The Paper's Reward
Theo's Atelier had returned to two barracks' worth of space, and with it the shop's stock had doubled—but the closing hour stayed exactly the same.
Word that the goods had multiplied spread fast, and the number of customers swelled to match. With supply finally catching up, the settlers' faces lit with pure contentment.
A few of them cast curious looks at Theo the ghost hovering beside me, or voiced questions about the sudden surge in inventory, but they quieted down soon enough.
"If you satisfy that curiosity and the potion supply drops because of it, can you live with the consequences?"
"…No?"
"Then from now on, you live as an idiot."
"Ah. Got it!"
Listening to the pioneers talk among themselves, I could tell none of them had any intention of cutting open the goose that laid the golden eggs. Potions were scarce enough as it was—high-quality ones especially. If anyone poked the beehive and I cut the supply in response, they'd become public enemy number one among the settlers. Better to swallow their questions and keep quiet.
Besides, the two knights standing guard out front made asking outright a bad idea. Anyone with eyes could tell the royal family had sent them; they watched the shop with hawk-sharp vigilance. Causing a scene in front of them was as good as insulting the royals who had dispatched them. Even the rowdiest pioneers turned into meek lambs at our doorstep. Step out of line, and the Imperial shadows would come knocking in the dead of night to collect you.
"Thank goodness the Empire is competent."
"Normally, a nation being competent is the default."
"Do you actually believe that?"
"…Well. Sometimes they do get incompetent."
A nation is the system that fits the four-character idiom "rise and fall" better than anything else. When it thrives, it thrives spectacularly; when it collapses, it proves there are floors beneath the floor. And the Empire was a very competent nation. Dispatching knights less than an hour after I'd submitted a paper to the Sage's Tower was one example. The way they made no demands of me and simply waited for me to grow was another.
To an outsider it might look like they were scheming something, but knowing the true nature of the Imperial family, I understood exactly where that consideration came from.
Overwhelming, absolute power.
A lion has no need to raise its mane and roar at a rabbit. With nothing left to prove, they could afford to be generous—and that very ease had become the Imperial family's defining trait, inspiring awe in everyone who witnessed it.
The royals of Astrum didn't care whether I formally belonged to the Empire or not. As long as I kept helping the city the way I was now, they would continue to shelter me.
"Another day of business, safely done."
"Making the same things over and over gets boring. Want to expand the product line?"
"Good idea. What should we make?"
We were tidying the closed shop and debating what to craft next in the atelier when a knock sounded at the door.
"Pardon me. Is Mister Theodore in?"
"Who is it?"
"I've come from the Sage's Tower."
At the sound of someone calling for Theo and me, I opened the door. A man who identified himself as being from the Sage's Tower bowed politely at the waist.
"Following an internal review, we determined that the paper you submitted, Lord Theodore, exceeds what contribution points alone can properly reward. We have prepared additional compensation."
"Is the Sage's Tower inviting me, then?"
"That is correct. Are you perhaps occupied at the moment?"
"Not at all. I'll get ready right away."
Business was finished for the day, and I had nothing urgent pending, so I simply grabbed a robe and decided to head out. I ducked inside, threw the robe on, and came back out. The man waiting in front of the shop led the way.
Following his guidance, we arrived at the Sage's Tower—looking exactly as it always did.
"How is this even working?"
"Just fifty more points—fifty more and I can buy the material I want…"
"Ehehe. Master, there are way too many assignments."
Watching the living corpses of overworked alchemists, I felt the cozy familiarity of coming home.
The man walking ahead of us gave an awkward laugh.
"The Tower's a bit chaotic inside, isn't it?"
"Not at all. It feels so ordinary it's actually comforting."
"Still, this isn't the face we should be showing a guest. Embarrassing."
Well, it was a little embarrassing to show non-alchemists. We passed through the throng of alchemists and stepped onto a stone platform. The circuits engraved into it glowed blue, and the platform began to rise.
