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yumemoryFigaro: No need to be so scared. If something happens, I’ll heal you in a second.
Arthur: Reliable as always, Sir Figaro.
Figaro: You think so? Go on, say more.
Snow: How clever you are, Figgy!
White: We shall reward you with some candies.
Figaro: Oh, please, I’m too old for that….
Akira: (I think I saw this exchange today….)
Chloe: Anyway, where is Mithra?
Akira: Now that you said it, I haven’t seen him either.
Bradley: Mithra? Right now he’s….
(splash)
At that moment, along with a loud sound of splashing water, Mithra rose up from the lake.
Arthur, Twins, Chloe: !?
Rutile: Mister Mithra!
Akira: D-Did you just come out of the water…!? You couldn’t be swimming, could you?
Mithra: I’m investigating the lake. It’s faster to just dive down and see what it's about.
Arthur: The lake water doesn’t seem safe, are you alright…?
Mithra: I’m fine... because I’m strong.
Not caring that he got waterweed on his face, Mithra ran a hand through his hair and smiled proudly.
As if whistling, he recited his spell. A strong gust of wind blew and his wet clothes dried up in an instant.
Mithra: That aside, as I thought, there’s no strange fish whatsoever here.
Bradley: Nothing, huh?
Mithra: Nothing.
Bradley: No suspicious figure either?
Mithra: You’re so persistent. None, I said. There are only small fishes swimming in there.
Figaro: Bradley, you laughed about Lorelei being an idle gossip, yet here you are, asking questions the same way Arthur did.
Figaro: You couldn’t happen to know something about the lake, could you?
Bradley: Huh?
Figaro: Was I wrong? It did seem like that to me.
Akira: ...Bradley, if you know something, could you please tell us?
Bradley shrugged as he let out a heavy sigh.
Bradley: It’s probably nothing, but I do know that the legend is crap talk.
Chloe: The legend…?
Rutile: Is it the tale about the lake that Prince Arthur told us?
Bradley: The legend says he was saved by Lorelei, but the truth is, the one who saved him was a mortal woman.
Bradley: The man was deeply grateful for the woman, and fell in love. But that man was a noble, and the woman was a commoner. That difference in social status held them back from getting anywhere near a marriage.
Bradley: In the end, the man married another woman of the same social status and abandoned the woman who saved him… A common story.
Rutile and Chloe: …...
Arthur: …...
Bradley: They changed the story either for the commoner to atone for her sins, or to cover up the embarrassment of the noble family…...
Bradley: In any case, it’s a tragedy modified and retold conveniently as a fairytale. So much for personal gain.
Bradley talked nonchalantly. Under a pretty picture, there hides an unfortunate incident, and there is nothing we can do about it.
Rutile: I wonder what happened to that woman…
Bradley: Don’t ask me, I don’t know that much.
Snow: Bradley boy, you sure know stuff.
White: How did you know?
Bradley: Long time ago, I came to this lake to steal some treasures. I heard about this story from a passing woman.
And so Bradley said, while throwing a sharp gaze at Snow, White, and Figaro.
Bradley: It’s centuries before you caught and threw me into jail.
Snow, Figaro, White: Ooh—?
Bradley: ...But that treasure’s long lost, it seems.
Bradley whispered quietly to himself, and it strangely lingered in my ears.
Akira: (...What kind of treasure was it?)
Arthur: Let’s get back to the strange fish.
Arthur: After the investigation, what we understood is…
Rutile: That the water is turning into something bad, and that the strange fish is not in the lake right now, I suppose?
Mithra: In essence, we gained nothing.
Snow: Now, whatever shall we do?
White: With no lead on the fish’ whereabouts, unfortunately our actions are limited.
Chloe: The townspeople only said that the strange fish suddenly disappeared…
Bradley: Don’t we have any new information? You guys went to the chief’s mansion, did he say anything?
Akira: We did, but we couldn’t even meet the chief’s son, let alone ask questions….
Bradley: What?
Arthur: He refused to come out of his room. After the day he witnessed the strange fish, he locked himself up.
Mithra: He won’t come out of his room?
Figaro: Why, though? He’s not Oz or Faust.
Arthur: Master Oz will come out of his room!
Figaro: That’s because he’s really soft on you.
Snow: How convenient to have the chief’s son be that soft as well.
Akira: The chief said that his son might have witnessed something really terrifying…
Chloe: But from what we heard from the townspeople, it seems that no witnesses ever turned like that after seeing the strange fish.
Rutile: Right. Everyone was worried, but not to that extent of fear.
Bradley: The chief’s son, huh. Sounds iffy. We should go and ask him.
Akira: We asked him several times, but he won’t listen. The chief himself looked exhausted…
Arthur: With the atmosphere in the mansion, I doubt that we will be welcomed.
Mithra: Sigh, how troublesome. I’ll go.
Akira: Huh?
Snow and White: You will?
Everyone was surprised to see Mithra volunteer himself.
Mithra is the most powerful wizard in this group, without a doubt. But if everyone were to be ranked from the best person to politely ask for a favor to the worst, then he’d definitely be at the bottom of the list.
Bradley: You sure you didn’t hit your head somewhere? Can you even hold talks?
Mithra: There is no need to. I’ll just use space-traveling magic.
Figaro: So you plan to go straight to the chief’s son’s room?
Mithra: That’s the fastest we can go over this problem.
Chloe: But won’t we scare him? If I were him, I’d scream real loud.
Arthur: That would be a problem. Looking at our situation, that will only worsen things.
White: The entirety of the mansion is already tense because of the postponed wedding.
Mithra: Then I will kill him if he makes a ruckus.
Rutile: Y-You can’t do that!
Bradley: That’s the most problematic problem.
Figaro: The most troublesome trouble.
Mithra: Then what do you want me to do? I cannot hold back. I only have two options: kill or kill.
Akira: (That’s just one option…!)
