Chapter 6
“THE QUESTION IS WHERE THE BODY part once sealed there now resides. Have your friends recovered anything of the kind, Mira?”
“Hrmm. I don’t think they mentioned finding anything like that. I should ask, though.”
The sealed spot would naturally have housed part of the corpse, but Solomon hadn’t mentioned coming across anything there. Had there really been nothing, or did he judge it not worth mentioning?
Mira asked him whether they’d found remains in the underground chamber.
“Wow. Another sudden, significant question. Uh…only withered plants, nothing else. We identified all the plants and searched the hole thoroughly, so we wouldn’t have missed anything. Are you saying something else was there after all?”
Although Solomon claimed he’d found nothing suspicious, he was very interested in why Mira had asked. Such pointed questions suggested that she and the Spirit King knew something he didn’t, which naturally piqued his curiosity.
It was too early for Mira to say, though. “I’m going to ask him some more questions. Wait a little longer, please,” she replied, returning to her conversation with Sym.
On the other end of the communicator, Solomon grumbled, obviously envious of her relationship with the Spirit King.
He’d been listening in, but Mira repeated Solomon’s response anyway. “There you have it. Apparently, they found nothing of the kind.” Solomon hadn’t picked up any parts of the dead god, which meant that a piece of its corpse was elsewhere in the world.
“So it was already taken away,” the Spirit King replied. “This is a problem.”
His words revealed genuine concern, and this certainly did sound problematic. If Solomon had recovered part of the corpse, Sym might’ve been able to reseal it. But now they had no idea where it was, and it would be a chore to track down.
“The seal is layered, so nothing can be done to it at the moment. But now that the ley lines’ power can no longer purify it, it’s only a matter of time.”
The layered seals had locked away the mysterious sound and weakened the magnetism between the corpse parts. According to the Spirit King, the absence of the eerie noise proved that those seals were still functional. After all, that sound would be audible to everyone in the world, however far away they were. If they couldn’t hear it, the seals were undamaged. Still, the miasma would inevitably build up until the seal one day broke.
“With the corpse divided into six like that, the seal would take five years or so to break,” Martel said, estimating their remaining time. Then she brought up something that could reduce that wait: “As long as the other corpse sections haven’t rejoined, that is.”
The god was in six pieces now, but if the seals somehow broke and those pieces reunited, the miasma would accumulate faster. If they all united, that eerie cry would regain its original volume.
“Right. That would be worse.”
They couldn’t allow that to happen, knowing that a dark demon hoping to cause calamity was behind this. Although Mira and the others weren’t sure how, that demon had found a seal location previously known only to the Trinity. Perhaps the same thing was happening elsewhere—or so the Spirit King and Martel seemed to fear.
“Could anything else break the seals?” Would it have been possible for something other than miasma to rupture this one—special magic, demonic power, or a divine item?
“Surely not. The Trinity placed those seals directly. I can’t imagine anything but miasma or the Trinity themselves breaking them… Either way, it makes me wonder how the corpse part was removed and where it is now.”
As long as that strange sound’s meaning remained a mystery, it was best to leave the corpse parts sealed away, although part of the corpse was now missing. The bigger problem was where in the world it was now, especially since only the Trinity had known its location before.
“That’s true,” Mira agreed.
The Spirit King fell silent for a moment, then asked, “Mira, can you tell me more about when you encountered the demon in Nebrapolis? I want to know everything.”
Realizing that Sym had the kernel of an idea, Mira explained the situation in detail. At the bottom of Nebrapolis, an Adventurers’ Guild Union-managed dungeon, was a lake next to a white castle. She explained that a dark demon—a third-rank count—had emerged from the lake and forced her and her party into a fight.
“I see. And the cavern was in that lake,” Sym muttered before going quiet again.
After a while, he offered a few hypotheses. The first was that the corpse piece had been taken before Mira and the others reached the bottom floor. However, that hypothesis was the least likely; if the dark demon already had the body part, it would’ve had no reason to hang around.
The next hypothesis was that the corpse part was stolen after Mira’s group left, but before Solomon’s investigation team arrived. The fact that his team hadn’t found the part meant that someone else knew about it. Furthermore, not even the Spirit King and Martel had been aware that it was beneath Nebrapolis. Yet the dark demon that Mira defeated had known. There might be others like it out there.
Dark demons were extremely individualistic, though. They almost never told even fellow dark demons such things. And the fact that the count held a noble title proved that it wasn’t another’s subordinate, so it hadn’t been obeying a greater demon’s orders.
It was possible that the theft was the doing of one of its subordinate demons. However, according to Solomon, even the weakest entrance barriers set up by the Adventurers’ Guild Union were too strong for a demon below baron-rank to break. Barriers set up for dungeons of C-rank and higher would be even stronger.
Nebrapolis had originally been a C-rank dungeon, but the demon’s appearance had caused it to be temporarily reclassified as A-rank. Viscount and lesser demons wouldn’t be able to get through that barrier, so that would also have been impossible for even a third-rank count’s subordinates. Thus, taking the corpse before the investigation team arrived would’ve been difficult.
