"Now then, what should we do..."
Explorer's Guild headquarters. In the meeting room, Isaac Glow — an executive of the Explorer's Guild and the person in charge of the Level 9 certification exam — sighed at the mountain of issues piled before him.
The Explorer's Guild, which boasted a history of over two thousand years since its founding, was now in the midst of unprecedented chaos.
Treasure Hunting was, at present, one of the most thriving professions around. The number of affiliated Hunters was rising, as was the number of requests brought in from outside. Even day-to-day operations left them with no breathing room, yet multiple major cases had piled on top of each other, completely exceeding their capacity. They'd called for reinforcements from various branches, but that only meant the staff's working hours kept growing.
The follow-up work related to Code was nowhere near resolved, but — first and foremost, they had to release the results of this Level 9 exam.
A Level 9 Hunter was a hero among heroes. For an ordinary Hunter, any method of achieving the goal would earn recognition, but at this tier, Hunters were expected to deliver results that would satisfy everyone.
That said, in a typical Level 9 exam, the screening process to qualify for the test was practically the exam itself — so if you could take the test, you'd generally pass. Put another way, a Hunter who could unanimously qualify for the exam generally had the skill to produce the best results on most requests.
That was precisely why the results of this exam were, for the Explorer's Guild headquarters, entirely beyond expectations.
To think that — during a mission to protect Code's royal family, they'd gone and dropped the high-mobility fortress city of Code itself out of the sky.
It had been a dangerous mission. An unknown quantity.
According to the report compiled by Kaiser, the request brought to the Explorer's Guild this time had been a trap set by Code — by Jean Gordon.
In such an overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation, how could anyone not only protect every last member of the royal family but also bring down the entire city?
Isaac had been involved in the Explorer's Guild's operations for many years, but never had he been so keenly reminded of the power of high-level Hunters as he was today.
There hadn't even been any need to bring the city down in the first place.
On top of that, despite the request being a trap, and despite bringing the city down, the evaluation from the protected royal family — particularly Alicia Code — regarding Thousand Transformations was far from negative. At this point, Isaac simply couldn't make sense of it.
The goal of this Level 9 certification exam was the protection of Code's royal family. Dropping Code itself had clearly been overkill. But calling it overkill felt inadequate given the magnitude of the results.
Protecting the royal family meant the elimination of Code as a potential enemy, while dropping Code itself directly benefited the various nations and the Explorer's Guild. So much so that not a single nation involved in Code-related matters had moved to denounce Code as a country.
The items left at Code's ruins, the human capital of its residents — the information about Code as a city itself held enormous value. Yes, that city, which had supposedly separated from the Treasure Hall of the high physical civilization era, possessed "reproducibility."
And the detailed information was likely held only by Code's royal family.
One of the meeting participants crossed their arms and spoke with a troubled expression.
"If there are major benefits to be gained, we can't very well rule that it doesn't merit Level 9. Doing so would risk undermining the trust of affiliated Hunters and the various nations."
"We need to certify at least one person, or things won't add up."
The other attendees murmured their agreement. They were right.
Given the unexpected results and the significant benefits to be gained, they couldn't issue a failing verdict for the Level 9 exam. If they did, regardless of the actual circumstances, there would be those who resented the Explorer's Guild's treatment.
Moreover, this case was one fraught with history for the Explorer's Guild.
The fact that the request was a trap — well, that was one thing. For elite Level 8 Hunters, that possibility was obvious and well-known. But the one pulling the strings behind the scenes this time was the problem.
Jean Gordon — son of a collaborator from the previous Code conquest operation.
The emergence of such a figure was without question a major failure on the part of the Explorer's Guild.
Code-related matters had long been something of a taboo for the Explorer's Guild. Records from that era had been sealed, and no one in the current Explorer's Guild knew what had happened back then.
After receiving reports from Kaiser and the others, Isaac had the records re-examined, but nothing about a child turned up.
The collaborator had likely hidden this intentionally. And the Explorer's Guild, knowing this, had looked the other way.
Because that collaborator had all manner of complex issues...
"To think he had a child, and that child is alive... and at such a young age, no less. Truly befitting of one who carries the blood of the Spiritfolk."
