Chapter 32
THERE WAS A ROOM in the Adventurers’ Guild Union that was used specifically for communications. It was equipped with high-end equipment and connected to guilds all over the continent. Adventurers could use the room by paying a fee, although it was expensive.
Mira, Lastrada, and Meyarl were already in that room.
The space had been built for exchanging important information, so everything that went on inside was kept strictly confidential. That was one reason using the chamber was pricey, yet Lastrada had paid the fee on the spot.
“You’d like me to contact Emella, right? All right, then…” Meyarl said, turning around and confirming that one final time as she picked up the communication device’s receiver. She’d basically asked to double-check that they were okay with this.
“Yeah, that’s right. Just do that, and the cape’s yours,” Lastrada answered. He nodded vigorously, the original cape in his hand.
Having made that last extra inquiry, Meyarl finally began pressing the keypad.
The device produced a dial tone, then rang two times before someone answered. “Hello. This is Écarlate Carillon headquarters.”
Mira had said that she needed to contact Emella urgently, but she hadn’t been sure how exactly Meyarl would get in touch with the woman. Now she knew. As she might’ve expected of Écarlate Carillon, a huge guild with members all over the continent, they had a spot that functioned as a headquarters.
“This is Meyarl, Guild Member 1390, speaking. I urgently need to speak with Vice-Captain Emella. Please put me through to her.”
“Understood. We’ll have her call you back. Could you provide us with the number of the device you’re using?”
“Sure… It’s 083877.”
Having concluded that brief exchange, Meyarl put down the receiver.
What exactly was the deal with that conversation? When Mira asked as much, Meyarl briefly explained. Apparently, all Écarlate Carillon members had simple magical tools for communicating. If the tools vibrated or lit up, that meant the headquarters was contacting them. She’d just spoken to the guild’s dedicated liaison officer, who was in charge of sending messages via those tools. That all meant that Emella’s magical tool would soon go off.
However, in some cases—such as when someone was clearing out a dungeon or when there wasn’t a guild outpost nearby—headquarters would receive a message that a member couldn’t be reached. In that case, they’d tell the person trying to get in touch with them that the member was unavailable. If Emella could be reached, though, she’d receive the message.
“So nothing yet, huh…?”
They waited ten or so minutes. Although they hadn’t heard anything back, Meyarl assured them that “In this case, Emella probably did get the message.”
Otherwise, the guild headquarters would already have messaged them. If Emella couldn’t be reached, they’d have gotten in touch via the magical tool to say that she was unavailable. Assuming nothing urgent came up, more than enough time had passed for headquarters to simply message Meyarl to that effect. Thus, the only possibility Meyarl could think of was that Emella was en route to the guild to respond.
Her presumption was correct. Fifteen minutes later, the communication device rang.
“Hello. This is Meyarl, Guild Member 1390, speaking.”
The familiar sound of Emella’s voice echoed from the device: “This is Vice-Captain Emella. Sorry it took me a minute to get back to you. I hardly ever get emergency transmissions. So what can I do for you?”
“Um, well…someone here says they need to speak to you right away. So…I’ll put them through to you!” Meyarl said decisively, despite still seeming to harbor some guilt over contacting the vice-captain urgently for her own personal gain.
“Huh? To me? Who is it?” Not only was this one of the first emergency transmissions Emella had received, she’d also just learned that Meyarl wasn’t even the one who’d wanted to speak with her. Since she didn’t have the slightest clue who the person actually getting in touch was, she sounded completely befuddled.
Meyarl handed Mira the receiver.
Grasping it, Mira spoke next: “Emella, it’s me. Do you recognize my voice?”
“Ah, is that…Mira?! Wow, it’s been a long time!” Emella’s befuddlement was gone in an instant. She now sounded both excited and surprised.
“Mm-hmm. Yes, it’s been a while. How’ve you been…? Actually, I guess there’s no need to ask that, huh?”
