Chapter 38

SHRRRRAAAAAANG!!

“…Damn it. Don’t tell me they’re coming for you this time?”

Shia hurled herself into my arms, thrusting the sealed blade hanging from her neck into my hand.

“Geom-shin! Q-quickly! If they catch me, I won’t escape! Please!!”

“Got it.”

I could feel the raw terror trembling in her voice as I forced my mind to focus.

Thump…

The sealed blade responded, reclaiming the power it had briefly loaned me.

A crushing emptiness.

The knowledge I’d grasped only moments ago spilled away like sand slipping through my fingers, leaving behind that unbearable sense of loss.

And with it, the clattering chains froze in midair.

CLUNK! CRASH!!

A suffocating tension pressed down on us both.

“Please…”

The chains rattled, swaying as though weighing their choice.

“Please, please…”

Small again—back to her middle-school form—Shia clung to me, trembling hard. And after a long moment, the massive chains dissolved, vanishing into the sky.

I watched the heavens for a little longer before gently shaking her.

“…Shia. Shia.”

“G-gone?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Haaaaa…”

She let out a long, shaky sigh of relief.

“H-hold me a little longer. M-my heart won’t stop pounding…”

I pulled her tighter, then asked carefully.

“What were those?”

Her voice was still unsteady, but she managed to answer.

“…You already know. The chains of the Trial, sent to bind me. I only drew out a fraction of a fraction, and it reacted that quickly… that violently…”

I scratched my head, dumbfounded.

“Damn. Guess loosening that seal isn’t an option unless it’s life or death.”

Shia exhaled heavily and nodded.

“…I agree.”

“Hey. Mage.”

Poke, poke.

“Mmm… five more minutes…”

“You’ll catch a crooked mouth if you sleep on bare ground, cat-ears.”

Poke, poke.

“Mmm… five hundred more years…”

I rubbed the back of my head at the nonsense coming out of the sprawled-out catfolk mage.

“Five hundred years? Sounds like she’s asking to be buried alive.”

Shia shrugged.

“I don’t think that’s it, but…”

“What if I just dig a hole and toss her in? If she doesn’t get up, then I was right. If she does, then I was mistaken.”

“…Are you a demon?”

Shia conjured a tiny shard of frost and slipped it down Rivet’s back.

“KYAAAAGH!!”

With a shriek, Rivet shot upright like a spring.

“Wh-what!? Why am I sleeping here!?”

“Well, you were explaining a bunch of things to me, then suddenly collapsed.”

“S-spirits? Collapsed…?”

Still groggy, she blinked around blankly—then her eyes flew wide as memory returned.

“No! How long was I out!? What happened to the girl!?”

“If you mean Shia, she’s over there, playing with your cat ears.”

“Eh? Ehh? Seriously? Then the spirits…!?”

“Taken care of. All of them.”

At my words, Rivet whipped her head toward the mansion.

Her jaw dropped as she took in the grand structure now fully revealed, the foul aura gone without a trace.

“My goodness… how?”

“Well?”

“…I’m not really in the mood for jokes.”

“They were one-trick spirits—mental attacks only. Shia and I, for certain reasons, are nearly immune to that sort of thing. Thanks to that, we made it inside. While looking around, I found a big crystal tucked away in a corner. Smash that, and poof, they were gone.”

We’d already agreed on this cover story beforehand.

“That’s absurd…”

“But it’s what happened.”

“……”

She stared at me, disbelief in her eyes.

“Ever since you showed me Professor Sodin’s letter, I knew you weren’t ordinary, but to handle a ten-star quest this easily….”

“As I said, it was just a matter of affinity. Luck, too. Outside of resisting mental attacks, we’re nothing special.”

“…Nothing special? That’s the most unfunny joke I’ve heard in years. If that’s true, then every adventurer who failed this quest over the last year and a half should bite their tongues and die of shame.”

I only shrugged.

“…Sigh. This is a guild-issued quest. For the Adventurer’s Guild to officially recognize your contribution, I need a proper report—everything from start to finish. Otherwise, there’s nothing I can say on your behalf.”

That sounded like trouble.

“…But wasn’t this a reverse-commission from the guild to the Purple Tower? Couldn’t you just chalk it up as the Tower handling it? A branch of the Purple Tower is hardly something Seol East’s guild can nitpick.”

“True. But in that case, the credit goes entirely to the Tower, not you. The mansion can still be transferred—sold to you in formality—but all the recognition, reputation, and guild merit would be forfeited.”

“As long as I get the mansion, that’s fine. I’ll pass on the rest.”

“…Pardon?”

“Keep the accolades. I’ll just take the house.”

“…This is a ten-star quest. You realize how valuable that achievement is? You mentioned becoming an adventurer, didn’t you? With a record like this, you could be vaulted straight into Platinum rank the moment you register.”

