As planned, we arrived in Heizen.
When we looked at Heizen from the watchtower, Mineha, Bid, and I all had the same impression.
"It's long."
"It's long, right."
"It really is long."
"Na!"
That was right — Heizen, the only town on Reeve Lake, was long.
Along the edges of the unnaturally round Reeve Lake, square buildings and round towers stood crammed together in a jumble.
The buildings were colorful — red, blue, white, black, yellow — and they stretched all the way back.
They probably filled the lake from one end to the other.
So this is Heizen.
The Skia Coffin Ele was stored in Heizen's shipyard.
It would be kept there in the unused shipyard until we returned.
The Skia Horse Ele — the monster that had served as our power source — was bottled up by the witch.
It fits in a bottle...? Well then, off to my uncle's hideout.
I handed Hoss the map that had been included in the letter.
"This is pretty far."
"Hey, I'm hungry."
"Me too."
"Hmm, hmm. Come to think of it, it's lunchtime."
"I wanna eat something, desu."
"..."
"Huh, now that I think about it, where's Gimunema?"
I noticed that Gimunema wasn't there.
"Gimunema went off somewhere, saying she'd meet up with us later."
"But we don't even know where we're meeting up, do we?"
"Yeah. I'm sure she'll figure it out somehow."
Mineha answered nonchalantly.
Well, she's a First-class Delver, so there's no need to worry.
"Alright then, let's head to an acquaintance's dining hall first. This way."
With Hoss in the lead, we decided to get some food in our stomachs first.
As we walked through the streets of Heizen, I thought to myself.
"This place is more of a maze than Hydrangea."
"I might get lost, desu."
Chardina was right — it did feel easy to get lost in here.
Mineha looked around left and right, then turned back and murmured.
"There are a lot of slopes and little paths, huh."
"No main streets?"
"Of course there are. But Heizen is mostly like this. It hasn't changed one bit."
"Yeah, yeah. Nothing's changed since Kon's memories, huh."
The witch gazed at the scenery nostalgically as she spoke.
"This is the shortest route, so we'll be there soon."
Hoss turned the corner. Up ahead, a shop came into view.
Berku Dining Hall.
That was what the round sign read, and its pale wave-patterned roof stood out.
Hoss pushed open the shop door. A bell chimed.
"Welcome!"
A bright voice rang out. A black-haired woman with pointed ears and silver-rimmed glasses turned around.
Hmm. She reminded me of someone, somehow. An elf, maybe.
"It's us. We're a group—is that alright?"
"A group, I see. Please, take that table over there."
A few customers were scattered around the dining room. Locals, probably.
We sat down at a table and looked at the menu. It was all seafood.
"Nothing but unusual dishes, huh."
"Hoss. What do you recommend?"
"I'll have the cucumber ale-pickle and the tuna sandwich."
"Bland."
"Hey, isn't that the stuff you used to whip up for light meals?"
"That's the original."
"Nice, nice. Kon, you go with the recommended sashimi platter too."
"Right. I'll pick up the tab."
"For real? Sweet!"
"Are you sure?"
"It's a celebration for making it to Hydrangea. Don't be shy — order whatever you want."
"In that case, first we'll do four of the seafood grill platters. Oh, there's rice. Four large portions, then. And is there any meat... there is. Five steaks, then. Hamburgers too — five of those. Four vegetable platters. And six of the seafood soups."
She really isn't holding back at all, Mineha. Ease up a little.
Hoss put on a strained grin.
I hope Annakreuz will be all right with her ordering.
She's staring intently at the menu.
"What are you having, Wof?"
"I'll go with the famous seafood rice."
"Good call."
"Then I'll add five large plates of that to my order."
"F-five plates... you're kidding!?"
"Uwaa... then I'll have the same."
"Shaldina will have the premium seafood sandwich set. What about you, Annakreuz?"
"............"
What Annakreuz pointed at was the seafood pasta.
"Is everyone ready to order?"
