Chapter 99: The Demon King's Vessel (1)

The place we headed to after descending into the sewer was Ibi's ‘secret base’.

You know, the place she finally blabbed about after being pecked by the windbirds.

This room, hidden in the middle of a passage where sewage flows, was a hideout that Ibi used to hide from pursuers or to be alone when she was active in Tiaria.

Ibi guessed that it might have been there since the sewer was first built.

Otherwise, it was unlikely that a secret room so perfect for a hideout would exist in the sewer.

She said that no one had found this place since she had accidentally discovered it a long time ago.

Perhaps that's why, unlike the dreary and musty passage outside, this room had a somewhat lived-in feel.

There were candles to light, a sleeping bag to lie on, and various odds and ends.

Ibi said with a slightly nostalgic tone that everything was as it was before she left, as if no one had noticed the existence of this place even after she had left the city.

It was good news for us, who had decided to stay here until things outside quieted down.

Although it was a small room, it was not too small for six people to sit.

Thanks to that, we were able to relax and sit down in our respective places to catch our breath.

“Sob… sob…”

Although Lily, who had sat down in a corner as if to hide and started to sniffle quietly, seemed unable to do so.

“I-I can't… serve Lady Sistina anymore…”

“Hey, I said I was sorry.”

As soon as she saw that, Ibi immediately approached Lily and started to soothe her… but honestly, judging only by what I heard, her tone wasn't very apologetic.

“I really only tore a little. It probably wasn't even very visible. At most, only the side of your leg would have been visible?”

“H-Hueeeng…!”

“Huh…? What, what's wrong?”

Ibi seemed to have said it to soothe her, but it only had the opposite effect, and in the end, Lily burst into tears like a baby.

“L-Leg, you say…!”

“Yeah. Right, leg. Hey, look, look. This long thing was only torn this much, okay?”

“D-Don't lift it up!?”

“──? Hey, what’s with your thigh…”

“Wh-Why are you staring at me?!”

“…I-Is this okay? Is this right?”

I quickly turned my head, so I don't know what was happening, but I could tell that Ibi was being reckless again.

“To show my b-bare leg, to people I don't even know…! It’s too unholy…!”

“I couldn't really hurt you, could I.”

“A wound on the body can be healed… but a wound like this remains forever…!”

“No, what's so unholy about showing a little leg… hey, then what about me? Me, who wears something like this, am I walking pornography?”

“…….”

“……For real? H-Have you been looking at me with those eyes all this time…?”

“N-No, I…!”

“And in the first place… if you’re disqualified as a cleric for something like that, wouldn’t you have already… been disqualified back then…?”

“…!”

Perhaps she was stung, as Lily couldn't deny those words.

And the sound of her crying also soon stopped.

…Let’s not get involved.

I still haven't seen anything.

Besides, if it weren't for Ibi's quick thinking, it was highly likely that we wouldn't have been able to break through the encirclement safely, so this time, I couldn't honestly blame or scold her.

***

We were planning to stay in the hideout at least until the sun went down.

Up there, the whole city would be on high alert.

The checkpoints would probably all be closed.

The second largest bank in the middle of the city had been robbed.

Whether it was a place where black money gathered or not, or rather, even more so because of it, they would be searching for us with their eyes wide open.

They would also search the sewer.

In fact, we had occasionally heard footsteps from outside.

But.

“Don’t be scared, kid. It’s safe here.”

Ibi, who had let out a small laugh as if to tell Miki, who had been startled and on guard every time he heard footsteps, to relax, said that as long as we were here, we were safe.

“If this place was going to be found, it would have been found a long time ago.”

Well, because this place was a kind of ‘rest area’.

“You guys saw it earlier, didn't you? Did you imagine there would be a door here until I opened it? Newcomers can never find it.”

Because of that, other NPCs couldn't touch us in this room.

It was an unwritten rule.

A promise between the player and the game.

