874: Filuria and the Slave Traders
Fran and Filuria stared at each other in complete silence.
There was an indescribable tension between the two.
Most people would think the two are friendly since they are both acquainted with Sophie. On the contrary, both knew the other was an enemy.
Well, I’m guessing Filuria only thought of Fran as an annoying adventurer that might get in her way.
She must have had no idea that Sophie and Fran were already connected.
Yet she came up with the plan to break them up by mentioning Fran’s suspicion of being an a.s.sa.s.sin on the spur of the moment. Even if this didn’t succeed, she would be able to learn just how close the two were without any damage to herself.
She thoroughly calculated everything in that brief moment.
What should we do from here?
Ideally, we could expose Filuria’s wrongdoings and eliminate her immediately…… But that’s obviously impossible.
It’s not like we have any hard evidence of her crimes, and I doubt anyone would believe us anyways.
If Filuria, one of the most influential people in town, says we made it up, then she’ll be believed over us.
She would be like a n.o.ble in other countries, and one of very high status. She could say the sky is falling, and people would rush over to agree with her.
It seems she has no intention of harming us right after Sophie declared Fran as one of her friends, but who knows what she has in store for us later.
However, if we launch a preemptive strike on her, we would be the bad guys. In the first place, we shouldn’t do anything rash since we know nothing about the Ward Dealer’s abilities.
I had actually secretly appraised Filuria when she first showed up. Even if she detected my appraisal, we could make the excuse that she surprised us with their sudden appearance.
Yet my appraisal failed to work, similar to how my detection-type skills were nullified. She must be in possession of a warding stone or some similar tool.
Seeing as how the appraisal did not work on either of them, it might be possible for Seliadot to ma.s.s-produce wards capable of blocking appraisal.
Anyways, we don’t know if we could win against this Rank A adventurer of unknown ability, even if we were in perfect condition.
We also couldn’t start a battle in the presence of so many patients. But at the same time, it would be a waste to run back home empty-handed.
Let’s try to squeeze some info out of Filuria before we go.
「I’m looking for illegal slavers. Do you know who they are?」
「How would I know?」
「Because you’re the most powerful person in town. Also, the Sanatorium could easily have patients declared dead and made into slaves.」
「We would never do such a thing! The next time you say something so foolish, I’ll have you escorted out.」
「So you really don’t buy or sell illegal slaves?」
「Leave immediately!」
「Answer the question and I’ll leave.」
「I have nothing to do with such a filthy business as illegal slave trading!」
Fran’s questioning made her visibly upset, causing her to scream in a high-pitched voice. She must have panicked after being asked about the skeletons in her closet.
Now we know that she is definitely related to the illegal slavers, and she at least knows the ident.i.ties of some of them.
Does this mean we will really have to fight against Seliadot in the near future?
While I was considering our options, I saw Fran suddenly get ready for battle.
It looked like she only leaned forward a tiny bit, but I knew she was ready to deliver a slash in the blink of an eye.
Only Sophie and Seliadot noticed this. The others, including Filuria, must have thought that Fran only became a little irritated.
I haven’t even told Fran about Filuria’s relation to the slavers, but she could already infer the results of my Principle of Falsehoods from my change in att.i.tude.
We understand each other so deeply now that I could no longer hide anything.
『Fran. I understand how you feel, but it’s not a good idea to fight here!』
If Filuria really was the leader of the slavers and killing her would end everything, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take her down and hightail it out of town.
However, things aren’t going to be that simple. If Filuria was only one part of the trafficking ring, we would need to interrogate her for information on the rest.
And with so many people here, it would be impossible to capture Filuria without anyone noticing.
Even Fran should have understood all this――but her uncontrollable killing intent must have caused the slight movement of her body.
「What do you think you’re doing?」
Seliadot glared at us. From the young-looking girl with a pretty face came an unimaginable pressure a.s.saulting Fran.
From her point of view, it must have looked like Fran asked her employer a bunch of rude questions, and then got angry for no reason.
The atmosphere was tense, as both sides were on guard and unable to relax their fighting stance.
The tension only broke after someone came running into the tower.
He seemed to be an adventurer in a great hurry, since he fell to his knees at the entrance. Still, he gathered all his strength and shouted.
「A-A horde of antidemons! Approaching town! All adventurers are to intercept them!」
It seems the season of antidemons has finally arrived in this illegal city.
Filuria immediately asked the adventurer a question.
「How many?」
「At least 30,000!」
「……Are they sending their vanguard to scout us out?」
「Probably. That’s far too few to take down the city.」
30,000 certainly sounds like a lot, but that’s fewer than the number of antidemons in Castel. They would need more than that to take down a city this big.
Like Filuria said, it was most likely the horde’s advance party.
After discussing the situation with her bodyguard, the deceitful woman turned back to Fran.
「The adventurers are required to gather in the case of an antidemon raid. Shouldn’t you be on your way now?」
「……What about Seliadot?」
「Someone needs to defend the Sanatorium, you know? They already told me I don’t have to go.」
This is an important facility, so it makes sense not to send the guards out too.
「……Sophie, I’ll be back soon.」
「I’ll be here healing people. Don’t die.」
「Nn.」
Fran said her farewells to Sophie and ran out of the tower. We have to head to the guild first.
But I’m starting to get more and more suspicious of Prear, the guildmaster.
That old guy said there were no other Rank A adventurers in this town. And yet, Seliadot was right there.
He could make the excuse that Seliadot wasn’t counted among the adventurers’ numbers since she was hired to guard the Sanatorium, but there’s no reason not to tell Fran. And “Oops, I forgot” isn’t going to cut it when we’re talking about Rank A adventurers.
It’s very likely that he hid that information on purpose, so that he could manipulate Fran into doing what he wanted.
If he really forgot, then we can’t trust in his abilities. If he’s trying to manipulate Fran, we can’t trust him period. Either way, we have to be more careful around him.
『To think those simple-minded outlaws are more trustworthy than the medical director or guildmaster…… That’s an illegal city for you, nothing is ever straightforward.』