Charging Into The Drug Merchant!

The Royal Capital in the early afternoon.

I delivered the organization’s men, loaded on a handcart, to the guard station on the edge of the city.

By then, every last one of them was already acting strangely.

“Forgib me…”

“Hel… help…”

“I won’t… do it…”

They stared into empty space, shed tears, and begged for forgiveness with slurred speech.

It was a pathetic sight one could never have imagined from their grimy appearance.

The knights and soldiers who came out to meet us were a little put off.

By the way, Edgar had listed up the evidence for us, so a corroborating investigation began immediately.

All the slaves were rescued as well.

I alone carried in the men, while Edgar moved to recover the evil god statue.

When we interrogated the boss, Gadwin, it seemed the evil god statue functioned as a device for communicating with an evil god.

Since Liricia had already filed a damage report as the owner of Puchi Eli, things proceeded smoothly.

I was released after repeating the same story about twice.

Namely, “I defeated the thugs who barged into Puchi Eli. When I made them talk, it turned out they were going to poison the Puchi Elixirs in the warehouse. I caught them at the scene and defeated them there too. This was the poison they had then. After that, I made them reveal the boss’s whereabouts, the one who had given them orders, and stormed in and defeated him too.”

Ordinarily, they would have been suspicious that two people could defeat all of them, but the title of former Hero came in handy, and they believed me easily.

Well, it was almost entirely true.

After that, they said they would contact the shop again once the investigation results came in, and I returned to the shop.

There was a sign on the shop door reading “Closed Today.” The curtains were drawn, and I couldn’t see inside.

When I went in, Edgar was there.

He was holding a black statue about thirty centimeters tall in his hand.

“Welcome back. That was quick.”

“You were quick too, as expected of you, Edgar. —So that’s the evil god statue?”

“Looks like it is.”

He held out the statue he had been carrying toward me.

As I approached and was about to take it, I suddenly had a bad feeling and looked at Liricia, who was sitting at the counter.

“Could Liricia take it instead? My Serâge might destroy it.”

“I see, that is a possibility indeed! As expected of you, Master!”

Liricia’s silver hair swayed as she hurried over to Edgar and took the evil god statue from him.

Now I was worried about curses instead.

“Is your body all right, Liricia? Has another strange curse or anything activated?”

“Eh, how should I put it? My body feels fine, but—let me check.”

With a little sound, she spread her wings wide from her back.

Pure white wings without a single stain.

I narrowed my eyes too and looked all over them, front and back.

It seemed merely holding the evil god statue did not cause any problem.

“There’s nothing wrong. That’s a relief.”

“Yes. Thank you for worrying about me.”

“Still, that means yesterday’s curse wasn’t the work of the underworld organization.”

Edgar nodded at my words.

“It seems more like drug merchant Medici.”

“That side is respectable business on the surface. We probably can’t handle it the same way we crushed the underworld organization.”

“The current head’s father and younger brother both died under suspicious circumstances, so he’s definitely doing something…. If you gave me a little more time, I could probably dig into it.”

At Edgar’s words, I shook my head.

“He can communicate with an evil god, right? If we don’t crush him now, he may pass on information and they may come up with countermeasures.”

“There wasn’t much evidence to begin with, so it’d be a pain even if he only hid the evidence. And the evil god statue is heavily guarded too.”

Liricia knitted her brows and made a sorrowful face.

“But… what should we do…?”

“In that case, we break through the front.”

“Eh?”

“If he’s innocent, then we can just walk in through the front.”

“But will he agree to see us?”

Liricia furrowed her brows uneasily.

I grinned. Then I took one Puchi Elixir out of the glass case on the counter.

“If we say we want to consult the shop owner directly about distribution channels for Puchi Eli, he’ll have no choice but to meet us. It’s a royal purveyor, after all.”

“I-I see! As expected of you, Master!”

“Then I’ll use the moment the head’s attention is on Alec-san. I’ll sneak in quietly and get the evil god statue.”

“I’m counting on you, Edgar. After that…”

We made a quick plan, then left the shop.

The Royal Capital in the afternoon.

A large shop on the Royal Capital’s main street.

