Chapter 347 - Seclusion (2)

The Magic Engineer, Jurven Havelion.

The head of a school of magic, a mage revered by countless crafting mages.

Beads of sweat dotted his forehead. Interfering with the laws of a spiritual world was no easy task.

“Damn it.”

The robed man muttered as he stared at the gem on his workbench.

The gem had been given to him by an old man he met shortly after arriving in this world. It could fairly be described as the server and system of the spiritual world he had since named Ghost Busters.

“Where the hell did it go wrong?”

Within this tiny gem, a near-infinite number of magical circuits, large and small, were intertwined. By analyzing and studying them, he had honed his skills, modifying the circuits he understood one by one to create Ghost Busters as it was today.

But...

“... So this approach really is impossible?”

After spending a long while longer channeling mana into the gem and modifying its circuits, he sighed in utter defeat.

Really, even being disappointed was a little ridiculous. Something he had failed to accomplish for decades wasn't suddenly going to work in a matter of days.

His biggest recent achievement had been an update that let him secretly look up the usernames of Players entering anonymous chat rooms using his Moderator privileges.

BZZZZZZ.

Just then, his personal pager vibrated. He didn't even need to check who was contacting him.

“Yes, SoulQueen. Has anything come up about me?”

[“No... I haven't heard any talk about you anywhere yet, Mr. Havelion.”]

“... I see.”

He felt irritation and relief in equal measure. The identity he had kept carefully hidden for close to twenty years had been exposed in the most unexpected place.

“Please keep an eye on that. Rumors like these need to be quashed early, before they grow. I'll keep looking for ways to uncover the other members' identities.”

[“All right. And... I'm sorry.”]

“...”

At the apology from the woman in the crystal ball, he fell silent. He couldn't bring himself to say she had nothing to apologize for, even as an empty courtesy.

“Then... please contact me again if anything comes up.”

[“Of course. Get some rest.”]

After ending the call, he returned to his workbench. And...

'If I could just alter the circuits so the server stores their location data when they log in, I think I could trace them...’

He began analyzing the gem's intricate internal circuits. As always, the answer would lie within it.

* * *

KNOCK, KNOCK.

The instant I heard the knock, I shot upright.

'... Who is it?'

I had no idea. Erwin wouldn't knock, so it had to be an outsider...

But why would an outsider knock on the front door instead of the gate?

'Fuck.'

Holding my breath, I crouched low and approached the door as quietly as possible.

Just then...

RATTLE, RATTLE.

The doorknob rattled, and the lock clicked open.

CREEEAK.

The door slowly swung open. I clenched my fist, intending to subdue whoever it was first, only to freeze when I saw the visitor.

“... Good. You were inside.”

“Amelia...!”

“Ugh...! I-I told you not to lunge at me out of nowhere...!”

Come on, I was just happy to see her. No need to make it awkward.

“... Hurry inside.”

“Pardon the intrusion...”

Since Amelia seemed to loathe the idea of a reunion hug, I skipped it and quickly ushered her inside.

I had more questions than I could count. But to take them in order...

“How did you know I was here?”

“... I waited outside the bank, saw that elf, and followed her.”

“Huh? Then why did you wait until now...?”

“There was no opening to approach.”

Huh?

But she went out every day, saying she was going to the sanctuary.

When I told Amelia that, she shook her head.

“Impossible. That woman stayed near the house the whole time.”

A chill ran down my spine.

“... Uh, so she never went to the sanctuary all that time?”

“Don't tell me... you didn't know?”

“...”

“Recently, though, she seems to have had some change of heart. She started going off somewhere. I watched for a few days in case it was a trap, which is why I'm late.”

That, at least, put me somewhat at ease. A change of heart would mean the conversation we'd had the other day.

“So... how did things go with the Blood Spirit Marquis? She must have had trouble accepting that you'd returned alive. And there's the evil spirit issue.”

“Oh, that worked out fine.”

I gave her a brief account of what had happened with Erwin, sticking to the important parts. Amelia looked a little surprised.

“She doesn't care whether you're an evil spirit or not... That's an unusual way of thinking for an explorer from the surface.”

“She's gotten a little strange. I doubt she could've thought that way before.”

“I'm not so sure about that.”

“Huh?”

“Didn't she keep avenging you even after you were publicly declared an evil spirit? She must have settled it in her mind long ago—that she didn't care what you were.”

Hmm, that was possible.

“Anyway, I still made it clear that I'm not an evil spirit. Who knows how things might turn out later?”

Amelia chuckled.

“Then am I the only person in this world who knows what you are?”

“No, there's one more.”

“... Didn't you say Misha Karlstein doesn't know you're an evil spirit?”

“Someone else. He's not even a local. He's from my world.”

There was no particular reason to hide it, and he could easily become a factor later, so I told her about Lee Baekho.

Her reaction was a little odd, though.

“Lee Baekho...? He's from your world?”

She looked as though she'd heard the name of someone she knew well.

Come to think of it, quite a few members of the Round Table knew about Lee Baekho, too. I'd planned to casually ask Erwin, but I might be better off getting information from Amelia.

“You know the name?”

“... Of course I do.”

“Right, you arrived in this time period much earlier than me, so you might've heard of him. Oh, how long has it been since you got back?”

“I returned two years ago.”

“Oh, then time passed at a one-to-one ratio for you—”

“But when I returned is irrelevant. I knew him long before that.”

