Welcome to the Man-Eating Dungeon

Her voice lowered. She knew that this man was deliberate in anything he did.

「Someone’s here. There are a few of them… Expecting anyone?」

「No.」

「…If they’re robbers, it could get messy. Once you move the wall, I’ll go in first.」

Daria worried for a moment that it might be Layla’s nanny, but she concluded that she wasn’t the type to break in without permission. The fact that Nubia could sense their presence meant that they were in the storage area in the back of the shop. They were not respectable guests.

「…Thank you, Nubia-san.」

???

「Excuse me. Does this carriage belong to Jemma Firm?」

With this sudden approach, the coachman of the small carriage was puzzled. He looked down to see a man, most likely a city noble, carrying some luggage.

「No, we have no affiliation with them. As you can see, I just take people places, but… This parade isn’t good for business.」

The coachman opened the door of the carriage to show that no one was in it. The man nodded, and apologized.

「Well, I’m in the same boat as you. The carriage with our cargo’s stuck somewhere, and it’s carrying the wrong stuff to begin with. I’ve been looking everywhere, but with this crowd…」

「With a crowd like this, main street’s not budging. A small carriage like mine could navigate the alleys, but even those are crowded today. If I were you, I’d just get out of town.」

After some conversation, the man left in a worry. The coachman held back a yawn, and climbed back to his seat on the carriage to watch the parade in the distance.

「What kind of blunder did Jemma Firm pull, anyway? That’s the third guy today who thought my carriage was the Firm’s.」

???

「That commotion… Is something the matter?」

Gratina called to the coachman from within the carriage. What she had heard were screams among the cheering, and a small explosion. As it was earlier than their plan, it must have been caused by something else.

「From here, I can’t really tell… I could hear a small explosion, but the crowd is cheering again, now.」

If the result is cheering, and not screaming. There was no major issue, if anything. The housekeeper pondered for a moment. They weren’t the only ones who wanted the future Countess dead. They even intentionally leaked information on where there would be least security. However, it was only meant for Gratina and Lubreo to send in assassin’s where they wanted, and they ensured that nothing would interfere with their plan. At most, it would earn the knights on guard some pats on their backs. If the explosion wasn’t caused by an assassin, someone else must have.

The magician on the carriage, no doubt… It would be fortunate if she would use up her magical powers, now…

Gratina thought, then decided not to dwell on it any further before calling her Eye in the sky, and check on the parade.

「It’s all right. Keep course.」

Feeling the carriage slowly roll ahead, Gratina’s mind traveled upward. The coachman’s voice became distant, as if it was coming through the room next door.

Gratina looked down at the city from the sky. The parade was slightly slower than planned, but Gratina didn’t see a major issue with that. While all waterways were supposed to be shut down for the day, some of the curious and well-to-do citizens were awaiting the parade on their boats in the waterways. In the anticipated parade route, people flooded the streets, and even the alleys were considerably populated.

Gratina felt some sort of oddity in the movement of people… And pinpointed it. A flame had erupted from a building deep into the shopping district in Old Town. It was Elliot’s magical items shop, where Gratina had visited several times herself. One root of concern seemed to have been eliminated.

???

「Erph!」

In the silence, his exhale reverberated. A sound akin to cracking a watermelon followed, as the first foe’s cranium blew up.

「What the..!?」

「What is that thing!?」

There were three intruders, all robbers without much of an armor. They were career assassins who felt no remorse in murder, but they were in no way experienced in battling monsters. The client had told them that there was a hidden passage to the depths of the underground waterways, and that activating some kind of contraption would open the door. They did not expected anyone to interfere.

The shop was empty. While they had looked around for some valuables, they had covered up their tracks, and were waiting for the shop’s owner to return. Once he was taken care of, they were going to take what they wanted before setting the shop ablaze and disappearing. It was supposed to be a simple job. Simple enough that, three skilled robbers with reasonable experience in assassinations were supposed to be overkill. Even if the shop owner had had some mercenary experience, a three-on-one ambush had no chance of failure.

…Only the final intruder had enough time to scream before his death.

「All clear, Daria. As far as I can tell, there’s no one else here.」

The bull-headed giant with twisted horns growing from his head (Minotaur, as a legend in a distant nation would describe him), the monster Nubia spoke.

「Thank you, Nubia-san… Who were they, anyway?」

Daria, after emerging from the waterway, rummaged the now silent corpses for any form of identification.

「Someone’s hired blade, no doubt. They even prepped the shop with oil. They were ready to kill Elliot and set the shop on fire.」

Nubia added under his breath:

「This place will smell like oil for a while, unless you scrub it down real good.」

They weren’t mere robbers. Then, their client was most likely…