Today's
the Attendant
briefing.
"Hoh. Hoh-hoh. A multi-purpose facility, then?"
Hydrangea Grand Hall.
Arena, conference rooms, theater hall, restaurant, gift shop, hotel — the works.
All of it packed into this circular, temple-like building.
Less a department store, more like a shopping mall.
"But is that really true?"
I asked the rabbit sitting on my shoulder, her hand resting on top of my head.
She was a companion, and she'd helped me out plenty, but I still couldn't quite bring myself to trust her.
"Yes. I am Megalopolis."
"Like Megadia... but what do you mean?"
Sure enough,
the Attendant
list showed Megadia = Megalopolis.
But that Megadia and Haiyan were from the same family?
"Megalopolis was originally an alchemical lineage, you know — one of the Six Houses of Edda, governing the wind."
The oldest bloodline in Edda — and in present-day Edda, the Six Houses hold the greatest authority.
The Frontier family, which governs fire.
The Atlantis family, which governs water.
The Megalopolis family, which governs wind.
The El Dorado family, which governs earth.
The Arcady family, which governs light.
The Utopia family, which governs darkness.
Strictly speaking, it was four families and two families, with the two that governed light and darkness positioned above the four.
"So that's been the case for four thousand years?"
"Seems that way. Honestly, I'd thought Edda had been long destroyed by now."
That was quite the thing to say.
And that was why Haiyan had said she wanted to meet her descendants.
Megadia was staying at the accommodations up ahead.
It had been a while since we last met.
Just as I was thinking that, someone came approaching from the other direction.
A woman. And a tall one at that. Quite tall.
She had long black hair with her bangs neatly trimmed—a classic hime cut.
Eerily glowing purple eyes. She wore a dark purple cape over a billowing black outfit.
Gothic lolita. Which meant—
"Megadi—"
"My body!"
Hairn leaped at Megadia. Quite the jumping power.
"Kyah! What—a rabbit?!"
"My body! My body! My bo-dy!"
That damn rabbit! I peeled Hairn off.
"Wof?"
"Sorry. Hairn—"
"My body!"
"...That's the one I mentioned."
Megadia was backing away.
I was at a loss too.
"So anyway, Hairn—"
"My body..."
What is this guy even saying.
My body. In the ancient language, "my body." A physical body?
"What's going on here?"
"Mm. Lady Megadia is the very image of my original body."
"Your original body...? Wait, Hairn, you were a woman?"
"I'm male now."
"Hairn, you're from those three eggs?"
"That's right."
"Your original body looks just like mine?"
"The hairstyle was curlier and the height was a bit shorter, I think, but broadly speaking, yes."
"Wait, Hairn was bald?"
"I was not! With Edda! I was the spitting image of Ms. Megadia! Mind you, I wasn't all that fond of my original body back then."
"Saying you didn't like it despite being identical is kind of a shock."
"That said, whether being a rabbit is better — I'll admit my original body wins out."
"That's just because it's hard to operate panels as a rabbit, isn't it?"
"...Setting that aside, there is someone across four thousand years who is the spitting image of Megadia's descendant. I have a request for Ms. Megadia."
"What, if you say something like 'hand over this body,' I'll Banish you. Given how you talk, you can do that, right?"
Megadia fixed Hairn with a wary stare.
"I certainly wouldn't do that. You're too tall."
"Fine. Banishing you."
"I'll cooperate!"
"Wait wait wait, it was a joke! My request is for you to conceive a child with Wof over there, and then give that child to me."
"Fine. I'm perfectly Banishing you."
"I'll definitely cooperate!"
A black, distorted sphere materialized in Megadia's hand.
For the first time in a while, I summoned [Banish] myself — golf-ball-sized.
"Wait wait wait wait, it's a joke! Then how about Ms. Megadia's egg and Wof's sper—"
"That's the same damn thing no matter how you look at it!!"
"Eggs? Sperm?"
Ms. Megadia looked bewildered.
Ah, so this world doesn't even know about that? Is there no sex education?
I only knew because of my past life memories.
Then Haiyaarn hopped onto Ms. Megadia's shoulder.
She whispered something in her ear, and Ms. Megadia's face turned bright red as she threw Haiyaarn.
Ah, from that reaction I could tell what she'd said. So she explained it.
"There's no way I'd hand over something that important!"
"I get what you're thinking, but even so, that's blasphemy against life."
"Blasphemy against life?"
Haiyaarn made a "what's that supposed to mean?" face.
Is she for real?
"How can you have no sense of ethics when you're an alchemist?!"
"Alchemist?"
"Indeed. I possess the Job Relic [Alchemist]. After all, the Megapolis family were originally an alchemist lineage."
"Ohhh, I had no idea."
"Can you believe it! We were a distinguished family of alchemists who had inherited [Alchemist] for generations."
"Inherited, you say... but if Haiyaarn still holds [Alchemist], wouldn't that make it impossible to inherit?"
"Ah..."
"Don't tell me you destroyed it yourself. Ugh, to think our ancestor was this perverted rabbit..."
"What a pain." Megadia let out a sigh.
"So anyway, what exactly is [Alchemist]?"
"Huh? And you don't know, even though you're from the Megaropolis family?"
"You're the one who wiped it out. I don't know a thing about it."
"Then allow me to explain. My [Alchemist] — that is to say, alchemy — what does it do? It can [synthesize], [decompose], [combine], [fuse], [refine], [duplicate], and [analyze] Relics. And it can create Relics, OOPArts, Legendaries, and Legacies, among other things."
"Relics? OOPArts?"
"Not just anything can be a Relic, but creating them as plates is possible. As for OOPArts — if they're registered in the database, you can [synthesize] two different OOPArts together to produce a new one."
"...Synthesizing OOPArts. Can you synthesize those with Legendaries too?"
"Of course. Synthesizing OOPArts with Legendaries is also possible. In that case, you'd definitely end up with a completely different OOPArt or Legendary."
"............"
"Megadia?"
She'd gone quiet for a while, and something seemed off.
Megadia raised her face as though she'd made up her mind about something.
"Haiyaarn. There's something I'd like to ask of you."
"If it's a request from my descendant, I'll gladly take it on."
"I'll set aside proper time to go over the details later. But since you're part of the Megaropolis family too, this concerns you as well."
"Hmm. Understood, my descendant."
"Just call me Megadia. Having my descendant say that to me while looking like this... it's weird."
Yeah, being called "descendant" by a rabbit is... kind of odd.
"Got it. Megadia."
"That really takes it out of you."
"I know. Come to think of it, Megadia's
attendant
is Pakira?"
"Yes. She could've been a guild staffer, but since the opportunity came along, she volunteered happily."
"I see."
"But more to the point, Wof. You. You're really becoming quite the talk of the town."
Megadia was grinning.
I was flustered.
"Uh... well..."
"Relax, I'm not going to tease you. You'll be fine."
"Will I...?"
"Yes, so have some confidence."
No one had ever said anything like that to me before, so I felt somewhat relieved.
"Thank you."
"......Hnnnnn..."
"What's up, Hiyan?"
"I'm telling you, he really is one of those 'interesting but hard to figure out' types."
"Hey, that's you we're talking about."
You know what a boomerang is?
Megadia was laughing. Saying something about what a good combo we make — give me a break.