Straf and his party walk down the dimly-lit tunnel, before Straf suddenly stops in his tracks as something attracts his attention.

「Hm?」

He humms, moving closer to wall next to them, as he looks at a symbol drawn upon it.

「Straf? What is it?」

Cycelia asks, and moves beside Straf, also looking at the wall.

「Lia, do you have a resistance group?」

Straf asks as he looks at the red, painted wing on the wall.

「What? No… I'm fairly sure the count managed to deceive everyone by this point.」

Cycelia looks at the bat-like wing silhouette on the wall, trying to catch its exact shape in the tunnel's dim lighting.

「Really? Then what's with the secret passage here?」

Straf asks, as he walks closer to the wall.

「Huh?」

「What secret passage do you mean, Straf?- Ah, good eye…」

Lily asks, tilting her head as Straf puts his hands on the wall. Her brows rise out of surprise, and she smirks in smug satisfaction. Straf pushes at the bricks, and a doorway-sized segment of the wall collapses from Straf's gentle shove.

「The bricks weren't mortared.」

Straf says, and walks into the dark room treading over the pile of bricks. Lily hops over the pile, without disturbing any of them in the slightest as her boots clack off the bricks.

「Careful. It may be trapped.」

Lily warns as Straf looks at a coffer tucked away into a corner. He grimaces, staring at it intently with his fists on his hips while Cycelia gingerly peeks into the room.

「Hm. You'd think someone would go through the effort to do that, Lily?」

Straf looks over his shoulders at the twin rubies staring at him in the dark.

「It would be wise to err on the side of caution, don't you think?」

The vampire girl tilts her head, shooting a quick glare at Cycelia in the doorway.

「What do you think, Lia? I mean, curiosity killed the cat, but… The curiosity is killing me inside. Marking a secret room, then killing whoever comes across it with a trap? Who does that?」

Straf shrugs with his hands as he looks at the anxious Cycelia peering in, then looks back at the box.

「I… I think Lily is right, Straf. It might be dangerous. That symbol might be a warning…」

Cycelia glances at Lily with furrowed brows, before looking at Straf's wide back.

「Tell me, girl… Are dragons not considered dangerous in your culture?」

Addressing Cycelia, Lily looks down as she holds her tiny pale chin between her clawed index finger and her thumb.

「Yes! They're both feared and revered! The commoners scare their children with stories about dragons!」

Cycelia nods in the darkness, eagerly replying to Lily.

「As I thought… The wing on the wall outside resembles a dragon wing. It may be a warning sign, after all. If you really insist on opening that chest, Straf, be cautious.」

Lily glances at the doorframe, past Cycelia's shoulder as she speaks with her clawed finger extended, she quickly looks back at Straf, who is still contemplating the chest.

「So it's a skull and crossbones, huh… Well, I can't just leave it be. Lily, Lia, leave the room. If it's trapped, I guess you'll find out if you hear an explosion.」

Straf shrugs, and looks over his shoulder at Lily and Cycelia

「Understood…」

Lily nods her head, and turns to the doorway.

「Huh!? Straf, what if hurts you real bad!?-」

Cycelia's eyes widen, and she asks with a panicked tone. Lily grabs her collar on the way out, and drags Cycelia along with her.

「Come, stop being a pest…」

Lily sighs as she pulls Cycelia out of the room. Though audibly frustrated, she manages to veil her distaste towards Cycelia by using a milder language.

「Riiiight. Instant death, or cool treasure? I can see how gacha suckers people in.」

Straf crouches down and lays his hands on the chest, preparing to open it.

「Tururu-rururu-rurururururu… Hup!」

Clack-Thud.

Straf hums out a little tune as he stares at the box intensely, then flips its top lid open.

「Tsk. Really? That's it?」

Straf clicks his tongue and stands up, placing his fists on his hips as he stares disappointed at the chest full of gold.

「What was inside, Straf? Was it not trapped?」

Lily's curious voice asks from beyond the doorway.

「No! It's just a bunch of gold!」

Straf shouts back over his shoulder, before grimacing at the pile of gold within the coffer.

「Man… I really could have just skipped the whole tournament arc shit by looking around a sewer?」

Straf sighs, before shrugging his shoulders.

「Whatever, gold is gold. Hmpf.」

Straf flips the coffer's top lid closed, and throws the entire chest into his [Portable Storage] with a slight grunt, then dusts off his immaculate hands.

「…But that makes me wonder, do you not have a secret police, Lia?」

Straf asks as he climbs out of the dark room back into the tunnel, with Lily and Cycelia waiting.

「Huh? Police? Like… Polity?」

Cycelia tilts her head, another word that sounds familiar in an unfamiliar context.

