Finn Takes Action

Azu had returned from the simple errand I'd sent her on.

A full day had passed without her returning, so I'd assumed she'd gotten caught up chatting and stayed the night.

But for some reason, she'd brought a girl and a boy with her.

The girl was Kazusa, the one she was supposed to deliver the promissory note to. The boy was apparently her younger brother, Rei.

After quick introductions, I had Finn, who I'd been talking with just before, stay in the room while I got the full story.

There was no reason to make her leave.

According to them, they'd been renting an abandoned church as their home when land sharks started coming around trying to force them out. After repeated refusals, an intruder appeared on the night Azu happened to be visiting.

Azu had brought the two of them here out of concern for their safety.

Up to that point, it was a fairly common story.

Land could be turned into money if you played it right. There were always people willing to resort to strong-arm tactics.

Though it was unusual for a city like Luido, a satellite city that hadn't seen much development.

The risk and reward didn't add up.

The problem was what came next.

After driving off the intruder, they'd found a hemp sack hidden under the broken floorboards. When they opened it, something strange was inside.

And they'd brought one of those sacks with them.

"… I'm sorry. I acted on my own."

"Bit late for apologies after the fact. So, what was inside?"

What was done was done. Dwelling on it wouldn't earn me a single copper coin. Besides, taking initiative wasn't a bad thing in itself.

What interested me more was whatever had been stashed under the floor of that abandoned church.

It must have been something unusual for them to bring it all this way.

Azu lifted the hemp sack onto the desk and opened it.

She pinched one of the contents between her fingers and held it up.

I knew what it was the moment I saw it. Dried poppy pods.

Deliberately harvested while immature to halt their growth.

There was only one reason to do that.

If you let them mature, the chemical composition changed.

And once that happened, you couldn't make a certain something from them.

"What is this?"

Azu asked.

Kazusa and Rei behind her didn't seem to know either.

Well, of course they didn't. Children had no business knowing about this, and shouldn't.

Finn, on the other hand, clearly recognized it.

"These are poppy pods. Harvested before maturity, at that."

"Poppy pods? Is that some kind of special fruit?"

"… The seeds themselves are nothing special. You'll find them used in cooking sometimes. They're nutritious. But the pods are another matter entirely. The Kingdom prohibits cultivating these outside licensed farms and plantations. They don't circulate at all."

I brought the pod closer to my nose and sniffed.

A smell that evoked bitterness, with an acrid edge.

I'd never handled them as merchandise, but I'd seen the real thing before.

Dried as they were, the smell was the same.

"As for why they're banned, it's simple. The juice extracted from these pods, a raw material for medicine, is the problem. Being dried, these would probably be ground whole into powder, but…"

"Medicine?"

Azu looked surprised at the word.

Calling it medicine wasn't exactly wrong. It was true that it could be used as a painkiller.

But it only became medicine after the toxins were removed and the compound was properly adjusted through formulation.

If consumed without that process, it destroyed people.

In that form, it was called a narcotic, and it was shunned.

Even here in Kassad, it had been circulated on the black market by lowlifes once before.

"If someone ate even one of these, best case, they'd be left a shell of themselves. Worst case, they'd die. What makes it truly insidious is that it's addictive. A single diluted dose triggers hallucinations, euphoria, phantom sounds. When it wears off, the withdrawal is agonizing. So they want more. It's a vicious cycle."

"That's basically poison…"

"Exactly. As a strong painkiller it has legitimate use, but the toxins have to be removed first. Without that step, people become addicted and will do anything to get their hands on more."

"You seem awfully well-informed. You talk like you've watched an addict up close."

Finn, who'd been listening from her spot on the table, spoke up.

She was right. I'd said too much.

Just as Finn had implied, Yohane had seen someone fall victim to narcotics firsthand.

Someone close enough that he'd been there at the end.

"I had a connection. I know a bit more than most. So, how many of these were there?"

"From what I could see, at least ten sacks."

"Ten's a lot. No wonder they'd hire an assassin to get their hands on it as fast as possible. To people like that, it's as good as gold bars."

"Gold bars? That stuff is worth that much?"

"Addicts will do anything to get it. That means they'll scrape together money by any means necessary to buy it. The more they use, the worse it gets, and their bodies fall apart too."

I answered Kazusa's question.

Narcotics were profitable. In exchange, they stripped away people's dignity.

That such a thing had been hidden beneath the floor of an abandoned church was nothing short of profane.

Most likely, someone had stashed the poppy pods they'd somehow obtained in the vacant church to keep them hidden from the authorities, only for the siblings to move in. That must have sent them into a panic.

Then Azu had fought off the intruder, and the three of them had fled.

With a sack of poppy pods in tow.

"Hey, Finn. They're definitely coming for us, aren't they?"

"Unless they're complete idiots, of course they are."

By "coming," I meant we'd be attacked again.

The other side had to know by now that Azu and the others had found out what was hidden there.

And that they'd taken a sack of the contents with them.

If we reported this to someone like Jacob, an investigation of that abandoned church would begin in the blink of an eye.

That would be the end of those land sharks.

They wouldn't hesitate to silence us now.

Finn turned toward Azu.

"Hey, what did the guy who attacked you look like?"

"I couldn't see his face, but he was about as tall as Mas— Yohane-san. Fighting him felt similar to fighting you, Finn-san. He was weaker than you, though."

"Obviously. There's only a handful of assassins better than me. Anyone stuck in the Kingdom taking jobs from thugs is bottom of the barrel. Probably one of the losers who got pushed out of the faction wars in the Empire."

Finn hopped off the table as she said that.

"Keep those two out of sight for a while. If you've got a safe house, stash them there. Azu, Yohane. Don't go wandering around carelessly either."

"What are you going to do?"

"Even bottom-of-the-barrel assassins are a massive headache to defend against. Whatever you end up deciding, I'll go clean house first to make things easier."

"Are you sure? You were injured not that long ago…"

"Worried about me? Mind your own business. That wound was a draw, for the record."

With that, Finn left through the window.

She hadn't given me specifics, but it seemed she intended to help.

"Now then. Kazusa, was it? Sounds like Azu's been in your care."

"Oh, no. I'm the one who's been in hers, really."

We exchanged bows.

I'd heard she'd refused the promissory note.

Scrupulous, but I didn't dislike the backbone.

"In lieu of five hundred gold coins, I'll see this matter resolved. If you're going to live in this city, I'll help you get settled. For now, your safety comes first. I've got a place arranged, so you'll stay out of sight there for the time being. Agreed?"

"Is that really okay? We practically barged in on you."

"You're Azu's friend, aren't you? I'm not going to leave you to fend for yourselves."

There was some calculated self-interest in this. It would earn me Azu's trust.

But more than that, I simply didn't want to see anyone around me become a casualty of poppy pods.