In the past, I would have burst right through that door and thrown fists until I got a confession. But right now, my chances of winning were slim. My strength was limited inside a building. I pulled the temporary sun from my pocket and clicked my tongue in frustration. The cracks were even deeper. It could crumble to pieces at any time.
If she was my enemy, too, then this was truly an emergency.
I should probably talk with Dez about it, but if she was really connected with Samantha, a preacher, then we had to be very careful. The damage could easily work its way back to Arwin as a result.
I had money. Arwin’s dungeon sickness had calmed down. It was only a matter of time before we had enough of the antidote to do the job. Everything was looking up, and now the trouble was starting to accumulate.
Trying to sort this all out while my mind was jumbled wasn’t going to get me anywhere. The best thing to do at a time like this was to empty one’s head. I hunched over and hurtled into the nearest pub.
For the first time in a while, I got completely trashed. Ordinarily, I had to save the allowance Arwin gave me, which limited my ability to drink, so it had been a long time since I’d gotten rip-roaring drunk. My legs went weak, and some passing fellows kicked me to the street, but that was no different than usual.
This whole string of events had been baffling, really. Finally, the stampede was over, but then a bunch of different people’s ambitions collided in tangled ways, leading to a new chaotic mess erupting through the town. While it had calmed down, the sparks still smoldered here and there. Underworld groups like the Devil’s Alliance, the Spotted Wolves, and the Birds of Prey; the gentlemen of the street; the Paladins and their commander; the guildmaster of the Adventurers Guild and his granddaughter; the children at the orphanage; the sun god’s preachers and sufferers; my past companions as one-time adventurers; and the Crimson Princess Knight who led the adventuring party known as Aegis, plus her kept man. How many more tortured, tangled parties could fit into this picture? The witch’s cauldron could bubble over into madness again, anywhere and anytime.
That’s what Gray Neighbor was like.
It was time to go home for the day. I could think about all my troubles the next day.
“Oh! Matthew!” said a voice, suddenly grabbing my attention.
I turned around to see April waving at me from a carriage window. The time had passed quicker than I realized; it was already evening.
“Yo, squirt. You look lively.”
“How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me ‘squirt’?!”
She swung her hand at me, but she was all the way up in the carriage, so it was easy to dodge.
“…Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, just for a moment,” April said into the carriage. She probably had her new bodyguard up there with her.
“Going to buy more clothes?”
“We stopped at the orphanage, too, and I’m just going home now.”
“You tell me if those filthy little brats mess with you again. I’ll kick ’em in the rear until their asses are red.”
Eddie was starting to give April a different kind of look. The horny little bastard.
“…What’s the matter, Matthew? You seem upset,” April said, her expression dour. Apparently, my mood had shown on my face. The problem with drinking to hide my problems was that I knew it wouldn’t work, but I did it anyway.
“I lost big at the cockfight. Now I’m broke, so I had to borrow money from Dez and was just drinking my frustration away.”
“Matthew”—she glared, disappointed—“why don’t you just get a job? Arwin’s in the dungeon again today, right? What about whipping up more baked goods to sell at the next farmers market…?”
“I was just taking a piss around the corner when I realized I’d forgotten the recipe.”
“Ugh! You’re disgusting!”
And that’s how I like it. I don’t want respect or concern. As long as you puff out your cheeks and tell off an incorrigible grown man from time to time, I couldn’t possibly complain.
“It’s about time, mistress,” said the dark-haired woman sitting next to April, leaning forward so I could see her.
I froze completely. It was like I was bound in place by invisible chains. The woman ignored my reaction, got out of the door on the other side of the carriage, then came around to stand before me.
“Please forgive the late introduction,” she said. She was wearing a sleeveless blue dress over a long-sleeve white one-piece. Bizarrely, she had a sword slung around her waist, too. She gave an unctuous bow. “I am the mistress’s new handmaid. Natalie, at your service.”
“…You?” I managed to say. So much was happening that my mind couldn’t keep up.
“It’s the perfect job for me, isn’t it?”
I turned toward April and she nodded, agreeing.
“Natalie’s super-duper strong. Can you believe she’s a master swordsman when she’s also so beautiful?!”
