Chương 52: Kind Girl, Shy Boy

Lio first met Senna Jacinta when he was fifteen, during his third descent into Ghenna. Without even having a rune at that time, he'd been working as a porter, following Delver parties down into the depths while taking care of their luggage and loot. That day, having arrived at Floor 3, he'd finally been given some much needed break time. But without having any money to spend for his own leisure, he'd simply found a dry section of wall in the ruins, and sat down against it, planning to take a quiet nap.

That was when Senna had appeared. She'd been with a descent party of six, all of them considerably more experienced looking than the party Lio had been following. He'd expected them to pass without any sort of acknowledgement, but instead, they stopped. In a quick blur of efficiency, they spread a cloth and began to eat lunch, just a few feet away from him. Lio had watched them sidelong, saying nothing. But the smell of stew, bread, and savory cheese was making mouth water. Then one of them had looked over at him.

A girl with curly auburn hair that had been pulled back into a messy top knot.

"Are you hungry?" she'd asked, tilting her head. Lio blinked. Then he looked behind him, making sure that she was talking to him. She giggled.

"I'm talking to you, silly."

"We have too much food," she'd added, which was clearly a lie. The cloth between them held exactly enough for six people and not a crumb more. But the other five people didn't seem to mind either, as if they were used to the girl's antics.

"So you'd be doing us a favor honestly." Lio's brows furrowed. He'd long since learned that kindness often had strings attached to it, and he wasn't sure if this was some sort of scam. But before he could think much of it, she'd already started wrapping some bread and fruits up and held it out toward him, looking a little apologetic.

"It's just bread and some dried fruit," she said.

"Nothing special, unfortunately." And against his better judgment, Lio had taken it. He hadn't even muttered a thank you. He hadn't known quite how to back then, so he'd just taken it and eaten it while she turned back to her own group. Then, as the group finished eating and began packing up, she'd looked back once, saw that Lio had eaten everything, and happily beamed. That had been Senna Jacinta. Lio had thought about that bright smile for a long time afterward.

He remembered thinking that she was one of the kindest people he'd ever met. Aside from Rion, of course. ◈◈◈◈ They'd gone to a different tavern for breakfast today, though it was of noticeably less quality, with furniture sticky with oil and the stench of alcohol and sweat lingering in the air. Ophila was seated across from Lio, and William to the left of her. The boy had clearly not gotten enough sleep, resting his chin on his hand and staring blearily off at the distance.

His food sat in front of him mostly untouched.

"You should eat," Ophila remarked, looking up from her own bowl of frozen fruits drizzled with honey.

"I'm not hungry," William mumbled. Ophila raised an eyebrow"Did you sleep?" she asked.

"Some," he said. Translation: not a single wink. He moved his spoon around the bowl, swirling around the porridge he'd ordered. Then he set it down and leaned back in his chair, groaning in frustration.

"First my teammates get slaughtered by some creature," he said, his voice tense.

"And now I'm stuck in the middle of a damn murder investigation." He dragged his hands slowly down his face, stretching his eyes out grotesquely.

"I couldn't even follow those two properly. I just got kidnapped!"

"They were strong," Ophila said gently.

"Even if you hadn't followed them, they would've been able to catch you." Lio ate without offering a comment, watching the other boy over the rim of his cup of tea. William slammed his head on the table. Then, after a moment, he sprang back up, resolve flashing across his features.

"I'm going to go talk to the guard captain," he announced. Ophila looked at him, frowning.

"Ergyn? About what?"

"About letting us leave," William said.

"He asked us to stay in Trestfall, but we've already given our statements. We're not residents. We're not suspects." He waved his hand in anger.

"We're Delvers! We have a descent to complete."

"He probably won't allow it," Ophila said, not bothering to sugarcoat her words.

"Not while the investigation is still active." Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"Maybe not," William said.

"But I'd rather ask and get told no than just sit here feeling sorry for myself." He pushed his chair back and stood up, reaching for his coat. Then he paused, looking down at his bowl of untouched food. He picked up the spoon and ate three large mouthfuls, spooning nearly half of the porridge into his mouth.

"Alright," he said, slightly more color having returned to his face.

"I'll be going." Ophila watched him skip out the door, then turned to Lio, frowning.

"He won't manage it, will he?"

"Probably not," Lio agreed.

"But it's good that he's trying," she added, shrugging.

"I was worried that he would be in shock." She looked back down at her bowl, spearing a frozen strawberry dusted with frost and holding it up to the light.

"I think I'm going to go see Senna after this," she said, glancing up at Lio briefly.

"You don't mind, right?"

"Of course not," Lio said pleasantly.

"Mhm." For some reason, she didn't look convinced, but she hummed as she popped the berry into her mouth.

"What'll you be doing?"

"The usual," Lio said, finishing his tea and reaching for his coat.

"Supply checks for our descent." Ophila's spoon hovered over her bowl. Then she snorted.

"Supply checks?" she repeated.