Riding the fantasy-version elevator, we made small talk on the way to the top.
"Might we know what the reward is?"
"The reward, you mean?"
"Yes!"
Theo's eyes sparkled as he asked. The man gave a playful smile and shrugged.
"It's a secret. Spoiling it here would ruin the fun."
"Ah, what a shame. I suppose we'll have to wait."
"You won't be disappointed. The Tower prepared something proper."
His words stoked our anticipation, and both Theo's face and mine brightened. The man chuckled softly at the sight of us.
"More than that—it's remarkable. How did you manage to write a paper like that?"
"Luck, mostly. I'd heard things about the Demonic Realm for a long time."
"From your master?"
"Something like that."
In a way, Alchemist Story itself could be called my master. The man rubbed his chin with an intrigued expression. When the platform reached the top, he opened the door to the branch chief's office.
Inside, two familiar figures greeted us.
One was Lowell, Branch Chief of the Sage's Tower's Astrum branch. Skinny build, heavy dark circles under his eyes, a sharp gaze—the moment he spotted us, his face lit up with welcome.
"Oh. Our branch's young genius has arrived."
"It's been a while, Branch Chief. Have you been well?"
After a brief exchange of greetings, I looked at the woman seated beside him.
Hair like sunlight spun into thread. Eyes like melted gold. Features so distinctive that not recognizing her would have been stranger than recognizing her. I bowed at the waist.
A heavyweight right from the start, huh.
"So you're the alchemist who's set the whole city buzzing?"
"I greet Her Highness the Fourth Princess."
"Skip the formalities. I didn't come here to inspect your etiquette—I came to inspect your ability."
At the Fourth Princess's words, I promptly sat on the sofa. Theo, reading the room, settled beside me. Watching an identical living person and a ghost sit side by side, the Fourth Princess regarded us with open curiosity. Then she turned to the man who had guided us here.
"Fascinating. What did you make of them, Brother?"
"Not bad. More entertaining than I expected."
Brother?
Startled by the unexpected form of address, I looked at the man. Come to think of it, I hadn't known his face or his name. Even when I tried to focus on his features, his impression stayed strangely blurred.
With an easy stride he took a seat beside the Fourth Princess, then touched the necklace at his throat. His appearance warped—and a strikingly handsome man with brilliant golden hair and golden eyes emerged.
"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Casian, the Third Prince. The young lady beside me is my little sister, Fourth Princess Isabella. Want to just call me 'Brother'?"
"I'll stick with 'Your Highness the Third Prince,' thank you."
"Cold."
Calling him "Brother" felt like a one-way ticket to an early grave. He shrugged off the clean refusal and got down to business.
"As you already know, the paper you published has thrown Astrum into an uproar."
Of course I knew. I'd written it specifically to cause a major stir in the city.
"What I'm about to say is classified, but since you already know, I'll tell you anyway."
"If it's classified, you really don't have to—"
"Denied!"
Grinning playfully, he laid out information I already knew perfectly well. Beyond the barrier—presumed to have been erected by the last Sage—lay the true Demonic Realm. Sealed for so long, the barrier had begun to crack under the strain. The solution was to open an entrance to the Demonic Realm, like releasing pressure from a gas valve. The problem was that no one had been able to reach that entrance—until my paper opened the path.
All that remained now was to break the seal and open the gate.
"The issue from here is the monsters."
"One of the culprits behind the Great Catastrophe five hundred years ago, you mean?"
"The Demonic Realm is packed with them, and apparently our building Astrum got on their nerves."
"According to our informants, monsters have been gathering near the barrier," Isabella added.
So they'd confirmed a wave was coming. The original plan had probably been to weather the monster wave in the city and accept the casualties. Even throwing the entire Sage's Tower at the problem hadn't produced a better method, so they'd been forced to settle for the next-best option. But thanks to my paper, that plan had been scrapped.
