like Gale Wind, who’s blacklisted and on the run?”
“Speaking of her being on the run, isn’t there a bounty on her head? The money some of the merchant associations put up should still be up for grabs, right?”
“Now that you mention it, I think the bounty was…eighty million valis?”
“—Listen up, everyone. I’m putting together a group to take her down!”
On hearing this, Bors waves his hands energetically.
“We will avenge our fellow townsman! We won’t let anyone else take her head! The bounty money is ours!!” he shouts.
“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Bors has clearly become engrossed by his selfish desire. All he can see in his eyes is money. I can only frown. His words worry me. Welf and Mikoto seem to feel the same way. Each of the adventurers gathered makes his or her own selfish calculations, many shouting passionately.
All the evidence points to Gale Wind.
It’s a shame, but that’s the truth.
Another reason I feel so confused is because what Bors said reminded me of something.
It was something Lyu said to me once.
I let my emotions take over, and I wrought my vengeance.
It wasn’t even justice.
If Lyu felt she’d discovered the Evil she couldn’t forgive, and her cruel desire for revenge had returned…that may well have been motive enough.
Lyu, could you really have done this?
The image of a single elf standing before a mountain of corpses covered in fresh blood rises in my memory.
Her eyes carry a sense of brutality, as if she has been consumed by a cruel storm of dark emotions.
I quickly brush away the disturbing vision.
“Wait a minute!”
This time, I speak the words out loud, making everyone turn toward me.
There’s no way Lyu would do something like this.
At the very least, I, who have heard her story, have to voice my doubts!
I still remember her expression, so full of pain and emptiness.
“Isn’t it too soon to assume this is the work of Gale Wind?”
“What, are you accusing me of lying?!” the werewolf adventurer snaps back.
Something else is bothering me.
I confront him head-on.
“How did you know it was Gale Wind?”
“I already told you! I’ve seen Gale Wind before! She and the criminal who killed Jan are one and the same!”
“How long have you been living here in Rivira?”
The werewolf, who has been spouting off angrily, looks at me dubiously in response to my odd question.
“Huh? I’ve been here for years! You may not have noticed, but we’ve crossed paths in town quite a few times, Mr. Super Rookie!”
“So you were here four months ago when that incident occurred?”
“What of it?”
Yes, something is bothering me. And with the werewolf’s response to my last question, the vague doubt turns to certainty.
Something here is off.
Properly speaking, it was three and a half months ago that the Black Goliath showed up. Lyu fought with us against it, right alongside the townsfolk of Rivira. This werewolf has just said quite clearly that he was here when that incident occurred. It doesn’t make sense that he didn’t notice Lyu at that time.
Of course it would be impossible to remember all the adventurers who were involved, since fierce battles were taking place all throughout the floor. But Lyu was right there alongside Asfi, holding back the floor boss the whole time. What’s more, she used her powerful magic to fight it. There’s no way he wouldn’t remember that.
Given the situation, it’s possible that no one wanted to turn her over to the authorities at that time. But Lyu’s past didn’t come to light after the incident, either. Judging by how Bors and the others are acting now, none of them realizes that Gale Wind was the adventurer who fought alongside them on the eighteenth floor.
But if her disguise was actually that perfect…could it be possible that the werewolf didn’t know it was her when she was fighting so prominently during that incident, yet he recognized her here despite working with such limited information?
If possible, I don’t want to doubt him.
I don’t want to, but…
This guy is lying…!
I stare back at the werewolf, who’s threatening me with his fierce gaze.
He doesn’t know Gale Wind.
Something akin to an adventurer’s intuition whispers the thought to me.
“…Rabbit Foot, are you saying the criminal isn’t Gale Wind?” Bors asks.
Many of the adventurers encircling me have suspicion in their eyes.
Perhaps it’s because the residents of Rivira trust the werewolf that they feel skeptical of my claim. That goes for Bors as well.
They’re weighing the fugitive Gale Wind against the words of their fellow townsman.
It’s clear who they trust more. No one is going to back me up when I defend the blacklisted elf.
If you want to say something, go ahead and say it. That’s what the eyes surrounding me on all sides seem to be saying.
I almost back down, but I hold my ground.
Lyu wouldn’t do this. That’s what I believe.
“Gale Wind—”
I’m about to say that she’s not the criminal when Aisha reaches a hand out and pulls me back.
“Stop.”
“What?!”
