Manuela.
"Manuela. You wouldn't happen to know anything about Transcendent items, would you?"
Yujun asked it lightly, almost in passing. For him, the question was uncharacteristically careful.
"Yeah. I do."
Manuela answered as if it hardly mattered, and Yujun's eyes went wide.
"You do? I mean Transcendent-grade items. That's what I'm talking about, right?"
"Yeah. I told you last time. That items like that exist."
"……Ah. Right. You did."
Yujun did his best to pretend he had never known. Manuela showed no sign of suspicion, and he let out a silent sigh of relief before trying again.
"Do you happen to have a Transcendent-grade item yourself?"
"No."
"Back then, you said you knew because you imagined it. Right?"
"Yeah. My prophecies take the form of imagination."
"So if you vaguely imagine that something probably exists, that becomes a prophecy. Is that it?"
"Yeah."
"……Hm."
Honestly, it was difficult to believe. Imagination turning into reality? She was not even a god. And yet a witch's prophecy was, as ever, precise. He could not simply let it pass—and that, in part, was why he had come this far.
In the near future, someone would obtain a Transcendent-grade item.
I hope that someone is me.
Since things had come to this, he decided to ask everything he wanted to know.
"Manuela. Then do you also know how to obtain a Transcendent item?"
"Mm. I know one thing for certain."
"Something certain? What?"
"To obtain a Transcendent-grade item, you need a particular item."
"What does that mean?"
"The Transcendent Stone. Only if you have that can you obtain a Transcendent-grade item. That's as far as I know."
"……Don't tell me you have to raise an item's grade with the Transcendent Stone?"
"Probably, right?"
Something shifted in Yujun's eyes. The Transcendent Stone. A name he had never once heard. An item that had not existed when he was playing War of the Gods—or perhaps he had simply never known of it until now.
"And where can you get a Transcendent Stone?"
"I don't know that either. If I did, I'd have gone looking for it ages ago."
"Yeah? Then it can't be helped."
Even so, he had gained a great deal. Sorting through it roughly, the shape of the thing was clear enough.
To obtain a Transcendent-grade item, you need a Transcendent Stone. And the item you'd use that stone on would, by any common sense, be a Mythic-grade item.
Mythic-grade items, he had in abundance. If anything, he felt fortunate. Obtain the Transcendent Stone, and could he not evolve whatever item he pleased? Whether the effects leaned toward magic or toward close combat, he could shape them to his own taste.
My weapon, for instance…….
The sword he wielded now had been called the strongest weapon in all of War of the Gods. Raise that sword's grade, and he could not even begin to imagine how much finer its options would become.
"Why? You planning to get a Transcendent Stone?" Manuela asked.
Yujun shook his head.
"I'd like to. But I don't know how. Doesn't seem possible right now."
"You can obtain the Transcendent Stone in the Demon Realm."
"Why there?"
"Because the place I imagined was the Demon Realm."
"And you don't know who obtained it?"
"Nope. That—wait, hold on, ugh."
Manuela pinched her eyes shut and clutched her head. Then, all at once, the vision broke over her.
A scene of the Transcendent Stone being used within a castle of unmistakable luxury.
"Huh? What are you saying all of a sudden?"
"I imagined it. Just now."
"A prophecy? You just prophesied?"
"Yeah. I think it's in a castle."
"……And it's all right for you to tell me that?"
"You helped me. Of course I can tell you this much."
After all the harm he had done her, had she forgotten every bit of it? Surely not. A witch's memory was second to none. Regardless, he had come away with precious information, and Yujun stored away everything the witch Manuela had said.
The Transcendent Stone. I will obtain it, no matter what.
Two days had passed since they killed the two demon counts. Manuela came running with a grave face.
"There's a problem."
"A problem?"
"I got scammed by a black-market dealer in the Demon Realm."
"……What?"
When Yujun stared at her in sheer disbelief, Manuela flushed.
"W-well. That dealer was incredibly famous, okay? Clean work, too. So I trusted him and handed it over……."
"Handed it over, and?"
"He took the money and ran. It's been two days, and I can't reach him."
Witches lived for hundreds of years. Thousands. That was why they left the impression of being wise, of having good heads on their shoulders. A witch, scammed by a black-market dealer. By any ordinary measure, it made no sense at all.
"A witch's intelligence. Is this even real?"
Paranet muttered it. When even an undead summon went that far, nothing more needed to be said.
"Where did you even learn to talk like—"
"And wherever, pray, would I have learned it?"
Paranet grinned and looked straight at Yujun.
"Was that an insult?"
"Pardon? I was merely offering a word of thanks……."
"Were you?"
Then again, how would Paranet know a turn of phrase only a Korean would use?
"Anyway. You're saying you've lost all the money you've made up till now?"
"……Yeah."
Manuela ducked her head, the picture of guilt.
"All of it?"
She nodded. Had she simply handed the money over to a black-market dealer first, without a second thought?
"Do you have any notion of the sum? Coin my master bled and toiled to earn! You witless little wretch."
Paranet thrust his menacing face in close and scolded her, jabbing a bony finger for good measure.
"You fool!"
Manuela hunched her shoulders even smaller.
"So what are we supposed to do?"
At Yujun's words she lifted her head a fraction and stole a glance at him.
"What is it. Say it."
"Ugh…… okay. The thing is, it felt like the dealer was targeting me from the very start. Like he held a grudge against me."
"What?"
"Black-market dealers are usually tied up with the Demon Realm's high ranks……."
"So there's a good chance he's connected to someone who has it in for you?"
"Yeah. The way he took my money was too meticulous. Meticulous enough that even I, after all the years I've lived, never noticed until it was done."
