With Café Argent as their base of operations, Yuri, Athena, and Fram devoted all their time to finding a witness. Mirka had told them the deadline was noon in three days. That was when the final verdict would be issued, and they needed to have all the right components to have the claim withdrawn in time.
A day had gone by since then, but unfortunately—
“It’s no good, Athena missy! I asked every single person I know who goes to that dungeon, but that day, the way to floor fifty was closed off, so most of ’em just turned back and went home!”
“I see... Thanks for trying, Mr. Vander.”
“Real sorry. I wanted to help, I really did!” After vexedly scratching his head, the dwarf, a regular customer, apologetically left the shop.
On the day that Yuri had fought Wallis...the other duelists found themselves unable to reach any floor fifty and up, and many of them who reached that point simply turned back and went home. Not only was this information spread across the city bulletin, the warp gate malfunction was made into an official announcement by management. As half of the dungeon was now off-limits until the problem could be sorted out, a majority of duelists simply gave up on entering the dungeon entirely.
It was also their misfortune that they were dealing with Navie the Tormentor.
“...It seems this Navie guy is pretty terrible.” Fram fiddled with her proof as she sullenly stuffed the cake of the day into her mouth. “He mainly operates in the dungeon, but...he extorts duelists, orders his men to obstruct paths, seals off transfer gates, intentionally leads dangerous monsters towards innocent bystanders—the list goes on and on. After he’s acted out in the open so many times, I’m perplexed as to why he hasn’t been properly punished.”
Elias scowled as he peeked at Fram’s screen. “Hm. The worst part is that none of his misdeeds involve dueling. If it were a duel, then the footage would remain, but this way there’s no guarantee. Anything that might leave evidence he leaves to his henchmen. His henchmen take the fall, and he gets off scot-free.”
“He’s an Adamant like you. Do you know anything about him?”
“Fortunately, I’ve never had the ill fortune of meeting him. Seeing how I never ran into him when harvesting ingredients in the dungeon, I assume he only messes with duelists lower-ranking than he is.”
“...Meaning he climbed the ranks by only picking on people weaker than him,” Fram scoffed.
Elias shook his head. “The difficult part is that we can never say for sure.”
“...Why not? You’re stronger, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am. But, at the very least, Navie’s followers obey his every order. Is it because of his brutality? His strength? Perhaps he has gathered likeminded fellows...but whatever the case, he’s definitely more than he appears.”
Yuri gazed at the bulletin as he listened in on the conversation. As was to be expected, he wasn’t having any luck finding information. Perhaps because no one wanted to get involved with Navie, there wasn’t anyone proactively offering information. If that wasn’t bad enough, the number of people criticizing Haring for his usual behavior was on a gradual rise. When the topic turned to that, he would have no recourse.
Athena anxiously came over and tried to cheer him up. “It’ll all work out, Yuri! We got in touch with some people who might have seen, and maybe they know something!”
But there was no time. The sun was already on its way down, and given an hour, the sky would be dyed a beautiful red. Even if they gathered information without sleep or pause, they effectively had only one day to go. For that very reason...
“I really do think we should confront Mr. Navie directly.”
“...You can’t. At least, you’re not going to be the one to do it.”
“That’s right! There’s no telling what he’ll do to you, Yuri!”
Fram and Athena immediately opposed Yuri’s proposal.
“But...I’m the one he’s after.”
Yuri still didn’t think he had done anything wrong. Even if what he did was unbecoming of a duelist, he couldn’t just keep quiet when Eleanor was about to be hurt and Haring was being showered with such baseless words.
Still, it was true that it was Yuri who started it. At the very least...if it weren’t for him, Haring wouldn’t be in trouble.
“So if I just hear out Mr. Navie’s demands—”
It happened as Yuri shot to his feet in an attempt to persuade his two comrades.
“Hey, hey, heeey. What’s this I hear about me?” A voice with a viscous, sticky quality that wouldn’t leave the ears.
When Yuri turned in that direction, there, a man was parting the sea of people as he walked towards them.
Blonde, undercut hair and sunglasses. A mouth bent in malicious mockery.
“Hey, what’s wrong? What are you looking at me like that for?” Navie must have found something simply hilarious, seeing as he heartily raised his sandpaper laugh as he approached. He plopped down into a chair across the table from Yuri.
“...Do you have some business with me?” Yuri asked.
“Oh, don’t be so cold. The moment I heard you were doing your best to save some idiot called Haring, I ran all the way over to make sure you were okay.”
He chuckled, gazing over Yuri with a rather amused look on his face.
“Calm down. I came alone today. Even someone as great as myself can’t conduct business right in the middle of the city.”
Sure enough, his tag-alongs were nowhere to be seen.
Yuri slowly stood before...lowering his head to Navie.