Chapter 31
TO GET INTO the guild house, Mira needed to ask Cyril for invitations. In order to do just that, she headed to the Adventurers’ Guild Union.
“So, Commander, have you come up with something?” Lastrada asked, hopes high.
Hearing his query, Mira smiled boastfully. “Well, allow me to explain…”
Haxthausen was a big city, she pointed out. Furthermore, it had hosted the previous day’s Fuzzy-Dice-related festivities; some of that excitement, in fact, still lingered around the city.
Noticing that, an idea had popped into Mira’s head: Since the city hosting the festivities was so large, it wouldn’t be a surprise if at least one Écarlate Carillon member had joined the revelry.
That was particularly true considering the guild’s size. According to what Cyril had told her, it had members actively helping people all over the continent. Mira had even bumped into some members in the past—once in Grandrings, where the Ancient Underground City was. So the odds were good that there were members in Haxthausen.
Those guild members were the key. There had to be situations in which some urgent matter came up for them, necessitating that they contact their guild leader, Cyril, quickly.
“That’s the gist of it,” Mira concluded. “Basically, I think they must have their own way to contact each other in emergencies.”
Once she’d laid out her general reasoning, they finally made their way inside the Mages’ Guild.
Seeming to concur that there was a good chance that was the case, Lastrada followed up with his usual refrain: “Commander, you’re always on top of things!”
The moment Mira stepped through the guild’s door, she heard people shouting heatedly about how the Spirit Queen had arrived. They practically gave her a standing ovation for being the first one to take on and recover something from Fuzzy Dice.
“Hrmm. Well, that’s just the kind of thing a summoner’s capable of!”
At being celebrated so grandly, Mira completely forgot why she’d come in and started preaching the merits of summoning.
But that only lasted a moment. “Hurry and get to the point,” she heard Lastrada insist.
“Ahem…” Clearing her throat, she changed topics. “I was hoping to ask something: Are there any Écarlate Carillon members here?”
Since everyone was focused on Mira to begin with, her question spread quickly through the guild.
Then, amid the hubbub as everyone discussed this, a man began, “Ah, if that’s who you’re looking for…”
According to him, no one belonging to that guild was there at the moment, but he’d seen a member enter a shop about half an hour earlier. Some kind of event had been going on there, he added.
It seemed that Mira’s presumption had been correct, and that there was indeed an Écarlate Carillon member in Haxthausen. Furthermore, Mira had managed to get a hint as to where they might be. If she and Lastrada left right away, they might still be able to catch the member.
Mira asked for the shop’s location before saying, “Thanks for the info!” and leaving.
“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen!” Lastrada added, then exited as well.
That caused the entire guild to noisily ask who in the world he was. The Spirit Queen’s attendant? Servant? Lover, perchance? Some men suddenly began enthusing over the fact that she’d unexpectedly shown up with a man despite having never done so before.
“Hrmm. This is it.”
Mira and Lastrada arrived in front of the shop the man had told them about. A placard hanging on the door read FULLY BOOKED. They could hear a chorus of female voices inside.
“Wonder what they’re doing.” Curious, Lastrada listened in.
The shop certainly seemed pretty lively. Just what kind of event was it holding? With no clue, and needing to speak with the member of Écarlate Carillon, the pair opened the door and went inside.
No one stood at the reception desk; everyone seemed to be congregating in a room further inside. That said, Mira and Lastrada solved the mystery of just what kind of event was being held. The answer was written in big letters at the reception desk: FUZZY DICE AUCTION & SWAP MEET.
The conditions for entrance were written there too. To join the event, a person apparently needed something proving they were a Fuzzy Dice fan, such as an object they wanted to show off or auction. Or they could present a special membership card.
“Looks like we managed to find ourselves at quite an extraordinary event.” Surprised that there even was such an event, Mira looked at Lastrada to see how the phantom thief himself would react.
The moment she did, Lastrada beamed. “I’m pretty popular, aren’t I?” he said, letting out a hearty laugh.