Yes, I knew. I had seen her cut through thousands of monsters in our time together—even split a massive rock golem in two.
“After everything that happened, Grampa said I needed a proper guard. And Natalie said she would be happy to do it if she could be my maid.”
Whether she would be a good bodyguard or not, she was certainly a powerful fighter. I could guarantee that.
“You realize she can’t tell the difference between weeds and tea leaves, right? I brewed her a pot of tea with weeds I picked from around the corner, and she said it was delicious and took two extra cups…”
“Have you considered holding your tongue?” Natalie said fancily and frostily. “The master has personally given me this assignment.”
Her knife was at my throat. What a violent handmaiden.
I dragged Natalie behind the carriage to interrogate her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I hissed.
“The same thing you are,” Natalie said, shrugging. “I like the girl. Things at the mansion aren’t as fussy as at a nobleman’s, and I get money for helping watch over her. It’s a perfect job for me.”
“And you sold your services to them?”
“They hired me on the spot.”
A former seven-star adventurer for a bodyguard. Whether he accepted her “on the spot” or not, the old man had to feel like she was the perfect person to solve his problem.
“You just got all that money, remember?”
“I spent it all.” For a moment, I couldn’t tell what she was saying. “There was the perfect item at the weapons shop, you see.”
Not long ago, I would have scolded her for being an idiot and given her a lecture. But I wasn’t in the mood for that. You really spent that money on your weapons collection? It better not have gone toward raising another army of foot soldiers for the caterpillar sun god.
A few points seemed suspicious to me.
It went back to the first time I met her in town. Her left arm, supposedly under a curse, was moving just fine. If you could overcome that curse with willpower or sheer muscle strength, I would have recovered ages ago. But she was using her sword without even using Dawnblade’s capabilities.
When I was keeping an eye on Donald, she had emerged from the Golden Stagecoach.
Was it a coincidence that she happened to rush up on us in that basement treasure room? Was she just lurking around the town because she was searching for the Scissors of Lombardi?
Why had she clutched that empty satchel as if it was so important to her? Was it because she had hidden the Scissors of Lombardi inside after stealing them from the basement room?
Did she really come to this town to lie low and hide?
Was it even true that she had played dead because an old foe was trying to track her down?
There were so many questions to cover, but I couldn’t speak.
I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. She was a companion; I’d fought at her side to keep her alive and vice versa.
Like me, she had known hell, thanks to that damn curse.
How could she have sunk to being that piece of shit sun god’s sufferer?
“Natalie, are you—”
“Mardukas,” she said, using my old name to stop me short. She glanced sidelong at April. “I’m telling the truth when I say I like her. I swear by our memories, by the name of the Million Blades, that I guarantee her safety. Please believe that, if nothing else.”
What was I supposed to trust? It sounded like repentance to me.
Then she lifted a finger and placed it on my lips.
“I don’t think it’s right to listen in on a young maiden’s conversations.”
I felt like someone had dropped a ton of bricks on my head.
“…Who’s the young maiden?”
“That’s very rude,” she said, shaking with laughter. “Well, I should be going. I hope to see you again, Mardukas!”
“He’s dead.”
“Ah, of course,” Natalie replied.
Then she got back into the carriage and left with April.
My shoulders slumped as it trundled away. So many things had changed in a dizzying fashion over the last few days. I was exhausted. I didn’t even feel like blowing off steam with a pretty lady. The alcohol had worn off, too. I wanted to go home. I turned on my heel and made to leave.
“Did she say Mardukas?” demanded a voice.
My heart leaped into my throat.
He wasn’t wearing his uniform, so it was probably a private errand. I turned and saw the commander of the Paladins, approaching me with an unhinged look in his eyes.
“Mardukas the Giant-Eater, from the Million Blades?”
It was phrased as a question, but the force in Vincent’s voice was brimming with certainty. He had always suspected that I was more than just a lowly kept man.
“What does this mean? Are you really…?”
He grabbed my shoulders and shook me vigorously.
Calm down. How’s a man supposed to answer you when you’re shaking him like this? You just misheard her. She called me “Matthew.” Are you dealing with some earwax buildup? Maybe you should get that cleaned out. I’ll even do it for you, for a price. You can rest your head on my lap while I do it.