No way—the King of Fire Death at a time like this? That couldn't be right.
"If he really is the King of Fire Death, he must know what Lord Yomido looks like, right?"
"Of course."
"What does he look like?"
"A cat-person."
"...Is he really the King of Fire Death?"
"Of course. Well, normally he works as a humble outdoor vendor."
"Not as the King of Fire Death?"
"That job is for when someone enters my dungeon. Hasn't happened in a few hundred years, though."
"It hasn't?"
"It's scorching in there. No one in their right mind would want to go in."
What kind of place even has a dungeon?
Oh well.
"So, about that ring I received..."
"The ring? Ah, that one. Convenient, isn't it? Soak it in water and it produces one more every hour."
The outdoor vendor says this like it's nothing.
"That's the thing—the copies it produces also spawn another one after an hour."
"...? So after two hours, there'd be four of them?"
"Yep."
"Seriously... that's bad."
"If you dropped it in the ocean or something, it'd be the end of the world."
I said flatly, and the open-air merchant scratched at his turban.
"Don't worry about it. When something like that happens, something will come along and deal with it. The world has those kinds of defenses. Protections, you could say."
"Is that so?"
"If it didn't, this world would've been destroyed long ago."
"...I see."
I more or less understood, and that was enough for me.
"Still, that doesn't mean you should just leave it alone. Hand over the ring."
"O-Okay."
I took the ring out of my pouch and handed it over.
The open-air merchant took it and held the ring up.
"Hmm. The Relic you used was too high-ranked, wasn't it?"
"Can you do something about it?"
"Yeah, easy. All you have to do is lower the Relic's rank. Let me see... ah, here it is."
He pulled a small black box from inside his coat and placed the ring inside.
When he closed the box, a red line glowed along its side.
"What is that?"
"This box just happened to be a Relic that lowers other Relics' ranks."
"Lowers a Relic's rank!?"
"It's a failure. It only works on things that fit inside the box, so the options are pretty limited."
"Well, that's true."
Things you could fit in a palm-sized box were indeed limited.
"But I put a lot of material and money into it — it's the only prototype I ever made. It felt like such a waste to throw away, so I held onto it. Never thought the day it'd actually come in handy would arrive…"
"Are you sure? Using something that important?"
"If it's useful, that's exactly what I'd want."
"Ah, thank you so much."
"Besides, there's the fact that I gave you a defective product for free earlier. So don't worry about it."
Hearing that, I felt a little better.
"But why did you make something so weird in the first place…"
"It was for dungeon traps. Someone had me working on all sorts of things back then."
"I see…"
But a trap that lowered a Relic's rank was something I absolutely did not want.
"On top of that, it's a Legacy, so it can only be used once. And just making one this size cost around a billion oro at the time, materials included."
"A b-b billion!?"
"Anything bigger would easily surpass ten billion."
"Ten billion…"
"For a trap, the cost-to-benefit ratio is absolutely terrible."
"Yeah, you're right…"
While we were talking, the red line on the side of the box disappeared and the lid opened automatically.
The street vendor produced the ring. It looked perfectly ordinary.
Then the box crumbled to pieces and vanished.
A billion gone, just like that.
"Want to try it out?"
"If you need liquid, I've got some."
"Then pour it into this cup."
I filled a glass cup from the contents of my canteen, the Relic known as Crescent Moon Vessel.
I dropped the ring into the cup.
While we waited, the street vendor and I chatted about various things.
He traveled all over the world and knew about a great many rare dungeons.
"There really are all kinds of dungeons out there, huh."
"A lot of it comes down to the local geography, honestly. Oh — it doubled."
About an hour seemed to have passed. First, the ring had split into two.
"Another hour, then…"
"Looks that way…"
"——That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask."
"What is it?"
"What exactly is the King of Death?"
It had been on my mind for a while now. What even was the King of Death?
"…Ah, that. Let me think…"
"If you can't talk about it, that's fine."
"No, it's not like that. Wof, do you know about the two opposing energies that circulate in this world?"
"Positive and negative energy, right?"
"That's it. These two energies have to circulate in balance. If one side tips too far, the balance breaks and the world becomes unstable. The King of Death governs the negative energy. Well, as long as it circulates properly, there's really no need for them to do anything."
"So there are people who govern the positive energy too, then? That means there's a king who stands opposite the King of Death... right?"
It would be strange if there wasn't.
"That's right. The King of Life."
"The King of Life?"
"Yeah, I've hardly ever met them."
"It's my first time hearing about it too. Is the King of Life inside a dungeon or something?"
"I'm not sure about that. But they're not undead, so they're not a monster."
That made sense.
Still, I'd learned something interesting. A King of Life to stand against the King of Death.
We chatted about other things too. And in the blink of an eye, an hour had passed.
"...Three now."
"A success."
The increase was just one. But now they were growing by exactly one per hour.
"Thank you so much."
"No, no, I'm relieved too. I'm sorry about that — handing you something so terribly subpar."
"Not at all. I got to hear all sorts of interesting stories."
"Well, that's great. Alright, errands are done. Guess I'll head out then."
"You're leaving already?"
That was awfully sudden.
"Actually, I was on my way to the capital."
"Oh, is that so."
"It just happened to be on the route. Well, see you around."
"Y-yes. Let's meet again sometime."
And so, the street vendor departed from Hydrangea.
"Ah... I forgot to ask their name."
I only realized that after I'd gone back home.
Anyway, I placed the ring into a water-filled bowl in the kitchen of my room.
If I left it like this, it would safely increase in number. I'd have to let everyone know later that it was ready to use.
Thinking about that, I lay down on the bed.
"......What should I do?"
There were things to do, of course, but today was a day off.
Well, just falling asleep right now was an option too, but honestly, that felt like a bit much.
"Wof, are you back?"
While I was dithering like that, something flew into the room.
It was Mineha.
"I'm here."
When I responded, Mineha hovered above me on her translucent wings, looking down.
She said it with a bit of a wry smile.
"Hey, you. Free?"
"I'm free, yes."
I answered with an exasperated tone. It was obvious just by looking that I was free.
If I said I wasn't free now, that'd just be obnoxious.
"I'm heading to a dungeon on a job — you coming?"
"A job... which dungeon?"
"The Earth Dungeon."
Earth, huh.
If I remembered right, it was the most popular of the four dungeons in the area... but I'd never actually been there.
I got up from the bed.
"Sure. Let's go."
Maybe I'd check it out while I had the chance.
And just like that, I agreed in a light mood.