More Rabbits Are Always Better (8)
I’ve always believed the best things should be saved for last. Out of the three black cubes, I reached for the one that leaked noticeably less golden mist than the others. To unseal it, I needed one high-tier magic stone. The price was ten gold coins—enough to let a single person live idly for nearly nine years. The small black stone was absorbed into the box, and its contents were revealed.
“...Earrings?”
What appeared was a pair of earrings that radiated refined beauty. I examined them through Dantalion’s Monocle.
Enchanted Artifact
A magical tool in the form of earrings imbued with the 'Messenger' spell. User registration is completed by injecting a small amount of blood and magic power into the gem-shaped mana supply attached to the tip. Once registered, the pair allows the owners to transmit their voices to each other over long distances.
Cannot be used in locations where a certain amount of starlight is not present. If the receiving party has not met the conditions, any pending messages will be delivered all at once once the conditions are fulfilled.
Maximum message length per transmission is five seconds. Extremely wide range.
“This is for emergency contact only. It was not made so you could exchange jokes on a daily basis. Tampering with it to extend message duration and breaking it will result in no refunds or replacements.”
— Excerpt from a certain official document —
Hmm. In short, it was like a somewhat finicky magical email device. The condition about “a certain amount of starlight” was a bit vague, but it probably meant anywhere without direct external light, like indoors or underground. Considering that most communication magical tools were either massive installations built into buildings or tiny portable versions with severely reduced performance, this was quite an excellent item.
My excitement rising another level, I fed magic stones into the remaining two cubes at once. The moment the objects appeared, I froze.
…What the hell is this?
It seemed I wasn’t the only one confused. Ligret tilted her head and muttered,
“A black board with beads stuck in it, and some iron scrap?”
Exactly as she said. One of the items was a flat board about the size of an adult’s palm. One side had bumpy switches, while the other had eight bead-like objects embedded in concave slots that resembled an egg tray. The second object looked like a metal fragment somewhere between an awl and an icicle. The metal itself had a reddish tint that gave off an eerie feeling.
I examined them with Dantalion’s Monocle as well.
As I slowly read through the information on both items, one particular phrase made me stop. I reread it several times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.
The red stake—I’d set that aside for now. It was clearly something ominous, but that wasn’t important right now. The last line in the cube generator’s description.
“Requires a magic stone of the same grade as the one intended for use as a key. It is also possible to inject raw magic power instead of a magic stone, but in that case the cube’s duration is extremely short—only about a week. Additionally, the contents can be retrieved simply by channeling magic power while touching the cube…”
“It is also possible to inject raw magic power instead of a magic stone.”
“The contents can be retrieved simply by channeling magic power while touching the cube…”
I suppressed my trembling hands and shouted at Dorf immediately.
“Dorf, change of plans!”
“Huh? W-what do you mean, young master?”
“We’re not liquidating these treasures. Instead, combine some of the items here with goods from the company and make one hundred bundles each in the composition I mentioned. Equipment like swords, shields, and spears. Potion types. High-rarity antiques and artworks. Make them in a ratio of seventy inferior, twenty-five mid-grade, and five top-grade. Also, recruit craftsmen capable of producing the listed items. Set up a rotation so we can supply top-grade items at least once a week. If it takes time to gather craftsmen, fill the top-grade slots with the items I’ve pulled from cubes so far to maintain the ratio. If you can’t handle it alone, contact Theo Midas too. Can you do it?”
Dorf looked stunned for a moment, but as a veteran merchant he quickly caught the scent of money and asked back,
“The top-grade items will need to be valuable enough that even the children of prestigious families would find them difficult to obtain, correct?”
“Valuable enough to make their stomachs twist with envy if someone brags about getting one.”
“Understood. Inferior goods are lying around everywhere, and mid-grade items can be handled with a single call to the company. If we use your personal collection for the top-grade portion, we can prepare three full bundles right away.”
“Good.”
As Dorf and I exchanged sinister chuckles, Ligret looked at us with a suspicious expression.
“What exactly are you two planning to do?”
I answered simply.
“Beautiful cultural dissemination.”
Sunday morning. After eating breakfast at the academy cafeteria, Loto was taking a leisurely stroll, savoring his full stomach.
What the commoner-born students—including Loto—were most satisfied with at the academy was none other than the food. The quality of the free meals provided for every single meal was simply extraordinary. Children from noble or relatively wealthy commoner families took it for granted, but from the perspective of an ordinary commoner like Loto, the cafeteria food was a feast of delicacies he would never have experienced in his lifetime. Quite a few students even endured the grueling classes by looking forward to mealtime every day.
“Wow, nice weather.”
The sunlight was warm, and the blowing breeze felt cozy yet slightly refreshing. It had already been a week since that insane group assignment ended. Loto’s mind and body had stabilized after spending peaceful days without any major trouble, and he even had the leisure to worry about acquaintances he hadn’t seen in a while.
Come to think of it, it’s been quite a while since I last saw Chrome. …Even so, completely avoiding him and rejecting him like that—was that too harsh?
Of course, Loto had his excuses. The medical certificate he received from the academy’s health officer was completely genuine. Considering how he had always been swept up by Chrome’s silver tongue in the past, if he had tried to reject the boy face-to-face, he could clearly see a future where he would be completely played by that snake-like tongue and dragged straight into dangerous territory.
It was true that he had received many favors from Chrome, but that was that, and survival came first.
After going through that hellish experience, he immediately went charging into a dungeon without even resting. Does that guy never get tired?
Shaking his head as he walked, Loto suddenly noticed a fairly large crowd gathered in one spot.
“Come one, come all! Limited to the first hundred people! No payment required, so take one first! We’re distributing brand-new cubes that can be unsealed using only a tiny amount of magic power instead of a magic stone! Some of them contain incredible prizes, so go ahead and test your luck!”
“Cubes? You mean those surprise boxes that contain various ancient artifacts? Never seen a translucent one before.”
“Is it really free? You’re not going to ask for money later, right?”
“Hmm, not a bad way to kill time.”
“I wonder if anything good will come out?”
“Come on, even real cubes are mostly junk. There’s no way something amazing would be in ones they’re giving away for free here.”
“We’re not paying for them anyway, so who cares? There are only a hundred, so only about half the students can get one. Let’s just take them for now.”
Loto thought seriously.
…Did he hit his head in the dungeon or something?
No matter how he looked at it, this didn’t seem like the behavior of a sane person.