"That's just because you're an idi—"
Yujun caught himself and shut his mouth. Now was not the moment to say the thing that would hit Manuela hardest.
"Then we'll have to go after the dealer."
"What about the dungeon here?"
"We only need to distort the space around it for a while."
She stared.
"And once word gets out that two counts went down, things ought to stay quiet for a bit. They won't be hunting with their eyes on fire, will they?"
"You think so?"
"Let's start with the dealer. Not pound him into—find him."
Yujun nodded, and Manuela's eyes went wide.
"R-really?"
"I'll help you. You told me about the Transcendent Stone without hesitating, didn't you?"
"Yay! Thank you!"
Manuela broke into a brilliant smile and bounced where she stood, so plainly delighted that she looked nothing like a witch no matter how he studied her. Yujun decided not to trouble himself over it.
Well, it's a good thing she's kind. If she were like other witches…….
Things would not have gone this smoothly. Though calling it smooth, at the exact moment a black-market dealer had fleeced her of every coin, did feel like something of a stretch.
"Any hint where the dealer who scammed you might be?"
"Master. That witch is no examiner setting you a riddle. Hints, naturally, there are none."
Paranet cut in, sharp as a blade.
"Paranet. You're being insolent."
"M-my apologies."
Then Manuela said something that mattered.
"No. Actually, there is a lead. The dealer I mentioned is very famous, and because of that, quite a bit is known about him."
"Known? About a black-market dealer?"
"They call him a black-market dealer, but he runs a large trading company. Big enough that even the marquises and dukes of the Demon Realm can't lay a hand on him lightly."
"And he scams a mere witch? At that scale, wouldn't it be a massive loss for the company? Trust is everything."
"Right. Normally it would be unthinkable. But like I said earlier, the problem is me."
"The problem is you?"
"I'm wanted. The Demon King himself issued the bounty, so there's no escaping my life as a fugitive."
The longer he listened to Manuela, the more astonishing the stories that spilled out of her. How did a person end up with a bounty placed by the Demon King in person? Yujun was not the sort to swallow his curiosity.
"How did that happen?"
"I just…… needed a few materials to make magical beasts, so I casually cleaned out a couple of items from the secret warehouse in the Demon King's Castle. The Demon King's a bit timid, but I never thought he'd issue a wanted notice over something this trivial."
"You were in the wrong."
"Huh?"
Relations between demons and witches were poor to begin with. And a pureblood witch, high even among witches, had invaded the Demon King's Castle and stolen its treasures. The demon side could hardly have sat still.
"But how did they know it was you? Did you get caught sneaking them out?"
"No. They held a party at the Demon King's Castle. The witches' influence was growing, so it was supposed to be a party for harmony between demons and witches, or something like that? Honestly, I dislike demons, but the Demon King promised to pay a lot if I attended. So I went just to make up the numbers."
"And then?"
"I went and imagined something again."
"Imagined what?"
"That in the item warehouse of the Demon King's Castle there was a material I desperately needed, and that someone was going there to steal it."
At that point, it was not so very different from Ju Donghyeon's Future Sight. Manuela went on.
"Better I take it than let someone else steal it and have it disappear, right?"
"So you stole the items from the Demon King's Castle warehouse and ran?"
"Yeah."
She was no better than a child.
"Anyway, I ended up wanted and on the run, so from then on I went around hiding who I was! But it seems the black-market dealer figured out my identity somehow."
"Ah. So he knew you were wanted and swallowed a fortune."
"Yeah."
"But isn't he afraid of what comes after? However you look at it, he scammed a pureblood witch and earned her grudge."
"That dealer—the company Rozent runs has no real substance, and he's so elusive that finding him isn't easy to begin with. So he probably doesn't think of earning my grudge as a threat. And this is just my guess…… but I think he may have made some kind of deal with the Demon King, too."
"He scammed the Demon King as well?"
"No, not that. I'm saying the two of them might have joined forces to catch me. A scheme to draw me in? Something like that?"
There was sense in it.
"If it's a trap the Demon King set, that's incredibly dangerous. Shouldn't we stay away?"
"……Should we?"
Manuela did not seem to have thought very deeply about the matter.
"Then should we not go?"
At that, Yujun let out a hollow laugh. Was she really so easily swayed?
"We still have to get the money back."
Manuela tilted her head.
"Didn't you say it's dangerous, so we shouldn't go?"
"I'm saying we accept the risk. Even if the Demon King shows up, there's a way to escape."
Besides, there was no guarantee they would lose if they fought. And then there was the Demon King's Castle. Manuela had said, quite clearly, that the Transcendent Stone lay in a castle with a luxurious air—more precisely, that she had seen someone using the Transcendent Stone there.
I hope that someone is me.
Castles were not so common in the Demon Realm. Even among demons of duke rank and higher, few possessed one. The odds were good that the Transcendent Stone was in the Demon King's Castle, and the feeling of it sat well with him.
Even if it means clashing with the Demon King, I will obtain the Transcendent Stone.
That was Yujun's goal now.
"Where do we need to go?"
"I know where the black-market dealer Rozent went today. I placed a Marking Curse on him. If we go there, it should be enough."
"A Marking Curse? That's the ability that lets you know where someone is, right?"
"Yeah."
"But you can't pin the location down exactly? Someone like you should be capable of more than that."
"Rozent is a high-ranking mage, too. I thought there was a good chance he'd notice, so I deliberately inscribed the curse faintly. That's why we have to track him by following his traces."
"At least it isn't quite searching for a needle in the sand."
He had the whole of the situation now. There was no reason left to hesitate.