Like in cartoons, where they never attack until the transformation or combination is complete.

“…Indeed, we had no idea that a place like this existed.”

The ‘we’ that Toric mentioned was, of course, the Kapers.

“You guys went in and out of the sewer too?”

“It was a long time ago. It’s the best way to move around this city without being noticed. We also… often came down to the sewer for work.”

Toric added with a bitter smile, as if recalling that past experience.

“There were a few places we used as temporary hideouts like this. But… this is the first time I’ve heard of a secret room hidden in the sewer.”

In other words, it was a hideout that even the Kapers, who knew most of what was happening in this city, didn't know about, a hideout that only Ibi knew.

“It’s an honor. To think that we were sewer neighbors with the righteous Kapers who protect the world. I thought only rats like me liked this place.”

Ibi, who had chuckled to herself, then nudged Miki next to her with the tip of her toe and said.

“Did you hear that, kid? Even the Kapers that you’re so crazy about didn't know. So just lie down and relax. It’s still a long way until the sun goes down.”

At that, Miki sat down more comfortably, as if he were a little relieved.

The other companions, including Miki, who had been resting but were also ready to rush out at any moment, also began to relax one by one.

On the other hand, Ibi, who had been completely relaxed from the beginning, even started to hum and rummage through her 「Magical Travel Bag」.

Then she took out today's spoils—a heavy money bag—and began to look at the gold coins in it.

“Heh, heheh.”

With an expression I had seen before, one that was almost drooling.

“That Kaper guy said that we just need to find out the origin of these, so that means we can keep this money, right?”

Ibi licked her lips, as if just the thought of it made her mouth water.

“Hey, old man. Right? Am I right?”

Toric, who was watching this, shrugged his shoulders slightly.

“Logan didn't say anything else, so… I guess so.”

“Well, I had no intention of giving it back even if he had said something else.”

“Don’t worry. He's not a friend who's greedy for money.”

In the first place, if he were greedy for money, he wouldn't be a Kaper.

“It looks like about 100,000 gold at a glance. Wow, to think that I’d see the day I touch this kind of money.”

As far as I remember, it was about that much.

A little over?

“You knew that just by looking at it?”

But I knew because I saw it as a number, but Ibi had just estimated it in that short moment.

As befitting a ‘thief’.

Her eye for money is no joke.

“1-100,000 gold!?”

At that moment, Miki asked back, startled.

It was certainly an amount that would make one's jaw drop.

Even for a scion of the Irons family.

Moreover, since Miki hadn't seen the inside of the safe himself, he must have been even more surprised.

“Yeah, kid. Kehehe. With this money, we can live for the rest of our──”

Suddenly, Ibi turned her head to me with a look of having remembered something.

Perhaps, she felt a sense of déjà vu.

“…Don't you even dream of it.”

“Of what?”

So I played dumb, but it didn't work.

“Don’t think about spending money on some strange investment or whatever again, you bastard!”

…Was I caught?

In fact, I was planning to use most of that money for investment, as Ibi had said.

‘Nero's Atelier’.

Before, I had invested 10,000 gold in Stout.

By now, the result of that investment would have come out.

And since Nero's Atelier was in Tiaria, I was planning to visit it as soon as this matter was roughly settled.

I was planning to invest the 30,000 gold that I would have earned from the 10,000 gold I had invested then, and a part of the money I had obtained today.

Of course, not the full amount… around 100,000 gold.

Because Nero, although he hadn't seen the light of day yet, was a talent who would become the best meister on the continent.

No, in terms of skill alone, he already was.

So if I invested in him in advance── I could easily obtain ‘legendary’ grade artifacts from him that I wouldn't be able to get even if I offered 1 million, no, 10 million gold.

In other words, it was no different from buying a lottery ticket that was guaranteed to win first prize.

It was an investment that would be foolish not to make.

“No! Absolutely not! Don’t even look at it!”

