“Phew…”

A girl with her hair tied in twintails using her own hair breathed a quiet sigh inside a large garden located in a clearing surrounded by verdant trees. Particles of light danced around her shoulders, but they scattered as she walked.

She walked to one corner of a marble gazebo.

However, it did not contain the chairs or table needed to hold a tea party. It contained a large round jacuzzi. The girl with long black twintails let her exhausted body sink into the open air bath kept at a comfortable temperature 24 hours a day. She practically collapsed into it without removing the red dress which had a large slit up it.

After a short delay, a small maid approached with light footsteps. The short black hair and the hat rather than a headdress meant this was the youngest of the three sisters. They could be cla.s.sified as “large”, “medium”, and “small”, so it was easy to tell which one it was from a distance.

“You’re back, milady? …Waaah!? You jumped into the bath in your dress again? But that’s a top cla.s.s Robe Decollete! It’s 100% silk, made by a craftsman with a royal warrant, and known as a ‘wearable mansion’!!”

“Didn’t I tell you I don’t need anyone greeting me since I didn’t know when I would be back? …And exploring another world is exhausting. I keep telling you I want to pa.s.s through the door in only a bathrobe so I can take a bath the second I get back. This thing is surprisingly hard to take off, you know?”

“We can’t let you do something so embarra.s.sing!”

“My equipment changes when I’m in Grandnir anyway. In fact, the clothing and armor is really just Magic. If only I could bring this jacuzzi with me.”

“Anyway, um, well, anyway, I can only insist that you be more careful next time!!”

The small maid was promptly preparing some iced tea, but (as always) the girl was not listening.

As she floated face up on the warm water’s surface, her red dress spread wide around her.

The outfit looked like it belonged on the star of a ball or at a mistaken sort of wedding. Her hair was a l.u.s.trous black and she always made sure to tell the adults around her that she preferred wearing a kimono, but they must have been feigning indifference because they refused to listen and continued using her as a dress-up doll.

“How was Grandnir, milady?”

The maid asked a cheerful question while shaking the red ribbon decorating her modest chest. The girl pulled out her smartphone and sent over some data while floating in the bath.

“Here’s a souvenir. We’ve opened the path to oil-producing corn that will prevent desertification while also solving the energy crisis. You can use that Piece however you like.”

“Waaah!? Th-th-that-that data could easily change the history of mankind, so why do you always toss it around like it’s a game of catch!?”

The dress girl floating in the warm water smiled at the maid who was flailing her arms around.

“My stance hasn’t changed. Then again, some things might head in a different direction now that the way through Cave 25 has opened. Still…hm, I guess there’s no point in telling you about that. Anyway, Haruka, are you using the Hourgla.s.s like you’re supposed to?”

“Ah, oops. I almost forgot!”

The girl gestured over and the maid quickly began operating the device.

It was called an Hourgla.s.s, but it was not actually one. She opened the stopwatch app on the smartphone sitting on the table and a two minute countdown started.

The girl operated her own smartphone while her floating dress and twintails swayed in water. It was of course waterproof. When she activated the AR mode, she could look through the screen to see dots of light covering the scenery and lines of light connecting them.

“B-12, G-29, and Y-03. The world still hasn’t seen any of them.”

“Do most of them not know about the future technology you can see, milady?”

“I have to guide them elsewhere before they see that path. Using V-71 and P-01 would probably be best.”

The maid remained carefree because she was not even thinking about catching up to what the sharp-eyed dress girl was thinking.

“Grandnir’s Magic certainly has its plusses and its minuses. It can easily pull off precision processing that not even laser processing can match.”

Magic could only be used in Grandnir and nothing in this world could be brought to Grandnir.

The only things they could bring back were the Pieces created from data stored in their s.h.i.+ning Weapons.

“Thanks to that, we can easily bend this world. ..It really is like pouring orange juice, citrus soda, milk, and chocolate into apple juice and calling it a mixed drink.”

A single breakthrough could create an abnormally powerful supercomputer.

That supercomputer could create compatible workstations, those workstations could control compatible PCs, and those would then lead to compatible mobile devices.

And this was not limited to a single field.

It could be processors, cars, homes, airplanes, s.h.i.+ps, health, communications, sports, optical devices, food processing, satellites, robotics, agriculture, printed circuit boards…and even military technology.

And those could easily change the world.

It went beyond the inevitable decay of the prosperous. Even a small technological revolution could entirely change the balance of power, so letting your guard down even for a moment could send yesterday’s winner tumbling down to be tomorrow’s loser. The world’s most powerful army could be left in the dust while some strange mercenary group or ideological organization could suddenly rise to the top.

Technological breakthroughs were made by a single puzzle “Piece”.

