One of the two adventurers kneeling beside the body and inspecting the crime scene frowned at the moment that Aiz and Tiona came into view.
“Hehh? You two, you can’t be in here! It’s off-limits! The hell are my lookouts doing?!”
“Hey, there, Bors. Sorry, but we’re coming in.”
Finn addressed the angry human as if they’d met several times before.
He was a hulking man with muscles to match. His threatening aura, strong enough to make anyone who saw him flinch, was topped off by a black eye patch. His upper body was protected by a sleeveless battle cloth that accentuated his wide shoulders and massive biceps.
Bors Elder.
An upper-class adventurer, he ran one of the main exchange shops in Rivira. He was the kind of guy who would say, “What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is also mine,” right to another adventurer’s face without hesitation. He was, without a doubt, the most powerful resident in Rivira.
Among the adventurers that gathered in Rivira, people with close ties to the Guild or legal power of any kind simply didn’t exist. The ones who ran businesses down here had grown tired of jumping through all the hoops of rules and regulations on the surface. The only thing they needed to become successful was the ability to keep others quiet. Power was king in this “rogue town.”
At Level 3, Bors was the strongest adventurer in Rivira, and therefore the person in charge in times of emergency by default. Holding this position also meant that he often interacted with the leaders of familias that stopped by to use the town’s facilities.
He had already stepped in and taken charge of this situation. Finn approached him, both hands up in an effort to be as unthreatening as possible.
“We’re planning on staying here for a while. In order to focus on our own matters, we’d like to help settle this one as quickly as possible. That work for you, Bors?”
“Heh, you sure talk the talk, Finn. Doesn’t matter if it’s you guys or Freya Familia, you always show up acting all high and mighty just because you’re strong.”
“He should look in the mirror, don’t you think?” Tione muttered arrogantly under her breath as she listened to their conversation. A bead of sweat rolled down Lefiya’s neck as soon as the Amazon’s words reached her ears. “P-please be calm!” she said in a hushed voice, desperately trying to prevent a scene.
“So then, what happened here? Any clues to this adventurer’s allegiance or the one who did him in?”
“Ahh…The guy pushing up daisies wore full plate armor and brought some chick wearing a robe in here. His helmet covered his face, so I have no idea who he was. But the chick is gone, so there’s no doubt she’s the killer…Ain’t that right, Willy?”
“Yeah, those are the only two I let in, Bors.”
The other man in the room, next to Bors, was an animal person: the owner, Willy. He was of medium height and build, but his hair was an absolute mess. Stripes of red war paint on his face ran down both cheeks.
The owner of the inn added to his story.
“The two showed up last night. Both of ’em kept their faces hidden and asked me to rent out the whole place.”
“Two people wanted the entire inn to themselves…? Oh.”
“Yeah, exactly. My inn doesn’t have doors or anything like that, so voices tend to travel. Anyone could have one hell of peep show, if they wanted to.”
Finn was thinking out loud when Willy jumped in to confirm his suspicions. Lefiya’s mind started racing as she, too, connected the dots, causing her entire face to blush bright red.
“I could tell that was his plan from how giddy the man’s voice was. I couldn’t care less and had them pay up front…I walked away, half wishin’ he’d go to hell, only to have him end up like this. Gave me some pause.”
The tone of Willy’s voice was like he was discussing the day’s events over drinks, but salty lines of dried sweat covered his face. Rubbing the back of his neck with a shaky hand, he knew he had messed up. A long sigh escaped his lips.
Riveria, clearly mourning the loss of life, walked over to the body and placed the cloth over the remains of the man’s head. Finn took his eyes off her and asked another question.
“Did you happen to catch a glimpse of the woman’s face?”
“Her hood was so low, couldn’t even see her eyes. Same with the guy, couldn’t see either of their faces…Ah, but you know, I could tell one thing. Even with the robe, that lady had one fine body. One look at her and I was on the verge of grabbing at her without thinking.”
