The Imperial Capital Zebuldia is always bustling.
Well-maintained streets. Major roads, broad and running in a grid pattern through the capital, are always filled with countless carriages and people hurrying about.
The sight of it would make anyone who came from a provincial city say that Zebuldia was perpetually celebrating a festival.
Where people gather, goods follow, and that drives the city's growth.
The Imperial Capital Zebuldia is now considered one of the largest cities in the world, and it's even said that there's nothing you can't find there.
Powerful weapons and armor, rare delicacies that could normally only be obtained in coastal cities, scarce volumes of which only a handful exist anywhere in the world, precious and expensive magic potions that can cure any illness, and—on top of all that—the wondrous Treasure Weapons produced by the Treasure Hall located nearby.
Wealth and prestige. And power. The magnificent Imperial Capital Zebuldia could rightly be called the city that best represents this era of active treasure hunting.
And its development shows no sign of stopping.
For us, the members of the "Mourning Specter," it was nothing short of incredibly lucky that the first city we visited after deciding to become Hunters was the capital.
Of course, I'd never dream of saying my childhood friends hadn't worked hard, but the abundance of resources and the outstanding mentors there accelerated their growth tremendously.
And riding that momentum, the "Mourning Specter" charged right up the glorious road that ordinary people imagine when they think of treasure hunting.
In truth, in the five years since arriving at the capital, our Party (minus me) had already cleared out most of the Treasure Halls in the capital's vicinity.
The reason we still used the capital as our hometown was partly because it was convenient and partly because of the new friends we'd made, but there was also a desire to contribute however we could to the city's development.
But now—this immensely gracious Imperial Capital Zebuldia was facing an unprecedented crisis because of me.
On the top floor of the Clan House, inside my private room, I spent an hour searching frantically before finally pressing my hand to my forehead.
The Citri Slime was—nowhere. No matter how many times I looked, it wasn't there. I searched every corner of the room and it wasn't there.
I carefully went through every Treasure Weapon on display, looked under the bed—searched everything, and found not a single trace.
I flopped onto the bed and muttered to myself, all alone. My throat was bone-dry.
It was a warm, pleasant afternoon. Normally I'd hire a guard to leisurely stroll around outside, or sink into the chair in the Clan Master's office for an afternoon nap, but I was nowhere near in the mood for that.
"Oh no… what do I do? It's nowhere…"
I had noticed that the metal capsule it was supposed to be inside was empty right before I was about to hurl it at the Phantom at White Wolf's Den.
Fortunately, the exploration itself was made possible thanks to our adorable genocide monster, but what it left me with was a single burning question.
Where did the Citri Slime go?
I swear on my life—I had never once opened that capsule.
I'd stored it in the safe right after receiving it and left it there ever since. I treated it as practically hazardous material. I make it a point to run away from anything dangerous whenever possible.
The Citri Slime was a slime created by one of the "Mourning Specter's" members, Citry Smart.
Slime species are known as the weakest monsters among the many that exist.
They're vulnerable to heat, cold, magic, physical attacks, and impact alike—any kid from the countryside had probably stepped on a wild slime or two while playing.
They were also well-known for being producible through special techniques, and since they adapted their properties based to the ambient mana, they were often used in experiments and the like.
Losing a single slime shouldn't normally be cause for alarm, but the one I'd lost was no ordinary specimen.
Citry had given it to me with instructions that she'd made it, but it was a little dangerous, and if released carelessly it could destroy the capital, so could I please hold onto it.
And when Citry said "a little," she didn't mean a little. (If destroying the capital counts as "a little," then everything is "a little.") Citry was a genius. Her body wasn't particularly strong, but she more than made up for it with her intellect.
Among the monster-like lineup of the "Mourning Specter," she was the member who had grown the most, though in the beginning she had struggled with her weakness just like I had. (Though even at that point, she was far stronger than me.)
She was probably the late-blooming type all along.
All the members of the Mourning Specter had shown outstanding talent from the start, so I was the only one who understood her frustration.
She'd grown stronger now. She'd gained knowledge, experience, and standing, advancing by leaps and bounds, yet the sympathy she held for me hadn't faded.
Perhaps because of that, Citry would frequently hand over her "creations" to me. I could never refuse what she offered out of pure goodwill and would end up accepting them. (Or rather, if I didn't accept them, she'd just toss them aside on the spot and things would get really messy, so I had no choice. Apparently, Citry had zero interest in her "creations" that I didn't accept.)
And yet, despite all that, Citry had a bit of a scatterbrained side and would forget to explain important details, so I frequently mishandled her inventions.
—Yes. Exactly like… this time.
"No no no no. This time is different. It was sealed in the safe the whole time, and I never opened it."
I tried to think calmly.
I had indeed been extremely careful with the Citri Slime.
