You’re Fighting Yourself

Euphie, having gotten up, plopped down into the chair Mary had been sitting in. She clasped her hands together, stretched them toward the ceiling, and arched her back like a cat to loosen up her muscles.

The movement accentuated her rather modest chest, but Tōru felt nothing in particular at the sight.

“How much did you hear through Thought Sharing with Mary?”

“Up to the point where we’ve practically confirmed that the smuggling method involves sealing gold coins inside Wood’s metal. Gathering evidence is the difficult part.”

“When the conversation picks up this smoothly, it hardly feels like I’m talking to a different person.”

Although it saved him the trouble of explaining everything again, Tōru found himself growing increasingly confused. The fact that they were identical twins who looked exactly alike only made matters worse.

Euphie skimmed through the notes Mary had left before going to sleep, then dipped a pen into an inkwell.

She began swiftly writing something on the back of the paper.

“About the Magical Prosthetic Arm you picked up, Tōru-san. The coins were hidden in the back of the hand and the forearm, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“The Magical Prosthetic Arms were probably so crudely constructed because Demon Centipede made them themselves. If they’d commissioned a workshop, discrepancies between the thickness of the metal plates in the blueprints and the finished product might have exposed the trick.”

Having drawn a diagram of the Magical Prosthetic Arm, Euphie used arrows to indicate the back of the hand and the forearm.

“If we stop Demon Centipede at the Darandy checkpoint and apply fire magic to all their Magical Prosthetic Arms, we should be able to catch them.”

“That’s probably not a good idea.”

Tōru couldn’t help interjecting.

When Euphie gave him a puzzled look, he explained his reasoning.

“Magical Prosthetic Arms operate by channeling the wearer’s mana through them. Objects that have mana channeled through them frequently grow accustomed to that mana and gradually develop resistance to other people’s mana. Since mana flows through Magical Prosthetic Arms on a daily basis, ordinary fire magic probably wouldn’t be enough to raise their temperature sufficiently.”

Apparently hearing this for the first time, Euphie looked up from her notes and stared intently at Tōru, her curiosity thoroughly piqued.

“One of the requirements for promotion to Rank B is enchanting your equipment, isn’t it? Is that the reason?”

“Yeah. Apparently, some particularly powerful monsters use magic that you need to deflect with your equipment, or at least keep from destroying it. That’s why magical resistance in your equipment is a requirement for promotion to Rank B. You can also deal with those attacks using body enhancement, but if your equipment gets destroyed, you’ve got no choice but to retreat.”

“Have you ever had your equipment destroyed, Tōru-san?”

“Fortunately, no. Though I got injured all the time.”

Tōru smiled as he recalled the reckless things he had done while searching for a way back to Earth.

Realizing that the conversation had wandered off topic, he stopped reminiscing and spoke up to steer it back on course.

“So, if we want to heat up the Magical Prosthetic Arms, we’ll need another method.”

“Hot water, then. Although we only need to heat them, so we could also build a fire with some wood and put the Magical Prosthetic Arms into an empty pot.”

“An empty pot would probably be better. Boiling water takes more effort. If you blast water with fire magic, you’ll produce a huge amount of steam that blocks everyone’s vision. Worst case, the smugglers could escape.”

Euphie agreed with Tōru’s assessment and wrote “Heat in a pot” in her notes.

“Sounds like a cooking recipe.”

“Well, there’s money inside them, so it’s rather like Christmas pudding, isn’t it?”

“What’s that? I know what Christmas is, but…”

Unable to connect money, Christmas, and pudding, Tōru asked for clarification.

Euphie tilted her head.

“Why don’t you know? You’re from Earth, aren’t you?”

“I’m from Japan. It wasn’t originally a Christian cultural region. We did eat Christmas cakes, though.”

“Oh, that’s right. Earth has multiple religions too.”

“Hey, don’t start. Religious conflicts are a serious issue. You can’t just lump the entire planet together and expect everything to work out.”

“Even though Earth is round, things won’t come full circle? How curious.”

“Stop making jokes.”

Realizing that they had wandered off topic yet again, Tōru inwardly chastised himself and forcibly brought the conversation back on track.

“So, to obtain evidence of the gold coin smuggling, we’ll have the Magical Prosthetic Arms heated in a pot over a wood fire at the checkpoint. That part’s fine, but how are we supposed to propose this method to the officials stationed there?”