“Ohh, actually, I caught a glimpse of her in town, too…Damn fine. Didn’t see her face, but no doubt about that.”
Bors corroborated Willy’s statement, the two of them energetically describing her figure like an object of envy.
As their breathing came harder, Tiona and the other women in the room stared at them with unamused, ice-cold gazes.
“…But you know, this is your place, isn’t it? How could you not know something happened in one of your rooms? Aren’t you at the counter out front all the time?”
“Gimme a break. Knowing that a woman like that was in the back, hearing her voice would’ve driven me crazy. Since I couldn’t be the one back there with her, I put up the ‘no vacancy’ sign and hit up the bar right away.”
Willy shrugged his shoulders as he answered Tiona.
Claiming he wouldn’t have made it through the night without alcohol, he said he spent the time with a bottle. Other adventurers who were at the bar were able to verify his story, giving him an alibi.
Willy hadn’t come back to the inn until early morning. By then, the man was dead and the robed woman nowhere to be found. That much was certain.
It wasn’t hard to figure out what the man had had in mind just before his death, based on the clothes on the floor and his minimal attire. Most likely, he had been caught up in the moment and slain with his guard down.
Tione, who had been looking around the room out of boredom, came back to the group and made eye contact with Bors.
“By the looks of it, no one saw the robed woman leave this place, did they?”
“That’s right, not a soul. Got a few of my underlings out gathering info, but everyone’s come up empty-handed so far.”
“Did either of them provide their familia’s emblem at the time of transaction?” Speaking for the first time, Riveria approached Willy from beside Tione.
“Sorry, but no. He just dropped this enormous bag of magic stones on the counter and said he didn’t need change. There didn’t seem to be a need to ask for more.”
Willy’s head drooped in apology.
It was extremely uncommon for adventurers to bring large amounts of money into the Dungeon—there was no use for the bulky extra weight in battle. Therefore, the purchase of weapons, items, and accommodation was carried out using familia emblems. The business owners prepared documents similar to IOUs that became valid when an adventurer signed his name and stamped their emblem onto it. A shop representative would then go to the surface at a later date and collect the money from said familia.
If Willy had conducted business as usual, they would have the names and the familia of either the victim or the perpetrator on hand. However, the transaction had been completed with a trade. There was no paperwork, no proof. The man who died must have been a solo adventurer—no one at this point had come to Rivira looking for a lost ally, and no one in town claimed to know him. And with no face to go by, it was highly unlikely anyone ever would. No one knew who he was.
“No matter. We’re going to get the guy’s body to tell us what we need to know—Oi, where’s that Status Thief?!”
Bors yelled out into the hallway. Almost immediately, the hurried footsteps of a human echoed toward them.
The newcomer stopped in front of the entrance before entering with a short animal person who had been stationed outside the room. He had a bottle clutched in his right hand—glass the same color as magic stones and filled with a clear liquid—and handed
it to the shorter man. Bors then unceremoniously flipped the corpse onto its stomach with a dull flop as the animal person, his mouth and neck hidden by a long scarf, approached it.
Pop! The animal person pulled the cork out of the bottle and set to work. Pouring the liquid onto the body’s back, he slid his fingers across the dead man’s skin in a precise pattern.
“If I remember right, Status Thief is…”
“An item that forces our Statuses to appear. It is needed because we cannot release a deity’s ‘lock’ on our own.”
Riveria stood next to Lefiya, providing context to everyone who stood over the corpse. Her eyebrows sank to a scowl as she watched the man’s fingers move.
Only those who had the Advanced Ability “Enigma” were able to produce this item that was created from the ichor in a deity’s blood. Its main ingredient made the substance illegal. Status Thief would never be bought or sold at a store on the street, but it was occasionally on the market underground. It was better to assume that the item could be found in Rivira.
