The Unidentified Metal Plate
"I'm looking for someone named Carlton. Do you know him?"
"……."
It was a short question from Juhan — that he had been searching for a man named Carlton. And yet, for some reason, the man gave no answer at all. Not even a reaction.
From the way things were going, he was clearly still wary of Juhan.
He just showed up without a word, and now this?
A brief standoff settled between the man and Juhan. Something finally came out of the man about a minute later.
"…Who sent you?"
"Nobody sent me. More importantly — are you Carlton, the magic engineer?"
"You found me on your own? Me?"
From the way he spoke, it really did seem he was Carlton, just as expected. But for some reason, hearing Juhan's answer only made him raise his guard even higher.
"Then how did you get in? The entrance was sealed with a magic-engineering plate I made…"
"I just opened it and walked in."
"……."
Juhan's answer was almost blandly simple. After hearing it, Carlton said nothing more at all.
What's going on?
It wasn't as if the man had fainted mid-conversation. Just as Juhan was about to say something into the silence—
"…That door. You could have forced it open this whole time, and you just… didn't?"
"This door?"
Carlton's voice had dropped a little. He was asking whether Juhan could have torn the door open by force, and simply hadn't.
Rattle. Rattle.
"Hmm…"
At Carlton's question, Juhan gave the door a quick feel. Honestly, if he just ripped it off, it would probably open.
"Probably?"
"……."
"I'm not certain. But I wouldn't say it's impossible, either."
Clack!
The moment the answer left his mouth, the small viewing window Carlton had been watching him through snapped shut. Then Carlton's voice came again.
"Haa…"
He let out a deep sigh, like a man hit with a sudden headache.
"What kind of guy just walks in here…"
And with that, the door that had been separating Carlton from Juhan began to open, slowly.
Ssshhk.
Clack.
Clunk-clunk.
One by one, the sound of countless locks coming undone. When the door finally swung open, the face that appeared was, at a glance, that of a man worn down by sheer exhaustion.
"…Just come in."
Carlton, dressed like someone in work clothes, waved Juhan through the gap in the doorway. The look on his face said he had already given up on something.
"You are Carlton, right?"
"Yeah. I'm Carlton."
Step. Step.
At first Juhan had wondered if it was really all right to walk in without much suspicion. That suspicion mostly vanished the moment he saw the inside of Carlton's workshop.
…What is all this.
Following Carlton deeper in, the workshop looked like a junkyard. Things whose purpose he couldn't begin to guess lay scattered every which way.
Carlton watched Juhan glance around for a moment, then asked,
"How did you even know where I live?"
"There's quite a rumor going around the village. They say you're the best magic engineer in the area."
"…Tch. Useless gossip."
Carlton clicked his tongue as if it were a nuisance and simply kept walking ahead.
Rrrk.
They arrived at the deepest part of the workshop. There, at least, stood a single table cleared enough that a person could sit at it.
Thud.
"So. Why did you come looking for me?"
He didn't seem curious how Juhan had found the workshop, or what state the outer entrance was in. Carlton just frowned and spoke as if he wanted the business stated already.
Doesn't seem like the type to care about that kind of thing, either.
Juhan studied him for a second, then reached into the inner pocket of his chest and pulled out the metal plate he had brought.
Swish.
"I was hoping you could take a look at this."
Clack.
He set the plate on the table and, with a glance, gestured that Carlton was free to pick it up and examine it.
Hmmmm—
Even then the metal plate gave off a faint vibration, but Carlton didn't seem particularly concerned. There was no way he could know what the plate was for, or where it had come from, anyway.
"And what is this supposed to be…"
Grab.
Without much hesitation, Carlton picked up the plate. He turned it over in his hands, examining it from every angle, but his expression barely changed.
"What does this thing even do?"
"I don't know exactly what it is, either. That's why I want you to look it over — analyze it, basically."
"What kind of nonsense…"
Carlton muttered under his breath as if the whole request were absurd. Even so, his hands and eyes never stopped working over the plate.
"You need at least some basic prior information before you can analyze anything. You can't just dump something on me out of nowhere and—"
He was still grumbling when his words cut off mid-sentence.
"…Huh?"
"What? Is something wrong?"