The officials keeping a watchful eye on the checkpoint were already aware that the Ubaz merchant company was involved in gold coin smuggling.

However, the twins were associated with the Ubaz merchant company. There was no telling how seriously the officials would take their proposal.

In the worst case, they might suspect that it was a trap set by Demon Centipede through the twins, putting them on the defensive and delaying their response.

“That’s true. After our little excursion tonight, Harran and the others will probably be on their guard. Demon Centipede might even move their departure date forward. I’d rather not waste time negotiating with the officials.”

While adding a warning to her notes about avoiding inhalation of the vapors released when heating the Magical Prosthetic Arms, Euphie glanced at Tōru.

“You have a means of contacting someone, don’t you, Tōru-san?”

“I can contact the manager of the Adventurers’ Guild’s Darandy Branch. We made arrangements beforehand.”

“That’s what I thought. He’ll probably come to visit again tomorrow, but the sooner we contact him, the better. Please send him the information about how to catch the smugglers.”

Euphie held out her completed notes to Tōru with both hands, a brilliant smile spreading across her face.

Framed by her golden hair, Euphie’s smile was as radiant as a sunflower. It was the sort of smile that almost anyone would have praised as beautiful—and yet Tōru narrowed his eyes at her as though he were looking at something decidedly suspicious.

“You were planning to make me contact him from the very beginning, weren’t you? I thought it was strange that you were going out of your way to explain the smuggling method and how to catch them to me.”

“Please don’t sulk. I’m counting on you, you know?”

“You’re counting on my means of communication and the branch manager, more like. Give me that paper. I’ll send it to him. By the way, is the branch manager married?”

“He is. They’re the kind of couple who get along so well that they’re always bickering.”

“Perfect. I’ll disguise it as a love letter. Let’s see just how affectionate they really are.”

“Please don’t! What if he refuses to cooperate?”

“I’m kidding.”

Shrugging, Tōru took a thin iron disc from an inner pocket of his clothes.

He folded the paper Euphie had handed him and tucked it into a slit in the iron disc, then opened the window just a crack so no one outside would notice.

“Somewhere around there…”

He peered into the nighttime streets, taking aim at the inn where a messenger was lying low.

Enhancing his body from the wrists down, he concealed his hands and activated his magic, launching the iron disc toward a room in an inn two streets away.

With a sharp whoosh, the iron disc sliced through the veil of night and flew straight toward the inn.

It was such a swift maneuver that even Euphie, who had watched everything from beside him, hadn’t noticed the moment he launched it.

After Tōru silently closed the window, Euphie finally realized that the iron disc was no longer in his hand. Suspecting some sort of sleight of hand, she grabbed his arm and peered into his sleeve.

“I didn’t see a thing.”

“I’d be pretty disappointed if someone who wasn’t using body enhancement could follow my movements. I am Rank B, you know.”

When he looked toward the inn beyond the window, the light in one of its rooms blinked twice, apparently as someone switched a magical lighting device on and off. It was the signal confirming that his message had been received.

“Now it all depends on Demon Centipede’s next move.”

“Indeed. The night is still young, so how about a board game? With Mary asleep, we can finally have a genuine one-on-one match.”

Without even waiting for Tōru’s response, Euphie eagerly brought out a board game.

“You seem awfully happy about this.”

“When we’re both awake, Thought Sharing turns every match into a two-against-one game. We hardly ever get an opportunity like this.”

“Ah, so that’s another drawback of your ability.”

Brimming with enthusiasm, Euphie began arranging the pieces.

“Sure, I’ll play.”

Tōru had wanted to get some sleep in preparation for the following day, but after seeing Euphie’s expression, he decided that indulging her for a single match wouldn’t hurt.

Perhaps it was because her expression looked exactly like those his friends had worn during their school trips.

“This is a serious match. I won’t hold back.”

“Fine by me. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Grinning, Tōru began arranging his own pieces with practiced hands.

Euphie’s eyebrows drew together in apprehension.

“Warn me…? Are you that confident?”

“Quite the opposite. I’m so weak that you’ll start feeling guilty about beating me. But a serious match is a battle against yourself. Let’s see if you can overcome that guilt.”

“I thought I was supposed to be fighting you, Tōru-san! How did this turn into a battle against myself!?”