The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 11, page 17
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“So, um, could you please let us leave here alive?”
Now that things had come to this, I decided I’d just ask in the most direct way I could think of. Being indirect about it and getting a vague answer would be a pain, and if he wasn’t going to let us leave, I figured he’d probably be honest about it.
Chief Jean’s eyes widened and he burst into laughter. “Pfft! Is that what you were worried about? Relax; you’ll be leaving in one piece. You’re Wolf’s favorite, aren’t you? Who knows what he’ll do to me if I vanish you.”
That piqued my interest. “Does Wolf know you’re...?”
Jean shook his head, anticipating my question. “No, he doesn’t. I wouldn’t mind telling him, really, but that’d only increase his workload. You know how serious he is about his job, despite how he might seem. Can’t go making things harder on him...though that’s a little rich, coming from me.”
So Wolf didn’t know that Jean was the chief of this organization. That was surprising; I thought he would have. Or maybe he really did and just acted like he didn’t? That was the kind of man Wolf was. I guess I’d never know without asking him directly...but it was best not to poke my nose too far into these things. I had an extremely strong hunch that it would kick up more trouble than I needed. I didn’t want to get saddled with more than what I already had to deal with, so I’d just feign ignorance as much as I could.
Oh, wait, was this exactly how Wolf felt? I supposed I’d never know for sure. Not unless something went terribly wrong.
“I guess that’s true,” I said. “By the way, I’m here on orders from him to come pick you up. I know you might have your hands full with the organization, but it’d be great if you could finish up your work and come with us to Maalt.”
“You don’t say? First I’m hearing about this. I actually gave out orders to contact Wolf and tell him to come see me. I wanted to get more details on what’s happening over in Maalt.”
“Are you talking about the dungeon?”
“Yeah. The Tower and the Academy are there too right now, aren’t they? You might think that has nothing to do with you and your companions, but you’d be wrong, you know.”
Hmm? Wait, what? What did that have to do with the reason we were targeted by assassins?
Jean paused. “We can get to that later. There’s a lot I need to explain to you, and I imagine you have a decent amount to tell me too. Let’s take this elsewhere. Best if everyone’s caught up at once, no?”
Jean pointed to Lorraine and the others in the arena. I nodded, headed down the spectator stands, and beckoned everybody to come over.
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“I didn’t sense him at all...” Lorraine murmured to me.
She was looking at Jean, who was walking ahead of us, leading the way through the colosseum’s hallways. We ascended to ground level, then kept going up. According to Jean, his office was on the highest floor, which also had rooms for royalty and nobility that offered a spacious view of the aboveground arena.
Common folk could spectate from those rooms too, but if you wanted to do that, you had to pay a year’s worth of rental fees for it. When I heard how much that was, I firmly decided that spectating from the stands was much better. I kind of felt like the noble rooms, while very posh-feeling because of their location, were a bit too far to get a good view of the fights. Though, since they had magic viewing equipment, they probably had it better anyway. Still, I personally preferred watching fights in the flesh, with my own two eyes. Was that plebeian of me? It was anyone’s guess.
“I didn’t notice him either,” I said. “And neither did Spriggan.”
The ones following Jean right now were me, Lorraine, and Spriggan. The other three—Goblin, Vaasa, and Fuana—stayed in the underground arena. Fuana said she wanted to practice the ancient magic Lorraine had taught her, and Vaasa was going to act as her target dummy. Goblin was operating the arena’s mana barriers.
Apparently, it was questionable whether Fuana would be able to get the hang of Lorraine’s spells, so since Lorraine had pointed out flaws in her Spelldrain Armor which could be fixed immediately, Fuana had said she was going to be doing that as well.
Despite appearances, she seemed to be quite the researcher, just like Lorraine. From her personality, and her entrance earlier, I’d somewhat made light of the whole “Spellwise” thing, but now that I’d revised my opinion of her, I realized that maybe the title wasn’t so far from the truth.
“Didn’t notice a thing,” Spriggan said. “Can’t help that though. It’s the chief. You should hear what I had to go through when I joined the organization.”
“You were searching for work that wasn’t just brawling, weren’t you?” I asked. “Looking for companions.”
That had been my impression, but I was a little off the mark.
