Ainz Ooal Gown: Noble Knight.

"You must be Tina. I've often heard Lajus mention you," Rune greeted her with a bright smile.

Tina's voice was flat, revealing no emotion.

But the shock it brought to Rune was considerable.

"The devil boss's brother... what a pity."

Rune blinked.

"What?"

"It's too late to see you."

Tina's tone was stiff, but there was a clear glint in her eyes. She leaned forward slightly, as if examining a rare treasure that had been missed.

"It would have been so cute a few years ago. But now... it's a shame."

Rune's thoughts paused for a brief moment.

He remembered, this guy seems to be a shota fetishist.

"...What kind of people live in the Blue Rose?"

Rune silently complained to himself.

A chuunibyou (delusional) captain, a muscular female warrior, a vampire loli who destroys a nation, a shota-con ninja, and a ninja professor. The fact that this team can function properly is, in a way, a miracle.

But before he could figure out how to respond, two voices rang out almost simultaneously.

"Tina."

Lahoz's voice was a notch lower than usual.

She turned her head slightly to look at Tina beside her, a smile on her face, but there was clearly no smile in her light green eyes.

"What are you looking at?"

Tina turned her head and met Lajus's gaze.

There was no change in expression on her flat face, but Rune noticed that she leaned back slightly, probably an instinctive retreat in the face of a threat.

"Just how afraid are you of Lahas?" Rune was somewhat surprised that his silly little sister had such a strong presence.

"...Nothing much, Boss Gui. Just taking a look around."

"yes."

Lajus was still smiling, but her eyes never left Tina.

Tina looked away.

Then he picked up the teacup in front of him, lowered his head to drink the tea, and stopped looking at Rune.

Rune felt inexplicably moved as he watched this scene.

Although Lajus always dislikes him now that she's grown up, she still thinks of him when it really matters.

"What happened?"

Lana's voice came from the right.

Rune looked at her and found that she was tilting her head, her deep blue eyes filled with curiosity.

Her gaze swept back and forth between Lajus and Tina before finally settling on Lajus.

"Lagus, what did Miss Tina mean just now? What does 'It's a pity we met so late' mean?"

Her tone was simple, like a curious child asking a very ordinary question.

But Rune could see it clearly: the corners of her mouth were slightly curved, and there was a hint of cunning in the curve.

"This woman clearly understood."

Lahoz's smile froze for a moment.

"It's nothing, Lana." Her voice returned to normal, but a very faint blush rose at the base of her ears. "Tina was just talking nonsense. Right, Tina?"

She looked at Tina again, her gaze carrying an even stronger warning than before.

Tina held her teacup without looking up.

"...Yes. Nonsense."

Her tone was flat, as if she were being threatened into memorizing lines.

Lana chuckled softly. Her laughter was clear and melodious, like a wind chime tinkling in a gentle breeze.

She didn't press further, but simply picked up her teacup and took a small sip.

Lajus put down her teacup, making a soft "click" sound. The sound wasn't loud, but it drew everyone's attention back at just the right moment.

"Alright, let's get down to business."

Her tone returned to that of an adventurer leader, and her gaze turned to Lana.

"Regarding the Eight Fingers, we stormed into three villages where drugs were being cultivated and burned the farmland to the ground."

At this point, Lajus paused, looked at Rune, and changed the subject.

"Brother should have read the letter I wrote to you, right? It contained all the details."

Faced with that slightly scrutinizing gaze, Rune quickly nodded, indicating that he had seen it.

"Then I won't repeat myself." Lajus took a piece of parchment from the bag Tina had brought and spread it out on the table.

"We found this parchment when we burned the drugs in the village. It's covered in symbols we can't understand; I guess it's some kind of written instruction. Lana, can you figure it out?"

Rune's gaze fell on the parchment.

The densely packed symbols on the yellowed paper are not from any particular country. The arrangement seems random, but the frequency of repetition is very high, and a certain pattern can be vaguely discerned.

Substitution cipher.

Rune made a judgment in his mind. Before transmigrating, he had encountered similar puzzles in YGGDRASIL, and after transmigrating, he had also specifically studied the cryptography of this world in order to deal with possible intelligence warfare.

Although there are many symbols on this parchment, the encryption method is not complicated.

But Rune didn't speak; Lana could easily crack these codes.

Moreover, Rune really didn't want to increase Lana's interest in him.

"It's a substitution cipher."

Lana glanced at it and casually stated her conclusion.

Then she stood up, went to get paper and pen, and started writing and drawing on them.

Sunlight fell on Lana's long golden hair, making that patch of gold shine. Her delicate profile was almost transparent in the light, like a carefully sculpted work of art.

Rune's gaze lingered on that profile for a moment.

"If you only look at their appearance, they are indeed quite good-looking. It's a pity their soul is too twisted."

As he was thinking, a sharp pain suddenly struck his foot.

It was harder than the previous punch.

Rune gasped and turned to look at Lajus beside him.

Lahoz was sitting elegantly, sipping her black tea. Noticing his gaze, she turned her head slightly and gave him an innocent look.

"...Alright then."

Rune looked away, deciding not to argue with his sister.

"It's a simple code where one character corresponds to one symbol, so it's easy to decipher," Lana's voice suddenly rang out, her pen moving smoothly across the paper.

"And luckily, it's written in the Kingdom's language. If it were a book in the Imperial language or something similar, it would be almost impossible to solve. Well... as long as you know one word, you can just fill in the rest one by one. Anyone can solve it if they put in the effort."

She spoke as if it were something anyone could do.

A complex expression appeared on Lajus's face. It was admiration, helplessness, and a hint of unease.

"No, no... It sounds simple. But you'd need tens of thousands of words to decipher it, right?"

"This is a written instruction in coded language. It's unlikely to be written in a cryptic or obscure way, and it's almost impossible to use difficult words. It's probably written in simple words that even a child could understand. So there aren't many options."

Lana answered without looking up. Her pen moved quickly across the paper, making a soft scratching sound.