novelraw Chapter 110
Chapter 110
Chapter 110. Don't Die, I Have Questions for You (2)
A Pioneering Venture survey proceeds through three stages.
First, one investigates the profitability of a Reward Room that has been earmarked in advance. Second, one simulates an optimised route by connecting the various Reward Rooms investigated in this way. Third and last, one checks whether that route can be operated on a sustained basis.
Bell and Jurgen were currently embarking on the first of those stages.
A second-floor Reward Room rarely trodden by human feet. In a labyrinth filled with achromatic grey, a lush field of bean plants had something about it that opened up the chest just to look at.
They were still in the midst of vigorous growth, but as time passed the leaves would turn a sallow yellow, leaving behind hard bean pods. Some of the shrubs had already changed in just that way.
"Not bad at all. This is sufficiently profitable."
Jurgen twisted off one well-ripened soybean, examined the grain, and smiled with satisfaction.
"This is a bean—a soybean, right?"
"You know it?"
"Of course. It's widely used as livestock feed, isn't it?"
In Britannia, soybeans were not well regarded. Kidney beans were at least made into tinned food and eaten, but soybeans were ordinarily mixed into feed for livestock.
Naturally, Bell assumed this bean was destined to be feed for Keystone Company.
"It will go into a new product. I've been thinking of making Ganjang."
"Ganjang?"
"It's an Eastern Continent-style fermented sauce. The hotpot we had yesterday was Ganjang-based."
"Is it for a new menu item?"
"That too. There's also this thing called Ganjang Chicken, and the flavour is simply extraordinary."
Chicken, chicken……
One could say it was the root cause that had brought about all of this, and yet Bell had never actually eaten chicken. Like most Britannians, Bell had no particular interest in fine dining.
But thinking back to the Shabu-shabu from yesterday, wouldn't chicken be quite delicious as well?
Once this business was over, she planned to try CCC chicken at least once. It might not be so bad to keep Jurgen on as Clarisse's exclusive chef after subduing Y&P Trading Company entirely.
"Let's move on to the next Reward Room. Where was it?"
"The next room is the Sugarcane Room. It looks like about thirty minutes of travel. Shall we rest a bit first?"
"Let's depart immediately."
Bell shouldered her pack again, took out the map and Demon Realm compass to reconfirm their position, and plotted their course. Jurgen followed at a leisurely pace, keeping roughly five steps behind Bell.
Bell glanced back over her shoulder at Jurgen.
'A strange one.'
Bell was not a former adventurer, but she was well-acquainted with the Labyrinth Demon Realm.
There had been many occasions she'd had to come and go, taking on all manner of rough work. It wasn't only monsters that dwelled in the Labyrinth—Outlaws lived there too, and Dark Mages.
On top of that, her own combat ability was hardly at the level of someone who went around getting beaten up, so there was no reason to be afraid.
―Shwik!
At a cutting sound of air from somewhere, Bell gave her head a slight tilt. A thorn that grazed her ear and embedded itself in the labyrinth wall.
Had her reaction been even half a second slower, her head would have been clean taken off. Traps like these tended to remain in labyrinths that hadn't been properly pioneered.
"It's a trap. I'll take care of it, so wait back there."
"Understood."
Bell spotted the trap installed invisibly in the shadows at the corner, and—
―Crack!
"Utcha!"
Threw a punch and crushed the trap along with the section of wall. Thorns scattered fwip fwip from the malfunctioning trap.
"All clear now."
"I owe you my safety. Thank you."
"Not at all."
Jurgen smiled pleasantly and expressed his gratitude, and Bell tilted her head once more.
'Strange, as I said……'
It was Bell who was accustomed to the Demon Realm, not Jurgen. When an ordinary person with nothing to their name entered the Demon Realm, they were usually too busy trembling to do anything else.
After all, it was a dangerous place where the slightest misstep could mean death.
'He's reasonably well-trained physically, but he doesn't appear particularly powerful.'
