Sealed (4) — The Fugitive (1)
"Somehow I ended up helping Professor Oros with his work. I mentioned that there was an error in one of his lecture materials, and, well, I don't really know how it turned into this... At least I'm on a scholarship, so I'll probably be fine."
Carlson's eyes were slightly glazed over as he spoke. Feeling sorry for him, Alan held out a nutritional supplement.
"What's this?"
"A tonic made by the owner of Western Sky."
"I heard the medicine they sell there is expensive."
"Please don't feel burdened. Just take it."
"Thanks. Mm, it's tasty."
It was extremely sweet—no surprise, since the supplement was based on honey harvested by the fairies. Even the fairies, who balked at any hint of labor, threw themselves at the flowers with rare enthusiasm during harvest season. Half of the honey they collected went into their own stomachs; the other half made its way into Yohwa's hands.
Every time Yohwa laid eyes on Alan, she would demand to know why he was so painfully thin and press a nutritional supplement on him. As a result, three identical boxes of the stuff were currently stacked back at his home.
"Were you here to see the Professor?"
"Yes. Though I didn't call ahead, so..."
"If it's you, he'll welcome you gladly. He should be in his office right now—go on. He finished today's lectures, so he'll have time to spare."
Just as Carlson said, the moment Alan knocked on the office door, Professor Oros told him to come in at once.
The chair was as massive as its occupant, so large that it blotted out the sunlight streaming through the window. Deep shadows fell across the professor's face, making him look for all the world like a crime boss in a gangster film.
"Alan, my boy. Good to see you."
He had kept using the old address—explorer—only swapping it out for Alan's name and honorific.
"Have you perhaps come to accept the proposal I made the other day?"
"No, sir."
"Ah, what a shame..."
Professor Oros's eyes tinged blue. Someone was attempting to open a call.
"I'll step outside for the duration."
"No need. No one's going to scold me for having company, and you were here first anyway."
When Oros tapped the sphere resting on his desk, the upper half of a young man materialized in the air. Gray hair, and eyes that carried a depth far too old for his youthful face. It was Chairman Jake Marshall.
"You have a guest, I see."
"Good afternoon."
"I can already guess why you've come."
The chairman was the one who had revealed the ruin's location in the first place. And now here he was, talking with Professor Oros, the foremost expert on the Labyrinth? The reason was obvious.
Oros tilted his head slightly upward. "Did you tell him the location of the ruin in the Snowfield?"
"I did. And it appears he fought his way through to the very end."
"My goodness. Then you must have obtained it."
"Most likely. He must have come all this way because he's curious about what it actually is."
Alan's gaze darted back and forth between the two of them. It seemed both men knew exactly what the fragment from the ruin was. Alan deliberately posed his question in a vague, roundabout way.
"Do you happen to know what it is?"
"A black fragment. I already know, so don't trouble yourself."
"Did your senior know as well?"
"Didn't she sign a confidentiality agreement? As you're well aware, that child is hardly suited to investigation or infiltration work."
After all, she was an idiot who knew nothing but the sword.
Alan felt a brief pang of disappointment at learning he hadn't been the first, but he shook it off quickly. The Labyrinth had been discovered more than a century ago; in hindsight, it was the perfectly natural outcome.
"We also call it a Wish Fragment."
"A rather grandiose name."
"It's called that because it grants exactly what it says—the desires one has carried in ordinary life."
"So it was a remarkable item."
"It has its limitations, though. There are cases where someone wished for better eyesight and grew an eye in the middle of their forehead, or wished for a sturdier body and had only their muscles reinforced until their bones gave out."
"A monkey's paw of an artifact, then."
Alan understood now why Box's drawers had suddenly expanded. Box was an automaton built for the purpose of storing things, and the fragment had responded to that founding purpose.
According to the chairman, something could still go wrong, so Alan resolved to keep a careful eye on Box for the time being.
"Have you used it? What were the results?"
"Chairman, that question is a bit out of line. Please observe basic etiquette between explorers."
"My mistake."
Professor Oros, who had been listening quietly, stepped in. The moment he cut in, the chairman—who had been peering at Alan with dogged intensity—backed down.
