Frondier moved his feet and met Liberto in the reception room.
“Did you have a good talk with my daughter?”
“Yes. She looked healthier than I expected, so I was relieved.”
Frondier sat down in the chair across from Liberto.
At first, the conversation was about life at Atlas.
Whether Jenita was doing well, how her grades were, whether she was getting along with her classmates.
The kind of questions you would hear in any normal household.
Since Jenita was getting along just fine, there wasn’t much of a problem there.
‘He really doesn’t bring up his wife at all.’
It had been the same last time. Back then, Frondier had assumed it was simply because the request regarding Carla had been so important that there hadn’t been time to mention her. Or he had thought perhaps Liberto had divorced his wife, or that she had passed away, and so he simply didn’t talk about her.
But looking again now, Liberto was not saying a single word about his wife. Even though she was right here on the third floor of this very house.
Of course, Frondier didn’t pry on purpose.
He kept quiet about the Golden Apple as well.
For now, Frondier himself didn’t really know what was going on, and he might only end up making Liberto uneasy for no reason.
For the moment, if his guess was right, nothing bad would happen in this house.
“Then let’s talk about the request.”
Frondier brought up the main topic. Liberto nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. The request was to investigate Carla.”
“There are no problems with Carla. I guarantee it.”
“How can you say that so firmly?”
“Because I removed all the problems myself.”
Carla being suspected of being a demon, her acting suspiciously within Atlas, and so on.
All of that was already over and done with. Carla had been freed from the curse and no longer did anything that would make her look suspicious.
“I see. You did well.”
Liberto calmly nodded at Frondier’s words.
If anything, Frondier found it unexpected and asked,
“You believe me just like that?”
“There’s no reason not to. Word about Palma has already spread all through Atlas. The talk about how the principal of Atlas stood on the gods’ side and spoke with them.”
Ah.
Frondier understood the situation.
Carla had been unconscious, possessed by Atena, but that Atena had appeared openly before the citizens of Palma. She had acted as one of their side while speaking with Aphrodite and the other gods.
Whether that had been Carla herself or a god’s possession wasn’t all that important.
What mattered was that the possibility of Carla being a demon was now completely zero.
‘The rumors spread fast. This time, it actually works in our favor.’
With a wry smile, Frondier nodded.
“That did happen.”
“Although, something does strike me as a bit odd.”
“What do you mean?”
“I entrusted the investigation to you, yet you’re speaking as if you personally solved everything.”
Ugh. Frondier swallowed a groan inwardly.
The truth was, he had spoken a bit strongly because he’d wondered if Liberto would really believe him. But Carla’s circumstances had changed far more than he’d expected. To the point that Frondier didn’t even need to prove anything.
“......Heh.”
Liberto closed his eyes and laughed.
“There’s no need for me to know everything. It just means you’re competent, doesn’t it.”
“......Thank you for your consideration.”
Frondier couldn’t say much more than that.
Liberto spoke.
“You won the bet, and you carried out the request splendidly as well. Not only did you investigate, you wiped out the cause too. So I have to keep my promise.”
“Thank you.”
“The original promise was two artifacts.”
Ssssk─
Liberto stood up.
“Let’s move. It’ll be better to talk while you see them for yourself.”
***
Liberto led Frondier to a staircase that headed down to the basement of the mansion.
Not long after they went down the stairs, there was a door.
“Wait just a moment.”
Saying that, Liberto began performing various operations in front of the door.
‘......That’s some serious security.’
A locking mechanism that took a long time to open even for the owner of the house. Along with analog locks, there were layered magical security measures as well.
On this continent, where magitech was advanced, such security devices were extremely sophisticated.
Even if Frondier checked everything with his Analyze skill, he probably wouldn’t be able to undo it with his current level of finesse.
“All right. Let’s go in.”
Clack-
Liberto opened the door and went inside, and Frondier followed.
What he saw there was somewhat as he had expected, and in another sense beyond his expectations.
“......All of these are.......”
“Yes. Artifacts.”