It had been stored inside a metal capsule. Even I, the idiot who might drop a Treasure Weapon during transit without noticing, couldn't possibly drop just the contents without the container. I couldn't do that. Even if told to, I couldn't manage it.
The metal capsule had since been destroyed, so I couldn't examine it closely, but there hadn't been a single scratch on it. No holes, and it seemed highly unlikely that the contents could have been stolen while it sat in the safe.
The safe was on the top floor of the Clan House—the security was impeccable, and besides, the safe itself was a Treasure Weapon.
I couldn't definitively say no third party could open it, but if anyone had, I would have known.
Which meant there was only one conclusion.
—It was empty to begin with. That's it!
I threw myself backward onto the bed, convincing myself.
"Well, well. Citry really is a piece of work, huh. Ahahaha…"
Citry wasn't the type to pull a prank like that, nor was she the kind of person who would do something so mischievous, but I couldn't see it any other way.
…Or maybe I just didn't care anymore.
Thinking about it was such a pain, and if I really sat down to analyze it, I felt like I'd throw up.
The capital was peaceful today. That was fine. As for the slime, let's just pretend it never happened.
After all, no matter how special Citry's creation was, it was just a slime in the end—the weakest of all monsters. It couldn't be that big a deal.
Right. Saying the capital would be destroyed was clearly an overstatement… The city was full of incredibly skilled Hunters, after all.
Let me think about something more fun instead.
§ An ostentatiously grand desk and chair.
The large window in the Clan Master's office let in generous amounts of sunlight, and in this season when winter had finally ended and the air had grown warm, it was enough to make you drowsy.
With no particular work to do, I sat in my chair idly polishing a Treasure Weapon when Eva, the Sub Clan Master, walked in.
As the stand-in master—I was just for show—Eva handled all of the clan's operations. She looked busy today, as usual.
She was dressed crisply from head to toe in a sharp uniform, and behind her slim red-framed glasses gleamed keen, intelligent eyes.
Standing side by side with me, we probably looked like a clueless figurehead boss and a highly competent secretary. That was exactly what we were.
"The Explorer's Guild contacted us. They want more detailed information about the White Wolf's Den situation."
Eva glanced at me and got straight to business without so much as a word of reproach.
Truly, what a capable Sub Master she was. When she first joined the clan, she used to give me the occasional earful, but at some point she'd stopped saying anything. Probably because she'd given up on me.
I gave a big yawn and rubbed my eyes as I asked back. I hadn't slept much because of the lost slime, so I was overwhelmingly drowsy.
"Is Ark back already?"
"…I think it would be difficult to entrust this to Ark-san even if he were here. In fact, Klye-san, you rely on Ark-san far too much."
Ark was… not enough Ark.
Eva shrugged with an exasperated expression.
He was strong. On top of that, he was a good man. People trusted him, too.
It was only natural that I'd lean on someone who was my clanmate.
In general, strong Hunters tended to have a few screws loose, which made it even more essential.
From my experience running the clan, I knew that if something came up, I could just throw it at Ark and things would work out. Seriously, you should be the Master instead.
Well, that was exactly why I'd ended up in such a miserable situation at White Wolf's Den, though.
If it were Ark, he'd probably find a way to deal with the slime too.
"Tinno is the leader, so just tell Tinno. I only chased after them from behind."
I did go to help, but I hadn't defeated the Phantom, nor had I rescued Tinno and the others.
Liliz had chased after me, so in a sense I'd helped indirectly, but thinking back calmly it couldn't have been more embarrassing.
Back in the day, I used to dream of becoming the kind of Hunter who would dash to someone's rescue in a pinch and earn praise. I no longer harbored such grand ambitions.
No matter what had happened, the important thing was that Tinno and the others were safe.
I sighed with a vaguely philosophical air, then it suddenly occurred to me to ask Eva.
"More importantly, has anything been going on in the capital?"
"…Going on? Specifically, what do you mean? What's this about?"
Eva Renfield was exceptional.
Unlike me, she had the ability to manage this clan—the "Beginning Footprint"—that had ballooned into a massive operation.
That included information-gathering capability. Every member of this clan except yours truly was outstanding.
If there had been a major disturbance in the capital, there was no way she wouldn't know about it.
Which meant I hadn't actually let the Citri Slime loose after all.
Moreover, there wasn't a hint of anxiety in the way Eva asked for clarification.
Proof complete.
I settled back into my chair and let out a sigh of relief. It was fine. Everything was fine.
"No, if nothing's going on, then that's fine."
"…I'll begin an immediate investigation."
"No, really, it's fine. There's no need for that. It's fine, it's fine… probably. It was just my imagination. Let's keep it relaxed, relaxed."
"…"
Eva was staring at me with a suspicious expression. Her only weakness might be being too devoted to her duties.
