Chapter 91

Chapter 91

She, Not Him

Yorphang, collapsed over there, still had not awakened.

I pulled the subspace pouch from inside her clothes.

[ It looks like a subspace pouch. To think she carried something so precious. Could that be stolen too? ]

Just as Sierra said, since it was an item in a thief’s possession, there was a high chance it was stolen, and that would mean it had an owner.

“I doubt that. If she had stolen something as rare as a subspace pouch, word would have gotten out.”

In the game, if you tried to take the subspace pouch or magic thread after catching Yorphang...

“That is not stolen! It is mine!...It really is!!”

...you could hear lines like that, so I did not think I needed to worry.

Back then, the player could say something like this to Yorphang.

“Who knows? Maybe the unlucky one is the one who got robbed.”

Unfortunately, since Yorphang had fainted now, I could not say that line.

The subspace pouch and magic thread were rewards given to the player who caught Yorphang.

I thrust my arm into Yorphang’s subspace pouch.

Fascinatingly, despite being such a tiny pouch, there was a space wide enough for my entire arm to enter.

I found the painting inside and pulled it out.

Then I approached the wall where the painting had been and felt around the wall.

After finding the nail, I hung the painting back in its place.

Both Sierra and I knew there was a painting here. Previously, when I had passed through this corridor, Sierra had mentioned it to me.

Sierra, who was staying beside me, asked me a question.

[ Did you know Yorphang would come here? ]

“Well, I had information that Yorphang collects works of art... Still, I did not think she would really come.”

[ Is this painting truly that impressive...? ]

Sierra touched her chin and examined the painting carefully.

The painting depicted the Hero and members of the Hero’s Party. They were gathered closely together as if taking a group picture.

Now that both the Demon King and the Hero were absent, balance was maintained. But the moment either one appeared, the scales holding that precarious balance would immediately tip.

The Hero.

The one and only existence who could stand against the Demon King.

As one progressed through the game, there were frequent hints that this existence, caught in the yoke of demon-slaying, would one day appear in the world again.

The Hero “reincarnates.”

In truth, the Hero had already reincarnated.

However, she was still far too young.

She was not yet at an age where she could protect herself.

How to protect the young Hero, who could not properly handle the Holy Sword yet.

Protecting the reincarnated Hero from the demons had to be considered one major pillar of the main story.

It could be seen as an important key to reaching a happy ending.

In the painting, the face of the blond man in the center, the Hero grinning wide enough to show his teeth, stood out especially.

I had to protect him, no, “her.”

After staring at the painting for a long moment, I turned around and moved my feet toward where Yorphang was.

Now it was time for the “cleanup.”

“First, I need to use the subspace pouch...”

I took out the large sack I had prepared in advance from inside my clothes.

Inside the sack, I placed all the items she had stolen from the academy this time, the ones stored inside the subspace pouch.

From the tiny pouch, ornaments and other things that looked like valuables at a glance poured out in a rush.

The things Yorphang had stolen until now were probably stored separately in her secret warehouse. Even a subspace pouch had its limits, after all.

Then I slipped the now-heavy sack onto one arm of the collapsed Yorphang.

In any case, since no one knew what kind of existence Yorphang was, it did not matter whether she had used a sack or a subspace pouch.

However, since Yorphang’s condition looked poor, I was a little worried whether she would be able to properly tell them the warehouse’s location.

“Mm...”

I pulled out the thread hidden in Yorphang’s sleeve and examined it.

Sierra had noticed the moment the thread touched the cursed blade and told me.

I decided to leave it as it was, and this was how things turned out.

“Was it Arachne’s Thread?”

It seemed like it would have many uses, so I decided to take this too for now.

...Let us leave the explanation for how the items were stolen to Yorphang.

[ Hmhm, robbing a thief, is it... ]

Sierra smiled with satisfaction, as if she simply found this ironic situation amusing.

Like that, after stripping Yorphang clean, I grabbed her arm and dragged her out into the corridor.

Not long after, I ran into Kaliman, who was looking around while holding a torch.

“Student Zeto, what is that behind you...?”

Kaliman approached me and asked.

“There was a petty thief wandering around.”

I answered like that and showed him a bright smile.

***

—Knock, knock.

After the sound of knocking...

“Come in.”

A man’s solemn voice came from inside the room.

