Side Story 9. The Magic School and the Monster in the Basement (8)

"It's obvious! Alice and Yuria! You two are trying to join Dane Walker-nim for a drink by yourselves!”

The bowl cut was flustered by what his friends said. "What?"

His friends looked at him curiously. "What? No? Do you have other business than this?"

He shouted as if it was natural, "Of course! I told you!"”

The red-faced bowl cut pointed at me and shouted.

"Den von Mark! Let's bet on our pride as men and have a match!”

"I lose."

I raised both hands at the cry of the bowl cut, surrendered, and started walking again.

"Wa-Wait!"

"What is it?"

Why does he keep bothering me?

I was letting it slide because he had talent in magic and looked pitiful, but if he kept being annoying like this, know that Lupin would come to his house.

"You don't even have pride? I want to compete with a man's pride on the line, but you say you lose right away?” the bowl cut protested.

I lightly answered while picking my ears, "What's a man's pride? Is it something you eat? Whoo~”

When I asked, while blowing the earwax off, the bowl cut looked at me as if it was ridiculous.

I didn't know the environment in which that kid grew up, but my hometown was a place where it was difficult to survive if you had pride. In a place where they say throwing sand at peoples’ eyes, hitting the back of the head, and hitting genitals to win was a good thing, pride would only be cumbersome if you live in such a crazy neighborhood.

"And unfortunately, I don't have time."

I had to go back and treat Arietta, and settle the other knights in the dragon tooth soldier bodies. There was no time to waste on a kid who I could send flying with a single finger flick.

"Don- Don't be like that. Just have a match with me."

At my firm rejection, the bowl cut looked at me with eyes like he was about to cry.

No, if you are the eldest son of the marquis, then be ruder and make me want to beat you up more. He looked so pitiful, I didn’t want to mess with him.

"Sounds fun. Why don't you try?"

Suddenly, Milpia’s voice was heard from behind.

"Didn't you go first because you had something to take care of?”

- What’s your intention?

I asked using sound transmission magic at the same time. Milpia shrugged lightly in response.

"Oh, I had just left something behind."

- I’m just going to shake him off for sure.

She too answered using sound transmission magic at the same time. I looked closely at Milpia, who kept bothering me, and she, feeling the gaze, smiled slyly.

- You already have a wish ticket that you can ask me for anything with. Just do this as a service. Besides, it's a pretty tempting offer for you. It's a tempting offer?

I crossed my arms, intending to hear her out first.

Milpia nodded slightly to my reaction and asked the bowl cut, "If you don't mind, can I decide the content of the ‘bet’?"

The bowl cut nodded happily nodded, mouth agape. "Of course! Also, please speak comfortably."

Looking at the bowl cut, I felt sympathy. Poor thing, you should like someone who's more normal.

Also, Milpia secretly changed the match to a bet.

"Thank you. Betting something would make it more fun, right?"

She looked at me while casually ignoring the request to speak comfortably.

As her gaze shifted to me, the stupid bowl cut stared at me with his eyes on fire. "Then if I win, get away from Miss Milpia!"

I can do that even right now! If it's contacting my aunt, I could just leave it to someone else. She was sufficiently replaceable with Tristan or another information agency staff.

"You don't have to."

"Of course! You should also say what you want if you win, right?"

Milpia quickly cut off my words as if she had noticed what I was going to say. Then she clicked her tongue and glared at me. There was no sound transmission, but I could easily read her thoughts.

‘You decided to pay the price already. Why don’t you just obediently cooperate?’

"Then if I win, I'll ask for the opposite."

I smiled lightly and looked at Milpia to see if that was enough. She lightly snorted as if satisfied.

Poor bowl cut.

It was clear that Milpia didn’t really think that the bowl cut would back off based on the results of the bet. This bet was just a justification to stay away from him during school life.

"Oh, really? It's like two men fighting over me."

I was furious at Milpia's words and almost hit the back of her head but managed to hold it in. On the other hand, the bowl cut looked at her seriously.

But how much pressure did he put on to make her pay me to get him off her?

Milpia could probably guess that I wouldn't ask for a normal price. She smiled lightly saying that it was a joke and brought up the subject.

"How about doing a test of courage for this bet?"

"A test of courage?" the bowl cut asked.

Milpia nodded. "Yes, there's a famous legend in our school. The laboratory monster. And just in time, it’s the full moon in two days."

If it's a laboratory monster, is it what Dane Walker said about his school days?

The bowl cut’s fighting spirit burned and I yawned.

The explanation of the bet was that a coin would be hidden in the middle of the night, so if you found the coin first by a set time, you win. Or if you were caught by security first, then you lose. It was a simple rule.