It sounded as if someone else was with Emella, but Mira began chatting, ignoring whatever gibberish Flicker was saying as it faded into the background. Emella replied by laughing and saying that a lot had happened.
Now that Mira and Emella had greeted each other and begun to catch up, Meyarl’s job was finished.
“Thank you, Meyarl. Here, just like we promised,” Lastrada said, handing Fuzzy Dice’s first cape to the expectant-looking girl.
“Thank you so much!” she said, taking the cape with a smile so bright that it put the sun to shame.
That cape had personally belonged to Fuzzy Dice, and it was quite likely that no greater treasure existed among the phantom thief’s fans. At least, in terms of rarity, that would certainly be the case. Perhaps for that reason, after finishing her assignment, Meyarl walked so lightly that she looked as if she might take flight.
Then she said “If you ever need anything else, feel free to ask!” and left.
“Still, I was shocked to hear that it was you,” Emella said. Once they’d finished with small talk, she changed the subject. “So what’s up? You said there’s something urgent.”
From Mira’s tone of voice, it didn’t seem like she’d had any qualms about using Écarlate Carillon’s emergency-contact system to reach Emella. Perhaps that was because Mira felt that they were already something akin to friends. More importantly, though, Emella was curious why Mira had used the system to contact her.
“Mm… Yes, about that. I need to ask you a favor…”
Emella trusted Mira, and Mira trusted Emella. And so, prefacing what she was about to say with that, Mira began explaining the entire situation.
She spoke of the events with Fuzzy Dice in Haxthausen and the incident in the underground waterway, as well as the fact that she was now working with Fuzzy Dice to track down a human-trafficking ring. Finally, she told Emella point-blank that, to continue investigating, they needed to get into a guild house.
“…So that’s it. We want to be issued invitations. Do you think you could let Cyril know?” Mira asked, hoping that Emella would lend them a hand so they could determine who or what was behind the human-trafficking syndicate.
Emella let out a slight sigh, then chuckled wryly. “As I might very well have suspected, Mira, you’re up to something daring this time too, huh…?”
The last time they’d met, Mira had been hot on Chimera Clausen’s trail, and now the girl was taking on whatever despicable evil was behind the human traffickers.
“In that case, I’d be happy to help! And I can actually issue invitations myself. It’ll just take me a minute to set it up!” Emella continued cheerfully, laughing as usual.
So not only Cyril but Emella was able to issue invitations. Her title of vice-captain evidently held authority in that regard.
“Wow, is that so? Then please do!” Mira said, wasting no time in nudging Emella to provide the documents.
About ten minutes after her call with Emella had ended, Mira and Lastrada checked the reception desk of the Adventurers’ Guild Union and found that the paperwork to issue them guild-house invitations was complete. The two showed their adventurer’s licenses, took the invitations, and hurried straight to the guild house.
The adventurer’s license Lastrada held was for a C-rank adventurer under the name of “John.” He was really working the “average adventurer” cover.
Upon returning to the guild house, they first met up with Woofson, who’d been staking the place out.
“Thanks for keeping an eye out, Woofson.”
“Nobody went in or came out, woof!” Woofson reported as soon as Mira lifted him up.
He also said that his magic scent detection hadn’t picked up on any movements worth mentioning either. In other words, the target was, without a doubt, still inside the building.
“All right. Shall we go?”
“Yeah, let’s head inside.”
“Time to go in, woof!”
Mira and her companions at last set foot in the guild house. They took in the lobby first. It was built more like the lobby of a small business than a hotel lobby. In the very center was a reception desk, and to the left and right were doors.
“Please come this way and allow me to check your guild licenses.”
“Hrmm. Here you are.”
Following the receptionist’s instructions, Mira and Lastrada presented their invitations.
Of course, since the invitations were real and the pair had just received them, they had no trouble completing the registration necessary to enter the guild house.
Going through the door to the right of the reception desk, they entered what resembled a school hallway. It was simply furnished, and they saw adventurers scattered along it. Superficially, it almost had a dormitory vibe.