Immediately, a woman opened the door and entered.

The room, which looked like an office, was fairly dark, lit only by one candle that had been hastily taken out.

The woman approached the man sitting at the desk, who had been writing something, and opened her mouth.

“Master, Phantom Thief Yorphang has been caught.”

“Who caught him?”

“Student Zeto.”

“Hoho, that name again? It feels as though he resolves every incident and accident that happens in the academy.”

The Sage, wearing the appearance of the academy’s chairman, Hubert Graham, laughed heartily.

Because it was currently open class period, the Sage was staying not in the deepest part of the Labyrinth as usual, but in the chairman’s office.

They had already grasped the existence of Phantom Thief Yorphang.

From the Sage’s perspective, he wished to avoid intervening in the academy’s internal affairs as much as possible, so he had thought to leave it alone. But touching the “Dew of the World Tree” crossed the line he had drawn.

Thus, he had just sent Ithea to quietly handle the matter.

Though Ithea looked like an ordinary maid or secretary on the outside, she was a golem containing the essence of magical engineering the Sage had researched.

There was no need to even speak of her combat power.

But it seemed there had been no need for that.

“I returned immediately after seeing Yorphang faint upon touching Student Zeto’s cursed blade, but this time, it may have been close to coincidence.”

Ithea reported with her head slightly lowered.

“She must have been eroded by demonic energy. Coincidence or not, he is a fellow who gets entangled in many things. The Sword Saint, the Saintess... This time, how did he end up facing a phantom thief?”

The Sage set down his fountain pen on the desk and asked Ithea.

“Yorphang touched the painting of you and your companions in the main building. Student Zeto was nearby.”

“The painting...?”

At the words that she had dared lay a hand on the painting of the Hero’s Party, the Sage’s brow furrowed.

It was an immeasurably precious painting to him.

It was a painting he had hung in memory of them after founding Innocence Academy.

Of course, those inside the academy did not know that the painting depicted the Hero’s Party.

Even though there were statues of the Hero’s Party members in the Labyrinth, perhaps because the Sage’s aesthetic sense was quite strange, they looked nothing like the painting, and so this had happened.

“Fortunately, she was caught right away.”

Ithea said that in passing, trying to soothe the Sage’s anger.

“Huu... In any case, since this occurred inside the academy, it falls under our jurisdiction.”

At the Sage’s sighing words, Ithea nodded in affirmation.

Because Innocence Academy did not belong to any nation, it had the power to handle such matters independently as well.

“Then... send her to Gehenna.”

“Understood. I will inform Headmaster Juliut Klaus accordingly.”

Around the time Ithea answered and lowered her head, the mana lamp on the ceiling turned on, brightly lighting the room.

The Sage raised his head to look at the lamp and opened his mouth.

“It seems it returned to its place quickly.”

“Master, officially, it will become Student Zeto who caught the phantom thief. What do you intend to do about his reward?”

Ithea, who was looking at the Sage, asked.

Contrary to their intention to handle the matter quietly, Zeto, an academy student, had intervened, turning it into an official matter.

At her question, the Sage let out a hum.

“Hmm... A reward, is it...”

***

A chill lingered inside the carriage, which had not a single window to look outside.

The carriage was rushing toward “Gehenna,” the continent’s largest prison, where only the most vicious criminals were confined.

It was an infamous prison where not a single person had ever succeeded in escaping, to the point where there was a common saying that once imprisoned in Gehenna, death was the only escape.

Inside the carriage, one woman sat with her legs shaking in irritation, and opposite her, Yorphang sat with her arms and legs restrained.

Even the uniform Yorphang had been wearing when she was arrested had been stolen, so she was wrapped in rags.

The brown-haired woman before Yorphang, Reina, murmured.

“Why can I never win...?”

In the process of transporting Yorphang to Gehenna, someone related to the academy had to accompany her.

If she escaped during transport or was attacked by bandits, that would be troublesome, so someone who would feel as safe as possible to ride with had to step forward.

Thus, the Three of Black Blood were naturally mentioned, and the work was pushed onto the three of them.

Although they were instructors, because it was open class period, they did not particularly need to conduct classes.

Going to Gehenna was troublesome for them too.

In the end, at Reina’s suggestion, they carried out the “rock-paper-scissors” that had continued since childhood.

