11-6. Omen

Satou's here. When I hear the word 'stray child', I remember department stores and amusement parks. The time when a teary-eyed lost child holding his trousers asked me, "Mother, where?", feels nostalgic.

Since my appearance was suspicious due to an all-nighter, I immediately pushed the child to a sales clerk nearby though.

◇

As I go toward the alley where the voice is, a sexy prostitute-like woman with emphasized cleavage is waiting for me there.

"Young master, it has been a long time."

She touches my neck and then leans herself to me coquettishly, making us look like we're having a lovers' talk.

"Mou, please be a bit more embarrassed."

"Forget about that, do you have any new information? Say it quickly."

I urge the woman who's playing her index finger on my chest like she's sulking to press ahead.

The woman is an intelligence agent of the Marquis house.

Due to the matter with Inquisitor Vilas back then, the Marchioness instructed them to tell me about various info.

The information are mainly about nobles who bear ill-will toward me, explorers with bad attitude, and the movement of criminal guilds.

For some reason she doesn't inform me with letters, but by directly telling me while acting as a prostitute or an explorer instead.

"Mou, I've put some effort to look like a prostitute and all, at least gently rub my hair or butt please."

"If you don't have any business, I'll go okay?"

I know that she has some, but we'll be like this forever if I follow her pace, so this kind of attitude and tone are needed.

In short, she's of Arisa's kind, someone who likes young boys.

"I'll do it seriously! First, about the matter with the Fiend Drug--"

In the end, my fear about coup d'etat in the Royal Capital didn't happen, and the one that got regarded and disposed as the mastermind was the subordinate general of Marquis Kelten, instead of the marquis himself as Sir Sokel had told me.

"--the lizard no doubt cut its tail to save himself, but since the the uncle of Sir Sokel, the one who gave the testimony, was in Duke Oyugock's faction...."

For that reason, Duke Bishtal who hated Duke Oyugock the most, came to protect Marquis Kelten.

Who was Duke Bishtal again?

I check Toruma Memo after a long while since I couldn't remember it. According to it, he's a family member of the Labyrinth Army's general, and a lord of a big territory north of Marquis Eluett territory that's north of the Labyrinth City itself.

In the end, it seems the head of the army that were found managing the fiend drug warehouse was to become the criminal and got disposed of.

It was the one I found when I went to the Royal Capital back then huh.

Who'd have thought that the warehouse of the regular army would unashamedly store illegal items...

"There's more about the fiend drug matter, the seized drug were taken by the Royal Research Institute, but some part of it flowed to the outside--ah, please keep this a secret from other people."

"Ah, of course."

Some of those fiend drug were taken to the Foreign Trade City, and were smuggled away on several ships. The ships' nationality was unknown, but it seems they were heading toward the western part of the continent.

"Fumu, by the way, isn't the later part of the story unnecessary?"

I do have something to do with the Fiend Drug matter, but it was mainly as Kuro, so I think there's no need for Satou to know the particulars.

"No, that's a side issue."

"And the main issue?"

"Yes, do you remember an organization called 『Wings of Liberty』?"

"Yeah, they were fanatics who not only kidnapped Sera-sama, but also planned to resurrect the demon lord right?"

I was being vague, but [Wings of Liberty] were the bunch who resurrected the Golden Wild Boar King.

Although, it's unclear whether it was really their intention or they were tricked by the greater demons that acted as their executives.

"Some of the guys who smuggled the Fiend Drug were members of the 『Light of Liberty』."

"Light? Wasn't it 'wings'?"

"Yes, [Wings of Liberty] are the extremist group driven out of the [Light of Liberty]."

According to her, it seems [Light of Liberty] has a headquarter in Parion Holy Land located on the west of the continent. To have demon lord believers existing in the country of the god who summons heroes to exterminate demon lords, what a strange story.

As a sidenote, it seems that there's a similar organization in the royal capital called 『Wind of Liberty』.

It seems that there's actually a faction of [Light of Liberty] too here, but they're moderate, or rather, they seem to be just a small-time group which collect forbidden books, and perform immoral ceremonies as they like.

They didn't even have anything to do with the Fiend Drug matter from before at all.

"And?"

"Yes, the remnants of 『Wings of Liberty』 might possibly get their hands on the fiend drug through 『Light of Liberty』, so..."

So she wants to tell me that some [Wings of Liberty] guys who have grudges might use the fiend drug and attack us huh.

I'd have liked if she made it briefer.

She told me that the political situations on the western part of the continent were unstable as the last irrelevant information.

Currently, it's only at the degree of trade closure and small-scale skirmishes, but it seems at the level where war could break out anytime.

Wars between nations should have been difficult to happen during the Demon Lord Season, so why is this happening. I wonder if demons and demon lords are instigating it behind the scene after all?

