Legend

When Elena said that the Marschel family was likely involved in the matter, it was Byune who reacted with a twitch.

From Byune’s perspective, the fact that the Marschel family was involved in this matter made her think of various things.

However, Vihera was the one to speak up rather than Byune.

「The Marschel family? What makes you say that?」

「When I met with the head of the Marschel family……that’s what I felt.」

Elena replied to Vihera’s question and shrugged her shoulders before continuing.

「Of course, there is also some circumstantial evidence. For example, all the researchers of the Levisor family, who were involved with the matter of abnormal species, were dead when the Silva family reached the research lab. There aren’t that many forces that could pull something off that big while the Levisor and Silva families fought each other, are there?」

Of course, there were several hidden organisations other than the three ruling families in Exil. Considering this was a Labyrinth City, a place where money gathered, it was only natural.

But even so, the Marschel family was still the most likely suspect.

In the first place, the Marschel family were descendants of mages, going back all the way to the party that found Exil’s dungeon. Even now, when it came to magic, they were one to two steps ahead of the other families. Considering everything normally, it wouldn’t have been strange for them to be the first suspect for creating abnormal species.

「Also, this might be a little far fetched, but……the research lab was in the slums. And, this time, Essetus and Nakuto were attacked near the slums. It’s hard to deny that the slums are a good place for that kind of thing to happen, but Vihera’s words regarding a connection between the abnormal species and attacks on adventurers are convincing.」

「Then let’s hurry up and go to the Marschel family!」

Hearing Elena’s words, Essetus stood up before being stopped by Nakuto next to him.

「Calm down. This is only speculation based on speculation. There’s no conclusive evidence whatsoever.」

As he told Essetus that, Nakto regretted not catching at least one of the opponents who had attacked them.

(If we had done that, we would have been able to get some information to justify our guess to the Silva family.)

Nakuto thought to himself, but Vihera spoke as if it didn’t matter.

「Now then, since we’ve settled that, let’s go.」

「Where are we going?」

「Simple. To get information on the people who attacked you.」

「No, but we barely have any information about them in the first place……」

When Nakuto tried to continue, Vihera stopped him and shook his head with a smile.

「We made a detour before coming to this inn, right? Back then, we told an informant we familiar with about the appearance of those men and asked them to gather some information.」

Hearing those words, Nakuto remembered that Vihera had taken a detour before heading to the inn, saying that she had something to do.

It was the same for Essetus, who spoke with a surprised expression as he looked at Vihera.

「That shack? But I can’t believe you moved so quickly……」

「Of course. After all, for this kind of thing, the quicker the better. ……But, Byune was the one who knew the informant, not me.」

Vihera turned to Byune with a smile on her face.

However, Byune didn’t seem to care as she slowly sipped her fruit juice.

(I wonder how someone like Byune, who basically only communicates with ‘Mm’, could interact with an informant?)

Such a question popped up in Rei’s mind, but he stood up as they couldn’t afford to spend more time here.

In addition to the clock on Tivia’s survival, there was no reason for Rei not to make a move if he could solve the issue with abnormal species.

That said, it was also true that Rei was feeling a little tired, as he had just left the dungeon.

「However, if abnormal species are involved, there are a lot of things to consider. It would probably be better if we conveyed this information to the Silva family.」

Saying that, Rei looked around before immediately shaking his head.

He, Elena, and Vihera were the main force in this group, and Byune disliked the Silva family. Essetus and Nakuto had also said they wouldn’t let anything get in their way as long as they could rescue Tivia.

「There’s no need for any of us to go tell them directly, right? We could have the inn staff pass on a message. Since this is a high class inn, they should be able to handle something like that?」

「I considered that……but isn’t it a bit too dangerous?」

There was a possibility that the messenger would be attacked by the same people who attacked Essetus and Nakuto on the way to the Silva family residence because they were afraid of information being disclosed.

However, Vihera shook her head in response to Rei.

「An inn like this would of course have skilled guards. You could ask the guards to go with the messenger, or just ask the guards to go themselves.」

In the end, that was the plan they went with and the group left the inn after writing a letter to inform Vosk of what they knew.

「We seem to stand out quite a bit……is this okay?」

Essetus muttered as he walked through the city, worried about the constant gazes of people on them.

Their group certainly stood out and attracted a lot of attention.

However, the gazes on them weren’t malicious. No, you could even say the gazes were positive.

……That said, nearly half the gazes were directed at Set and Yellow while the other half were directed and Elena and Vihera.

The former gazes were towards cute creatures while the latter were at beautiful women, so it wasn’t that surprising.

In Vihera’s case though, there were were also some feelings of fear as quite a few people had been dragged into messes by her.

「So, where’s the informant?」

Elena had long become numbed to such gazes, having received them for so many years, and brushed her vertical rolls of golden hair as she asked.

