Beatrice, thinking that far, immediately turned around and crossed the hallway.
“Beatri…… No, Lady Ria!”
“Stay there for a moment! I’ll be right back!”
Astrid called out to her in a flustered voice, but Beatrice did not stop.
Winking one eye and giving a thumbs-up as if to tell her not to worry, she ran quickly toward the lobby.
Then, she immediately approached the inn’s entrance and nimbly tried to open the door.
It was to sneak out before the other attendants, especially Clyde, could see her.
However….
—Rattle, rattle!
“Eh, w-what. Why won’t this open?”
It was a failure because the inn’s front door was firmly locked.
While Beatrice narrowed her eyes at the unexpected situation, a deep male voice spoke from behind her.
“You cannot go outside at this hour.”
“…Ack! Wh-who are you?”
“Ah, forgive me. I am the owner of this inn, John Doe.”
“Ah, the innkeeper….”
“Yes. The reason you cannot go out is because that is the ‘Rule.’”
“A Rule?”
“Night is not a time for activity. Would it not be best for you, guest, to return to your room and rest?”
A ‘rule’ that she couldn’t go outside—what kind of nonsense was this?
At these absurd, vague words, Beatrice forgot her situation and asked reflexively.
“I mean, it’s not like I’m a lower-year student at the Academy…. Can’t you just let me out for a bit?”
“I cannot.”
“Really? Uh, if the rule must be kept, you could just say, ‘My hand slipped!’ and drop the key on the floor. I’ll sneak out without leaving a trace.”
“This is also for your sake, so I would appreciate your understanding.”
The innkeeper, drawing a firm line, continued as if to soothe Beatrice.
“To begin with, even if you went outside the inn now, you would see nothing but the sight of the village asleep.”
No, who does he think he’s talking to? Does he think I’m some person who wants to go out for a night on the town in the middle of the night?
‘Ah, I need to check the state of the dolls outside and the surrounding air currents to confirm if these are indeed mana traces!’
Since she hadn’t found any anomalies during the day, she had to go out now to find out.
‘Seeing how he’s stopping me like this, there’s definitely something going on….’
“Lady Ria!”
Astrid, who had followed her down late, checked on her while catching her breath.
“I was flustered because you suddenly ran off. Are you all right?”
“Uh….”
“You ask if she’s all right? Did something happen?”
Before Beatrice could even open her mouth, a familiar voice cut into the conversation.
‘Ugh.’
At the appearance of Clyde, whom she didn’t particularly want to face, Beatrice shut her mouth tight.
Astrid, placing a hand lightly on Beatrice’s shoulder as if to reassure her, answered his question instead.
“By any chance, did you receive a note as well, Sir Dalton? There was a small commotion in the room. Following the instructions in the note, we left the doll and came out, so the situation is settled, but it seems Lady Lia was quite startled.”
“Oh, my. So that was the situation. Do not worry, guest. We will guide you to a different room. If you are afraid that such a thing might happen again, you need not be overly concerned. Once a commotion occurs, things usually remain quiet for a while.”
What the innkeeper just said was also one of the pieces of evidence supporting her hypothesis.
Just as things quiet down for a while after a volcano erupts, mana possessed a similar nature.
‘This makes me want to go out and see even more….’
However, as long as this innkeeper and Clyde were here, that didn’t seem likely to be easy.
‘Phew, it can’t be helped then. I have no choice but to wait for a chance to sneak out.’
Beatrice hunched her shoulders slightly and spoke while feigning timidity.
“Is… Is that true?”
“Yes, of course.”
“…Sigh. Fine. If you say so, I’ll have to believe you. Then, when will the new room be ready?”
“I will have it prepared for you right away.”
“Thank you. Ah, if it’s okay, could I have one more blanket? Perhaps because I was startled, my arms feel a bit chilly.”
“Of course. Do not worry. While the room is being prepared, how about a cup of warm tea?”
Beatrice nodded and quietly stepped back to her seat.
Then, she waited for the relieved Astrid to go to sleep and for Clyde to finish his business and return.
Clyde, whom she thought would return quickly, spent quite a long time in the lobby.
He said he wanted to read in the lobby, but she didn’t believe him.
‘Since when has Clyde Dalton liked books that much?’
The Clyde Dalton she knew was not such a bibliophile that he would read a book even at an inn he stopped at during a mission.
Each time their eyes met, Beatrice offered an awkward smile while thinking.
‘But why did that Clyde come to the lobby?’
But her pondering was brief. Beatrice eventually shook her head.
‘Forget it. I’ll look into matters regarding him later, whatever.’
After all, she would be with Clyde Dalton until they reached the capital of the territory anyway.
With that thought, Beatrice sipped the tea the innkeeper had given her.
* * *
Returning to the newly prepared room, Beatrice moved as soon as the door closed.
‘The reason I asked for an extra blanket was to make a rope. Hehe.’
Beatrice was something of a veteran in this field.
When they were young, she and Clyde had escaped each other’s rooms like this, and when they were a bit older, she had escaped her Academy dormitory room several times with her friends.
Gently scraping the blanket’s seams with a hairpin, she skillfully tore the blanket.
Having made knots without difficulty, Beatrice secured the knots to the window frame and then skillfully climbed down the wall.
To be more precise, she intended to skillfully climb down.
“…I didn’t expect you to sneak out.”
“Waaaaah!”
If only Clyde’s voice hadn’t been heard from below.
Catching her steadily as she fell in surprise, Clyde offered a calm apology.
“Ah, forgive me. I didn’t intend to startle you.”
“If you suddenly speak to someone from below while they’re sneaking out, of course…!”
Beatrice, who was about to snap at him as usual, caught herself, glanced at him, and adjusted her voice.
“Ahem, no… it’s fine. By the way, how did you know…?”
“It’s something my wife often does, so I was just wondering.”
“…”
“It seems Young Lady also has quite a stubborn streak like my wife, contrary to appearances. Or, there is a reason you must go out even like this.”
…Crazy. What should I do about this?
Beatrice felt her mouth go dry.
Either way, wasn’t it a perfect situation to arouse suspicion?
Setting her down on the ground as she did nothing but laugh awkwardly, Clyde looked Beatrice directly in the eyes.
Raising both hands as if he weren’t trying to interrogate her, he spoke again with a smile in his eyes.
“Ah. To tell you in advance, I didn’t come to stop you. I am also planning to head out secretly.”
“You’re planning to go out? Th-then, by any chance……”
“If you are asking if we must go together, the answer is no. It seems you have things you want to investigate separately, and wouldn’t it be more efficient for us to act individually rather than together?”
Beatrice momentarily faltered at Clyde’s unexpectedly refreshing answer.
Perhaps because she had only seen him being overprotective lately, a Clyde in this state felt entirely foreign to her.
“Let’s share what we find after we get back. However, please be careful of your safety, and if anything happens, don’t forget to use the cloth I gave you. It’s okay to tear or cut it.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Then, I’ll be going first.”
Clyde gazed at her for a moment as if scrutinizing her face, but before long, he left first.
Beatrice watched his receding back with a subtle feeling before focusing on her escape once again.
* * *
Outside the inn. Having examined the village’s situation, Beatrice felt certain of her suspicions.
‘Just as I thought.’
All the dolls that had been standing in the village in the morning were now tattered.
Inside the bodies of the tattered dolls were the same small stones she had seen in her room yesterday.
‘Its purity isn’t high, but, yep, this is Orichalcum too.’
Orichalcum was a mana-friendly metal, one of the materials frequently used in alchemy.
In other words, these dolls were no different from a type of decoy device that took the hit for mana clashes instead of people.
It was right then.
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