It had been a while since I'd had such peaceful time.
I hadn't done anything in particular, but the whole slime affair had clearly been taking a mental toll on me. Now that every last worry had vanished, my shoulders felt unbelievably light.
Citry was rummaging through a large bag right in front of me.
Her pink-blonde hair fell just past her eyes, and the eyes visible through those strands were identical to her older sister Rize's. She was slightly taller than Rize, but with gentler features around the eyes, and she always wore plain robes—so she was never mistaken for the older of the two.
Lovely, refined, and one who valued negotiation over violence.
An alchemist.
Her brilliance lay along a completely different vector from that of her thieving sister.
Able to handle any accident with ease, she could be called the most versatile member even within the Mourning Specter.
She would have been perfect, if not for her occasional habit of producing strange things and the rare flashes of fierce temper that reminded one of her sister.
Even after just returning from a long journey, she showed no signs of fatigue. Without looking away from her hands, she spoke.
"There was a Phantom of a powerful swordsman in the boss room..."
"Ah, so that's what happened..."
Those few words were enough for me to piece together the situation.
One of my childhood friends. The swordsman of the Mourning Specter, Luke Saikol, was a man who harbored a passion bordering on obsession for mastering the way of the sword.
Even at this stage he was absurdly strong, but Luke had the troublesome tendency of being unable to resist charging at any swordsman he deemed worthy.
This time, his opponent was a Phantom that appeared in the boss room of a Level 8 Treasure Hall. Luke's blood must have been boiling with excitement.
And once Luke got motivated, nobody could stop him. Or rather, he wouldn't even try to stop in the first place.
"Luke's old sickness has flared up again... Lucia and the others are going to stay with him a bit longer."
When the hell is he coming back...
"Did he win?"
"He was crushed. He said he's going to keep at it until he can win one-on-one. Once the Phantoms stop respawning, I think he'll come back... but it might take a while?"
Citry said with a thoughtful expression.
Luke, who was virtually unbeatable even in the Imperial Capital, got crushed? What kind of opponent was that? I absolutely did not want to meet it.
But if Rize was also away, that meant the Mourning Specter was down two members.
I knew better than anyone how strong Luke and the others were, but the Treasure Halls we explored were among the most dangerous around. I was a little worried.
"Was it okay for you to come back?"
"Leaving my sister aside, my role is mostly preparation... and I left Kirukilu behind, so it should be fine."
Kirukilu was a magical creature that Citry had been bringing along as a bodyguard lately.
It looked like a giant with a body made of gray stone, a sack with holes over its eyes, and a pair of briefs.
It was obviously a pervert. It looked human at first glance, but Citry insisted it was a magical creature, so a magical creature it must be. I had no idea what kind, though...
I tried not to think about its existence too much.
Incidentally, the name "Kirukilu" came from the fact that the creature could only say "kirukilu." It would scream "kirukilu" in a shrill voice while trampling enemies with its terrifying toughness and raw physical strength. Did thinking this was insane disqualify me as a Hunter...
Well, Citry was an excellent Hunter. A cautious person like her almost never miscalculated. All I could do was wait.
Then, at that moment, she pulled something out of the large satchel she'd been rummaging through.
The large khaki-colored bag was her trademark. Since Citry's combat power was directly tied to the number and variety of items she carried rather than frontline fighting ability, she always had a big bag slung over her shoulder.
What Citry pulled out with a beaming smile was a small ring.
A small ring-type Treasure Weapon fitted with a clear crystal.
"You even brought back a Treasure Weapon..."
"It wasn't something I found in the Treasure Hall, though..."
Where had she picked this up? I carefully pinched the ring Citry had placed on the table and examined it.
It was a dull silver ring. In place of a gemstone, a colorless, transparent crystal had been set—and despite being exquisitely cut, it was so clean you could clearly see through to the other side.
My hobby was collecting Treasure Weapons. Every Treasure Weapon that Luke and the others brought back passed through my hands at least once, and I frequently visited Treasure Weapon shops as well.
If there was one area where I truly outshone my companions, it was my knowledge of Treasure Weapons.
I recognized the one Citry had placed before me.
"...It's the ring-type 'Yearning for a Foreign Land.' Where did you find it?"
