Chapter 31

Chapter 31 : Treasure Hunting Is Made of Dreams and Hope (1)

This place was always just warm enough, just cozy enough, just full enough of sunlight, and just lively enough to feel as though life itself were steadily sprouting there.

Each day resembled the next, and that endless string of similar hours made me lazy.

Ding!

[It asks whether I wasn’t lazy to begin with.]

Ahem. I ignored the needling from the sparkling text.

During the ten days of repairs, I shut myself up in my room and did not move.

Until Ochel returned from vacation and began bringing me various things, I passed the time on the terrace, sunning myself as though I had decided that merely breathing and remaining alive would be enough.

It would be more accurate to say that the sense of depletion had been severe.

Or rather, I had grown assimilated to the sense of time of those who lived over long ages.

Ever since I first came to my senses here, it had been survival and then more survival, layered with quests and the effort of reading the ominous currents of the complicated Original Work—and I had grown tired.

I could not agree with the purpose of the quests or the reason the system kept driving me on.

For whose sake? Why should I go through all that? What did I gain from it? Just to please the system? Those thoughts drained every last bit of motivation from me.

‘What is it you even want?’

Did it want the world to be destroyed? Did it simply not want to watch the male lead’s romance unfold? What exactly was it asking me to do?

‘It isn’t even going to send me back.’

How many times was I supposed to stake my life just to reach some truth?

Ding!

[It says it wants an ending.]

“Now that’s funny.”

Wasn’t that just another way of saying it wanted to take an ending that was already finished and alter it to suit its own tastes?

Please tell me it wasn’t dragging innocent people into this simply because the side it had been backing went under and it wanted to force it through again.

“You’re supposed to do things like that yourself.”

Shaking my head, I let my eyes travel over the exterior of the office.

It already felt strange enough that they had restored it so perfectly to what it used to be, and stranger still to hear that they had done it with the power of a Frame.

If the whole city had been built this way, I found myself half wondering whether the person responsible had been drained dry and crossed some river beyond long ago.

In any case, after several days shut down, I reopened the fixer’s office.

Partly because I could no longer leave my lazy self to rot and wanted to grab onto something, and partly because, regardless of the Original Work or the Epic Quests, the fact remained that I had to settle down and live here somehow.

The weather was always mild, and the place was so leisurely and quiet that making a place for myself here did not seem bad at all. I had even begun seriously considering it.

Ding!

[Signs of war are being detected.]

[It adds that if everything goes up in flames, nothing will remain.]

……I ignored that and checked the signboard.

It was strange enough that the sign, which had looked brand-new not long ago, now seemed to have suffered the wear of years all by itself, one corner slightly torn.

I stared at the corner that looked as though someone had picked at it with a fingernail, then brushed my hair back.

After all, the sign of a truly famous place ought to carry the weight of time.

---

This area came alive even more after the sun went down.

Partly because the night market was right beside it, partly because the route of those returning from work overlapped here.

And it wasn’t far from the ruler’s castle, whose lights remained on through the night.

Although I had named the place “Fixer,” the new notoriety that had spread when I set that trap last time had made it rather quiet for a while.

So I changed the business a little.

Since I already sold tea, wouldn’t adding a little liquor on the side help line my own pockets more handsomely?

Naturally, I did not turn it into a full-fledged bar.

There was a liquor law that said not just anyone could sell alcohol—apparently because at this height, if someone got drunk and fell, death was the minimum outcome—so I merely sold a cup or two on the side, like tea, using a little that had been siphoned from the ruler’s castle.

You might say I was selling an atmosphere.

……Though to say that, the atmosphere was a little dreary.

I could overlook the rumor that I was an Underfolk who had eaten Surface Folk.

But calling this place a haunted office was going too far.

The bizarre rumors—that wailing could be heard every night and ghosts wandered the place—showed no sign of stopping and had already gone far past the stage of being manageable.

If flowers had still been blooming in the pots the way they had before, perhaps it would have felt less ominous.

I sat with my chin on my hand and stared at the lone surviving flowerpot on the table. The single pot Pan had brought back to life sat by the window all by itself, and somehow that only made it look lonelier.

I had never been the sort to fuss over plants.

