Night fell, and Naru's party gathered at the inn. They had yet to grasp the whereabouts of the royal sword, but they might get an idea by pooling together the knowledge they'd gained that day. Hinata, the client, looked really restless and impatient, but Naru and the others acted like truly experienced adventurers. Not a single one of them looked worried. In fact, they looked relaxed.
"Let's start with what I have first," Neo said, starting off with the results of her investigations. "Of course, there are no witnesses among those in town. As expected, they weren't fool enough to allow civilians to see them. However, I did check on those entering and exiting Ydalir today and yesterday, and as far as I could see, baggage checks didn't turn up anything that seemed to be what we're looking for. The merchants's carriages had nothing as well. I'm pretty sure we can assume it's still in Ydalir." She hadn't uncovered the exact location of the sword, but she had figured out that it hadn't left Ydalir, so it wasn't a totally wasted effort.
"I'm next…" said Erza. "As far as I could tell, they started in the neighboring room and climbed along the wall to get in through the window, which means the thieves were staying in one of those rooms. I asked the hostess about those rooms, and there's no doubt they were around when we were yesterday."
It seemed that Erza had pretty much managed to figure out who the thieves were. Of course, Hinata still had no idea who they were, even if it had been revealed that they had stayed next to her, but it seemed that Neo did.
"Ahh…" said Neo, seeming to have remembered something. "You mean the fat guy with tattoos on his face that really stood out who was staring at Hinata like he was licking her all over."
"The fat guy…" Naru realized something at Neo's words. "You mean the overweight man with two dark red stripes tattoos on each side of his face, Neo?"
"Yeah, something like that. Did that ring a bell, Naru?"
Apparently Naru had gotten something as well. "Yeah. There seems to be a thief who will lay their hands on anything as long as it looks like it's worth money, so he's being ostracized by those who live in the shadows. That man matches their description. I believe his name was… Jiga? I did ask about the location of his hideout, so I guess that's not going to go to waste."
Naru had gotten an important piece of information. With that, they were now a lot closer to catching the thief all at once. However, even if they knew who the thief was, the quest wouldn't be solved if they couldn't retrieve the sword itself. All hopes were now pinned on Jenny.
"It was a miss on my end. The sword hasn't been sold yet, which means that the Jiga guy's still got it in hiding."
It wasn't useless. That confirmed Jiga was still in possession of the sword, and now they'd gotten another step forward. Without Neo's contribution, there had been a possibility that they wouldn't have noticed that Jiga had the sword hidden somewhere, but now that they knew he had it, they wouldn't fall for it if Jiga tried to play dumb.
Now that they had almost all the information they needed, Lisanna was the last one left. Hinata couldn't help but wonder what kind of information the cat girl would bring. With everyone's gazes on her, Lisanna spoke dramatically. "Guys… Meow heard of the purrfect spot in the river to cat-ch some delicious fish. Let's all go fishing for a furry big pawty rawter."
They all angrily smacked Lisanna together.
What the hell has this dumb cat been doing while we've all been working and finding thieves and treasures?! they all thought.
"Okay. Let's all hurry up and get to Jiga's hideout. If he's there, we'll just capture him on the spot. If he's not, we can set a trap and wait for him to return." Erza laid out their next steps, ignoring Lisanna, who was doubled over.
Of course, no one objected. Naru and the others immediately left, leaving the poor cat girl alone. "H-hey, wait for meoooww!" Lisanna got up and hurriedly chased after her friends.
The party reached the slums and entered the safehouse that Naru had gotten information on. There was no one inside; it didn't seem like Jiga was home. Neo stamped firmly on the ground, seemingly checking something. Eventually, she stopped at the edge of the room and peeled up a floorboard.
"Bingo. Look, it's full of stolen goods."
Neo had found where Jiga was hiding his loot. The little hole had a bunch of treasure and equipment she had no doubt stolen, and each piece was worth a pretty penny. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the sword.
"He'll definitely be back in order to hide the sword."
"Then let's set a trap."
After that, Naru and the others's actions were swift. Everyone worked briskly, setting traps in the house. Of course, they didn't forget to disguise them, so it didn't look like the house was trapped, and they also made sure to erase any traces of entering the house itself. If they left even a single trace behind, it might give away the fact that someone had infiltrated the place and possibly set traps.