The Treasure Weapon I'd used to drive off Rabi-ken.
A Treasure Weapon that could stockpile a single spell: "Yearning for a Foreign Land."
The one I had was a pendant-type, but this was the ring-type variant.
"Yearning for a Foreign Land" wasn't a particularly rare Treasure Weapon. The crystal with its distinctive transparency was the core of the technology, and various forms existed.
Ring-type. Bracelet-type. Pendant-type. Circlet-type. There were even versions attached to staffs. The size of the crystal determined the upper limit of the magic that could be stored.
It was an unpopular item because of its trait of consuming a hundred times the magic power required to activate the spell when storing it, but for someone like me who had an exceptionally talented mage like Lucia as a companion, it was the kind of thing you could never have too many of.
Citry gave a faint smile as she watched me gaze at the ring with hungry eyes.
"I caused you a lot of trouble this time, Krai... so this is a souvenir for you."
"Trouble...?"
I hadn't been troubled at all—if anything, she'd helped me clean up the mess, and I wanted to thank her. What was she talking about?
Maybe it was about the Citri Slime escaping? That was my own careless doing anyway, and I had no intention of blaming her for trying to look out for me.
I hesitated about whether to point this out, but stopped just short of saying it. Citry would understand without being told.
This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. I gratefully accepted Citry's kindness.
"I haven't really been troubled, but if you're calling it a souvenir, I'll take it. It'll come in handy."
"Oh no, it's nothing. We're partners, after all."
I couldn't say anything more to Citry, who smiled so warmly.
...The truth was, I owed her a staggering amount of money.
§ The experiment had failed. But Citry Smart was not shaken by that fact.
Citry was an alchemist.
An alchemist's experiments were the kind where you accumulated failures and gradually approached the correct answer.
There were people in this world who, as if guided by heaven itself, arrived at the correct answer on the very first try. But Citry knew she wasn't that brilliant.
No—there was no need to be brilliant.
She had companions who would cover for her no matter how many times she failed.
The reason Citry, who had never been blessed with any standout talents among those required of a Treasure Hunter, could keep up with one of the top-class Parties in Imperial Capital Zebuldia was largely thanks to the efforts of her teammates.
Understanding this, Citry always made a point of staying humble.
Humble, recognizing diversity, respecting others, and never looking down on people needlessly.
Even if she were praised by millions and showered with accolades for her talents, it wouldn't have touched Citry's heart.
The annihilation of the Tower of Akasha.
While undergoing the post-incident debriefing, Citry waited with an unchanging expression for this pointless time to pass.
"There was nothing else, then?"
"No. What I submitted is everything. Was there something unnatural?"
"...No. The necessary information... it's all there."
Gaark made a face as if he were chewing on something bitter at Citry's answer.
She had handed over everything. Even the "Space-Time Bag" that Krai had wanted, along with the precious materials and research documents inside.
If she could have, she would have offered up the bodies of the junior disciples she actually coveted like nothing else. The only thing she'd pocketed was a single small ring.
Greed was a bad thing. Try to take too much, and the truly important things would slip through your fingers.
She had known this day would come.
The Empire's Relic Investigation Institute and the Knights would be terrified by the perfect evidence of that abhorrent research, and relieved that it had been prevented before anything came of it. That would put an end to this matter.
The one big failure this time was simply that the slime she'd created had undergone unexpected growth.
Recalling what Krai had told her, she furrowed her brow slightly.
That a slime could alter its properties based on its surrounding environment was basic alchemical knowledge, but she never imagined it would become capable of penetrating a specially sealed metal cylinder made of a special alloy.
It was Citry's mistake for underestimating the slime's capabilities. One wrong move, and it wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say the Capital would have been destroyed.
But she had entrusted the slime to Krai precisely as a contingency for situations like this.
Magical creatures were difficult to handle. Even their creator, Citry, didn't know everything about them.
She hadn't expected him to unleash it at that particular moment, but that was more like a little prank.
Looking at it from a certain angle, you could say it had actually saved Citry some trouble.
"...What about the member named Sofia?"
"She wasn't there when I arrived."
"Did you review the documents she submitted?"
"The bare minimum."