「No, well, yes- It's more like guards- Actually forget it. If you did, it's not likely you'd be on the run right now. Let's just go.」

Straf gives up on explaining the concept, and waves it off with his hand. He shrugs, and walks past the both of them. They continue onward, down the tunnel…

…

Straf and his party arrive at the source of the light in the darkness, the end of the tunnel. Literally. The sewer abruptly ends with a sudden, massive drop to the outside down a cliff. Life goes on beneath the tunnel, people walk amidst the buildings below.

「…Dead end, huh?」

Cycelia sighs out in disappointment, fiddling with her medallion.

「Is it? Can't you get down there, Lily?」

Straf looks down the drop, then turns to the vampire girl.

「Of course I can. It's not a problem in the slightest-」

Lily shrugs with her free hand, smugly smiling with her eyes closed.

「Could you take Lia with you?」

「Tsk.」

Lily's eyes snap open, and her smug smile twists into a slanted frown as she looks aside annoyed.

「What's with that reaction? If it's too much to ask-」

Straf shrugs and asks. Lily sighs and regains her composure.

「It's not. I can take her with me, if you insist.」

Still slightly frowning, her eyes drift to Cycelia.

「…In a way that will be safe for her?」

「Tsk.」

「Huh!?」

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Lily clicks her tongue and looks away again. Her reaction shocks Cycelia.

「…Fine. Though I can only manipulate my weight. She will be a literal dead weight on the way down, and make things much harder.」

Lily places her folded parasol under her arm, and walks towards Cycelia, who takes a step backwards.

「If it's too hard for you-」

Keeping his hands in his pockets, Straf's eyes track Lily as she walks past him.

「Please do not underestimate me, Straf. This much is nothing for someone like me.」

Lily glances up at Straf with a serious expression, carrying noble and confident air to it.

「Wait! Wait wait wait! I'll be fine! I can just get out of here by myself- Wah!」

Cycelia takes more steps back, shaking her head and waving her hands in front of her as she insists. Lily ignores her, and swoops her legs out from underneath her with her arm, taking her into a bridal carry in her arms.

「Stop thrashing about lest I drop you, princess. Will you need my help to get down, Straf?」

Lily warns, or threatens, as she glares at Cycelia while walking closer to the edge.

「Nope, only Lia.」

「I will really be fine walking back! There's no need! Straf!」

Cycelia whimpers as she looks down the drop beneath her, then up at Lily's cold glare. She calls out for Straf to rescue, but his bored face only replies with rising eyebrows.

「Waahhh!!」

Cycelia screams in panic as Lily jumps down diagonally with her towards the cliffside out of the tunnel's opening. With Lily's anomalous low weight, Cycelia becomes their center of mass as they float downwards. The vampire girl digs her boots into the cliff face, ripping out softer stone as they slow down a little.

Cycelia manages to calm down a little, or rather, panic less, as the descent downward is relatively slow, steady and stable so far. That is until Lily's boot encounters a harder rock that refuses to break beneath it, and knocks both of them out of their controlled descent down the cliffside, forcing another panicked yelp out of Cycelia.

Lily reacts without a delay as she almost backflips from the impact. She kicks the cliff, propelling herself and Cycelia towards a nearby rooftop, their path through the air is characteristically flat and unnaturally lacking the expected magnitude of a parabolic arc.

Lily slides off the roof towards an adjacent building, and lands with her boots on its wall. She kicks away, hopping to the wall of the building she just slid off of, then kicks off the wall again. She repeats this maneuver until she's low enough to jump to the cobblestones below.

Clack!

Lily's booth loudly clatter on the stone as she and Cycelia land. She sets Cycelia down on her feet, and she almost collapses as she stands on weak, jittery legs.

「There… Be grateful to Straf.」

Lily says with a cold tone as she unfolds her parasol and shelters herself from the low sun. The people passing by look at Cycelia with momentary curiosity and concern in her eyes as she breathes heavily while leaning forward, with one of her hands on her chest and the other on her knee.

A few moments later, Cycelia takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, finally calming down. She looks up, and the drop appears even larger as she stands beneath it.

「Is… Is Straf really going to be okay like this?」

Cycelia bites her lip in concern, fiddling with her medallion as her brows furrow while looking up at Straf peering down at them.

《Okay, good, they made it down safe.》

Straf shrugs as he watches Lily leap out of an alleyway with Cycelia in her arms, and sets her down.

《Ah, I see a perfect landing spot. The only better thing would be a bullseye on the floor.》

Straf smirks, then drops forward with his hands in his pockets.

「Silly girl, do have this little trust in Straf?」

Lily looks at Cycelia with disdain from underneath her parasol.

「But… But it's so high up and- Ah! He jumped!」

Cycelia's jaw drops, and she points to Straf who's plummeting towards the ground, head-first.

