Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Bait

On the night of the day I had arranged to meet Kaen after discussing it with her in advance.

In the forest where I was supposed to meet Kaen, I sat leaning against a nearby tree and waited for her.

[ Hmmm... ]

Sierra, wearing a sulky face, was letting out a low hum as she stared steadily at me.

Even though I thought I had explained enough to Sierra, she had scolded me, asking if I really had to say it that way.

I decided to take it into account.

After all, the sound of Kaen’s footsteps coming from over there was already full of anguish.

Kaen spotted me from far away, then hesitated without coming any closer.

“You are late.”

Without even turning my head, I said that to Kaen, who must have been looking at me.

Only then did Kaen falter and approach me.

As I had requested, Kaen was wearing casual clothes instead of her uniform.

“I-I could understand if it were somewhere like the dormitory, but calling me out to a forest like this...”

“How would we meet in the dormitory?”

“By sneaking in, or something...”

I ignored Kaen’s mutter and rose from my seat.

Kaen seemed to have a lot she wanted to say, but she did not go out of her way to say it aloud.

Since Kaen had arrived too, I moved my feet to leave the academy.

When I began moving without any explanation, Kaen mumbled something like, “Still, outdoors is a little...” but soon obediently began following me.

Like that, we were walking through the quiet forest.

—Thud.

I heard the sound of Kaen, who had been following me, suddenly falling.

“Ugh...”

When I turned my head and checked, I saw Kaen sprawled over a tree root, wearing a tearful expression.

“...Is it very dark right now?”

I asked as I helped Kaen up.

Because the Night Vision skill was active, my surroundings only looked bright, so I could not tell how dark it was.

“...”

Kaen held my hand, got up, then dusted off her clothes.

Fortunately, it did not seem she was hurt.

After that, whenever there was something she might trip over, I would warn her to be careful.

The forest maintained its silence as always.

On the way, Kaen suddenly seemed to lose herself, so I stopped walking too.

“Fireflies?”

Around a small stream in the forest, things like fireflies were flying about and giving off light.

After I quietly waited for Kaen, she soon came to her senses and looked at me.

“...”

Kaen’s gaze moved to the bandage around my eyes, then she started walking again without saying anything.

After I continued walking with no explanation at all, complaints began leaking from Kaen, who had been obediently following me.

“Um, so, couldn’t you at least tell me where we’re going? Is it really something that requires going this deep...? J-just anywhere would be...”

“We have arrived.”

I calmly cut off Kaen’s words and said that.

At this, Kaen’s face filled with question marks.

“This way.”

I approached a hole in one corner of the enormous fence surrounding the forest, just big enough for one person to pass through.

It was a side path I often used whenever I left the academy.

I passed through the hole first and waited for Kaen to follow.

Kaen, visible on the other side of the fence, was hesitating over whether to cross.

“You... promised, didn’t you?”

When I mentioned the promise, Kaen let out a deep sigh and soon came out through the hole.

“So the reason you told me to come out in casual clothes was to leave the academy... What is there around here... Ah, perhaps because there is nothing...?”

Kaen, having come through the hole, tidied her hair and grumbled.

“Let us go take a carriage.”

I said that to Kaen while wrapping myself in a robe.

Kaen stared hard at my robe, then opened her mouth.

“...Why are you wearing a robe?”

“Because I stand out because of ‘this,’ do I not?”

I said that while pointing to the “blindfold” around my eyes.

Kaen, who had been watching, seemed to have nothing more to say and quietly began following me.

Like that, we walked toward where the carriage should be.

“There is no way there would be a carriage in such an isolated place...”

Around the time Kaen said that, the carriage I often used came into view.

“Hey there~! This time, you brought a young lady with you.”

The coachman on the carriage spotted me and shouted loudly.

Then I approached the carriage, paid the coachman, and told him the destination.

“...It seems this was not just once or twice, Student Zeto?”

Kaen showed confusion at the sight of me and the coachman, who seemed rather familiar with each other, as she climbed into the carriage.

“...I have gone out quite a lot.”

At Kaen’s question, I shrugged.

