The inn was comfortable. The room was spacious with working air conditioning, and the food was delicious. The bath was large, and the lounge was clean.
Since Citry managed the party's finances, I had no idea how much a night's stay cost, but we could easily afford to live here if we wanted to.
I sank deep into a sofa that swallowed my body, glanced at the newspaper that had been delivered as a courtesy, and let out a big yawn.
"Hmm, hmm... this is pretty grim..."
The newspaper was filled front to back with reports about the destruction that had occurred the previous night.
It seemed the clash between the hot-blooded strong fighters drawn by the Martial Emperor Festival and the no-gooders harboring grudges against them was escalating beyond control.
But the person who brought the newspaper via room service merely furrowed their brows without showing any particular urgency. Perhaps this was just a seasonal tradition in Cleet during this time.
What a ridiculous city. Hard to believe it was a civilized nation.
But what can you say?
Even with all that happening outside, being inside the inn meant none of it had anything to do with us.
Being an establishment for nobles and wealthy merchants, the inn's security was flawless. There had been one incident where Fox Mask Club members were clinging to the outside of the window, but aside from that, no suspicious individuals had ever gotten in.
Well, even if they did get in, our killer had way too much time on their hands, so it wouldn't be a problem.
More to the point—if you were going to get into dangerous situations in places you thought were safe, you might as well have them happen in dangerous places. At least that way you could accept it.
This was—what you'd call "enlightenment." Some would call it resignation. My luck up to now had just been too terrible.
"UGOOOOOOOOOOOOO! BEHOLD MY NEW TECHNIQUE, SPLITTING SWORD! DIEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"H-Hey, watch out! The sword's gonna break! Luke, that's a wooden sword—you can't go all out!"
Luke and Liliz were having a mock battle in the living room, taking advantage of how spacious it was.
The extraordinary sound of swords cleaving through the air rang out, but there were no footstep sounds. At first they'd been crashing around noisily, but after I told them to knock it off because it was a nuisance to the neighbors and they'd break the room, they'd started being considerate during their mock battles.
They'd even started talking about doing silent full-power training. It was great that they could enjoy anything, but that wasn't what I was trying to say.
No matter how spacious it was, there was no reason to have mock battles indoors. There were plenty of training grounds outside, so why here?
That was when Liliz let out a short cry.
"Ah!"
A tremendous crash. The broken wooden sword had pierced through, and the window glass directly in front of me shattered into pieces.
Unable to tell what had happened, all I could do was smile.
I couldn't even trace the trajectory the wooden sword had taken.
Liliz's movements were invisible to the eye, but that was nothing new for Luke and the others. If the Barrier Ring hadn't activated automatically, I would have been accidentally killed by my friend.
Wait—the Barrier Ring didn't activate just now? I was between Luke and the window. How had they managed to break the window without injuring me? That took some real skill.
They should just hit me instead of making me pay for the window glass...
Just then, Lucia, who had been reading a book on the sofa just like me, roared furiously.
"Hey! Just because you're bored doesn't mean you can do stupid things indoors!"
"You deflected my Splitting Sword, did you!? ...Impressive, Lucia!"
"Not 'impressive'! I said 'don't'!"
Ah, Lucia had deflected it with magic. When had she...
Magic casting normally involved a time lag, but the activation speed that showed absolutely none of that drawback was undoubtedly something she'd cultivated among Luke and the others.
Lucia shot me a sharp glare and thrust her staff toward me.
"You too, Leader! Why are you just spacing out when a sword is flying at you!?"
"...Because I wanted to space out?"
"...Honestly!"
Well, I couldn't see it. I didn't notice. More to the point, I hadn't been able to see for quite some time now. Not panicking was just habit. Just resignation.
I looked at the shattered window—one that needed full replacement rather than repair—and made a half-hearted request to Lucia.
The fact that the street in front of the broken window had little foot traffic was probably the only silver lining.
"Lucia, fix the window glass with magic."
"...H-How?"
"You know, use that... Window Glass Repair Magic."
"..."
Lucia was staring at me with the look of someone watching a fish flop on a cutting board.
It'll be fine. Surely it'll be fine. By tomorrow it'll definitely be fixed. It had always been fine before. Lucia was competent, so it would be fine.
...
I stood up to avoid her gaze and put on a performance of scolding Luke and Liliz.
"You! Hey, Luke, Liliz—stop causing a ruckus! You're always putting Lucia through so much trouble! That's exactly where you fall short! Exactly!"
The weakness of a hard-boiled, top-ranked Hunter was a competent adopted sister. I'd never been able to stand up to her ever since.
Lucia, see? It's not my fault. Luke and Liliz are the ones to blame.
"But there are no enemies. I want enemies."
"Right, enemies. Give me enemies! My soul is trembling—it's begging to cut someone down!"
Being bored, having no enemies—that was no excuse for having a serious mock battle with party members.
You two should brew a tea from the nail clippings of Anthem and Citry, who went out to treat victims of the conflict! Honestly, you two were something else!
After venting my righteous indignation to my heart's content, I had a brilliant idea.
Right—I'd hand them over to the Fox Mask Club.
Leaving them to rampage indoors was a problem, and Lucia's mood was only getting worse.
Wasting their stamina before the Martial Emperor Festival was also a concern, but they clearly had energy to spare...
The Lantern Knight Order had refused to join us, but what I'd be entrusting them to wasn't the Lantern. We might end up fighting together, but it wasn't the Lantern.
This was what you'd call strategic brilliance—or, in other words, clever rhetoric.
That was when I noticed one problem.
"...Ah. Hmm, but still..."
Thinking about it calmly, the Fox Mask Club was only cooperating with me because of a misunderstanding.
Sora had insisted I was the real deal, and I'd already taken down several criminal organizations beyond the point of no return, but that didn't change the fact that it was all based on a case of mistaken identity.