The shop entrance stood wide open, with customers and employees going in and out.

The shop also faced a back street, where horse-drawn wagons loaded with cargo were coming and going.

I entered the shop with Liricia.

The spacious interior was neatly organized, and behind the counter the wall was lined with shelves full of small drawers.

I set one bottle of Puchi Eli on the counter and spoke to one of the clerks.

“Excuse me, I have some business negotiations and would like to speak with the head of House Medici.”

“Do you have an appointment in advance?”

“No, I don’t. But if you mention consignment sales for Puchi Eli and—thanks for the bouquet, he ought to agree to speak with us smoothly.”

I glanced at Liricia standing behind me.

Liricia, dressed in white clerical robes, was holding a white bouquet.

When her eyes met the clerk’s, she gave him an angelic smile.

“We brought our thanks as well. What do you think? Don’t you think it’s a lovely bouquet?”

“Ah, yes. Then I’ll at least go ask about his schedule…. Shall I take the bouquet first and pass it along?”

“No, we’d like to hand this over directly. If you say it’s in return for the bouquet, he’ll understand.”

“I-is that so? Please wait a moment.”

Though the clerk suspiciously furrowed his brows, he disappeared into the back of the shop.

However, he came back in only a few minutes. He looked a little flustered.

“He says the head of House Medici will see you. Please come this way.”

Led by the clerk, we walked through the drug merchant’s mansion.

Then we were shown into a tastefully furnished reception room.

Inside the room, a thin man wore a pleasant smile.

“How do you do, this is our first meeting. I am Medici, head of the Medici drug merchants. I am honored that you chose our firm for negotiations regarding Puchi Eli.”

As he said that and approached, he held out his hand. A handshake, huh.

Staying on guard in case there was a curse, I took his hand.

Even though he was thin, it was damp with sweat and unpleasant.

The handshake itself caused no problem in particular.

—Well, I had Serâge, so curses probably wouldn’t affect me anyway.

“I want to expand Puchi Eli nationwide. Could we make use of the Medici drug merchants’ distribution network?”

“Yes, provided we can agree on the terms, of course it is possible. —Well, this is no conversation to have standing up, so please, over there.”

Liricia and I sat on the sofa he indicated with his hand.

Medici glanced at the bouquet Liricia was holding, then said,

“That’s a lovely bouquet.”

“Yes, we thought it would serve as a return gift.”

“A return gift, in what sense? We have no particular connection to such a thing.”

“Oh my, is that so? I had assumed you were the one who sent the red bouquet, Medici-san. It seems this bouquet has gone to waste.”

“Not at all. Flowers are beautiful when displayed. —Here, please take this as well.”

Medici pulled a single red flower from a vase, then came over to the sofa.

As he sat opposite us, he held out the red flower.

I reached out my hand.

Medici’s expression—his mouth twitched.

So I did not take the flower.

I held out my hand in a gesture of refusal.

“I see. So you really were the one spreading the curse.”

“W-what did you say!?”

“You had to hand over a red flower to curse someone, right… In front of my Serâge, a curse is powerless—Hah!”

Pinching the red flower, I released my fighting spirit with all my might.

In an instant, the red flower blackened and crumbled apart.

Medici’s eyes went wide in shock.

“W-what is the meaning of this!?”

“It blackened and crumbled after being exposed to Serâge… that’s proof it’s a cursed item!”

“N-no! That’s not true! This must be some kind of mistake! That’s it, it was a trap! I was set up!”

Just then, the room’s door opened without a sound.

Edgar came quietly inside.

In his hands he held a black, sinister evil god statue.

“I found this in the room behind the study, but this belongs to you, right, Medici-san?”

“U-uwahhh! G-give it back! That power is mine!”

Medici stood up and tried to leap at him.

But I kicked the table, so he crashed down hard onto it.

“That attitude. That reaction. So you really were a follower of an evil god.”

“F-fuha…! D-doing something like this, don’t think you’ll get away with it… Now that you’ve opposed me, I’ll crush you with everything I have—”

At that moment, the mansion suddenly grew noisy.

A ringing voice echoed from somewhere far away.

