Dungeon Exploration Training (4)
Dungeon Exploration Training (4)
The girl reflected in the mirror looked back at me.
Hair cut just below the shoulders caught the lantern light and gleamed.
Amber-gold eyes and small, delicate features were unmistakably my own.
Except for the hair, which was white as an old woman's.
"What do you think, Sis? Isn't it a rather splendid mirror?"
White hair, exactly like Akasha's.
I wasn't sure whether the girl in the mirror was Akasha or yet another version of myself.
But that wasn't what mattered right then.
"...What the hell."
When I frowned, the girl in the mirror raised the corners of her mouth in the opposite expression.
Goosebumps prickled all over both arms at the distinctly horror-like staging.
[Come here.]
She seemed to say it with her eyes alone.
Just in case, I attempted a quick experiment. I raised my right hand and watched the result. The girl in the mirror raised her right hand as well.
"......."
Not the opposite hand. So that was how it was.
A moment's thought about how mirrors worked told me the phenomenon was impossible.
I stared hard at the mirror with a dubious expression. Then a sensation like a sharp ache began creeping into my head.
It wasn't just dizziness. It felt like being jabbed over and over with sharp needles.
[There's something you need to know.]
My instincts were ringing alarms. If I got any closer, there would be no turning back.
I backed as far away from the mirror as I could. The image that had been taking shape gradually lost its form and vanished.
"You're the one who took down Fenrir, Sis. Since you cleared the dungeon, why not claim this as your share of the spoils?"
"...I don't need it. We're leaving it behind."
"Oh come now, what a waste. Leaving behind something like this? Look here. It's studded with pretty little gems, and the size is just right for a dormitory room. Wouldn't it make a fine souvenir, at least?"
I shook my head.
"If you want it so badly, you take it."
"Our house already has plenty of these."
"Sell it off to a junk shop or something."
"Think that'd bring much money? The carriage fare to the market would cost more."
It was rather amusing, watching her try every possible argument to make me take the mirror she herself had placed.
"It looks ominous. Let's just dispose of it."
"Hnnng. I'm only saying this because it really does feel like a shame."
Rosemary put on a sulky face like a child who had all her New Year's money confiscated. With her lower lip thrust out in a pout, she even looked a little cute.
But that attitude was undoubtedly part of the act too. I couldn't afford to fall for it.
"Nothing to be done, then. I'll donate it to the Tillet Museum."
Rosemary slowly lifted the huge mirror — over two meters tall — with one hand.
Rosemary's build was slight, on par with Frey's. Yet with that small body she hoisted the mirror, which looked as though it weighed at least several dozen kilograms, without the slightest change of complexion.
Rote and Frey, who had been extracting the magic stone from Fenrir, stared at Rosemary with blank expressions the moment they saw her.
"Her Ladyship is stronger than one might think. I'd assumed she was merely delicate..."
"Just a simple Unique Magic Art. There happens to be a spell for reinforcing muscle strength."
After reviewing every Unique Magic Art in the hardcover book, I could confirm: no such spell existed.
The woman seemed to produce lies automatically the moment her lips parted.
**
A tiger dies and leaves its skin; a person dies and leaves their name.
So what does a magic beast leave behind when it dies?
It leaves a magic stone.
However dark the world overrun by magic beasts might be, the raw materials they coughed up were not without merit. Without magic stones, modern continental society would have taken on a completely different shape.
It would wear out a person's tongue to list every use of a magic stone. Manufacturing scrolls or crafting magic tools were the basics. Some were even treated as jewels or presentation gifts.
Among them, the magic stones obtainable from defeating high-rank magic beasts — Calamity-class and above — often contained things difficult to produce with human technology. Transistors, for example.
Fenrir's magic stones left behind were mostly optical components that utilized light. LEDs, cadmium sulfide cells, perovskite solar cells, and so on. There even seemed to be a trace amount of americium, of the sort used in alarm circuits.
They weren't fit for luxury goods, but they were materials with significant research value. Leaving them behind would be a mistake.
"Look at this! There's an enormous solenoid in here too!"
Frey, who had cut open Fenrir's stomach area, grunted as she pulled out a coil larger than her own torso.
Solenoids were components that could drop from other magic beasts, not just Fenrir. But because this one came from a Calamity-class monster, it was exceptionally large.
"That looks useful."
A coil is most practical when employed as an electromagnet.
It was essential for building a Tokamak or for particle acceleration. Even for building a nuclear weapon, for that matter.
Or I could use it to make an EMP. A so-called non-nuclear EMP. If you suddenly applied a strong current to a solenoid, or detonated an explosive inside the coil while a strong current was flowing, an electromagnetic pulse would be generated — not quite on the scale of an atomic bomb, but still.
No matter how I used it, it was a valuable material. In times like these, with prices lurching about recklessly, securing physical assets was critical.