And yet Jurgen had been composed throughout. Abnormally composed, one might say.
"Aren't you frightened?"
"What is there to be frightened of? I have such a reliable person watching over me."
"That's true enough."
Wondering if there was something to it, Bell carefully checked for Magic Power—but didn't sense anything in particular.
Well, they existed occasionally. The sort of people who were recklessly insensitive to risk and inclined to test their own limits.
The end they met was one of two things.
Either they burned brightly to ash in the most spectacular fashion possible. Or they etched some weighty achievement into the pages of history.
The ratio was roughly 1000 to 1, and given that his opponent happened to be Clarisse, Jurgen was simply unlucky.
'No. Come to think of it, he brought it on himself.'
It was Jurgen who had sheltered Penelope rather than driving her away. The vulgar ambition of coveting what lay inside Rosemore's walls had ultimately dragged him toward the ashes.
He might be dreaming of a rosy future right now, but he would soon come face to face with reality.
"What do you make of it, then? Clarisse's interference, I mean."
"What would I know about that."
"I simply want to hear as many people's opinions as possible."
Midway through a journey devoid of tension. Jurgen posed a question.
Up to this point, Bell had been deliberating.
Should she simply overpower him here in this Demon Realm where there were no witnesses? Or should she look further ahead, build a relationship under her disguised identity 'Mel,' and stab him in the back at a better moment?
It would be decided by the direction this conversation took. In that case, let her have a candid conversation.
She was personally curious, too, about what this reckless man was thinking.
"To be honest, I think Miss Penelope should have stepped down."
"As I expected."
"Yes, being straightforward about it…… it's a game she can't win in the long run. Bringing in another young lady as a business partner is only a stopgap measure, too."
"Hmm, then what do you think should have been done?"
"I apologise to Miss Penelope for saying this, but for the sake of Y&P Trading Company as well, shouldn't she have relinquished her stake? I'm also curious why Jurgen didn't stop her."
"Because she is a comrade who was there with me from the very bottom, when we had nothing."
"Even so…… the Risk is awfully high."
"That is not reason enough to abandon a comrade."
The answer came without so much as a single breath's pause. And in quite a fine voice at that.
But it was an answer Bell could not be the least bit moved by.
The ship was sinking, wasn't it? Was it the judgement of a sane person to say they couldn't abandon a comrade, so they'd drown together?
Jurgen was clearly intoxicated with his own image—a man who presses forward taking even a young noblewoman cast out by her family under his wing.
And the narcissism doesn't stop there.
Whatever Bell thought of it, Jurgen continued speaking without pause.
"I have watched Penelope for a long time. She is a young lady with rough edges to her personality, but she understands loyalty. At the very least, she is not ruthless enough to point a blade at her own family."
"Is that so?"
"I too wish to respect her wishes. Even if the meddling meant to obstruct the Culinary Revolution is tiresome, I have no particular desire to lay hands on family members. Even if they are but henchmen. That is why I have turned a blind eye until now."
Bell, who had been half-listening, turned to look at Jurgen.
Under normal circumstances she would have snorted and left it at that.
Who did he think he was talking about not wanting to lay hands on anyone? Turning a blind eye until now? Was he trying to seem tough, playing at being a man?
But the moment Jurgen's cool eyes pierced through Bell as though skewering her, she felt an inexplicable sense of pressure.
"However, if Dark Mages and the End Order are involved, that is a different matter."
The moment Jurgen's words ended and Bell moved were simultaneous. At the point the words 'Dark Mage' and 'End Order' came out, Bell's iron fist was already swinging.
Magic Power rippled across her solid fist. A rapid blow so swift the fist seemed to distort in the heat of explosively expanding Magic Power.
―Bang!
Bell's fiercely swung fist was stopped by a semi-transparent barrier.
Alchemy!
Without a moment's delay, a fierce gale cleaved the space between the two and sent Bell flying back. Landing with nimble footwork, at the end of Bell's gaze appeared the figure of Jurgen calmly producing his Palette.