“Trust really is important, huh…?” Mira muttered as they went down the hall, following Woofson’s instructions.
Fuzzy Dice hadn’t been able to take much time searching the guild house before, despite his considerable capabilities. But now he strutted down the hall not caring who saw him. And that was completely thanks to Mira having won Emella’s trust.
Lastrada had only established a shallow if far-reaching network of connections, so he smiled in awe at Mira as she looked around the facility.
“Inside here, woof!”
Following Woofson’s nose to their target, they reached the rental rooms toward the back of the fourth floor. A person could book a room there for a day, week, or even a month, and they were the guild house’s principal facilities. They were primarily used as lodgings. Their target was most likely relaxing inside after having finished their work.
“Not many other rooms have actually been rented out over here, huh?”
“Well, maybe that’s because this area doesn’t get much natural light. If you planned to stay here, you wouldn’t really want one of these rooms, would you?”
On top of getting little light, these rooms were far from the other facilities one might want to use. They didn’t seem very popular. In fact, unlike the rooms near the stairs, several of these were unoccupied.
“You’d have to be up to something shady to go out of your way to rent a room here.”
Perhaps their target had specifically chosen a room where it was unlikely that they’d bump into anyone else precisely because they were involved in human trafficking, Mira hypothesized, using Biometric Scan to search the room.
Inside, she detected five people. One was assuredly the individual who’d been in the room in the underground waterway. The other four were the issue. Were any of them also traffickers? If so, how many of them? One, two, or perhaps the whole group? Given what she knew at that moment, she couldn’t yet say.
Mira had begun to wonder how exactly they would investigate. In contrast, Lastrada said without a moment’s hesitation, “Either way, we just need to get inside, and the rest will be easy. From here on out,” he continued, “I’ll be emulating an antihero, not a champion of justice.”
“Antihero…? What’re you talking about?” Mira asked, not following.
“An antihero is a hero of darkness who will resort to evil if it means upholding justice.”
Lastrada strode forth. Following him, Mira wondered how that was any different from Fuzzy Dice stealing for the sake of justice.
They stopped in front of the room housing their person of interest. Curious as to how things would play out when Lastrada used the antihero approach he’d mentioned, Mira watched as he simply knocked on the door.
The sound of his three slow knocks echoed through the hall. There was no immediate reaction, but using Biometric Scan, Mira detected movement inside the room. It seemed as if the occupants were huddled together discussing something.
A short moment later, Mira detected someone coming closer. Right then, the door slowly opened, and a man’s face poked out.
As soon as he saw them, the man shrugged dubiously. “Hm? Who’re you guys? What do you want?”
One could say his reaction was actually quite normal, since a couple of strangers had gone out of their way to visit the rather far-flung room.
“Ah, yes. We just wanted to talk with you a bit,” Lastrada declared, paying no heed to the man’s expression. Staring straight at him, he continued, “Have you ever been involved in human trafficking?”
“Huh…? What’re you talking about?” the man responded, seeming to have no idea.
“You had to think about that for a second. And you looked away. Furthermore, your voice sounded a tad impatient. That means you know what I’m talking about.”
He’d discerned a lot from the man’s reaction. There’d also been a hint of animosity in the man’s annoyed voice.
Having confirmed as much, Lastrada coldly said, “Let us step inside for a moment,” then slipped by the man.
The man didn’t even try to stop Lastrada. Looking at him, Mira realized that his eyes were frozen wide open, and that he’d completely stopped moving. During their brief exchange, Lastrada had used Demonic Arts to petrify him in the blink of an eye.
I see now. This is what he meant, huh…? He’s simply forcing his way right through the front door.
They hadn’t yet confirmed whether those in the room were guilty, yet Lastrada had strong-armed his way inside regardless. With a new understanding of what he’d meant by “antihero,” Mira gently closed the door and locked it.