After emerging from the dungeon, we split into two groups. Rosemary said she would deliver the mirror to Tillet Museum. I took the opportunity to move Fenrir's carcass piece by piece to the Alchemy Hall's clubroom. It was unexpected, but with this, I now had one of the materials needed to begin Phase 2.
"Ugh."
Anyway, I was dead tired. I sighed repeatedly, breathless, all the way back to the dormitory.
I kicked my shoes off haphazardly at the entrance and dived straight onto the bed. The plush, yielding softness, like lying on a giant marshmallow, wrapped evenly around my entire body.
"You can't just lie straight on the bed! You were outside until just a moment ago!"
"...Let me stay like this for a bit."
Rote started lecturing me as though she were my mother.
After a whole day of mental sparring with Rosemary, I lacked the energy to think about anything else. I still had to miniaturize the Flare as I'd promised the chairman, and I needed to meet Vermel to exchange the remaining information....
At least tomorrow was a holiday. I could rest a little and recover my strength.
"If you're going to lie there like that, hurry up and wash and then sleep."
"I heard you."
This was Rote, who always emphasized noble decorum. No doubt she was trying to teach me proper etiquette in advance, since I was supposed to receive a title after graduating from the academy.
Under her continued nagging, I stripped off my clothes carelessly and went into the bathroom.
Ordinarily I only took showers in here. But today I felt thoroughly out of sorts. I needed a way to relieve the fatigue.
Uncharacteristically, I tied a towel around my head and then cranked the faucet handle.
Shaaaah!
"Aagh!"
"What's wrong? What happened?"
"I turned it the wrong way..."
Because I'd been standing right under the showerhead, my hair got drenched before the rest of me even had a chance to get in.
"Which is exactly why you should've been careful."
"...Ugh."
Today just didn't seem to be my day. I decided I'd launch the rubber duck in the bathtub next time.
After a rough wash, I dried my hair while Rote took her shower. My hair was so long that even after thirty minutes the dampness hadn't fully faded.
While I was wrestling with the hairdryer on the bed, Rote came out of the bathroom in her pajamas.
"Oh my goodness, give me that dryer. I'll dry it for you."
Rote began meticulously tending my hair, which had turned into a wild mess.
Something like this had happened before, hadn't it? Back then, she had applied a treatment to it.
"If you dry from the ends upward, the hair gets damaged easily. And it won't set into a nice shape afterward."
My hair was half-wavy. Because of that, if I was even a little careless about washing and drying, it turned pig's-tail frizzy at once. Once it got to that stage, no amount of brushing could salvage it.
"I'll have to visit a salon soon. I think I need to either straighten it or cut it short."
Rote ran her hands slowly up through my hair. The dryer's warm air tickled the nape of my neck. Drowsiness began to creep in bit by bit.
"Just as Her Ladyship said. Your hair's long, so it'd be nice if you carried something like a hand mirror with you."
"...That's the sort of thing only a girl does."
"You must really be sleepy."
My body was more languid than usual. Likely it was fatigue from the mind rather than the body.
From here on out, I would have to keep enduring Rosemary's offensives. Without knowing how long they'd continue.
"Horde didn't show up at all this week. Do you think he'll appear next week?"
"How should I know."
I deliberately feigned indifference. In truth, I was at the point where I wanted to cling to him right then and plead that he do something about Her Ladyship.
"If it's Vermel, I imagine he's somewhere on campus."
"The boys in his dormitory say he hasn't been back to the dormitory for a week now."
"He'll turn up eventually. If you really can't figure it out, you could ask Professor Herlein the day after tomorrow."
To prevent the recurrence of pointless dating rumors, even if we kept our distance for the time being, I at least needed to know where he was. Otherwise, how would we discuss where to meet up next time?
"There, that should do it."
"Thanks."
I pulled the quilt over myself and lay down first. Normally at this hour, Rote and I would be sitting side by side at our desks studying. But just for tonight, I wanted to do absolutely nothing.
Maybe it was because the to-do list had piled up into a mountain. Even trying to rest, my mind remained uneasy.
I had to miniaturize the Flare as the chairman had ordered. I had to locate Vermel as well.
To keep the world from ending, I also had to build a hydrogen bomb. And on top of that, study Elemental Magic.
Even if I had several bodies, I'd still fall short.
"......."
Ah. Forget it.
I'd worked hard enough for today.
"Sweet dreams."
I pulled the quilt all the way over my head and closed my eyes. Just as Rote had said, I hoped that at least in my dreams something good would happen.
Before I knew it, my consciousness began sailing over the horizon like a ship that had weighed anchor.
**
[─ SYSTEM : (Warning) The probability of currently entering the Fourth Trial exceeds 50%.]
[─ SYSTEM : At all costs.]
[─ SYSTEM : Whatever happens.]
[─ SYSTEM : Stop it.]