“Sorry to put a damper on things. Now, what were you all saying?”
Aisha has stepped forward as if to take my place, and with her arms crossed beneath her breasts, she prods the crowd to continue.
Bors and the other guys are ogling her ample bosom and deep cleavage as she stands there with a bewitching smile on her plush lips. Bors starts in surprise after noticing the disgusted looks and clicking tongues of the women in the crowd, and then, after a deliberate cough, he continues the conversation as if nothing has happened. It’s like he’s forgotten I exist.
Aisha, who’s totally used to confronting rough characters, silently jerks her chin as if to say, Let’s get out of here, but I can’t resist pressing her to tell me why she stopped me.
Just when I’m about to, though, someone pulls my right shoulder back.
“Calm down, Bell.”
“Welf…”
Now he’s arguing with me, too.
I close my mouth and nod softly as he looks down from a head’s length above me with that big-brother look.
Our whole party steps away from where Bors and the others are talking about the hunt for Gale Wind.
“What do you think you’re doing, leader?” Aisha asks as soon as we’re far enough away. “It’s not a wise idea to stand up for that girl.”
“Lilly agrees. Given what’s happened, we need to avoid making enemies here.”
“But Miss Aisha, Lilly—”
“Who knows, people could even start suspecting that we’re connected to the crime,” Lilly continues.
“!”
Lilly’s words jolt me.
I was so caught up in thinking about Lyu that I hadn’t even considered that possibility.
…Aisha is right. I’ve failed them as a leader.
Even if I wanted to stand up for Lyu, I should have reacted more coolly. I was on the verge of dragging Welf and the others into something risky.
I feel deeply ashamed of my immature conduct.
“Damn, right when I thought you’d grown up a little, you go and act like a kid again,” Aisha says.
“Sorry…” I say, looking at the ground and hanging my head.
Aisha laughs.
“It’s not such a bad thing if you stay like that deep down.”
“Huh?”
“You get all worked up for someone who’s not even a part of your familia…Isn’t that what other people like about you? I’m the total opposite, of course.”
I’m surprised to hear her say that.
When I look around, I see Haruhime and Mikoto breaking into smiles while Ouka closes his eyes and grins, Daphne hunches her shoulders, and Cassandra looks down shyly.
Lilly and Welf are smiling broadly, too.
“Plus, if that straitlaced elf was here, I bet I know what she’d say.”
Aisha turns up her lips in a totally unconvincing impression of Lyu.
“She’d say, Mr. Cranell, that’s a virtue of yours.”
The light has gone out in the mum-shaped clusters of crystal on the ceiling of the eighteenth floor, and the sunset-less evening of the Dungeon has fallen.
We’ve returned to central Rivira and are gathered in the room where we’re staying. The place we picked is Willy’s Inn, a cheap hotel built into a cave. For the price, it’s one of Rivira’s nicer spots, and the room we’re in now can easily accommodate ten or more guests. We’ve met up with Chigusa, who’s been resting to recover from the parasitic vines that were planted in her by the enhanced moss huge.
“Based on the evidence, Gale Wind is the prime suspect…Unfortunately, that fact can’t be changed,” Lilly says, turning to the rest of us as we stand surrounded by bare rock walls and magic-stone lamps.
“But just like Mr. Bell said, a few points are troubling. Putting aside Miss Lyu’s motives for the moment…While Mr. Bell was arguing with the others, Miss Daphne and I snuck a closer look at the corpse.”
“Now that you mention it, I noticed you two were up to something…” Welf says, a bit surprised.
“To be honest, I didn’t really want to.” Daphne sighs reluctantly.
I had noticed that Lilly mysteriously disappeared when Aisha interrupted my argument. It seems they’d quickly decided on a plan among themselves.
Lilly says it was a big help that I was diverting the crowd’s attention…but as I stand next to this cunning trio, I can’t help feeling that I’ll never live up to the true brains of the party.
“There were stab marks all over the body…But among those random blade wounds, there were also sharp wounds running down the arms and legs. I hate to call them clean…but they seem to have been inflicted with incredible speed.”
“In other words…”
“It’s extremely likely that those specific wounds were inflicted by Gale Wind. I just got a quick glimpse from a distance, but they looked almost identical to the ones from her shortswords that I saw before.”
A tense expression spreads over Mikoto’s face as Lilly speaks. Aisha continues the explanation.
“Most likely, she severed the tendons on his four limbs so he couldn’t escape.”
