New Gear

The next evening, Solomon opened the box of new gear Maya had sent, the one a trembling skeleton hotelier had delivered.

Inside were a neatly folded coat and a one-piece tactical undersuit, plus an accessory that gave off a faint trace of magical power, along with product notes Maya had written out in careful detail.

───

List of special-order gear from the Sneakwear Workshop.

Tactical armor─ 「Stealth Coat Mk―II」 and 「One-Piece Armor Layer」 Set: 190 million krona

Key functions

· Can activate the invisibility spell <Hide> by consuming the wearer’s magical power.

· A high-density composite multi-fiber structure, woven into four layers, each applied once in sequence:blade-resistant coating, anti-magic coating, and shock-absorbing material.

· The one-piece armor layer includes high-strength shock absorption, and is engraved with runes that greatly reduce the spell-slot cost of the Stealth Coat’s <Hide>.

───

‘Hide!’

An invisibility spell, the crown jewel of an assassin’s kit. It was the one ability Solomon had insisted on, over and over, telling her to make sure it was included.

‘Still…’

A coat and a one-piece undersuit. But that didn’t seem like something an undead should be shaking over. So he checked what else was in the box.

───

Accessory from a Hillhouse medium shop in District 4, 「Street of the Wandering」.

Ghost Shark Bone Necklace (120 million krona)

Key function

· Ghost Shark’s force field

───

‘…Was it because of this?’

There was no other explanation beyond the blunt “key function.” Even so, the moment Solomon put on the Ghost Shark necklace, he understood on instinct.

He could feel it. Senses that shouldn’t exist expanded and sharpened to an extreme, scanning the surrounding area the way a shark swimming the sea would detect its territory.

It was not the five senses. It was a predator’s perception that caught the very ripples and currents of the sea itself.

Without needing an explanation, it felt instinctively clear how this ability should be used. The understanding etched itself into him with startling clarity. It was a form that enhanced his capabilities, like a passive skill.

‘Ghost Whale, and now Ghost Shark.’

From what he’d heard, neither creature was truly ‘alive’ in this world. They were something straddling the boundary between life and death, like Ghost Town. Solomon didn’t know the details.

‘This more or less rounds out my gear.’

Finish contracts, earn money, use it to get better gear. Repeat, climb to higher levels and greater strength, and move toward the goal he wanted. The process itself was ideal.

‘…Still a long way to go.’

But this alone wouldn’t let him avoid the “life-threatening crisis” that was coming soon. He couldn’t stop here.

“Hide.”

Solomon got roughly dressed and recited <Hide> as a test. A draining sensation rose, like some unknown mass was being pulled out of his chest.

‘Using my magical power…’

Just like the notes said. Even if it wasn’t a spell Solomon had learned, activating it still required Solomon’s magical power. In other words, it consumed spell slots.

That was why he checked the amount of mana draining away with even greater composure, assessing how much he had left.

───

Available spell slots

: Level 1 spell slots 5 uses (⚀⚀⚀⚀⚀)

: Level 2 spell slots 2 uses (⚁■)

───

‘…A Level 2 spell slot?!’

Solomon was horrified. It used a precious Level 2 spell slot. No, depending on how you looked at it, it might actually be a relief.

True invisibility was a Tier-4, Level-4 spell. Even accounting for degraded performance, with the cost reduction runes, it still came out to only one Level 2 spell slot.

By the rules, and by the sheer advantage invisibility gave, it was more than worth paying. The effect was on a completely different level from the ‘Hide action.’

‘Yeah. I’ll take it.’

With the Ghost Shark bone necklace on top of that, this wasn’t a time to complain. If anything, he should be grateful.

Right after, Solomon pulled out another accessory in that state. The Black Crow Spirit bracelet.

Kkaaak!

A Black Crow Spirit flapped out of the bracelet and appeared, then perched on the curtain rod and looked down at Solomon. Solomon immediately checked his reflected appearance through the crow’s eyes.

‘…!’

Because the invisibility spell was active, the image that should have appeared in the Black Crow Spirit’s eyes wasn’t there. It was the same from any crow. Solomon’s reflection didn’t appear in the room’s mirror either, as if he didn’t exist at all.

‘You can’t leave invisibility out of an assassin build.’

He thought of the infiltration hacking tool he’d bought yesterday, Ghost Unit—Syn―Probe. A tool that neutralized surveillance nets so cameras, even automatons or drones, couldn’t see him.

But if he was using invisibility anyway, hacking surveillance cameras was meaningless. The only real use it had left was to hijack drones or automatons.

‘Still, how exactly is my life supposed to be threatened?’

A threat to his life. By the Black Museum’s Curator. ‘Bleak’ didn’t even begin to cover it.

His head was a mess. But it wasn’t like he had something specific he could do right now.

As a fixer of Hotel Snark, he had no way to move without a contract. But he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing, either.

‘I should start with information gathering.’

After that day.

