“I won...” Melissa said. “I really won...” Melissa knew she should feel overjoyed, but the whole thing just seemed unreal.
The announcer, at least, had passion to spare. “What power, ladies and gentlemen! What overwhelming might! I’ve never heard of anything like it in all the history of this tournament! The guild receptionist is this year’s winner in the National Fencing Tournament preliminaries! She’ll be running wild in the tournament proper as well, make no mistake! Make sure to place your bets with the official tournament bookie!”
They just had to finish it with an advertisement for the tournament’s officially sponsored gambling, of course.
From all around her, Melissa could hear cheers and adoration directed her way.
“That was amazing, miss!”
“Can’t wait to see you in the main event!”
“I’ll be rooting for you!”
Melissa waved back awkwardly as the cheers grew louder and louder. Preliminaries or not, it seemed she had already made quite a splash.
† † †
Melissa let out a long, exhausted breath. “I’m just glad I was able to do my part of the job...” she said.
After finalizing Melissa’s registration for the main tournament, the party returned to Lily’s smithy. It looked like the victory had taken a tremendous weight off Melissa’s shoulders. She was finally letting herself relax.
“Here you go!” said Kanata, handing Melissa a cup of fresh-brewed tea. “Have some tea!”
“Thank you, Miss Kanata,” Melissa said, accepting the beverage and taking a drink. “Ahh...” she sighed. “It’s like the hot tea is seeping into every inch of my tired body.”
“So it looks like you’ll be going to the main event after all!” said Lily, taking Melissa’s sword off her hands to do some postmatch maintenance.
“So it does,” Melissa said. “Our investigation, on the other hand, is only getting started.” Melissa was going to be busy fighting in the tournament herself, giving her very little time to investigate which of the other participants was the manufacturer of the illegal drug.
“You can just leave that part to us!” said Kanata, flexing theatrically with a furball on each shoulder and a third atop her head.
“Naturally, we shall lend you our strength as well,” said Zag’giel.
“Is there any higher joy than helping Lady Kanata?” Fenrir agreed.
“I have little interest in the troubles of humankind,” said Elizavett. “But if it is my Mistress’s desire, I suppose I must.”
Melissa had no idea what use Kanata’s three pets might possibly be, but they certainly seemed motivated if nothing else.
“We have some time until the tournament proper,” Melissa pointed out. “How should we spend it, do you think? There’s no need for me to actually win the tournament, so I don’t suppose more training is strictly necessary...”
It wasn’t as if they would be expelled from the premises if Melissa lost a match. Melissa had already halfway completed her role just by getting this far. It might be a better idea to use the week they had until the main event to do some serious investigation. There might be some value in checking up on the leads the kingdom and the Adventurers’ Guild had already investigated, in case they had overlooked some key detail.
“Well, now that you mention it, there is somewhere I’d like to visit,” Kanata said.
Her idea, it turned out, was to visit the hospital treating the patients whose bodies had been ruined by the drug they were pursuing.
“I see...” said Melissa. “You want to question them again. But you know, these people are very unwell. I don’t know if you’ll be able to get anything useful out of them.”
The rumor that the creator of the drug was going to be participating in the National Fencing Tournament had come from one such patient. If they could get more information out of them, it could increase their chances of finding the culprit. Besides, there weren’t any other leads to go on. Kanata’s suggestion was probably the optimal course of action.
After all, Kanata was a brilliant young lady when it came to topics unrelated to fluff.
† † †
A man lay in a hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling with clouded eyes. Next to him, a woman sat on the floor with her body propped up on the bed, sound asleep. She must have been someone important to him. Her eyes had the telltale signs of someone who had just been crying.
The man made no response as Kanata and her companions entered the room. The side effects of the drug harmed not only the body, but the mind as well.
“I don’t know...” Melissa said. It seemed hopeless. The man was awake, but the light of thought had gone out from his eyes. It must have taken heroic efforts for the last set of investigators to get any information out of him whatsoever, in his state. “Miss Kanata, perhaps we should leave...”