“Edward aside, why is Kaliman so needlessly lucky whenever it comes to bets like this...?”

This time as well, the loser was Reina.

Whenever this sort of bet came up, luck rarely followed her.

Soon, Reina leaned her head back and looked at Yorphang, who was trembling before her.

The fact that Yorphang was a younger woman than expected had been fairly shocking even to Reina.

After seeing the tone of the notices, she had thought Yorphang would be a man with a mustache.

“More importantly...”

At that moment, Reina and Yorphang’s eyes met.

“...”

Then Yorphang lowered her head deeply to avoid Reina’s gaze. Her body was still trembling.

“They said Zeto was the one who caught her.”

It was impressive that a blind man had caught not an ordinary thief, but a phantom thief. Had something happened in the process of catching her?

Yorphang looked as if she had been severely tortured somehow. Yet there were no signs of torture, nor even a small wound.

To begin with, Reina could not even imagine a scene of Zeto torturing someone. There also seemed to be no reason for Zeto to go out of his way to torture her.

After coming to her senses and grasping the situation, Yorphang immediately admitted that she was Yorphang and even gave up the location of her warehouse.

She denied nothing.

The warehouse was reported to the local guards, who immediately began an investigation, and through that, the secret warehouse of Phantom Thief Yorphang, who had made her name known across the continent, was revealed to the world.

However, when asked to explain the process by which she had been caught, Yorphang suddenly had a seizure. She showed severe symptoms of confusion and foamed at the mouth.

When they asked Zeto about it, he said he had only knocked her out lightly.

Then Priscilla, after checking Yorphang’s condition, stated firmly that there were no problems with her health.

During this process, Priscilla noticed the demonic energy remaining in Yorphang’s body, but she did not report it.

In the end, Edward erased the doubts of the others by saying, “A criminal was caught, and that is the end of it.”

Because Reina was still personally curious, she spoke to Yorphang before her.

“By any chance, with Zeto...”

When Zeto’s name was mentioned from Reina’s mouth, Yorphang’s eyes widened, and at last, she covered her ears and murmured.

“Purple... purple... purple... purple...”

Yorphang’s body trembled severely, and she merely repeated words whose meaning could not be understood.

“...”

Watching her, Reina clicked her tongue once, then closed her eyes.

***

In a small village on the continent, there was a girl in a humble orphanage.

Other children her age in the orphanage were running brightly through the field while shouting things like “Yah!” and “Over there!” but the girl did not seem interested in such things at all.

A woman who was the director of the orphanage quietly approached the girl.

“Ray, are you not very interested in playing with the other children?”

The director was worried that the girl might not be getting along well with her friends.

“...It is not Ray.”

The girl, who had her arms crossed, answered briefly and looked at the director with a pouty face.

“Ah, that is right. You asked me to call you Leon. Ray, no... Leon, you must like the Hero very much...?”

Ignoring the director’s gentle voice, Ray raised her head and looked at the sky.

“...I can still feel the Holy Sword’s response.”

The girl felt the Holy Sword’s energy above the sky and once again made her own existence certain.

The girl remembered that in her previous life, she had been “Hero Leon.”

Hero Leon had reincarnated.

As a girl named Ray, with blond hair and red eyes exactly like Leon’s.

However, for Leon, who had been a healthy adult man, becoming a newborn baby had been an exceedingly painful matter.

Now that several years had passed and she had become a proper young girl, it was at least better.

Though the fact that she was a “girl” remained a problem.

Whether the director approached and cared for her or not, Ray was wearing a serious expression and worrying.

For some reason, she still could not properly handle the Holy Sword.

She could not even summon it.

Had the Holy Sword judged that her body was still too frail to wield it?

Ray secretly left the orphanage every night and continued training, but it seemed this might be something that required a little time.

“Ray... would you like to play with me?”

One boy her age approached Ray, scratched his head, and asked carefully in a shy voice.

Recently, he had been showing interest in Ray, that is, “romantic” interest.

“D-do not look at me that way!”

Ray immediately waved her arm and firmly drew a line.

At her outrageous behavior, the director seemed shocked and covered her mouth with her hand.

Ray’s personality had become far more eccentric than when she had been Hero Leon, who had always smiled brightly.

For him, no, for her, it could not be helped.

This was to maintain her dignity as Hero Leon, and also to avoid losing something important as a man.