Like that, inside the shaking carriage, we headed toward our destination while listening to the coachman’s chatter, which remained as talkative as ever.

***

This matter was not exactly a quest.

Should I say it was more like getting caught up in an incident?

Still, if I resolved it, I could obtain a decent item.

In the destination city, there was one criminal organization lurking that served a high-ranking vampire.

They kidnapped young virgins in the city and offered them to the vampire, receiving money from the vampire in return... It seemed like a kind of subcontracting.

Those fairly loyal people had prepared a piece of armor as a gift to offer to the vampire, and that was the item I was aiming for this time.

Perhaps because it was armor meant as a gift to a vampire, it unusually had holy magic resistance as an option.

“Holy magic resistance” would be hard to call a useful option in the battles to come.

After all, enemies with divine power did not appear often.

But its ordinary “physical defense” was also on the high side, so it was armor that received quite a good evaluation.

If there was one problem, it was that I did not know the exact location of their base.

While wandering around this city, the player could hear a rumor that virgins were disappearing.

The direction created an air of incongruity, making it feel as if something might happen, but even if one walked around the city afterward, nothing would happen.

To resolve this, the player had to deliberately unequip their weapons, walk the streets at night, and get kidnapped. Only then could they reach the enemy’s base.

It was information a player of the game had discovered by chance.

Since those people were offering “young virgins,” naturally, this method was only possible if the player character’s gender was female.

In any case, if one was successfully kidnapped, then after a black screen, they would wake up in the enemy base.

However, since the part where one left the base after safely wiping them out was skipped, I remembered that there was no way to resolve it as a male character.

After all, one did not know where the base was.

It seemed the developers had deliberately made this matter resolvable only with a female character.

Of course, now that the game had become reality, many methods could exist.

Still, how could I know when, where, and whom they would kidnap and wait for that?

I had no way to know whether a woman walking the night streets alone was a virgin, but those people had a peculiar trait, so they had a separate way to tell whether someone was a virgin.

I could not sit in the city and wait forever.

That was why it had been something I had not even kept in mind, but since I happened to obtain a wish ticket through the sparring match with Kaen, I decided to obtain the armor.

Kaen and I had already arrived at the destination city.

From now on, Kaen had to disarm in order to get kidnapped.

After entering the city and walking the streets a bit, I asked Kaen to let me hold her sword for a while. Perhaps her patience finally reached its limit, because we entered an empty alley and began talking.

“Now you’re telling me to hand over my sword too?! Even if there are no people on the street, still... What are you planning to do here after taking my sword from me? I-I’ve never even heard of such a strange taste...?!”

Kaen, who had been speaking with her arms crossed, eventually even pointed her finger at me as she teared up.

The finger pointed at me was trembling, if only slightly.

As I listened to Kaen’s words, I scratched my head. Thinking it was now time to resolve the misunderstanding, I opened my mouth.

“It seems there has been a misunderstanding... I did not call Miss Kaen here with ‘that’ intention.”

“Wh-what is ‘that’ supposed to mean?! Then why did you say you needed my body...”

As I began clearing up the misunderstanding, Kaen’s voice gradually shrank, as if she could not understand.

Leaning against the wall, I turned my head toward the direction of the main street and continued speaking.

“There is a rumor that young women disappear every night in this city. I found it strange and investigated, and the rumor was true. Women really are disappearing every night. I suspect this matter is related to a vampire.”

My long-winded explanation came out of nowhere.

Naturally, Kaen had difficulty keeping up with this pacing.

“A-a vampire all of a sudden? This story is moving too quickly. How do you know that, Student Zeto?...Even if it is true, I don’t think this is something academy students should handle...?”

Unable to understand what I was saying at all, Kaen poured out questions.

“I am simply carrying on my master’s will. It is also why I was only now able to use the sword my master left me. As for the information... I will only say that I have an excellent informant.”

At this, I made up a suitable excuse.

It only needed to be enough for Kaen, who would ultimately keep the promise, to lose her doubts.

[ Your master’s will, you say... Are you planning to invent achievements I never accomplished as well?...Well, that seems entertaining in its own way. ]

Sierra, who had been listening beside me, snorted inside my head.