The woman from earlier comes to take our order. She hands out glasses of water as she does.
"I'll go first then."
The woman listens to all of our orders with a "mm-hmm" here and there, then confirms everything right away.
She didn't get a single item wrong, despite the sheer volume of our order.
On top of that, Mineha had added ten crab croquettes during the ordering.
Hoss's eyes were dead.
"You're amazing. Seriously."
Mineha sounded impressed.
"Not at all. I'm used to this much, so please give me just a moment."
The woman gave a bright smile and headed for the kitchen.
She really does remind me of someone.
"Well then, once we're done eating, we're heading to your uncle's hideout, Wof boy."
"The thing is, we don't know the scale of the hideout. If it's around the same size as Hydrangea, I don't think everyone could stay there."
"In that case, couldn't we stay on the Skia Coffin Ele?"
"Oh, that works."
"Well, that's how it'll go then. Either way, I've got it sitting in an unused dock at the shipyard so we can set sail anytime."
"You mean that thing where you pour water in and it comes out?"
"Exactly. So it's usable anytime."
The witch nodded. Huh. Way better than some mediocre inn.
"So the plan is to check out the hideout first, then take a look around Heizen?"
"Oh, there are Torquetam members in Heizen!"
"Oh, that's right."
"Come to think of it, that's true."
"Oh yeah, that's right."
Right. Three members of Torquetam were staying in Heizen.
I'd completely forgotten.
"Bid, do you know where they are?"
"There was something about it in that letter I got that one time."
The letter that reached me didn't say anything like that.
"In that case, let's go see Torquetam after the hideout."
"Sure. Let's do that."
"The letter... found it! Uh, the location is... this one?"
"Lend me that for a sec."
"Here."
Hoss took the letter and looked it over.
"Ah, I know this place. I'll show you the way."
"Thanks in advance."
"After I guide you there, I'm gonna go do my own thing. Gonna look up an old acquaintance—Dukas, you know. See if I can casually pick up some intel on what's been happening in Heizen lately."
"Got it."
"Please do."
"In that case, in that case, I'll head off on my own after we reach the hideout too."
"Oh right, you've got an acquaintance there, don't you?"
"Yep, yep. My face and name are known around there, so I'll see what I can find out."
"Got it. Witch, I'll leave that to you."
"Um, Sardina and Anna Kreuzen will stay behind to clean the hideout."
"………"
Right. These two had come here to serve as maids, after all.
"Counting on you."
"Leave it to me."
"I'll do my best!"
"Yes sir!"
"……!"
Sardina braced herself with determination, while Anna Kreuzen looked bashful.
Mineha suddenly spoke up.
"Hey, Hoss. Is there anything we need to watch out for in this town?"
At her words, all the women except the witch perked up their ears.
Hoss took a sip of water first.
"Right. First off, Mineha, you stand out too much. You should wear a hood. If you're not careful, you could get grabbed, thrown on a smuggling ship, and sold overseas. Apparently there are places abroad that deal in slaves and such."
"That's chilling. I'll keep my guard up around there."
"Not just Mineha — Bid, Sardina, and Anna Kreuzen all need to be careful."
"Got it!"
"I'll beat 'em up!"
"......"
Shaldina was fired up.
Anna Kreuzen quietly looked down, a worried look on her face.
Right away, Shaldina at her side gave her a little pep talk, saying she'd protect her.
Anna Kreuzen smiled a little.
"My, my, Hoss. Not a single worry about me, hmm?"
"The Witch's got nothing to worry about. Anyone who tried something like that'd get crushed, whole organization and all."
Everyone nodded. The Witch pouted with a look of mild dissatisfaction, which was kind of cute.
I thought about it for a moment, then asked Hoss.
"Is it really that dangerous a town?"
"Yeah. Public order's more stable than Hydrangea's, actually. It's a major trade hub, so causing trouble there blows up into an international incident. The guards are solid, too. But places like this always have their share of criminal organizations. There are three big ones with their hooks in Heizen's city council. Can't let your guard down."