“That’s not exactly wrong, but those things weren’t so simple to find for me. I made a living fighting in arenas while I looked for more ordinary work. But one day, a strange man called out to me. Asked me if I’d like to make the best of my strength. Got a lot of offers like that at the time, asking me to become their lackey. From the leaders of bandit gangs to nobles who wanted an errand boy. None of that was of any interest to me. But this man was different. Said I’d have a lot of ‘colleagues.’”
“By ‘colleagues,’ you mean...”
“Yes, ability wielders. At the time, I knew my strength was unusual, but I hadn’t realized it was a ‘unique ability’ yet. Nobody exactly researched that kind of thing, and most people knew nothing about it in the first place. And back then, my ability was a lot weaker too. I couldn’t stay giant for long, and my limbs were usually the most I could manage. Though, my strength was still far beyond an average person’s, so I never lost in the arena.”
That proved my suspicion that even unique abilities needed training and that they weren’t just convenient get-strong-fast tricks. It still sounded as if the old man had been a monstrous outlier in his younger days too though...
“Although,” he continued, “I didn’t understand what ‘colleagues’ meant back then, so I turned him down. That’s when he wouldn’t take no for an answer, beat me up, dragged me somewhere, and taught me what he meant by ‘colleagues.’ He showed me people who caused supernatural phenomena to occur without the use of mana, spirit, or divinity, and that’s when it clicked for me. Afterward, that man, those colleagues, and I formed the organization together...and here I am today.”
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“Now then, sit, sit. You too, Gilli.”
After reaching his office, Jean sat down and beckoned for all of us to do the same.
The soft leather couch was clearly high quality and made it obvious that he earned a comfortable living. Then again, considering he ran a huge establishment like this in the capital, there was no way he didn’t.
His public work alone had to make a killing. Colosseums were where coin flowed like water. Gambling was allowed, so long as it was reported and approved. Of course, some people did it under the table anyway—mostly the type who made a living in the shadows—but Jean and his organization were those people. It was easy to imagine that they made their money above and under the table. I wondered if they paid taxes. I kind of doubted it.
We sat on the couch, and Gilli signaled someone who looked like a serving lady. She began to prepare us all drinks.
It was black tea, and from the scent, quite high quality. I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the beverage, since it was a favorite of Lorraine’s that I’d shared with her from time to time, but that didn’t change the fact that it was expensive. I didn’t drink it often. I liked the taste, though.
After making sure everybody had their tea, the serving lady bowed and left the room.
Jean waited for her footsteps to fade away before speaking again. “So...where should I begin?”
Lorraine stopped him. “First things first. Rentt and I came here to ask you—that is, your organization—to not send assassins after us again. Could we settle that before continuing?”
She was being very direct, but she must have decided that was likely for the best when it came to dealing with Jean. After all, during our walk here, I’d given her the gist of the conversation I’d had with him in the spectator stands. I’d also told her about my read on Jean as a person. Naturally, that wasn’t conclusive evidence, but it did seem pretty clear that he wasn’t planning on killing us. That was probably one of the reasons why Lorraine had been so direct—she’d wanted to confirm that.
“Ah, yes,” Jean said. “I suppose we should get that out of the way first. We won’t send anyone after you again, of course. I said this to Rentt earlier, but we received faulty intelligence from an internal source. Put simply, we had a spy among the court, but they betrayed us. We believed their information, one thing led to another, and it was determined that you needed to be taken care of.”
“Why would...?”
Lorraine sounded as perplexed as I was. Why had things turned out this way? I remembered that the old man had said the organization was aware that the second princess had told us about the scepter and the state of the kingdom. However, that information had come from a diviner. The organization had surmised that we’d been ordered to transport the new scepter, which was why they’d attempted to stop us.
But I wasn’t sure why they wanted that. Without the scepter, the kingdom would see an increase in the number of undead. Wasn’t bringing a new one back a good thing?
I knew that Gisel, the backer of the first princess who’d hired the organization, didn’t want the second princess to accomplish the feat and get the credit, but... Well, maybe that really was all there was to it?
“You’ve heard about the scepter, right?” Jean asked.
“Yes,” Lorraine replied. “We were told it was a divine treasure with the ability to dampen unclean energy throughout the kingdom. Would its presence be a problem for your organization? I suppose you’d get more work if the kingdom didn’t have it...”
Not only them—adventurers would get more work too. Now that Lorraine had pointed it out, I realized a man in Jean’s position had a lot to gain. His day job running the adventurer’s guild and side job running the organization would see an influx of business.
