He was a busy guy.
“So are we just leaving him here or what?” she asked, pointing at the unconscious Ralph.
I gave her a brilliant smile. “Yeah. We’re all good to go.”
“W-wait…” Ralph protested, extending a trembling arm. So he was conscious again after all. We picked up the two of them and returned to the surface. I had to drag Ralph, who was much heavier than the squirt, but Natalie insisted I couldn’t be trusted to carry her.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted,” I said. “Thought I was gonna die.”
I saw down next to the tree that housed the entrance to the basement.
“I wouldn’t expect the guy who carried Her Highness out of the dungeon to complain so much,” Ralph said.
“Oh, you imagine you’re lighter than Arwin? I’ll have to tell her about that.”
“No! Don’t.”
“All right, enough. Stop playing around over there,” said Natalie, who was tending to April nearby. At least she didn’t seem to have any scar-inducing wounds. If there was so much as a scratch on her face, the old man would have us executed.
“She’s a brave kid.”
“I agree.”
But she was also too reckless for her own good, risking her life for someone like me.
“Well, that should do it.” Natalie got to her feet. “I’ll be going.”
“Where to?”
“I’m doing delivery work now. I need to get my payload to its destination by this evening.”
“Is that it?” I asked, pointing to a ragged-looking satchel. It appeared to be empty. Some thug or another had made off with the contents, I guessed. “Well, at least you can still use the bag.”
Natalie slumped. “If I’d known this was going to happen, I would’ve cut them into shreds, not just beheaded them.”
Whoever she was fantasizing about killing, Natalie reached down and carefully cradled the satchel.
“Um, wait!” called out Ralph as she turned to leave. “Thank you very much. You saved my life.”
“If you want to show your appreciation in monetary terms, I’ll collect it later. Both you and that galoot owe me, so make sure you pay together,” she said. Awfully greedy words for someone who’d just received a very generous tip from me.
“Who are you? And isn’t that Her Highness’s sword…?”
“Arwin gave it back to me. It was originally my weapon.”
“Huh?”
“The galoot over there can fill you in on the story. So long,” said Natalie, taking off at last after foisting one more job on me.
“Hey, who was that? Is she an adventurer?” said Ralph, wasting no time in harassing me. I couldn’t be too careless in telling her story, because it might lead back to me. She knew that and still delegated the job to me. And she was supposed to be a friend?
“Just a madwoman,” I said, electing to ditch the question and run. “If you want to know more, ask Dez.”
Ralph persisted, but I shrugged off his questions on the way back. April was still knocked out, so I carried her. Fortunately, the sun was still out, so it wasn’t a problem. Ralph took a short lead and kept an eye out, intent on making up for his earlier failure. He would’ve struck a gallant image if not for the bulky cat cage slung over his shoulder.
As we moved from one street to the next, I felt a stirring on my back.
“Huh? Where is he?”
“You’re finally awake, Princess?” I asked.
Between her and Arwin, I always seemed to be surrounded by reckless women.
“A passing warrior slew the monster. The body vanished,” I explained. It sounded made up when I said it like that, but it was true.
“Who?”
“They didn’t give their name.”
Again, not a lie. She hadn’t needed to introduce herself.
“What was that guy?”
“A friend of the one who caused the stampede.”
Levi’s preacher form had been witnessed by many people, and April had heard about it, too, so there was no point in hiding it. I could feel her getting tense.
“Are they still trying to hurt this town?”
“I think we’re fine for the time being.”
Their goal was the Astral Crystal. Anything outside the dungeon could be set aside. Plus, Randy was looking for something else entirely. The Scissors of Lombardi. I snuck back into the treasure chamber after Natalie had left, but didn’t see anything that seemed like them. It wasn’t even clear if “scissors” was just a bit of poetic license or if they really were scissors of some kind. There just wasn’t enough info.
“The real problem is you. I thought my heart was going to give out.”
When the old man came back, I was going to tell on her. She’d get a spanking.
“Never do anything so reckless again,” I warned her.
“But—”
“No ifs, ands, or buts.”
“Let me down.”
“No.” She’d gotten some emergency assistance, but she was still injured. “You’re not feeling well yet.”
“But, Matthew, you’re too weak for this.”
“I’m strong enough to carry one little squirt like—”
But I couldn’t even finish the sentence before clouds blotted out the sun. I was back to a weakling again, and even her paper-light body weighed heavily on my back. But putting her down wasn’t an option. She’d risked her life to protect me. How could I tell her, You’re heavy, get off me?
“I do think you’re having trouble.”
“I’m fine.”
A certain princess knight was far heavier than her. Not that I could ever say that in her presence.
We stopped by a healing magician on the way to have April’s wounds healed before going back to Dez’s house. I was exhausted. So was April, because she fell asleep on my back while we were still out on the streets.
Once I’d dropped her onto the bed, I sat in the low chair and exhaled. After all that work, we’d found only the old man’s secret savings. The hidden treasure was still unfound. Another day was ending without any real progress.
“What the hell’s going on?” I wondered aloud.
We’d taken care of the preacher named Randy, but there was still the other crayfish-looking monster lurking about.
And that wasn’t the only problem. A sufferer, if not more than one, was lurking somewhere around town.
Given that the sun god was also after the Astral Crystal, it was inevitable that there would be more clashes with Arwin. If they attacked in the dungeon, I couldn’t help. And this time, Arwin would be killed before I could do anything to save her.
That meant it was Aegis I had to rely on to protect her. Noelle was fine, but the Maretto sisters were too self-interested, and Ralph was all momentum. He was outside the door right at that moment, nervously standing watch. It made me nervous to see how tense he was.
I was just getting up to blow off some steam with a drink when I heard a knocking at the door.
Dez and his wife were out, but they wouldn’t knock before coming home.
And it didn’t sound like when Arwin knocked. Ralph nervously opened the door a crack.
“Hey, Matthew,” he called out. “It’s for you.”
“Oh, it’s you guys,” I said.
It was Mustache and Tan.
“What do you want today? And let me be up front: I’m not giving cockfight odds for the time bei—”
Mustache ignored my jest and said seriously, “We’re going to speak among ourselves. This is a topic we don’t want anyone to overhear. So you’d better not listen in.”
And before I could even respond, they began to talk.
“The town guards are looking for a girl named April.”
What?