“Who the hell are you?!” she heard a voice call out from inside the room. Peeking around inside, she saw four men suddenly standing in front of Lastrada. They appeared to be a group of somewhat dull-looking adventurers.
Lastrada didn’t say a single word. He simply looked them over and loosed his spider silk, quickly binding them, no questions asked.
Thrown off by the sudden attack, two of the men shouted.
“What’s this? What’s the big idea?!”
“Damn you… You know we’re members of Gillian Rock?!”
Seeming to pay them no mind, Lastrada simply turned to ask Woofson, “So can you tell which of them was down in the underground waterway?”
“It was him, woof!” Still snug in Mira’s arms, Woofson pointed decisively at one of the men.
“I see. Him, huh? Thanks, detective.”
There were five men in the room, one of whom had been a frequent guest at the human-trafficking syndicate’s base of operations. Grinning smugly, Lastrada walked over to the man they’d finally hunted down.
Mira expected that Lastrada’s “antiheroic” approach to interrogating the man would be fittingly dark, but it actually bordered on cruel and unusual. First, he rattled the man by showing him doses of both a poison and its antidote, which he’d created using Demonic Arts. Then he ratcheted up the pressure, telling the man that his right arm, then his left leg, would be permanently immobilized by said poison.
For the record, Lastrada was actually paralyzing the man’s limbs to make him believe he was being poisoned. That said, losing feeling in different parts of his body must’ve been terrifying. Begging for forgiveness, the man confessed and told them everything he knew.
First of all, the men belonged to a guild called Gillian Rock. It was rotten to the core. Before hearing his confession, Mira and Lastrada had thought this man might be the only one involved in human trafficking. But according to him, the guild had been set up explicitly to assist with such things.
These men were in charge of surveillance and communication, acting as go-betweens for each transaction. They were also tasked with keeping an eye on safehouses where trafficking victims were stored, as well as where they were sold, ensuring that nothing was misappropriated and that no other funny business took place.
“We really don’t know anything…! The guild master gives the orders. All we do is what he tells us to. We’ve got no clue where he gets the orders from… So forgive me! Forgive me, please…!” the man begged. Having lost all feeling below his neck, he was terrified and weeping.
Seeing him like that, Mira couldn’t help pitying him a bit. But then she remembered all the children who’d been hurt, and that pity evaporated on the spot.
If they wanted to find out who or what was behind the syndicate, they’d need to speak with the guild master, so Lastrada said shrewdly, “I see. Then I have one last question: Where’s the ‘guild master,’ or whatever you called him?”
The man stammered that, if he told them that, the guild master would have him killed. As soon as he said that, he went silent so quickly that he seemed to have been unplugged.
“Die now or take the gamble that we’ll get rid of this guild master ourselves. Which will it be?” Lastrada asked the remaining men.
Trembling, the men all answered at once, “He’s in a cave in Lumit Gorge!” They even went out of their way to offer to point it out on a map.
“If only you’d all been so compliant to begin with,” Lastrada said icily, taking out a map and unfurling it before the men.
The traffickers said that Gillian Rock had secret hideouts all over the continent, then detailed their locations. The guild master currently lay in one such hideout: the cave in Lumit Gorge. That secret hideout was surprisingly close to Haxthausen. Apparently, the guild master had just come their way to deal with the incident involving Baron Ardoloris.
The five traffickers had apparently gathered here to discuss how they might leave the syndicate. The reasons they wanted to do so were quite simple.
Fuzzy Dice had just busted the Dorres Company, and Viscount Denveroll had been arrested. Moreover, the traffickers’ all-important secret base in the underground waterway had been discovered. Veteran Gillian Rock members had been arrested and their “merchandise” freed. Those were huge blows to the syndicate, and there wasn’t much chance the men would be forgiven for their roles in the catastrophic failures.
They’d been discussing plans to run off somewhere the very next day.
Mira and Lastrada told the guild house staff about the men’s true identities before handing them over and leaving.
“Baron Ardoloris was that perverted baron, right?”