The guild had already given this man the best healing they could in their attempt to question him. He had been treated with expensive potions and healing spells from high-level priests. If all those efforts hadn’t been enough to help him, there was probably nothing anyone could do. It would be best for everyone if they left before the woman at his bedside woke up.
Or so Melissa thought.
“Don’t worry!” said Kanata. “It’ll be okay!”
It wasn’t clear whom she was addressing exactly—perhaps she was simply speaking to everyone present. Either way, Kanata’s relaxed tone did a great deal to alleviate Melissa’s worry. Kanata held her hand over the patient and closed her eyes as if in prayer, casting a spell. This time she was focusing all of the healing energy she had used to cure the people of Undertown on just one individual.
“Mnhh...gh...” the previously unresponsive man moaned. Slowly, his eyes regained their focus. Kanata’s healing magic had done what the doctors and priests alike could not, after everyone had given up on this man as a hopeless case. “H-Huh?” the man said. “What was I...?” He looked between his own hands and his wife, lying collapsed on his bedside.
The woman roused at the man’s voice. She looked up, her eyes meeting his. For a second, they widened in shock. Then, tears welling up once again, she hugged him tight. “You idiot!” she cried. “Why did you have to use that stupid drug?!”
“I-I’m sorry...” the man said. “I thought it might help earn us some money, with you pregnant and everything...”
He had made a mistake in involving himself with the drug, but with a reason like that it was hard to hold it against him. Melissa and company let the man and woman recover their wits a bit before addressing the couple to introduce themselves.
“So you’re the one who cured me?” the man asked.
“The doctors said his case was hopeless!” the woman exclaimed through her tears. “Thank you! Thank you so, so much!”
“I don’t know how we can ever repay you...” agreed her husband.
“No need for thanks!” Kanata chirped, lightly brushing off the couple’s heartfelt thanks. “But if you want to pay me back, just let me know if you see any good fluff!”
“Fluff?” the man and woman parroted in unison.
“That’s right!” Kanata said, holding up Zag’giel as an example. “I’m looking for critters with the best fluff in the universe, like this cutie here!”
“Indeed,” Zag’giel intoned. “We are a true paragon of fluff.”
“I-I see...” the man said. “Or rather, I don’t really get it, but if I see another magic beast like that I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“Yay!” Kanata cheered. “Thank you so very much!”
“Excellent!” said Fenrir.
“You will treat me with the same amorous affection even once you have found yet more servants, won’t you, Mistress?” Elizavett asked. “Although I would be even happier, could you attend to me in my original form...”
The three furballs were all delighted at the prospect of further fluff, although none of them actually knew what Kanata meant by the word.
“Now then,” said Melissa. “I am terribly sorry to bother you when you’ve only just returned to your senses, but I have a number of questions I was hoping you could answer.” She proceeded to question the man as to what he knew about the origin of the drug.
“I’m afraid I don’t know the person who made it...” he said. “But...”
“Yes?” probed Melissa.
“I heard them muttering to themself when I left. Something like, ‘Everything so far has been nothing more than an experiment. But just you wait for the big tournament! I’ll show them all!’ This time of year, a ‘big tournament’ has gotta mean the National Fencing Tournament, right? That’s what I thought, anyway.”
“An experiment, they said?” Melissa asked. Perhaps the purpose of distributing the drug so widely had been to see what kind of effect it would have. That would also explain the information the guild had given her that the drug had stopped circulating quite recently. The creator must have concluded their experiment and moved on to their real goal of creating something that would help them win the National Fencing Tournament.
“Can you tell us anything about the person in question?” Melissa asked.
“Sorry...” the man replied. “They were of pretty average height and they had their face hidden behind a mask. I couldn’t tell if they were a man or woman from their voice either, since it was so muffled...”
“And you purchased drugs from someone so suspicious?” Melissa said in disbelief.
Immediately, the man began making excuses. “I was desperate! I had just found out I was going to be a parent, and I was at my wit’s end!”
“Darling...” His wife sighed. “I really wish you had talked to me about it first...”
“Think of it from a man’s point of view!” he protested. “I would feel pathetic talking to you about something like that!”
“A lot less pathetic than how you ended up!” the woman shot back.
“What did you say?!”
“You heard me!”