Along with training to handle the Black Crow Spirit bracelet, Solomon went out into the streets whenever he could and started asking around for information on the ‘Black Museum.’

Unfortunately, there were no results worth mentioning.

Even the hog, Roach, seemed to be hearing it for the first time. He didn’t look like he was lying.

Either way, he was still alive and fine, and his pancreas looked perfectly fine too.

The only person he could reasonably expect anything from was Lord Bowery, but ironically, he had vanished too, as if he weren’t someone Solomon could find just because he tried.

There was no point even mentioning a big shot like the ‘Faceless One’ he’d spoken with before. Solomon didn’t even have a way to look into that.

‘Goddamn it.’

A few days passed in that stagnant frustration.

“Excuse me, Mr. Solomon.”

When a knock sounded early in the morning, Solomon opened the door without delay. A ghost was there, its legs gone below the ankles, floating in the air.

“What is it?”

“There is someone in the tea lounge who wishes to see you, Mr. Solomon.”

“Who?”

“My apologies. They were reluctant to reveal their identity.”

Someone who wanted to see Solomon. And it wasn’t even a familiar face.

“It seems they came to see you on contract business.”

“…I’ll go now.”

From Solomon’s point of view, there was no reason to turn down a contract that had finally come in.

The tea lounge looked especially empty that day. In the vacant room, a man who looked to be in his later years sat drinking black tea, wearing a neat, refined black suit embroidered with gold ornamentation.

He was overflowing with a noble—no, bourgeois—pressure and dignity. Just looking at him made you feel the ridiculous difference in standing, as if he were crushing the air around him.

“Oh, so you are Solomon.”

“You were looking for me?”

Within his graying white hair, a cross-shaped scar was carved above his right eye. He didn’t look especially old, yet the storms of life he had lived ran unusually deep in the lines of his face.

“Call me Lord Bernier.”

“…Lord Bernier.”

He wore a coat draped like a cape over his shoulders, and held a mahogany cane at an angle, its handle sculpted into a finely detailed eagle’s head.

[Insight Success! The interior of the cane, which looks like it supports an aging body, is designed with a sharp blade mechanism that can be drawn in an emergency…]

“I’ve heard a great deal about you.”

“About me?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t have the kind of name that gets passed around.”

“Oh, humility is a fine virtue for anyone.”

“……”

“But at times, certain humility is nothing more than a symbol of ignorance.”

Solomon didn’t answer. He listened to Lord Bernier’s words.

“Whatever you think, it is true that quite a few people have taken an interest.”

“…Interest.”

“Even to my eyes, you seem like a fairly reliable cleaner.”

“So you came to commission a contract?”

“That’s right.”

The white-haired man took something out from the coat he wore cape-style. A stack of documents. At the top, the papers were bound with a band infused with magic, stamped with a warning that read ‘City Council Classified (Class-B).’

“Please, take a look at this.”

“City Council…”

Hearing that name, Solomon swallowed without a word.

‘City’ referred to Guild City, without question. So the City Council meant the bourgeois coalition of powerful guild figures in Downtown, one of the city’s two ruling classes.

Uptown and Downtown. Nobility and bourgeoisie. Mages and magitech engineers. The old and the new.

For reference, above the City Council stood the 「Ancient Council」 led by Uptown’s Five Great Houses—

A matter that belonged to the world above the clouds, one that had nothing to do with Solomon being here in the first place. At least, not for now.

But it wasn’t like Solomon was at the level to get involved with the “City Council” either.

“…Why would the City Council go out of its way to find a first-floor guest?”

That was why Solomon asked calmly, especially with a bundle of papers plainly marked classified.

“An opportunity.”

Lord Bernier answered in a cold voice.

“We are offering you an opportunity.”

Looking down one-sidedly, as if someone above were bestowing something upon someone below.

“This city overflows with problems that must be dealt with, and you are the ones who clean those problems away. The more capable cleaners we have, the better.”

“……”

“Unless you intend to rot at the bottom of a hotel like a nobody for the rest of your life. Don’t you also want to head for a higher place? Oh, you should. Of course you should.”

A higher place. Solomon hesitated for a moment at the whisper that stoked ambition.

“To seize that opportunity, do you have the courage to read this classified document?”

Lord Bernier held out the stack stamped “City Council Classified (Class-B)” toward Solomon. Class-B. Not the highest level of secrecy, but something close to it.

Solomon wasn’t ignorant of what it meant to read information at that level. From that moment, there would be no turning back.

“……”

The silence didn’t last long. Solomon carefully loosened the sealing band around the documents and opened the pages beneath it.

───

City Council Classified (Class-B), Nonpublic Arrest Warrant

Issuing authority, Judicial Bureau Special Assignment Office, High Inquisition Division

Arrest target: <Corpse Fuser Dr. O’Neill>

───

“The target is Doctor O’Neill. A mad biologist called Body Splicer—or Corpse Fuser.”