However, Jean shook his head. “No, that’s not the case. I can’t deny that’s what the result would be, but we put more than enough bread on the table with what we handle already. Although, I can’t say the idea doesn’t have a little appeal to me. In certain ways, it would dramatically improve the lives of adventurers. Well, the lower-class ones, that is.”
As matters stood, skilled adventurers could already earn a decent income, but lower-class ones similar to my old self and Rina barely made enough to guarantee themselves a bed to sleep in for the night. On the other hand, if the number of undead monsters were to increase, so would the amount of bounties put out on them, which could alleviate that problem. More of the weakest class of undead, such as skeletons—or even small skeletons—meant more available income.
You didn’t see those types too much around Yaaran, but that was probably because of the scepter. They were weak monsters, so I doubted it took much for it to purge them. It was a shame that process didn’t leave their magic crystals behind, since they were still worth enough to make a living, but there was no use mourning over what never technically existed in the first place.
Still, without the effect of the scepter, those types of undead might pop up more and more. With the boost in income, paying for a roof over your head every night would no longer be an issue. That sounded great—for people like me, that is. For an ordinary person, weak undead were plenty threatening. There was no question that we were all better off without them.
“So...why try to stop a new scepter from being delivered?” Lorraine asked. “Ah, and I should mention that we never accepted that request to begin with, so you wouldn’t have needed to assassinate us regardless.”
The request that had actually been made of us was to visit the Holy Tree. What purpose that would serve I had no idea, and we hadn’t formally accepted yet anyway. I’d made the best of my wits and manners to keep the request a respectful arm’s length away, and that was where it still was. There was no way I was going to take it if it meant painting a target on my back for assassins. I wasn’t near that strong enough, and I knew it. In fact, I was currently the weakest person in the room...
Now that I’d remembered who I was surrounded by, I found myself feeling kind of down. They made me wonder if I’d really grown stronger at all.
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“First,” Jean said, “we should establish that the presence of the scepter is preferable to the alternative. It contributes hugely to the peace of Yaaran.”
We knew that, of course. I was about to point that out, but Jean held a hand up to stop me and continued.
“However, that is from the perspective of people other than the wielder. The current scepter is draining the king’s life, and...oh? From your lack of surprise, I take it you are already aware?”
Perhaps it had been in-the-know information at the outset, but I got the feeling it was less confidential these days. Then again, we hadn’t had a clue until the second princess told us about it...
It was likely that the upper nobility and top brass of the kingdom knew. Maybe that was why Yaaran’s royalty was so much more revered than that of other countries. Without them, everyone living in Yaaran would be worse off—not only commoners, but nobles too.
If the undead ran rampant over their territories, who knew how much more expensive it would be to deal with them compared to how things were now? Other countries already bore such costs as a matter of course, so it wasn’t as if the kingdom would cease to function, but there was obviously no need to go out of the way to create that burden.
They could always supplant the throne and take the scepter by force, sure...but the high elves had gifted it to the current royal family. If they were replaced, I doubted the high elves would be willing to continue maintaining it, or offer available solutions if problems like the current one cropped up. It created a situation where the royal family needed to survive to retain the scepter, even if that meant only as figureheads.
That had me wondering if that was where Yaaran’s tranquility—especially among its nobles—came from. It was a surprising thought.
“Yes,” Lorraine replied. “The second princess told us.”
Jean nodded. “I see. While the king’s condition isn’t public, it isn’t much of a secret either. As for the scepter...its effect is known, but only a select few are privy to its current condition. Considering your positions, I suppose the second princess is the only source you could have learned of it from.”
“How did you find out?”
“I...technically found out from the spy I mentioned earlier. The scepter itself, Kars showed me in his younger days, but I didn’t know of the risk it posed back then. I went to see him as soon as I found out, but he just waved me off and said there was ‘no other option,’ the fool. Of course he has another damn option.”
Kars? Wait a minute, was that...?
“By ‘Kars,’” Lorraine said. “Do you mean...?”
“The king. Karsten Reshon Yaaran. I’ve known him since he was little snot. I’m his senior by quite a bit, though.”
He was older than the king? I thought I remembered the king being sixty-five. Well, given Jean’s famous exploits, some simple math put him at over eighty, so I guessed that made sense. He looked way too young for that, though.
