Can't Stay Underestimated

We bound the motionless brothers and headed up the stairs.

Finn should have gone to the second floor.

When we arrived, we started peering into rooms from the nearest one.

It was a decent-sized mansion, but there weren't many rooms up here.

At the very last room, we found several men in black garb collapsed on the floor.

Finn and Azu were just putting their weapons away, so the fight must have only just ended.

"What's with the panic? Ah, so you got hit downstairs too."

Finn's voice was relaxed.

The opponents clearly hadn't been worth much; she sounded completely at ease.

At the same time, it was implicit acknowledgment that she trusted Elza and Alexia to handle themselves.

"I'm sorry, Master. We were attacked when I went to get Finn, so I stayed to help her fight."

"No, that's fine. If you'd come back, you'd have gotten caught between two groups. Good call."

Azu looked relieved when I said that.

Even if she'd tried to go back, Finn probably wouldn't have let her.

"Did they really think sending rabble like this would work? These guys aren't even part of an organization. Just freelance thugs."

"The ones downstairs were a pair of brothers. Big guy and a thin guy."

"… Don't know them. If I don't know them, they're nobodies. Don't worry about it."

Finn said that, then stomped her heel into the neck of a man at her feet who'd been trying to move.

He let out a sound like a crushed frog and stayed down for good.

That had to hurt. He wouldn't be eating solid food for a while.

"Azu told me. You found the evidence downstairs, right? There was nothing up here, so I guess we don't need to search the place any further."

"Yeah. Once we get word to Jacob, he'll handle the rest. Shame I can't punch them myself, though."

"This was never the kind of job a merchant should've been involved in to begin with. Azu bringing those poppy seeds out in the first place was already pushing it."

"Ah… that's true. I'm sorry."

"You're an adventurer, right? You must've learned about poisonous plants with herb-gathering quests. They'd have warned you about this stuff."

Come to think of it, that information had been on the very first quest form I'd given Azu.

Back then, she still couldn't read and had been identifying things by the illustrations.

I hadn't done a great job communicating that to her, either.

In other words, this whole mess was partly a consequence of my own oversight.

When I said as much to Finn, she kicked me in the shin without a word.

It hurt. A lot.

"You really are scatterbrained, you know that? Reliable and hopeless at the same time. You seemed so sharp when we first met."

"You thought that? I'm flattered."

"I said at first. Haah, whatever. Go get somebody. I'll stay here and keep watch—"

Finn suddenly whipped her head around.

Behind her was nothing but a wall and a window.

"What is it?"

"These scrubs were just buying time, huh. We're going downstairs."

Finn didn't answer the question. She moved first.

I was taken aback, but Azu and the others seemed to sense it too.

A warrior's instinct, maybe. I had no idea what they were sensing, but times like these called for trust.

When we reached the ground floor, a copper-haired girl and an unsettling man were standing side by side at the entrance, waiting.

Jill and Iefuda.

"Haah, and here I thought I'd found myself a nice new hustle. You just keep getting in my way, don't you, Yohane-kun."

"Don't care. Garbage operations like this deserve to be shut down."

"Haha. Couldn't agree more. I'd have torn it down myself eventually. After squeezing out a tidy profit, with them buried along with it. Well, the plan's shot now, so I went ahead and took them out early and helped myself to their assets. Not the haul I was hoping for, but it'll do."

… Same as ever. Just listening to the man was enough to spread poison.

My stomach churned.

We were incompatible. That was the long and short of it.

"Then I'll drag you in too. You're involved in this."

"Whoa, whoa, scary stuff. I could've just bolted, but this one said she wanted to see you again, so I came along as her guardian. Took a page from your book and got myself a pet. Pretty good, right?"

Not much time had passed since our last encounter.

How much of what this man said could be believed? None of it, for all I knew.

The only thing I knew for certain was that Jill had her weapon drawn, and a fight was unavoidable.

"Killing you lot and taking back the drugs is the best-case scenario here. Don't worry. I'll dump your bones in a ditch somewhere."

"Shut up."

There was nothing left to say.

I'd hand him over along with everyone else and make him answer for his involvement in the drug trade.

I thought we could win if Azu and the others worked together with Finn. But Finn raised her right hand, stopping Azu and the others as they moved to engage.

"This creepy brat made a fool of me once, and it's been pissing me off. I'll handle this."

"Isn't that dangerous? We might as well play it safe and—"

"Shut it. A merchant like you would never understand. I've got my pride as a professional. I can't just sit here and take being looked down on."

Her tone was sharper than usual. No, it was that jagged edge from when we'd first met.

If I forced my way in, it would only drive a wedge between us.

If she wanted to do this, there was no stopping her. Elza was here, too. Even a serious injury could be treated, costs included.

"Win."

"Who do you think you're talking to? I've never lost."

Azu and the others pulled back, and Finn stepped forward.

"Ooh, you sure about that? My Jill's a scary one, you know."

"… Move."

After Iefuda made a threatening gesture toward Finn, Jill shoved him aside with an annoyed look.

He landed hard on his hip. Served him right.

Jill gripped her greatsword in her right hand and rested it on her back, letting her left arm hang loose at her side.

Then she began closing the distance, step by step.

Finn, for her part, held a dagger in each hand and bounced lightly on her toes.

The moment Jill closed to a certain distance, Finn vanished.