Ego Ironstone Lifeform
About ten minutes had passed since the Guild Master ordered someone to fetch an Ego Ironstone from his personal vault.
At last, the militiaman who had taken the order entered the room, cradling a lump of metal with careful hands.
It was an Ego Ironstone mass at least as large as two adult men’s heads pressed together.
I let out a breath of pure wonder at that jaw-dropping size, and the militiaman set the lump down in front of me.
“As ordered… I’ve brought it…!”
Having put the Ego Ironstone down, the man was clearly spent; he stood there panting hard. After a crisp salute, he left the room, and the Guild Master looked from the stone to me and back again.
“Well? Do you like it?”
“Yes… I really do. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Ego Ironstone this large.”
Even in the game, Ego Ironstones had been reasonably obtainable — but never by any route that produced one of this size. In other words, this was an Ego Ironstone I had never once used, even there.
So I offered genuine, repeated admiration and thanks, and the Guild Master’s smile turned thoroughly satisfied.
“Good. I’m glad it pleases you. Our city’s savior, Magus Eli—”
“Elia. Just Elia.”
I cut him off the instant he started to speak my name. I had shown my citizen’s certificate on the way in and on the way out; he almost certainly knew who I was. Before he could say my family name, I made my wishes plain.
I had no desire to put that surname on display.
Perhaps years as Guild Master of the Unified Guild had sharpened his instincts, because he understood at once why I had interrupted him. He gave a small nod, cleared his throat, and gestured toward the Ego Ironstone.
“Ahem. Why don’t you try pouring some mana into it, Miss Elia? I’m rather curious myself what sort of creature will form. Anyone of your age with the skill to take down a Morana must possess extraordinary talent.”
It was already common knowledge that an Ego Ironstone lifeform took on a form shaped by its master’s nature and capability. His words kindled my own anticipation, and I slowly reached out toward the mass of stone.
Sigrun, standing behind me, watched just as tensely.
Under everyone’s gaze, I fed mana into the Ego Ironstone and let my imagination run free. What form would it take?
A lion so fearsome you hesitated even to approach? A tiger that radiated raw, intimidating power at a glance? Or — if fortune truly smiled — a dragon, said to stand at the peak of all living things?
Anything would do, so long as it wasn’t an appearance I’d be embarrassed to walk around with as a pet.
Thinking that, I watched the Ego Ironstone — and the mass, now saturated with my mana, began to change.
What had been nearly a perfect sphere writhed like living cells, slowly reshaping itself. Before long the twisting, self-sculpting stone resolved into a form clear even to the naked eye.
And that form was none other than—
“Kyeng!”
“A fox?”
“How adorable.”
“Haha. Adorable, indeed.”
—a fox of the sort that drew the word cute from Sigrun and the Guild Master without a second’s thought.
It differed from an ordinary fox in a few respects: its fur was pure white rather than orange, and it had three tails.
“A three-tailed fox…?”
I murmured it as I looked at the creature — a three-tailed fox felt like the right name for it — and the little fox wagged its tails, trotted over, and rubbed its head against my leg.
“Kyeng! Kya-kyeng!”
It nuzzled my feet with cute little cries, as if begging to be petted. When I knelt, it promptly flopped onto its back and offered me its belly.
“Kyiiing!”
“Truly adorable.”
Sigrun clapped a hand over her mouth with a soft tup at the sight of the three-tailed fox sprawled belly-up. A closer look suggested a faint trickle of nosebleed. She was hopelessly weak to anything cute; I couldn’t help a wry laugh — but I also couldn’t disagree with her.
“……It really is cute.”
I stroked its belly, and under my fingers I felt the cold, hard texture of Ego Ironstone, unmistakably metal. Even so, the fox seemed delighted; it squinted its eyes in a smile and let out soft cries.
It was teaching me exactly what people meant when they said someone had been bewitched by a fox. I fought down the smile that wanted to form and kept my expression carefully composed.
This was our first meeting. I had no intention of crumpling to its cuteness and surrendering the very moment we met.
“But does it have any abilities beyond being charming?”