Large organizations that had infiltrated the government. And three of them, at that.
The Witch let out a small "hmph" and smiled.
"Well then, let me walk you through it. First, Heizen has three major slayer clans — the Jinryu Familia, the Zenzera-Leev Order, and the Gouro Slayer Corps. Each is backed by one of the three great families: the Jinryu, the Zenzera, and the Gouro. These families also serve as the three heads of Heizen's Triple Trade Guild. And to really spell it out, these three families completely control both the public face and the underworld of the trading city of Heizen."
"So they're basically nobles?"
"Only the Zenzera family are actual nobles. These three families aren't mere power brokers — they're absolute rulers."
"What do you mean?"
Both the Witch and Hoss had used the word "absolute."
Absolute control. Absolute rulers.
"They say that in Hydrangea, there are loads of shops and trading guilds, big and small. But if any of 'em ain't affiliated with one of the three families, they can't do business in Hydrangea at all."
"What's that supposed to mean..."
"Isn't that insane?"
"Yeah, yeah. That's how it is. It's written into Hydrangea's laws."
"From the laws themselves?"
I was dumbfounded. This wasn't some antitrust regulation level of nonsense.
Absolute control. Absolute rulers. Yeah, that about summed it up.
But the Jinryu family, the Zenzera family, the Gouro family — a neat three of them.
I didn't want to think about it, but the possibility crossed my mind: the Sword Goddess's daughters, split three ways, each tied to one of these families...
Ugh, I was already fed up with politics and power.
"Sorry for the wait. Here are your orders."
The spread of dishes laid out on the table was impressive.
Most of it was from Mineha's order, naturally.
By the way, this seafood rice. No matter how you looked at it, it was straight-up seafood paella.
I scooped some up with a spoon and took a bite. Yep. It was paella.
With all the seafood mixed in, it tasted even better.
Paella... Personally, I had some traumatic past-life memories involving paella.
Making paella at midnight only to throw it out uneaten — that had been devastating.
So every time I saw paella, it all came flooding back. But still. It was good.
"That's seriously impressive."
Bid watched Mineha eat and muttered, half-dumbfounded.
"Really?"
Mineha had turned into a fairial.
And yet she was putting away this absurd quantity of food without any trouble whatsoever, one dish after another.
"Watching this, I'd swear she's a new-model Minosdorl."
"How rude. As you can clearly see, I'm a fairial."
"I've been wondering for a while now — are fairials always such big eaters?"
"Not exactly."
"No?"
"They're not?"
"But when they grow bigger or shrink down, it burns through energy, so fairials do tend to eat quite a bit."
"But Ruriha didn't seem like that?"
"Mom's used to it, so her consumption is low."
"Hmm, hmm. So Mineha eats a lot because she's not used to it yet?"
"No. This is just how I am."
So this was just how she was.
And so we finished our meal while chatting happily.
When Hoss went to pay, he must have seen the price — he had the face of a space cat.
Yeah, that figures.
Mineha herself said something terrifying right behind my back: "Just eat until you're eighty percent full, right?"
Even though we proceeded to eat fifteen stacked pancakes for dessert after that?
After that, once the bill was settled, Hoss was chatting with one of the female staff members.
Oh right, this was an acquaintance's place — and he came back.
"You have an acquaintance here?"
"Apparently she's out right now. But I passed along my regards, so that should do."
"Wait, could it be a woman?"
Bid was grinning from ear to ear.
No way — Hoss is hopeless around women, so that couldn't possibly be it.
"Yup, it is."
"Huh?"
"L-look, let's just get moving already. The hideout. It's a bit of a walk from here."
Hoss stepped out in front, as though trying to cover his embarrassment.
"Well, well. How unexpected."
"My, my. My, my. Now this is getting interesting, isn't it."
"Sounds like there's a romantic past in there, huh."
"I'm intrigued."
"......"
The girls... Still, even I was a little surprised.
Hoss having a female acquaintance from the old days, huh.