Chapter 7
“THESE REALLY ARE HANDY,” Mira murmured to herself as she stepped out of the dark room. Still decked out in tactical gear, she took a moment to look around.
Night vision goggles normally just helped one see clearly in the dark; they made bright things blaze white. That wasn’t true of the night vision goggles at Dinoire Trading. It had to be done manually, but as soon as they looked at something bright, the user could flip a switch and turn off night vision mode.
After testing the remarkable technology by entering and exiting the dark room, Mira was satisfied. Returning to the new-product corner, she took off her gear. Then she put back the sample goggles, mask, and cloak where she’d found them, picked out one of each product, and threw them into her basket. Of course, she got them all in size small.
The night vision goggles were five hundred thousand ducats, while the mask and cloak were both three hundred thousand, which came to just over 1.1 million ducats. Then she got the freezer bag and a few other things, bringing everything to a grand total of 1.3 million ducats. Naturally, Mira didn’t forget to use her rewards card, so she got a 20 percent discount.
“Looks like I ended up spending a little too much!” Mira said as she walked out of Dinoire Trading.
Chuckling, she checked how much money she had left. Her budget had been three hundred thousand ducats, but she’d blown past that and gone a million ducats over budget. Far from being upset, however, Mira smiled contentedly at having gotten her hands on such good gear.
She was a bigger spender than she’d thought, but a thought crossed Mira’s mind that convinced her that she didn’t need to worry about that: If she ever ran out of money, she could just sell more magic stones.
She still had tons of the magic stones she’d gotten in the Ancient Underground City; she simply hadn’t sold them. She probably had enough of them to fetch tens of millions of ducats at the current market price. Thus, she saw nothing wrong with loosening her purse strings.
Mira stepped into a shop selling amber, but she wasn’t looking for mere jewelry. She was hunting for amber marketed toward adventurers—the kind modified for use with magical tools or enchantments.
Hrmm. It certainly seems more expensive than before, huh…?
Mira just wanted to get a feel for the market price of rainbow-drop amber, which was primarily used to craft refining gear. But after a cursory look around, she’d discovered that the material was about five times as expensive as it once had been.
But considering that I’ll need it to apply high-level buffs, it’s probably worth it…
The only thing on Mira’s mind was to get her hands on the strongest gear possible, and the only way to do that was to make full use of all her skills.
Rainbow-drop amber was particularly good at imbuing physical abilities. In other words, a magic specialist like Mira could use it to compensate for physical weakness and boost Immortal Arts’ effects. Ultimately, she planned to extract all those effects via refining techniques and bundle them together. Then she’d imbue gear made from the materials dropped by the Machina Guardian with that collection of effects. She’d be able to make gear that gave insane buffs.
They’ve got pretty good stuff here, don’t they?
Dreaming of the day when her gear would be complete, Mira closely inspected the amber goods on display. She spent about an hour at the shop, leaving just before four o’clock.
Jeez, I thought I needed to hurry up for some reason.
Pondering where she’d check out next, Mira noticed something. This was one of Haxthausen’s main streets, and tons of passersby were headed back and forth on the shop-lined thoroughfare. The place was always busy, but something seemed different this time.
So what was different? Mira examined her surroundings to see if she could locate the source of her unease. As soon as she did, she heard several voices.
“Have you found them?”
“Nope. They’re not over here.”
“Gotcha. Where could they have gone?”
The speakers seemed to be looking for someone.
As she glanced around to see where the voices were coming from, Mira saw several people running back and forth, frantically searching the nearby area. Judging from how they looked, they were adventurers. Noticing that, Mira studied what was going on around her a bit further. As she did, she realized why she’d felt uneasy.
At first glance, this seemed like a peaceful street, bustling yet tranquil. But looking more closely, Mira noticed even more adventurers meticulously searching for something. They were scouring the area, leaving no stone unturned and occasionally running up to people on the street. Looking upward, Mira even noticed nimble-looking figures on the rooftops.
For whatever reason, a ton of adventurers were seemingly running around the city looking for someone.
What’s going on…?
Given the adventurers’ behavior and the state of current events, Mira guessed that Fuzzy Dice had done something. But the date specified on his calling card was the next night; it was still too early for him to show up. Still, the adventurers were definitely searching for someone.
Since the phantom thief always sent a calling card and always stuck to the time and date on it, Mira doubted he’d attempt a heist a day early. But the more she thought about it, the more clearly she realized that the date on each card was only the day he executed his heist. In other words, it wouldn’t be strange for him to case the scene or otherwise prepare for his heist the day before. Maybe the adventurers had caught sight of Fuzzy Dice working on his preparations.
