What am I to do about this?
A mysterious girl had suddenly appeared and left behind a single book.
Judging by
"Sajin, call I8."
I said this to Sajin, who was still staring blankly at the spot where the girl had vanished.
Sajin seemed to snap back to his senses and immediately sprang into action.
His figure vanished from the spot.
No matter how many times I saw it, it always looked like spatial magic teleportation, but it was apparently one of the abilities granted by his special Skill — one of the ninja's powers.
Unfortunately, even he didn't seem to understand the principle behind it, and since it was an effect of a special Skill, it couldn't be reproduced.
If I could, I would have had the entire Anti-Magic Unit learn it.
The Anti-Magic Unit, led by I8 whom Sajin had summoned, was a unit tasked with identifying and eliminating individuals who possessed Taboo Skills, as well as members of the Demon race who had secretly infiltrated human society.
Taboo holders rarely reached Level 10 unless something extraordinary happened, but that didn't mean it was impossible.
As long as there was even a possibility, it was best to nip it in the bud early.
That was why the Church had strictly punished Taboo holders since ancient times.
Furthermore, since members of the Demon race looked identical to humans on the outside, they occasionally slipped into human society under the guise of refugees or spies.
Discovering them was another one of the Anti-Magic Unit's critical missions.
Due to the nature of their work, the Anti-Magic Unit always included members with high-level Appraisal Skills.
I8, whom Sajin had summoned, also possessed an Appraisal Skill.
The reason I'd called I8 was to have her appraise the book the mysterious girl had left behind and confirm whether it posed any danger.
While waiting for I8 to arrive, I gathered my thoughts.
First — who was that girl?
At this point, all I knew was that she appeared to be an acquaintance of Sajin's and was apparently a reincarnated person.
But there was one thing that didn't add up.
Sajin had identified her as a reincarnated person in an instant.
Sajin didn't have an Appraisal Skill.
He shouldn't have been carrying an Appraisal Stone either.
Then how had Sajin figured out she was a reincarnated person?
Had he known her from before?
No.
I'd always kept Sajin under surveillance. There was no way he could have made suspicious moves without my learning of them.
There shouldn't have been any opening for him to hold a secret meeting without my finding out.
That said, there were still many mysteries surrounding the ninja Skill.
Appraisal couldn't reveal its full scope, and it was entirely possible that Sajin possessed abilities beyond what he'd voluntarily disclosed.
So it wasn't impossible that he'd slipped out without my noticing.
However, judging by his reaction, that didn't seem to be the case.
He'd looked genuinely surprised.
Sajin wasn't skilled enough to pull off an act convincing enough to fool me.
Transformation was one of the abilities within the ninja Skill, but he'd never once put it to use.
If only Sajin had a bit more acting talent, he could have been deployed in far more roles.
What a waste.
Truth be told, Sajin was far too lacking in judgment.
I'd kept him close because the ninja Skill was so appealing, yet he couldn't even make full use of that.
I couldn't count how many times I'd questioned whether I'd chosen the wrong person to keep at hand.
Oh — no, no. My thoughts were drifting again.
If I assumed Sajin hadn't known the girl, then the possibilities were limited.
Most likely, the girl had appeared in the exact form she'd had in her previous world — the world where Sajin had been known as Kusama Shinobu.
If so, it made perfect sense that Sajin had recognized her as a reincarnated person at a single glance.
But that, too, was problematic.
I found it hard to believe the girl looked the same in this world as she had before.
Sajin, Ugio, and Yurin all looked different from their previous lives.
According to Ugio's reports, the other reincarnated persons held captive in the Elf Village were the same.
I couldn't imagine the girl was an exception.
If that was the case, then she had deliberately disguised herself as her former self to come here.
What was the reason?
I could think of several, but the most likely was that she'd known Sajin was here.
Sajin's existence was a closely guarded secret within the Church.
Only a handful of people I trusted were privy to that information.
Had there been a leak from among them?
Or could it have leaked from Sajin himself?
Perhaps it was the work of an unknown Skill, much like Sajin's ninja abilities.
If so, at least there was no traitor to worry about.
No — I couldn't relax. That would simply mean our information had been thoroughly compromised.
In the first place, I hadn't even noticed the girl was in disguise.
Her disguise had been that perfect.
I believed it must have been the work of an unknown Skill I wasn't aware of.
If she was a reincarnated person, she should have possessed special Skills just like Sajin.
Could one of those Skills' effects have been related to disguise?
And more fundamentally — what was the girl's objective?
The answer was probably in this book, but touching it before an appraisal was too dangerous.
As long as there was even a slight possibility of it being a trap, I had to proceed with caution.
Until I8 arrived, there was nothing I could do.
I would have liked to hear more details from Sajin as well, but I'd already sent him to fetch I8.
Had I made a mistake?
"Your Holiness, I8 has arrived."
"Enter."
Just in time — I8 had come.
The man who opened the door and stepped inside had his face hidden behind a white cloth painted with an image of eyes.
The Anti-Magic Unit was something like the Church's shadow organization.
They frequently made enemies, and so to protect their identities, they concealed their faces and used fake names.
This applied even toward fellow members of the Church.
The only people who could know their true identities were their fellow unit members — and even among those, the relationship carried more of a mutual surveillance dynamic than camaraderie.
I8 and Sajin, who had gone to fetch him, stepped forward into the room.
"I'll get straight to it — appraise this book for me."
"As you command."
I8 peered at the book through his cloth.
But there was no reaction.
Normally, he would have reported the results to me immediately, yet he simply stared at the book without moving.
"What's the matter?"
"It cannot be appraised, Your Holiness."
"What?"
"This book — the appraisal returns only a result of 'cannot be appraised.'"
Appraisal impossible?
I'd never heard of such a thing — no, wait. There had been one instance.
The n%I=W Skill.
When attempting to appraise the contents of that Skill, the only result that came back was "cannot be appraised."
But what did this mean?
n%I=W's contents had been concealed at the discretion of the high-level administrator.
This was a measure to give reincarnated persons preferential treatment, but it was also meant to protect them.
That was why it couldn't be appraised.
If this book, too, returned "cannot be appraised," that meant its contents operated on principles beyond this world.
Or it could be a relic from before the system had been activated.
This could be a far bigger bombshell than I'd imagined.