“Aaaaaaah!”
“First, go eat a voice-altering herb. Its effects have worn off.”
“Sis, what do I do?”
“Calm down. Your disguise is gone. And was I your ‘sis’?”
Chris was in a panic.
It’s okay for a gamble you bet your life on to fail. You can cut your losses and start over.
But having all your assets liquidated is a different story.
Chris sat down on the bed, tearing at their hair.
They looked to be in great pain.
I slowly opened my mouth, feeling sorry for them.
“If you’re younger than me, that means you’re 16 or younger. How did you amass that much money at that age?
Did you perhaps have a lot of initial capital?”
“…I succeeded in this kind of gamble five times in a row for a year.”
“So, you’re not a peddler, but a gambling addict?”
Hearing that, it seemed their capital was small despite succeeding in gambling five times in a row.
They must have started from rock bottom.
“If I had succeeded just this once, I could have started my own merchant guild…”
“Oh dear.”
“Sis, I’m so sad.”
“I feel like crying too. And did we decide to drop honorifics now?”
“Sis…”
Chris’s voice choked up. Tears really welled up in their eyes.
But if I lost all my assets, I’d probably be like that too.
Hmm.
Let me correct that.
Even if I lost all my assets, I wouldn’t cry.
Would I be like that if I lost all my magic?
Maybe something similar.
Chris mumbled, messing up their hair.
“I thought I could finally be done with this damned cross-dressing.”
“You cross-dressed to avoid being ignored?”
“If I had a guild, I wouldn’t be ignored just for being a woman, but some female peddlers are refused transactions altogether.”
This sweet Happy Middle Ages Land didn’t like women being merchants.
They wanted to prevent women from setting foot in a dirty world full of desire.
It’s true.
It’s definitely not the mindset of ‘how can a woman do rational calculations.’ Believe me.
Anyway, the wine was stolen.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me, and I carefully asked Chris.
“Was this perhaps the stolen wine?”
“You were the one who stole it?”
“I received it too.”
I handed the wine bottle to Chris.
Chris received the wine bottle, smelled and tasted the contents slightly, and narrowed their eyes.
“This is a local specialty wine. Mine is from a different region. It’s completely different.”
“Is that so?”
“Sis, where did you get this? It’s top-grade wine.”
“I got it while walking down the street.”
I told you the wine uncle was nice and a good person.
Everyone who falsely accused this person of stealing, come forward and bend over.
I tilted my head to the left.
“Was the wine in a baggage cart?”
“Of course, I rented a warehouse. How could I leave that expensive wine in a baggage cart?”
“It was stolen even though it was in a warehouse?”
“That’s what’s strange…”
If it was a warehouse, it would definitely have a lock, so if someone broke through that and stole the goods, it meant they were dealing with a seriously nasty guy.
“Is there a possibility that the warehouse owner stole it?”
“Like you, sis, I thought of that possibility first, but after seeing the scene, it didn’t seem like it.”
“How was it stolen that makes you say that?”
“You have to see it in person to understand.”
Reluctantly, I followed Chris to the warehouse.
As soon as I arrived at the warehouse, I nodded.
It was definitely as Chris said.
This was definitely not a normal situation.
I stroked the oak barrels piled up in the warehouse.
There was a fist-sized hole in the place I stroked, which was a very strange thing.
The contents inside these barrels were wine. Not jewels.
They would have stolen the oak barrels rather than make a hole like this.
Drill a hole and transfer the wine to another container?
Unless there was a tracking device attached to this oak barrel.
Otherwise, it was the most useless thing in the world.
This is, yeah.
There was no reason to do this unless they intended to drink all the wine inside.
“Could dozens of strong men have had a drinking party here?”
“That could be.”
Chris pointed to the ground.
I looked at where Chris’s fingertip was pointing.
The contents of the wine were rolling around on the floor.
It was like they had spilled the wine while having a drinking party.
“Judging by the amount of sediment, they didn’t dump all the wine on the ground. They really only spilled a little, so what is it?”
“That’s why I said it wasn’t the warehouse owner. On the contrary, I doubt whether it was even a human act.”
“It could be a method to get out of suspicion by deliberately creating a mysterious incident. If so, the container that this wine was transferred to must be somewhere, so if we find that, we’ll find the culprit.”
“…That makes sense.”
Hope returned to Chris’s face. According to my words, the wine was lost, not destroyed.
If they could get it back, it could be restored to its original state.
Chris got up from their seat and started talking.