Then Kaen, looking down at the ground, muttered quietly.

“Your master...”

Was she remembering her own master, the Sword Saint?

Since she too was the Sword Saint’s disciple, she should know very well how great a master’s existence could be to a disciple.

“...Fine. Let us say that is so. But does that become a reason for me to entrust my sword to you?”

Kaen, who accepted the setting I had invented without much deliberation, asked me this.

“I clearly said there was something for which I needed Miss Kaen’s body, yes?”

As I spoke somewhat suggestive words, I moved closer to Kaen, who was leaning against the wall.

The moment the word “body” came from my mouth, Kaen’s face flushed red.

“Even my excellent informant could not find out where their base is. So I decided to change the plan.”

Looking steadily at Kaen, whose cheeks still held a blush, I continued speaking.

“A plan...?”

Kaen, still unable to easily understand what I was trying to say, tilted her head and spoke.

“I plan to release bait, find out where their base is, then raid it....And here, this ‘bait’ will be Miss Kaen.”

“Then... r-right now, what you’re saying is... so when you said you needed my body...”

Kaen, having become bait in an instant, finally understood the situation and stammered.

“Even at this very moment, innocent young women are probably having their blood sucked by a vampire.”

I said this while slowly approaching Kaen, who was backing away from me.

Then I brought my face right before hers and opened my mouth.

“...So leave your sword to me and quietly let yourself be kidnapped, Miss Kaen.”

As I said that, I gave her a smile that could instill trust so she could feel at ease.

***

In the end, Kaen decided to follow my words.

“A promise is a promise, but if that is true, then we can save people!”

Kaen said that and showed firm resolve.

It was quite a statement befitting the Sword Saint’s disciple.

And so, I had climbed onto the roof of a nearby building and was following Kaen while hiding my presence, crossing from roof to roof.

When I looked below, I saw a pink-haired girl with twin tails walking anxiously down a street with not a single person in sight.

[ Are you certain this will be all right...? ]

Sierra, who was floating beside me, seemed worried about Kaen and asked me in a cautious voice.

“It should be fine.”

Nothing dangerous would happen to her.

If I lost sight of Kaen, she might be in danger, but with my vision brightened by “Night Vision,” I could not imagine myself losing sight of Kaen’s conspicuous pink hair.

To begin with, I remembered that those people were around level 20, so if it was level 30 Kaen, she should be able to deal with them to some degree even barehanded.

How many dozen minutes had we followed Kaen like that?

I saw a man wearing a silk hat secretly approaching Kaen from behind.

“He finally appeared.”

It was someone I had seen in the game too.

Inside his tall hat, there should be a “unicorn horn” transplanted by the vampire.

In any form of media, unicorns were especially deeply connected to “virgins.”

In this game too, unicorns were monsters, but they did not attack virgins... and they possessed the ability to distinguish virgins.

Vampires liked virgin blood the most.

That vile vampire had planted a unicorn’s horn into a human skull in order to drink virgin blood.

The man went around using that unicorn horn to identify virgins.

The horn could be considered something like a radar that detected virgins.

“I-it’s so nice that there’s nobody on the street...?”

Noticing the suspicious man approaching, Kaen spoke in a voice full of awkwardness.

“Did she really need to say that?”

It seemed she was trying to act as if she had not noticed in order to get kidnapped, but Kaen’s problem was that she thought she was good at acting.

[ Is that truly what she calls deceiving someone...? ]

Sierra seemed to think the same as me.

However, contrary to our thoughts, the man wearing the hat approached Kaen stealthily without the slightest suspicion and soon covered her mouth and nose with a cloth.

“Mmph... mmph...”

Kaen struggled appropriately in time with him, then soon lost consciousness and collapsed.

“Hehehe... Easy, so easy.”

The man laughed lewdly, then removed his hat.

The unicorn horn on his head was fully revealed.

Then the man pointed his horn at Kaen, who had collapsed on the ground, and shouted.

“She is definitely a virgin...!”

Sierra’s quiet voice rang as she watched this absurd sight.

[ I think I understand why that clumsy acting worked... ]

“...So do I.”