That was why every country’s government and corporations desperately sought those Pieces. They thoroughly searched through the jumbled a.s.sortment of them registered online, hoping to find one they could use in their research. If they found one that fit and that resolved their personal problem, they could complete the new technology or new manufacturing method that would change the world. For a brief time, the throne would be theirs.

As the people exploring Grandnir brought back and uploaded their Pieces, they had no idea who would end up with it and what kind of research it would become. And they did not care. They were only greedily seeking Experience Points to learn Magic.

They brought back the various Pieces and uploaded them because they might as well. If that did lead to some great research breakthrough, they would receive an extremely lucrative contract payment from the nation or corporation in question. It was something like a risky lottery in which one guessed what would be useful rather than leaving it all up to luck.

And that could lead to moral hazards like with the Fairies and the Thousand Dragon.

Immoral people were beginning to appear in this world as well. They declared themselves the winners as they created a somewhat twisted world.

“I need to be careful.”

Thanks to the water, the red dress’s fabric clung to the girl’s skin and her long twintails floated around her.

The corn data she had tossed to the maid was a Piece with a complete simulation, telling them which direction it would take them. If that corn was planted in the desert, there was no chance of it leading to an outbreak of bugs or a sandstorm a.s.saulting a city.

But what else would happen?

When the existence of Grandnir had first been revealed, mankind had had difficulty with the Labyrinth. That had lasted until a free paper was published on a message board, suggesting the s.h.i.+ning Weapons at the core of a Magic system modeled after video games, the best system for modern human use.

That had been the world’s very first Piece.

The unknown author of that paper (who might have been an individual or a group) was known as the Sage, but were they correct in saying that simply gathering the Pieces was the right thing to do? Was it right to go along with the Sage’s idea when they almost seemed to be enjoying the show as the world grew so twisted and no one gave any thought to correcting it?

“We don’t know what the Pieces we collect will lead to, but that’s just abandoning any responsibility. If we’re going to collect these Pieces, we need to know how they’ll change the world.”

“Milady…”

The dress girl operated her smartphone while listening to the maid. She canceled AR mode and played a normal full-seg broadcast on a normal screen.

B-12, G-29, and Y-03 had to be stopped.

V-71 and P-01 would be useful in avoiding them.

Among the endless number of new technologies to be created from the countless Pieces, the dress girl was focused on a certain industry in particular.

“As the West complains more and more about obesity, obesity, obesity, they’ve started focusing on j.a.pan’s fish culture. You don’t have to suffer through an oppressively healthy diet and you can eat as much delicious food as you want, all while losing weight! Our Fis.h.i.+ng Cafeteria Group is finally heading overseas!”

“The next global standard in fast food is Chinese food! Ramen, fried rice, and gyoza are already part of the world’s vocabulary, so all that remains is for us to set the standard. The FE Caiguan Zhus.h.i.+ Gongsi is beginning a simultaneous campaign in fifty countries around the world.”

“Burgers are old news? Well, we’re going to tear down that ‘old news’ and bring you a brand new experience based on the lessons we’ve learned in the past. This is a giant step forward and a challenge to our rivals. No one can ransack our field.”

(The fast food industry is fighting for global dominance. They want to cover the entire planet, national borders be d.a.m.ned, and they want to serve as many grams as possible for as little money as possible.)

The girl sighed as if to force out the unpleasant feeling growing deep in her chest.

Boo Boo really seemed to believe humans were messengers from heaven, but the reality was very different. She silently swore to never let him see this ugly side of humanity.

Then she raised her head and spoke.

“Haruka.”

“Y-yes!? What is it, milady!?”

“I know you set up the Hourgla.s.s, but you didn’t mute the smartphone, did you?”

“Waaah!!”

The maid panicked and caused the tea set on the table to clank together, but the red dress girl ignored her and shut off the image on her smartphone’s screen.

She removed the hard key inserted into the bottom connector and connected it to something hanging from her neck by a thin necklace chain.

The device dancing in front of her chest was smaller and skinnier than a USB flash drive.

The Nonhumans of Grandnir would probably think it looked like a tiny version of the sword or spear s.h.i.+ning Weapons that humans used.

She used her thumb to close up the connector on the blade.

(Honestly, I understand changing our appearance, but it also partially overwrites your speech patterns, personality, and thought patterns to make room for the magic you’ve learned. It really makes you think.)

Even so, the girl was not going to stop what she was doing.

She did not simply want to be some corporation’s tool.

She had another reason to continue her exploration of Grandnir.

“I’ve got to do something.”

She operated something with the movement of her eyes.

The roof of the gazebo became transparent and she could see a long contrail in the clear blue afternoon sky.

When she looked further into the distance, she saw high-rise buildings beyond the green trees.

Yes.

This was a one kilometer wide circle cleared out in the center of Tokyo’s Roppongi.

