Bid wrinkled her nose and murmured.
"Hey, the stand in front of the door... it's got a bunch of keyholes. Maybe we can open it with this bundle of keys?"
The black plate on the pedestal in front had keyholes.
Not just one. Eight in total. The bundle held ten keys, and two had already been used.
The keys were numbered. Two of them weren't. Ah, I see.
But the keyholes themselves were unmarked. Haiyarn peered over my shoulder.
"Hmm. It's the type where you insert the keys in a specific order."
"I can tell which key goes where, though..."
Actually inserting them wasn't the problem. If a key didn't fit, it wouldn't go in.
So with a bit of checking, all of them could be inserted.
I went ahead and inserted keys into all eight keyholes.
The real problem was what came next. The plate had no markings.
"Don't tell me we just go in order from one."
"That would be far too stupid, even for this."
"Yeah, you're right."
That was the issue. We didn't know the order to turn the keys.
We didn't know the required sequence.
"Hmm... puzzling..."
"Kind of scary to think what happens if we mess up."
"Wouldn't it be faster to just destroy the door?"
"Can you even do that!?"
"Hmm... if it were Riv... maybe... but no."
"I can't either."
"Yeah, even I can't manage this one."
"Nor can I, I'm afraid."
"Then why'd you bring it up?"
"Just exploring the options."
"You're something else, you know that..."
"Ahaha, I can't do it either."
But what about using Banish? No... I wasn't sure.
Naturally, I had no idea how a vault door was constructed.
I might accidentally shear off something critical.
Besides, destroying a vault door was just not realistic.
"Then allow me to take over."
So saying, Haiyarn hopped down from my shoulder onto the pedestal.
Including me, everyone cast a wary gaze in his direction — what was he going to pull this time?
But Haiyarn paid no attention, glancing back and forth between the keys on the plate and their surroundings.
"...Hmm. I see."
"Huh? You figured something out?"
"That's for me to know. Of course. Everything."
With that, Haiyarn began turning the keys one by one, as though following some hidden pattern.
Without hesitation or pause. Had he really figured it out?
"Is-is this gonna be okay?"
"Hmm... pray to the gods..."
"O-Oh. Are you sure?"
"I'm supposed to be lucky, you know."
Haiyarn's trustworthiness and likability were both low, so we were nervous.
But Haiyarn declared with full confidence:
"I told you. See? It's opening."
When all the keys were turned, the black diamond-shaped section shifted into a square.
Then it split open from the center, swinging outward on both sides.
When it had fully opened, a dark room lay beyond.
Artwork displayed in glass cases. Paintings hung on the walls.
But further back, a surprisingly plain scroll rack and desk stood out of place.
"Well, well."
Leold ignored the artwork in the glass cases and paintings entirely, heading straight for the scroll rack.
He pulled out several scrolls, set them on the desk, and began reading.
Munieka was examining scrolls as well.
The rest of us looked around the vault, studying the artwork in the glass cases and on the walls.
"So this is all treasure?"
"Hmm... no idea..."
Inside the glass cases, most items were green, though some were yellow. The scrolls, however, included a few blue ones.
But I had no interest, and they were probably worthless anyway.
Leold and Munieka were poring over the scrolls with great interest.
These two — who exactly were they?
They didn't feel like mere Kuun Hunt delvers.
I doubted I was the only one who felt that way — Riv and Bid probably did too.
Leold and his group took several scrolls, and we left the vault.
We left the base of Dragon Fang Row and were led to Leold's hideout.
There, we were told what they had learned from the documents and other materials, as well as who the mastermind was and the truth behind everything.
Finally, we received our reward.
We accepted it gratefully and promptly took our leave.
And so, Dragon Fang Row was destroyed.
Our mood as we left the slum district was utterly grey.
The story Leold had told was just that horrible.
The mastermind was the son of a powerful noble house.
Moreover, he was a failure and a lecher — in short, a perverted fool.
This perverted fool wanted to get his hands on Torquetam, a name known even in the capital.
A party packed with rare beauties. Their strength was impeccable too.
So he wanted them — their beauty, their power, their bodies. All of it.
At those reasons, Riv's face twisted into an expression of barely concealed disgust.
On top of that, he wanted female delvers to his taste, and he'd even briefly entertained the notion of finding a witch — which was laughable.
Also, his perverted nature earned Haiyarn a few cold stares from the women, but that couldn't be helped.
