Beneath a night sky brimming with starlight, a campfire crackled warmly.
Beyond the barrier, the Great Tiger’s aura still lingered, but in the Reccordak training ground bordering the forest, somewhat peaceful words were being exchanged.
“The stock-trading methods I favor are twofold: ‘trends’ and ‘currents.’”
A stock lesson from Deputy Director of Public Safety Primienne.
Yulie, Sirio, and Laili sat on the ground to listen, partly to recover the stamina they had spent sparring.
“A trend means conforming to the overall market’s direction, depending on whether it is a bull market or a bear market.”
All three of them were quite serious. They wrote down Primienne’s every word in their notebooks, their eyes sparkling like deer.
“A current is a fad. A year ago it was toys, six months ago it was food distribution, and so on. Depending on the situation across the continent, there are stocks that surge or plummet.”
Yulie listened to her lecture with a solemn expression.
“However, stocks that become intensely overhea—severely overheated in the short term inevitably accompany a sharp fall. Therefore, riding the current must always be done carefully, and once you have gained a certain amount of profit, you must realize it.”
Primienne clenched her teeth as she spoke. An old memory had suddenly come to mind.
A stock had risen tenfold, but she had held on instead of selling, only to end up selling at a loss of twenty-five percent. And the moment she sold, it rose fivefold again from there…
“Keep this in mind. Until you sell the stock and obtain several times your initial investment in ‘cash,’ no matter how much the stock price rises, it is not profit.”
Yulie nodded. She felt as though her once-empty mind was slowly being filled.
“Yes. I will be sure to remember that, teacher.”
“I have a question!”
At that moment, Laili raised her hand. Primienne looked back at her.
“Yes.”
“How much have you earned, Deputy Director Primienne?!”
It was pure curiosity.
“……”
But it was a difficult question to answer.
“Yes?”
“……”
Shut up.
“Yes?”
“……”
I said shut up.
In any case, that was what Primienne wanted to say. After all, her pride would be wounded if she said she had blown away everything she had earned over ten years.
Besides, it was not as if she had lost it because of a lack of skill. She had simply been unlucky.
Who could have known the Imperial Family would suddenly open Marik? Many ants died that day.
“Knight Yulie. How does Reccordak intend to deal with the Great Tiger? As Deputy Director of Public Safety, I bear responsibility for auditing Reccordak, so I cannot help but ask you, a member of the Freyden clan.”
Primienne asked Yulie for no particular reason. Yulie, who had been scribbling in her notebook, grew serious again.
“……I am still thinking on it. Professor Deculein said he would go alone, but……”
Yulie looked at Sirio again. Sirio was chewing on a twig while muttering things like trend, current, scaling in, and scaling out.
“Sir Sirio. May I ask you to spar with me again?”
“No, Sir Knight, again?”
Fortunately, the topic had been successfully changed. Primienne swallowed a sigh of relief, and Sirio chuckled.
“……Hahaha. Well, I don’t mind. But you’re thinking of following him, aren’t you?”
Yulie said nothing.
For a moment, silence settled over the area.
“……”
Crackle, crackle—the campfire burned.
Primienne and Laili watched the mood, while Yulie quietly fiddled with her sword.
“Deculein says he’s going alone.”
Sirio spoke. Yulie glanced at him.
“We can’t let him go alone. He’s still our classmate. And he’s a good guy, in his own way.”
“Good?”
Laili’s face twisted. Sirio grinned and nodded.
“He’s our classmate, you know~”
“No, excuse me. I went to the same school too, all right? Not everyone from the same class is good.”
“Come on~ You’re our junior.”
“Hah, seriously. No, then. That good person. Would he insult our knight by calling her sick? Telling her to shut her mouth and get lost in front of everyone like that. Humiliating her!”
“Come on. Deculein was bad in the past, but he isn’t that bad now~ And it’s true that she’s ill.”
“No, you can’t just say everything because it’s true! Do you know how important the fact of an injury is to a knight?”
The voices seeping into Yulie’s ears gradually grew quieter.
Yulie stared into the middle of the thicket and focused. As if she had fallen into a true void, the world grew distant, and she turned over the sediment in her mind.
“……I still.”
Yulie spoke.
Deculein is bad—not bad—Deculein made money with stocks—what do you think, Deputy Director Primienne—the busy conversation among the three of them abruptly ceased.
All of them looked back at her.
“Have many things I wish to ask him.”
Crack—the delicate hand gripped the hilt of her sword tightly. A chilly sharpness rose from her entire body.
“Ahaha.”
Sirio smiled refreshingly. He sprang to his feet and drew his sword.
“Right. If you want to ask him, you can’t die~ Let’s train.”
“……Yes.”
