Three days after she had left the Requiem City of Caranach, Mira arrived at the capital of Arkite Kingdom, Lunatic Lake in the middle of the day. Nostalgia filled her heart as a maid guided her to Solomon’s office.
At first, she was slightly afraid she would once again be surrounded by the maids and be used as a dressing doll, but she relaxed seeing that she arrived at the office without any of that happening.
After knocking on the door and waiting for a reply, the maid opened the door together with an 「Excuse me.」 When Mira entered the office, she heard the door silently being closed behind her.
「Welcome back. It’s been around a week, I guess. And well, did you find him?」
Only Mira and Solomon were inside the office. Solomon’s tone was the one he used amongst friends as he asked Mira, while at the same time throwing away the papers he was working on.
「Lamentably, he was not there but I found some traces. I’m positive those should prove to be a valuable lead.」
Saying that, Mira opened her item list and took out a few select items she had found inside the castle of the Ancient Temple. Solomon roughly pushed the remaining papers to the corners of his desk, then began examining some of the items Mira had begun piling up there.
「The rules to reincarnate an undead bird? And this is the method to cremate an immortal king, the location of the four season’s spirits… Just what is he trying to do?」
「I think you’ll know once you see this.」
Unable to arrive at an answer with the initial information Mira gave him, Solomon knitted his brow as he received the next item from Mira, examining it.
It was a list detailing the effects of different medicines and healing items when applied to a Carved Seal of the Death. There were all sorts of common items in the list, as well as high-level ones, but most of them had not been successful. There was only one item that had nothing written in the results field, the Brilliant Chalice.
Having been in this world for thirty years and having enjoyed it as a game for some time before that as well, Solomon was able to arrive at a conclusion with that information alone.
「Could it be that he’s looking for the Brilliant Chalice of Divine Decree?」
「Yes, I believe that’s the case.」
Mira nodded while replying in agreement. Afterward, Mira told Solomon what had happened on the sixth floor of the castle in the Ancient Temple Nevrapolis.
「Could it be a dear person to him…」
「Presumably.」
Their talk finished, they stayed in silence as they thought and worried about their good friend, Soul Howl. While they did not know what kind of change had happened to his mental state, it was clear that Soul Howl was wandering around everywhere, looking for the Brilliant Chalice.
「Since I couldn’t find him there, I guess it means he found some sort of lead and is continuing with his search. If we want to find him, I think it’s best if we figure out the secret of the Brilliant Chalice from these items and then follow his footsteps. What do you think?」
「That sounds like a good idea.」
The first step would be to figure out the places Soul Howl wanted to visit, then check each and every one of them. That was all they could do in their current state. Once the two arrived at that conclusion, they looked bitterly at the pile of items.
「Well, I feel like I’ll break down if I have to go through all this information. I think I should call someone more suitable for this job.」
Saying that, Solomon held the bell standing on his desk and let it ring twice. However, there was no sound coming from it. Solomon did not look bothered by that, as he turned his attention back to the items.
「Hey, is that a bell to call someone? I didn’t hear anything at all.」
The bell on the desk looked like a miniaturized version of a church’s bells, supported by pillars with the bell itself hanging off a string. Solomon said he was calling someone and moved as if he was ringing it, but Mira heard no metallic sound coming from it or any sound at all for that matter.
「Hm? Ah, it’s a Calling Bell. It’s basically a magic tool, its sound is only audible to the person I want to call. Its range is about one kilometer and the person I just called is…」
「His Majesty Solomon, how can I serve you today?」
While Solomon was still explaining, the composed voice of a man rang from the other side of the door. Mira had heard that voice before.
「There’s something I wanted you to help with, come in.」
Solomon’s voice changed to a king’s voice and beckoned the man to enter.
「Excuse me.」
The man opened the door and bowed. He was a blonde elf wearing a butler’s outfit, with a chic long black coat over it. He was Suleyman, Solomon’s aide. Seeing him again, Mira remembered what his abilities were.
He specialized in the knowledge of ancient history and spirits. Since his skills were mostly focused on knowledge rather than practical abilities, it was a type of abstract skill that could be classified as more of a type of rare item. Knowledge in itself is something that if one’s brain allows it, it can be remembered. Sources of information included both books and other people. But unless someone was extremely curious about a given topic, information on anything was so vast that it was practically impossible for someone to know everything about it.
But there was one person who had studied all of that information to an even higher level. That person was Suleyman.