False Familiarity was still in effect.
And yet Jurgen had reacted instantaneously to the surprise attack even at this distance. There was no other explanation than that he had seen through Bell's true identity from the very beginning.
"How did you notice?"
"Curious, wasn't it. I nearly came to think of you as a comrade."
Bell traced back through her memories. Presently, she recalled one thing.
That Jurgen had not once called Bell by her disguise identity 'Mel.'
"I see—so you were no ordinary Commoner after all."
False Familiarity is a magic that induces natural misconceptions. It inserts memories that Bell has fabricated naturally into the 'past' of its target.
But what if the information Bell had obtained about Jurgen beforehand differed from reality?
A sense of dissonance arises even within the fabricated past memories. If one is perceptive enough, one could deduce from that dissonance that something was wrong.
The fact that Jurgen, whom she had believed to be an ordinary Commoner, was using Alchemy without a care was itself proof that the information Bell possessed was incorrect.
"Well, it doesn't particularly matter. I'll ask at my leisure later."
There was no great problem.
A dark aura flowing from the tattoo engraved on Bell's back stained her skin black. Bell's body had been entirely remodelled through Black Magic.
Her combat power rivalled that of a 7th Rank Knight. Muscles, skin, skeleton, ligaments—even the physical durability of her flesh transcended humanity by a vast margin. A monster, in the truest sense.
"So—don't die, alright?"
―Screeee
Merely taking a ready stance produced the sound of a great iron bridge warping from within Bell's body.
―Bang!
And she launched from her spot like a cannonball. Before Bell, who charged faster than the shockwave she herself had created, countless semi-transparent barriers materialised.
The basic 2nd Rank Alchemy, Force Field.
Their number—several dozen. Enough that the overlapping semi-transparent layers blurred the view beyond. They had risen without so much as a Chant. An impressive feat in its own right, but it posed no problem at all.
―KABOOM!
Dozens of layers of Force Fields, torn away like cobwebs as Bell's charge stopped them.
At the very moment she moved to pin Jurgen down and drive him into the floor—
Her charge abruptly slowed. The sensation of being trapped in a swamp, flailing helplessly.
The fragments of the shattered Force Fields had connected and transformed into a viscous bundle of Magic Power. The Force Fields had been the preamble from the start; this was the true defensive measure.
―Bang!
Bell exploded her strength once more. A bit of a nuisance, but all she had to do was tear through it all and advance.
"Your strength is impressive."
"Save the composure. As if something like this could stop me……"
However.
"Sto, stop me……! It could……! Stop me……! Urgh!!"
The harder she pushed her strength, the stronger the resistance she met. Her body moved sluggishly, as though a slow motion effect had been applied.
She couldn't believe it.
A magic that could render a 7th Rank Knight immobile even at full power existed? Jurgen was an Alchemist of that calibre?
"It won't be easy to break free. Have you heard of viscoelasticity?"
Before struggling Bell, Jurgen calmly produced the next catalyst.
It had been a miscalculation. But it wasn't as though there was no way out.
'I'll take one hit.'
He would be anxious too.
Bell's body was slow, but it was advancing, little by little. The time remaining until she broke free was a mere three seconds. Jurgen would know that the moment she escaped this adhesive trap, she would cleave him in two.
A technique constructed in under three seconds……
'I can endure it.'
She would trust in her body's durability and take it head-on. After that, she'd simply pummel him twice, three times as hard in return.
That thought vanished in precisely two seconds.
―Wooom.
Simultaneous with the catalyst activating in the Magic Power, a resonance that reverberated in succession. Bell saw Jurgen stacking his Code faster than any Alchemist she had ever witnessed.
"Wait……"
The violet lightning gathered at his fingertips.
"Don't die. I have questions for you."
Crackle crackle crackle—
It burned away every last trace of darkness in the Demon Realm.