Due to the nature of the job, adventurers boasted far greater physical ability and mana reserves than your average person, and that generally made it more difficult for them to age. Even still, Jean was something else. I guessed being a legendary figure meant he was an outlier among adventurers too.
“So?” Lorraine asked calmly. “What did you mean by another option?”
“Fixing the scepter, of course. His condition is only the way it is because it broke in the first place. Still, easier said than done. He’s not willing to part with it, not even briefly. And the high elves wouldn’t leave the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree even if we bothered asking them. We were looking at a dead end. But then Gisel came out and said that the Tower had found a way to repair the scepter that would be quick and that wouldn’t require it to be taken out of the king’s possession.”
Lorraine immediately leaned forward. “How?”
Repairing a broken divine treasure... If such a method really existed, then it would absolutely attract Lorraine’s interest. When she got like this, most people would instinctively shy back a little, either afraid or put off.
However, Jean answered her without batting an eye. “The materials that go into the creation of a divine treasure are said to be extremely special. They’re nothing like regular magical items. Only after a large number of these precious components are used and the finest crafting techniques are applied can a divine treasure be created. That’s why, aside from the ones created directly by the gods, races such as the high elves and dwarves have been known to create them on rare occasions.”
I tilted my head. “We know that much, but what are you trying to say?”
“Of those special materials, it is said that one stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is usually impossible to obtain, and the reason so many who seek to create a divine treasure cannot. According to Gisel, the Tower made a breakthrough and discovered what it was. What’s more, the once-in-a-lifetime chance to obtain it has arrived. Right now, in this era, in this kingdom.”
Lorraine looked disappointed. “That...sounds like a scam. ‘The item you want is up for grabs right here, right now! Don’t miss out. Make your decision immediately!’”
Jean laughed and nodded. “You’re exactly right. But unless you’ve forgotten, our organization is composed of ability wielders. It’s not far-fetched that we’d have someone who could discern if a person is telling the truth, no?”
Lorraine’s expression changed again—to realization, this time. The human mind was exceedingly complex, and it was often difficult to tell what somebody was thinking. Forcing a person to do something with magic wasn’t easy, and tampering with memories was straight-up impossible, yet we’d seen Siren do just that with her ability.
“So, um, could you please let us leave here alive?”
Now that things had come to this, I decided I’d just ask in the most direct way I could think of. Being indirect about it and getting a vague answer would be a pain, and if he wasn’t going to let us leave, I figured he’d probably be honest about it.
Chief Jean’s eyes widened and he burst into laughter. “Pfft! Is that what you were worried about? Relax; you’ll be leaving in one piece. You’re Wolf’s favorite, aren’t you? Who knows what he’ll do to me if I vanish you.”
That piqued my interest. “Does Wolf know you’re...?”
Jean shook his head, anticipating my question. “No, he doesn’t. I wouldn’t mind telling him, really, but that’d only increase his workload. You know how serious he is about his job, despite how he might seem. Can’t go making things harder on him...though that’s a little rich, coming from me.”
So Wolf didn’t know that Jean was the chief of this organization. That was surprising; I thought he would have. Or maybe he really did and just acted like he didn’t? That was the kind of man Wolf was. I guess I’d never know without asking him directly...but it was best not to poke my nose too far into these things. I had an extremely strong hunch that it would kick up more trouble than I needed. I didn’t want to get saddled with more than what I already had to deal with, so I’d just feign ignorance as much as I could.
Oh, wait, was this exactly how Wolf felt? I supposed I’d never know for sure. Not unless something went terribly wrong.
“I guess that’s true,” I said. “By the way, I’m here on orders from him to come pick you up. I know you might have your hands full with the organization, but it’d be great if you could finish up your work and come with us to Maalt.”
“You don’t say? First I’m hearing about this. I actually gave out orders to contact Wolf and tell him to come see me. I wanted to get more details on what’s happening over in Maalt.”
“Are you talking about the dungeon?”
“Yeah. The Tower and the Academy are there too right now, aren’t they? You might think that has nothing to do with you and your companions, but you’d be wrong, you know.”
Hmm? Wait, what? What did that have to do with the reason we were targeted by assassins?
Jean paused. “We can get to that later. There’s a lot I need to explain to you, and I imagine you have a decent amount to tell me too. Let’s take this elsewhere. Best if everyone’s caught up at once, no?”