「Welcome back, Mira. Have there been any favorable developments?」
「Yes, we were able to find a lead.」
As soon as Suleyman entered the room, he saw Mira and gracefully greeted her. Receiving his words, she turned to look at the table. Suleyman followed her gaze and found a large pile of documents at the end of it.
「So that’s what you mean with a lead. It looks like quite a large amount of documents.」
「As you can see, apparently one needs knowledge of ancient times and spirits to really understand these documents. That’s why I called you. We want to find out different places with this, as well as directions to them. If needed, I grant you permission to look through the A-rank Royal Library.」
During those thirty years, Suleyman had shown his talent at deciphering books and sorting information with anything that required his knowledge many times. And while his fighting skills were about the same as that of an average person with a bit of combat training, when it came to desk work, there was no one in all of Arkite Kingdom that could stand at the same level.
「Understood. If my knowledge can be useful for anything, I’ll give my body and soul to arrive at a favorable conclusion.」
Not only was he Solomon’s aide, but he was faithful and loyal to him as well. Cheerful that his knowledge would be of use, he took the countless documents from Solomon and placed them on a transporting magical tool, then left the office in high spirits saying 「I’ll be heading to the library now.」 Seeing all that play out, Solomon smiled satisfied.
「Now it’s only a matter of time until we get results.」
「You did a nice job pushing it all on to him.」
「I’d prefer to say that I put the right person to the right task. After all, it’s my job to put people to use.」
Mira shrugged seeing that Solomon was still the same he had always been, then threw herself on the couch that had pretty much become her favorite place. She twisted her body on top of it, searching for a place that would feel nice to sit on, then she opened her items list to take some apple ale out. As she did that, her eyes landed on the entry for the devil’s horns.
「Ah, I almost forgot. There’s one more thing I wanted to tell you, is that alright?」
「Hm? I don’t mind. What happened?」
Mira was still lying flat, only her face turned towards him. Solomon was tidying up the papers he had pushed to the corners of his desk as he replied.
「Well, there was a devil on the lowest floor of the underground graveyard. Do you know where that could’ve come from?」
「…A devil, you say?」
When he heard that one word, Solomon’s expression turned grim for a second.
「Yes, it appeared out of nowhere. It was a third-rank Earl. It decided to attack me, so I defeated it. Why was there a devil down there?」
「I see, it makes a bit of sense though.」
After a brief pause, Solomon pushed the papers away once again, then took a tightly sealed file from a drawer. Mira wondered what that was and stood up, looking at the file Solomon had just opened.
「I don’t know how much you know about this world, but the devils were said to have been exterminated in a war ten years ago.」
「Mhm, I heard that much.」
「You adapt quickly, huh. But well, as you saw, the truth is that there are still remaining devils lurking underground, I heard they seem to be plotting something. These are the reports on that matter. They encompass the places they attacked and the traces they left.」
Saying that, Solomon took out multiple documents from the file and lined them up. They all had Top Secret stamps on them.
「Hmm, Top Secret I see.」
「Yes, because everyone believes they have been exterminated. Only the top brass of other countries and unions know they’re still alive.」
「So that’s the situation… Maybe I should’ve silenced them then…」
Learning from Solomon that the matter was much more important than she had imagined, she began thinking about Emera and the others. Hearing Mira’s mutter, Solomon’s expression changed entirely.
「Wha…! Did you tell anyone about this?!」
Solomon jerked his face upwards, looking desperately at Mira who was standing beside the table looking at the documents. Mira replied, finding it strange how impatient Solomon looked to hear the answer.
「Don’t fret that much. And I didn’t tell anyone. There were other people with me when the devil attacked.」
With that as a preface, Mira quickly told him how she met Takuto and then Emera and the others. How she guarded them until they arrived at the Dark Aid’s Mirror, then on the sixth floor she searched for Soul Howl. She only found more clues, so they headed back, and on their way back the devil appeared there.
Mira told the story from start to finish and Solomon seemed convinced as he stood up nodding.
「I see, I have a rough idea of the situation now. I guess I just have to give them a warning. You said it was the guild Écarlate Carillon and the young Takuto, correct?」
「Yes, that’s it. Emera, Asbar, Fricca and Zef. Also their leader Sero.」
「I understand. I’ll go over there to inform the Union about the situation, wait for a moment.」
Saying that, Solomon left the office and headed to the communications room. That place had equipment that made it possible to have bilateral communication at long distances. That was another fruit produced by Magic Engineering to compensate for the lack of communication introduced when the game disabled the global chat feature.
Since Solomon was gone and Mira was left alone, Mira took the documents on the desk and sat down on a chair, leisurely reading them.
