'Huh!　Hey, do you have any idea what you're talking about?


　Maribel's sudden confession had me dizzy.

　The young beastman in front of me said that he was with the Abyss Walker they were looking for.


'Because he looks just like that sketch. My fathers were creeped out by it, but my employer told me not to tell anyone else about it.


　Maribel, who took what she said as a denial of what she had said, protested to me with her mouth agape.

　She is still young and not yet beastly, she looks almost like a human child, but the small droopy cat ears visible in her brown hair told me that she is a beastly person.


　I wonder if she would be offended if I told her she was cute: .......

　Maybe this is what people are saying about my sister.


　The young beastman Maribel was a child full of cuteness, so much so that even if I had only thought about myself and Fynn all my life, I could think so.

　Meira seems to be interested in such Maribel, and unlike her attitude towards me, she speaks to her in a serious manner.


You said your name is Maribel. The creature in your sketch is called an Abyss Walker, and it's a very scary creature. Didn't your fathers teach you that?

I thought Maribel might be that Abyss Walker my mother told me about, but my father said it wasn't, so it wasn't.


　It's true that Meira was right, there's no way I couldn't be taught about Abyss Walker by an adult in this Hartford Kingdom.

　Even I, who grew up in an orphanage, have been told this many times, so how could I not know about it?


　But what made Maribel's father look at the creature on Meira's map and tell her it wasn't an Abyss Walker?

　It's not like Maribel's father doesn't know Abyss Walker.

　It doesn't look like Maribel is lying either.

　I don't know what's going on here.


'Wait a minute. I need you to clear things up for me. I think I'm going to be embarrassed.


　The story seemed to be getting more complicated, so I decided to put it in perspective.


'Well, yes. First of all, where does Maribel live?　This isn't your house, is it?


　Meira, who sensed my presence, was listening to Maribel to make sure she was right.


"Of course it's natural. Even Maribel doesn't live in a dark and musty room like this!


　Maribel seemed to be out of her mind that she was asked if this was home, and she had a pouting, angry look on her face.


　Even though she was angry, it didn't detract from Maribel's cuteness, but rather made me want to care for her in many ways.

　I didn't know there was such a cute little girl in the world .......


　I noticed the hand that I put out to stroke her head and quickly pulled it back.


'Maribel followed me from the city of Inverness, hiding behind the luggage of my fathers' wagon. Despite what it looks like, I'm pretty good at hide-and-seek.

'I hid in a wagon from Inverness!


　I didn't expect it to come from the Yuguhanotes, since it was a beast, but ...... I didn't expect it to be the Invahannes.

　I was hiding in the luggage of the wagon and--

　That's quite a way to get rid of someone.

　Inverness is just east of here, so it must be pretty far away.


Yeah, maybe two weeks. "Yeah, I'd sleep in the afternoon and then eat the wagon's food at night when everyone else was asleep.


　Aren't you too bold to act like that at your age: ......

　She's a girl of action, by the looks of it, that she followed her father all these years without being found.


'So, when I arrived at this shelter, my fathers found me, and they couldn't let me go home alone, so I lived here with everyone else without telling my employers.


　It seems that Maribel's fathers didn't come here on their own, but were hired by someone else to come to this place.


'Could it be that your employer was this Abyss Walker?

No, no. From what I've heard my fathers talking about, he's a vassal of the Lord of Inverness. He said that if I help him fix the facilities here, he'll make the city of Invahannes a beastly country again. Also, there were a few people who spoke in a language I didn't understand, and one of them was this creepy guy.


　Maribel didn't know the details either, and she told me a story her father had told her.


　A vassal of the lord of Invahannes is the employer .......

　And it seems that this place is an institution of some sort, and they've sent people all the way out here to make repairs.

　I also wonder what it means to make Invahannes a beastly country: .......

　I don't think a city in the Kingdom of Hertford can be independent or something on its own.


When I say "Lord of Invahannes", I believe the Knight Commander of the Kingsguard, Gile, was given it as a territory two years ago: ....... I wonder what kind of facility he went all the way from there to build in Abyss Falls in such an outermost place.


　Meira, who was standing next to me, could see that Maribel's words were getting mixed up with some kind of dirty talk, and her face was also cloudy.


'So, my fathers were helping to repair this place for about two months, but about three weeks ago, they suddenly stopped repairing it and left with just my fathers.

Two months ago!


　Maribel's fathers had been helping with repairs at this underground facility in Abyss Falls for two months now.


　But at that time of year, the only people around here were adventurers who came to defeat the demons.

　Rebecca also said that it's only recently that the number of people have increased.


''There were others, but those people said it was a long time ago!


　According to Maribel's testimony, this underground facility has been in operation for quite some time.


　What in the world is the purpose of having such a facility in such a place .......


　The more I listened to the story, the more questions I had in my head.