Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

Time passed by quickly and the sun had already set. The area around us was already enveloped by the darkness.

In a normal country, the nobles and citizens would go home around this time of the evening. Reason being, for economic reasons, they were trying to maximize the use of fuel towards the lighting at the ramparts to chase away the monsters.

However, since fuel could be easily obtained in a rich country like the Republic of Ariadya, parts of the city were still bright and lively due to the lamps that lined up along the streets.

One could walk alongside these streets pretty easily even without the use of illumination magic.

「Ho~. Somehow, there's so many voluptuous onee-sans with sexy outfits in this place, Chiyuki-san.」

Nao was looking around with a curious look on her face.

I'm currently walking in the outer town along with Decius and Nao.

There were so many cheap inn-cum-diners in this area which were geared towards low income workers.

At the same time, they were also working as harlots.

The fee for the meal and room became the income of the inn while the price for one night stand became the income for those harlots.

「Please stop looking, Nao-san. It's bad for your education.」

They exposed their skin a little bit too much.

It was clearly attire to entice the lustful men.

「Sorry, Chiyuki-san. Nevertheless, mufufufu, I never expected that they would even call this Nao too.」

Nao was clearly delighted to be called by those men who mistook her for a harlot.

Compared to Rino, Sahoko, or Shirone, Nao almost never received any calls from the men. That's why she seems to be really delighted when those men called out to her.

The women who reside around this area were prostitutes.

In this world, the area outside of the ramparts was the area where monsters might run rampant at any moment. Female travelers were rare. For that reason, most people who stayed in the inns were men while the women were mostly working as harlots.

It was also why both Nao and I had received so many invitations from the men around here so far who mistook us for one of the harlots when we walked down this street.

Though our current attire was far from the ones worn by those prostitutes, those men didn't seem to care about such matters.

Thanks to that, chasing them away was a real hassle.

That's why, I think we shouldn't leave Decius' side as much as possible.

Though Nao was really delighted by their calls, are you really happy to be treated as one of the prostitutes?

Though, when I'm looking around, none of them were handsome by any means.

When it comes to face alone, Reiji won against them by thousands of miles. Not to mention that Decius was quite handsome himself. And unlike Reiji, Decius was a handsome and sincere man.

Their faces aside, I realized that no sincere men called out to me.

Please stop… this made me even more worried about my own future.

I mean, that's including Decius, who despite walking alongside two beauties such as us, completely disregards us. Naturally, the harlots around the area were also excluded from his field of view.

Well as it is, it's not a good thing if he keeps looking around like he was looking for a prostitute. But, the suspicious men and the harlots went into hiding as soon as they saw Decus walking towards them.

In fact, bringing him to this place seems to have been a big mistake.

The knights of law weren’t welcomed by the people who lived around this area. Even that Marchas might have ended up escaping before we could catch him.

Was what I thought as I sent a sidelong glance to Decius.

There, I noticed the thing strapped on Dekius' belt.

「Dekius-dono, is that by chance, a weapon?」

「Yes, this is a jutte. I heard that you're the one who started the spread of this weapon, Sage-dono. Thus, we, the knights of law decided to use this as our official weapon for apprehending small time criminals.」[TL : jutte — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitte]

Dekius then took off the jutte from his waist.

Since I never specified the exact size of a jutte, the juttes created in this world were bigger in dimension compared to the ones that I knew.

Surely, I told the Holy Republic Lenaria's armed police to use jutte as the weapon to apprehend small-time criminals.

I never expected that it would spread all the way until Republic Ariadya.

「Even I never expected for it to reach this far.」

「You're right, Nao-san… You never know what’s going to spread.」

We have to be careful since there is an extremely high chance for the strange knowledge from our world to spread in this world.

Especially for the biggest offender in this case from our group, Reiji and Rino. I have to give a strict warning to them later.

Though… it might be too late.

「Sage-dono. According to the other troupe's members, the one called Marchas is a frequent customer of this place.」

It seems we’d arrived at our destination in the middle of our conversation. Decius then looked around.

It seems the person called Marchas often hangs around this place.

「I see. Nao-san, can you try to look around this area to confirm that fact?」

I gave the portrait of Marchas which was painted by the troupe member to Nao. This should make her job easier.

「Roger that!」

Nao's figure vanished right after she said so.