The first eyewitness report was in the West Continent, the appearance of a dark person with horns inside the forest ravine above the cliffs, it The first witness report came from the west of the continent. There was a troop of knights training in the woods and one of them saw a black figure with horns observing them from a cliff. As soon as the knight saw the figure, it disappeared. Due to how far away it was, it was impossible to tell with full certainty that it was a devil.
Mira skimmed through other reports and saw that the biggest part of them were the same, easily faked stories. There were only a few sparse credible accounts mixed in there.
Finishing her quick check on the documents, Mira stood up and walked to the window to kill time by watching the scenery of the capital.
(This is quite the luxurious vantage point.)
Below that massive glass window was the crescent moon-shaped lake that was the center of the Capital City Lunatic Lake. The city grew around the lake, so from Mira’s standpoint, she could see the lively city panning out across her view. But since the castle was in the middle of the city, that was only half of it. Heaving a sigh of admiration, Mira’s eyes focused on the one building that stood out amongst the rest. From what the driver Garret had told her, that was Arkite Academy, one of the Five Pillar Institutions.
(It’s even more majestic than the university I went to.)
Mira smiled bitterly seeing that school building that stood like a palace, reminiscing of her college life filled with meetings and farewells.
The Arkite Academy. It consisted of three large buildings, though it was not as big as the royal palace. The white and yellow building was for the new students, the red building for senior students, and the black one for specialized studies. Because of Arkite’s characteristics, there were many departments in the academy focusing on different types of spells as well, more so than in other countries, so on that front, it was the best in the entire continent. With that, there were many exchange students from other countries there and the nearby inns would always be occupied by the sons of nobles in a specific age range. That was Arkite Academy, the place anyone who aspired to be a spellcaster would wish to attend to.
(Oh right, I wonder if Takuto is going to school.)
Takuto’s carefree smile popped up in Mira’s head. He was like a little brother she always wished she had. As she imagined him working hard to become a spellcaster, Solomon returned to the office.
「Did it go well?」
「It seems everything is alright.」
Mira was still leaning on the window, only turning her head a bit to ask him that. Solomon looked relieved as he grabbed his chair and sat down on it.
「I spoke with the leader of the Union, he said there’s not even rumors about a devil around the city.」
「Hmm, I see. I also don’t believe them to be the kind of person to blabber about it randomly.」
Emera and the others were high level adventurers, they should be aware of the effect that kind of information would have if it spread, and their leader, Sero, did not give the impression of someone that willingly causes chaos, at least from what Mira noticed while talking to him. After hearing Solomon’s reply, Mira smiled in relief realizing they could be trusted that much.
「Well, that’s that. I hope you won’t tell this to anyone else as well. There’s already a lot of rumors and stories out there, so any first-hand accounts would be quite the definitive evidence.」
「I understand. But from what you say, I gather you also don’t know why the devil appeared on the sixth floor?」
「Yeah, we don’t have enough information for that. We still don’t know for sure what they want or why either. But well, I guess at least I should send a team to investigate the sixth floor of the underground graveyard. I’m curious what a devil wanted down there.」
「That sounds like a good idea.」
All she had learned in the Ancient Temple was related to the Wiseman Soul Howl. She had not taken any time to see if there was anything there related to the devil. So if the place was properly investigated, they might find something useful. Mira agreed with his idea and left the window to sit on the sofa, leaning back on it and stretching.
「Anyway, the clothes you have now resemble your robe but are slightly different as well. Did you buy a replica?」
「Yes, I found one in Caranach.」
Solomon looked at Mira pleasantly loosening her body and her clothes caught his eye. In reply, Mira stood up with a boastful expression and puffed her chest. The robe replica was made of cheap materials and had a plain design, it was much inferior compared to the original. But the colors and shapes were identical, so it filled the only important requirement of looking good on the outside for Mira.
「I see, I see. It does suit you really well.」
She looked like a little girl playing make-believe, pretending to be one of the Nine Wisemen she looked up to. His words were filled with that sentiment as Solomon grinned.
「I know. Wearing the style of clothes I’m so used to is the best after all.」
Oblivious to Solomon’s actual thoughts, Mira put on a triumphant face as she fell back on the sofa with her limbs outstretched. At the same time, she remembered that she had left the original back at the tower. After she went to the toilet for the first time in that body, she strengthened her resolve and barged into the bathroom. Her Sage Robe had been dirtied with the blood of goblins and other substances, so she had left it in the dressing room.
(Going back to the tower to get it back is up is now in the list then.)