Jean pointed to Lorraine and the others in the arena. I nodded, headed down the spectator stands, and beckoned everybody to come over.
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“I didn’t sense him at all...” Lorraine murmured to me.
She was looking at Jean, who was walking ahead of us, leading the way through the colosseum’s hallways. We ascended to ground level, then kept going up. According to Jean, his office was on the highest floor, which also had rooms for royalty and nobility that offered a spacious view of the aboveground arena.
Common folk could spectate from those rooms too, but if you wanted to do that, you had to pay a year’s worth of rental fees for it. When I heard how much that was, I firmly decided that spectating from the stands was much better. I kind of felt like the noble rooms, while very posh-feeling because of their location, were a bit too far to get a good view of the fights. Though, since they had magic viewing equipment, they probably had it better anyway. Still, I personally preferred watching fights in the flesh, with my own two eyes. Was that plebeian of me? It was anyone’s guess.
“I didn’t notice him either,” I said. “And neither did Spriggan.”
The ones following Jean right now were me, Lorraine, and Spriggan. The other three—Goblin, Vaasa, and Fuana—stayed in the underground arena. Fuana said she wanted to practice the ancient magic Lorraine had taught her, and Vaasa was going to act as her target dummy. Goblin was operating the arena’s mana barriers.
Apparently, it was questionable whether Fuana would be able to get the hang of Lorraine’s spells, so since Lorraine had pointed out flaws in her Spelldrain Armor which could be fixed immediately, Fuana had said she was going to be doing that as well.
Despite appearances, she seemed to be quite the researcher, just like Lorraine. From her personality, and her entrance earlier, I’d somewhat made light of the whole “Spellwise” thing, but now that I’d revised my opinion of her, I realized that maybe the title wasn’t so far from the truth.
“Didn’t notice a thing,” Spriggan said. “Can’t help that though. It’s the chief. You should hear what I had to go through when I joined the organization.”
“You were searching for work that wasn’t just brawling, weren’t you?” I asked. “Looking for companions.”
That had been my impression, but I was a little off the mark.
“That’s not exactly wrong, but those things weren’t so simple to find for me. I made a living fighting in arenas while I looked for more ordinary work. But one day, a strange man called out to me. Asked me if I’d like to make the best of my strength. Got a lot of offers like that at the time, asking me to become their lackey. From the leaders of bandit gangs to nobles who wanted an errand boy. None of that was of any interest to me. But this man was different. Said I’d have a lot of ‘colleagues.’”
“By ‘colleagues,’ you mean...”
“Yes, ability wielders. At the time, I knew my strength was unusual, but I hadn’t realized it was a ‘unique ability’ yet. Nobody exactly researched that kind of thing, and most people knew nothing about it in the first place. And back then, my ability was a lot weaker too. I couldn’t stay giant for long, and my limbs were usually the most I could manage. Though, my strength was still far beyond an average person’s, so I never lost in the arena.”
That proved my suspicion that even unique abilities needed training and that they weren’t just convenient get-strong-fast tricks. It still sounded as if the old man had been a monstrous outlier in his younger days too though...
“Although,” he continued, “I didn’t understand what ‘colleagues’ meant back then, so I turned him down. That’s when he wouldn’t take no for an answer, beat me up, dragged me somewhere, and taught me what he meant by ‘colleagues.’ He showed me people who caused supernatural phenomena to occur without the use of mana, spirit, or divinity, and that’s when it clicked for me. Afterward, that man, those colleagues, and I formed the organization together...and here I am today.”
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“Now then, sit, sit. You too, Gilli.”
After reaching his office, Jean sat down and beckoned for all of us to do the same.
The soft leather couch was clearly high quality and made it obvious that he earned a comfortable living. Then again, considering he ran a huge establishment like this in the capital, there was no way he didn’t.
His public work alone had to make a killing. Colosseums were where coin flowed like water. Gambling was allowed, so long as it was reported and approved. Of course, some people did it under the table anyway—mostly the type who made a living in the shadows—but Jean and his organization were those people. It was easy to imagine that they made their money above and under the table. I wondered if they paid taxes. I kind of doubted it.
We sat on the couch, and Gilli signaled someone who looked like a serving lady. She began to prepare us all drinks.
It was black tea, and from the scent, quite high quality. I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the beverage, since it was a favorite of Lorraine’s that I’d shared with her from time to time, but that didn’t change the fact that it was expensive. I didn’t drink it often. I liked the taste, though.
