Melissa hadn’t dealt her opponent any injury that should threaten his life, but she did damage him badly enough that he had been unable to rouse himself. She looked through Zag’giel’s pseudoinvisible wall, and saw him being carried down a hall to the infirmary. The five of them hurried to go question him.
“I-I don’t know! I don’t know nothin’!” the man insisted, pale faced and shaking. He was in bad condition, and not just because he was being questioned for his involvement in illegal drugs. It seemed he was having withdrawal symptoms now that the effect of the drug had worn off. Nonetheless, he insisted on playing innocent.
Elizavett stepped up to the side of his bed—or rather, the two beds that had been pushed together for him to rest on.
“Wh-Whoa...” The man’s eyes opened wide. “What’s a beauty like you doing visitin’ little old me? Eh heh heh...”
“Tedious oaf,” Elizavett spat, seizing him by the head and lifting him up out of his beds single-handed.
“E-Eeek!” The man shrieked in fear as Elizavett bit his neck. She passed it over her tongue like a sommelier tasting wine before violently spitting it out.
“Disgusting!” the vampire exclaimed. “And guilty, of course.”
She dropped him back on the bed with all the delicacy of someone discarding a used tissue.
“Do you know what I am?” she asked, bringing her face perilously close to his.
“Wh-What?!” the man asked.
“I am one of the ancient vampires,” Elizavett said. “And now, I have tasted your very blood.”
“N-No way! Th-Then, I’m—”
“Precisely! Henceforth, I could make you one of my ghouls with but a word—whensoever and wheresoever I wish! If that would be displeasing to you, you are to never again lay your hands on the forbidden drug!” Elizavett said.
The man prostrated himself on the bed, curling up into as small a ball as he could and trembling fearsomely.
“Behold, receptionist,” Elizavett added, turning to Melissa. “I have set the stage for you. Now, interrogate this man to your heart’s content.”
It seemed that Elizavett’s high and mighty demeanor was merely a performance meant to scare the enormous man straight. Needless to say, Elizavett had no intention at all of making the man into a ghoul. Her sole objective had been to enable Melissa’s questioning of the man to go as smoothly as possible.
“My Mistress...” Elizavett pleaded, sidling up to Kanata like an amorous kitten and dropping her absolute-zero-ice-queen act in the blink of an eye. “Might I beg you for a palate cleanser?”
“Of course!” Kanata said. “And back to fluff you go!”
No matter how terrifying a vampire she was, as long as Elizavett remained one of Kanata’s servants, she was, it seemed, an ally of humanity. Melissa thanked her politely and went to interrogate the man.
† † †
In the end, the giant man didn’t know anything of note. There wasn’t a scrap of novel information, nor anything solid that could lead them back to the drug’s creator. The one and only characteristic he recalled about the person was that they had “pretty hair.”
“Maybe we should consider that a clue after all?” Melissa wondered.
The two people they had interrogated had testified to the same point. Perhaps the creator of the drug really did have an excellent head of hair. In which case, might they suppose that the person they were looking for was a woman?
“No, I mustn’t let such things bias me. The person in question wore a mask to conceal their identity when distributing the drug, after all. It would be foolish to assume that we have any idea what they look like.”
She dispelled the image of the suspect she had been creating in her head.
“Besides,” Melissa added. “I can’t imagine anyone could identify a suspect based just on the quality of their hair...”
She glanced over in Kanata’s direction and Kanata gave her a cheerful smile in return. No matter how many disciplines this girl had mastered, it would be absurd to ask her to search for a criminal on the basis of their hair alone.
“I guess we’re done, then!” Kanata chirped.
“Remember my words to you,” Elizavett said, turning to Melissa’s opponent. “You are to live a clean and honest life, without relying on some drug for your power.”
“Yes’m...” the man replied. He had been glum and subdued ever since Elizavett had had her way with him.
Kanata purged the drug from his body and he got up to leave, promising to continue working as an adventurer without resorting to dangerous shortcuts. They had cleared the first round of the tournament, but they still had no information that might lead them to their target.
“I suppose our only option now is to defeat the next opponent and question them after the match,” Melissa said.
Extracting information from her defeated opponents would be easy with help from Kanata’s three servants. It was possible that even the creator of the drug would fold in the face of such persuasive questioning. Between Elizavett’s icy aura and the threat of being made into a ghoul, anyone, no matter how tough they were, was sure to sing like a bird.