It was known as the Detached Magic Palace. That green garden “prison” had been constructed for the girl known as a Holy Swordswoman.

“I made a garden.”

“Kyah! That’s amazing, Boo Boo. You’re so civilized!”

“Do you hate me, Beatrice?”

“Don’t be silly. Anyway, what are you growing?”

Boo Boo had indeed forcibly tilled the hard earth near the Fairy-protected leaf house. It must have been some extremely fast-growing vegetable because green ivy was already climbing up the supports and bearing green vegetables. They looked like tomatoes, but Beatrice could not tell if they were supposed to be green or if they would grow red later.

“Boo Boo, what kind of vegetable is this?”

“They’re called Flat Chest Eggplants.”

“Flat Chest…?”

That name included an unacceptable term for a teenage girl, but Beatrice decided to a.s.sume that was a Nonhuman term that just so happened to sound like that in human language.

However…

“If you eat it, it’s supposed to make your chest flat. But it doesn’t make me any slimmer when I eat it, so no one knows if it’s true or not.”

“It does mean that!!!???”

Beatrice backed away from that enemy of girls everywhere and used her gauntleted hands to guard her chest.

Oblivious to the girl’s terror, Boo Boo tilted his head and said more.

“Huh? Or was it touching the Flat Chest Eggplant that mattered? No, it was touching it and then touching your chest, getting the juice on you. …Or was it something else? Hmm, I’m not an old witch, so I don’t remember that tricky stuff.”

“Waaah!! Tell me that before I protect myself with the finger I used to poke the vegetable, Boo Boo!!”

Beatrice tearfully shouted with pretty much all of her strength and quickly used fire illusion Magic to call up a rectangular frame. She rapidly scrolled through the specs listed there and stopped on a certain point.

It had gone down.

It had gone down a little.

It was only a few millimeters, but she had lost the critical amount she needed to be above rather than below average.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Wh-what is it, Beatrice!?”

“Wh-wh-what do I do, what do I do, what do I do!? If I head back and come back to Grandnir, will my appearance reset? And if that doesn’t work, do I need to ask White Witch Filinion for help? Ask her!? Ask that cow in gla.s.ses for help with my b.r.e.a.s.t.s!?”

The Holy Swordswoman shouted and tore at her beautiful hair with both hands.

She was afraid to think what would happen if her amateur methods did not work. Crying to that cow about this would be a suicidal declaration of defeat. But just in case (Yes, just in case!), she created a frame using the two L-shapes of her thumb and forefinger and took a Magic photo of the vegetable.

But…

“P-pant, pant, pant. B-but, Boo Boo.”

“What is all this about, Beatrice?”

“Your garden’s vegetables aren’t doing too good. There are bugs on them and is this from birds pecking at them?”

“That’s part of nature, so there’s no helping it.”

“But this doesn’t leave any for you.”

“The bugs eat the vegetables I make, the birds eat the bugs, the beasts eat the birds, and I catch the beasts, so it’s still a good deal for me.”

She tried using her illusion Magic to create a chart out of red lines and frames, but…

“Hmm… Will it really work out that way? I think you’re losing too much to luck.”

“My logic is perfect, so it’s fine.”

“Also, vegetables aren’t there to bring in meat. You need to eat the vegetables too. Everything needs to be balanced.”

“Vegetables… Why would you want me to do something I hate? Maybe you do hate me…”

Beatrice nearly asked why he had made the garden in the first place, but she wanted to avoid a pointless argument like that.

“By the way, Boo Boo. I wanted to ask you something.”

“G-gulp!? I-I’m eating my Nyandetta Fruit! I’m not secretly hiding them!!”

“…Boo Boo?”

What even was a Nyandetta Fruit?

“Vegetables are important, but let’s talk about something else. Boo Boo, have you heard of a Guild known as Elkiad?”

“I’ve never heard of a vegetable called that.”

“I see. So you really don’t know anything.”

Boo Boo had no connection with human society, so he might not even know what a Guild is, much less a specific one like Elkiad.

Beatrice prepared a few red lines and frames and showed them to Boo Boo.

“A Guild is a human organization created to explore the Labyrinth. You can think of them as a gathering of several Parties, groups that actually head out the Labyrinth. But a Guild will include noncombat logistical support members who prepare food and other things needed for everyday life.”

“I don’t like thinking about all that tricky stuff.”

“Oh, but it’s simple, Boo Boo. If you hear the name Elkiad, then avoid them if at all possible. They’re a dangerous Guild that’s been gaining power recently and they’re creating a real moral hazard among their ranks. They’re people whose words I can understand but whose thoughts I can’t. So be careful.”

She created a frame labeled Elkiad and drew an X over it without any connecting red lines.

Simply put, the humans behind the Fairy and Thousand Dragon incident had belonged to Elkiad.

If the lowest members were like that, then the central members had to be even more rotten.