The Spirit King also hypothesized that the thief might’ve tunneled into the dungeon, but when they asked Solomon, he refuted that possibility. His investigators were first-rate; after discovering the cave in the lake, they’d combed the dungeon top to bottom and found no other suspicious holes. It was certain that nobody had entered the dungeon between Mira’s group leaving and his investigation team entering.
“That leaves us with one hypothesis, then. You and King Solomon may not like it.”
There were only a limited number of people who could’ve done it, Mira realized. “You mean…someone on the investigation team.”
“I think that’s the only possibility.” Once the Spirit King pondered this matter enough, he’d come to one conclusion: Someone on Solomon’s team had taken the body part. Nonetheless, under the circumstances, stealing the part wouldn’t have been easy. How Solomon and Mira reacted to this information would depend on why the part was taken.
“So…what would that body part look like?” Mira asked.
Its appearance was one thing that could indicate why someone had stolen it. If they could tell at a glance that the corpse part was important, greed might’ve overcome them. On the other hand, if it looked scary, a reasonable person would’ve steered clear.
“Hmm… Well, if it’s the same as it used to be, the material would look just like any other rock. Since it’s a body part, it probably looked like part of a broken statue.”
“I see…”
If the thief mistook it for a statue fragment, they might’ve thought it had historical value. But would any of Solomon’s handpicked few be that mercenary?
Mira offered her thoughts. “I heard Luminaria was among the investigators. Surely nobody would try to hoodwink her over something of doubtful value.” Knowing that a demon had shown up down there once, they’d sent the Wise Man with the investigators to stand guard. Attempting to deceive her would take real courage.
“Luminaria had power similar to yours, as I recall. Trying to sneak something past her for a little money would indeed be a poor decision. Whoever did so must’ve been determined to take the part.”
“Right. The perp did this with firm certainty, not flimsy hope.”
That was pure conjecture, of course, yet the likelihood seemed extremely high. But who’d taken the body part…and why? All the clues pointed toward a demon.
“It’s highly unlikely that any human was aware of this corpse part,” said the Spirit King. “I think it’s safe to assume that a demon knew about it and had a subordinate attempt to snatch it.”
Mira and the Spirit King focused their discussion on that point. The first scenario they came up with was that an investigation team member had been switched with a demon. Demons had many abilities, including shape-shifting. They could conceivably take a team member’s identity, accompany the team to the location, and steal the body part when the opportunity arose. Then they’d just have to escape without anybody noticing.
The second method would be mind-controlling a team member. Demons had a terrifying power that allowed them to enter people’s minds and manipulate them as they pleased. That required the target to be mentally enfeebled, but once the demon was in, they could control that person like a pawn.
One flaw was common to both scenarios, however: The target’s personality would change. When Mira asked, Solomon said that the investigation team was tight-knit. In other words, even if a demon looked just like someone or mind-controlled them, imitating them perfectly would be nearly impossible. Sooner or later, the demon’s speech or actions would surely seem suspicious.
And as long as Luminaria was there, it would be extremely difficult for a team member to smuggle out a body part while they were already under suspicion. In light of that, there was only one way for a demon to get what it wanted.
“Intimidation, then?” asked Mira.
“Right. Given the circumstances, I think that’s most likely.”
Meeting a team member, threatening them, and forcing them to steal the body part: That would fit a dark demon’s style, and it would be an effective way to control a human.
There were many ways to intimidate people, such as threatening their friends, family, or romantic partners. To protect a loved one’s life, obedience would seem the only option. It was more than enough reason to risk danger.
“The problem is, how and when did a demon meet a team member? Demons can hardly walk around the city in broad daylight.”
To intimidate a victim, you needed to find out who they cared about, then make it impossible for the victim to betray them. If the victim cared about a friend, family member, or partner, as expected, then the dark demon must’ve lurked in the city to watch them and confirm that. Thinking that a dark demon had been so close to regular folk was truly terrifying.
“Hmm. All right… Allow me to teach King Solomon the Spirit Vitalization Ring,” the Spirit King offered. “That bolsters an area’s spiritual power and gradually purifies it. Those purifying effects are painful to dark demons. If one is in the city, it will be forced to leave before long.”
“Ooh. Now, that sounds impressive!”
The Spirit King described the Spirit Vitalization Ring as something originally used to revive devastated wastelands. It was a special circle that created livable environments for spirits, and it had once helped free the continent from the shroud of miasma.
When he offered to teach Solomon the same ability, Mira thanked him gleefully.
“To maintain the effect, one must pour spiritual power into the Spirit Vitalization Ring once a week,” he elaborated. “Does King Solomon have the resources to do so? If not, I can call for aid.”
Cleos was the first person who came to Mira’s mind. He was an excellent summoner who could skillfully use light spirits’ power to the fullest.
“Uh…I think it should be fine. They have a half light spirit, half elf there. His spirit magic should be plenty.”
“Hmm. Yes, that should do. Now, Mira, I’d like you to share our thoughts with King Solomon.”
“Indeed I shall.”
Mira picked up the receiver and told Solomon everything: the role of the mysterious Onbashira of Earthly Reversal, the six hidden pillars, the Monster-Ruling God and its corpse, and the dark demons’ involvement in all this. Of course, when she forgot things, the Spirit King was forced to add them in.
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