The Missing Persons Case Countermeasures Headquarters. Franz Argman reflexively shot to his feet upon receiving the report he'd been dreading — the one that was finally, inevitably, coming.
"Heh heh heh… Ahahahahaha! So, you've finally made your move… Thousand Transformations!"
The missing persons case, which had been at a standstill, had turned on its head in just the past few hours.
Saya and Lucia had successfully infiltrated the Treasure Hall that was the root cause of the disappearances. Saya had been able to pry open the gate with her ability. The Phantoms that appeared there, the nature of the Treasure Hall itself — including the failed attempt to clear it — Franz had been thinking it was time to formulate a real strategy from here on out.
He'd anticipated this, of course. Knowing that man's personality, there was no way he'd just leave an incident like this alone. That was what Franz had learned from his recent dealings with the Thousand Transformations.
"Um… among those we had under surveillance, there was someone who heard Thousand Transformations say — 'Finally, you've arrived. Killing time, are we?'"
"…Dammit!"
He took a deep breath and, with a single muttered curse, barely managed to hold his anger in check.
If that man had made his move, then there was no longer a moment to spare.
Sage, who had begun selecting talented Mages for the Treasure Hall's capture, spoke with amusement.
"What do we do, Lord Franz? Shall we assemble a response team of our own? We can't let Thousand Transformations beat us, can we?"
"…As if that's even possible! God, it pisses me off, though."
"Hm?"
That man had made his move.
That meant — it was the end.
He'd slipped surveillance effortlessly and vanished into the Treasure Hall, which meant he'd already finished all his preparations. On their side, they'd only just learned of the Treasure Hall's existence. There was no comparison.
Franz couldn't even imagine what methods he'd use, but during the Emperor's protection detail, during the prophecy incident, and even at Code, that man had done whatever he pleased and resolved each situation in ways entirely different from what Franz and the others expected. This time would be the same — it was inevitable. A trust he himself found unpleasant.
So then, what was Franz supposed to do right now as the leader of this countermeasures HQ?
Fortunately, though it was nighttime, the key members were all present. Missing persons cases tended to occur more often at night, after all.
Franz spoke to Gaark, whose face had gone beet red with trembling upon hearing that Thousand Transformations had started moving despite being under suspension.
"Branch Chief Gaark, gather our forces. Wake up the Knights too — I don't know what he's going to do, but we need to minimize the damage he causes! Do it now!"
"…Understood."
Branch Chief Gaark rose to his feet, trembling. If Thousand Transformations moved while under suspension, the Explorer's Guild bore responsibility. Branch Chief Gaark would use every means at his disposal to assemble high-Level Hunters.
He hadn't slept much recently. But he felt fine. Franz stood like a statue, then laughed from the depths of his emotions.
"Ahahahaha! Bring arrows, bring guns, bring whatever you've got, Thousand Transformations! I won't let you do as you please!"
"Commander Franz… he's, like, broken…"
§ § § Treasure Hall: [Stellar God's Box Garden].
After successfully expelling the intruders and regaining composure, the Lady's ears couldn't believe what she was hearing from one of the Phantoms — "Mary of Hide-and-Seek."
"Huh? You're serious!? You're seriously telling me someone fell for a phone rumor!?"
Impossible words. Yet Mary, nodding, radiated intense excitement.
"Mary of Hide-and-Seek" was a phone-based anomaly unable to display her full power in modern civilization.
Mary would first call the target and introduce herself. Then, she would close in, little by little.
First the same country. Then the city. Then the same address, the neighborhood, the front door. Finally, she would call from directly behind the target, and on the next call, the target would be attacked by Mary and vanish. Tedious, perhaps, but more than sufficient for instilling terror.
But in this world, it was meaningless. It should have been meaningless.
After all, there wasn't a single phone anywhere that could receive Mary's call.
"And on top of that, they fell for such an obviously suspicious spam email!? What kind of idiot is this!?"
This world had almost no phones — let alone ones that could receive emails.
Spam emails shouldn't even exist here as a concept. Yet someone opened such a dubious email, believed its contents without question, and actually made a call— "And they listened to the instructions!? Peering into a mirror at 4:44:44 AM… huh? They were told to do it at 1:00!?"
This was completely insane. The Lady had abducted countless people, but this was the first time anyone had ever asked to change the conditions of the abduction.
It was a trap. The rumors were a trap to lure in victims for the Missing Persons Abduction!
Of course, she could still abduct him at 1:00. He was walking into the trap of his own free will — all she had to do was set her own trap beforehand.
But what bothered her was just how spectacularly dumb he seemed. Without question, the most idiotic catch she'd ever had.
"I'm Mary. What should we do?"
Mary's voice was barely a whisper. Yet it carried an absolute resolve — she would have this one.
For "Mary of Hide-and-Seek" — no, for the other phone-related anomaly Phantoms as well — this was the one and only golden opportunity. Scaring this prey wouldn't change their ultimate fate of fading away, but that was fine.