Shelves and walls full of artifacts. A whole collection of ornaments and weapons, along with a multitude of objects whose use couldn’t even be guessed at.
‘......This isn’t a room, it’s a floor.’
The basement of the great mansion of House Sindri. This entire floor was filled with artifacts.
“No wonder Miss Jenita was able to put up an artifact as a bet.”
“I’ve never once given my daughter permission to take whatever she wants, though.”
So she’d just rushed in without thinking.
From what Frondier knew of her, Jenita had probably been sure there was no way she could lose with that kind of bet.
“As you can see, this is where our house stores the artifacts we’ve collected.”
Frondier walked slowly, listening to Liberto’s explanation.
“Among them, there are ones we know how to use and ones we don’t.”
Slowly, he stored the artifacts inside his workshop.
“There are quite a few artifacts I could recommend to you, but if you like, you can choose for yourself.”
“Even if I pick one you don’t know how to use?”
“Of course. From our house’s standpoint, those are something of a burden. We’d be glad if someone who can use them actually did.”
At those words, Frondier registered the artifacts and read through the general descriptions in a line.
His skill Weaving provided a first-stage explanation when he stored things in his workshop. To gain more information than that, he would need to use Analyze.
However, since the first-stage explanation told him the rank, there was no need to waste Analyze on lower-ranked artifacts.
‘What I need most right now is to find Pandemonium. It’d be great if there were an artifact that could help with that.’
Ideally, an artifact that detected Ecleksis.
He didn’t know if such an artifact even existed. And even if it did, the odds of it being here were slim.
But this collection did include artifacts whose use even Liberto didn’t know. Out of all the slim chances, this was the one with the best odds.
As I carefully examined the artifacts like that,
“......This one.”
I found something completely unexpected.
And it was something I was very fond of.
“Ah, that pendant.”
Just as Liberto said, it was a pendant.
A purple gem in the center. Several rings entwined around it as if wrapping it.
I didn’t know the name of this pendant.
But I knew what it was.
‘......This is one of the items I appraised at Ms. Quinie’s mansion.’
In the past, I had appraised a number of items at Ms. Quinie’s request. Naturally, I had used my workshop.
This had been one of them.
From behind me, Liberto spoke.
“That’s another artifact we unfortunately don’t know how to use. But judging by its material and makeup, I doubt it would be of any help to you. It was never used for combat or education.”
He was right. This hadn’t been used in combat.
“......May I touch it?”
“Of course. There’s no problem.”
Following Liberto’s words, I lifted the pendant up.
And just as I had back then, I manipulated the rings according to the manual.
Then, at a certain point, the rings began to move on their own, filling in every {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} gap around the gem.
“No, how, wait,” Liberto began to say, but his words were swallowed by the light flaring from the gem.
And before long, a voice was heard.
[That’s a human’s weapon! It wasn’t a god’s weapon!]
[......A human’s weapon?]
[Think back to the legend! Why did Baldur die? Haven’t you ever thought it was strange? That he was killed by a sprig of mistletoe? No! The gods have been hiding the truth!]
[Hey. Hold on. What you’re saying right now is way too dangerous,]
Soon, a loud noise came through. Bursting sounds, a very short scream, cries muddled with noise that couldn’t be made out clearly.
And then silence fell.
“.......”
Liberto was at a loss for words.
In that moment, Frondier was struggling to drag his memories of the past back up.
It had been so long ago. Memories that would have vanished forever if he hadn’t seen this pendant again.
But this conversation brought them back.
‘......Right, the conversation I heard last time went......’
─Mistilteinn wasn’t a sprig.
─It wasn’t some twig that just happened to be imbued with divine power.
─It was a weapon made as a weapon from the beginning! It’s,
“......A human’s weapon.”
Yes, this conversation had been about Mistilteinn.
Mistilteinn was not a mere branch. It was a proper spear. Frondier had known that much as well.
But that it wasn’t a god’s weapon, and instead a human’s weapon?
“......A human weapon, made to kill a god.”
“Professor Frondier. What are you talking about?”