Was it really okay to hand over Luke and the others too?
Luke and Liliz were looking at me with sparkling eyes.
If I was prioritizing the Fox Mask Club, then I shouldn't hand them over.
But if I didn't, Lucia's mood would die completely. I closed my eyes and thought for a moment.
"...W-Well, I never actually said I was the white fox or anything. They just jumped to conclusions on their own."
It wasn't my fault. The fault lay with the vague system where whoever happened to have a white fox mask was apparently the boss.
Not my fault. I knew nothing. Didn't want to know either.
...I should probably consult Sora about it first. Just consult. Just have a small chat.
If it didn't work out... maybe we could all make some fried tofu together.
§ Lucia and I, Liliz and Luke—the four of us walked down the street.
The street was bustling. The crowds made even walking a struggle, but Sora's kitchen was in the outskirts, so it was only a matter of holding out a little longer.
Walking through an unfamiliar city together like this reminded me of the old days when we'd all gone hunting and traveled the world.
Liliz, walking beside me, suddenly spoke up with a surprised tone.
"This might be the first time Klye has actually introduced enemies for us to fight, right?"
"Yeah, come to think of it, this might be the first time you've properly explained things beforehand and actually taken us somewhere."
I had taken them places without explaining before, too.
"Klye, watch out for pickpockets. There seem to be a lot around here."
"They wouldn't dare try anything surrounded by us. Besides, even if something were stolen, they wouldn't get away."
Lucia wore a black robe and a pointed hat. With her long staff, she looked like a mage no matter how you looked at her.
Even pickpockets in the city were selective about their targets.
Nobody would pick a fight with a Hunter who was constantly bathed in and strengthened by Mana Material.
Walking in the warm, pleasant sunlight, I suddenly spotted a familiar face in the crowd.
Distinctive black attire. For a Treasure Hunter, his height was average at best, but he carried a distinctive staff and was strikingly handsome, drawing eyes just by standing there.
The real me. Klye Andrich of the "Myriad Celestial Blossoms."
Overcome by the unexpected reunion, I instinctively waved with exaggerated enthusiasm.
To run into each other in such a massive crowd—what incredible luck. Would he remember me?
"Hey! Klye! Long time no see!"
Sure enough, the real Klye Andrich turned toward me with impressively hard-boiled composure.
When he saw me, his eyes went wide and his face broke into a broad grin.
"!! It's you—so you really did come to this city!"
"Ah, so that's what Citry was talking about..."
I'd warned Liliz and the others not to say anything rude if we ran into him.
No matter how similar we looked, being called a fake just because of that wouldn't be fair. Or rather, speaking for myself, he was clearly the stronger one.
Lucia was shooting Klye a sullen, displeased glare, but I couldn't very well stop her from doing that.
The crowd parted naturally. This was—true charisma. How impossibly hard-boiled.
Klye approached with a friendly, personable smile and spoke in a bright voice.
His demeanor was like that of someone greeting a friend he hadn't seen in a decade. His social skills must be extraordinary. He was quite simply flawless.
"What a coincidence! I was just thinking yesterday about whether we might run into each other!"
That really was... quite a coincidence.
...Come to think of it, who was the girl clinging to his arm?
Klye had a girl attached to his arm. She had long black hair.
Pointed hat, black robe, long staff. From her appearance, she was probably a mage.
The girl was blinking as she looked at me—or rather, at Lucia. Now that I thought about it, while they didn't look particularly alike in the finer details, their distinguishing features were remarkably similar.
Klye introduced her with an apologetic expression.
"Ah, this is Rusha Andrich. She's a mage and... well... my adopted sister? And also my apprentice. She doesn't have a title yet, but her talent is fairly decent."
"?! "
Lucia said nothing. But her cheek twitched ever so slightly.
Well, I had to admit... this was quite a coincidence. Our Lucia wasn't his apprentice, though.
Well, these things happened. I wanted to get away quickly, but not greeting her would be rude.
I composed myself and addressed Rusha, who was clinging tightly to Klye's arm.
"I see. Nice to meet you. I'm... a fan of your big brother."
Rusha blinked rapidly, then her face lit up with a radiant smile.
And in a sickeningly sweet voice, she declared: "Aaah, yeees, you're the fake, aren't youuu! I'm nii-chan's girlfriend and future wifeeee—Rusha, nice to meet youuu!"
"What?"
Lucia's brow twitched. This was bad—Lucia's reason was dying.
Liliz's cheek was also twitching, but she was on the verge of laughter.
Rusha hugged Klye's arm as though pressing herself against him and said in a cheerful voice: "My nii-chan will never lose to someone like yooou! He's handsome, strong, smart, and super kind tooooo... He promised that once I become a top-tier mage and get strong enough, he'll marry meee!"
Quite the character.
Personally, I didn't dislike her, but Lucia's expression had gone from anger to something beyond zero. This was bad.
Klye furrowed his brows into an inverted V and admonished Rusha with genuine exasperation. There was not a trace of embarrassment in his expression.
"Hey, hey. Sorry about this—Rusha's always like this. She goes around calling herself my sister on her own... B-But despite being a little eccentric, she's not a bad person. Come on, Rusha, apologize. That was way too rude."
She wasn't even his sister and she was going around calling herself one—what was that about?
Our former sister who was no longer a sister was completely stone-faced with fury.
When Liliz got angry, her speech patterns changed, but when Lucia got angry, she went completely silent. Rusha's life now hung by a thread.
When Klye scolded her, Rusha was stunned for a moment, but tears quickly welled up in her eyes.
"I-I'm sorry, I just love nii-chan so much... So I always end up going off like that..."
Her eyes kept darting toward Klye. She was absolutely not reflecting on anything.