Chapter 90: Basement

‘This is driving me insane….’

I frowned at the sight of Wolffang barking like a dog and Hori meowing like a cat.

My head started to throb.

Why did I always end up surrounded by people and swords with loose screws?

“Hey….”

I was about to open my mouth to stop them, as we couldn’t continue this ridiculous farce on the street, but I hesitated.

Who should I stop first?

If I stopped Wolffang first, Hori would probably keep meowing like a cat, begging for support. And even if I made Hori shut up, I didn’t think Wolffang would stop barking.

After a moment’s consideration, I clenched my fist and smacked both of their heads in turn.

“Yelp!!”

“Ouch…!!”

“Should’ve done this from the start.”

If stopping one of them wouldn’t end the madness, might as well hit them both.

“Master…!! It hurts…!!”

“Ian…!! That hurts…!!”

I thought they wouldn’t match well since one was barking like a dog and the other was meowing like a cat, but surprisingly, they were in perfect sync.

“Don’t just jump out and start barking! Who said you could draw without your master’s permission?!”

I scolded Wolffang more harshly for drawing without permission.

“Whimper….”

She returned to her scabbard with a pained whine and a cowed expression.

“That’s better….”

As I stroked Wolffang’s hilt after she returned to the scabbard, she quivered contentedly, seemingly in a better mood.

Turning my eyes from Wolffang’s hilt, I spoke to Hori, who was still rubbing her head.

“I’ll think about the sponsorship, but let’s talk about it later. I need to move first.”

“Move? If it’s that, I can help!! I’m great at packing because I used to flee in the night a lot to escape debt collectors!”

“…I see.”

Talking about her unfortunate past of being chased by debt collectors as if it were a fond memory, what kind of life had this girl lived?

“Then I’ll go get a cart!!”

“…Take your time.”

As Hori rushed off at wind-like speed, I entered the dormitory, packed my things quickly, and left the room.

When I first came to the academy, I didn’t have much to pack, but after buying this and that while here, my belongings had increased quite a bit.

‘I still haven’t thrown this away….’

In my hand was the staff I had taken from Pierre’s statue when I went to Ponpon Village some time ago.

I had meant to pass it off to someone, but things kept coming up and I kept putting it off until today.

‘I guess I’ll decorate the mansion with it since it’s related to brother Ponpon….’

After packing Pierre’s statue as well, I came out of the dormitory to find Hori arriving at the entrance with a cart.

“You came back really fast.”

“Hehe!! If I wasn’t this fast, I couldn’t escape from debt collectors!”

I loaded my luggage onto the cart Hori had prepared. I tried to pull it myself, but Hori insisted she was fine and pulled it herself.

Her claim about frequently fleeing debt collectors in the night didn’t seem to be a lie, as Hori showed no signs of struggling despite the considerable amount of luggage on the cart.

We were on our way to the stables to get Silence before heading to the villa.

“Look at that man… Making a woman pull the cart by herself….”

“And he calls himself a gentleman….”

“Poor girl, she doesn’t even look like she’s from the Knight Department….”

Some passing female students whispered, apparently displeased by the sight of me walking comfortably while the frail-looking Hori pulled the cart.

I could have ignored it, but being the type who needs to set things straight, I stopped and shouted at them.

“She’s not just any girl, she’s a commoner!!”

“…A commoner?”

“Well, if she’s a commoner, I guess it’s okay to make her do that.”

Hearing the word ‘commoner’, the gathered female students seemed to accept that it was okay to make her do such work and left.

In a society ruled by a strict class system, it was considered rude to make a noble lady do hard work, but perfectly normal to make a commoner do it.

“Ian… Do you have any plans for another public execution show?”

“That wasn’t a show, it was a solemn judgment carried out in the name of the law.”

Of course, the commoner listening couldn’t have felt good about it, and Hori glared at the backs of the departing female students.

The way she turned her back to glare without being noticed gave me a pretty good idea of how Hori usually lived her life.

“If I become your sponsor, you won’t have to worry about nobles like this anymore.”

Having a sponsor doesn’t just solve financial problems.

Becoming a sponsor means not just providing funds, but also becoming a powerful backer.

“If you become my sponsor, I could probably advance to S class in the next exam….”

“I suppose so.”

It’s not that commoner students like Hori can’t advance to higher classes, it’s that they don’t.

Although her direction was a bit off, it would be a waste to let Hori’s talent rot like this.

“You… won’t cross the line, right?”

“Huh? Line?”

“I mean, you won’t make any drugs with serious risks, like losing the use of an arm after taking it, because of that useless philosophy of yours?”