Of course, Ibi, who had no way of knowing that, was growling, hugging the sack tightly as if she would never let it be taken away this time, but someday, Ibi would also know.

That I was right.

“Wh-Why are you smiling so creepily again…?!

“Huh? No, just. I’m happy to see you.”

“I’m feeling very unhappy right now…!?”

***

A few hours later.

“Hey, this way.”

After a proper rest in Ibi's ‘secret base’, we came out to the passage where the sewage flows again to go up.

“This direction is the pub where that guy is.”

Ibi, who knew the sewers as well as the back alleys of Tiaria, was like that.

That's why she naturally took the lead and guided us, just as she had when we first came down here, but.

“…!”

Before long, we encountered something that would surprise even Ibi…

The first to notice ‘it’ was, as expected, Ibi, who had the sharpest senses among us.

Ibi, who had been walking in front, suddenly.

“──Huh?”

And stopped in her tracks, and then extended her hand towards the wall next to her.

And, she [Intuited] a secret door.

Just as, she had first [Intuited] her secret base.

“There’s a door here too…?”

At that, the other companions, who had not yet noticed anything, looked at her in puzzlement, but Ibi, not caring, seemed to touch the wall a few times, just as she had done when she opened the door of her secret base, and then.

“──Found it.”

She found a very small groove── a ‘switch’── with [Finesse].

At that moment.

Kugugugung──!

The ‘door’, which had looked just like a wall of the passage until a moment ago, began to slide open slowly.

That door was connected to a staircase that went down further.

“A-Are we really sure it’s okay to go in…?”

“Hey, you won’t die, you won’t die.”

Ibi, who had dismissed Lily's concern with a wave of her hand, first confirmed that there were no traps, and then, as if she couldn't overcome her curiosity, she immediately started to go down the stairs.

“In the first place, why would you build a passage like this in a sewer? To hide often. But if you put a lot of traps there, are you going to commit suicide by mistake or something?”

If she had found another ownerless empty space like her secret base, couldn't she use it to her advantage?

At the bottom of the short stairs, there was another door.

It was an ordinary iron door with no markings or patterns.

“Wow, there was another one of these here──”

Ibi, who was cautiously pushing the door open, suddenly stopped talking.

Instead, her jaw dropped.

Squeak──

Beyond the iron door that opened with the sound of old hinges.

“What──”

Was a huge… facility that was incomparably larger than Ibi's small hideout.

“Wh-What is this……?!”

It was a ‘prison’.

In a word.

When we were in the hideout, Toric had said it.

That going through the sewer was the best way to move around this city without being noticed.

Then where would Don Paulo have hidden and moved all those many slaves that he was secretly smuggling, avoiding the eyes of the great nobles?

Here, in the sewer.

However, those ‘slaves’ were not here.

Instead, the dozens of iron cages were all open, and inside, unorganized chains were dangling.

As if, it had been hastily emptied a while ago.

“S-Something like this, was here…?”

Seeing the empty prison, Ibi was horrified.

It wasn't just Ibi.

Perhaps, everyone was slowly beginning to realize the identity of this place.

“D-Don't tell me this is──”

At that moment.

“──You are truly, people with a strong sense of adventure.”

A voice echoed throughout the basement.

Fwoosh!

At the same time as the black flames flared up in front of us.

“But you shouldn't be here.”

The guy, once again, appeared before us with a bright smile.

The 7th Corps Commander of the Demon King's army, Luce.

The guy, had kindly come to give us a ‘warning’.

“Because this is a place with a truth that is still too much for you to handle.”

To prevent his plan from going awry because we── especially I── died early without permission.

“So for a moment here──”

But so what?

“──Luce.”

Tell the plan to f*ck off now.

“I told you clearly.”

I have no intention of playing into that guy's hands anymore.

“The next time we meet, I will kill you.”

As I had boasted then, it was now time to kill that obnoxious devil.