"Even though the collaboration was voluntary, to have been the catalyst for a Spiritfolk's death — the Explorer's Guild of that era must have panicked."
Yes. That collaborator had not been a pure human.
Spiritfolk. Even now, there were various tensions between the Spiritfolk and humans, but a hundred years ago, it was far worse than today.
That was likely the reason the collaborator had fled from Code — thrown into chaos by the death of the first Code king — and the reason the Explorer's Guild had allowed that collaborator to participate in the Code conquest operation, and one of the reasons Code-related matters had become taboo.
"Regardless, we need to report this to Princess Selen. If Jean is a half-Spiritfolk — then we absolutely cannot cause trouble with Yggdra right now."
Spiritfolk were different from humans. Every last Spiritfolk was a beloved subject of the Queen, and that was true no matter the distance. Even if only half, as long as he carried Spiritfolk blood, he couldn't be disposed of like any other criminal.
If Jean were dangerous, that would be one thing, but with Code gone, the man's threat level wasn't that great.
Isaac clapped his hands to change the subject.
"For now, let's focus on the Level 9 exam. From what Kaiser, Saya, and the Code royals have told us, of the three, it's clear that Klye Andrich contributed the most to protecting the royal family."
The man himself insisted he hadn't done anything, but with the other two in agreement, there was no doubt.
Honestly, if he wanted to inflate his achievements, that was one thing, but trying to erase them entirely — what was he thinking?
"However, Thousand Transformations has declined the Level 9 certification. That's correct, isn't it? Branch Chief Gaark."
'...That's right. It seems he's not satisfied with the results this time.' The Resonance Stone on the table answered in a suppressed voice.
Honestly, one never knew what Level 8 Hunters were thinking. But they couldn't dismiss his opinion, either.
A Hunter reaching Level 8 had wealth, fame, and power in spades — and they were especially strong-willed. If they tried to force something the Hunter disagreed with, the Hunter might well leave the Explorer's Guild.
By process of elimination, then, raising someone to Level 9 would fall to Kaiser Jiggurd of "Heavenly Dance of the Army Breaker" or Saya Kuromizu of "Night Banquet Festival Hall."
At that point, Warren Cole, branch chief of the Garista branch where Kaiser Jiggurd of "Heavenly Dance of the Army Breaker" was affiliated, spoke up.
"Ah, Kaiser said he wants no part of becoming Level 9 through process of elimination."
"......"
Yes, of course. Of course! If it were based on his own achievements, that would be one thing, but having Level 9 handed to him as a consolation prize — that would be intolerable for a man of such confidence.
He'd received reports that both of them had been caught in the trap during this operation and were unable to move until Code was on the verge of crashing. But it was Kaiser and Saya who had single-handedly defeated every last one of Jean's mercenary subordinates — the bandits. Among those they'd taken down were quite a few wanted criminals, including some truly major targets.
The protected members of Code's royal family also acknowledged Kaiser and Saya's strength. They claimed they hadn't been able to participate in the royal family's protection until just before the crash, but if Kaiser and Saya hadn't held back — or rather, defeated — the bandits, the situation would have turned out differently. It could be seen as a division of roles.
But Kaiser was not the type to retract words he'd already spoken.
The fact that Kaiser, who had shown such enthusiasm for Level 9, was declining meant there had to be a significant reason. That left only one candidate — Warren interlocked his fingers, furrowed his brow, and said: "Kaiser said that Saya Kuromizu should be the one to become Level 9. He said Saya's power was something that belonged at Level 9 — something extraordinary."
"......Something that 'belonged at Level 9,' huh..."
That Kaiser — the same Kaiser who had been brimming with confidence and eagerly eyeing Level 9 — to say that, setting himself aside...
The "Sarasara" who had effortlessly and unilaterally subdued two members of the Fox who possessed power surpassing high-level Hunters — in terms of combat ability, she would certainly be more than qualified for Level 9. There were a few concerns, however — He looked at Coralie, the Terrace branch chief who had recommended Saya Kuromizu for Level 9.