“So no one again today.”

Dropping heavily onto the stool in front of the bar, Pering kneaded at the bridge of his nose and ordered the same harsh liquor he always drank.

He could obtain it perfectly well at the ruler’s castle, and yet he still came here. I supposed it was the difference in feeling between drinking at work and drinking after work.

I poured the liquor into a small glass and slid it over to him, then rested my chin on my hand again and went back to staring at the flowerpot without much interest.

“Hm? Assistant?”

Ochel, who came in carrying several large wooden crates stacked high, tilted her head when she spotted Pering.

“You should sit and have some tea too.”

They were the supplies I had ordered, along with the daily necessities I needed. I hurried over to take the boxes and tipped my chin toward the seat next to Pering.

“Not tea. I’ll have what the assistant is drinking. This is my last task for the day too.”

“Hearing you say that makes me feel strangely guilty.”

After handing over a glass, I sat across from them and propped my chin on my hand again.

At this rate, I was half tempted to start brewing liquor myself and selling that too, which felt faintly absurd.

“What happened to the elder’s soul?”

“It was handed over to my lord, who said she would look into it thoroughly, so I imagine we’ll have results soon enough.”

“Ha, the more I think about it, the more absurd it is. To imagine that a spy had been operating in plain sight. What an unnecessary nuisance.”

“It’s all right. As you know, my lord enjoys matters of that kind.”

Enjoys?

Thinking of the dull, bored expression I had seen on Pan last time, I found it difficult to imagine anyone actually enjoying it.

Retu, on the other hand…… Retu fiddling happily with a soul and turning it over this way and that……

That was a frightening image.

Naturally, the topic between the two of them was the spy.

Even if Ochel, as someone from the Domain of the Mist, could be considered an outsider, Pering was a member of the forest who remained closest to Pan.

The shock of learning that the spy had been an elder must have hit him quite differently.

“It sounded as though those spies were part of a faction that worshipped Sek. Has that not been confirmed yet?”

I quietly slipped into their conversation.

“Sek? The Underworld Lord?”

Ochel clearly didn’t know much, so I passed over her.

Pering furrowed his brows at my question, then sighed and drained the rest of his glass in one swallow.

“If it were Lord Sek, even I might have been tempted.”

“You?”

“Would that be a problem? He’d still be far preferable to my lord, who does nothing but cause trouble.”

Pering bristled at once, then raked both hands through his hair and sighed again.

“Our present peace exists because of him, after all.”

Ochel nodded in agreement.

A ruler acknowledged even by his enemies among the Surface Folk.

“How ridiculous that those claiming to follow Lord Sek ended up in league with Karon.”

“My lord was concerned about that as well. Ah, do you think that new lord might appear at the nonaggression negotiations?”

“Karon?”

“Yes. Lord Sek is missing, and the one who now truly rules over the Underfolk is this newly enthroned Karon.”

The nonaggression negotiations.

My eyes sharpened.

In the Original Work’s Traitor episode, Karon’s true intentions had not been laid out in any real detail.

The thought that what I had done was now being reflected into the Original Work, and that what would happen going forward might shift because of it, left me with a heavy sense of unease and guilt.

I had even lost sleep over it during those first few days.

Naturally, I had burned through all my remaining Points to read the Original Work again.

All I had learned from the useless romantic nonsense it showed me was that Karon was the sort who seemed yielding by day and domineering by night.

Even the system, which had been pushing me to read the Original Work, had gone silent for a while after the miserable results of those readings, and it had only recently started speaking again.

But it seemed the day in question was closer than expected.

I leaned forward slightly, toyed with my empty glass for no reason, and focused on their conversation.

“Is Lady Ariti still fervent about the nonaggression pact?”

“Yes. From what I hear, it seems a definite date will be decided soon.”

“If Lord Sek cannot be found, the new lord will have to step forward.”

“At this point, it would almost be better if the missing Sek were found.”

“So the one Lord Pan has been searching for was that person?”

“Yes. Though the matter has quieted down somewhat these days……”

Pering, who had been answering Ochel, abruptly turned and stared directly at me, even though I had been sitting there quietly listening.

