Peeping

After enjoying herself in those mock fights, Setsuna headed back her room at the inn.

Her work finished, Nayuta was waiting there.

“Oh, Onee-chan, did you have another mock fight? You have to use Cleanup or you’ll just smell sweaty, you know?”

“Eeeeh? It takes so much though… nnn~. Nayuta, you do it~”

“Yeah, yeah. Cleanup, Cleanup, and one more, Cleanup.”

She used Cleanup like splashing her with water. Once she’d used it three times, she was completely clean.

“Onee-chan, who were you having the mock fight with? Kuroinu-senpai?”

“Nkyuu, Village Chief-san. Now I’ve completed this village’s C-Ranks! I lost though. Tehehe.”

“… For Onee-chan to lose… what happened?”

Seeing Setsuna smile awkwardly, Nayuta tilted her head to the side.

Setsuna’s ability was that of a B-Rank’s, so she couldn’t imagine her losing to a C-Rank adventurer, much less a C-Rank adventurer who was actually a D-Rank everywhere but at this dungeon. Just what sort of method did he use?

“Right, right, I straight up lost in a grappling match!”

“Grappling match!? Not a hand-to-hand fight? I heard it as a rumor from the villagers, but wasn’t Village Chief-san a swordsman?”

“Village Chief-san himself said he was a mage. His stamina’s definitely like a mage’s, but his skill was like a first class grappler’s. He got super tired and looked dead tired but his movements didn’t change at all, it felt like his body knew all of the movements and was moving from sheer willpower!”

What Setsuna sensed was, in a certain way, very close to being correct.

“He does have black hair and eyes, so maybe he does have Hero blood in him? Or maybe he’s the Hero himself?”

“He reacted delicately to Onee-chan’s boke, so the chances of it are pretty big. But then is that rank a rank from him hiding his identity? Or is it the pattern he’s actually hiding his S-Rank? Then again, I can understand that Onee-chan lost if he is a Hero. Heroes have crazy physical strength and cheat-like skills given from god… Did he train his body, or was that a skill? If it’s a skill, with what sort of effect does—” 1

“Ahh, Nayuta? Are you done? My shift’s coming up soon.”

“Ah, whoops.”

Nayuta stopped talking for a moment before taking a breath and starting again.

“… So, what about Village Chief-san’s magic? He had to use something if he’s a mage right?”

“Hmmm.”

Setsuna thought back to the magic that Kehma used. The strong impression she got from other things from him overshadowed his magic, so even though she could remember it, it took a bit of time.

“He used Water a bit. I mean, it was a mock fight, so he only used it to distract me.”

“Heeh… Well, shall we report that he’s promising? He obviously knows other magic. He wouldn’t be calling himself a mage if he only knew a single magic so—ah.”

Nayuta realized she was starting to talk a lot again, so she decided to cut herself off there.

“Considering it was by chance, we came across quite a find, haven’t we?”

“… By the way, I think that girl’s a Toy after all.”

“Kuroinu-senpai? She really is abnormally strong for her age. Moreover, with her black hair, eyes, ears, and brown skin… the possibility of her being a Toy is extremely high.”

“If she is, what do we do?”

Nayuta thought for a moment before responding.

“… We’ll just report it for now and wait for further instruction. A little more intelligence gathering might be necessary.”

“Should we sent a message right away?”

“Yeah.”

Deciding to take a safe approach to it for now, Nayuta began to write a message. Setsuna decided to change into her maid outfit and head to work.

*

It looks like they had that sort of conversation.

I asked Rokuko to have the menu’s monitor function record it. The conversation happened when I was exhausted and sleeping, so it’s already been over a day since it happened.

I turned off the monitor since I didn’t intend to peep on her changing clothes… ah, was that already cut out? Yep. Rokuko’s gotten able to think about stuff like that ahead of time hasn’t she.

Report, message… and wait for instruction huh. Setting aside the bits about Heroes, what’s this Toy thing? They said is was a high possibility Meat was one, but is that some title like Hero? Or is it more like an individual name? Meat can’t remember her past much at all… is it like that? I wonder if it has to do with that… well, given her excellence, it might not be impossible.