Anyway, back to the story. The perverted fool had set his sights on the Tasan family's female delver support program.
The great noble house and the Tasan family were sworn enemies — natural predators to each other.
So the perverted fool obtained funding from his family on the condition that he would undermine everything Tasan did.
The noble house seemed to think it was a worthwhile trade if it meant getting Torquetam.
At this point, the noble house was complicit as well.
Using his family's money, the perverted fool established a clan, gathered delvers, and put his plan into motion.
But an unexpected obstacle got in the way. That would be me.
Apparently, I was far too troublesome for their plan.
They thought eliminating me would be easy.
But things didn't go their way, and to make matters worse, five of their affiliated delvers had vanished without a trace.
These idiots. Hadn't they done their homework and found out I was the witch's apprentice?
Could this even be called a plan?
Still, there had been moments of genuine danger.
After repeated failures, the perverted fool determined he didn't have enough fighting power.
He was about to bring in a Class 1 delver on retainer from the noble house, or someone of comparable strength.
Torquetam didn't have that kind of strength. She would lose, no question.
But just because he brought in reinforcements didn't mean he'd actually get Torquetam.
Because what they were planning was kidnapping.
An outright crime, and a serious one at that.
Moreover, slavery was prohibited in this country — a capital offense, even for nobles.
On top of that, unbeknownst to the son, he was already being watched, so it would come to light quickly.
Incidentally, that perverted fool was the dreadlocked man with the wolf tattoo.
The boss of Dragon Fang Row. A Relic wielder — Explosion.
That guy was a noble's son?
Oh, and that vault was the noble family's database. Top secret, at that.
It was also the dark heart of the family, where records of all their complicity and planned misdeeds were kept.
Scary stuff. The perverted fool had apparently been using it without permission.
Incidentally, we handed the key bundle over to Leold, and Haiyarn told him the correct order for the keys.
I wondered whether it was wise to involve Leold that deeply. But honestly, I didn't want anything more to do with it.
They probably didn't want us involved either. That was why we paid them hush money.
"Hmm... how dreary."
"Yeah, I've got mixed feelings too."
"..."
I felt lousy myself, but I had no idea what to say to the two of them.
"The world has always been unfair. That's exactly why we need to get stronger, wouldn't you say?"
Haiyarn, who was sitting on my shoulder as usual, blurted this out to the two of them.
Riv and Bid looked at Haiyarn, fell silent for a moment, then smiled softly.
"...I don't... need you to tell me that..."
"Getting stronger is a given."
"..."
"What is it, Wof?"
"So you can actually say something sensible."
"What? I'm always sensible! Wh-What? Everyone. Those looks are very rude, you know."
"...It's hard... to take... when you're staring... at Riv's chest..."
"Um, could you please stop glancing at my butt?"
"...You..."
Haiyarn looked away and whistled.
That damn rabbit.
And so, we parted ways.
On the way home, we stopped at the butcher's to pick up groceries, as we always did.
I was curious, so I asked Haiyarn — the gentle, buxom, beautiful elf with the smug grin — the question that had been bugging me.
Why do you sit on other people's heads?
"So how did you figure out the order of the keys?"
The plate had no numbers, and all eight keys had to be turned in the correct sequence.
There didn't seem to be any hints nearby. How had he known?
"There was a hint."
"There was? Where?"
"Wof. Take this as a lesson for next time. People forget. Even if they always carry notes, they still forget. So it's better to have the answer somewhere obvious. Like a coat of arms, for instance."
"There was a hint on that coat of arms?"
"Indeed. The turning order of the keys was recorded on that coat of arms. If you looked closely, there were dots and numbers in an ancient script on it. They were there. Nobles who play at being administrators love hiding important things in plain sight. Connect those numbers in sequence and you get that coat of arms."
"...I didn't catch a single thing."
This rabbit. Was he actually amazing?
Then Haiyarn perked up his long ears and raised his voice.
"Oh, oh wow, look! Wof. Those breasts! Bikini armor is truly fine no matter the era. Right, Wof!?"
"............"
Without a word, I placed Haiyarn on a nearby statue of a hero.
"Wof? Wof? Hey, Wof-kun!?"
When I got home, I'd cook up some food and eat.
"Wof-kun——nn!!"
I figured Mineha would be back by now too.
Night.
From far away, I heard a voice calling.
(Wof... wake up... you must wake...)
"Huh?"
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a pure white space. Huh?