“Platinum rank, huh…”

Adventurer ranks went Apprentice, Red Copper, Yellow Copper, Blue Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, then higher into True Silver (Mithril), True Gold (Orichalcum), and Astral Gold (Astel). Platinum was technically fourth from the top, but since even True Gold was a once-in-a-nation rarity, Platinum was practically the second-highest rank most people ever saw.

“…And that means I’d be noticed everywhere?”

“Exactly. You’d be a proven talent. Welcomed wherever you went. Other guilds, noble houses, even lords would send scouts to recruit you. Even our Tower would likely extend an offer.”

“Absolutely not.”

“…What?”

“I wouldn’t accept if my life depended on it.”

“…Why not?”

“Because my motto is to live quietly, tucked away where no one notices me. Fame, glory, attention? Not interested. Just make sure the mansion paperwork goes through cleanly.”

“…I suppose if that’s what you want, it benefits the Tower well enough. Still… you’re a difficult one to understand.”

And so, a week later—

To exaggerate only slightly, the finest estate in all Seol East, blessed with the best view in the region, became mine.

The Purple Tower showed us more consideration than I ever expected.

Not only did they expedite the transfer of the mansion, but they even repaired and refurbished all the sections that had fallen into disrepair during the year and a half it had been left to rot.

While hired workers bustled about putting the finishing touches on the place, Rivet wiped the sweat from her brow after setting up the alarm wards and stepped back inside.

“It should all be finished today.”

I scratched the back of my head as I looked around the mansion, now fully restored and upgraded in less than ten days.

“Much appreciated. Honestly, I didn’t think you’d go this far.”

Rivet—who’d grown quite close to us in that time (though ten times more with Shia than with me)—perked her ears happily. That little twitching motion of hers always came out when she was pleased.

“Well, it’s not like it came from the Central Tower. This is just the Seol branch doing what it can.”

“Still, that’s no small thing.”

“It’s nothing compared to what we gained.”

She wasn’t wrong. Both the Purple Tower and its Seol branch came away from this incident with plenty—reputation, prestige, and practical benefits too.

“You see, most of the Purple Tower’s high-level professors are study-mages—hopeless research addicts. They rarely flaunt their strength outside, so over time the whole Tower developed a kind of habit of staying quiet. That silence gave some backwater nobles the bright idea that the Tower could be taken lightly…”

“I suppose they’ve been properly corrected now.”

“Exactly. After all, the Seol branch wrapped up a ten-star quest the Adventurer’s Guild had left sitting for a year and a half—without any support from the Central Tower. The guild hadn’t ignored it because they couldn’t handle it, but because the cost-benefit didn’t add up. But to outsiders, it looks like the Seol guild was powerless, while the local Purple Tower branch—barely a tenth its size—swept in and cleaned it up.”

“…I see.”

“And since we basically erased a thorn in the guild’s side for next to nothing, they now owe us a favor. That may not sound like much, but from the branch’s point of view, it’s no small gain.”

Listening to her, I realized the ripple effects of Shia’s little “I am not flat” stunt were far greater than I’d thought.

“Well, I’m glad something we did without much thought ended up being useful. Then… would it be alright if I asked for help from time to time in the future?”

She smiled and nodded.

“As long as it’s within the branch’s means, of course. Though depending on the request, there may be a fee.”

Two days later, we ran into an unexpected problem.

Rivet had promised that once the renovations were done, she’d arrange gardeners, maids, and other staff for the mansion. But—

Crackle!

“…No answer from the communicator?”

“Not a word. At this point, it feels like she’s outright blocking me.”

Rivet had vanished two days ago without a trace. No messages, no explanations. When I tried reaching out to the Purple Tower branch, they said the Central Tower had suddenly summoned her.

“Still strange that she hasn’t contacted us at all. Should I try reaching Sodin?”

“The chance of something happening to a Purple Tower mage here in Kesala is lower than the chance of me waking up early to cook breakfast for you.”

“…Some brag. Freeloader.”

“Hey now. Is it proper to speak so harshly to family?”

“If you think saying ‘family’ magically excuses everything, you’re dead wrong.”

“Lrrghh… lrrraaaghh… pyaaah rrrooong….”

Pinned and mercilessly tormented, Shia rolled around, then finally managed to free her cheeks and cool them against Hosik’s paw pads.

“But really, what will you do now? A mansion of this size needs at least ten staff to manage it properly.”

“Putting out our own hiring notice… that’s probably not a good idea, huh?”

“Half of whoever you hire that way will be thieves. You’re better off posting an official request through the Adventurer’s Guild.”

I thought it over, then shook my head.

“Let’s just leave it empty for now.”

“Hm?”

“It’s not like we can’t live without servants. We’ve managed fine until now. We can cook our own meals, sleep in whatever room we like—there are plenty—and for security, the alarm wards from the Tower are enough. If that’s not enough, we can just run Hosik around the grounds.”

“…True. Nothing urgent about it.”

“Exactly.”

“Then… what do we do now?”

“Just relax and enjoy ourselves.”