Thinking that, she began planning what to do from now on. Going after Soul Howl would require figuring out where he was going from the documents she gathered. That was the only hurdle they had at the moment.
In that case, she could start by getting everything she needed from the warehouse in the tower. Then, her thoughts switched to what happened on her way back from the Ancient Temple. She had found a clue that might lead her to another one of the Nine Wisemen.
「Oh right, oh right, there’s one more thing I’d like to ask from you, is that fine?」
「Sure, what is it?」
As soon as Mira asked, Solomon agreed to reply, lightly kicking his desk as he remained in his chair, letting the momentum from the kick carry it to the window. Solomon spent most of the time absorbed with paperwork, so a conversation with a friend from thirty years ago was just what he wanted.
「This is something I heard not too long ago, but apparently there have been cases of spirits being attacked? Do you know anything about that?」
She had also asked Leoneil in Caranach’s Spellcasters Union, but since Solomon was the king, he probably knew even more. When Solomon heard the question, he looked a bit shocked and surprised as he replied.
「Heh, so you even heard of that… Of course I know. As far as the information we have goes, it all started around nine years ago in the thick forest north of Grimdart, almost all of the spirits living in those woods disappeared.」
「Almost… all of them?」
The Grimdart Empire was established on the north of the continent, a country revering the God of Justice. It is one of the Three Gods’ Countries and is also referred to as the Land of Knights. Further north from there, a large expanse of dense forest exists, around three times larger than all of Arkite. Such a large forest is a rare occurrence by itself and it was normally inhabited by a rather high number of spirits.
「It’s such a large area so we obviously couldn’t search through all of it, but the places where the spirits were known to live in were completely devoid of them now. At that time, no one knew what caused it and Grimdart spearheaded the investigation of the cause. But as time passed, similar stories came from all the countries around there. At first, it was thought to be caused by a large outbreak of Elemental Eaters or some subspecies of them… but one day, a research team that was sent to investigate the remaining spirits found a group of people trying to capture the spirits. The group were armed-like knights and were carrying many captured spirits trapped in cages of some sort.」
「Hmph… So the damage is quite extensive then.」
From the Wind Spirit’s words, quite a large number of spirits were being attacked. With Solomon’s story, she knew that the damage was quite extensive and a cruel situation. On top of that, the research team that found the armed group did not have many members able to fight, so they deemed it reckless to engage in combat and decided to return with that information.
「All the countries are looking into it on their own now, but we still have no idea why they are targeting the spirits like that. We investigated slave trading routes as well, but there were no spirits listed anywhere. All we found out is that the group attacking them calls themselves Chimera Clauzen.」
「But anyway, it’s quite incredible that you already know about this matter. Who told you about it?」
This was another serious matter which was not made public yet, but it was not as heavily guarded either. The Union’s A-rank adventurers were informed of it and there was a bounty for anyone who could offer any useful information. Solomon figured it was one of the members of the guild Mira mentioned, but her reply was completely different.
「I met a Wind Spirit on my way back. That’s how I heard about it.」
「Heh… a Wind… Spirit huh…」
Mira said that nonchalantly, but Solomon seemed to be taken aback as he slowly replied. Solomon was of the warrior class, so he could neither see nor talk with spirits. He was aware of the possibility of Mira talking with one, but her reply still came entirely out of the left field.
「A black cat shikigami was playing with it too.」
She added that with a playful tone, then proceeded to tell the entire story. How the Wind Spirit told her about the other spirits being attacked. How it had been attacked too, but the black cat Shikigami: Nyanmaru saved it. How the shikigami is still at the Wind Spirit’s side now, guarding it. When she told most of it and finished her story, both Mira and Solomon took notice of the same points.
「Nyanmaru… it reminds me of Kagura, I wonder if there’s some connection.」
「I don’t know. The Wind Spirit didn’t meet the caster. But well, I have no leads on where to go from there, but maybe it’d be interesting to look into it more? Though, I did tell the leader of the Spellcaster’s Union in Caranach about this as well, so they’re investigating there as well.」
「That’s true. An Onmyoji Master that can fight against Chimera Clauzen does pique my interest. If you have told Leoneil already about this, that will make things move faster. I’ll call him later and give him more spies to look into this.」
With the sunlight peeking through the window shining on him, Solomon smiled as if he had thought up a joke and began rocking on the chair enjoying himself and making its back squeak.
That was the last thing Mira wanted to ask Solomon, so afterwards, they just engaged in idle chatter, non-important topics. But spending time talking randomly with a friend from so long ago was something truly worthwhile for Solomon who had been so swamped with work.
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