Apparently, that's the reason why the date palm has stopped being distributed here.

As expected, stopping wars in order to ensure date palm distribution here is 'that', but I wonder if Shiga Kingdom and Saga Empire can stop war by pressures?

I'll try to consult it with the hero who's searching for a demon lord in the Weasel Empire's Labyrinth once he's returned to the surface.

Come to think of it, one of the oracles said that a demon lord would appear in Parion Holy Land too huh. Hero Hayato should have investigated it before he went to the Weasel Empire though....

◇

Arguments between some men and women are resounding from the Guild's entrance.

"Like I said! Gelca isn't the kind of child who would disappear in the middle of a battle!"

"We've reported it to the guild, so we should know immediately if she merely escaped right?"

"Why aren't you going to search for her."

"Even Sosona understands that it's impossible to go into that area without a magician right?"

"I can use earth magic!"

"Without a fire magician, the best we can do is becoming fodders for the monsters. Give it up."

The Leprechaun girl is flaring up to the leader-like warrior, but the leader treats her curtly.

I thought I had seen them from somewhere, they were the guys who were fighting against monsters in the duchy capital during the yellow-skinned demon assault.

I'm not eager enough to deliberately search for her, but since we have somewhat of a connection, I'll at least search for her name when I enter the labyrinth.

By the way, it seems she's not in the labyrinth city.

I passed through the quarreling party, and went to the guildmaster's room.

◇

"Look at this Satou! This luster--enough to make you drool as you imagine the taste right?"

The guildmaster flaunts some transparent high-quality liquor contained in a bottle.

So it's really about this after all....

That bottle should be from the famous liquor brewery in the Royal Capital, the Shiga Sake. Judging from its cost, it's not a liquor that the guildmaster, whose alcohol bill keeps piling, can afford.

It's most likely a bribe from some merchant.

"Is it good?"

"But of course! Although it's not comparable to your Dragon Spring Liquor, one of this famous sake is enough to sink some Baron-class fortune."

The guildmaster is flaunting the sake bottle bullishly, "Hey hey, ya want it?", but I'm not that desperate to drink it, so I'm not particularly interested. Moreover, I don't think it's only as cheap as sinking baron-class fortune though.

I'm not a child who will speak that out loud though, so I accompany her with, "I'd have loved to taste it."

"Alright! Then it's a banquet tonight! I'll leave it to Chevalier for the liquor snacks!"

The guildmaster gleefully smiled as she pushed me the work to prepare the dishes for the feast.

So that really was her aim. However, I want to check the labyrinth tonight.

If the dog-head demon lord came from the lower layer--or maybe even below--there may be other 30 demon lords after all.

"I'm sorry, I already have a previous engagement tonight. I'm open tomorrow, but I've been invited to a dinner with the Marchioness the day after tomorrow."

"Women again huh? Yer' going to get yourselves stabbed before long y'know?"

How scandalous.

Please stop talking as if philandering is bad. At the very least, I've never played around with amateur women you know?

"By the way, have you called me today just for the drinking bout?"

"Ah.... Of course, it's not the main subject."

I'd like to ask the reason why she was hesitating, but it'd have made our talk longer, so I put it aside.

"Do you know that weapons made from monster material in the labyrinth city have sudden price jumps?"

"Yes, I've heard about it from a familiar weapon store."

I've heard it as Kuro though, but there's no problem with that.

Someone from [Pendora] said that there were a lot of requests for hunting monster material, so the competitions were fierce.

Apparently, merchants outside the city are buying all the magic weapons at twice the market price.

Judging from the intelligence's story earlier, it's probably flowing to the western part of the continent.

"It'd be alright if they gather the material the honest way, but some fools have tried to steal it from inns and houses of explorers."

However, I think there aren't a lot of explorers who leave magic weapons in the inn.

There's probably some guy who make them sleep with drug and then steal the weapons.

"They're aiming for Red Iron-class guys or someone who lives in a big mansion like you, so be careful okay."

This seems flag-like, but I never leave magic weapons in the mansion.

Maybe I should put some dummies?

I should better put some information-gathering Scarecrows just in case.

I confirmed the schedule for the feast with the guildmaster, thanked her for the information and then left the room.

◇

When I left the guild hall, I met a group of metal-armored people with wounds all over their body.

It's probably a party mainly consisting of nobles and knights. Normal explorers don't use these Chain Mails and Plate Mails since the price-performance ratio is bad.

"Boy!"

Oh, it's Lilio.

That means, this group are people from Seryuu City Selected Labyrinth Corps huh.

I didn't notice it since Zena-san's marker wasn't present.

--Huh?

Lilio continues her words as if affirming my unease.

"Zena-cchi has gone missing in the labyrinth!"

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