The Gravekeeper's Wisdom
Chrome quickly flipped his palm over, sensing that pushing his luck any further would end badly. Still, simply walking away felt like a waste. He recalled the Lake of Wisdom. If material gains were off the table, then knowledge would have to suffice. The gravekeeper looked like someone who knew things, so even a single scrap of information from him could prove invaluable.
"Gravekeeper. If possible, might I borrow a fragment of your vast and profound wisdom?"
Chrome laced his words with just enough flattery to sound respectful. The gravekeeper replied flatly.
"You have a long tongue."
"……."
"I will answer what I can. I will not answer what I cannot."
It was an utterly curt response. The fact that the voice and face belonged to Bern Midas only doubled Chrome's irritation. Still, at least the man had agreed to answer, so Chrome quickly composed his expression and asked his first question.
"What exactly is this stone I obtained?"
"It is an object crafted from the remains of a god that fell to the earth."
"Pardon?"
What? A god? Chrome's mind went blank for a moment before a basic fact clicked into place. The Star Gods. In the world of Planetarium, stars were revered as deities. In simpler terms, the gravekeeper was saying the stone had been made from a meteorite.
Now that I think about it, the land itself is also a star. How does that work?
Chrome filed the minor question away and moved on.
"Can you tell me about the person who left this stone here?"
"He was one blessed by the Star of Hwanye."
"Anything else?"
"I answer only what I can."
"Is it that you don't know, or that you can't tell me?"
"I answer only what I can."
Chrome clicked his tongue inwardly. He had hoped to read the man's reactions, but the gravekeeper's expression and tone never shifted.
"What is the stone's function?"
"It is a vessel. It absorbs the power of the place where it was kept. However, the vessel is already full, so nothing new can be added until it is emptied."
Chrome combined the information from Dantalion's Monocle with what he had just learned and organized it.
So, long ago there was someone with the power of prophecy. That person either possessed a vessel made from meteorite or created one for some purpose. They scattered these vessels across the Star Lands that held the power of the seven Star Gods. Now, after much time, the vessel is filled with stellar power and has become a magical tool that grants that power to its current owner. Roughly speaking, that's the situation.
Beyond the confirmed facts, Chrome could also guess the purpose of the one who had scattered the vessels. Someone blessed by Hwanye—a person who could see and feel what others could not—had left these behind in preparation for the distant future. Naturally, that meant they had foreseen some event and prepared for it.
Still, I have no idea whether the future they saw matches the events I know or something completely different.
"At the very least, could you tell me the name of the person who left this stone?"
"I answer only what I can."
The response was an iron wall. Chrome tried several more questions, but gained nothing further. He couldn't stay here forever, so he had no choice but to leave. Still—
"I'd like to leave now."
"Return the way you came."
"……No, I've been wandering around here for ages. How long would it take to go back? Isn't there some kind of shortcut?"
"Return the way you came."
"What kind of dungeon design is this!? I get that you can't teleport us, but at least give us a shortcut!"
"Return the way you came."
"Then at the very least, could you stop the zombies we met on the way here?"
"That is a law set by my master, who made this Star Land his tomb. I cannot change it at will."
"Come on, just this once—"
"If you followed the path of the tombstone correctly, returning will be simple."
"Look, everyone has their own way of clearing things. Insisting on the same method for everyone is just outdated—"
"You have a long tongue."
"……."
This guy actually has emotions, doesn't he?
Escaping the Star Land proved to be an exhausting ordeal. A dungeon where finding the exit was harder than fighting the boss? Chrome was utterly drained by the time he reached a nearby city, with Joy walking beside him.
Chomp chomp. Munch munch. Gulp gulp.
I've seen this scene somewhere before, Chrome thought with a wry smile. Joy's monstrous appetite, first witnessed in the Mars territory, was still going strong. Ligret ate a fair amount for her size, but this girl was on an entirely different level.
"Why'd you stop eating?"
"Oh, I'm full."
"One plate and you're done?"
Joy tilted her head in confusion, then clapped her hands as if she'd realized something.
"You said you'd treat me, so you're worried about money, right?"
"Huh?"
"It's fine, it's fine. If you're short, I'll cover the rest, so just eat! I still have plenty of money!"
No, that's not what I meant. I'm actually full. Chrome stared at her in disbelief, but decided to ask about something that had been bothering him.
"You said you still have plenty. How much do you have?"
"Fifty gold coins!"
"……Didn't you have five hundred last time?"
"Bad Chrome. You're dumber than I thought. Money disappears when you spend it! On food, food, and more food!"
So she had eaten through four hundred and fifty gold coins. She must have spent some elsewhere too, but the bulk had clearly gone to meals. Considering one gold coin could cover a commoner's living expenses for a year, she had burned through an amount that could sustain someone for four hundred and fifty years in less than a year. At that point, terrible spending habits had reached the level of an art form.
"Do you have any way of making money?"
Most people would think fifty gold coins was a decent sum, but Chrome knew his own wealth was far from ordinary. Even so, the girl in front of him clearly wouldn't last long on that amount alone. Joy answered confidently.
"I wish there were more gambling dens like last time, but there aren't!"
"Gambling isn't a way to make money……"
After uttering a line that didn't suit a man who had made his fortune selling Cubes, Chrome was about to speak again when a waiter approached their table.
"Pardon me, sir. Would you mind if I joined you?"
Chrome blinked in surprise. They had come straight to the restaurant upon arriving in the city, and it wasn't even peak hours. Plenty of other tables were clearly empty. It wasn't as if those seats were reserved, so why—
"There are other empty seats, though."
"It must be this seat."
"No, why?"
"Because I wanted to speak with you, Chrome Midas."
Chrome's body went rigid. The waiter smiled calmly, but his eyes were strangely hollow.
"Who are you?"
The waiter—or rather, whoever was speaking through the waiter—answered Chrome's question.
"My name is Alcor. If you'd prefer a simpler term, would 'that person' suffice?"
The leader of the cultists with whom Chrome had a long and bitter history introduced herself that way.
Alcor spoke.
"First, let me clarify. This person has no connection to us whatsoever. She is not hiding inside the body like Merak did, so attacking her would only create an innocent victim. I hope you understand that."
Chrome replied incredulously.
"You people kill innocents at the drop of a hat, and now you're pretending to care about civilians?"
"The lives absorbed through the ritual become part of us and are reborn as new existences. Deaths outside of that are merely regrettable. The two cannot be placed on the same level."
When the leader of madmen spoke, even a single exchange of words made Chrome want to call them insane. He glanced around. A waiter had suddenly sat down at a customer's table and was having a deadly serious conversation about killing people, yet neither the restaurant staff nor the other customers seemed to find anything strange about it. The other party had clearly used some kind of trick, but it worked in Chrome's favor as well—he could speak freely without worrying about bystanders.
"How did you find me? Were you stalking me?"
"No, you misunderstand. Originally, I planned to find you after rescuing Merak, but the situation escalated beyond my control. I've been on the run and had no time. I happened to see your face while stopping by this place and was surprised by the sudden stroke of luck. Perhaps this too is fortune granted by the stars?"
"It might be luck by your standards, but it's bad luck by mine."
Recording device ready. Transmitter ready. If possible I'd like to make a call, but summoning the people in the eastern mountains would be overkill—
"Ah, it seems you're preparing various things, but they won't be effective. I wouldn't want our precious conversation time to be interrupted by others."
"What the hell are you talking about? If you're just going to ramble nonsense, get lost."
Damn it. This opponent was proving far more troublesome than expected.