Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Moderately tanned brown skin, black hair like ebony, and golden eyes shining brightly underneath it.

I shut my eyes tight and opened them. Even though I had come all the way here and wished it wasn’t him, it was Shuiesha no matter how I looked at it.

He remained the same except that a thick necklace that seemed to be made of iron instead of the ribbon I tied, was hung  to his neck.

What’s that necklace? I don’t think it’s an ordinary necklace…….

“Shui—, no, that kind of small kid will fight with those big guys?”

“Yeah! He completely beats them up, you know?!”

Being small is not for me to say, but anyway, Eryte replied excitedly to my question. His eyes beaming with mischief were facing Shuiesha.

“……. No, right?”

At the sudden thought that came to mind, I asked, squinting my eyes, Eryte flinched and looked at me for the first time since the game began.

“Wh, what?”

“You’re not thinking of fighting the kid on the street after the gladiatorial fight, are you?”

At that moment, Eryte shut his mouth and averted his gaze.

“Eryte.”

“N, no. I was just going to have some fun…..”

Burying myself deep in the sofa, I said.

“So, my cool brother tried to do something barbaric by mercilessly attacking a boy who’s tired from gladiatorial fighting several times, right?”

“Hey, what do you mean by barbaric! If this cool brother asks him to spar, he would probably be grateful?”

When I shook my head with a sigh, Eryte quickly pushed the cake in front of my mouth. I took it and turned my gaze back to the arena again.

Shuiesha was confronting a giant who was likely four heads taller than him, and as if they were wary of each other, they were circling the arena.

Gulp. I gulped down the juice because I felt like I was going to get indigestion. The moment I put my glass down, Eryte shouted.

The match ended in an instant.

The giant fell on the floor losing the sword and showed a sign of surrender.

“Kill him! Kill him!”

The audience’s voices tinged with madness filled the inside. I felt nauseous. When Shuiesha swung the sword lightly, the man’s neck rolled on the floor.

The moment I looked at Shuiesha with a strange feeling, he lifted his head and made eye contact.

I flinched and stepped back at the far away golden eyes, and then remembered Eryte’s words that the inside couldn’t be seen, so I looked over the window again.

Perhaps I was just mistaken, what my eyes saw was the figure of Shuiesha turning around.

In order to get rid of the strange feeling, I made up a question that I wasn’t even curious about.

“Eryte, what’s this button?”

When I asked while pointing to the button on the table that I had seen from the moment I entered, Eryte laughed out loud and said.

“Hahaha, this is the privilege of VVIP of course! The person who presses the button and offers the highest amount of money can meet the hero of the day!”

Hmm.

“Eryte, how much do you have?”

“What?”

“You brought some money, didn’t you?”

Eryte’s face paled at my smile.

* * *

In the end, the meeting with Shuiesha was dismissed. Even though we offered a huge amount, it looks like there was someone who offered a larger amount of money than that.

Contrary to me, who was disappointed, Eryte, who saved money, was smiling.

Huu, when I sighed as I was about to leave the room, Eryte looked back at me.

“Why? Did you want to see?”

He tilted his head and asked. Bright blonde hair gently flowed down over the white face *following that gesture.

[tn— as in after he tilted or as he tilted his head]

If he stayed put, he looked like an angel.

“Yes, that’s right but.”

“Then let’s go see!”

“How?”

“Hehe, I’ve got my ways.”

Eryte, who smiled wickedly, grabbed my hand and led me. As he went down the stairs opposite to the stairs we climbed earlier, he looked around and hurriedly beckoned.

It was only after repeating this behavior about four times were we able to arrive in a dark basement.

“Where is this?”

Eryte whispered lowly at my small voice.

“This is the prison where the gladiator slaves are locked up!”

“…… Gladiator slave?”

Esteria is a country where slave trading is illegal. What do you mean by gladiator slaves in a gladiatorial arena located in the middle of the capital of this kind of country?

Eryte continued to talk at my doubtful expression.

“Some time ago, there was a group of slave merchants who caught orphans who had no one or had debts, and they seem to be in collusion with the gladiatorial arena.”

At his rare serious expression, I swallowed my saliva.

“Then, that kid today as well?”

“I’m sure of it. Did you see that necklace? It’s a mana control device. They can probably never take it off on their own?”

Hmm. I remembered the iron necklace from the arena for a moment. So that’s what it was for.

But I thought Shuiesha said he had almost no mana, will the mana control device have any use?

[tn— so based on this sentence, the device is used to control one’s mana.]

And how did he get caught? If it was the skills I saw back then, it would have been easy to get out of their clutches.

“….How does Eryte know that?”

At my question, Eryte closed his mouth for a moment with a serious look, and then smiled with his teeth showing.

“There’s nothing this brother doesn’t know.”