“Don’t let it go to your head…” Lastrada’s self-satisfied demeanor kindled a competitive fire in Mira, who began grumbling about how she had a fan too.
Right then, a woman in a hat that read host came out from farther inside the shop. “Welcome. Will you two be participating?” She must’ve heard them blathering to each other and realized there were new guests.
“Oh, sorry. Actually…” Mira gave the host a brief rundown of the situation: There was an Écarlate Carillon member they needed to speak to inside, and they were wondering whether they could.
“Um…we’re actually right in the middle of the Fuzzy Dice meetup. This is a very important event for all of us. Do you think you could just wait until it’s over?” The host looked down for a moment, as if thinking to herself, before adding, “I’m sorry.”
Their goal was urgent, as it had to do with human trafficking, but that still didn’t mean they could crash the fun the women inside were having.
“Mmm. I see. Okay, then… Around what time will you wrap up?”
“Well, probably sometime this evening,” the host answered.
That was at least seven hours away, so what could they do? Mira groaned.
Unexpectedly, however, Lastrada immediately produced something and held it out. “Would you let us through with this?” he asked, a cape in his hands.
The garment was soiled at the bottom. Mira had absolutely no idea what had gotten on it or how, but it was stained neon pink.
“What’s that? It looks filthy.” She snickered. They weren’t at a laundromat, so she wondered why he’d pulled out a piece of dirty laundry.
On the other hand, the host’s expression suddenly turned to disbelief. “May…may I take a closer look at that?!” she asked with the utmost courtesy, wide-eyed and trembling in astonishment.
“Sure. Inspect it as much as you’d like,” Lastrada said with a triumphant nod, then gently handed her the cape.
“I’ll…I’ll need to authenticate this!” The host’s voice shook.
She hurriedly put on a pair of gloves and took the cape, then scrutinized it so closely that she looked as if she was trying to see through it. She scanned every inch of the cloth before pulling dozens of photos from a bag slung over her shoulder, then compared the cape with the pictures repeatedly.
“This…this is…this is it! It’s Fuzzy Dice’s cape from the heist in the city of Seakrick, when he evaded a fluorescent-dye trap the chief detective set, right?! He dodged it, but one of the dye balls burst late, so it got on his cape’s hem. It’s that cape, right? The one from when the chief detective first tried to strike back at Fuzzy Dice and wound up causing a huge scene!” The host gave that appraisal breathlessly and, still goggling, pressed Lastrada for confirmation.
What she’d said suggested that the cape’s pink stains matched whatever substance had been in the paintballs the chief detective used. There was evidently no way to rinse out that dye once it got on cloth, and Fuzzy Dice’s cape had been no exception; thus, the cape the phantom thief currently wore was this one’s successor.
Even Fuzzy Dice’s fans never knew what ended up happening to his very first cape. But now, the host declared, it had resurfaced. The fluorescent splatters perfectly matched the dye-stain photographs taken during that incident, so the cape was without a doubt the genuine article.
“It certainly is. You’ve got quite an eye,” Lastrada praised the host, then pointed to the sign. “And since it says you can go in if you have goods to trade…may we go inside?” he requested, asking whether the cape satisfied the criteria.
“Yes, that’s more than enough! Please, come in!” The host now very gladly ushered them inside.
The large shop’s interior was swarming with Fuzzy Dice fans. They seemed to be split into several groups, and they were all trading a wide variety of goods. There were tons of different things—crafts, photos people had taken themselves, fan-made books, and items that made one question how they’d even been obtained.
Mira and Lastrada asked the host which of the women among the throngs of fans belonged to Écarlate Carillon.
The host pointed, and they saw a girl sitting beside a window, organizing her belongings carefully. From how happy she looked, she must’ve gotten her hands on a real haul.
“Thank you, madam!” After saying that, Lastrada immediately wove through the groups of fans, walking toward the seats near the window.
“It was my pleasure to…” the host said reluctantly as Lastrada walked away. She stared at the cape in his hands. Despite having such an item right before her very eyes, she made no attempt to take it before anyone else did.