Yulie also lifted her sword. Primienne put firewood into the campfire and buttoned her padded coat all the way up to her neck.
“I’m coming.”
“You come first.”
“Yes. Hup—!”
Once Yulie released her mana, this entire area would rapidly cool…
Clang──!
In the dark night sky, across the northern field where the moon had risen full.
The sound of sword striking sword, mana colliding with mana, rang out.
* * *
There were eleven severely wounded patients in Reccordak’s temporary ward.
None of them had all their limbs intact, yet all of their limbs were fine. To put it precisely, they were at least still “attached” to their bodies.
“Remarkable.”
The doctor dispatched from the Imperial Family said. He looked at the 「Duct Tape」 stuck to the patients’ bodies and marveled.
“I’ve never seen magic like this before. I thought healing magic had gone extinct.”
“Strictly speaking, it is not healing. It merely holds them together.”
“Even that much is incredible. Look. Bone and flesh are reconnecting.”
“They are knights, are they not?”
Once they were held together, they recovered. That was the trait of knights, whose bodies possessed outstanding regenerative power.
Watching them made me curious. If even ordinary knights were like this, what would my own body, with 「Iron Man」 and 「Strong Bones」 added to it, be like?
“I see no one who will die.”
“Yes. The emergency treatment was so good that as long as we administer antibiotics and herbal procedures on time, everyone should recover.”
I nodded. Then the doctor looked at me with a worried expression.
“But…… are you truly leaving to hunt the Great Tiger alone?”
The Great Tiger. In terms of difficulty, it was an impossible opponent. Even if I wielded Wood Steel and Snowflake Stone at the same time, I likely would not win.
However.
“There is a method.”
The north and tigers were an extremely natural connection. The main quest itself had been designed so that one would inevitably encounter a tiger at least once.
Therefore, I knew the tiger’s weakness. Perhaps I was the only one in this world who knew.
“You focus on treatment.”
“Yes. Understood.”
The doctor nodded with a grave expression.
* * *
……There is a method. You focus on treatment.
In Reccordak’s temporary ward, Deculein beyond the window. Watching him through a telescope, Lia found his confidence questionable.
“……What is it? Why is that professor like that?”
Deculein. She could fully understand that he had changed because of the “fiancée” setting she had added.
Even so, this time it was the Great Tiger.
And among Great Tigers, an Evil Tiger. Judging by the pattern on its body, it was a named one called “Vesilita.”
“Lia. What you just said, is it really true?”
Ganesha asked then. Having just returned, the moment she heard Lia’s words, her face had turned shocked beyond belief.
“Yes, yes. I was shocked when I heard it too.”
“The professor is going after a Great Tiger by himself? Has this professor really…… suddenly taken something?”
“I’m surprised too. Was Professor Deculein always that strong?”
“……”
Ganesha tilted her head without a word. It meant she truly did not know.
“Lia! What are you talking about! Deculein is strong! You know that too!”
Leo said then. Carlos also chimed in.
“Right. I’m scared of him. Professor or whatever, I don’t even want to meet him.”
“……”
It was only natural that Carlos feared Deculein. Just as the bloodline of Yukline reacted to demons, Carlos too instinctively felt fear toward Yukline.
Lia asked.
“Leo. Do you think Deculein is strong too?”
“Yeah!”
Leo’s senses were rather accurate. His trait itself was like that, to begin with.
“Strong enough to beat the Great Tiger?”
“……That I don’t know! The Great Tiger is crazy strong too~”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Watching their exchange, Ganesha chuckled.
“For now, let’s just watch. If something happens……”
She pondered for a moment.
It would be best not to catch Deculein’s eye if possible, but the professor had helped them before…
“At that point, well. We can think about it then.”
Ganesha fluttered her twin tails and looked at Deculein.
Even after seeing Deculein like this again and again, what she felt every time was, after all.
“He really is handsome, Professor…… I could live just by feasting on that face.”
For an instant, she smiled contentedly, wearing the expression of someone appreciating a work of art.
Lia found her a little absurd, but this too was the effect of a personality trait.
The so-called 「Looks-Obsessed」.
In fact, the name of the personality was Looks-Obsessed.
“Hehehe…… Ahem. Ssup.”
Watching Ganesha swallow her drool, Lia held back a laugh.
* * *
I placed my hand on Epherene’s forehead. Her fever had risen quite a bit due to the aftereffects of her injury, but at this level, she seemed fine.
“……Tsk.”
But my palm was covered in sweat. Nausea surged for an instant, but I cleaned it off with 「Cleanse」 and disinfectant from near the hospital room.
“……”
I looked up at the sky again.
The deep darkness of dawn. Yet my mind was perfectly clear.