「It’s just a little further into the back alley from here. Since they did something so conspicuous, we should at least be able to figure out which direction they were headed in. We can then focuse our investigation in the direction of their escape.」

「But, uh……couldn’t they deliberately take a detour instead of running away just like that?」

Even though the sun was starting to set, it was still hot and Essetus wiped the sweat off his forehead with his arm as he asked.

However, response he received were looks of surprise.

It wasn’t just Vihera. Elena, Rei, and even Byune, who rarely showed any chances in expression, had her eyes go wide.

「W-What’s wrong? Is it that weird for me to use my brain!? Rather, let’s hurry. I’m worried about Tivia.」

He spat those words out, as if saying ‘I don’t care’, before hurrying away.

「Calm down. If you panic here, you will only make them happy. They are probably watching us from somewhere right now.」

「……Really?」

「Probably. But even if they try to make any moves, Set will be ahead of them without any issues.」

「Guru~?」

What? Set seemed to ask with a tilted head. Vihera stroked his head as they continued to walk down the street.

Like that, rather than heading directly to the informant, it seemed like they were just killing time looking at the surrounding shops.

「Mm.」

Byune voiced her agreement with Vihera’s words as their group slowly made their way to the back alleys.

After about 20 minutes, they arrived at a back alley where there were barely any people.

Set was the largest member of the party, but luckily, he still had enough space to walk.

Unlike the back alleys near the slums, there was a somewhat lonesome atmosphere here, probably because the streets weren’t as crowded as the slums.

With Vihera and Byune’s guidance, they continued on and eventually arrived at a shack that looked like it was going to collapse at any moment.

「……Is it here?」

Hearing Elena’s question, Essetus, who had stopped by here previously on their way to the Golden Wind inn, nodded.

Nakuto didn’t have any change in his expression and his attitude was also neutral.

「Yes. ……Are you there?」

An elderly man in his 50s poked his head out of the door at Vihera’s words as she tapped on the door.

The man wasn’t dressed very nicely, but he was still reasonably well dressed. He didn’t look like someone who lived in a shack that seemed like it was about to collapse at any moment.

When the man saw who was asking, he gave a happy smile and bowed his head.

「Welcome, Byune-sama, Vihera-san……those two were Essetus-san and Nakuto-san. And…….oh, this is rare. Even Crimson and the General Princess.」

However, the words he said caused everyone aside from Vihera, Byune, Set and Yellow, to change in astonishment.

Both Rei and Elena were known a lot better for their titles……more precisely, not just Rei’s title of Crimson, but Elena’s title.

This caused Essetus and Nakuto to immediately realise who Elena was.

Even if they didn’t recognise her face, they still knew of the General Princess. No, there probably weren’t any people who lived in the Mireana Kingdom and its surrounding regions who didn’t know the title of General Princess.

「G-General……Princess-sama!?」

「Duke Kerebel’s……」

Seeing them stare at her with stiff mechanical movements that seemed to creak, Elena gave a small sigh before speaking.

「There’s no need to be so sacred. Right now, I’m not Elena Kerebel of Duke Kerebel’s knight order, I’m just here as Elena.」

Telling that to Essetus and Nakuto, who were on the verge of kneeling, and giving a sigh, Elena turned to the old man.

「It seems you’re quite the skilled informant.」

Her identity as Elena Kerebel had been blocked by the guild and hadn’t spread far past the Silva, Marschel, and Levisor families.

There were some adventurers who realised who she was, but the guild had told them not to spread the information.

Of course, not everyone told to keep quiet would shut their mouths, but even so, information on Elena should have only spread to a small minority.

(Or, since he’s an informant, he might have known from the beginning.)

Elena thought to herself as she turned to look at Byune.

「Mm.」

Seeing Elena’s gaze, Byune gave a short response as she nodded her head.S

At the very least, the fact that Byune didn’t behave like Essetus and Nakuto was a happy event for Elena.

Understanding what Byune meant, Elena turned her gaze back to the old informant.

「So, I know she knows who I am, but what do you know about the people who attacked them?」

「Yes. Of course, I’ve confirmed it. We’ve found their hideout, but we haven’t been able to find out who they are in this short period of time. We have confirmed though that some of them have headed to interesting places.」

「Interesting places?」

The old man nodded at Elena’s words.

If you were sensitive to people’s emotions……no, even if you weren’t that sensitive to emotions, you couldn’t help but notice the hatred in the old man’s voice.

「To the huge mansion in Exil’s west, the Marschel family’s mansion.」

「I see, so the Marschel family is definitely involved in this matter. So that means Pree was the one to pick up Schaffner.」

「I don’t know. I don’t think there’s any doubt regarding the circumstantial evidence though……」

The old man spoke while suppressing the hatred overflowing from within him.

Because he realised his own hatred, he decided it would be best for him to stop speaking.

It’s strange for a mere informant to have hatred like this. Elena was curious about that, but before she could ask, Vihera looked her in the eye and Elena ended up keeping her mouth shut.

It was because Vihera’s gaze was one that seemed to be pleading with her rather than one that desired to fight.