Feeling guilty for no good reason, I tried to look away, then raised my brows, thinking perhaps it was because of the rumors.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“Because there happens to be someone here too claiming to be Sek.”

“……I’m rather troubled by that matter these days myself.”

“You were the one who started the rumor.”

“It worked perfectly well as bait, didn’t it?”

“You nearly died.”

I narrowed my eyes and refilled Pering’s empty glass.

“You sound as though it truly bothers you that I’m wearing the name of this much-admired Sek.”

“It’s not admiration exactly. I said I might have been tempted.”

“Ah, I see. In that case, why don’t you head down to the Underworld? I’ve tried living here, and treason isn’t a bad option.”

Ah. That felt satisfying.

It was because Pering had just said something very similar to what Timol had shouted while charging at me, and hearing it brought back that moment and soured my mood.

That blasted Sek, this and that.

Pan too, Pering too—Sek had apparently enchanted the members of the forest quite thoroughly.

‘Could the real traitor actually be this man?’

I called for the system inwardly, but it remained silent.

It was obvious it would only grumble at me for barking up the wrong tree yet again.

I raked a hand through my hair and let out a faint, hollow smile.

“What kind of man was Sek, for everyone’s eyes to start shining like that whenever his name comes up?”

At my question, Ochel tilted her head, while Pering openly frowned.

“Why don’t you know Lord Sek if you’re Underfolk? Even we Surface Folk know of him. Our rulers differ by domain, perhaps, but the Underfolk is a single hierarchy, isn’t it? Come to think of it, why is it Sek of all people in that rumor?”

The light flashing across his glasses made them look alarmingly sharp as he aimed the question straight at me.

I scratched the back of my head and shrugged.

No matter how hard he looked at me, there was no answer I could give him, and in the first place, I wasn’t someone who could provide one.

“Well…… Pan says I resemble him.”

“My lord said that?”

“Yes. He says I look like Sek.”

Something about that answer shocked Pering so badly that he yanked off his glasses, scrubbed the lenses furiously against his clothes, then slowly put them back on.

Just as he was about to begin speaking carefully—

the door flew open, and round little Ru came barreling in noisily.

Pering’s mouth, naturally, snapped shut again.

“Ahhhhh! So everyone was gathered hereee? Riwin, you should have called me too. Ah! Though I suppose I arrived first anyway.”

Ru poured out words the moment she entered, then stuck herself to Pering’s side, buried her nose in his half-finished glass, and widened her already-round eyes even more.

“Ah! This fragrance—isn’t this the two-hundred-year vintage made from those ingredients that were specially refined for Lord Pan in the ruler’s castle, that— mmph, mmph—”

I clapped a hand over Ru’s mouth.

One of Pering’s brows shot up. Ochel’s hand, which had been lifting her drink, paused.

Our effort to switch the bottles around was exposed at once by Ru’s hound-like nose.

“This…… stays secret from Pan.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“For the record, I knew nothing.”

I glared at both of them for their immediate attempts to distance themselves, then finally took my hand away from Ru’s mouth when her eyes shone brightly.

“I’m in favor! I want a drink too!”

Whether from a desire to gain one more accomplice or not, both Pering and Ochel subtly encouraged Ru as she began drinking little by little, and I too joined in under the banner of hiding the evidence by simply finishing it.

In the end, we had to listen to Ru sprawled half across the table lamenting her fate, but even that counted as a profitable transaction.

“If only there were a world without overtimeee. Why do I have to work without even having time to sleeep? I want to stop reaaading.”

“How long has it been since you slept?”

“Uuuuum. Sooo…… roughly one hundred and twenty hours nowww.”

What?

One hundred and twenty hours?

“If everyone’s active day and night without sleeping, then I can’t sleep either. It’s so unfairrr.”

“Um, does that mean you personally see those things and write them down?”

“Yes!”

“And me too, perhaps?”

“No? Only members of the forest can. Though there are a few exceptions…… Ah! That’s why these two always leave only me out!”

As if a thought had just struck her, Ru pointed accusingly at Pering and Ochel, both of whom had participated in draining the stolen liquor.

The moment I heard that, I felt it was a chance the system itself had handed me.

I quietly raised my hand.

“Ahaha, what about me?”