Originally, Saya had been the furthest from Level 9 among the three. If she were to become Level 9 here, it would be a monumental achievement for the Terrace branch, which had never once produced a Level 9 Hunter despite its high casualty rate.
But the expression Coralie wore was not what Isaac had expected. With furrowed brows and an expression even more grave than Warren's, Coralie spoke.
"It's an honor. Yes, what a tremendous honor — how many times have I dreamed of Saya becoming Level 9?"
"......That's quite a loaded way of putting it."
"Yes... Well, you see — I'm opposed to it. If this were the Saya from before the exam, she would have accepted gladly —"
"!?"
That was an unexpected statement. The room buzzed with murmurs.
For a Hunter to reject a promotion out of pride was one thing, but for the branch chief who had recommended them for Level 9 to turn against the idea — that simply didn't happen.
"......What do you mean?"
Having all three take the Level 9 certification exam simultaneously was rare enough; having all three reject the promotion was completely unprecedented.
Under the room's collective gaze, Coralie sighed and spoke in a light tone.
"It's quite simple. The situation has changed — that girl's 'Sarasara' has lost its weakness. That Thousand Transformations, incredibly, went and eliminated the only weakness it had —"
'...Wait. What do you mean? Wouldn't having no weakness be a good thing?' Branch Chief Gaark had a point. Having an affiliated Hunter overcome high-difficulty requests and eliminate their weaknesses was generally a good thing.
And yet... she opposed raising Saya to Level 9 because the weakness was gone?
At the uneasy looks being exchanged among Isaac and the others, Coralie cleared her throat lightly and smiled.
But only her eyes didn't smile.
"I had always believed — that girl's power was complete. No — I wanted to believe it. I gave her an ability name and epithet meant to ease the fear — that her power had no further ceiling, and because of that, she could live as nothing more — and nothing less — than a first-rate Hunter. Saya needed that weakness. It was only because she had that fatal flaw — being able to summon 'them' only at night, and being unable to perceive them — that she was barely tolerated."
"Night Banquet Festival Hall." The fortress city of Terrace, situated at the heart of a demonic realm where multiple species of powerful Monsters engaged in endless territorial battles — and its greatest Treasure Hunter.
There had been a time when Terrace was a city under constant assault. But once Saya began her activities, the frequency of attacks dropped dramatically.
Even the Monsters feared her power — the power that the elite Treasure Hunters of the Terrace branch, and the battle-hardened soldiers who had defended the city for years, couldn't so much as approach.
And with that achievement that no one else could replicate, Saya had become a Level 8. It had been some time since then, but no Hunter in the Terrace branch had yet emerged who could rival her.
Coralie sighed and raised both hands as if surrendering.
"I believe Sarasara holds immense power but also harbors great danger. More precisely, the things that Sarasara summons — and this case has made me acutely aware of that danger once again. After all, even Saya herself doesn't know what 'they' are or why they help her."
— — — The inside of the cramped escort carriage was thick with tension.
The carriage drawn by six Iron Horses — superior in both endurance and strength, undeterred by any rough terrain — was anything but comfortable, but Kool Saikou had absolutely no bandwidth to worry about that.
The reason was — the two criminals sitting before him.
Blinded by thick hoods, bound hand and foot with shackles and chains, their entire bodies immobilized — and yet the two criminals remained perfectly composed.
Members of the "Nine-Tailed Shadow Fox," the most villainous criminal organization to have become enemies of the world following the Martial Emperor Festival incident — Kenbi and Kuubi.
Captured after a series of twists and turns in Code, these two had unquestionably boasted combat capabilities that exceeded those of high-level Hunters.
Kuubi, who hadn't been captured even when they were utterly spent from fighting Thousand Transformations at the Martial Emperor Festival, went without saying — even Kenbi had easily repelled Klah's lightning ambush. In the end, they'd been subdued by the power of a de-brainwashed Level 8 Hunter — Night Banquet Festival Hall — but that had only been possible because Thousand Transformations' stratagem had created a brief gap in their consciousness.
And above all, the biggest problem was that the Wailing Evil Spirit had been selected for the escort detail.
In this golden age of Treasure Hunters, where heroes were born in abundance, the caliber of criminals rose year by year — and when it came to criminals on the level of high-level Hunters, it was a completely different dimension.