After making sure everybody had their tea, the serving lady bowed and left the room.
Jean waited for her footsteps to fade away before speaking again. “So...where should I begin?”
Lorraine stopped him. “First things first. Rentt and I came here to ask you—that is, your organization—to not send assassins after us again. Could we settle that before continuing?”
She was being very direct, but she must have decided that was likely for the best when it came to dealing with Jean. After all, during our walk here, I’d given her the gist of the conversation I’d had with him in the spectator stands. I’d also told her about my read on Jean as a person. Naturally, that wasn’t conclusive evidence, but it did seem pretty clear that he wasn’t planning on killing us. That was probably one of the reasons why Lorraine had been so direct—she’d wanted to confirm that.
“Ah, yes,” Jean said. “I suppose we should get that out of the way first. We won’t send anyone after you again, of course. I said this to Rentt earlier, but we received faulty intelligence from an internal source. Put simply, we had a spy among the court, but they betrayed us. We believed their information, one thing led to another, and it was determined that you needed to be taken care of.”
“Why would...?”
Lorraine sounded as perplexed as I was. Why had things turned out this way? I remembered that the old man had said the organization was aware that the second princess had told us about the scepter and the state of the kingdom. However, that information had come from a diviner. The organization had surmised that we’d been ordered to transport the new scepter, which was why they’d attempted to stop us.
But I wasn’t sure why they wanted that. Without the scepter, the kingdom would see an increase in the number of undead. Wasn’t bringing a new one back a good thing?
I knew that Gisel, the backer of the first princess who’d hired the organization, didn’t want the second princess to accomplish the feat and get the credit, but... Well, maybe that really was all there was to it?
“You’ve heard about the scepter, right?” Jean asked.
“Yes,” Lorraine replied. “We were told it was a divine treasure with the ability to dampen unclean energy throughout the kingdom. Would its presence be a problem for your organization? I suppose you’d get more work if the kingdom didn’t have it...”
Not only them—adventurers would get more work too. Now that Lorraine had pointed it out, I realized a man in Jean’s position had a lot to gain. His day job running the adventurer’s guild and side job running the organization would see an influx of business.
However, Jean shook his head. “No, that’s not the case. I can’t deny that’s what the result would be, but we put more than enough bread on the table with what we handle already. Although, I can’t say the idea doesn’t have a little appeal to me. In certain ways, it would dramatically improve the lives of adventurers. Well, the lower-class ones, that is.”
As matters stood, skilled adventurers could already earn a decent income, but lower-class ones similar to my old self and Rina barely made enough to guarantee themselves a bed to sleep in for the night. On the other hand, if the number of undead monsters were to increase, so would the amount of bounties put out on them, which could alleviate that problem. More of the weakest class of undead, such as skeletons—or even small skeletons—meant more available income.
You didn’t see those types too much around Yaaran, but that was probably because of the scepter. They were weak monsters, so I doubted it took much for it to purge them. It was a shame that process didn’t leave their magic crystals behind, since they were still worth enough to make a living, but there was no use mourning over what never technically existed in the first place.
Still, without the effect of the scepter, those types of undead might pop up more and more. With the boost in income, paying for a roof over your head every night would no longer be an issue. That sounded great—for people like me, that is. For an ordinary person, weak undead were plenty threatening. There was no question that we were all better off without them.
“So...why try to stop a new scepter from being delivered?” Lorraine asked. “Ah, and I should mention that we never accepted that request to begin with, so you wouldn’t have needed to assassinate us regardless.”
The request that had actually been made of us was to visit the Holy Tree. What purpose that would serve I had no idea, and we hadn’t formally accepted yet anyway. I’d made the best of my wits and manners to keep the request a respectful arm’s length away, and that was where it still was. There was no way I was going to take it if it meant painting a target on my back for assassins. I wasn’t near that strong enough, and I knew it. In fact, I was currently the weakest person in the room...
Now that I’d remembered who I was surrounded by, I found myself feeling kind of down. They made me wonder if I’d really grown stronger at all.
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“First,” Jean said, “we should establish that the presence of the scepter is preferable to the alternative. It contributes hugely to the peace of Yaaran.”
We knew that, of course. I was about to point that out, but Jean held a hand up to stop me and continued.