Alan thought of the fragment. Everything was connected through the compass the Collector had left behind.
"Did the Collector perhaps visit the Maze City Labyrinth because of the fragment?"
"How did you know? Did you glean some clue from what I said?"
"Just a guess, sir. A Wish Fragment would be more than enough motivation to move someone in that position."
"A guess, but the correct answer. Well then, Professor, I'll contact you again."
"Once Alan returns home, I'll reach out myself."
The chairman's hologram flickered out of existence. As Alan was still mulling over the side effects, Professor Oros spoke up.
"Don't worry yourself too much. Even a malicious fragment sometimes grants a benefit free of charge. And if someone can shrug off the penalty like the Collector does, well, they'll hunt for one with their eyes blazing."
With that, Oros rapped his knuckles against his own skull.
"You don't mean—?"
"I obtained a fragment back in my hot-blooded youth. Embarrassing as it is to admit, that was the era when I chased nothing but the power my body could produce."
"So the fragment strengthened your brain instead of your strength."
"They do say the pen is mightier than the sword. I despaired at the time, but looking back, it was a magnificent gift. Thanks to it, I became a professor."
"Reaching that height was thanks to your own effort, Professor. Not the fragment."
"It's kind of you to say so."
Alan learned about the fragment's properties and even a piece of the professor's past—but nowhere in it all could he find the reason it had been sealed.
< Sealed (4) — End >
< The Fugitive (1) >
The moment Alan opened the front door and stepped inside, Taylor, sprawled half-reclined on the sofa, raised a hand in welcome.
"Welcome back. Did the talk with the professor go well? Wait—don't explain at length, I won't follow it. Give me the summary."
Taylor listened to Alan's short explanation—all ten-plus minutes of it—then straightened up in his seat.
"A Wish Fragment?"
"Yes. That's what they call it. Have you heard of one?"
"No. If I had, I'd have told you on the spot. Ah... there were old tales about fairies trapped in lamps. Maybe those were actually stories about fragments?"
"Could be. Or maybe fairies genuinely exist."
"Well, whatever the case, that's one hell of an item."
Shiva, who had been snoring with a red face, pushed his upper body upright. Alan had assumed he was asleep, but apparently he'd only had his eyes closed.
"Hck! Ah, forgive me, I drifted off without meaning to..."
The breath he exhaled was so potent it seemed a lighter held near it would catch fire, and his eyes grew that much clearer for it.
"'Remarkable item' might be going too far. The aura surrounding the fragment was deeply ominous."
"That black current must be the source of the side effects I've heard about."
"It grants your wish, but twisted, yes?"
"That's right."
"Why, that's the very image of a demon. The demons written in scripture are forever deceiving man with their forked tongues, and in the end they shatter what hope remains—or stain it black."
Taylor's hand crept slyly toward the bottle of holy water lying toppled in front of Shiva, discovered it was empty, and flicked it into the wastebasket.
"That's quite a leap. From what Alan said, some people come out of it just fine."
"That would be the demon's whim, Brother. Such beings are beyond human understanding to begin with, so their actions are every bit as difficult to interpret."
"So says the man of faith. Alan—your take?"
"Every result has a process and a cause. Completing a spell requires mana and an incantation. The Wish Fragment seems to fulfill the desire while simultaneously corrupting it, thereby settling the price."
Of course, the truth lay far beyond that, and speculation ran rampant in its place. However badly Alan wanted to know more, this was the limit of what he could reach for now.
"So there are more fragments out there, then."
"The Labyrinth spans the entire world. There could be far more than we imagine."
"And the largest Labyrinth of all is right here. Say someone found a massive fragment and wished for the strongest power in existence—what would happen?"
"They'd be put into eternal sleep."
"Why?"
"Because within a dream, you're invincible. And it's far easier to process that way, too. Meaning the cost of granting it is lower than actually delivering the wish as asked."
Taylor stole a glance at Shiva, who had at some point slipped back into sleep. One minute he was ranting about demons, the next he seemed to have wandered all the way into Mother's embrace.
"Still, if you could overcome or work around the side effects, it'd be a genuinely good item, no?"
"Yes."
"Then why has no word of it ever gotten out?"
"Because it's worth that much."
