Black Iron Magician

「Well then, Shishō, I’m off!」

「We’ll be back by night.」

「I want to eat something for the time being.」

「Science festival!」

After seeing the four girls off from the inn, I and Nell have a late breakfast. There are several different types of food to choose from, and we can order as many as we want. Haru must have ordered all of them, I’m sure of it.

「Well, it looks like you two woke up very slowly this morning.」

On the way, Alezel appeared as if she was aiming for this timing. She had a grin on her face, a vulgar smile that I don’t want to see when I eat.

「Morning, Alezel.」

「You are energetic today, huh.」

「Uwaah, you just answered normally without being embarrassed!?」

Well, we’ve done this kind of exchange many times before that even we would get used to it. So, we responded by ignoring her teasing without stopping our meal.

「Hm? You are dressed differently than usual today, huh.」

「Oh, you finally noticed~?」

Alezel usually wore something like a Quitet uniform, but today she’s wearing casual clothes that make her look like a young girl (only in appearance). If she keeps her mouth shut, she might be mistaken for a daughter of a well family. Well, there’s no way she will stay silent, so there’s no need to worry about that.

「I actually wanted to wear my best clothes, but I couldn’t find them. Well, this one is easy to move, so there’s no problem. Look, you can see my sex appeal that you can’t see when I’m wearing my uniform!」

「… Yeah, sure.」

「Hey, Deris. Did you just compare my breasts with your wife’s breasts? Hmm?」

Don’t threaten me like that. I think yours are somewhat bigger than Haru and Maria’s. I won’t say it, though.

「Good grief, don’t argue about trivial things in the morning.」

「I hate this absolute winner’s composure. I wish I had at least as much as Lily-han’s…. Hm? Come to think of it, where’s Lily-han?」

「She went somewhere in the middle of the night. She’s a succubus, so she’s probably interested in the nightlife districts.」

「Hee~, is that so?」

It’s a lie. Lilyvia is still on her bed, dreaming. She’s probably tired from playing the role of the Great Eight Demons yesterday. She probably won’t wake up until noon.

「Well, whatever. After you eat that, we’ll go for the thing I mentioned before. Is that okay?」

「That was our plan, so there’s no problem.」

「Can I bring my sword? Without this, I can’t calm down….」

Nell puts her hand on the handle of the sword on her waist and makes a clicking sound.

「Hmm, it’s okay, I guess? I’m more or less the biggest earner in this city, so it’s probably okay under the pretext of an escort. Still, it’s just a preliminary inspection, so don’t really use it, kay?」

「I know that much. I’m old enough to know that, you know?」

「「………」」

「…… You two, if you got something to say, say it.」

「「No, nothing.」」

A long time ago, I felt like there was a girl who cut the arm of a corrupted noble with her sword and burned the mansion when he put his hand on the girl’s shoulder. Who was it again? I remember that she had blond hair, but I can’t remember the details because the tremendous pressure is preventing me from remembering it. How strange.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

「――So, is this the place?」

After leaving the inn, we walked for a while, accompanying Alezel with her snacks shopping. Then, we arrived at a casino-like building. Even though it’s still before noon, the place is very noisy and the smell of alcohol is everywhere. At first glance, the quality of customers seemed to be sparse, ranging from the wealthy to the poor. It seems to be a very open playground.

「That’s right. Our target this time is Sango Golba, a relatively old merchant in this city. In the past, he made a lot of money from gambling and was one of the biggest merchants in Damaya. But lately, he’s been on the decline. So, he probably wants to rise again with this. According to my investigation, it seems that he’s been working together with suspicious people and starting an outrageous gambling game that would be illegal in Damaya.」

「Hee, you mean like high-rate gambling that cost your life?」

「Yeah, something like that. I don’t think we can see that much in today’s inspection, but we can harass him and make him lose his composure. It’s better if we can get him to show his tail.」

「…… To be honest, you are also doing something like that behind the scenes, right?」

「Hmph! I dunno what you’re talking about!」

This damn elf, I’m sure she’s doing something…!

「Alezel, what’s the truth?」

「I don’t really care if it’s behind the scenes, y’know? But, it’ll be a problem if it comes to the public! If you want to do it, do it thoroughly and don’t leave any evidence! Damaya’s reputation is at stake, y’know!?」

「You heard her?」

「That’s very like you, Alezel. Let’s give a perfect score.」

Now, let’s stop fooling around and get into the casino. Even we also want to have some time to enjoy Damaya. We have no intention of working overtime.

As usual, Alezel, the representative of the group, leads the way and we follow her. As mentioned earlier, it’s an open casino, so no one pointed out anything about our attire. …… I think they are too lax that they didn’t notice Alezel, probably because she looks different.

In the casino, there is a space for card games and there are even slot machines. Well, there’s nothing wrong with the interior of this space. However, there are fewer wealthy-looking people than I saw earlier.

「Is there another room here, like for those with a membership?」

「No, on the surface, there’s none. You noticed that the number of people that went in didn’t match, right? It’s suspicious, right?」

「Hmm. Judging from the flow of the presence, the blind spot in the toilet is suspicious. There are some people going down from there.」

「Well, if it’s like this, it’s only a matter of time before it’s discovered by the public, huh. It seems that it’s going to be easy to settle it.」

We’ve already identified the suspicious place. Shouldn’t this be the end of our preliminary inspection? If we go any further, I feel like we will settle various things.

「Now, now, don’t be so impatient. We haven’t greeted Sango-han yet. Let’s see―― Hey, you there.」

「Yes?」

Alezel carefreely called out to an employee of the casino. The employee turned around with a smile, but the next moment, that smile froze. Yeah, I can understand that feeling.

「E-Excuse me, but are you perhaps――!?」

「There’s no need for me to introduce myself, right? After all, there’s no way you wouldn’t know about me. Is Sango-han here? I want to talk to him for a minute.」

「P-Please wait a minute!」

The employee, who was so shaken that it was pitiful to watch, ran to the back of the store at full speed.

「You’re so mean, huh.」

「Haha, right back at you.」