“We are members of the Luktia Holy Knight Order! Evidence has been found that an evil god is being worshipped here, so we are commencing an investigation! If you obstruct the investigation, consider yourselves equally guilty!”

“Everyone, I can sense an evil presence from this direction, please follow me!”

“The hidden room’s this way~. If anyone resists, take them out~”

There were women’s voices too. They belonged to the cleric Sophisia and the mage Mackybell.

Medici’s eyes widened atop the table, and he ground his teeth.

“I-impossible! Why is the Luktia Church here!? —Ah! Alec, you bastard! So the Puchi Eli negotiation was a lie!”

“A sudden visit and a few provocative words were enough to make you slip up immediately. Even as a villain, you’re third-rate.”

“W-what!? Do you think you can get away with this!? I’ll have the evidence crushed and buried!”

Medici glared at me, but I looked down at him with cold eyes.

“What exactly are you misunderstanding? Do you really think you’ll escape punishment for cursing Liricia?”

“Eh?”

I drew the sword I had taken from the thugs, poured Serâge into it with all my might, and slashed him.

With a light slicing sound, his clothes tore and blood splattered.

Medici twisted his thin face and screamed.

“Gyaah! —Drawing your sword out of nowhere! You’re insane! …Gyaaaah!”

I slashed him a second and third time. Blood came out, but he healed immediately.

“Forgib me… Deathscythe… saaama… guff.”

Medici rolled up his eyes and fainted.

He wasn’t injured at all. Only his clothes all over his body were in tatters.

I quickly tied him up.

Liricia held a hand to her mouth and spoke in a trembling voice.

“M-Master… a-as expected… of you….”

“You don’t have to force yourself to praise me while looking that horrified. I know this wasn’t a very heroic thing to do.”

“But it felt as though you deliberately sullied yourself in order to keep me safe. Thank you very much.”

“Yes, that’s right. Even if this man continues to bear resentment from now on, I want him to hate only me. …If you alone understand that, Liricia, then that’s already enough for me. Thank you.”

I stroked Liricia’s head.

As her silver hair swayed, she leaned into my chest.

While gently holding Liricia, I thought.

—The names of the evil gods worshipped by the underworld organization and the drug merchant were different.

What did that mean? Were there multiple of them? Or else….

At that point, the pointy hat of the mage Ma-chan bobbed as she came into the room.

“Yo~, Alec. Long time no see~. You really went flashy again~”

“Did you find evidence of the evil god?”

“Perfectly, loads of it, and nice and clean! A huge haul~”

“Was Sophisia all right?”

“Yep, she’s doing well too. With what she did this time, her contributions to the Church went up, so her treatment might improve too.”

“I see. But lend me the evil god statue a little longer. I’m going to defeat the one controlling things from behind the scenes.”

“Mm, the one Edgar had, right. I already kept a video record of it, so it should be fine for a while.”

“Sorry about that.”

At that moment, a knight entered the room.

He hoisted up the bound Medici and took him away.

Mackybell was also called by the knight and left with him.

Liricia and I left the room.

We talked as we walked down the corridor.

“With this, we’ve defeated the direct perpetrators who were meddling with us.”

“That leaves the one in the background, the sculptor Skura, or perhaps an evil god’s priest.”

“The different evil god names are bothering me. Multiple culprits, or else…. Either way, if we don’t tear it out by the roots, we’ll be attacked again.”

“But we have no idea where they are… that is the difficult part.”

“I have an idea.”

“Eh, really, Master!?”

Liricia’s violet eyes opened wide in surprise.

I took out the sub-device and spoke into it.

“Kou, there’s something I’d like to ask.”

‘What is it, Mastaa?’

“I heard evil god statues are used for communication, but can you investigate and identify the transmission source?”

‘Since there are no communication records, that is difficult. …If there are two units, I can identify the destination coordinates from the difference in irradiation angle, yes.’

“Got it. I’ll bring it back.”

‘Okaaay. Put them in the shop and the mansion garden, pleease~’

I ended the call.

I turned a smile toward Liricia at my side.

“This looks like it’ll work.”

“As expected of you, Master!”

Liricia smiled and linked her arm with mine.

Feeling the soft warmth of the body that trusted me, I headed for the shop.