"Fair point. Even in the stock market, the good information is the kind people keep to themselves. Suck out all the sweet juice, then dump the hollowed-out rind on the ants."
"Did that happen to you?"
"Never."
For a man claiming as much, he had precious little money set aside. The rent was in arrears, and horse racing magazines rolled around in the wastebasket. It wouldn't have surprised Alan one bit if the man had dabbled in stocks—and futures besides.
"Hey now. That look in your eyes is downright disrespectful."
"..."
"I don't do that anymore."
Fine, then. These days he was living steadily enough.
"How are you doing lately?"
"In what way?"
"Your mood. Your life. Things like that."
"Can't complain. My body's back to its prime, and the Labyrinth is overflowing with things worth exploring. I'll keep stacking up funds, swap out my magicware, and then we can go deeper still."
They say a person never truly changes. And yet somewhere else, people put their faith in human will. Those who change, and those who never do—what is it that separates them?
"Hope for a better future, I'd imagine."
"Where'd that come from all of a sudden?"
"Nothing in particular."
"Anyway—what are we doing from here? We're not heading straight down, are we? I've got an important appointment in three days, so..."
Watching the anxiety in Taylor's eyes, Alan settled onto the sofa beside him.
If the seal is broken, seek the dragon.
That was the line etched into the glass tube that had sealed the Wish Fragment. Naturally, Alan wanted to find the dragon—but that was easier said than done. Which left only one option on the table.
"We have to go into the Labyrinth."
"When...?"
"We'll draw up the plan later. For now, let's rest properly for about three days."
At those words, Taylor broke into a broad grin. He sprang to his feet, marched over to the full-length mirror, and kept fussing with his hair.
It was nearly ten in the morning by the time Alan arrived at the Labyrinth's gates. The first line was still crowded, though less so than at the early hour, and the second line was as steady as ever.
The first line was naturally packed, since it drew the explorers of the lower floors. The miners who shuttled between Floors 1 and 3 on day trips had all gone in before dawn, so this was as sparse as it ever got. Relatively speaking, of course.
The second line saw far fewer people than the one beside it, since it served the explorers who ranged through the Primeval Forest and the Snowfield. Day trips were a concept that didn't exist for these people, so their numbers held steady no matter when you came.
Alan was striding along the rapidly shortening queue when Box's treads let out a long, grinding rattle.
After repeated testing, the interior of Box had been confirmed to expand to roughly the capacity of a twenty-five-ton truck. Better still, even when an object didn't fit the drawer's dimensions, so long as it made contact, it could be stored anyway.
"That'll mean a bigger income, then."
"Yes. The loot we have to abandon has dropped considerably."
How much treasure had been left behind over the years simply because there weren't enough hands to carry it? That was true for every other explorer as well—and it was the reason dimensional bags commanded such staggering prices.
Box had a habit of fussing things together with its pincer claws, at which point the drawers would overflow in no time, forcing Alan to supervise it constantly.
That should happen a lot less now. Or will it get excited and grab even more?
The moment they passed into the Labyrinth, the grace of sunlight vanished entirely, and light born from humanity's accumulated magitech glittered from every direction.
Taylor tapped Alan on the shoulder.
"Time to admit it, don't you think?"
"Admit what?"
"That one. Over there."
Taylor's finger pointed at Box.
The Wish Fragment sensed its user's desire and granted it, whatever the consequences.
Wish. Yearning. Dream. The heart that aches for something desperately was not an emotion a machine could possess—machines that did only and exactly as they were input.
Which meant Box had stepped beyond being a simple machine. And that, in turn, meant a rudimentary intelligence had begun to sprout within it, faint as it might be.
"I've been telling you all along. The things that thing gets up to are suspicious."
"So you have."
"Even at the level of a baby, artificial intelligence is artificial intelligence. Or would you call it closer to an artificial spirit?"
"Hmm..."
"Still not up to standard, by your measure? Then what, in your book, counts as having awakened to intelligence?"
"At the very least, it would have to be able to deceive me."
"Isn't that bar a little too high? Wait—deceive you? That's rebellion, isn't it? What would you do then?"
"Naturally, I'd capture it and open up the Soul Stone to examine the brain cells directly."