“Mm. True enough. Three tails and white fur make for a striking look, but… nothing else particularly special seems apparent. It’s no ordinary fox, yet its appearance isn’t one I’ve ever seen on a monster, either.”
“Kyiiing?!”
The Guild Master joined my question with his own doubts. At our words, the three-tailed fox’s eyes flew wide — then, still on its back, it began to cry out as if trying to explain something.
“Kyeng, kyaang! Kyeng-kyeng! Kyaung!”
It twisted this way and that, pouring out sounds with the earnest intensity of a true explanation. But no matter what it was trying to say, cries were only cries; there was no way I could parse meaning from them.
“Sorry, but I have no idea what you’re saying…?”
“Kyeng?!”
As if struck by the shock of it, the three-tailed fox’s eyes grew a little teary. It spun in place as though thinking hard — then suddenly leapt straight into my arms.
“Whoa…?!”
I caught it on pure reflex. Nestled against me, it tapped its long snout lightly against my chest, right over my heart. Then, still at that spot, it began lapping at the empty air with its tongue, the way an animal drinks water.
Only after that sequence did I finally, dimly, understand what it had been trying to convey.
“You want my mana? And if I give it to you, you’ll show me a new ability?”
“Kyeng!”
The three-tailed fox beamed and nodded. It understood me completely — almost as if it knew human speech.
I studied it, letting out a small hum.
“Hmm…….”
It was true that Ego Ironstone lifeforms could use a variety of abilities in exchange for their master’s mana. So the three-tailed fox was almost certainly asking for the same reason.
It cost me nothing of real substance, and I was curious about its other abilities myself. I set a finger against its forehead and spoke.
“For now, only show me abilities you can demonstrate without damaging this room, all right?”
“Kyeng!”
It answered with a ringing cry and a firm nod. A moment later, having drawn a little of my mana, it hopped down from my arms. Standing on the floor, it looked back at me — then, with light, graceful movement, turned a midair somersault toward the rear.
Whirrr—!
“……Don’t tell me?”
That sequence of motions sparked a sudden suspicion, and I had barely begun to voice it when white smoke erupted around the three-tailed fox, faster than I could finish.
Puff—!
“Cough!”
“All of a sudden, smoke….”
The Guild Master coughed amid the billowing cloud; Sigrun waved a hand to clear it. But when the smoke around the three-tailed fox finally dispersed, both of them — like me — could only stare blankly.
Or rather, they stared, dumbfounded, at the small girl who had clearly once been the three-tailed fox.
“Kyeng! Ahem, ahem!”
The girl cleared her throat lightly, as if loosening it. At the same time, her pure-white twintails flicked primly through the air. What caught the eye next were her vivid crimson irises, the sharp little fangs peeking from her mouth, and last of all, what she was wearing…
“Huh?”
My thoughts simply stopped when my gaze dropped that far.
Because what met my eyes was the girl’s completely bare body — not so much as a thread on her.
Sigrun’s reaction was much the same. Which was why, at a speed that could only be called pure reflex, I had no choice but to throw myself at the girl who had been the three-tailed fox.
“Allow me to introduce myself. From this day forward, I shall be Master’s companion, the Ego Ironsto—”
“Wait!! Stop, stop!!!”
I cut off the proud introduction mid-sentence and covered her. In the next breath I stripped off the Black Dragon Robe I was wearing and wrapped it around her body. The robe shrank until it just barely covered her lower half at a length suited to her height.
“Ung?”
Beneath me, the girl wore a puzzled look — yet she still grinned happily simply because I was close. I had no choice but to press my fingers to my throbbing temples.
When I turned my head, I found the Guild Master facing the door, posture carefully averted, as if he had been looking away for some time already. Gentlemanly of him. I offered silent thanks and let out a long, deep sigh.
“Haa…….”
I had hoped my Ego Ironstone lifeform would be something special. For better or worse, it seemed she was no ordinary creature after all — just as I’d hoped.
“Is this… a good thing?”
Whether I could truly call it fortunate remained to be seen.