CH 123

Chapter 123

When Peaceful Times Cease To Exist : Flames Of War In The Central Plains, Part 11 — Trick

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

「（A–Again, a man uses me as an outlet for his desires… I thought he was somewhat better than this! I knew every human male thinks the same thing!）」

「I’m asking you to be quiet, for God’s sake.」

「（I refuse! If you really want me to do your bidding, just give me an order. It is in my nature to obey!）」

Dance Slave flails around under Rhine, but when she realizes that Rhine isn’t doing anything, she gently opens her eyes and peeks fearfully at Rhine. Then Rhine doesn’t look at Dance Slave and seems to be focusing his attention outward with all his might. The tension is as if they are on the battlefield.

Seeing this, Dance Slave stopped resisting and quieted down. Then, as if realizing what was happening, Rhine let go of Dance Slave’s hand and gave her an earful.

「Go ahead and moan at your own discretion.」

「Hah?」

「It’s an act.」

「…I understand… Nhhn… haauu…」

Then, after letting Dance Slave make the appropriate noises, Rhine creeps up to the entrance door and puts his ear to the door. And it stayed like that for a while, maybe 20 seconds or so. Then, after that amount of time, Rhine suddenly let go of his ears and released his tension.

「That’s enough, Dancer. Sorry about that.」

「What was that all about?」

「We were being followed.」

「What!? How it has been then?」

「It’s from the guild. You, you told me about the one about not messing with the receptionist’s girl, right? I thought it was plausible, I thought it was pretty top ball. Unfortunately, that was a female assassin, or something close to it.」

「…How can you tell?」

Dance Slave was completely oblivious. She just thought that Rhine’s attitude was different from usual.

「The first time I went there and today, her attitude is completely different. The last time I went there, I was just a normal customer, but today, I suddenly had a sexual look on her face. She’s dressed so dirty. A woman who makes eyes at such a thing is a pervert, a pervert.」

「You can’t say that much or you’d be talking about yourself.」

「Well, but if you’re an assassin of sorts, you’d invite them better… I wonder what that was. She seemed more inorganic. I don’t know what to say…」

Rhine began to roar. Apparently, Rhine a much sharper man than Dance Slave thought. Dance Slave has been full of surprises since she began her journey with Rhine. No man in Dance Slave’s memory had ever been so sharp. Even those who were once called heroes must’ve been a bit more out of it.

「（I may have a pretty great guy for a master. As a sword, I would love to be.）」

But Dance Slave also doesn’t speak of honest emotion. If she did, it would be obvious that Rhine would get carried away. Although he is silent there, Rhine sometimes loses sight of his surroundings once it begins to sink into his own thoughts. In a situation like this, leaving things to the roaring Rhine isn’t going to help things progress.

Besides, there was something about the situation of a man and a woman sitting alone on a bed in a dingy inn that didn’t calm Dance Slave down. This is Dance Slave who has a very human thought process despite being a magic sword in this area.

「So what do we do now? There are still people out there following us, aren’t there?」

「Ahh, right. Let’s get out of this bed for a second.」

「?」

When Dance Slave moves out of the way, Rhine says, “Huph,” and the bed mat is suddenly turned over. The bed wasn’t covered with horizontal boards, and there was one area on the floor where there was not much dust.

「Do this here… and there… and voila!」

「A hidden door…」

When Rhine strikes a part of the board, only that part sinks, and the board is pulled up using that part as a handle. This wouldn’t be immediately apparent to anyone who is not in the know. The back of the board is reinforced with steel plates, which should take some time to break.

「I’ve never seen anything like this in all these places…」

「You wouldn’t know this stuff if you lived a normal life, would you?」

「How does Rhine know?」

「Because of my daily good deeds.」

「…Is that something you should shove?」

「We’re going to have to go outside for now. Oh, and don’t forget to put the bed back on.」

Rhine then takes a candle from the drawer of the small side table by the bed, lights it, and goes downstairs. Dance Slave follows suit, putting the bed mat back in place as she was told to do.

Underneath the bed was a cave, and although it was damp, there seemed to be no problem for the two of them to pass through. The two walk cautiously through the cave, though with their heads bent down a little.

「How did you notice the existence of this door, anyway?」

「Well, you see. I’ve used this inn before and noticed one oddly small room. There’s a candle in the table drawer, and I wondered what kind of room it was for playing.」

「Hey…」

Dance Slave pokes Rhine with her elbow.

「Just kidding… well, that’s when I noticed this door. So I said I’ll keep quiet and let me use this place for my emergencies. Apparently, the building used to be used for bad business in the past, and this is a remnant of that time. Well, I’m glad to see that the guy at the reception desk hasn’t changed.」

「Then that word is…」

「Yeah, it’s like a code.」

Dance Slave rolls her eyes in surprise. Rhine is acting quite normal, though.

「How many of these set-ups are there?」

「I usually set them up in the towns and villages I visit. Sometimes it’s simply to help people, and sometimes I’ll bring in women if I have to. By the way, even if we don’t make it here, I had a few more options.」

Dance Slave was a bit taken aback by Rhine, which was willing to deceive others, but she couldn’t complain too much since she was saved thanks to Rhine. Dance Slave, who wasn’t comfortable with not being able to say anything back to Rhine, was quiet and kept his mouth shut here.

They continued down the passageway and came to a section of the cemetery.

「The way out is a cemetery or… sticky, this way.」

「But it’s easier to create hidden paths. Digging in the ground doesn’t look too suspicious. Seems reasonable to me, doesn’t it?」

「Yes. I guess, let’s leave.」

Rhine then walks off in a good mood. Dance Slave follows. This time, the tension is released, and Rhine begins to talk lightly.

「But, you know…」

「What?」

「Dancer, you have a strangely sexy voice.」

「!」

「Next time I really want to take a shot… Guehh!」

Dance Slave’s fist hit the head of Rhine with a sound of “Gon!” This was the first time Dance Slave had raised her hand to her master, even in jest, but for some reason her hand came out without hesitation. It was probably an unbecoming act for a magic sword.

「What was that… just now.」

「I’m telling you, why don’t we really do it next time… Hey, you, that’s unethical, right?」

Dance Slave is about to lift a headstone and throw it at Rhine. It appears to be a new headstone with no names carved on it, though, and no one has been laid to rest yet.

「Don’t worry… I’ll get your name engraved in stone.」

「Uugh, are you serious!?」

「Just die at once!」

「Stop—!」

And so began the chase through the cemetery.

「（I was a fool for almost trusting such a man, even for a moment. That’s why men are like this!）」

But at the same time, Dance Slave was also extremely enjoyable. Perhaps not since she had lived with the blacksmith after she first became conscious had she been able to bare so much emotion. Unlike that time, however, the feeling she had was again indescribably different from peace of mind, but a little bit of happiness was undeniable to Dance Slave.