"Yes," Lio said. She giggled.

"You really don't have a life other than delving, do you?" Without waiting for a reply, she popped another frozen berry into her mouth and looked back at her bowl. A few minutes later, they parted ways outside the tavern, Ophila heading toward Senna's house, Lio turning in the opposite direction, towards the markets. He waited until she had fully rounded the corner and disappeared from sight before changing direction entirely. By now, Kingmaker should've gotten the information he'd requested from them.

Sure, Lio already knew everything to know, but if he didn't come pick it up, they would only grow suspicious. Arriving at the entrance, he went through the standard procedures, until the hidden door swung open. Ducking into the small room, he found the heavyset man with the magnificent grey beard from last time. He was wiping cups with the same greasy rag, just like when he'd first seen him. Lio waved a hand in greeting.

"Do you have my stuff?" The man harrumphed, then reached beneath the counter without another sound, producing a thick folded packet, setting it down in front of Lio with a dull thud.

"That's everything we have," he said roughly. Lio picked it up, shifting through it quickly.

"Any interesting things you found?" he asked. The man shook his head.

"Not really. We tried our best, but that damn guard captain got this whole thing locked down good."

"I see." Lio tucked the packet inside his coat.

"And your message," the man added.

"It was delivered to Job."

"I know," Lio said cheerfully. He waved the packet.

"Thanks for this." He turned toward the door, stepping back out into the alley. Waiting until he was far away from the den before he read the information, he found a quiet stretch of wall near the eastern edge of the settlement, away from the foot traffic, and leaned against it. He unfolded the packet. The first page was a rough sketch of the flower seller's murder scene, the placement of the Ghostly Annies being specified.

Lio scanned it, then moved on to the second page, which consisted of a detailed account of the tavern murder, theories of the possible method, and the timeline as best as Kingmaker's informants had been able to reconstruct it. Lio read through it without much interest. Everything matched what he already knew. The third page was some witness compilation, which Lio flipped past. Then he stopped at the fourth page.

It was marked at the top with a small symbol he recognized, a circle with a single horizontal line bisecting it. That was Kingmaker's symbol for information that had been sourced through rune usage rather than conventional means. Looking down at the bottom left corner, he saw that the rune user that had been responsible for the information went by the field name of Seth. Lio chuckled. He knew the guy from past loops. If he remembered correctly, Seth had a rune called [Appetite].

The power it granted was that through enough prior knowledge about a specific individual, Seth could divine certain interests that the target had. The catch was that the usefulness of what Seth received relied entirely on how much he already knew about the subject. The less he knew, the more he was at the mercy of chance. A stranger's reading might produce something very valuable, or it might produce something completely trivial, like whether the target preferred his bread toasted.

But the more Seth knew about a person, the better his odds became. And even though Lamb had a very thin file… It seemed that Seth had gotten lucky. Lio's eyes moved down the page. Subject's current interest has been identified as a physical object in the possession of Trestfall's sitting Mayor. The object is described in existing records as a mantle of grey fur worn about the shoulders and neck, origin unknown, commonly referred to among the Mayor's staff as the Prosperous Mantle.

Subject's interest in the object appears to significantly predate his arrival in Trestfall. Confidence rating: high. Lio hummed. The Prosperous Mantle. He knew what it was. It was a rare artifact that had been created using the hide of a Akhult, a legendary creature found in the 18th Floor. Someone, at some point in time, had been clever enough to turn that hide into a garment. The result was the Prosperous Mantle, which granted its user high resistance to extreme heat and extreme cold.

With this artifact on, one could survive inside even a blizzard, or a dip in lava. It was absolutely priceless. And that was exactly the 'something' Job had been after. The item that he'd refused to tell Lio about. Lio mused that if Lamb hadn't gone off script, by now, the Mayor's and Ergyn's attention would be on the lower floors, where countless corpses adorned with flowers should've been found.

And while every eye in Trestfall was focused on the chaos below, Job's other operatives would move in quietly and lift the Prosperous Mantle from right under the Mayor's nose. But now the loop had changed because of Ophila. In every previous iteration, Lio had let Job get the Mantle, as he found it a hassle to steal it for himself. After all, the Mayor kept it on his person at almost all times, and the four members of his personal guard weren't pushovers.

The Prosperous Mantle was useful, certainly, but not useful enough to justify going through that sort of trouble. But now that Lamb was here, Job's plan had collapsed. The Mayor was rattled and Erygn was running himself ragged just to keep up. And tonight, Lamb would be coming to the Amberpulp fields looking for Lio. Lio folded the packet and tucked it back inside his coat, looking up at the spore-light glowing gently above him. When Lamb came tonight, and Lio dealt with him, the aftermath would be chaotic enough.

And in that chaos, there would likely exist a window where the Prosperous Mantle could simply disappear from around the Mayor's shoulders without anyone being the wiser. Lio pushed off the wall. Well then, he thought, starting back toward the lodge. Might as well try.