「He jumped! He's falling! He's falling bad! This is bad!」

Her shaky hand poorly tracks Straf as he keeps falling with his hands in his pockets.

「Of course he jumped, how else… Actually, shouldn't I…」

Lily scoffs at Cycelia's reaction, before she looks at Straf. Her face gains a mildly concerned expression as well.

「Ahh!! He's going to- I can't look!」

Ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump!

Cycelia shouts, placing her hands on her face as Straf gets closer and closer to the ground, and her heart starts pounding from fear.

Fwoosh! Splash.

「Gyyaaaaaa!!」

Cycelia screams and turns her head away, completely covering her eyes with her hands as she hears a horrible noise in front of her.

「What's the matter? Why are you screaming, Lia?」

Straf asks with furrowed brows, standing on one leg like a stork with the tip of his boot in a shallow puddle of water on the street. Gentle waves ripple through it, and Lily sighs in visible relief. Cycelia peeks through her fingers as she hears Straf's voice.

「Eh? Ah… Straf… Straf! I thought you were in trouble!」

Cycelia sighs with immense relief as well, then crosses her arms with a pout on her face. As she squeezes her breasts together with her arms, the buttons on her shirt scream in agony that nobody can hear.

「…Why? I told you I'd be fine on my own.」

Straf glances at both of the girls, even more confused by their reactions.

「I… I will be out of the range of the lamps, Straf. Just in case…」

Lily announces and disappears towards the rooftops, hiding her face beneath her parasol.

「Huh? Alright- And there she goes again…」

Straf doesn't manage to fully respond before the vampire girl simply blurs, and is gone again.

「What now, Straf?」

Cycelia walks closer as Straf hops out of the puddle of water, keeping his hands in his pockets the whole time.

「I want to check out the Adventurers' Guild to see if there's any unique quests. I'm not expecting much, but…」

Straf looks up the cliff he just jumped from.

「…Why is this here?」

「The cliff?」

Cycelia asks, as Straf points his palm at the clif face.

「Yeah, what else?」

「Ossen used to be a small city. Initially, the buildings were only up that cliff, where we entered.」

She says, pointing up at the tall walls at the very top of the cliff.

「So how did we end up here?」

Straf glances at Cycelia as he asks.

「When the demon lord's forces started the worst of their attacks, refugees from all over flooded in towards the safe cities that were prepared. It was far too many people to hold in such a tiny city, so thieves and other criminals exiled from the city built slums down the cliff.」

「It doesn't look like slums to me. More like a sleepy residential district.」

Straf says as he looks around. None of the buildings look dilapidated or poor, and some even have decorative flowers standing outside.

「Well, that's obvious, isn't it? The slums were frequently destroyed and razed by the dark armies roaming outside the walls. Eventually, King Roderick took pity on the survivors in the slums, and funded the vampire lamps here as well. Only then the people could live in relative peace and safety.」

Cycelia looks at one of the unlit lamps nearby with her hands clasped behind her back.

「Vampiric gentrification, huh? Sucks to be the slum dwellers. How do we get to the Adventurers' Guild?」

Straf asks, looking around once again.

「It should be in the upper part of the city. Come, I'll take us to the stairs.」

Cycelia nods her head for Straf to follow, and they leave the former slums…

…

Just a moment of walking later, Straf and Cycelia arrive at massive stairs up the side of the cliff. Almost as wide as a modern expressway and built of brick, with supports beneath it driven into the cliffside, it presents itself as a vain display of opulence. A stairway like this could be dug and chiseled into the cliff itself, and it would take much less labor.

「What's with these stairs, Lia?」

Straf asks, looking up and down the wide and busy stairway.

「It's one of the huge projects my grandfather ordered. Upper and lower Ossen were like two different cities, one was rich and prosperous, the other was in constant poverty. The problem mostly solved itself when the construction finished.」

Cycelia radiantly smiles as she shines with her domestic and historical knowledge.

「Well. That's one way to solve the problem of poor people. The other is war.」

Straf shrugs, still walking with his hands in his pockets. They continue upward the winding stairway, Straf slows down to match Cycelia's, deteriorating fatigued pace. Eventually, they make it back to the upper part of the city.

「Haa… I have… No idea… How are you still… Not tired, Straf…」

Cycelia breathes heavily, leaning forward with her hands on her knees as she gasps for air. Her shirt's buttons commit another tactical blunder, and are forced into a desperate fight for their life as her chest hangs heavily. Straf waits while Cycelia catches her breath.

「Are you alright now?」

Straf asks as Cycelia straightens out.

「Yes… I'll be fine for now, if we walk slowly. The Adventurers' Guild shouldn't be too far from the gate.」

Cycelia nods her head, and they continue onward…