“I’ll secretly search the houses of people I suspect.”
“Do you think they’ll willingly allow that?”
“Sis, I’m a peddler. The skill of being naturally invited into other people’s homes is basic. Otherwise, I would have starved to death a long time ago.”
“Do it with Leon. It could be dangerous.”
“Okay.”
It was a very meticulous and planned crime.
Dangerous situations could occur during the investigation process.
If this was done by a person,
“That’s right, sis. Can’t you track it with magic?”
“It’s not that there isn’t magic like that, but I can’t find traces, even though I can erase them.”
“That’s a shame.”
“I’ll investigate suspicious places in my own way.”
With that, we left the warehouse and scattered.
Shade Grafton’s wine festival lasted for a week.
Because of this, it was still full of people even though it was late at night, and the streets were filled with the smell of wine because everyone was drinking it.
With this, I had to give up the plan to track it by smell.
Let’s move on to the next plan.
“Have you ever seen anyone drinking particularly good wine?”
“If it isn’t the Chess Monster.”
“Hello.”
“Wine? Everyone in town is drinking good wine right now? Why is that?”
Failure.
Next plan.
Theft is an immoral act. In other words, if I found someone who seemed to have a loose sense of ethics, I could reveal the culprit.
“Is the arm wrestling betting going well?”
“It’s ruined. We’re ruined.”
“It’s not like a monster is popping out of there.”
Unfortunately, the two gamblers were not in a mental state to steal anything.
I decided to change my thinking. I decided to become the culprit.
When you steal wine, where is the best place to hide it?
There’s a saying that if you want to hide a tree, hide it in the forest.
Sometimes hiding it in an obvious place is actually safer, so according to that, there was only one place in the village where there was wine.
A vineyard.
I quickly ran to the vineyard.
Shade Grafton’s vineyard was very large. It’s not for nothing that the wine festival is held. After harvesting, the grapes overflowed and rotted, so the festival was held.
I walked over the huge vineyard owned by Count Shade.
The world had already been dark for a long time, so only the lights illuminated the vineyard.
I held up the lamp and looked around the vineyard.
Where is it?
Where did you hide the wine?
It was that moment.
In a place where the light of the lamp didn’t quite reach, a huge shadow briefly appeared and disappeared.
It wasn’t a tree. Judging by the silhouette, it was round and tall.
Like, something was piled up.
Found it!
I immediately ran to the place where the huge shadow was.
And I held up the lamp.
There was a rock.
“Hello.”
I greeted the rock and leaned against it.
It’s possible to have a rock in a vineyard.
Wouldn’t it be strange for someone to hide an oak barrel here? Who would hide stolen goods in such an open place?
Realizing that I had made the wrong choice, I leaned against the rock and looked at the sky.
White jewels poured down to the ground.
I let the starlight-like hair flow through my fingers, then took out a wine bottle from my pocket and poured it into a glass.
Sorry, Chris.
I think this is it for me.
Pour, pour. The fragrant smell of wine stung my nose.
It was indeed top-grade wine. My body trembled just from smelling it.
I put the bottle down on the floor and brought the glass to my lips, lowering my hand.
It was to support myself on the ground with my hand, but immediately after, I lost my balance and fell.
Have you ever had the experience of losing your balance because there was no staircase where you thought there would be one?
That’s what happened to me just now.
I thought there would be ground and reached out my hand, but there wasn’t, so I fell.
What is this?
When I shone the lamp on it, I saw a fist-sized hole in the ground.
A mole.
It is a common choice to exterminate moles if you see them. Keep that in mind.
With the question resolved, I happily drank the wine.
Wine in a vineyard on a starry night.
It was a combination that even felt noble.
I can’t stand it. I have to drink another glass.
I reached out my hand to grab the wine bottle I had put down earlier.
But nothing was caught.
Wasn’t it here?
I reached out a little more, but still nothing was caught.
What is it?
Did it roll away with the bottle?
If I didn’t close the lid, the contents would all spill out?
I was startled and shone the lamp to the side.
And I blinked at something wriggling.
I lowered my head.
The fist-sized hole I had found a little while ago was filled with its body.
The guy who came out of the hole was wriggling and diligently moving something to the end of its body.
It was a wine bottle.
The guy who moved the wine bottle opened the end of its body and crunched the wine bottle and ate it.
I, who witnessed the scene from beginning to end, jumped up from my seat and shouted.
“It’s a grape-crazed tentacle monster!”