Carlton's brow had suddenly furrowed, and he was staring holes through the metal plate. He even brought it right up to his face, as if checking something carefully.
"Hold on."
Swish.
He reached for a strange-looking lens lying abandoned on one side of the workbench.
"Something's off about this."
"Which part?"
"This."
In answer to Juhan's question, he pointed at the edge of the plate.
"There's no fabrication mark from shaping the plate."
"Fabrication mark?"
"A metal plate is something you produce through a series of processes, right? You melt it and pour it, or you join multiple sheets together."
Tap.
Carlton gave the plate a light knock and went on.
"In the end, something always remains — mold marks, cutting traces, whatever. But this has none of that."
"…Really?"
"It's like the thing existed in this form from the beginning. The surface clearly shows signs of some kind of engraving work, but the plate underneath — the base itself — shows no sign of ever having been made."
As he spoke, Carlton's eyes took on a serious light. The earlier air of irritation had already vanished, replaced by the gaze of a researcher who had found something interesting.
"Is this mithril, of all things? What in the world is this…"
Carlton muttered under his breath in disbelief. He brought the lens close to the plate and examined something carefully.
"…Writing?"
"Writing?"
"It's engraved, very faintly."
With that, Carlton shone a small light onto one part of the plate. On a surface that had looked like ordinary metal, faint lines of unknown origin began to appear.
"It's a mana-infused light. You only get a clear look when you shine this on it."
"Hmm."
"This… no matter how I look at it, it seems like ancient script."
"Can you read it?"
"A little."
Carlton frowned again as he answered. His gaze quietly traced along the characters.
"To be precise, it's more like I can make out the gist."
Juhan had nothing particular to say to that, so he simply nodded as if to say he understood.
"As I thought — sacred script?"
"Sacred script?"
"A writing system said to have been used in ancient times. These days it's a dead language studied only by scholars and a few religious types, but…"
Carlton carefully read down the characters.
"I can't read all of it. The wear is pretty bad."
"But there should still be parts you can make out."
"Hmm…"
At Juhan's words, Carlton thought for a moment, then began pointing out certain patterns with his finger.
"Detection."
"……."
"Search. And warning."
Pointing at the plate, Carlton spoke as if this much, at least, was certain.
"This thing was almost certainly made to detect something."
"Detect?"
"Yeah. Whether that's people, mana, or some specific substance, I don't know."
Having said that much, Carlton turned the plate over and examined it from every side.
"The problem is, we have no idea what criteria the people who made this set for the detection. It's also far too finely worked to be some mass-produced item."
"…So. Do you think there's a way to figure it out?"
"Well. It's not like there isn't one."
Carlton answered calmly — as if it were only natural that it could be done.
"We take it apart. This metal plate."
"……."
"And more than anything, we're short on reference material."
"Meaning?"
"This thing wasn't made the way we normally think of manufacturing. Figuring out the structure itself has to come first."
Tap. Tap.
Carlton kept talking as he rapped the plate.
"On top of that, to reverse-engineer it, or to render the detection useless, you need at least one more sample for comparison."
"You mean we need another of the same kind."
"Exactly."
Carlton nodded. Hearing that, Juhan found himself thinking of the metal plate Karun had taken.
By now he might already be taking it apart and examining it.
From the last fight with the Executor, they had obtained two metal plates. Of the two, the one in poorer condition had gone with Karun. He had said he would dismantle and analyze it through other means, and that if he got any results, he would come find Juhan.
So I still need to get another one somehow — and in good condition, too.
"……."
Carlton watched Juhan thinking it over, then spoke with a short snort of a laugh.
"Honestly, it doesn't look easy. I'm not even sure you can cover the cost."
"Don't worry about the money."
"…That so?"
And yet, even as he said it would be difficult, Carlton's eyes held a strange confidence — the kind of certainty that said, given enough time, he could absolutely solve it.
Creeeak…
Carlton slowly leaned back in his chair. Then he asked Juhan one more thing.
"By the way."
"What?"
"Before that, let me ask you just one thing."
Point.
"You."
Carlton pointed a finger at Juhan. After a short silence, he looked at him with an expression that said he truly had no idea, and said,
"What the hell are you, exactly?"