"Thanks to you, we mapped the spatial structure of the Demonic Realm and reached its deepest point in less than a week. All that's left is unlocking the seal on the entrance."
"Have you identified the type of seal?"
"It opens by arranging seven kinds of flowers in a transmutation circle. We currently hold four of them."
Casian stopped there, a peculiar smile curling his lips as he looked at me.
Hold on. This atmosphere felt familiar—exactly like the feeling I got when I first met Leila or Sorbiyan…
"You have them, don't you? The three kinds of flowers we don't."
"……"
"……"
"Just so we're clear—I already know you've possessed someone."
I figured as much. I glanced at the other two. Isabella and Lowell looked completely unfazed; they already knew too. With a sigh, I registered the steadily growing list of people who were in on the possession secret.
At this rate, it'd be faster to find someone who doesn't know.
Leila was the Story Witch, so getting found out the moment we met had been a given. Sorbiyan was a soul-specialist alchemist who'd accidentally detected it after turning into a ghost herself, so that one I could let slide. But these people—when had they figured it out?
"How long have you known?"
"We only found out recently."
"Word came from the Imperial Court," Isabella said. "The prophets observed a shift in fate."
Just as I had seen countless futures through Alchemist Story, this world had people and tools that could glimpse the future—fragmentarily. Nothing as detailed or precise as what I knew, of course; at best they confirmed a few branches among countless possibilities, or caught the barest shreds of what was to come. Even with such limited information, the Imperial family had managed to pin down the anomaly. Then again, Astrum was critically important to the Empire; they were bound to notice quickly. An ordinary person might have slipped under the radar—but I'd possessed the protagonist sitting at the center of fate. It would have been stranger if they hadn't noticed.
Theo looked at me.
"Hyung. Are we public domain information now?"
"Pretty much."
Besides, the Rest Cult would have uncovered the possession eventually as well. The Empire and the Cult were tightly intertwined; important intelligence like this got shared almost immediately. So I relaxed and explained our situation.
"Fascinating. A possession with no prior signs whatsoever—and even the Rest Cult failed to detect it."
"The Special Affairs Office is going to have a rough time. A new variable means they'll have to overhaul every contingency plan."
They muttered under their breath while I sat there awkwardly. Lowell cleared his throat and steered the conversation back on track.
"Perhaps we should start by delivering Theo's reward."
"Ah—my apologies. The situation was so interesting I got carried away."
"I'm sorry as well. I didn't mean to be rude."
Belatedly realizing their lapse, the two royals apologized. Casian drew a pouch from his coat—clearly high-grade at a glance—and handed it over with a broad grin.
"A spatial pouch. It'll hold roughly a carriage-load of goods."
"No way—an actual spatial pouch?!"
"Yep. Like it?"
"Anyone who could be disappointed after receiving this isn't human!"
Even the lowest-grade spatial pouch ran to hundreds of gold. A carriage-load put this one in the low-grade tier, but as an Imperial reward it would almost certainly have weight-reduction and other features rivaling mid-grade. At minimum, it was worth several thousand gold.
Apparently satisfied with our reaction, Casian looked pleased.
"That's only the reward for the paper. Hand over the three kinds of flowers, and I promise additional compensation on top."
"Of course! I brought them intending to give them to you from the start!"
I'd planned to hand them over anyway. With a hefty extra reward on the table, there was even less reason to refuse. I was about to head straight back to the atelier to fetch the flowers when a sudden commotion erupted outside the branch chief's office.
What now? Someone at the door?
Before I could even check what was going on, the door swung open and a cute-looking young girl stepped inside. She scanned the office, spotted Theo and me, and her eyes lit up.
"Waaah! Angels!"
…Huh?
With an utterly innocent face, the girl dashed over without a moment's hesitation, plopped down beside me, and looked back and forth between Theo and me. Everyone in the branch chief's office wore the same stunned expression—and for good reason. The girl who had just walked in was someone every single one of them knew very well.