The Fear I Couldn’t Shake
Unlike the grandiose name research institute suggested, what the director had staggered downstairs carrying was a huge cardboard box.
At the institute I’d been in before, they used security cases that opened with key cards.
It was a memory I didn’t especially want to dredge up, but the moment I looked at the box, it surfaced on its own.
Was it because of the difference in what they handled, or the difference in budget? In importance?
There won’t be syringes in there, right? Or bone saws. Hammers and chisels. Scalpels, either.
I bit down on my cheek and forcibly erased the rising anxiety by synthesizing serotonin along with it.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. My back’s been acting up lately, so I can’t lift heavy things properly. Maybe I should go get some manual therapy…”
“M-manual therapy…?”
“You know, where they use force to realign your bones? Or so I’ve heard!”
“Hii…”
“It’s not that painful, so there’s no need to be too scared, Lapis. It’s a legitimate treatment method. There are even specialists for it.”
Minho seized the moment and tried to talk to Lapis, but she chose to stay terrified rather than pay him any attention.
Jinhyun, meanwhile, kept staring at me the entire time, and it was thoroughly obnoxious.
“Ahaha, I’ve been rambling, haven’t I? Let’s get the items out first.”
The director seemed to realize he was going on too long, so he opened the cardboard box and placed the artifacts inside on the table.
“These are artifacts…”
“I thought they’d all be glittering and impressive-looking…”
“S-surprisingly normal…?”
“Most artifacts look perfectly ordinary. The fancy ones used by famous hunters or heroes would be S-class or A-class, but things like that don’t come around easily.”
Once the director got on a topic he knew, he seemed to perk up again and started rattling off all sorts of things I wasn’t particularly curious about when it came to artifacts.
From how artifact grades were classified to how they were researching ways to extract anomalies from artifacts and create artificial artifacts.
It was interesting to me, but there was no actual explanation of the artifacts we had obtained.
And the longer we stayed in this institute, the worse the hallucinations got, so I needed to cut him off.
There was this slow, creeping sensation like bone grinding—scrreee, scrreee—as if my bones were being shaved down.
“I see. So what about this one… what kind of ability does it have?”
“Ah, sorry. I got carried away again. This cloth here… has been named Ignition Cloth.”
Pulling himself back together, the director explained the artifacts’ effects to us.
The white cloth that looked like something you’d never guess the purpose of was an C-class item called Ignition Cloth.
All it did was keep burning once lit, until someone extinguished it with mana.
Whether you dropped it into water or sealed it in a vacuum tube.
“Wow…! That’s only C-class?!”
“There are plenty of things even better than that, and besides… it’s something that has to be touched by someone with mana, so it’s awkward to use as a power source. There isn’t enough of it for large-scale generation, either.”
And besides, thermal power plants were already a thing of the past.
“Maybe a fire-user could make good use of it somehow…”
“If I put a little of it into the costume I’m going to use, it’d be perfect…! It would light right up anywhere as long as mana is poured into it!!!”
Yeonhwa looked ecstatic, as though an item made for her had fallen right into her lap.
I didn’t object. It really was the kind of thing only she could use.
“Then let’s give that one to Yeonhwa… and this?”
“Ah, this shining war hammer? Now this is a very interesting item… how should I explain it? Ah, right. It’s something like this.”
As he said that, the director raised the war hammer and smashed it down on his own head.
“Aaaah—? Huh? Why am I fi—”
“Isn’t it fascinating? When you strike it like that, it stores the amount of impact it would have taken.”
The director swung the war hammer around haphazardly, smashing it into anything and everything, but nothing was breaking.
“Come along. It’s a little dangerous to demonstrate here.”
So we followed him to a room with dummies, where the director handed the hammer to a waiting test subject and gave him an OK sign.
“The more impact the war hammer absorbs, the brighter it shines. To glow like that, it would have to be storing almost up to its limit. But then the moment someone pours mana into it and swings—”
When the war hammer struck the dummy, an outcome unfolded that was impossible to believe had come from something swung lightly.
The upper half of the iron dummy was nearly ripped away, left dangling by a thread.
“That’s how it’s released. That one’s B+ grade. It’s good, but it takes far too long to store up enough impact to reach that level of force.”
“That seems dangerous to use on a person.”
Minho let out an incredulous laugh, then stated the obvious at the hammer’s absurd power.
“It is certainly dangerous for a hero to use. And since there’s no way to quantify exactly how much impact it’s accumulated, it’s also hard to know when to release it.”
