chapter02 · 042-ep36
Episode 36: What Can Be Sold, and What Can't
Thursday morning.
The first thing I did on waking was peer under the bed.
The dungeon backpack was there.
The one that usually sits by the front door. Last night I smuggled it up to my room and crammed it into the far reaches of under the bed.
The reason: its contents.
I opened the zipper a crack.
Red light leaked out.
"Still glowing."
Floor 50 of Akazu. The magic core dropped by the pottery-giant boss, about the size of a fist. A whole night later, and the kiln-fire red still hasn't gone out.
Around it, four ogre horns. Ten-odd clay-golem cores. Plus several red-brown shards of who-knows-what, picked up in Akazu's deeper reaches.
All of it from Tuesday's Akazu.
And all of it, currently unsellable.
The reason was simple.
Right now, Akazu is burning hottest on Tritter as "the dungeon where the black cloak appeared." What happens when a fifteen-year-old D-rank strolls up to a cash-in counter with that dungeon's Floor 50 boss core?
Even I can see it.
Far too suspicious.
"It can sleep there."
Until the heat dies down, it sleeps under my bed. A month, maybe two. Eventually, nobody will spare Akazu a second thought. Then I sell it, casual as anything.
A flawless plan.
I zipped the bag shut and pushed it in deeper.
In its place, today's goods were something else.
The other bag, sitting on my desk: yesterday's Owariasahi, Shiroyama haul. Three Boar Fang tusks. Plus a few smallish magic cores and a bit of some root-like material.
Shiroyama had nobody but a crow.
Sell this stuff, and nothing happens.
"Right."
Today is cash-in day.
"Big brooother!"
A knock landed while I was changing.
It was Seina. She'd opened the door to a sliver, just her face poking through.
"Hm? What's up?"
"Hey — wasn't your room glowing red last night?!"
"Uh?!"
My heart jumped.
"I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and red light was leaking out from under your door. It was kind of terrifying, actually!"
"Uh— umm—"
"What WAS that?"
"Ambient lighting."
"You don't own any!"
"I bought one."
"When?"
"Y-yesterday."
Seina stared at me, hard.
Then she swept her gaze around the room. The desk. The bookshelf. The bed.
At the bed, her eyes stopped.
Don't stop.
"Hmmmm~"
Seina grinned, comparing my face with the space under the bed.
"...Gross!"
"Why is THAT the gross part?!"
"A high schooler bathes his room in red 'ambient lighting'? Gross. He is one hundred percent performing some kind of ritual!"
"I mean... yeah, I can't argue that."
I could not argue it.
The door shut. Footsteps faded down the hall.
I draped my worn pajamas over the backpack under the bed.
Starting tonight, towels wrapped around it too.
School was peaceful.
Accurately speaking, it was not peaceful. From first thing in the morning, talk of "the Akazu stakeout passed fifty yesterday, apparently" was drifting around every corner of the class.
"Ichinose-kun, did you see? The Akazu stakeout went over FIFTY yesterday!"
Yano showed me her phone.
The Akazu in the photo was no longer the Akazu I knew. Tents pitched along the stone wall, and what looked like food stalls out besides.
"Whoa. Stalls and everything. It's a festival."
"It's wild, right? Mr. Black Cloak's way too popular, no? It's basically a dead heat with Dungeon Strolls."
"R-right. A dead heat."
Both of which are me.
Not if you split my mouth open could I say that.
"Ichinose-kun, stroll today too?"
"Today's cash-in day. Stroll's on break."
"Ah, true — it's not money until you sell it."
"Exactly. A dungeon run isn't over until you've sold."
Kuzumi gave a small nod from the seat behind. What he understood, I couldn't say, but it was the face of a man who had understood something.
After school, I headed to the Nagoya Guild HQ.
The Chikusa branch still has its stakeout crowd, apparently, so I avoided it. At HQ there are so many people that, contrarily, nobody notices me at all.
Lined up at the cash-in counter.
My turn came.
"Ichinose-sama."
Behind the counter was Mishima-san.
"Ah — Mishima-san. Hello. On cash-in duty today, then."
"Yes. I am assigned to this window today."
The shadows under her eyes had faded a good deal since Monday.
"Cashing in, then. Your items, please."
"Yes, thank you."
I set the bag on the counter.
