"Uwoooooaaaaah! I'm baaaaaack!"
Imperial Capital Zebuldia. The private room in the Clan House.
Come to think of it, something similar had happened when I returned from that other place. Even as a sense of déjà vu washed over me, I spun around on the spot and let myself fall backward onto my familiar bed.
The custom-made mattress with just the right amount of bounce caught me gently.
The Martial Emperor Festival. What was supposed to be just a sightseeing trip had ended in a complete disaster.
My body felt heavy, as though gravity itself had increased. There hadn't been any real damage on my end (well, there was some reputational damage), but I was utterly exhausted.
Both mentally and physically—Franz-san had glared daggers at me, I'd been unjustly resented by a vengeful fox, I'd barely managed to smooth things over with a sister fox who would've caused a massive incident if she'd gotten out, and in the end, I'd barely managed to suppress the activation of the Earth Key, which was ninety-nine percent my own fault. I had every right to rest now.
That's it. I'm not going outside. No matter what happens, I'm staying in this room for a good while!
Fortunately, everything I needed was here. I could have meals brought in, and there was a bathroom. Plus, I had a mountain of Treasure Weapons to appraise.
The Empire was apparently going to negotiate with surrounding nations and cooperate to take down the Fox. It seemed bounty requests had been brought to the Treasure Hunters who'd gathered here as well.
I received a cooperation request too, but I flatly refused. Gaark and the others glared at me, but I couldn't care less—I had other things to do!
I declared my firm resolution to Eva, who stood near the entrance looking exasperated.
"Eva! I'm refusing all visitors for a while! The nation, merchants, Gaark—turn away anyone who comes with requests! I have other things to do!"
"Hmm… other things, you say?"
"I'm going to do nothing."
"Is that… philosophy?"
It wasn't philosophy. I just needed to rest my brain. Though whether I'd actually been using it enough to be tired was debatable…
I twisted my heavy body on the bed and stretched my spine out completely, loosening my muscles.
As a Clan Master and a Level 8, I shouldn't let anyone see me in such a pathetic state—but with Eva, it didn't matter.
Oh no. The backlash from the Martial Emperor Festival was eating away at me. I wanted to fuse with this bed immediately.
As I demonstrated my utter helplessness with my entire being, Eva let out a deep sigh.
"…Understood. I'll turn away visitors for the time being. ……What about when Luke and the others come?"
"Luke? You can let Luke and his group through."
Besides, Luke and the rest would barge in anyway… Was there even a way to refuse people who forced their way in?
I was the one being dragged along by Luke and the others, dealing with dangerous Hunters even now! I was used to being swept along.
As I was rolling around recuperating, I suddenly noticed a piece of paper sitting right next to the bed—on the side table.
I reached out and picked it up. It was a folded, quite old-looking piece of paper. This hadn't been there before the Martial Emperor Festival…
I read the words written inside and furrowed my brow.
"What's this… 'Kly, can't find you,' huh…?"
"!? A letter? Someone broke in here while you were away…?"
Eva's eyes widened as she pressed closer. I set down the letter with its simple message and went back to rolling around.
"No, this is fine, actually. Hmm… I see…"
"What does it say?"
Of course it was… a note left by Elisa. "Kly" was something like my nickname.
Elisa Beck was the only external member of the Mourning Specter and a Spiritfolk who marched entirely to the beat of her own drum within the Party.
Her role was Thief. Her epithet was Wanderer.
Her temperament was surprisingly easygoing for a Spiritfolk (you could also call it sloppy), and her skills were solid, but true to her epithet, she had an annoying habit of drifting off here and there wherever the wind took her.
As the Party leader, and having been the one to recommend her, even I rarely crossed paths with Elisa.
The most troublesome thing was that she seemed barely aware that she was wandering off. The wording of this note suggested as much, but I had never deliberately tried to exclude Elisa from anything.
It wasn't that I couldn't be found—it was that you kept disappearing.
Well, perhaps that level of carelessness was necessary to operate in the Mourning Specter, which went all over the place doing as it pleased.
But where was Elisa, and what was she up to? She apparently crossed paths with Luke and the others fairly often, but in my experience, Elisa was quite the rare sighting.
She didn't seem to be hiding, and she didn't seem to be disliked either—our timing just never lined up.
According to Liliz, Elisa had exceptionally sharp danger-perception abilities, and that was why she kept missing me… whatever that was supposed to mean.
Anyway, the letter only had one line, but I could guess why Elisa had entered my room while I was away.
I sat up, scanned the room, and spotted a box on the floor beside the side table. It was a plain wooden box.
I struggled to move the heavy box and opened the lid, finding a large quantity of unrecognizable junk inside.
Worn-out old boots, a rusted coin, a bladeless knife, a simple metal ring. At first glance, worthless—but all of them were Treasure Weapons from the Treasure Hall. Elisa had probably found them during her travels. Some might even have been shop items, but that didn't really matter.
Apparently, desert Spiritfolk had a natural disposition for loving the earth and traveling the world. Forest Spiritfolk were known for never leaving their woods, but desert Spiritfolk—even if not quite to Elisa's extent—were all said to be travelers.
Desert Spiritfolk were born Hunters, blessed with exceptional magical aptitude, affinity with spirits, flexible bodies, and keen instincts that led them through countless arcane realms. Even now, much of the world remained untouched by human hands, and the territories they ventured into included numerous Treasure Halls.
That was how I had met Elisa—in a desert Treasure Hall.
Elisa was skilled, sloppy, sharp-instincted, a born Hunter—and not particularly materialistic.
Elisa Beck's goal was the act of entering Treasure Halls themselves. She showed almost no interest in the Treasure Weapons found inside or the drops from defeated Phantoms. Of course, traveling required money, so she'd pick up anything that looked valuable, but she reportedly left most of it behind.