I could be stirring up a hornet's nest, I supposed. But most things in this world had a way of sorting themselves out.
…Citry, please come back soon before things get out of hand.
"Oh, and Tinno seems to have been pushed into training by Liliz and can't move right now."
"Huh, she's really going for it."
To go straight into training right after a life-or-death exploration—that wasn't something just anyone could do.
That was so Tinno. Very Tinno.
The girl who had been just an ordinary girl when we first came to the capital was now a full-fledged Hunter.
And Liliz, for all her quirks, was apparently doing a fine job as a teacher.
Yeah…
A sudden wave of drowsiness hit me, and I let out a huge yawn. If I stayed like this, I'd fall asleep for sure.
Napping wouldn't cause any real problems for the clan's operations, but it wouldn't look great in front of Eva, who was working so efficiently. I didn't mind being driven out myself, but if Eva quit on me, I'd be in real trouble.
"Well then, I'll swing by while I'm at it. The training ground?"
"…That would be advisable. It's on the second basement floor."
"Okay. I'll leave the rest to you."
I gave Eva—who hadn't cracked a smile the entire conversation—a little wave and stood up.
§ § § "Gather intelligence immediately. Any incidents happening in the capital—even the most trivial—collect everything."
"Y-yes! Understood!"
At the calm yet somehow imposing voice, one of Eva's subordinates rushed out of the room at a brisk pace.
Eva Renfield was formerly a merchant.
Before taking the position of Sub Clan Master, she had been a member of one of the Empire's top trading companies—the Vels Trading Company.
Even though she had still been a low-ranking employee at the time, those connections remained even after she had accepted the offer to leave.
The "Beginning Footprint" was a massive clan.
Outstanding Hunters meant formidable military might. When you reached the scale of the "Footprint," you drew attention from every direction—nations, merchants, other Hunters, and even criminals like thieves who specifically targeted treasure hunters.
Though it wasn't her area of expertise, Eva had leveraged her position to build a sophisticated intelligence network across the entire capital and grow the clan.
Merchant networks. Information media, including newspapers. She utilized the standing of the clan's affiliated Hunters and never neglected information gathering from treasure hunters themselves. Even the Explorer's Guild had connections reaching into it.
Information was all about freshness. Nearly every significant event that occurred in the capital was brought to Eva's attention immediately.
That was why the Clan Master's question had come as a shock to her.
If this were the first time, she might have pressed him hard. At the very least, she wouldn't have volunteered to investigate.
But the Master's words carried weight with Eva.
Klye Andrich was a strange man.
When they first met, he hadn't even received a Level 8 certification and held no title. Over the years that followed, as clan leader and Sub Clan Master, their relationship had deepened, yet he remained completely unreadable.
Most days he'd sit in his office dazing off, polishing Treasure Weapons or yawning.
He never interfered with the clan's operations, gave no impression of being particularly busy, didn't look especially tough, and—aside from his rare outbursts of bizarre behavior—his personality had nothing remarkable about him.
He didn't possess the kind of radiance that many of the clan's Hunters—who would one day become heroes—carried. Far from it, he was always saying hopeless things like wanting to quit being a Hunter or hand over the role of Clan Master.
Anyone who didn't know him would undoubtedly conclude he was a total deadbeat. Eva herself had initially harbored dissatisfaction toward his completely lackluster demeanor.
But the words he let slip from time to time carried an accuracy that made even Eva—who could be called someone who knew the capital inside and out—think it had to be a joke.
From natural disasters like earthquakes to anomalies in distant Treasure Halls. From squabbles among imperial nobles to the machinations of secret societies—he had stuck his nose into countless events with no prior indication whatsoever.
He was clearly in no position to know about these things. But while a single instance might be coincidence, two or three times made it look like nothing less than inevitability.
A prescience that defied description—something you couldn't capture with a word like "genius."
Unidentifiable. The epithet "Thousand Transformations" was well chosen. When Eva had heard the title she'd been given, she had clapped her hands in understanding.
He himself would only say it was coincidence or that he'd been unlucky, but seeing how these headstrong Hunters quietly obeyed him when you considered the full picture, sometimes Eva felt he was something more than just a Hunter with a monstrously powerful ability—he was something beyond the monstrous.
Eva was confident in her own abilities. But that was only within the bounds of common sense.
If Klye had sensed some kind of premonition, then no matter how abruptly he voiced it, Eva would act on that premise.
In the Sub Clan Master's office—a cluttered room compared to the Clan Master's suite—she finished issuing instructions to several subordinates, then turned to look down at the streets from the window and murmured.
She had cleared her mind of all routine tasks and was desperately trying to recall whether she had overlooked anything.
"What on earth is happening in this capital…"
This was Eva's ritual whenever something like this occurred.