Mishima-san pulled on white gloves and went through it, piece by piece.
"Boar Fang tusks. Condition excellent. And these are from the Shiroyama dungeon, in..."
Mishima-san glanced at the terminal in her hand.
Checking the Guild card's records.
"...You entered the Owariasahi Shiroyama dungeon yesterday."
"Yes. It was empty. Nobody there but a crow."
"I see."
Mishima-san smiled, the very slightest bit.
"A most sensible choice, if I may say so. Chikusa has not yet settled."
"Right? I heard there are still stakeout people at Chikusa."
Good. Not under suspicion.
Mishima-san worked through the remaining materials with crisp efficiency.
"Your total comes to 12,800 yen."
"Ohh!"
12,800 yen for thirty minutes.
Against Akazu's Floor 50, probably two digits of difference. But for now, this is fine.
A deposit notice came through on my Guild card.
"Thank you very much."
"The pleasure is ours."
Mishima-san handed the bag back.
I took it, and was just about to leave, when Mishima-san spoke up, softly.
"...Ichinose-sama."
"Yes?"
"You are no doubt aware, but these past several days, inquiries regarding the Akazu dungeon in Seto have risen considerably."
My back gave a twitch.
"Ah — the black cloak man, right."
"Yes. The HQ has had press calls since this morning."
Mishima-san's expression stayed as composed as ever.
"Ichinose-sama, since you do tour the D-ranks — for a while, I would advise avoiding the Seto area. There are quite a number of people lying in wait there."
"Ah — yes. Will do."
"Just as a precaution, you understand."
With that, and nothing more, she called for the next person.
"As a precaution."
A precaution... a precaution against what, exactly?
Lots of people lying in wait, so all you D-rank-touring explorers please take care — that's all she means. Probably.
Right. Probably.
With the most natural face I could manage, I left the cash-in counter.
On the subway home, I gazed at the Guild card balance.
Chikusa's 114,000 yen, plus today's 12,800. And the Goblin Emperor's magic core money still holds over 4 million besides.
That is not a high schooler's balance.
The use for it was already decided.
Equipment.
My current armor is, functionally, zero. In Chikusa, an orc hit my back. At Akazu I dodged everything — but that was because I was the King. If plain me is diving, I need proper armor.
And if I'm calling the soldier, I have to think about moving as a pair, too.
The soldier.
Yesterday's full-armor one.
"I wanna call him again."
It slipped out, quiet.
Call, and he comes. From outside the universe. "We await your next call," he said.
Above him stand the captains — and above them, the Twelve Seats.
No — the Twelve Seats is still too early. My heart isn't ready. Especially the girls.
Soldiers first. Next, a captain, maybe.
Captains get to choose their weapon. What will he bring out?
Somewhere in the thought, my mouth went soft again.
I made eye contact with the woman across from me.
I hurriedly looked out the window.
That night.
Out of the bath, heading back to my room, I crossed paths with big sis in the hallway.
Big sis stopped walking, without a word.
Then she looked at my door.
Precisely: at the gap beneath it.
Red light was leaking out, the smallest amount.
The pajamas must have slipped.
"Saku."
"Y-yes."
"That."
Big sis jerked her chin at the gap under the door.
"The Akazu Floor 50 thing."
"Wh?"
Time stopped.
Big sis didn't change her expression by a hair.
"The ceramic boss. The Kiln-Warden. Its magic core glows red. Takes about three days to fade."
"H-how do you know it in that much detail?"
"If you're selling, tell me."
"Huh — you'd sell it?"
"I'll sell it. An S-rank walks in with it, nobody thinks a thing."
That was all she said, hand already on her own doorknob.
Then, without turning around, she added one line.
"Floor 50, in a single day. Not bad."
The door closed.
I was left alone in the hallway.
No, but — how.
How does she know all of it, that woman.
The entry log? No — only the Guild can see that. Tritter? No — nowhere is there any information linking Akazu's black cloak to me. Then how.
No idea.
No idea — but one thing came through loud and clear.
The flawless plan lasted less than one day.
Back in my room, I wound three towels around the backpack under the bed.
The red light still leaked a little, even then.
I burrowed into the futon and stared at the ceiling.
"She said 'not bad.'"
I said it, small.
Don't grin, I told myself.
I grinned.