There was a faint hint of suspicion in Gaark's stern eyes. Citry smiled back at him.
It was perfect evidence. This time was different from last time—there was a real culprit to point to.
If necessary, she could even produce Sofia's corpse, but she really didn't want to do that if she could help it.
One of the Mourning Specter's rules was not to lay a hand on "civilians." She had no hesitation about breaking the law, but she did want to follow that particular rule.
Well, it probably wouldn't come to that. Intuition didn't count as "evidence."
The Zebuldia Empire was a nation of law. And among the Empire's upper echelons were Citry's clients.
If there was one area where Citry stood out among the Mourning Specter's members, it was—her financial power.
An alchemist was profitable. Knowledge, potions, created magical creatures—everything generated enormous wealth.
The reason Citry's laboratory existed inside the Clan House was because she had personally invested a massive sum during its construction. While wealth gravitated toward exceptional Hunters regardless of whether they were mages or swordsmen, that of an alchemist was on an entirely different level.
"It's unfortunate that Not was left unconscious. We're continuing treatment, but he shows no sign of waking. We might have learned more if we could interrogate him."
"It's... a truly tragic situation. He was up against an opponent he couldn't afford to hold back against. Please don't blame Krai. He was only trying to save me! Besides... Not Koclea was... well, he—"
Citry faltered slightly, lowering her gaze. Behind Gaark, Kaina watched with a strained expression.
Not Koclea had been permanently expelled from the Empire.
Not just the Capital—if he was found anywhere in the country, he could be killed without anyone batting an eye. And the one who killed him wouldn't face any charges.
That was also one of the reasons Citry had valued Not. Cleaning up after the fact was one thing, but manufacturing a culprit was an incredibly troublesome affair.
"...There are no external wounds. Healing magic has no effect. No damage to organs or brain. But he's unconscious, and his heart is nearly stopped. The attending healer said he'd never seen an injury like it."
"I believe he'll recover over time... It's likely just extreme exhaustion."
The cause was a lack of Mana Material.
Mana Material was the essential element that resided within all things, enhancing them—calling it fundamental to existence would not be an overstatement.
Under normal circumstances in this world, this would be impossible, but if, for some reason—for instance, having been drained by a bizarre slime—it dropped to virtually zero, a person could indeed come close to death.
He should recover over time, but he wouldn't retain his memories. And she'd already used him for human experimentation.
"How could someone end up in that state?"
"...Gaark. Are you asking me to reveal Krai's methods? You must be joking."
Citry's eyes narrowed as her smile remained fixed. Gaark fell silent.
Treasure Hunting was a life-or-death profession.
Its methods varied wildly, and having your techniques—especially your combat tactics—known by others was a significant disadvantage.
Probing into someone's methods without reason was a breach of etiquette.
Of course, in this case—the one who had done it was Citry's slime, so it didn't really matter. But Krai had definitely been the one who set it in motion, so she wasn't lying.
With an apologetic expression, she continued.
"I don't mean to say I don't trust you, Gaark—but the proper thing would be to ask Krai himself about that."
"...Ah, you're right. My apologies."
This was fine. Krai might, perhaps, reveal the power of the Citri Slime to Gaark.
But if that happened—it would mean Thousand Transformations had judged it to be the optimal course. She had no intention of resenting it. When that time came, she would let herself be caught with a smile.
That was what trust meant.
She stood and gave a small bow to Gaark and Kaina.
"If anything comes up, please let me know. The Tower of Akasha is my enemy—and the enemy of all mages and alchemists. It must be stopped at all costs."
"...Yes, we appreciate your cooperation. We'll contact you if anything arises. Will you be staying in the Capital for a while?"
"Yes. If anything happens, please reach out to Krai or my sister."
Either way, she'd imposed an unnecessary burden on Krai this time. She should apologize somehow. A single ring like that was nowhere near enough.
This time, her troublemaker of a sister had come back first. The lack of a brake was one of her sister's flaws.
She'd probably caused some trouble of her own.
Atoning for her sister's mistakes was one of a younger sister's duties.
Humming a tune as she left the reception room of the Explorer's Guild, Citry had already pushed all thoughts of the Tower of Akasha and Not from her mind.