After all, instilling terror was essentially their reason for existing.
And the Lady had no intention of refusing. She understood their feelings perfectly well.
"I'll allow it. But make sure to carve genuine fear into him."
"I'm Mary. Got it… It'll be okay — if he comes here, he should definitely be able to see me by now…"
"Huh? What did you just say!?"
"I'm Mary. I'm right in front of your eyes…"
No, he was indeed right in front of her — but honestly, she had nothing but misgivings.
§ The one who'd fallen for a rumor that everyone thought no one would fall for was a young man of average build with black hair.
The power radiating from his body was lower than any human who'd previously been abducted through the missing persons case, easily clearing the Lady's threshold for a target.
Sure, this man might fall for that kind of rumor, but at the same time, she couldn't understand how he'd been able to use a phone.
What this man had been using was a smartphone — a rare luxury item that existed in this era only as a Treasure Weapon.
After being suddenly sucked into the mirror, the man made no fuss. Smartphone in hand, he gazed around with a vaguely blank expression, completely unaware that Phantoms were observing him from every direction— Somehow, watching the whole group hiding and peeking at their target, it felt like stepping back into the past.
In the old days, all they'd had to do was scare people who wandered in without thinking. That used to be enough.
She looked over at Mary to confirm.
"What's his name?"
"I'm Mary. His name is Klye Andrich."
"Huh? Klye Andrich?"
Her eyes widened involuntarily as she looked at the man.
She'd heard that name before — no, she'd only just learned it.
It was the name of Lucia's brother, which she'd glimpsed when checking whether Lucia could wield the [Cage of Nightmares].
Could it be… this man was Lucia's brother? A stepbrother, apparently, but they didn't look alike at all.
But this was perfect. Klye Andrich was Lucia Roje's weakness.
Lucia's greatest fear was losing her brother. If she used him well, she could drive Lucia into an even deeper abyss of terror.
But that aside, it was time to start by giving Klye himself a good scare.
He was Lucia's brother, and Lucia was terrified of everything — surely Klye would be easy to frighten. Well, unlike Lucia, Klye had absolutely no power, so whatever fear they could squeeze out of him wouldn't amount to much against the Lady's strength, but— In the darkness, Klye held the phone to his ear. The Lady could tell.
At this moment, Klye felt absolutely no fear in this darkness.
"Hello? Where are the Treasure Weapons?"
He still hadn't realized he was being tricked — what was this man even talking to?
"Mary of Hide-and-Seek" answered the phone in a strained voice.
"Hello, I'm Mary. I'm… right behind you!!"
The tone was far too forceful for someone trying to instill fear. She wasn't even following the basic rule of slowly closing in. But still, Mary's approach was undetectable even by magic. If she suddenly appeared behind someone, the effect would be devastating — at least against Lucia.
Mary teleported behind Klye. A raised kitchen knife. Klye slowly turned to look.
And — his gaze passed straight through Mary as if she weren't there.
Excuse me?
"Stop with the prank calls. You're not here after all. I'm looking for Treasure Weapons, you know?"
Mary let out a scream and slashed at Klye. But the kitchen knife passed clean through him. Klye didn't show the slightest indication of hearing her shriek.
Completely — completely, he could not see Mary.
Excuse me? People like this actually exist?
The Lady was filled with disbelief of an entirely different kind from when she'd seen Saya.
The Lady and Mary were Phantoms — special beings. Without a capacity one might call spiritual sensitivity, you couldn't see them or touch them. Because their existence was special, physical attacks from humans were largely ineffective, and the Lady's side aimed to deal psychological damage rather than physical.
But that was just the general principle. In the outside world, perhaps, but here inside the Treasure Hall, the presence of beings like the Lady was amplified enough that most humans could perceive them to some degree.
And yet, this man — he couldn't see Mary at all. He wasn't pretending not to see her either.
If he were faking it, Mary's kitchen knife wouldn't pass through him like that.
Saya had been extraordinarily powerful. A single brush of her baton had inflicted damage that shouldn't have been possible against the Lady and her Phantoms.
This man was the opposite. If Saya's spiritual sensitivity was 100, this man's was infinitely close to zero.
In this era, everyone was supposed to be enhanced with Mana Material, yet a man with this little spiritual sensitivity actually existed— "Why did you bring someone like THIS!?"
"I'm Mary. B-because he was such a precious target…"
Mary was slamming her kitchen knife against the floor as she spoke.
But Klye didn't even turn around. He couldn't hear the Lady's voice at all. The knife's impacts were inaudible to him, too.
If even the Lady's voice — a being of the highest order of presence within this Treasure Hall — couldn't reach him, then no voice could reach him, and nothing could be seen. For this man, the Lady and Mary simply did not exist.
The fact that their voices had connected over the phone was either a miracle or, more likely, a function of the smartphone itself.
He wasn't terrifying in the way Saya was, but in an entirely different sense, he was the worst possible match.
