No matter which blacksmith I visited, none of them could help.
They could repair the spear itself. But as an OOPArt, they told me it was impossible.
Even the one blacksmith in all of Hydrangea capable of OOPArt restoration and maintenance—no luck there either.
What he told me that day still echoes in my mind.
"This thing ain't an OOPArt anymore. It doesn't have that power in it anymore."
The dwarf master had a stern face, but he chose his words carefully and spoke gently.
I know. My beloved weapon, the "Fairy Phantom Spear," was never a particularly powerful OOPArt.
All it did was enhance my "Spiral."
And even that enhancement was nothing impressive.
For starters, my Relic "Spiral" itself was rare.
There was value in having an OOPArt that matched it, but its power was weak.
Mother once told me: this is probably a replica.
I know that the one who discovered it was a witch, and the one who maintained it was Father.
Apparently, the witch, my Master, and Mother had once been in the same party together.
An all-women's party, like today's "Torquetam."
Mother's treasured memory. Father's precious keepsake.
That's why I'd kept using it all this time.
Watching me, Mother let out an exasperated sigh.
"I'm not telling you to let it go. But stop using it as a weapon."
"But Mother—"
"It's nothing more than a memento of the past."
"......"
"Don't come crying to me when you regret it someday."
Mother was right. Just as she said.
I knew it. No matter how carefully I treated it, the "Fairy Phantom Spear" was a weak OOPArt.
It had been four years since Mother gave it to me. If anything, it had lasted surprisingly long.
My Master never said a word about it.
But now, through Axe, I finally understood.
My Master must have wanted me to grow by turning the regret and sorrow of loss into fuel.
That's why he deliberately said nothing.
Mother, who gave me honest advice—she was kind.
Master, who believed I'd grow on my own—he was encouraging too.
But even the two of them seemed to be telling me to give it up.
And they were right. Both of them cared about me.
"...Even so, I—"
What?
Without realizing it, I had wandered to the Delvers' Guild.
Something was noisy. A crowd had gathered? Rubberneckers? No—there were familiar delvers among them.
Huh? The guild was closed? What did that mean?
"...Indefinite closure... What?"
What was going on?
As I stood there in confusion, Wof and the Pervert Rabbit came into my view.
That Pervert Rabbit.
Standing on my seat.
The pervert rabbit called Haiyarn.
Seriously, what does that rabbit think girls' chests and butts are for?
Come to think of it... is it actually true what they say?
"If you go to the lab, it can be fixed. It can definitely be fixed."
He'd said that with such confidence... Annoying, but maybe I should hear him out.
Right now, I was desperate enough to clutch at straws.
As I drew closer to the two of them, I could hear them talking. Huh? Going into the dungeon?
That meant—
I slipped quietly into Wof's pouch.
Wof. He didn't realize it, but his pouch was a Legendary with storage capacity.
It wasn't exactly a whole room or a warehouse, but it was bigger on the inside than it looked.
And it was packed with all sorts of things, giving off a very boyish vibe.
Oh—the Sacred Egg of Elixir. A real... egg.
"......"
Looking at the egg stirred something strange inside me.
It must have started back when Mother told me that fairials are born from eggs.
I reached out and touched the egg gently.
Why was it like this? It was an elixir inside, but... it was warm.
Born from an egg. Someday, I would be too.
Oh—voices. The witch, Wof, and the Pervert Rabbit.
"Come over here"—what was that? Nice voice, but between the two, I preferred Wof's.
Voices. Focus on the voices.
Wait—enter the dungeon?! That's illegal! That's a felony! You can lose your delver license permanently!
Even if it was indefinite closure, why would they—
Wait—a new anomaly in the dungeon!?
But still...
"A girl is crying. I don't want her to cry anymore."
That was... me. He was talking about me.
Wof. It's me, you know. I haven't forgotten what you said that day.
"I... I don't want to make Mineha-san look like that."
I was happy to hear that. But... my chest ached. Hey, why was that?
Huh?
Twelfth floor... a pale metal Minotaur...?!
A Minos Unit. Because we woke up the Pervert Rabbit.
Our fault. Our responsibility.
We had to stop it.
But if we entered the dungeon without authorization, we'd lose our delver license permanently.
Wof was planning to handle this alone—without telling anyone, without even telling me.
Even if it meant permanent revocation of his delver license.
"............"
What should I do?
Oh, this day had finally come.
Without finding an answer, I found myself slipping back into Wof's pouch.
But I realized—even hiding like this, once I'd come this far, I was an accomplice.
The moment I snuck in, I was already facing permanent revocation too.
"...Weird feeling."
There was no regret or anything like that. It was strangely... detached.
All that inner turmoil, all those worries—they swept through me, and I felt nothing but bewilderment.
I really was quite dry, weren't I.
We'd arrived at the lab? What kind of place was it?
I slipped quietly out of the pouch.
What was this place—Oh, it looked like the ruins near my hometown.
Anyway. This was the lab.
So all I had to do was find the Infinite Spawn Core or whatever it was and destroy it.