This was bluntly letting me win. If she gave me the coin without hiding it from the beginning, then the bowl cut would just wander looking for a non-existent coin. In addition, I couldn't lose because there’s no way I would get caught by mere security.

"Good! I'll make sure to win!"

Poor bowl cut. I sympathized while clicking my tongue inwardly.

-o-

Time went by quite quickly and it became the day when the full moon would rise. I met Milpia at the workshop house before going to the meeting place with the bowl cut.

"So, what's the thing that’ll tempt me?" I asked.

Milpia answered, unfolding a map of the Magic School, "You’ve heard about the basement laboratory at the Magic School?"”

Since it was the content of the bet, of course I had heard it. When I nodded, she smiled.

"What if that ghost story is true? Aren't you tempted?”

"Not at all," I said.

She frowned. "That's very uncooperative. Then does this interest you?”

She took out a paper with some magic pattern on it from her pocket and handed it over to me. I took it disinterestedly and looked at the paper.

"Huh? This is?"

It was disconnected here and there and out of order, but it seemed to be quite a high level of magic.

"Is it part of a sealing magic?" I murmured.

Milpia stuck her tongue out in response. "Can you know from seeing it?"

"Why, is it not?” I asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know. It's weird to find out whether it's a sealing magic or not with just that in the first place."

Is that so? Well, the patterns used were very old magic patterns. At least 400 years ago? Perhaps it was magic in the era of the Holy Kingdom.

Certainly, as Milpia said, my interest was moved. "How did you get this?"

Milpia sighed deeply. "One of the information agents investigating the Magic School went missing. Fortunately, he returned later but had lost his memory at the time of disappearance."

It was the same symptom as Dane Walker's friend. I guess he didn't lie to hide his cheating from his fiancé.

"In addition, the video recording magic tool he had were half-broken.”

The video recording tools sold at the magic tower did not have good performance. It was also an object that could be easily broken by strong mana waves or shocks. Then these magic patterns were drawn following something that could only be seen in the video recording.

"Hmm, even if he lost his memory, tracking the traces should have gotten you to the secret space. The reason why you're showing me this is because it all failed, right?”

Milpia smiled bitterly at my point. "That's correct. On the day of the full moon's rise, I checked the irregular teleportation magic circle in the laboratory at midnight, but I failed to check what was in it."

"So what’s the reason you’re messing with something you don't even know?" I asked.

She shouldn’t have such an adventurous spirit or the time to explore an unidentified place uselessly.

Milpia smiled and replied, "Huhu, in fact, as a result of analyzing the information we collected from various angles, the secret space seems to have been the secret library of the first emperor of the empire. There's plenty of free space in your pocket space, right?”

In a word, she meant to rob the secret library.

"Then, it’s fine to consider this as a request from you, right?”

"There's no way you'll do it as a bonus, so let's call it a request. This is how much I expect the commission fee to be."

The amount on the abacus was considerable. Indeed, it was expensive because the information agency that supposedly even knew whether the emperor had hemorrhoids or not, had failed. But it wasn't enough to move me. It was easier and better to rob Count Druval's mansion than a secret space where the risk was unknown.

"On top of this, if there are treasures there, I’ll keep it. I’ll just turn over all the books,” I further requested.

If there was a magic book, it would be enough to just copy it.

Milpia readily nodded. "Okay. I'll give you that much. Since we're an information agency."

Is there nothing more money-making than information?

Since our opinions agreed, shall we head to the appointment place now?

"Here you go."

As I was getting up from my seat, Milpia threw me a coin.

"As expected. You're savage.”

As I expected, it was the coin that Milpia was supposed to hide.

Poor bowl cut.

-o-

"Hmph! So you didn't run away!"

The bowl cut shouted arrogantly without knowing that I already had the coin.

Behind the bowl cut, his friends also participated as observers, but they seemed to have come to play without interest in our match.

"Wow! It's my first time coming to school at night, Den!"

"I know, right?"

It was the same for Yuria and Alice, who forcibly followed me as my observers.

"It's okay to not have followed me," I said.

Alice crossed her arms and said, "It has to be fair for both of you!"

"It looks fun, too!”

I was forced to shrug at the two’s arguments.

"Okay, shall we get started?”

"Yes! Please start anytime!" the bowl cut shouted enthusiastically.

"Then the time limit is until 2 a.m. You just have to find and bring back a coin like this. All right. Get ready~ Start!"

At the same time as Milpia's signal, the bowl cut and friends rushed to the laboratory first.

"Let's hurry up and go!"

"My heart is racing!"

I was also taken to the laboratory by Milpia and Alice.

There was a lot of time until midnight when the magic circle would appear anyway, so let's just hang out with them until then.