The guild master who had the details Mira and Lastrada were after had apparently come to the area to deal with the incident involving the baron. Mira pranced lightly, thinking about what a stroke of luck it was that the prior incident ended up helping them in their current situation as well.
“Yeah. What’re the odds?” Lastrada said, still playing dumb to an extent.
“By the way, I feel like I remember another pervert being there,” said Mira. “One wearing something over his face…”
“Hmm. Doubt it. If he showed up right when you needed him most, I’d have to guess that he was a champion of justice as well.”
When Mira continued that the man’s outfit had indeed been very pervy, Lastrada simply tried to defend him. From the way his eyes darted, he certainly seemed to be trying to explain away what’d happened.
“Hrmm… I see,” said Mira. “Maybe you’re right.”
Unsurprisingly, Lastrada himself seemed aware of how he must’ve appeared back then. In consideration of how he felt, she resolved not to bring it up again.
The hideout the men had told them about was close, but still a long trip by foot, so they climbed aboard Garuda’s wagon and headed there that way.
“Nice! This thing’s great—like a midair command center!” Lastrada cried excitedly.
Command centers and flying secret bases were staples of shows about sentai superheroes. Perhaps because the wagon reminded him of one of those, albeit on a much smaller scale, Lastrada began getting very excited.
“Right?! Isn’t it, though?!” Mira exclaimed proudly in response, having been a fan of such secret bases since she was younger.
As they drew near the secret hideout, Lastrada suddenly requested that Mira land the wagon near the closest town. Then, saying something about needing to prepare, he headed into a clothing shop.
Maybe he wanted to buy a disguise or something. Thinking that must be the case, Mira dropped by a nearby café and enjoyed a cheese tart by herself.
“Mmm. It’s the perfect mix of sweet and sour!”
She polished off a second cheese tart. At that point, she saw Lastrada emerge from the clothing store.
“So what’d you buy?” she asked as they met up.
“You’ll find that out later,” he said, dodging the question.
From the look on his face, something was definitely up. He resembled a mischievous schoolboy. When he got like that, he was for sure thinking about something superhero-related.
But what would a superhero want with a clothing boutique? Wondering what he was up to, Mira followed Lastrada toward the hideout.
It was deep in a forest that reached the town’s western limits. There, under a cliff hidden in the dense woods, was the cave they were looking for. They’d found the secret hideout of Gillian Rock, where its current guild master was holed up.
As far as Mira could tell, there was nobody by the cave’s entrance. Even when she used Biometric Scan to investigate further, she didn’t detect anything in front of them. On the surface, the hideout appeared to be nothing more than a natural cavern.
As soon as he stood in front of it, Lastrada cast a spell using demonology.
[Demonic Arts: Dusk Bat]
That technique used a sound wave to produce a semblance of an area’s terrain or topography. Using it over and over again, Lastrada was able to search every corner inside the cave, which allowed him to determine that a narrow, winding passageway opened into a large chamber inside.
“Hrmm. In other words, if we can hold this part down, the Gillian Rock members will be trapped like rats. This’ll be easy. Just use that white mist of yours, and it’ll all be over.”
This would be even easier than Mira had expected. If they filled the cave with Fuzzy Dice’s trusty white mist while blocking the entrance, they could catch all the criminals in one fell swoop.
But that wasn’t what Lastrada had planned.
“No, I don’t intend on doing this the easy way,” he told Mira, adding, “The antihero never holds back.”
He’d fully entered antihero mode. And of course, when he got like that, there was no stopping him.
Knowing as much, Mira signed on. “Jeez. Guess I don’t have a choice.” In any case, the people in the cave were rogues who’d profited off exploiting innocent children. They didn’t deserve to have things done the easy way, she added.
“Yeah, I thought you’d say as much, Commander!”
There was an easy way to settle the matter, but Lastrada was itching to smash the traffickers mercilessly. As Mira nodded, he smiled at her, holding out a bag with something inside.
“Now then, time to transform!”
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