Being that it only had one purpose and that the number of chemists who could create it was extremely limited, the number of bottles on hand at any one time was quite low. And of course, they were incredibly expensive.
It was normally used to reveal the true identity of assassins and other criminals. Statuses always displayed an adventurer’s full name as well as the name of their god or goddess.
“Where does someone pick up a skill like that?”
“It’s not as if adventurers only started doing anything for money last week, you know.”
Tione’s eyes closed halfway in annoyance at her sister’s amazement as the two Amazons watched the animal person’s fingers pick up speed over where the slain adventurer’s Status was hidden.
Using the item to help loosen the “lock” and tracing complex patterns and movements to “pick” it open, the man didn’t take long to bring forth a large jumble of characters and letters that resembled an epitaph on the corpse’s back.
“Bors, it’s done.”
“Ah, good work.”
The short animal person stepped out of the way as Bors leaned in for a closer look. “Son of a b—,” he muttered and slapped his forehead. “Totally slipped my mind. Can’t read hieroglyphs…Oi, you there! Go find one or two really smart-lookin’ elves and bring them back here!” Bors yelled to another adventurer stationed outside the room.
“Wait. I can read divine hieroglyphs.”
“Me, too.”
Riveria and Aiz were quick to speak up.
Bors’s un-patched right eye went wide in surprise. Shrugging his shoulders, he stepped out of the way. The two women came forward to get a good look at the Status.
Riveria knelt beside the body while Aiz stayed on her feet. Everyone in the room was focused on them as two sets of eyes, one jade and one gold, worked their way through the glyphs.
Riveria slowly opened her lips after a few moments.
“His name was Hashana Dorlia, a former member of…”
“…Ganesha Familia.”
The moment that Aiz finished Riveria’s sentence—a deafening silence filled the room.
Every noise was gone in the blink of an eye.
A sense of panic was quick to overtake the stillness.
“Ganesha Familia?!”
“Oi, you sure?!”
Aiz and Riveria kept their eyes focused on the body even while screams of fright filled the room. Finn and the Amazonian sisters were quick to notice the intensity in their gazes.
The victim had belonged to a powerful familia—one strong enough to compete with the top dogs like Loki Familia. That knowledge was enough to make Willy’s blood run cold. He wasn’t the only one.
Bors quivered as he lost his sense of calm, and he yelled a fact that could not be ignored:
“This ain’t no joke—wasn’t the Strong Fist Warrior Hashana a Level Four?!”
Aiz and Riveria had revealed the death of a powerful adventurer.
Everyone’s train of thought arrived at the same conclusion—the robed woman was powerful enough to take down at least a Level 4.
What’s worse, this incredibly powerful murderer could still be among them. A cold shudder ran through the room.
CHAPTER 3
GEKAI DETECTIVE LOKI
The sun shone brightly at its zenith.
The hustle and bustle of daily life in Orario carried on underneath a clear blue sky. The Shopping District was alive with the voices and footsteps of its many visitors, but even the surrounding areas were so full of people that it was difficult to see the stone pavement below. Many had given up trying to reach their destinations on foot and flagged down one of the numerous horse-drawn taxis to traverse the large city.
Loki and Bete, however, made their way through all the humans and demi-humans as they walked down East Main Street.
“Lookie there! Jyaga Maru Kun! Bete, wanna split a few with me?”
“I ain’t eatin’ any. Now, would you stop makin’ detours already?”
Bete’s patience was reaching its limit when the two of them turned off the main road and Loki happened to spot a street stall selling the fried potato puffs known as Jyaga Maru Kun. The werewolf clicked his tongue in frustration as Loki went off to place an order, anyway.
They started walking side by side as soon as the goddess returned, one of the jam-flavored puffs already in her mouth. Bete was attracting a lot of attention from people on the street and inside shops with open windows. Every set of eyes locked on him was female.