The only problem was, if Melissa lost her match, the plan would end in failure.
“Don’t worry!” said Kanata. “You’ll do great!” She took Melissa’s hands in her own, warming her digits, which had turned cold and clammy from anxiety, with her own body heat. “You did all that training, remember? And you have Miss Lily’s magic sword! It’s perfect for you!”
“Miss Kanata...” Melissa looked up to see Kanata smiling at her. Somehow, the sight made her feel a lot calmer. “Thank you. I’ll do my best. That’s all I can do, after all.”
She had been given the strongest teacher and the strongest sword she could ask for. All there was left to do was have faith and fight. The rest was up to fate.
“She really is going for it, though, huh...” Kanata said suddenly.
“Huh?” said Melissa. “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh!” said Kanata. “Nothing at all! Miss Lily told me not to say anything after all!”
“Lily did?” Melissa asked.
What on earth could Lily have told Kanata? Lily was fundamentally a good girl, but when money was involved she had the habit of turning to mischief. She wanted to ask more, but before she could say anything further, the announcer’s voice rang out. Her next match was going to be starting soon.
“Ah!” Melissa cried. “I have to go!”
“Good luck, Miss Melissa!” Kanata said.
Melissa certainly was curious about what Lily was up to, but a member of the tournament staff was calling out to her. Resolving to press the matter once the match was over, Melissa hurried on to the arena.
† † †
The second match was against a slender swordswoman wielding two light, curved blades. She was a dangerous opponent who was proficient in unarmed combat as well as swordplay, and attacked with a continual chain of slashes and kicks. Melissa’s thrust, however, was faster.
“We have a winner!!!” cried the announcer, sending a stir through the crowd. “One touch from those fearsome twin swords would send blood spurting into the air, but they can’t even hit Melissa Straud! The receptionist advances to round three!!!”
Lily let out a great cheer from her seat in the stands. At some point, she had obtained a stack of papers that looked like they might be betting tickets, now clutched tight in her hand.
“What do you think of that woman, Miss Kanata?” Melissa whispered to her accomplice.
“Hmm...” Kanata whispered back. “Her hair care needs a bit of work. Thirty-five points.”
“No, not that!” Melissa was confused. Kanata was making eye contact this time at least, but the things she was saying weren’t particularly helpful.
After the woman returned to the waiting room, they pulled the same routine they’d done with the giant man. Elizavett’s threats had her talking right away. Unfortunately, however, while it turned out that this woman was a user of the drug, she knew almost nothing about its creator. All they learned was that the person they were looking for had “pretty hair.” It wasn’t much of a hint.
Melissa’s third round paired her up against a warrior wielding a spear nearly three times as long as his body. It was so long that the end drooped under its own weight, but the man wielded it deftly, launching thrust after thrust, circling the tip like a snake’s head to make it hard to read. Melissa instead used the power of wind contained within her magic sword to dodge the spear entirely, avoiding his persistent attacks with the help of some well-placed blasts of air. Each time they had an exchange, Melissa’s defensive motions grew smaller and more precise, until at last, she managed to step inside the spear’s reach and cut the weapon in half.
“It’s the guild receptionist!” the announcer cried. “Who would have thought she’d make it this far?! You adventurers had better step up your game!”
“Go, Melissa!” cried Lily, clutching her betting tickets tight in both hands. “Melissa’s the best!!!”
She must have bet everything on Melissa, although who could say whether it was out of confidence in her friend and the magic sword she herself had forged, or simple avarice. Either way, she was over the moon to see her long shot carry through this far. Melissa glanced up at her, just a little worried about the girl’s future, before returning her attention to Kanata.
“Miss Kanata, what about him?” she whispered.
“Not bad!” Kanata declared.
“S-So, he’s the one?!”
“Easily over seventy points!”
“I told you, I’m not asking about their hair!”
The spear fighter turned out to be innocent as well. That is, strictly speaking, he was quite guilty of using the drug, but they opted not to punish him. This request was a secret mission, after all. They had to find the criminal at fault without interrupting the tournament. Besides, as far as they were concerned, Elizavett’s threat was punishment enough. The man swore up and down that he would never use the drug again as long as he lived. And once again, the only information they were able to gain on the drug’s creator was the dubious statement that they had “just the most amazingly gorgeous hair.”