Mira commended her selfless restraint, then followed after Lastrada. “You’re the real deal, so you’ve probably got tons of those kinds of treasures!” she told him.
She laughed softly to herself. Depending how they played their cards, she and Lastrada might be able to get information from everyone there. Since he actually was the phantom thief, he could probably flood the market with tons of precious Fuzzy Dice goods just like the cape.
“Nah. It wouldn’t be that easy. There needs to be something that authenticates that whatever you have is genuine, just like the host’s photos earlier.”
Even if an item came from the real Fuzzy Dice, they’d still need some evidence to prove it was genuine. Grasping that very clearly, Lastrada seemed glad that he’d kept the cape. At any rate, the garment had been made especially by Artesia, so he couldn’t have thrown it away even if he’d wanted to.
As he and Mira discussed this, they at last reached the seats by the window.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Mira. I happen to know that you’re an Écarlate Carillon member, and I was hoping to ask you for a favor. Would that be okay?” Mira said the moment she sat next to the girl.
“Hm?” The girl stopped organizing her haul, turning to look at Mira. “Um, I’m Meyarl. And you need a favor…? What is it?”
Meyarl indeed appeared to be in a very good mood. The girl’s expression was so bright that Mira had a feeling she’d listen to just about anything they said.
“I can’t ask anyone else to help with this, but I basically need to talk to your guild leader, Cyril. I figured that, as an Écarlate Carillon member, you might have some way of quickly contacting him. That’s why I thought I’d ask you,” Mira explained. “How does that sound? Do you think you could contact him for me?”
But as soon as Mira finished talking, Meyarl shook her head. “We have a specialized way of communicating, and I could contact Master Cyril,” she answered, “but, sorry, I can’t. How should I put this? He’s got a lot of fans like you.” She spoke apologetically; nonetheless, she was flatly stating that she couldn’t aid them.
“Can you do anything to help? Despite how I look, I’m actually an acquaintance of his. If you just let me talk to him, you’ll know that right away,” Mira implored, hoping Meyarl could somehow assist them.
The girl simply answered that they ought to use the guild’s official communication network. Mira told her that time was of the essence and that they wanted to contact Cyril right away to ask a favor of him, but Meyarl’s answer remained the same.
Écarlate Carillon really must’ve been quite popular; people coming up to Meyarl and asking to speak with Cyril was seemingly an everyday occurrence. To make matters worse, it seemed that a good number of those people lied about knowing Cyril to get help contacting him.
For these reasons, Meyarl pretty much shot down any request to help anyone contact Cyril, regardless of what they said.
“Well, look. Have you heard about that whole incident with Chimera Clausen? Just so you know, after that, everyone started calling me the Spirit Queen. You must’ve heard that Cyril fought in that battle too, right? I’m one of the people who fought by his side!” Mira implored Meyarl once again, hoping that the girl might do something now that she knew this.
But Meyarl’s answer remained unchanged. She simply shook her head and said that Cyril had lots of comrades-in-arms. In addition to being a celebrity, he was famous for going around actively helping others, so he’d fought alongside tons of people from all over the place. Thus, Meyarl remained firm: She wouldn’t help them contact him.
Mira was disheartened and ready to admit defeat.
“All right, then. How about this?” Lastrada asked, striding forth while unfurling the cape from before.
“Huh? Um…” The girl tilted her head, puzzled as to why the man had suddenly come forward. But despite initially looking at the cape in bemusement, her expression quickly changed to utterly astonished, just as might be expected of someone at this meetup. “H-huh?! That cape’s color…! And shape…! And those pink stains! Could it really be…?!”
All of Fuzzy Dice’s fans must’ve known about the cape, since Meyarl also seemed to recognize it as the phantom thief’s very first.
The obstinate attitude she’d displayed toward Mira vanished as her cheeks flushed and her eyes filled with yearning. Still, she seemed dubious as to whether it was genuine, saying warily, “But how do I know…?”