Liberto, startled by how ominous Frondier’s words sounded, asked him.
Frondier shook his head.
“I’m sorry. Nonsense.”
He set the pendant down.
‘So this pendant wasn’t unique. The recording of the conversation is continuing.’
Frondier meant to strike back at the gods. From that standpoint, this information was precious.
If it was true that Mistilteinn was a human’s weapon and had been made to kill a god, all the more so.
On top of that, from his knowledge of the game, Frondier knew where Mistilteinn was. As the protagonist Aster, he had swung it countless times.
However, there was one problem with Mistilteinn.
It wasn’t the kind of weapon that just lay around anywhere.
‘......Even as I am now, I’d have to risk my life.’
The reason he hadn’t obtained Mistilteinn yet, even though he knew how powerful it was and where it was.
Unlike in the game, if he died in this world, that would be the end.
Obtaining Mistilteinn was something you did only after steeling yourself for dozens of retries. It was the kind of insane thing you could do because it was a game and because you were someone who lived and breathed that game.
And to actually do that in reality? It was something that had never even been a choice in the first place.
‘......That’s for later.’
Frondier pushed the thoughts aside. Mistilteinn wasn’t what he was looking for right now. To search for it, he would have to go back to the continent of Falind first. That was for another time.
And to be honest, he was a little scared.
‘An artifact that can detect Ecleksis or Pandemonium.......’
There were many artifacts in this basement that could pique even Frondier’s interest, but unfortunately he couldn’t find anything related to Ecleksis.
With no choice, he picked out two decent artifacts. He didn’t particularly need them, since he had already stored them in his workshop anyway, but he had to accept his payment.
He hadn’t gotten what he wanted, and he had gotten information he hadn’t wanted.
With his head in a tangle, Frondier went back home.
***
That night, at home, Frondier’s phone rang.
It was Jenita.
As soon as Frondier answered, she told him the very thing he had half expected to hear.
[My mom’s illness is gone.]
“.......”
Jenita’s voice held neither joy nor surprise. It seemed even she couldn’t quite believe it yet because it had happened so suddenly.
If anything, Jenita smelled something suspicious.
Just as Frondier did.
[Teacher, that glowing ring thing you had.]
“Yeah. I was thinking the same thing.”
The Golden Apple had cured Jenita’s mother’s illness. Or rather, perhaps it would be more accurate to say it had absorbed it.
“Did your mother have any other symptoms? Any side effects, or anything strange mentally?”
“No. She was perfectly healthy. She wasn’t depressed or overly energetic or anything. She just went back to how she’d been before she got sick. It was cured so cleanly that it actually makes me worried.”
Frondier was relieved to hear that. If Jenita’s mother had been oddly elated or hyper, he would actually have been more suspicious.
He took out the Golden Apple and looked at it.
The gods’ gift that restored and healed all kinds of things. If, as Evlina had said, all sorts of mythical powers were mixed into this one ring, then healing a single person’s illness would be nothing at all.
......However, that was only when you actually “used” the ring.
‘I didn’t do anything, and this ring just went ahead and absorbed the illness on its own.’
In other words, it had acted on its own, ignoring its owner. That meant it possessed a kind of “will.”
And without being consumed or worn down, it still sat before Frondier in exactly the same state as ever.
Put another way, that meant it could be used multiple times.
‘No matter what its limit is, that alone makes it a bizarre item.’
Even if it were only once, curing every illness in the world would already be a miracle.
But what if it wasn’t just once, but many times? What if it could be used ten times, a hundred times?
‘That wouldn’t be a miracle. It would be this one thing rewriting the rules of the world.’
No matter how many mythical powers had been mixed into it, Frondier’s instincts warned him that this was not normal.
On top of that, there was a very simple and ominous possibility.
‘That black smoke was absorbed into this ring. In that case.’
Then where had that black smoke gone?
Was it inside this thing?
If it kept inhaling black smoke like that, and there came a point when it could no longer absorb any more illness.
What would happen to this ring then?