Naru's party was most famous for their battle prowess, and many tales about them were of their great feats in combat. From that, it was easy to think that they were muscle-brains who tended to ignore small tricks and strategies, and anyone who thought that would be half correct. However, that didn't mean that they couldn't employ such tricks themselves. For jobs like this where they needed to find thieves and other such people, tricks and traps such as these always came in handy. No matter how much power they had, the only use their power would pose in situations like this would be in the rare case that they had to directly confront the perpetrator.
Seeing their brisk work, Hinata realized how much she'd underestimated adventurers. She knew that if she'd been alone, then she'd have been running like a headless chicken in confusion. She would never have been able to even get to this point.
"Great. This is it," said Neo, declaring the trap complete. "When someone steps on the floor, it will fall out from under them. Once they fall to the bottom, their leg will be caught by a rope. Now all we have to do is wait a ways outside here for our prey to come."
Everyone retreated from the house. Now all they had to do was wait for the thief to come back. Still, it was silly to have everyone lying in wait nearby, so in actuality, they would only have two people here on rotation while the others rested.
There was no guarantee that Jiga would return today, and it was even possible that he would leave Ydalir without returning here at all. Of course, it was more likely that he wouldn't leave, but all possible courses of action should be considered.
"I'll stay on watch here. I can see better at night."
Naru volunteered to stand watch, and Erza and the rest of the party didn't object. They trusted that Naru wouldn't make a mistake and let the thief escape if he were to come back. Now they just needed one more person, and things would be perfect. Just then, an unexpected voice piped up.
"Umm, I-I'll stay too. I want to see the perpetrator's face with my own eyes."
Surprisingly, Hinata, the client herself, volunteered. To be completely blunt, Hinata would not change anything by being around. In fact, she might get in the way. To Naru and the others, the best choice was to have the client wait at the inn so they wouldn't be able to make any mistakes. However, she had a stake in this case. They understood her desire to look the filthy thief in the eye as well.
Naru considered Hinata's offer. "Well, that sounds fine. Hinata—the client—and I will be enough here. I'm counting on you to continue your investigation."
"Understood. Don't push yourself, Naru."
If the thief came back, great. If he didn't, they just had to rely on Neo and the others's investigation abilities. After seeing off Neo and the others as they left for the slums, Naru moved to a hiding spot. Then, two hours passed as they watched their trap. The sun had set, and it was dark as the entirety of Ydalir sunk into slumber.
Naru maintained an appropriate level of awareness of the hideout, but it didn't seem like the thief was coming back any time soon. Hinata seemed a bit too vigilant and high-strung, but every once in a while, her gaze wandered from the hideout to Naru.
Finally, she asked, "Is there something you want to say, Princess?" Naru glared at her a little as she called her by a moniker with a bit of sarcasm.
Hinata faltered slightly as her voice caught in her throat.
One of them was a princess with pure-white wings, and the other a cursed child with pitch-black wings. They both knew of each other, but normally, they would never have been able to meet. They were quite literally the light and shadow of the flugels race. Hinata, who was celebrated, lived under the sun, and Naru, who was even rejected by her own father, and was forced to live in the shadows. Being able to meet and converse like this was probably a sort of miracle.
"Ah, no, uh… um… It's just… I thought you were amazing…"
"Amazing?"
"Yeah. I'm lauded as the princess of the flugels, but as you can see, I'm just an incompetent girl who knows nothing of the world and allowed the royalty's bejeweled sword to be stolen. I'm sure if I were thrown out into the world, I wouldn't be able to survive."
Flowers raised and brought to bloom in a greenhouse and under careful watch were beautiful. They were treated preciously. They were loved, protected, and cared for, all so they could bloom beautifully. However, it was a fragile beauty that could only be maintained under certain circumstances.
Could such a fragile beauty really be considered beautiful? Hinata didn't think so. In her opinion, flowers that bloomed strongly and fiercely in the wild were what was truly beautiful.
That was why she compared herself and Naru that way as well. She was the fragile flower who was raised in a controlled environment, while Naru was the strong flower who could adapt to her surroundings. That was why she seemed so bright to her.
"You managed to get to where you are by yourself. I'm just walking down a path that's been set for me, and because it's been set, I can trip up this badly. When I think about it, I can't believe how laughable I am." Hinata gave a small sigh as she looked towards the direction of her homeland.