It seemed more suited to hunters than heroes.
The director laughed as he said it, sounding sorry that it had come to that.
“You said you might be able to extract the anomaly from an artifact… right?”
“Yes. We’ve actually already done it. The technology’s been established. The problem is… what we extract that way ends up weaker than the original.”
They were researching a method to extract it and transfer it intact in its original form.
The director said that with a helpless little sigh.
Then he looked at the kids and asked them a question.
“Children. Just in case, is there anyone who wants to use that war hammer?”
Except for Minho, everyone said a definite no. And even Minho hesitated, saying that while he did want it, it was too destructive.
“Then… I’d like to hand that artifact over to the director as research material. Would that be possible? Make it into something Minho can actually use.”
“Blanca.”
“Sorry, Jinhyun. But… I want to give it to him.”
“Blanca. Are you really giving it away?”
“...Yeah. I want to.”
“If Blanca wants it, then there’s no helping it. Do whatever you want, Blanca. They’re items you probably wouldn’t even have gotten if it weren’t for you. Jinhyun, you agree too, don’t you?”
“...I guess so.”
“I-I think I’m fine with it too.”
“Are you sure? If so, that’s good for us, I suppose…”
“I’ll do that. You decide which item you want the anomaly put into, Minho.”
Because it’s yours.
Minho thanked me, then gave the director a rough design idea.
After that, there really wasn’t anything else worth seeing.
There were no items that fit someone like Minho or Yeonhwa so perfectly; most of them were either awkward to use or just too plain.
About the only thing I did was find a bottle that seemed to be bigger on the inside than it looked, and ask them to extract its anomaly and apply it to a test tube about the size of my finger.
That was the extent of my gain.
There was also the money from selling the mana stones, divided among the four of us, but it’s not like I was short on cash.
We’d taken care of our business, so now it was time to leave the institute.
My body was beginning to shake to the point that even drugs and hormones couldn’t hide it anymore. If I stayed any longer, I’d probably give myself away.
I didn’t want the main characters finding out.
“I’ll contact you once the anomaly transfer is complete. Thank you. At last, we’ll be able to confirm our theory.”
“...If it fails, it won’t make the anomaly disappear or anything, right?”
“Of course not! It’s not like we’re strengthening it; we’re extracting it. What could possibly go wrong? Don’t worry.”
That’s a relief.
Until the moment we left, I kept throwing out pointless jokes and doing my best to calm my mind and body.
“Oh, um. Could I take this box with me?”
“This? Yes, take it if you like. Though I can’t imagine why you’d want it.”
After taking the big cardboard box and leaving the institute, it felt as if the steel shackles constricting my body had finally come off.
“...Haa.”
I can breathe again. I thought I’d gotten over it by now, but my body still remembers, huh.
“I never imagined I’d come to a place like this in my lifetime… it’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Yeonhwa was stroking the box that held the Ignition Cloth while chatting cheerfully with Lapis.
Minho, for his own part, seemed to have things on his mind and kept his distance.
I had just started to get excited about the thought of going home and draping myself in this huge cardboard box when—
“Blanca. Why have you been so scared since a while ago?”
Jinhyun suddenly came over and quietly asked why I’d been trembling.
“S-scared? Who—”
Before I could even get offended, I nearly jumped out of my skin and was about to say I hadn’t been scared at all, that he must have seen wrong.
“Your tail’s been curled inward the whole time. Cats do that when they’re frightened. Yeonhwa and the others probably didn’t notice, but…”
But the bastard was determined to link me to a cat and say, You were scared, weren’t you?
...
“...White tiles and smells make me think of a dentist’s office. So I’m a little scared. It’s embarrassing, so keep it a secret from the others.”
Hiding my murderous intent behind an awkward smile, I said it to Jinhyun as gently as I could.
“I-I see. Okay. I’m still scared of ghosts myself, so… I guess you have something like that too.”
For some reason, Jinhyun seemed to find it terribly funny, grinning so widely I wanted to rip his mouth off on sight as he got into the limousine.
Minho watched all of it quietly.
As if he were trying to see through me.
* * * * * -
Blanca being in the laboratory was now certain.
When she was inside, she had clearly been afraid.
She’d apparently hidden it well with her body and expression, but her tail and ears had still faintly revealed that she was in fear.
I’d also confirmed that she hadn’t told those people everything.
Not that I would have either.
Inside the limousine, I watched Yeonhwa chatting away with Blanca and thought about it.
If I wanted to uncover her identity, I’d probably have to investigate the people around her as well.