Tearing through alloy chains and shackles with bare hands was almost tame by comparison. They'd heard outrageous rumors time and again — annihilating the surrounding area with unchanted magic, or brainwashing escort members with nothing more than a gaze.
To safely escort such dangerous criminals to prison required personnel with at least comparable combat ability, but such members were always in desperately short supply.
The reason the Wailing Evil Spirit had been assigned this mission was that their leader, Klah, had taken it upon himself — but at the same time, it also meant the Explorer's Guild had been unable to find anyone with greater combat ability than Klah.
Several dozen other Hunters participated in the escort, forming a perimeter around the carriage, but Kool, who knew the two's combat capabilities firsthand, couldn't imagine them being of any use in a pinch.
Of course, Klah was strong. His lightning arts had been refined further through his experiences in Code, and in both hand-to-hand combat and magical battle, there were few who could match him.
But the rest of them — Kool included — paled in comparison to Klah, and this time, the opponents were who they were.
Every conceivable precaution had been applied to the two criminals.
Kenbi's greatsword had been confiscated by Night Banquet Festival Hall just before he was loaded into the escort carriage, along with everything else on his person. That had been possible because Night Banquet Festival Hall, Heavenly Dance of the Army Breaker, and above all, Thousand Transformations were present — but now, none of them were.
Klah sat with one knee raised, silently watching over the criminals who could barely move a muscle in their restraints.
It was then that the blinded Kenbi let out a soft, breathy laugh.
"Hee hee... You don't need to be so tense, you know. I'm not stupid enough to cause a scene in this situation. They took my sword, too."
"That's a cooperative attitude. But just to be clear — if either of you makes any suspicious moves — I won't even need to borrow Night Banquet Festival Hall's power. My trump card will turn you to dust in less than a second."
Well, technically killing them would result in penalties... In prison, the two would undergo rigorous interrogation. If that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to extract information about their organization were wasted, even the Explorer's Guild couldn't shield them from the outrage of the nations.
But this leader might just do it. Klah Andrich was a man of his word, and that decisiveness was the very source of his strength.
Next, Klah turned his gaze to Kuubi. He was already in combat mode — as if to signal his quiet fighting spirit, purple lightning danced through his hair.
"Or — would you like to test whether you can break those restraints before I deploy my trump card?"
"How interesting... I didn't get a proper chance to fight you back in Code."
Despite having every magical countermeasure applied and supposedly being sealed from casting magic, Kuubi flashed a grin.
His attitude still didn't look remotely like that of a restrained man.
And with good reason — this was a man that even Code's prison couldn't contain. Who knew how effective the magical countermeasures even were?
The only confirmed fact was that these restraints should prevent him from breaking through to use "Thunder Emperor."
"I'm disappointed, too. I wanted to face you head-on one more time — but oh well, I suppose there's nothing to be done about it."
"If you want to fight so badly, go ahead — just don't drag me into it. Even I have no interest in fighting a high-level Hunter without a sword. I'm a swordsman, you know. Besides — Night Banquet Festival Hall might still be watching, for all we know?"
Night Banquet Festival Hall. Saya Kuromizu's "Sarasara."
That power was enough to make even Kool — who hadn't been directly targeted — feel a chill down his spine.
If every Level 8 Hunter possessed that caliber of monstrous power, then even someone as talented as Klah would struggle to reach Level 8. He was that convinced of it.
At Kenbi's words, Kuubi erased his smile and let his fighting spirit dissipate.
"...Hmph. True enough."
"The Explorer's Guild sure has some nerve, sending someone with such a dangerous ability."
"Dangerous ability...?"
Klah's eyes widened at the ominous words.
Dangerous. Kool had felt something similar.
That rustling sound — Sarasara — that had drifted in from who-knows-where still echoed in his ears. Even now, just thinking about it made his blood run cold.
That sound, and the presence that had materialized without warning — there was something about them that triggered a primal fear.
Being driven to the brink of death in a life-or-death battle. A fear so overwhelming that everything else ceased to matter.