“It’s exactly what it looks like. We even had the host examine and authenticate it. That’s why we were even let in here and were able to talk with you,” Lastrada said, seizing the chance to tell her the whole story. He’d brought the cape specifically so that they could gain entrance to the event and approach her, so the fact that they were standing there proved that it was the genuine article.
“The president authenticated it?!” Meyarl responded, looking backward in shock. She was indeed looking at none other than the woman who’d appraised the cape, so according to Meyarl, that was the president.
It was still unclear what exactly she was president of, but the woman was apparently also interested in the cape’s fate and so was looking their way.
The glance she and Meyarl exchanged was enough to give the girl all the information she needed. The president nodded deeply, testifying that the cape was indeed genuine.
Meyarl seemed to have considerable trust in the president. Her eyes suddenly took on a serious glint, as if—having been verified by the woman—the cape had to be authentic.
Lastrada noticed that and didn’t miss his opportunity to strike. “Just help us contact Cyril, and the cape will be yours,” he said, not letting up for even a moment.
All Meyarl had to do was help a few of her guild leader’s friends a tiny bit, and she could get her hands on Fuzzy Dice’s one-of-a-kind original cape. Surely she’d never come across a deal that easy and simple again.
“Ah…aaah…Master Fuzzy Dice’s first cape…”
Lastrada’s tempting proposal was utterly beguiling, consisting of the sort of honey-sweet words someone might use to convince themselves that they deserved just one bowl of ice cream after working hard to stick to a diet.
They began to sway even the previously utterly unyielding Meyarl. There was no way she could ever afford to buy the cape, and if she said no, the opportunity would be gone forever. Fuzzy Dice’s original cape was right in front of her—most fans would kill for it. For a fan like Meyarl, resisting such temptation must’ve been excruciating.
Yet Meyarl had nerves of steel and was able to withstand the cape’s allure. “No, I…I can’t…!” she answered, crying bitterly.
She wasn’t about to let self-interest get in the way of her duty. In that respect, she really was a proper hero. Mira hadn’t expected anything less of a guild member sharing Cyril’s intentions. Still, they had to find a way to convince her. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to take their time searching the guild house.
That was when Mira suddenly thought to say, “How about Emella, then? Would that work?”
She was making use of the trick of first suggesting something completely unreasonable to make her next suggestion seem more reasonable. Mira didn’t need to speak to Cyril himself. She knew Emella, Écarlate Carillon’s vice-captain, and her companions very well. They were people that Mira could trust, and she was fairly sure that they trusted her as well.
Thus, she could contact Emella and her companions first; they’d then be able to get her in contact with Cyril. And if there was a way to contact him in an emergency, they’d definitely know about that as well.
“Uh…so…just Miss Emella?”
Mira’s strategy was clearly working. Meyarl’s desire for the cape, which her nerves of steel should already have staved off, began rearing its head once more. At the exact same moment when the once-unyielding Meyarl’s will began to waver, Mira delivered her follow-up attack.
“It doesn’t even need to be Emella. I’m well acquainted—or, rather, I should say I’m friendly with—Asval, Flicker, and Zef. So how about it? Any of them would be fine. What do you say?” Meyarl didn’t even need to help them contact Cyril or Emella.
Now that Mira had already offered a compromise that large, Lastrada then delivered the final blow. “If you can just help us do that, the cape is yours!” he said, suddenly splaying the garment out on the table.
The moment he did, the glint in Meyarl’s eyes became even more intense. “You’d…you’d be fine just talking to Emella, right? And in exchange, I’ll get his original cape…” She was compelled to refrain from putting anyone through to her guild leader, Cyril, in these kinds of situations. But there was no such rule in Emella’s case. Meyarl thought about it logically and deduced that putting them through to Emella was fine.
“Mm-hmm. That’s right. I just need to discuss an urgent matter with my buddy Emella, and then the cape will be yours.”
After thinking it over again and again, Meyarl finally answered emphatically, “Sure thing. Leave it to me!”
Since Mira had referred to Emella as a “buddy,” Meyarl concluded, it’d be fine.
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