“Oh, that’s what you meant! Don’t worry!! As I said before, I have a policy of not making drugs I can’t take myself!!”

“You don’t seem like the type to care much about your own body…. Anyway, I get it. I can’t do much, but I’ll help enough so it doesn’t interfere with your research.”

“Woohoo!!!”

Finally achieving the goal she had when entering the academy, Hori jumped high with joy.

After that, we got Silence from the stable and arrived at Ponpon’s mother’s villa without incident.

The villa was quite an old mansion compared to its surroundings, with visible signs of repair here and there.

Considering the extravagant tastes of that mother and daughter, this mansion was likely not built by them but had been here before.

“Let’s look around before unpacking….”

After sending Silence to the stable and bringing the luggage cart into the mansion, we slowly looked around.

The overall atmosphere of the garden and mansion was modest, which wasn’t bad, but personally, I would have preferred a bit more splendor.

‘First, let’s put twelve golden shachihoko[1] on the ceiling… and a statue of a Baldo practitioner in the garden….’

As I was thinking about decorations while looking at the garden, Hori, who was walking beside me, tugged on my sleeve with sparkling eyes.

“I-Ian!! L-look over there!!”

“Hm?”

Curious, I looked where Hori was pointing and saw an old building that looked like a warehouse at first glance.

No, although we hadn’t gone inside yet, that building probably wasn’t a warehouse.

After all, there would be no reason for a warehouse to have such a large chimney.

“That must be…!!”

Hori said that and suddenly ran towards the mysterious building.

Wondering what it was, I followed her and found the old building filled with exactly what Hori would want most right now.

Numerous flasks and what looked like distillation devices, this building reeking of unidentifiable herbs was a workshop for manufacturing drugs.

“It’s fate!! This is fate!! To get a workshop right after getting a sponsor!!”

“Why is this here? Was someone in that family an Alchemy student? What were they making here?”

“Hmm… just a moment….”

Hori looked around, found something that looked like leftover manufacturing residue, nodded, and said:

“It’s an aphrodisiac.”

“An aphrodisiac?”

“Yes, judging by the ingredients and equipment used, they were probably making aphrodisiacs. I’ve seen my father make them before when he got a request, and the ingredients are the same.”

Those bitches… I guess they were too embarrassed to buy aphrodisiacs despite being nobles, so they made them here to use.

“But the facilities look old, it might be a bit risky to use this place. I’ll have it repaired later, so wait until then.”

“Okay!!”

After looking around the rest of the villa, we returned to the mansion and searched inside to see if there was anything else useful.

The interior of the mansion didn’t have many notable features other than the scarcity of furniture and white cloths covering everything, probably because it wasn’t frequently used.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly useful….”

“Even if there is something, it wouldn’t be in an easily accessible place.”

We decided to start by removing the cloth covering the bookshelf, figuring that even if something was hidden, it wouldn’t be in obvious places like beds or sofas.

When we removed the cloth, the bookshelf was filled with specialized books on philosophy and alchemy.

“Suspicious….”

“Huh? What is?”

This might be normal in an ordinary noble’s house, but those empty-headed bitches with wombs for brains wouldn’t have a hobby like reading.

It could be just for show, but to me, it looked like a smokescreen to hide something.

“In movies, you pull out a book here and a secret passage opens or something….”

“Movies? What’s that?”

“Huh? It’s like a play… Eh?!”

As I jokingly pulled out one of the books from the shelf, the bookcase slid sideways, revealing a door leading underground.

“Eh?! Eh?!!”

“I-it really appeared!!”

I didn’t expect to hit the jackpot on the first try… Or maybe there was a magic spell that automatically opened the secret door when the weight of the bookcase changed?

Either way, when the door to the underground suddenly appeared, we couldn’t contain our excitement and grinned as we went down.

What could be down there?

The mansion looks hundreds of years old, could there be information left from when Pierre was alive?

As we descended, our expectations grew and our pace quickened.

But….

“What the hell is this….”

What we found underground wasn’t ancient documents or treasures, but ropes and numerous obscene tools modeled after male genitalia….

And restraints clearly used for unwholesome purposes, along with adult magic tools for women.

“Fuck, it’s an S&M room….”

As I stood there with slumped shoulders, faced with the cruel reality after coming down with such high expectations, Wolffang, who had been quiet at my waist, spoke up.

[Master… The female scent is too strong here….]

“…Is that so.”

—

[1. raei: A golden shachihoko is an ornamental creature often found on the rooftops of Japanese castles and temples. The shachihoko is a mythical fish with the head of a tiger and the body of a carp. ]