His long, muscular legs moved his 180-celch frame forward. The young man exuded a wild aura that was compounded by a tattoo on his cheek. Despite that, his face was perfectly symmetrical and very attractive. Apparently, many people considered an animal person’s signature ears on top of their head and swishing tail to be rather cute.
Bete could feel the yearning stares of two female animal people on the other side of the street. He met their gazes with his own amber glare.
The two young women jumped in surprise before nearly tripping over their own feet.
“Ahh, such a waste. An’ those two were pretty cute…Be~te, ya gotta be nice to the ladies, ya hear?” Finishing her snack, Loki licked her fingers as she watched the events unfold.
“I hate weak women most of all.”
Bete didn’t bother watching the girls disappear and spat out his retort.
“Eh~, no way. Ya don’ get that squeezin’ feelin’ in your heart when a damsel in distress looks at ya for help? No urge to be her shield?”
“Hah! Makes me wanna puke. If you can’t protect yourself, go crawl in a hole somewhere and don’t bother coming out.”
“So cold…Yer a real contradiction, aint’cha, Bete.”
“Oi, what’s that supposed to mean?!”
“It’s, well, ya know—ya bein’ head over heels for Aiz an’ all!”
“Like hell I am!”
Bete growled as his face turned bright red.
“Hee-hee-hee,” laughed Loki, clearly enjoying the exchange.
The werewolf’s efforts to hide his emotions, and even his threatening posture, could not withstand the giggling goddess.
“Ahh, screw you…Oi, how many times are we gonna walk around the same block? Didn’t you wanna look into something?”
Bete pulled back his lips, baring his teeth as he asked Loki for a straight answer.
He didn’t have much of a choice when his goddess came to him at home and asked for his help “searching.” However, they’d made several laps around the buildings that lined East Main Street without doing much at all, up to this point.
Loki had stuck her head into a few out-of-the-way empty buildings and tried talking to shop owners and passersby, but frustration was starting to get the better of Bete. Even his ash-gray tail was starting to twitch with annoyance.
“Hnnn~,” muttered Loki as she looked around on tiptoes, holding a cloth sack over her shoulder. “To be frank with ya, I’ve
been doin’ some diggin’ on my own since yesterday…Now I’m makin’ sure I didn’t overlook nothin’.”
Two days had passed since the Monsterphilia, and Loki was investigating East Main Street.
After her meeting with Freya, Loki had gotten a hunch that a third someone—someone with a hidden agenda—had released the man-eating flowers at the same time the Goddess of Beauty set other monsters free.
Considering that Lefiya had sustained considerable injuries when she and a few others had been drawn into the fray, Loki had more than enough of a reason to get involved.
She had focused her investigation on East Main Street exclusively, but had yet to come across any promising leads.
The plant monsters had burrowed up from beneath the street. Unfortunately, all the holes had been plugged and everything seemed back to normal in the surrounding area.
“So you’re saying the ‘lookin’ into’ you’re doing is to find where those monsters came from? What a pain…Don’t Ganesha’s guys or the Guild know anything?”
“Thought about asking ’em, but they were attendin’ to festival cleanup and gettin’ people back on their feet. Wasn’t the right time.”
Loki looked up at the Coliseum while conversing with Bete. The imposing structure towered over everything else in the area.
In fact, many facilities owned and operated by the Guild were located on or around East Main Street, including the Coliseum. Most events hosted in Orario were held in one of the many Guild-operated facilities built in this area. That meant there was an abundance of hotels and inns close by to accommodate travelers visiting from out of town.
Turning off East Main Street, the two went into an area dominated by expensive hotels standing higher than three stories tall. The farther in they went, the more the beautiful red brick buildings gave way to the cheaper, wooden inns. Suddenly, Loki came to a stop.
There was a slight opening between four buildings at the end of the narrow alleyway.
It led to a square clearing with only a few old dusty crates in the corner and a small shack made of stone built opposite to the alleyway’s entrance.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 2 Page 5