“Professor Deculein! I have completed the mission!”
A voice reached me at just the right time. I looked down at the ground.
An adventurer was waving his hand with a smile.
“Shall I send it up there? There are quite a lot of goods!”
“……I will come down.”
I slowly went outside. The adventurer quickly approached and handed me a box.
“Here it is! Payment by family check?”
“Do that.”
“Yes! Loyalty to the VVIP! Thank you for the money! Rich customers are always welcome!”
The adventurer gave a playful salute and left.
Standing in the cold wind, I took the items out of the box.
Steel settled into my grasp. A cool, heavy grip. It was the revolver I had received as a gift last time.
──「 Revolver 」──
◆ Information
：A revolver handmade by a craftsman.
：Its power has been amplified by 「Midas’ Hand」.
◆ Category
：Weapon ⊃ Firearm
◆ Special Effects
：Artistic Rifling
Increases accuracy and destructive power.
：Intermediate Destruction Infusion
Grants the bullets fired by this revolver the effect of “Intermediate Destruction.”
[Midas’ Hand: Level ４]
────────
There were many other items in the delivery box as well, all of them materials for producing “special bullets.” Each and every one was absurdly expensive, but I did not spare even the slightest expense.
“The materials are certain.”
Including the mission commission fee and the material costs, it came to roughly thirty million elne.
Starting now, I intended to make bullets worth five million elne each, but fortunately, the time required would not be very long.
“……Shall I begin right away?”
Just as I was about to activate magic for ammunition production, such as 「Synthesis」 and 「Heating」…
“Professooor!”
A loud voice rang out from behind me. I immediately turned that way.
“Professor!”
Allen was running over in a fluster.
As always, natural and pure as ever.
Now, at this rate, he would trip over a stone.
“Waaah!”
I took three or four steps forward in advance and caught him in my arms. Allen, who had expected to fall, hung from my arms like laundry and looked up with wide eyes.
“……I knew you would fall.”
Allen blinked, then belatedly nodded.
“Ah…… thank you. No, I’m sorry……”
Allen stood upright. He brushed off his rumpled clothes and held out a pouch to me.
“This…… is too much……. To think you were already about to leave without even telling me.”
I had not intended to leave yet, but Allen’s expression as he said that was stiff. Besides worry, another emotion could be glimpsed.
“Allen.”
For some reason, I felt I knew the reason.
“Yes, yeees?”
Right now, a “death variable” was flickering around Allen. Like a fluorescent lamp at the end of its lifespan, it repeatedly blinked on and off.
He was agonizing fiercely.
Whether to kill me, or to let me go like this.
“If I die. What happens to you?”
Thus, my voice naturally grew serious.
“Yeees……? What do you—”
“Exactly as I said. If I die. I am asking what will happen to you.”
I gave a small smile. My mouth smiled, but my eyes did not.
“Where you will go. What sort of life you will lead. I am curious about that.”
As I said so, I observed Allen as though piercing through every tiny habit and tremor.
“Please don’t say things like that. I do not even want to imagine it……”
Allen did not stop acting. However, at this point, it was easy to distinguish acting from sincerity.
“You no longer need to do that.”
“No. I…… Professor……”
“Not that nonsense. I mean the act you are putting on right now. Your lines are poor.”
“……”
For an instant, Allen’s body trembled greatly.
Even so, he did not let go of his attachment to the performance. His fidgeting fingers were still innocent.
Only, as though he had realized he had been found out by me, he lowered his head. His expression could not be seen.
“Ah……”
Cold air. The scent of dawn. The dark red death variable sparking like embers around Allen.
The air touching my skin was cold. The sentry beneath the barrier was dozing off. Other than him, there was no one nearby.
After assessing the entire environment, Allen spoke.
“Since when…… have you known?”
“What do you mean? Your gender?”
“……Yes. That……”
At that, as though thinking there was still a possibility I did not know, Allen continued to act shamelessly. I laughed softly.
Truly, he was a cunning one to the very end.
“Double disguise is a common method.”
A disguise of gender.
If one discovers that outer shell, insignificant even if known, and becomes absorbed in it, one no longer pays attention to the far more important inner shell.
“But something like gender is of no consequence.”
However, what is hidden beneath that one layer is precisely the true secret.
“Allen. You are not a person of the sunlit world. I am familiar with your…… scentlessness.”
Snap—
The tension stretched taut through the air broke.
“……Mm.”
Only then, at last, did Allen stop acting.
“I see……”
A body frozen without the slightest movement. A silence heavier than anything in and of itself.
Whoooooosh───
Within the silence, an aura rose with maddening intensity.
“I see.”
In a form he had never once shown until now, Allen seized control of this entire space……