“However, that is from the perspective of people other than the wielder. The current scepter is draining the king’s life, and...oh? From your lack of surprise, I take it you are already aware?”
Perhaps it had been in-the-know information at the outset, but I got the feeling it was less confidential these days. Then again, we hadn’t had a clue until the second princess told us about it...
It was likely that the upper nobility and top brass of the kingdom knew. Maybe that was why Yaaran’s royalty was so much more revered than that of other countries. Without them, everyone living in Yaaran would be worse off—not only commoners, but nobles too.
If the undead ran rampant over their territories, who knew how much more expensive it would be to deal with them compared to how things were now? Other countries already bore such costs as a matter of course, so it wasn’t as if the kingdom would cease to function, but there was obviously no need to go out of the way to create that burden.
They could always supplant the throne and take the scepter by force, sure...but the high elves had gifted it to the current royal family. If they were replaced, I doubted the high elves would be willing to continue maintaining it, or offer available solutions if problems like the current one cropped up. It created a situation where the royal family needed to survive to retain the scepter, even if that meant only as figureheads.
That had me wondering if that was where Yaaran’s tranquility—especially among its nobles—came from. It was a surprising thought.
“Yes,” Lorraine replied. “The second princess told us.”
Jean nodded. “I see. While the king’s condition isn’t public, it isn’t much of a secret either. As for the scepter...its effect is known, but only a select few are privy to its current condition. Considering your positions, I suppose the second princess is the only source you could have learned of it from.”
“How did you find out?”
“I...technically found out from the spy I mentioned earlier. The scepter itself, Kars showed me in his younger days, but I didn’t know of the risk it posed back then. I went to see him as soon as I found out, but he just waved me off and said there was ‘no other option,’ the fool. Of course he has another damn option.”
Kars? Wait a minute, was that...?
“By ‘Kars,’” Lorraine said. “Do you mean...?”
“The king. Karsten Reshon Yaaran. I’ve known him since he was little snot. I’m his senior by quite a bit, though.”
He was older than the king? I thought I remembered the king being sixty-five. Well, given Jean’s famous exploits, some simple math put him at over eighty, so I guessed that made sense. He looked way too young for that, though.
Due to the nature of the job, adventurers boasted far greater physical ability and mana reserves than your average person, and that generally made it more difficult for them to age. Even still, Jean was something else. I guessed being a legendary figure meant he was an outlier among adventurers too.
“So?” Lorraine asked calmly. “What did you mean by another option?”
“Fixing the scepter, of course. His condition is only the way it is because it broke in the first place. Still, easier said than done. He’s not willing to part with it, not even briefly. And the high elves wouldn’t leave the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree even if we bothered asking them. We were looking at a dead end. But then Gisel came out and said that the Tower had found a way to repair the scepter that would be quick and that wouldn’t require it to be taken out of the king’s possession.”
Lorraine immediately leaned forward. “How?”
Repairing a broken divine treasure... If such a method really existed, then it would absolutely attract Lorraine’s interest. When she got like this, most people would instinctively shy back a little, either afraid or put off.
However, Jean answered her without batting an eye. “The materials that go into the creation of a divine treasure are said to be extremely special. They’re nothing like regular magical items. Only after a large number of these precious components are used and the finest crafting techniques are applied can a divine treasure be created. That’s why, aside from the ones created directly by the gods, races such as the high elves and dwarves have been known to create them on rare occasions.”
I tilted my head. “We know that much, but what are you trying to say?”
“Of those special materials, it is said that one stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is usually impossible to obtain, and the reason so many who seek to create a divine treasure cannot. According to Gisel, the Tower made a breakthrough and discovered what it was. What’s more, the once-in-a-lifetime chance to obtain it has arrived. Right now, in this era, in this kingdom.”
Lorraine looked disappointed. “That...sounds like a scam. ‘The item you want is up for grabs right here, right now! Don’t miss out. Make your decision immediately!’”
Jean laughed and nodded. “You’re exactly right. But unless you’ve forgotten, our organization is composed of ability wielders. It’s not far-fetched that we’d have someone who could discern if a person is telling the truth, no?”
Lorraine’s expression changed again—to realization, this time. The human mind was exceedingly complex, and it was often difficult to tell what somebody was thinking. Forcing a person to do something with magic wasn’t easy, and tampering with memories was straight-up impossible, yet we’d seen Siren do just that with her ability.