… Come to think of it, I’d peeped at what the letter’s contents were, but it really just looked like the activity report of adventurers staying safe. It wasn’t even written in Japanese.

However, I didn’t know the other party’s name. The letter turned into a bird when it was finished being written and flew off somewhere. A carrier pigeon? Looks like she used a magic tool, but that’s amazing.

“What to do… what to do…”

Really, more and more I don’t know what to do. The more info we get on them, the more the enigma deepens. Can’t I just ignore it and get back to sleep?

I’ve pretty much finished my part in contacting them, so the next step is theirs. And since they’re also waiting for instructions, we’re all just waiting on standby. I’ll have them tell me if some letter bird comes flying in.

I decided to observe them with the monitor.

With a bit of searching, I found Setsuna waiting tables in the dining room. Her job was simple, she just accepted order tickets from guests and brought them food made by Kinue-san. It looked like she’d already gotten used to it her cheerful smile was popular among the guests too.

“Nkyuu, here’s your D set meal~”

“Ohh, thanks Setsuna-chan. Ya busy tonight?”

“Ahahaha, I might consider it if you win against me. Wanna have a mock fight?”

“Haha, there’s no one in this village that can beat Setsuna-chan. Even Kuro-chan lost against ya right? I mean, Kuro-chan’s the strongest in the village.”

Setsuna generally treated the adventurer guests lightly, but she tilted her head in puzzlement over his statement.

“Eh? The strongest person in this village is Village Chief-san though?”

“Sure, Kuro-chan can’t win against Kehma-san, but he’s Kuro-chan’s Goshujin-sama y’know?”

“Village Chief-san is strong. I lost against him.”

“… Huh?”

The dining hall suddenly burst into an uproar from Setsuna’s remark.

Other adventurers cut into the conversation. They’d challenged Setsuna before—rather, they were challenged by her—and were promptly defeated.

“Oi hold up there, Kehma-san wasn’t defeated, but defeated Setsuna-chan!?”

“It wasn’t in gambling or wordplay or something?”

“Yep, it was in a mock fight. He’s strong…”

“Seriously? Kehma-san, strong!? He’s always sleeping though!”

“Now that you mention it, Village Chief Kehma is this dungeon’s top progresser… right, there was talk about someone training Kuro-chan wasn’t there?”

“Hey, did he seriously win? Village Chief-san… like, judging from looks, even I could win against Village Chief-san…”

“You could ask Kuro-senpai if you think I’m lying? She was there~”

All at once, everyone’s gazes shot towards Meat Kuroinu, who worked there too.

Meat answered by nodding… However, even though there high chance that Meat would say anything that would favor me, since it was coupled with Setsuna herself saying that she lost, the trustworthiness of the news was high.

“Y-you were feeling sick right? Hey, were you having that once-a-month girl thing?”

“That’s sexual harassment! Mou, perv!”

“Hebuogu!?”

Setsuna struck the guest with a bang.

The now-wounded guest flew away.

Though something at that level was just playing around to adventurers, so there was no problem. It’d be quite a big problem if this were Japan though.

“Ah, sorry.”

“N-no, it was my bad. Ha, haha…”

“Well, I was in perfect condition. After fighting Village Chief-san, I fought against Kuro-senpai again and won~”

“I won’t lose next time…”

“Hooh, I’m ready any time!”

The two held up their trays and locked eyes.

It felt like sparks were flying between them.

“You two, your hands aren’t working?”

Kinue-san’s voice came over from the kitchen, ending the topic there.

However, the rumor that I won against Setsuna spread through the dining hall in no time, eventually making its way into the village.

… Crap. Even though we called it a tie, she’s saying that she lost against me…

However, Setsuna played it out so naturally that it didn’t look like she was scheming anything. Even if she was scheming something, what was her intention? To investigate the dungeon? Or maybe some investigation related to Heroes? Or maybe it was like she said in the interview and is chasing the Black Wolf…? Come to think of it, what is that Toy thing? Is she looking for them?

At any rate, if they’re reporting to someone and are waiting for instructions, I’ll figure something out by looking at it. Probably.

In the end, I guess there’s no choice but to wait and see how it plays out…

Footnotes:

Check this link for more info on boke.