"No, maybe they were just hiding it. Hee hee... That was definitely our kind of power. I couldn't see what was summoned, but it wouldn't even obey the commands of the Night Banquet Festival Hall herself."
"!!"
Come to think of it... that was exactly right.
After the incident, Kaiser had dismissed Saya's counterattack as a stratagem by Thousand Transformations, so Kool hadn't thought much of it — but at that time, Saya had been completely stripped of her will by the mask's power.
With a summoning-type ability, the summoned entities were supposed to be absolutely obedient to the caster's commands — that was what controlling an ability meant.
It had worked out in the end, but the fact that commands didn't work meant the ability could freely harm people.
Above all, the things summoned by that ability had an aura that clearly marked them as no friends of humanity.
It was common for Hunters to keep their cards close to their chest, but if this fact came to light, it would become a major internal controversy within the Explorer's Guild.
"To think such an alien ability could exist... The end of modern civilization seems to be drawing rather near."
"The end... of civilization?"
At Kool's reaction, Kuubi spoke with exasperation.
"Ignorant fool. The appearance of abilities like that means this world is entering an era of transformation. The power that permeates this world — Mana Material — is already saturated. You'll come to understand this with your own bodies soon enough. The end of this civilization is near."
Era of transformation. At that word, Kool's eyes widened.
He knew that countless civilizations had fallen throughout this world's history. The remnants of those civilizations had been reproduced through Mana Material — they were the Treasure Halls and Phantoms.
He'd heard rumors that the concentration of Mana Material was gradually increasing, but he'd never considered that it might be connected to the end of a civilization.
It would be easy to dismiss such words as absurd.
If this had been something from a tabloid magazine, Kool would have laughed it off — but this was coming from these two.
The fact that Kenbi and Kuubi, blindfolded as they were, hadn't been gagged was because the escort team hoped to extract information from them along the way.
While committing this to memory, Kenbi played a sultry smile with just the corner of her mouth and said to Klah: "If you release us from these restraints right now and cooperate with us, we might just let you join our ranks, Thunder Emperor. After all — there's no prison in this world that can hold the two of us."
It was the fundamental problem that arose when capturing criminals of high-level Hunter caliber.
This time, they would be housed in a top-tier prison. The guards' levels were incomparably higher than those of other facilities, but even that couldn't be called foolproof. Setting aside the unarmed Kenbi, how to incarcerate Kuubi — a mage who needed no weapons and had been a handful even for Code's prison — was a major challenge.
But that wasn't something Kool and the others needed to worry about.
Their role was simply the escort; everything after that could be left to the experts in that field.
At Kenbi's words, Klah smiled and replied.
"Don't underestimate us so. The matter of how to imprison you is being discussed among the nations under the Zebuldia Empire's leadership. Depending on the situation, high-level Hunters may be dispatched from the Explorer's Guild."
The nation that had expressed the most fury over the Martial Emperor Festival incident was the Zebuldia Empire. In terms of both territory and national power, it was one of the world's foremost empires. Moreover, its imperial capital was called the holy land of Hunters, and many Treasure Hunters had chosen it as their home — though the Wailing Evil Spirit had never been there themselves.
If the Empire committed its full weight, it could place high-value requests with the Explorer's Guild and mobilize high-level Hunters for the prison.
At Klah's words, Kuubi snorted.
"Zebuldia, Zebuldia, is it? Heh heh... How foolish. As if we'd have the time to concern ourselves with them."
"......"
"The Zebuldia Empire's capital stands on what was once the domain of a god — a forbidden zone, if you will. Rodan repelled the god and destroyed the divine-type Treasure Hall, but he didn't destroy the god itself. The current Emperor seems to be a shrewd one — but with the energy filling the Ley Lines on the rise, they'll soon be paying the price for their long prosperity."
At Kuubi's confident words, the recent string of incidents in Zebuldia flashed through Kool's mind.
He'd been thinking that there had been too much unrest lately — but perhaps there really was something to it.
Something that an ordinary Hunter like Kool could never imagine.
"But Zebuldia also has the Thousand Transformations who captured you."
"......Don't talk about that one. I don't even want to hear it."
Kuubi spat the words out and fell silent.