Three days had passed since the investigation began.
Within a place shrouded in darkness, Tiat Siba Ignareo held her breath.
The air was full of dust, to the point that every breath she took made her nose seize up as if she was about to sneeze. It felt like a muddy lump of saliva and anxiety was imprisoned in her stomach, threatening to bubble up into her throat.
She was currently squeezed into a narrow crack between two buildings, her attention focused on the opening in front of her. If she breathed in a little too much, her chest and back would touch the surrounding walls.
This situation really made her heart race. Tiat remembered how, when she was much smaller than now, she had once been locked crying in a drawer. Ever since then, she’d always been bad with extremely tight spaces.
…If I were a little taller, would this be more dangerous?
When she’d been impatient to become an adult, her body’s slow growth was a constant source of worry for her. But right now, she was thankful for her compact physique.
“Coming here means we won’t be spotted by anyone, right?”
There were six figures in the dark room.
Each wore masks and overcoats to conceal their faces and body shapes. The suspicious characters’ clothing didn’t appear out of place during the festival season and simultaneously served as the best tools to conceal their identities.
“This deal is way more significant—and different—than what we usually do,” continued the seemingly leader of the five, whose voice and build suggested he was a man. He sounded irritated.
“…That’s my line,” the sixth figure, facing the other five, replied in a stifled and hoarse voice.
Such a voice made it difficult to figure out their age and gender. Their physique was small, but that was all Tiat could figure out. Whether that was due to the person being young, or a feature of their race…she couldn’t judge. In other words, she knew nothing.
The small figure spoke again. “Bringing…these numbers…to this transaction. Supposed to…be low-profile. Is this not…careless?”
“It’s ’cause we need to be on guard that I brought so many. It’s just a difference of opinion.” The masked man shook his head with exaggerated motions.
“Difference of opinion.” The smaller figure hardly moved, but a tinge of exasperation entered their voice. “How convenient, is…it not? Picking a deserted island for this…does it not have…other meanings?”
“Well, might be, might not be. Anyway, what’s it got to do with you?”
“I have…not heard…the reason you will use this.” The smaller person’s head dipped, their tone detached again.
“Didn’t think I had to tell you. How ’bout I say it’s for peace? That enough?”
“…Fine. Now, the point. Where is it?”
The masked man jerked his jaw to the four behind him. One of them stepped forward with a bag and placed it at the small figure’s feet.
“Gonna check what’s in there?”
The small figure opened the bag. Tiat couldn’t see the contents from her position. A…bundle of documents, maybe…?
She shifted her focus towards observation, losing her concentration. Unconsciously, her body leaned forward and the tips of her nails lightly scratched the wall, generating a small noise.
The small figure shook and their movements paused.
Oh…
“’Kay, your turn. Bring out what you promised.”
“No.” The small figure took half a step back. “Strangely, it is…as I said earlier. This deal cannot…continue, it seems.”
“Eh?”
“Until…both our groups are safe…farewell.” The smaller figure spun around and ran, turning over the hem of their overcoat as they approached a closed window.
Wha—?!
In front of a stunned audience, the mysterious person opened the window and threw their body out of it. Although the room was on the third floor, there was no sound of a crash, or even a landing.
In the blink of an eye, that person had disappeared from sight.
“So that’s how it turned out, huh? Must’ve been hard.” Ithea crossed her arms, grumbling. “That little one…I dunno if it’s their hearing or their wits, but looks like we can’t nab ’em so easily. Been playing havoc with the other islands’ intelligence departments too.”
Tiat had surmised as much. She’d seen it firsthand, after all. The mysterious figure’s sense of danger couldn’t be defined as simply sensitive or jumpy. It was the sort of honed edge that could probably only be reached by a naturally sharp person driven by cowardice bordering on obsession.
In addition, their physical adeptness was quite impressive.
Hmm. It won’t be easy for just a few people to capture that person. If a large-scale encirclement could be laid out, maybe it’d be surprisingly easily to get them…but it’s because that isn’t an option that’s why we’re here right now. No use asking for the impossible.
“And there was that hoarse voice too, right? They probably used some weird drug to mess up their throat temporarily. All that trouble to hide their identity, geez.”
Wow. Tiat was amazed. Stray musings flitted through her mind about whether or not they would really go that far. Of course, it might just be a matter of course within their line of work.