Huh? She'd known Lee Baekho before that?

I stared at her, waiting for a fuller explanation, and she spoke.

“Do you remember me telling you I once spent over a year on a team with an evil spirit?”

Uh...

“That evil spirit was Lee Baekho.”

What the hell was with this bastard? Was there anything he wasn't involved in?

* * *

Amelia had met Lee Baekho about five years ago. Apparently, she had deliberately approached him on the lord's orders.

At the time, he was suspected of being an evil spirit, and she had been sent to confirm it. After all, if he was an evil spirit, they might be able to win him over.

“Explorers capable of using Aura were rare, so joining his team wasn't difficult. I spent about a year with them.”

According to Amelia, that was when she had obtained [Autoreproduction] in the Doppelgänger Forest and cleared the White Temple on the third floor...

Wow. No wonder she'd known all those hidden pieces. That made sense if she'd been traveling with Lee Baekho.

“And? What happened next?”

“Not much. When a year passed without any significant clues, the lord lost interest. I was given another assignment and made an excuse to leave the team. Then... I heard the news later.”

“What news?”

“I don't know the details either. The royal family covered up the incident thoroughly at the time. All I could discover through my investigations was that a companion's betrayal had exposed his identity, and that many people died in the Labyrinth that day.”

Amelia went on to say that the royal family had destroyed its records on Lee Baekho and controlled information for years, encouraging the city to forget his existence.

That raised one question.

“Then how did you learn the name Lee Baekho?”

“That was relatively recent. Perhaps he's truly fallen out with the royal family, because apparently he's been showing up all over the place lately, introducing himself as Lee Baekho. For the record, before that, I used his old alias, or simply called him ‘Him,’ like everyone else.”

So that was it...

I'd never imagined someone who knew Lee Baekho's past would be right here beside me.

“What was he like back then?”

“Well, we weren't particularly close. I didn't like his flippant manner. The others, though, were extremely close to one another.”

“Close?”

“Yes. Like the teams you've put together.”

Out of curiosity, I listened to several stories about Lee Baekho, and the more I heard, the stranger I felt.

“What? Everyone on the team except him was a woman? And he was dating every single one of them? Wow, did that bastard build himself a harem in the Labyrinth...?”

“A harem? I don't know what that is, but aren't all your teammates women, too?”

What was she talking about? Mister Bear was firmly holding his place on the team. Besides, back in the Outcast Team days, everyone except Misha had been a man.

“If you say so. Let's leave it at that.”

“It's not ‘if I say so.’ It's the truth. I chose people solely for their abilities and aptitude, and it just ended up this way. I absolutely wasn't looking at them as romantic prospects—”

“There's no need to make excuses. It doesn't bother me in the slightest.”

“...?”

“We come from different countries to begin with, don't we? I don't know what Korea is like, but I assume that aspect of its culture resembles the nobility here.”

No, Korea was just a normal monogamous society...

What on earth did she think Korea was like?

I had a feeling Lee Baekho and I had thoroughly ruined Korea's image, but I decided not to offer any more explanations. It wasn't that important.

I'd heard enough stories now. Time to move on to the next topic.

“Anyway, Amelia. What exactly did the note you left at the bank say?”

“... What do you mean? It said what I wrote.”

“Oh, the letter Erwin gave me had the last part torn off. I only got as far as ‘As for the Demon Crusher...’ I couldn't read the rest.”

“... I-I see.”

As soon as the conversation turned to my big, precious hammer, Amelia became visibly flustered.

“No wonder you hadn't mentioned it... So you couldn't read it...”

“Hey, you're making me nervous. Tell me. What happened to my hammer? It's all right, isn't—”

“The hammer is safe.”

Amelia cut me off firmly.

Then she quietly averted her eyes and said meekly,

“In the vault of the secured-loan department at the Alminus Trade Market...”

Haa...

* * *

Amelia and I.

A heavy silence settled between us. Even Amelia, normally so self-assured, was avoiding my eyes, apparently aware she'd done something wrong. In the end, I spoke first.

“... So why did you sell it off?”

Surely she had a good reason. This wasn't just anyone; it was Amelia—

“There is something I need to correct.”

“... Huh?”

“I didn't sell it off. I borrowed money against it.”

Oh, come on. Was she serious?

When I glared at her, Amelia cleared her throat.

“Still, we need to establish the facts correctly to avoid problems later—”

“Enough. Just answer the question. Why did you sell my hammer... no, borrow money against it? What on earth for?”

“... To protect you when you returned.”

Whew. I knew it. Whatever it was, she had a legitimate reason why she'd had to—

“... I bought an Essence at an auction house.”

“... What?”

After a long silence, I finally recovered enough to speak, and Amelia hurried to add,

“Don't worry. We can get it back as long as the money is repaid by the due date.”

That brought me back to my senses a little. Fair enough. If she'd needed cash urgently, that was understandable.

It seemed obvious she'd used the money to obtain the Twin Hydra's [Dual Rule]. That Essence was so good that buying it was the natural choice if it could be bought.

Still, there were things I needed to check.

“... When is the payment due?”

“In two months.”

“... Do you have the money to repay it?”

“Not at present.”

“Then do you have a plan to get the money?”

“... I did.”

Right. Past tense.

As if I weren't busy enough already, I'd just picked up another quest.