“Wh-why would she do something like that…?” Haruhime asks, her fox’s tail quivering at the shocking image.
“What I’m about to say is pure speculation…but I’ll bet she questioned the adventurer,” Aisha answers.
Welf and Ouka, who have been listening to the conversation, gasp in surprise.
“No way! You mean the elf just extracted some information from the guy?”
“And once she got it, she left…before going down to the lower levels, as the witnesses said?”
“Well, there’s plenty of reason to think she killed him after she made him talk,” Daphne answers, as if that would be a totally normal thing to do. “But…isn’t there something fishy about the act of stabbing him all over so blatantly, as if to put Gale Wind’s anger and hatred on display?”
In other words, it could be a setup.
Someone else might have come across the adventurer Lyu left behind after her interrogation, killed him, and then stabbed him all over to cast suspicion on Lyu.
That’s Daphne’s unspoken implication.
“W-wow, Daphne…You’re just like a detective!” Cassandra says excitedly.
“Shut up,” she snaps back, trying to hide her embarrassment.
“Ergh!” the rebuffed Cassandra squeals.
Aisha continues her explanation.
“The townsfolk in Rivira are after Gale Wind’s head. They’re going to send out a hunting party for sure.”
“That’s terrible…” Chigusa murmurs, speaking for us all.
For a moment, silence takes hold of the room.
“If we want to clear Miss Lyu of suspicion…the most important thing right now is to get to her before they do,” Lilly says, wrapping up the discussion.
We have to reach her faster than anyone else and find out what really happened. That’s the first step.
Lilly looks straight at me with her chestnut-brown eyes as she explains what we need to do.
“…”
Everyone else’s gazes gravitate naturally toward me as well. For a moment, I concentrate all my energy into my tightening fist.
What information did Lyu extract from the dead adventurer, and why did she head to the Dungeon? What in the world did she learn?
If someone else is the real criminal, why did they want to pin the blame on Gale Wind?
There’s so much we don’t understand.
But if she’s involved in this incident…then my answer has already been decided.
“Let’s go find Miss Lyu.”
If she’s been swept up in some sort of scheme, I want to help her.
Lilly, Welf, Mikoto, Haruhime, Ouka, and Chigusa all nod in agreement. It’s time for us to repay our debt to the masked elf who has helped us countless times. From the mortal fight with the Goliath floor boss to the War Game and even during the battle in Daedalus Street against the Xenos, she has proven herself an invaluable ally time and time again.
Seeing that the boat has already left shore, Daphne and Cassandra get on board with the plan as well.
“Okay then, let’s start getting ready!” Welf says, pounding his fist into his palm in an attempt to change the mood in the room.
That’s the signal for everyone to plunge into preparations.
“This probably means we should join the hunting party from Rivira, right?” asks Ouka.
“Yeah. Even if we leave before them, the Dungeon is too big. Our chances of finding Lyu by searching randomly are miniscule,” Lilly replies.
“We have no idea what floor she’s on…” Chigusa agrees. Haruhime finishes the thought.
“So we use the power of the crowd and start by finding some leads as to where she is…?”
“Exactly, Lady Haruhime. But in order to reach Lady Lyu first, we’ll have to get ahead of the hunting party at some point…” Mikoto responds.
Welf and Cassandra start inspecting our equipment, while some of the others begin packing for the search. I’m standing slightly to the side, watching over these encouraging preparations, when Aisha sidles up to me.
“Bell Cranell.”
“Yes?”
“I think you know this, but the entire conversation that just happened was pure speculation. It’s the interpretation that suits us—No, it’s what suits you the best…It’s entirely possible that elf killed the adventurer herself.”
“…”
“Just make sure you remember that.”
I feel like she knows something. Something about Lyu…Something about the current situation.
I gaze at the Amazon’s back as she flips her long black hair. My heart is beating erratically.
“Great…” the girl muttered, pushing her glasses up with one finger.
Her pure-white mantle quivered. The light of a magic-stone lamp glinted gently off her aqua-blue hair. One section of her bangs was dyed snow white, and she held up a sharply glinting silver dagger in one hand.
As Asfi Al Andromeda peered around, her sandals decorated with golden wings chafed against the floor.
A cold draft floated past.
It was the distinctive chill of the subterranean dungeon, where not a speck of sunlight penetrated.
She wasn’t in the “natural” dungeon that sprawled beneath Orario, however.