“Hey, even if it was just the other guys left, was it fine to not catch them?” Collon asked, swaying back and forth atop a stool.
“They’d just be clients. Catching ’em wouldn’t do us any good. We’d just give ourselves away for nothing.” Ithea frowned, scrunching up her eyebrows. Putting aside how it’d been when she was younger, even now that she’d become an adult with a mature aura, the expression didn’t suit her at all. “They’re baddies, obviously, so I don’t like letting ’em go either, but our goal’s securing the Bead Bottle. We need to avoid big risks as much as possible.”
“Mmm…”
“Well, that’s not to say we need to leave ’em be either.” Ithea turned her wheelchair to face Nax by the wall. “How about it, Private Selzel? Found their background?”
“…I followed them back to where they were hiding out and recognized one of them,” the falconfolk muttered. “He used to be registered as one of Elpis’s merchants, involved in some of the shadier businesses. The other four seem like his bodyguards.”
“Ohh, nice going. Hey, go ahead and calculate the next ambush point for me like that too, okay?”
“…You know, Ithea…” Nax scratched his head, about to raise a protest. “I’ll do it if you insist, but I’m here as a soldier, you know? Calling in all the favors from my side job is, how do I put it…kinda troublesome?”
“Whaaat?” Ithea widened her eyes as hugely as possible. “Come on, pleeeeease? There won’t be a thing left on the records anyway, so rest easy! Pull as many as you want!”
“That’s not the issue here… No, that’s good, but…”
He sighed and drooped his shoulders.
Tiat didn’t quite understand what Nax referred to as his “side job,” but it seemed to help him meet all sorts of people and gather information. Maybe he was something like a reporter or detective? If so, that was just a little cool, even if the person himself wasn’t so cool. She wouldn’t say that last part, though.
“Seems like a big deal.” As Tiat handed a cup of coffee to everyone, she put an extra sugar cube next to Nax’s cup. “You seem worn out, Mr. Selzel, so here’s some special treatment.”
“What a good girl,” he said, strangely serious. “Could I ask you out in two years?”
“No, thanks,” she replied immediately without knowing exactly why.
The investigation continued steadily.
She had no clue how they did it, but Ithea and Nax gathered information from all kinds of places. As a result, it came to light that Lyell, although its residents were abandoning it in droves, had a surprising number of illegal inhabitants. Most of them were involved in the development and production of illicit weapons and drugs.
If one thought about it, that was a logical conclusion. When doing such things, certain problems are inevitable. They would need to secure a site with enough space, have ways to power the machinery, cover up the noise, and assuage the suspicion of neighboring residents.
Lyell solved all those problems at once. Machines were operating everywhere with power arbitrarily supplied, the city was filled with the ceaseless noise of running machinery no matter where one might be, and the best part—there were hardly any residents to be suspicious.
Of course, in a few months it would collide with Island No. 39 and might be swallowed up by Croyance. However, looking at it another way, that meant after then all the evidence would be erased by itself.
Because of that, a group that wouldn’t be seen on the main roads ended up forming. And so, no matter how many of these characters came into town, the streets remained as desolate as ever.
“…I wonder what it’s like.”
Only a few people walked around now, always wearing masks and overcoats.
There was a bread shop near their hotel with relatively tasty food. The ham and bacon sandwiches were especially good. There were hardly any sweets sold there, though, the only such offering being small packs of barely sweet, dried-out cookies.
Tiat wished she could have more of Lakhesh’s donuts. And the ones Feodor ate, too. He’d said they tasted really good once dipped in milk. She wanted to try it just once.
It felt as if it’d been a long time since they had all been together. She wondered why.
“Marshmallow and Apple…are they being good?”
She thought of their small faces, then three more faces popped into her head in succession.
Pannibal, Lakhesh, Feodor.
Lakhesh was probably the only one having a hard time right now. She was nice so the children loved her, but because she was so nice, she had trouble scolding them.
“I want to—”
I want to see them. She barely managed to swallow those words.
Whining was forbidden for faerie soldiers. She was in the middle of an important mission. Idle thoughts were absolutely forbidden.
Still reprimanding herself, she took out a small package of dried-out cookies from her bag and raised it to her mouth beneath her mask.
Crunch. Crunch.
Definitely not sweet. Definitely not tasty.