Chapter 12
“What are you doing here, Riko?”
On her guard, Amel stared sharply at the figure who was standing in front of the lift.
Standing there was a tall young man with white hair, wearing a white suit and white trousers.
“Well... this is surely an interesting turn of events.”
Amel said with a smile, regaining her composure. Her staff still pointed toward the man.
But then I realized something, the man wasn’t looking at her.
He’s looking at me.
“It’s interesting to see a fellow Earthling here.”
He said with a grin on his face.
“Earthling?”
“Is this related to the rumors I’ve heard recently? On how Amnesia Clansmen didn’t actually forget their memories, but instead came from another world?”
Amel caught up immediately. Nia looked at her confusedly, before looking back at me.
... Don’t give me those suspicious eyes, you’re not exactly normal either!
He then moved his gaze towards Emma.
“It’s nice to see you here, Miss Angel.”
With a smile, he took a step forward.
“Sleep!”
“Paralyze!”
“Brrrtttt!”
“Hey, stop it! Stop! Why are you shooting at me!?”
He said while running to the side, hiding behind a pillar.
“That’s what I wanted to ask, Riko!”
“Amel, you idiot! What do you mean you wanted to ask!? I invited you two days ago to scout the mansion, right!? Have you forgotten!?”
“Ah...”
Amel averted her gaze. A shy smile creeps onto her face.
“So... you’re not hostile?”
I asked, my gun still pointed at him. The man shook his head.
“Of course not. I saw you two infiltrate the mansion, so I followed you from behind.”
“Then what’s with that entrance?”
“That’s a joke. I don’t make jokes often, but this is what I get when I do make one.”
The man said as he looked to the ground and facepalmed.
Are all bounty hunters this stupid? Of course we’re going to shoot you! Stop making such weird entrances!
Just what is wrong with these clowns.
“Besides, I thought Amel would at least remember what I said two days ago, so I thought she was just playing around. I don’t know if she was serious.”
“Teehee...”
Amel awkwardly scratched her head.
“Anyway, so this is what you meant by something that caught your attention.”
The man said as he looked at the three of us.
“Ah, yeah...”
Amel was about to say something, but she closed her lips and looked at us.
“What?”
The two bounty hunters looked at us. They had an investigating gaze on their face. Amel’s gaze was for some reason, locked on Emma.
“What did I do?”
Emma asked uncomfortably.
“It’s just, I knew where Nia came from, and I knew William is an Amnesia Clansmen, but I can’t find anything about you, Emma.”
“I’m an Amnesia Clansman too, you know?”
“Impossible. No Amnesia Clansmen ever reached such low stats. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a normal person with stats like yours.”
“Pfft.”
Nia and I hold our laughs. We could see Emma’s face turning bright red.
“I haven’t properly introduced myself, have I? I’m Riko, a bounty hunter, Amel’s friend.”
We all introduced ourselves. The introduction was surprisingly quick. Everyone stated their names and that was it. I was expecting something more from this group of weirdos.
“With that out of the way, let’s head back.”
We followed Riko towards the lift.
“Riko, have you seen where Alexander is?”
Amel asked as she followed Riko from behind.
“No, I thought he’s hiding in his room, but you two entered it before, right?”
“Yep. After not finding him, I thought he’s down here, but he’s not here either.”
Riko stopped.
“Say... how do you find this room?”
“There’s a blueprint of the mansion on top of the table in the master bedroom.”
“I see, so it’s a trap.”
After calmly saying that, the lift doors closed tight.
Talk about great timing.
Some parts of the ceiling slid open, and water started pouring in.
“Umm... shouldn’t we be going?”
The two are just standing there, calmly. As if they could survive being underwater.
Maybe they could?
“Amel, still have the emp?”
“Yes.”
Pulling out the emp from before, she activated it. All of a sudden, the water stopped pouring, and all the lights went out.
“That thing had multiple uses?”
I asked in shock.
“Yes... why?”
“Then why didn’t you use it before?”
“I used it when we first entered, remember?”
“No, I don’t mean that. I mean when we were getting chased around.”
“I thought they’re going to restart the generators anyway, so I thought why bother.”
This girl.
Riko approached the left wall. He put a device on the wall. The device started making weird noises.
Some kind of magic circle then appeared on the wall, and the device started drilling into the wall, making a pathway for us. We soon find ourselves back in the sewers.
After exiting the basement, water started pouring back in.
“Follow me.”
We followed Riko around, navigating the dark sewers underneath the city. The water levels rose slightly, probably because of the water pouring in from the mansion.
“Here we are.”
We managed to return safely to the garden.
“Amel, bring those three to the airfield, hangar 2B. I’ll be there shortly.”
Riko said as he walked away toward the guild.
Amel looked back at us, and with a smile she said,
“Let’s go.”
We then made our way to the airfield.
The airfield looked like a large airport, but instead of being filled with planes, it’s filled with starships of various sizes. We made our way toward hangar 2B.
The hangar is located across the main building. The hangar is fairly large, it’s around 35 meters in width, 40 meters in length, and 10 meters in height
Inside, disproportionate to the size of the hangar, a single small craft is parked. It’s a small block-shaped vessel, with its wings folded up. It’s around the size of a school bus, around 16 meters long, with its nose a sharp triangle shape, and on its rear were two cylinder-shaped rocket boosters.
“What is this?”
“This is Riko’s private ship.”
“So you’ve arrived.”
Riko approached us from the other side of the hangar. Well, that was surprisingly quick.
“Where are we going?”
“Misana. I’ve told Raben our plans, so you don’t need to worry about the guild looking for you.”
