Two hours later, I returned to the guild room and saw Jukaken, covered in dirt as if he had fought his way through a tunnel with nothing but his bare hands, while Arlos stood there in a mask, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.0

"... What were you doing there?" Arlos asked, her voice muffled behind the mask.0

I raised a hand to Arlos's mask.0

"No—stop. I said stop. Don’t take it off," Arlos said, pulling her head away from my hand as I reached for her mask.0

I nodded slightly without saying a word.0

"What did you do with Sylvia?" Jukaken asked.0

"That’s not something you need to know," I replied.0

“You’re joking, right? That psycho’s the enemy of every last one of us. Whatever you did with her—”0

“Take this.”0

Clatter—!0

I let the coins fall, one after another, until the floor rang with their weight. Jukaken and Arlos reacted as if they'd struck gold, their eyes widening and their reactions thoroughly dramatic.0

"Woaahhhh?!"0

“What?!”0

While they scrambled for the coins, their eyes shining with greed, I took advantage of the brief moment of chaos to reach out and pull the mask from Arlos's face.0

“Oh, damn it!” Arlos said, covering her face with one hand as her other continued to work,...2