And I was the one who put a stop to that. Going through the trouble of entering a dangerous Treasure Hall and finding Treasure Weapons only to leave them behind was simply too wasteful.
Most Treasure Weapons found in Treasure Halls were junk worth next to nothing, but gather enough of them and the total added up to a decent sum.
And so, a deal was struck between Elisa and me.
Elisa would bring back Treasure Weapons, and I would sell them and give her the profits. I didn't take a commission, but the arrangement included that I could keep any Treasure Weapons from the haul that I wanted. It was a deal where nobody lost out.
The spoils from Party activities were managed by Citry, so only what she earned solo was brought to me, but as the frequency increased, so did the volume.
The events at the Martial Emperor Festival had been a good experience for me too. Some Treasure Weapons were terrifying—simply driving one into the ground could trigger earthquakes across a wide area. As a Treasure Weapon collector, I needed to further expand my knowledge. The Earth Key had been destroyed, but there was no guarantee similar weapons didn't exist.
I needed to practice suppressing the Earth Key right away in case it ever activated again…
As I was thinking this over and rummaging through the contents, I spotted it—a long, thin object wrapped in black cloth buried in the mountain of junk.
I picked it up immediately and unwound the cloth with its strange patterns.
Oh, this was… a sword-type Treasure Weapon! A rare find.
"This is it. This is what I was looking for!"
I held up the sheathed sword triumphantly and examined it. It was a decidedly mysterious-looking blade with a black gem set into the hilt. Unlike the Earth Key, it didn't have a ceremonial feel to it.
The fact that it had been carefully wrapped in cloth and stored in its sheath suggested Elisa had been managing it diligently.
I'd have Lucia appraise it later.
"………Please try to stay reasonable…"
As I smiled at the return of my daily routine, Eva sighed in exasperation.
§ § § "Hah!? My brother is wanted in the underworld!?"
"It seems like he's been completely marked… The Fox is in an uproar internally too, so they probably can't move carelessly…"
Lucia's startled voice was met with a troubled expression from Citry.
"Well, after all that… and being the leader of the Mourning Specter doesn't help."
Skilled Treasure Hunters were naturally targets for criminals. Hunters who focused on exploring Treasure Halls had fewer opportunities to make enemies, but a Party like the Mourning Specter, which had crushed numerous organizations, was even more so.
The incident at the Martial Emperor Festival had settled down somewhat. The collapsed arena was being cleared, and on the surface, it looked like daily life had returned.
But that was only a façade.
The exposure of a terrifying secret organization had sent shockwaves through various circles, large and small.
The Mourning Specter already had bounties on their heads from the remnants of organizations they'd destroyed. The reason attackers hadn't been that numerous before was that the risk-reward ratio was simply too unfavorable.
Having a bounty placed on you was, for Treasure Hunters, proof that your name had made the rounds. So that much was unavoidable.
Luke furrowed his brow as he perused the list of underworld wanted notices that Citry had obtained.
"They're really going all out. One, ten, a hundred, a thousand… What do you have to do to rack up this many bounties? You wouldn't get this many even if you killed a hundred people. Is there some trick to it?"
"Hmm…"
"If you tried a little harder, you could pay off your debts…"
The bounty amounts listed were anything but normal.
The reward amounts on underworld wanted notices were different from regular bounties—they were proportional to the grudges earned and the number of people who wanted you gone. Those with massive bounties were usually influential figures—dignitaries of great nations, or Hunter families that had been active for generations—people whose death alone would cause ripples across every sector. For a single Hunter of no particularly notable origin, who hadn't even killed anyone, to have a bounty of this magnitude was probably unprecedented.
Liliz's eyes went wide as she gazed at the bounty list.
"Ark's been surpassed."
"The sheer scale of that organization is something else… There's the matter of face too, I suppose—though it seems the organization is stretched thin as well…"
According to Citry's research, the Fox's internals were currently very unstable. The details were unclear, but it seemed an internal conflict was underway. The activation of the "Earth Key" had likely been unexpected for the Fox as well. And the organization didn't realize that the one who had activated it wasn't the Fox Mask.
What mattered here wasn't reality, but perception.
They'd been publicly humiliated with their plans ruined. If they left it alone, they'd be seen as weak. They had no choice but to place bounties. These massive reward amounts spoke for themselves.
Well, the Thousand Transformations had always been an enemy to some.
The saving grace was that this list itself operated in the shadows. Famous Hunters active in the public eye wouldn't be coming after them.
"That'd be nice… Kly, think any swordsmen will show up?"
"With amounts this high, they'd need a lot of confidence to attack… If they do come, they'd come fully prepared… Also, I don't think any swordsmen will come."
"Hah… That's what happens when you do ridiculous things…"
The Level 8 Hunter of Imperial Capital Zebuldia, the "Thousand Transformations," was surrounded by all manner of mysterious rumors, but there was one truth.
The "Thousand Transformations" had survived countless death-defying battles without so much as a scratch.
At that point, Citry stood up, clapped her hands together, and spoke.
"Klye says he won't be leaving his room for a while, so let's assign guards on a rotation. Everyone's busy, so we'll rotate!"
"…Citry, aren't you the busiest one of all? You don't look so good…"
At her sister's words, Citry pressed her palm to her forehead.
Luke snapped his fingers as if remembering something and stood up with an annoyed expression.
"Ah, right, I was summoned too… Honestly, skip a dragon subjugation once and they nag you about it… Fine, I'll show you the Thunder God Sword I've been practicing."
"I missed an important exam… What am I supposed to say to the professor who recommended me…"
"Mm-hmm."
"Anthem's got it good, though. The higher-ups don't particularly interfere with him…"
Liliz looked envious, and Anthem nodded firmly.
"………Mm!"