Which One Is Right? (4)

They proceeded through a dark alley.

Below ground ran the sewers, and there was an old, abandoned maintenance facility no longer in use.

Clack, footsteps echoed.

“So this really was the perfect hiding spot.”

“—! You people!”

At the end of the path were the members of the resistance who had attacked the mansion.

Some of them were faces I had seen at the mansion, while others were younger children and elderly beastfolk.

It was too dark to see clearly, but the place felt lived-in.

They were probably hiding and living here.

Armed beastfolk gathered around us.

They were on guard.

Of course they would be.

“How did you find this place…?”

“I followed the scent. I’ve got a good nose.”

“—! You’re the one from back then… that form—”

Arka had transformed into the form of a beastfolk.

She could change her appearance at will, not just when her emotions ran high.

Beastfolk had sharper senses than humans, along with superior physical abilities.

Only now did I fully understand that her strength came from her beastfolk heritage.

And when it came to dogs, their sense of smell was unmatched.

“We didn’t come here to fight. We came to talk.”

“…For what reason? You’re the lord’s lackeys, aren’t you?!”

“No. We are the Hero’s party.”

“The Hero… you say?”

“Yes.”

Erika continued.

“We were there because we received a request. We were told that people calling themselves the resistance were harming the lord and the townsfolk.”

“We haven’t done anything to the townspeople!”

“That may be so. Would you be willing to tell us more about that?”

“……”

They were still wary.

However, their gazes were fixed on Arka.

A beastfolk was standing among us.

Her presence eased their hostility, if only slightly.

“…Fine. But don’t come any closer. You’ll scare the children.”

“Thank you.”

We kept our distance and listened carefully to what they had to say.

We learned two things.

First was their objective.

“Freeing your kin from the lord is your goal, correct?”

“That’s right.”

He answered Erika’s question without hesitation.

His eyes were straight, his resolve clear.

He wasn’t lying.

“That man… he treats us beastfolk as toys! Hiring us as servants is just a front. He’s imprisoning dozens of us as slaves somewhere in his mansion!”

“Is that true?”

“Without a doubt! We captured a slave trader and questioned him. He said he sold beastfolk to that bastard!”

“…Erika.”

“Yes.”

Slave trading was prohibited.

No matter how noble one was, buying or selling slaves was a crime in this country.

If it was true, punishment was unavoidable.

“The problem is where those people are being held… right?”

“Yeah. You don’t know the location?”

The resistance leader shook his head.

“There are too many smells. I can tell where the scent is strongest, but nothing beyond that.”

“It’s the same for me. That mansion is overflowing with beastfolk scent.”

Tracking by smell alone was difficult, then.

Without knowing the location, searching blindly would only arouse suspicion and give them time to prepare.

“It is beneath that warehouse, I say.”

“Huh?”

Kojiro suddenly spoke up.

Since only I could hear him, I was the only one who reacted in surprise.

I asked in a whisper.

“How do you know that?”

“I saw it and confirmed it, I say.”

“Huh?”

“I am a ghost, after all. Walls and ground pose no obstacle to me, I say.”

During the fight with the resistance—

Kojiro had sensed something from beneath the ground, separated from my body on his own, and slipped underground.

Beyond that had been a corridor and a wide space where beastfolk were being held.

“You should’ve said that earlier!”

“Soji-kun!?”

“Ah—no, it’s nothing.”

“Well, you did not ask, I say.”

How was I supposed to ask?!

I didn’t even know the lord was hiding beastfolk slaves in the first place!

This guy… was he competent or just hopelessly airheaded?

“There’s a space beneath that warehouse.”

“—! Is that true?”

“You can tell, Soji-kun?!”

“Y-yeah. I mean, I’m the Hero!”

That should cover it.

Erika would understand.

“Then let’s head underground. Before dawn breaks… the duke should be asleep by now.”

“Alright! Let’s go!”

“Yeah!”

We would expose the duke’s crimes and free the beastfolk.

I knew it was inappropriate, but—

This really felt like a classic otherworld Hero’s party event.

Despite myself, I felt a little excited.

“There really was an underground passage.”

“You’re the one who said there was one, remember?”

As we walked down the stairs leading underground, Erika muttered quietly.

You do realize I wasn’t the one who found it, right?

We had Kojiro slip underground, locate the entrance, and then infiltrated from there.

They clearly hadn’t expected anyone to find it.

There was no guard detail, and we got in without trouble.

With Kojiro around, even locked rooms were fair game.

“I will not assist in wrongdoing, I say.”

“I know.”

“Look! There’s light!”

Arka pointed ahead.

At the end of the stairs, a faint glow leaked out.

Beyond lay a long corridor.

We advanced carefully through the door and reached the hallway.

There was still no security.

Arka’s nose had apparently picked up the presence of her kin further down the corridor.

“They’re ahead! And there’s a strange smell too!”

“Strange?”

“Yeah. It’s sharp and stings.”

We moved forward cautiously.

The closer we got, the more even my ordinary sense of smell picked it up.

A pungent, irritating odor.

Probably the smell of some kind of chemical.

We reached a door and slowly opened it.

“Wha—”

I was left speechless.

What spread out beneath the ground was an experimental facility.

Beastfolk were locked up in cages.

Even more disturbing were the grotesque creatures submerged in yellow-green liquid.

It was, unmistakably, a mad scientist’s laboratory.

“This… are those monsters?”

“Correct, Hero-sama.”

“—! You’re…!”

Before us appeared the grinning figure of the corrupt duke.