Riko said as he pulled the door open.
“Why are we going there in the first place?”
I asked. I had my doubts on whether I should follow them or not.
“Both you and Amel have your identity hidden, so it isn’t a problem if you two stay here. But Emma and Nia were exposed, meaning they’ll be hunted down. You don’t want your harem to be captured again, don’t you?”
Please don’t call them that, I could already feel Emma’s sharp glare on my back.
We boarded the ship. I, Emma, and Amel took up the passenger seats.
“Hey, Nia, could you fly?”
Riko, who’s in the cockpit, called out.
“No.”
“Do you want to learn?”
“Yes.”
Nia took up the seat beside him and put on the headsets.
She paid attention as Riko pressed around the buttons on the panel.
Soon after, we could hear the engines roar to life. The ship taxied outside the hangar and unfolds its wings.
Hovering a few feet in midair, we slowly made our way to the runway. The ship works like a helicopter, so after reaching the take-off spots, Riko pushed the throttle and we gained altitude. Riko checked one of his instruments and pushed the throttle to max. I could feel my back pushing against the chair as we gained speed.
“How long is it to Misana?”
“A 40-minute long flight.”
Hearing that, I close my eyes to get some rest.
“So this is Misana, huh?”
We arrived at a desert town. It looked like the old towns you see in the Middle East. It was dawn when we arrived, so it was still dark.
After landing on some kind of landing pad, we followed Riko to an inn.
“Hey, Riko! How are you doin, mate?”
A man greeted us. He looked like he was in his forties. He’s wearing a flower motif shirt and short pants.
“Hey there, Matthew. I’m great, thanks. I assume the rooms I requested is ready?”
“Ah, I thought it was for someone else! I wasn’t expecting you’ll need a whole floor for yourself. No worries, though, they’re ready. Follow me.”
The man led us upstairs. On the top floor of the inn, there’s a wide-open hall, with six rooms on its side.
“Welcome to the penthouse. Just grab any room you want, this floor is all yours.”
“Thanks, Matthew. Anyway, I need to talk to you about something.”
“A private buddies talk eh? Let’s head back down then.”
“Feel free to rest. I’ll be back after a while.”
With that, Riko and Matthew headed towards the lift and headed back down.
Amel gave us each a card.
“You’ll need this to access this floor. On the card is the room number that you get. As he said, the room is all open, so feel free to trade rooms if you don’t like it.”
I accepted the card and headed to my room, room number 2.
The room is quite spacious, it has a bed, two small tables, a closet, an air conditioner, a bath, and a shower. Overall not bad.
The window gave me a great view of the surrounding desert.
I turned on the air conditioner, set the temperature to 23°, and laid myself on the bed. The mattress is soft and comfy. I closed my eyes and continued my sleep.
I woke up at around 3 pm in the afternoon. I proceeded to make my way outside.
The main hall was empty.
I wonder if they were out? I knocked on Emma’s door.
“Come in.”
Emma’s muffled voice came from the inside. Hearing that, I opened the door.
“I thought you were going out... oh hey Nia.”
Nia waved at me after seeing me enter.
“Amel had some things to do. She said we should just go out if we wanted to, but our party leader is asleep.”
“Aww, so you two want to venture out with me? You should just say so-”
“Not really, we were concerned with enemy attacks if we went out alone.”
Tsunderes. As we continued chatting, we could hear Amel and Riko returning to the main hall.
“Hey, you’re back.”
I greeted the two who had just come back.
Emma and Nia followed me out.
“Hey. Are you all well?”
“Yes, I got a nice sleep.”
The two sat on the sofa, while we sat across them.
“So, any updates?”
Riko laid some documents on the table.
“Nia, Emma, when you two got captured, did your kidnapper say anything?”
“No. I woke up when they were tying us, and when I asked the kidnappers about who they were and why they kidnapped us, they remained silent.”
Emma gave her answer, and Nia nodded with it.
Riko put her finger on his chin and looked at the papers.
“There’s something suspicious about the documents you discovered. The bounty for Nia is dead or alive, meaning that if Nia is dead, the bounty would be fulfilled. Alexander probably tried to kill all of you at the same time in order to tie in loose ends, but that’s where things get complicated.”
Riko paused for a moment.
“Only the mansion’s blueprint seems like bait. Every other document looks like they’re real. There are contracts, weapon shipments, illegal stuff, and many other documents related to the demon’s army. I don’t think Alexander planned to stay in the mansion during your capture, so it’s weird seeing all these documents being left there.”
Riko stopped, Amel then continued his words.
“There are several possibilities. There’s a chance Alexander is purposely guiding us toward another trap. There’s also a chance this isn’t Alexander’s work, rather it’s someone who’s trying to frame him. Or he may think we’re going to die in that basement, so he is simply throwing away those documents with us.”
Amel said with a serious face. She looked very different when she was serious.
“So, what should we do?”
“There’s a weapon shipment in the next few days. The shipment will be coming by air. Based on the documents, the ship would pass by Misana during its flight to Alpha. We’re planning on intercepting it since it’s currently our only lead.”
I looked at the two girls. Emma, as if reading my mind, said,
“Well, I don’t know what I could do, but if everyone’s in then I’m in.”
“I’m with you.”
Nia continued as she pulled out her staff.
“Isn’t that the staff I gave?”
“Yeah. Sorry, I forgot to return it.”
She handed the staff over. Amel accepted the staff and examined it, before shaking her head.
“This won’t do.”
She said as she stood up and faced the door.
“Let’s get you people some proper gear.”