It was suspicious beyond description, but I couldn’t ask anything, so I quietly followed  him down to a deeper place.

It was a narrow path all the way down, then finally an open space appeared. And,

“What the? You two?”

The man with a scar on his face, who was a gatekeeper at the side door, also appeared. At a glance, it seemed that Shuiesha and the slaves who had been captured were locked up somewhere in the cages behind him.

Eryte charged towards the man who was approaching with a threatening expression. In the blink of an eye, the heavy body of the man fell on the floor.

When I lightly opened my mouth at the ridiculous sight and looked at Eryte, he raised his chin proudly with his hand on his waist.

I quickly came to my senses and asked.

“Did you kill him?”

“No? Should I?”

“No. Don’t kill him.”

If it is revealed that he participated in slave trading he will be executed anyway. There is no need to dirty Eryte’s hands, so when I said that, Eryte nodded and groped around the man’s arms and took out the keys.

“Shall we go?”

We ran fast and looked for a place where Shuiesha could be. Even after passing through numerous cages and reaching the end of the hallway, he was not seen.

“It looks like he’s not here.”

Hearing my words, Eryte, who snorted once, pressed the unusually faded brick, and a stairway leading down appeared silently.

I couldn’t help but force a laugh at the behavior that looked so used to this.

“What in the world have you been doing all this time?”

“It’s a se—cret!”

As soon as I took the last step, the passage disappeared silently as if it had never existed.

“Oh, I found him!”

Eryte was heading towards a little deeper place before I knew it. What was placed there was an iron cage that was incomparably thick to other cages, and Shuiesha was imprisoned inside.

“Shuiesha!”

“Shuiesha?”

At my call, Eryte repeated his name lowly. Shuiesha slowly raised his head, showing his clear golden eyes.

“……What brings you here?”

“How could you disappear without even getting your compensation?”

Shuiesha indifferently replied.

“I don’t need any compensation. Since no matter how expensive it may be, it’s worthless for me.”

“Then I’ll give you something else.”

The moment Shuiesha tilted his head and was about to say something, Eryte turned his back against the cage and blocked the two of us.

“W, wait! You two know each other?!”

“Yes. Thanks to him, my life was saved.”

Rats are mediums for transmitting all kinds of diseases, so let’s just go with that.

“Your life? I didn’t hear about such a thing though?”

“That’s because Eryte went out and played every day.”

Eryte’s eyes widened. I stared at that appearance, then grabbed his cheeks, and met his gaze.

I thought about it throughout the trip, but it’s strange no matter how much I think about it, that he knows about the internal affairs well to this degree.

“Eryte, you didn’t just come here, did you?”

“Huh? Huh??!”

Eryte tried to avoid my eyes, but I eagerly met his gaze and asked in a tone full of certainty.

“Right?”

At that moment, Eryte shut his mouth and sighed.

“Why are you so quick-witted?”

Eryte, who was scratching his head as if awkwardly, eventually smiled brightly and conceded.

“That’s right. I obtained *intelligence that the newly formed slave merchants and the gladiator had colluded.”

[tn—*it means secret information.]

“Intelligence? Eryte did?”

“Yes. It was a situation where there was no evidence, but thanks to that guy coming out, it became certain. Well anyway, you can compliment this cool older brother!”

[tn—perhaps Eryte is assuming that Shuiesha is an orphan, that’s why when he came out he became certain]

“Eryte is the best. You even know how to do things like that.”

I purposely applauded and smiled at Eryte. Then he grabbed me and spun me around and randomly burst into laughter.

What are you doing in this situation?

“Who’s in there!”

The moment I tried to stop him, light leaked in from the other side.

“Here.”

Eryte put the keys in my hand and ran straight to the stairs where the one who had interrupted came in.

As soon as the cold keys touched my hand, I began to find the key that fits the lock of the cage.

There was no specific number written on the key, so while I was trying to guess one by one, there was constant screaming from Eryte’s side. However, I couldn’t afford to listen to it.

“Oh, this is it.”

The lock opened with a light click. The iron cage opened with a squeaking sound.

I carefully reached out my hand to Shuiesha. He blankly looked down at my outstretched hand.

“I told you I’d give you something else, right?

“I can’t leave.”

“Oh, the mana control device.”

When I stepped into the cage, Shuiesha shook his head and took a step back.

“I can’t go.”

“Why?”

At my question, Shuiesha slowly lowered his gaze down.

“There’s a hostage.”

[tn— as in something is being held hostage to let him stay.]

“Hostage?”

A hostage you say, so they’re jerks who are more brutal than I thought.

“—at.”

“Hm?”

“The cat got captured.”

For a moment, I looked up at Shuiesha with a puzzled expression.

I thought that he was kidding, so I lightly looked over at him but his expression was serious.