837: Sendia's Darkness

We easily entered the illegal city of Sendia. After all, it was always easy to enter cities on this continent.

It was even easier here, since you didn’t even need to show your ID.

『You can really tell how bad it is once you’re in.』

「So dark.」

『The sun can’t even reach down here.』

The sunlight was blocked by the dense cluster of high-rise buildings, some more than five or six stories high, so it didn’t even reach the ground. The numerous aerial corridors connecting the upper floors together blocked even more of the light.

The main street was reasonably wide, so it managed to stay dimly lit. On the other hand, the narrower back alleys looked dark enough to be night-time, even in the middle of the day.

This place was already known as an illegal city. I could only wonder what kind of illegal activities were going on in the cover of that darkness.

However, there were a good number of people on the main street, including women and children without any combat ability.

It’s not like they were all smiles and sunshine, but they didn’t appear to be particular cautious towards their surroundings either. Maybe this city wasn’t as bad as we thought?

In fact, no one has tried to pick a fight with Fran yet. Since we activated Evolution Cloaking and had Urushi hiding in the shadows, Fran was showing no signs of her strength.

We’ve had people giving her trouble everywhere before, even outside this continent.

But here, no one tried to pull anything, only a few stares. Is it actually pretty safe here?

I began to think so, but apparently not.

The stares coming from the dark back alleys were clearly filled with malice and contempt. So much that it was a wonder why they didn’t attack us.

「…Nn.」

『Wait, Fran! Where are you going!? We have to go to the guild first!』

（I’ll be fine.）

Fran moved to the threshold between the main street and the alley. She was trying to lure out whoever was sending her those stares.

She was close enough that they could touch her if they simply reached out their hand. But strangely enough, they showed no signs of doing so.

Fran pretended to be defenseless, peeking into the back alley from the main street and making eye contact with the men there. But none of them made a move toward us.

I could definitely sense them hesitating for a moment, but that was it.

I highly doubt they noticed Fran’s actual abilities.

Was there some reason why they couldn’t lay a finger on the people in the main street? Maybe it was outside their territory or something? Anyways, it seems like a good idea to use the main street if we want to avoid trouble.

Fran continued through the main street without issue, headed for the Adventurers Guild. In most towns, the guild was located near the entrance.

That was so adventurers who didn’t have an item bag could quickly deliver their catch to the guild.

Walking halfway across town with a bloody monster on your back wouldn’t make a good impression for the guild. In some cases, it might even spread poison everywhere.

Or there might be a branch of the guild near the entrance to take in those monster corpses. Since we’ve always used dimensional storage, we’ve never had to worry about that kinda stuff.

However, in many towns on this continent, guilds were located at the back of the town. That was probably because antidemons were the only monsters here, so there was little need for monster deliveries.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, we saw the sign of the Adventurers Guild.

It looked like this entire six-story building was the guild. It was a decent size, but had a strangely rugged atmosphere. That was probably due to the dirtiness and the sound of loud laughter coming from inside.

Fran pushed open the swinging door and entered the building, but the insides seemed pretty dark. Even though it was the middle of the day, the lanterns were lit, giving the place the feel of a bar at night.

「Excuse me.」

The adventurers, who had been drinking and laughing without a thought in the world, all turned their eyes to us at the same time. Some of them stood up with vulgar expressions on their faces, but…

「Guess it’s ‘cause of the antidemon season? Never imagined seeing another adventurer with an alias at a place like this.」

An old man at the counter who looked like a bartender announced in a hoarse voice, and everyone sat themselves back down meekly.

The old man must have said this in an audible voice so that no one would cause a commotion.

「Welcome, Black Lightning Princess, to the guild of the illegal city of Sendia.」

It’s been a while since someone realized Fran’s identity without an introduction, hasn’t it?

「I’ll be in town for a while, so I came to say hello.」

「That so…? I’m Prear, the guildmaster here. Nice to meet ya.」

I thought he was a bartender, but it turns out he’s the guildmaster!

Prear seemed to be a sheep beastman. Through his long gray hair, which I couldn’t tell was natural or due to aging, grew two rounded, twisted horns.

His body looked as thin as dead branches, and that small stature suggested that he was incapable of combat.

In fact, he appeared fairly weak.

But that was all a trick. I could sense something fierce within him, not to mention his ability to perceive Fran’s identity.

My gut told me not to make enemies with this guy.

「I guess it’s true what they say about you having a skill to hide evolution.」

「…How did you know it was me?」

「Your presence, the way you walk, magic sword, appearance, mannerisms. The clues are all there.」

『W-Whoa, this old guy’s really something.』

「In the season of antidemons, we welcome the skilled, ya know? Whatever the purpose of their visit.」

Come on, don’t tell me he figured out Fran’s goal too. No wait, Fran never particularly hid the fact that she was an ex-slave, so it wouldn’t be surprising if this old man knew about that.

And if he knew that there were illegal slavers in this city, he could easily guess Fran’s intentions.

「…Where can I find the blue cat illegal slavers?」

「I knew it… Unfortunately, I’m not privy to all the details. The darkness enshrouding this city is deep and thick. So much so that a quick peak isn’t enough to understand what’s crawling underneath it all…」

「Let me know if you have any info, and I’ll buy it.」

「Can’t right now anyway, since we’re busy with the antidemon season. Oh, and don’t think you’ll be able to grab any info on your own. No one around here is willing to sell info to outsiders.」

「I see.」

「You should just sit tight and――Hey! Where are you going!?」

「If you don’t have any info, I’m done here.」

「Wait! Hey! You’d better not do anything rash! There’s a fine balance between all the gangs!」

Ignoring Prear’s shouts, Fran quickly exited the Adventurers Guild.

There’s no way Fran would take the time to settle into the town like Prear suggested.

『To be honest, I’m kinda with Prear here.』

（We have to help the slaves before the antidemon season is over, and they are sold.）

『Oh, I see what you mean…』

（Nn.）

Fran couldn’t idly stand by with the slaves waiting to be sold on her mind.

（I’m gonna help them, no matter what.）

She must be seeing a part of herself in them. After taking a glance at the impatience on her face, I couldn’t bring myself to stop her.

『Fine… But I’ll intervene if I see things getting too sketchy.』

（Nn.）

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