The ghost orchestra directly above Klye erupted into a grand musical performance. A cacophony so overwhelming it shook the space and made one want to cover their ears. But Klye merely blinked.
He couldn't feel the orchestra's sound, its vibrations, nothing. When they said he couldn't sense things, this was what they meant.
Having zero spiritual sensitivity meant existing on an entirely different plane.
Even if the Lady and her Phantoms threw objects at him, they would never hit. It was hopeless.
No — it was so hopeless that it actually killed any motivation to even come up with a countermeasure.
…W-Well, if they really wanted to threaten Lucia, they didn't actually need to harm Klye himself.
"…Well, if it really came down to it, attacks from something like a Demon Shark would probably land…"
The Phantoms in this Treasure Hall broadly fell into two categories.
Anomaly types like the Lady, who couldn't be sensed without spiritual sensitivity, and panic monster types with physical forms, like the Demon Shark.
Klye probably couldn't detect only the former. Since the types were different, he could see and take damage from the Demon Shark, Monster Diggy, the man-eating bear Blue, and the like.
But in response to the Lady's words, a storm of complaints erupted.
"I'm Mary! I'm opposed! Absolutely opposed!"
"Klye has a phone!"
"Don't you dare steal our prey—!"
The voices came from "Mary of Hide-and-Seek" and the other phone-using anomalies.
For them, Klye — someone who carried a smartphone and actually listened to what they said — must have been like a savior.
Even Mary, who had collapsed in despair after trying to scare him and failing to be perceived, was joining the chorus of complaints. The Phantoms were starved for prey.
"Breaking Klye into pieces is absolutely unforgivaaaaable!"
"Heh heh… I'll break them to pieces. Anyone who tries to break Klye into pieces — I'll break THEM into pieces."
Voices laden with anger and resentment. The problem was, there were far from a few phone-using anomalies.
A considerable number had already faded away without obtaining any fear, but from the side of those vanishing, new Phantoms were manifesting. Normally they were docile because phones didn't exist here, but the arrival of this promising new face had ignited their hopes.
If they united, nearly every panic monster in this Treasure Hall would be torn apart. In raw ability, the anomaly types were the stronger ones.
Above all, infighting was pointless — it had to be avoided.
Though, admittedly, there was also that aberrant faction that had betrayed Saya as a third party.
Klye turned on his smartphone's flashlight and began walking down the corridor.
The Lady floated alongside him, resigned, and voiced a question.
"…But why does this man feel absolutely no fear?"
"I'm Mary. Probably because he thinks this is a safe place — a Treasure Hall where he can get the Treasure Weapons he wants."
…Is that really how it worked?
They were luring people in under the pretense of a safe Treasure Hall, but anyone with half a brain should realize such a place couldn't exist. This man's sense of danger was critically absent.
She tried to figure out what he was afraid of, but he didn't seem to be the type who feared one specific thing, the way Lucia or Saya did.
He seemed to be faintly afraid of everything.
He was afraid of the Explorer's Guild branch chief with the scary face. The oni Phantoms that appeared in the Treasure Hall. His childhood friend who cut down anyone and everyone — he worried she might one day kill a civilian. For something even worse, he was apparently afraid of strongly flavored vegetables like coriander. Was he a child!?
She wanted to get rid of this utterly pointless existence as soon as possible, but Mary and the others didn't seem ready to give up.
What to do… No, wait— An idea struck the Lady.
"That's right — the phone connects, doesn't it? Let's use that to guide him into pressing the Taboo Switch."
The Taboo Switch was one of this Treasure Hall's mechanisms.
Many Phantoms manifested within the Treasure Hall, but among them were powerful ones that could only awaken with human assistance.
For instance, anomalies sealed with ofuda talismans, or monsters restrained with binding apparatus. The ofuda and restraints binding those Phantoms couldn't be undone by the Lady — only a human could undo them.
Forbidden seals that humans must never break. Those were the Taboo Switches.
"I'm Mary. I don't think that's going to work…"
Mary furrowed her brow.
Because the sealed Phantoms were so powerful, the Taboo Switches were designed not to be triggered easily. The Lady had actually tried several times to guide humans into releasing the seals, but she'd never succeeded once.
The ofuda and restraints were just one example — as a rule, Taboo Switches were designed to evoke revulsion and fear in humans.
The actions required were simple, like pressing a button, but not once had anyone ever completed them.
But if it was this man who lacked any sense of danger, perhaps— If those powerful Phantoms were unleashed, they could serve as a deterrent against those aberrant beings that had betrayed Saya.
They were similar to the Lady's faction, but not allies. The more cards she had, the better.
First, though, she needed to make sure those aberrant beings didn't find out… Well, that shouldn't be a problem. She'd already confirmed their location. Keeping them at a distance would be easy enough.
"Let's guide him to the Taboo Switches one by one. I don't know how many seals he'll actually break, but even one would be a win."
The Lady sighed, then gave instructions in a voice completely devoid of energy.