Wait—in the middle of a massive swarm?! Shut it down?! Was that even safe?
"Hey."
"Wah—M-Miss Mineha?!"
"You. Pervert Rabbit. What the hell is going on?"
I flew over to the Pervert Rabbit.
"Wait, calm down. Why is Miss Mineha here?"
"I've been here the whole time. Inside the pouch. Got it?"
"Mmm. So it wasn't my imagination after all..."
"Come on, answer me. Isn't the Infinite Spawn whatever-it's-supposed-to-be here?"
I was furious. The Pervert Rabbit answered with a troubled look.
"It should be. But look at this map. It's moved."
"Why has it moved?!"
And this floating map... what was it?
Countless red dots. And a single blue dot in the center.
All of them moving.
"It moved because we made it move."
"That's not an answer! What are these red dots? There are so many."
"Ah, those. Every last one of them is a Minos Unit."
"All of these are enemies?"
"Yes. But every one of them is stopped right now."
"Even so, Wof is going alone!"
"...Wait, Miss Mineha."
"Let go! Wof is—Wof is—"
The Pervert Rabbit's grip was surprisingly strong.
"I don't see how Miss Mineha going there would improve the situation."
"......"
He had a point. Even if I went now, there was nothing I could do.
"Oriones" was powerful, but it lacked a finishing blow.
The Relic "Spiral" was the same. I didn't think it could so much as scratch any Minos Unit.
Right now, I—
I turned to the Pervert Rabbit.
"Hey. Can this lab really repair an OOPArt?"
"If it's the lab, yes."
"...Then fix this spear."
I grew to my full size, pulled the spear fragments from the pouch, and set them on the table.
The Pervert Rabbit examined them with cold eyes, then spoke.
"Restoration as an OOPArt is possible. But something like this wouldn't even qualify as combat power."
"...You can tell that?"
"I am Haiyarn. That much is obvious at a glance."
"What do I do, then..."
"Hmm. This spear is a Relic-enhancement type. What about your Relic, Miss Mineha?"
"...Why should I have to tell you?"
"Otherwise, there are things I can't build."
"...My Relics are 'Spiral,' 'Fairy Incarnation,' and 'Remote Manipulation.'"
"'Spiral' is rare. Oh-ho. Remote Manipulation? Do you have an OOPArt for that?"
"This one."
I showed him the Oriones.
"This is the type where the triangle separates, then."
"Y-Yes, that's right."
How had he figured that out just by looking?
"If I recall, there was a prototype design for a weapon adaptable to close-range, mid-range, long-range, and all-purpose combat. That was... damn, it's hard to work with rabbit legs."
He was slapping at the console. What was he doing?
"Hey, what have you been doing this whole time?"
"Found it. The archive is fully accessible up to Zeroth-class clearance. No access restrictions, I see. Now then—looking at the data, the prototype was redesigned multiple times. I see—they were planning it as a sword type. Hmm. Then if I swap it to a different type and integrate it..."
What was this—a drawing floating in midair? This drawing was... this was... a spear.
But this spear wasn't the "Fairy Phantom Spear."
"What is this...?"
"Do you want it?"
"What do you mean?"
"I can create this right now. But I'll need that 'Oriones' of yours."
"—Can you really make this? This spear?"
"I am Haiyarn. Let me show you the power of an alchemist who can command a lab."
I hesitated. Then the Oriones in my hand seemed to... yes, I understood.
You want to become stronger too, don't you.
"Please do it."
"Leave it to me. As a comeback piece for a genius alchemist, there's no finer OOPArt. Cauldron System, activate. Administrator name: Haiyarn Megalopolis."
The glass-paneled area behind him blazed with brilliant silver light, and the strange sphere at its center began to spin.
The Pervert Rabbit—no, Haiyarn—started muttering something.
It was almost entirely in ancient language, so I couldn't really follow.
As instructed, I placed the Oriones on the other table.
The table glowed, and both the "Fairy Phantom Spear" and the "Oriones" vanished.
Then red text appeared and a tone sounded.
"What—what is this?!"
"Hmm. The synthesis success rate isn't high enough, I see. Right then—let's mix in a few things. This, and this, and this, and Anobtainium. Let's add that too. How about that?"
When Haiyarn struck the console, the red text and tone vanished.
A number appeared, and when it reached 100, the spear materialized on the central table.
"Complete. Magnificent. Miss Mineha. This is your weapon. Take it."
I gripped it slowly, trembling with tension.
In that instant, it was transmitted.
So that was your name—I see.
"Here I go. 'Star Manifest Lance'!"
The stars twinkled.
To be precise, parts of the spear Mineha held began separating into triangles.
The spear had turned entirely blue, and the spiral section from its tip had turned white.
Those white portions split into triangles, spinning and twinkling like stars as they floated through the air.
Swirling in wider and faster orbits than Oriones, the triangular stars pierced through the Minos Units one after another.
"How sloppy."
She said that as she tossed a small bottle to me.
An elixir.
Mineha danced among the stars.