As she contemplated this, Mira guessed that—rather than making vague presumptions—it’d be a whole lot quicker just to ask.
“Excuse me, could I ask a quick question?” Mira asked a man surveying the area from a nearby rooftop. She’d used Air Step to quickly spring up to him.
“Yeah, I don’t mind…” Turning to look Mira over, the man shouted in surprise, “Wait! You’re the girl from this morning!”
“Hrmm…this morning? That would mean… Were you one of the people gathered outside?”
The man was an adventurer, and he’d seen her earlier. From those two facts, Mira realized that he’d been involved in the incident in which her spirit mansion was surrounded. Whoever he was, he’d been there.
“Yeah, that’s right. I couldn’t believe you managed all that just through summoning. Then I heard you were the Spirit Queen, and that was an even bigger shock. It’s an honor to meet you again.” He casually shook Mira’s hand with undisguised joy at meeting a celebrity.
“Come on. I’m just another run-of-the-mill adventurer.” Despite attempting to sound humble, Mira broke into a small smile as she tried to hide her satisfaction.
“So what did you want to ask me? I’ll tell you whatever I can!” he said, changing the subject. All the while, he continued scanning the area carefully, just as he had been doing before.
Mira was impressed. “Okay, that’s good to hear. I appreciate it. So I wanted to ask…” she began, then asked him about what was on her mind: All these adventurers seemed to be looking high and low for someone. Who exactly were they searching for?
“Ah, well, let me tell you…” the man said, before explaining why so many of them were running around and how that began. According to him, the adventurers were all pursuing a water spirit.
Water spirit? Mira tilted her head.
It all had to do with Mira’s summoning publicity stunt that morning, he continued. Having learned how useful summoning could be—and excited at the prospect of contracts with evocations—several female adventures had sprung into action.
They’d managed to recruit a couple summoners and then begun preparing everything necessary to make contracts with spirits. Apparently, they’d been running around buying spirit crystals and deciding when and how to get to the locations where spirits resided. Unsurprisingly, their main focus had been obtaining a contract with a water spirit, like the one the Spirit Queen had demonstrated.
Then, the man said, an absurd rumor began going around: “Actually, a water spirit already seems to be in the city. And from what we’ve heard, it’s here to make a contract with a summoner.”
Occasionally, spirits did wander into populated areas. There were a couple different reasons why they might do that, but people usually just let them go around and do as they pleased, since they made good neighbors to humans.
However, the adventurers here in Haxthausen didn’t see it that way, especially not since it was a water spirit. They’d been in an uproar over the spirit’s desire to make a contract with a summoner. The spirit had freaked out and vanished.
“I…see.” Mira tried to hide the tense look on her face.
When the man first mentioned the water spirit who’d come to form a contract, she’d assumed it was just one of those spirits who occasionally showed up in cities, and that it had nothing to do with her. But the very next moment, it dawned on her that the water spirit might very well be Anrutine. Considering that she’d come to form a contract, that was even likelier.
Finally awake, Anrutine had probably begun walking around the city, hoping to run into Mira. As she did so, she’d have stumbled across some of the adventurers that Mira had proselytized to earlier. That certainly seemed likely.
“By the way, I was hoping to ask you about something, Spirit Queen… Since you’re bonded with the Spirit King, can you use your bond to detect nearby spirits, or use Undine to detect another water spirit that happens to be nearby? Or anything like that?” the man implored politely.
He seemed to believe that his long-awaited chance had finally come. Even if the adventurers used every tip and trick in their arsenal, finding a water spirit wouldn’t be easy. So, realizing how difficult it was to find a water spirit if it didn’t want to be found, the man was seeking Mira’s help. Who better to pitch in than the Spirit Queen, who knew more about spirits than anyone else thanks to her bonds with them?
He was right on the money. Hrmm… This one’s sharp.
The truth was, using the Spirit King’s blessing, Mira could detect spirits in her surroundings. The man was also right to presume that she could easily detect other spirits’ presences with the assistance of Undine.
Still, she hesitated to answer. She needed to take into account that the adventurers were looking for a water spirit they’d just happened to run into.
At any rate, it didn’t seem like any spirits were nearby at the moment. Using the Spirit King’s blessing, Mira wasn’t picking up on the presence of any water spirits, although it was still likeliest that the water spirit in question was Anrutine.
Talk about bad luck. Anrutine must’ve entered the Spirit King Network to get here as soon as possible but ended up attracting the other summoners’ attention by doing so.