She was in Knossos, the man-made dungeon.
Asfi was leading Hermes Familia through the maze built by the cursed descendants of the legendary craftsman Daedalus.
“I thought this was going to be an easy job, sneaking along behind Loki Familia as they advanced through Knossos, checking out the paths they’d already cleaned up…but this place is crawling with monsters!”
The ground in front of Asfi and the others was strewn with the corpses of monsters that mere moments earlier had been locked in fierce battle. As if in response to Asfi’s sigh, one of the bodies that had a crack in its magic stone dissolved into ash.
While Hestia Familia was gone on its expedition, some of the other familias were cooperating with the upper echelons of the Guild to secretly launch Operation Conquer Knossos. The Guild had probed into the man-made dungeon after the crimes of Ikelos Familia, headed by the brutal hunter Dix Perdix, brought its existence to light, eventually determining it wasn’t something that could be ignored. So as not to raise the suspicions of the townsfolk, who were still recovering from the effects of the recent Xenos incident, the operation was being carried out on a top secret basis by a few select familias. Hermes Familia was one of them.
“I knew they were capturing the Xenos alive…but I didn’t realize those Ikelos Familia guys were raising other monsters free-range. Or do you think they let them loose because they predicted we’d come down here?”
Asfi and the other members of the familia had been briefed about the Xenos by Hermes and were familiar with the whole situation.
As a result, they’d imagined a place where monsters from the Dungeon were being captured and kept. However, they hadn’t expected to keep bumping into monsters every time they tried to advance down a path, exactly like in the real Dungeon. As she stood surrounded by the cold stone walls that made up the maze, Asfi let out three of her habitual sighs.
Something else was irritating her as well.
“Asfiiii! That masked elf has gone crazy! Wasn’t she supposed to be backing us up?”
“Believe me—I’m aware…”
Lyu had been their lifeline, but now she was gone.
As the chienthrope girl screamed at her, Asfi grumbled at the long-gone elf.
“According to our agreement, you weren’t supposed to act on your own…Right, Leon?”
The day before Hestia Familia’s operation to return the Xenos to the Dungeon began, Asfi had made Lyu Leon a promise.
“I’ve heard that the surviving Evils’ Remnants are hiding out in Knossos. As soon as this situation is cleaned up, I’ll search the dungeon and gather the information you want.”
Later, Lyu had come to Asfi with a request.
“I want to take part in your search,” she’d said.
This request had been unexpected, but Asfi had been happy about it. There was no harm in bringing along extra forces if she had to go into that man-made dungeon with its shady past. All the better if it was Gale Wind.
Now that powerful helper had disappeared.
Plus, at Hermes’s bidding, Aisha had joined up with Bell Cranell’s group…If she had been here, things might have been different.
Aisha was a newcomer who, on paper, didn’t yet belong to any faction and also happened to be Hermes Familia’s trump card.
Even if they were to make a mistake in Operation Conquer Knossos, her joining up with Hestia Familia would serve as insurance to make sure the boy and his party didn’t get involved. But Aisha was Aisha, meaning she probably would have joined their expedition anyway, for the sake of Bell Cranell and her “little sister” from her former faction, Ishtar Familia.
Asfi stared into the blackness of the path down which Gale Wind had disappeared, pining after the impossible in spite of herself.
“I thought she’d calmed down…Did I simply underestimate her tenacity when it comes to the Evils?”
It had happened in an instant.
The moment Lyu glimpsed the group of adventurers attempting to escape at the far end of a passage filled with swarms of monsters, she had changed completely. Her sky-blue eyes had widened in fury while she emanated an air of intimidating bloodthirst that overwhelmed even Asfi. Then the elf chased after her fleeing targets without so much as a backward glance.
“It must have something to do with Astrea Familia’s history…”
Evils’ Remnants lingered on in Knossos, even aside from the diabolical hunters.
These were the residual forces of the Evils who had brought an age of darkness to Orario and had been nearly wiped out five years earlier. Knossos suited them well as a hideout, for the Guild had been unable to capture them here.
Gale Wind’s connection to these Evils was deep. She—Lyu Leon, member of the justice-seeking Astrea Familia—was undeniably tied to them.
The adventurers had fled in terror…Had her foe been among them?
“The flames of revenge are burning you, Leon…Will you succumb to them once again?”
No one was there to answer Asfi’s mumbled question.
In the dim, man-made dungeon, she narrowed her eyes in pity.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login