"Someday, I will become queen. But to be honest, that doesn't have to be me. I just happened to be born as royalty. I'm sure pretty much anyone could do the job. If the title of princess was stripped from me, I'm sure there'd be nothing left. When I think about that, you just seem really amazing to me."
After a moment of consideration Naru spoke. "What a privileged thing to worry about. You're blessed just by having a path set for you. I didn't even have that. I was forced to walk through a wasteland where I wasn't even sure what would happen tomorrow. You say I got to where I was by myself, but that was just because I had no other choice."
Hinata hesitated, then apologized. "S-sorry, that was insensitive."
"It was. If you have time to be jealous of me, use it to change that path of yours to your liking."
Hinata was slightly surprised at what Naru had said to her, and she closed her eyes in thought. Change my path as I like… You know what? I've never even thought of that. A set path and a destination that's already been decided for me… I thought it was my role to simply walk down it, and I felt so empty doing so. But, yeah. Even if the destination is becoming queen, I can at least change the path there. What kind of queen will I be? What kind of country will I make? I can at least decide that myself.
"Decide myself… huh? You're right. I couldn't even think of doing such a simple thing."
Hinata achingly felt just how soft and pampered she'd been up until now.
She'd simply complained in her heart, but never once had she actually tried to make things better. Just how pampered do I look to this black-winged girl next to me?
"Our little chat is over. He's here," Naru whispered.
Hinata opened her eyes. She saw someone enter the hideout under the cover of darkness. Then, after a few seconds, she heard the sound of someone falling through the floor and a scream. As soon as that happened, Naru and Hinata barged into the hideout, encountering a big man with two dark red stripes tattoos on his face who couldn't be missed.
"Jiga the thief, I presume? You're under arrest."
"Y-yooouuu! Don't fuck with me. As if I'd just let myself—"
Before Jiga could finish what he was saying, Naru had closed in on him, assaulting him with her knee. Jiga was unable to react or even shout anything at the sudden action. All he could do was show the whites of his eyes as he fell to the floor. Then, the stolen sword fell from his person and onto the ground.
"Looks like this settles it."
Naru looked down at Jiga before lifting him up by the scruff of his neck as if he were a cat. Like that, the curtains closed on the stolen-sword incident that had almost shamed the entire royal family.
***
The next day, Naru's party went to the bar as usual, and there they found Hinata, their client from yesterday. The fact that she was still here after getting her sword back showed how unexpectedly brazen she was. Or maybe she was just a careless girl. After speaking with the bar's owner about something, she headed for the exit. That was when she noticed Naru's party.
"Ah, Naru. And the rest of your party too."
"You're the girl from yesterday… What're you doing here?"
Naru and the others often used this bar as their hangout spot, but it definitely was not a nice, clean place. It was frequented by hoodlum-like adventurers, and at the very least, it was not the sort of place royalty should step foot in. However, when confronted with Erza's question, Hinata gave a seriously unexpected response.
"Um… I was registering as an adventurer."
"Wha-?" Erza couldn't stop herself, but that response was only natural. "Sorry, are you serious?"
To the world at large, being an adventurer was just one step above being a useless thug. They were pretty much rock bottom. In fact, there probably were quite a number of people who thought adventurers were just thugs who were willing to dip their hands in anything. It was not a job for royalty by any measure.
However, Hinata had already decided on it. She seemed completely set.
"I'm serious. For this year away from my country… I plan to use this year to widen the breadth of my experience. After seeing you all in action yesterday, I realized how pampered and soft I was. Not to mention… I want to become like all of you."
"Ha! What a strange example of royalty we have here." After hearing that, Neo seemed rather astounded.
A princess becoming an adventurer was unheard of. After all, why would they, when they could live a comfortable life without stooping to such a low-paying job with life-threatening consequences? But Naru was the only one who wore a gentle smile, even as she seemed just as astounded as everyone else.
"Isn't it all right? She decided on it herself after all."
With just that, Naru cut in front of Hinata and entered the bar.
I'm not a fan of royalty, but this girl's a little different from the rest. She's worth at least a little respect, she thought.
After that, Hinata would come to flourish as an adventurer little by little, and she ended up taking requests along with Naru's party several times. Then, half a year later, she'd completely been influenced by her and ended up joining Naru's party. Whether meeting Naru was lucky or unlucky was something she could not know at that time. However, the one thing Hinata could say was that this year was the happiest she'd ever been.
Yes. At this time, her heart was still filled with hopes and dreams.