That wasn’t to say that Mira couldn’t answer the man’s question. She could simply lie that the Spirit King’s blessing offered no such power. She was the only one with that blessing, so it wasn’t as if anyone could contradict her.
However, the man had also asked whether Undine could detect other spirits. That was something that even someone who wasn’t a summoner could ask a spirit and immediately learn about. So even if she answered that it wasn’t possible, he’d eventually figure out that she’d been lying. If something like that got out, it’d besmirch the good name of the Spirit Queen, and after Mira had finally built enough of a reputation to propagate summoning’s merits too. Allowing her name to be dragged through the mud would do a great disservice to the world of summoning.
That said, she didn’t want to answer truthfully.
Then again, she could tell the man that the spirit was named Anrutine, and that she’d traveled from far away to make a contract with Mira—so hands off. If she did, the adventurers would probably back off. Probably.
No good deed goes unpunished, huh?
Mira looked down the street. She shuddered as she saw several fierce-looking female adventurers searching for the water spirit.
Summoners usually couldn’t make contracts with two spirits with the same elemental affinity. But Mira could bend the rules with the help of the Spirit King’s power. What would the adventurers think if she was just honest and told them that she could double up on the number of contracts she made with spirits?
If she said that she had contracts with two different water spirits, they might be so shocked by the Spirit Queen’s capabilities that they’d hold her in even higher esteem.
After seeing the frenzied way they were searching, though, Mira felt that the chances of that were extremely low. They’d surely accuse her of inconsiderately hogging all the spirits. Or they’d say that it was unfair, especially since she’d inspired them to make contracts with spirits in the first place.
Mira could certainly imagine them saying things like that. Now that she thought about it, it was like allowing a man who already had a beautiful wife to have a cute girlfriend as well. There was no doubt about it; they’d hate her.
Realizing that, Mira racked her brain for a way to protect herself. She couldn’t lie, but she also couldn’t tell the truth. How could she possibly answer?
A few moments had passed since the man’s question when Mira finally spoke. “Hrmm. You’re right, I can detect spirits.”
She’d decided to confirm it. Whatever happened, if she lied then, there was a very high chance the man would see through it later. She really had no choice other than to tell the truth. The important part was what came next.
“Wow, I thought so!” the man exclaimed. “Then you can help us locate where the water spirit in this city is hiding, right? Of course, we’d be willing to pay for the service!”
Having gotten the answer he’d been hoping for, the man couldn’t help showing his excitement. Behind that excitement, however, lay a deep fear of the female adventurers who’d so frantically asked him for help.
Unfortunately, Mira couldn’t assist more than that. “No, I’m afraid not,” she quietly asserted, looking down furtively.
“S-seriously…? Why not?!” the man persisted.
“For those summoners’ sakes…” Mira answered in the lowest voice she could manage.
She continued in this same manner to appear as convincing as possible, telling the man that—while it would be easy for her to tell them the water spirit’s location—that wouldn’t help them with making a contract. Rather, it would make bonding with the spirit even more difficult.
“No way. How so…?” Perhaps precisely because he figured it’d be a walk in the park for the Spirit Queen to help find it, the man unintentionally drew a sharp breath upon hearing Mira’s solemn words.
“A meeting like that is meant to be fateful. You first work hard to find a spirit, and then—because you found it yourself—you feel true joy at having done so. Eventually, those ties blossom into a powerful bond that connects spirit and summoner. If I told them where the spirit is, I’d become involved in the whole thing. It wouldn’t be considered a true bond,” Mira said, before finally adding, “At least, that’s my theory.”
“I see… So that’s why.”
It seemed as if that somehow made sense to the man. A pensive look lingered on his face as he let out a sigh, hanging his head like he’d gotten ahead of himself.
“Now, it’s not always wrong to look for shortcuts. And you were doing that for your friends’ sakes, right? That was noble in its own right. It’s just that, in this case, there’s a reason for doing it the old-fashioned way,” Mira responded, then hopped down from the roof. She looked toward the man and said, “Here’s a little something to commemorate our meeting.”
Taking a spirit crystal from her Item Box, she tossed it up to him.
“Wow, is this a…? Thanks so much!”
That was an expensive, rather hard-to-find item. As a result of Mira’s publicity campaign that morning, they’d flown off store shelves. That meant they were now a valuable commodity quite likely to go up in price.
The man’s group hadn’t been able to get their hands on one. And considering how much the price had skyrocketed, they likely couldn’t have afforded one for some time. Now the man’s encounter with Mira had solved that problem.
Bursting with gratitude, the man waved goodbye to Mira as she walked away. Then he turned toward where his friends were waiting, spirit crystal in hand.
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