「Eh?」

Decius looked around restlessly upon seeing Nao's figure vanish right in front of his eyes.

It seems Nao's movement was too fast for Decius.

Well, the same goes for me.

Even people at the level of Shirone and Kaya's power could only barely see Nao's figure when she moved at her fastest speed. The only one who could follow Nao's movement might be Reiji. No one could follow those two’s movements when they're moving at their top speed.

Nao returned a short while later.

「Welcome back, Nao-san. Did you find that person?」

Nao shook her head upon hearing my question.

「I didn't find that man but, I found the traces of battle.」

「The trace of battle?」

「Yesh. Chiyuki-san. Follow me.」

I followed Nao.

「Let's go, Decius-dono.」

Decius also followed after Nao and I.

Nao led us to a slightly secluded place a while later.

「It's above.」

Nao leapt upwards as she told us so.

「Can you use flight magic, Decius-dono?」

「No, that's…」

「Then allow me to take you up there.」

I caught Decius' hand and pulled him up with flight magic.

Despite his inability to use flight magic, Decius didn't scream at all when I pulled him up.

「Take a look. There's so many holes on the roof.」

Upon landing on the roof, Nao pointed at several indentations and holes on the roof.

She was right; the size of these holes were abnormal.

I had no idea about what kind of battle that had occured at this place.

But, I was sure that these holes were created very recently.

「Do you know who fought in this place, Nao-san?」

「Dunno but they were by no means normal humans. The way they were moving was too haphazard.」

I was pondering deeply upon hearing that.

「What do you think about this situation, Decius-dono? Do you think that your little sister, Sienna-san was involved in this battle?」

Decius made a troubled face upon hearing my question.

「I don't know. But, if Sienna was really involved in the battle, she should left some sort of clue.」

「Clue?」

「Yes. She might’ve drop something around this area.」

「Aaah, I see.」

「I guess we can use object finder magic to do so.」

I felt a deep sense of admiration upon hearing Decius' words.

Object finding magic, otherwise known as locate magic, was a magic to find a specific object.

Naturally it wasn't omnipotent magic that could find anything. The user had to have a clear image about the thing that they were trying to find.

Decius seems to be an expert in this area. I mean, I don't think that he would receive an angel's divine protection just because of his faith alone, his real ability is definitely involved in this area.

By the way, naturally I could use locate magic too, but I had no idea about the object that was most likely being carried by Sienna-san.

Decius then closed his eyes, focusing his mind after he said  「Then, I'll start using it. My search range isn't that vast but… it should be enough to find the object left behind by Sienna」 to us.

Thus, I felt a wave of Decius’ mana a second later.

Few seconds later, droplets of sweat started to appear on Decius' face. He might've pushed himself way beyond his limits to expand his search range. It seems he had a hard time trying to locate his little sister's clue.

Nao and I watched in silence in order to not disturb Decius.

And then, his eyes snapped open.

「Haaah… Haah… found it.」

Decius took a deep breath as he propped himself up.

「Are you alright, Decius-dono?」

「It's no big deal, Sage-dono. Anyhow, please follow me.」

We descended from the roof and then continued to follow Decius.

Decius looks like he can barely support himself. It seems that the magic he used just now consumed most of his mana.

「It's here.」

Decius then pointed at the gap between two buildings.

「I think, Sienna's curve sword is located between these two building but…」

I looked at that narrow alley. It was big enough for a human to enter in between but, honestly I didn't want to enter since it looked like a dump site.

「Uuh. It's dirty.」

「Maybe it's some sort of illegal dump site. No wonder you don't want to enter.」

I made several magic hands and stretched it toward the narrow alley.

After groping around for a few minutes, My magic hand finally found something that looked like a curved sword.

「As I thought, it really is Sienna's sword.」

Decius spoke as he looked at the curved sword that was retrieved by my magic hand.

「So that's the case… So Sienna is really involved in that battle above the roof. It'll be for the best for her to be safe but…」

I looked down as I spoke.

「Yes… she might’ve been chased around by the Demon King's worshipper. I think Sienna is safe and sound since she's good at escape arts. But, her situation might worsen if we don’t find her as soon as possible.」

Decius spoke with a bitter look on his face.

Decius seems to believe that his little sister was safe and sound. Maybe Sienna was an unexpectedly strong girl.

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