She left that unsaid because she did not want to remind kind Boo Boo of that unpleasant business, but she did make one thing quite clear.

“Elkiad seems to be growing impatient with their Labyrinth exploration. The wiring in their head was messed up to begin with, but that impatience is pus.h.i.+ng them even further. Avoiding them is in your best interest.”

“Is this about Magic and Experience Points?”

“That’s right, Boo Boo. Good job remembering that.”

“I don’t really get it. Is shooting fire or ice from your hand really that great? I mean, it is pretty cool, but is it worth risking your life in that scary Labyrinth?”

“Heh heh heh. Yes, you might be right about that. It probably isn’t a testament to human intelligence that we see excess value in that. We’re just a bunch of fools that are really good at finding more than is absolutely necessary.”

“But I would like to be able to fly.”

“Yes. And I’d like to make a candy house.”

After parting ways with Boo Boo, Beatrice opened her Magic map and walked toward the inn town. The inn town was the human base of operations, but it had no homes. None of the shop owners slept in Grandnir. They would look after the shop in rotations of two or three s.h.i.+fts, so no single person stayed in Grandnir for long. For better or for worse, Grandnir’s Nonhumans were not affected much by human culture.

Even so, Beatrice ran across two familiar faces in the inn town. One was the White Witch Filinion with her fluffy blonde hair, gla.s.ses, white cloak, dress, and low-rise shorts. As always, she was showing off her b.r.e.a.s.t.s that Beatrice could only call “gluttonous”, but Beatrice was smugly certain that her type was much less impressive back in their original world.

The other was Fighter Priest Armelina who had short green hair, a tall stature, and a very, very flat (ha ha) chest. She wore a long green skirt with a long slit on both sides. The boldly exposed chest seemed odd for a supposed priest, but that was actually fairly tame for Grandnir.

The two of them were speaking in front of an open-air shop with fruit juice in hand. But instead of an elegant chat over tea, they seemed to be plotting some way to get Mixing ingredients and the gears used as currency.

Then again, those two were only ever talking about the Labyrinth or Magic, which really came down to money in the end.

“Oh, Beatrice.”

“We were just talking about you.”

“?”

She joined the conversation and they both started talking to her.

“With the route through Cave 25 opened, things have gotten pretty busy around here.”

“But can we really let that Piece be uploaded to our world? I don’t know much about big data or the conspiracies of global corporations, but this one’s a little too blatant. And of course, that brings us to you.”

“I suppose it would,” casually agreed Beatrice. “So are you trying to get me to play the villain again?”

“What are you talking about? You’re the one that started this.”

The White Witch sounded exasperated and Armelina spoke up next to her.

“Do you really think Filinion can play your role when all she can do is heal people and let those giant b.o.o.bs bounce around?”

“M-my b.r.e.a.s.t.s have nothing to do with this! I didn’t ask to have them this big!”

“What!? Don’t tell me you think they’re a negative, you cow!”

“What!? Don’t tell me you think they’re a negative, you cow!”

Filinion blushed and covered her chest with both hands, but Beatrice and Armelina snapped back at her in perfect unison. The Holy Swordswoman’s ahoge ignited as an illuminating fire.

It was the Fighting Priest who first realized this was not the time for that.

“Anyway, it’s the usual situation, so wouldn’t you be best, Beatrice? And it doesn’t look to me like you’re complaining.”

“That’s fine with me. So does that mean we’re off to the Labyrinth? When do we start?”

“Now, if that’s okay.”

The Holy Swordswoman, White Witch, and Fighting Priest were all monsters at the level cap who claimed things only began after reaching Level 99. Those three girls with tricky Jobs formed a temporary Party.

“I feel like we’re going to get stabbed in the back someday.”

“I’m counting on you to heal me when that day comes. Now let’s go.”

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After ending their Labyrinth exploration for the day and returning aboveground, Beatrice walked along a path while somewhat rearranging the map created from illusion Magic. The automap function was based on where she had walked, so it was a little crude.

(That was an awful trip. We were running for our lives the entire time… All we did was run away from that super-tough punishment Gimmick known as the Fingertip of Destruction.)

She could sync her map with map-obsessed Fighting Priest Armelina later on, but that was not a happy thought since the girl was bound to take a ton of gears as payment.

(I can’t forget the basic fact that we were lucky to get back safely at all. There is Magic to return immediately, but then you have to leave behind all of the Treasure you’d gathered. Ahh, I’m so tired.)

For a change of pace, she called up her Magic map of the area and headed to Boo Boo’s house, but then she heard a scream beyond the trees.

“Squeal! …O-ow! Y-you’re just too strong for me.”

“Hm? What is it, Boo Boo!?”

Beatrice could tell this was serious and she rushed over, but she was tilting her head even as she rushed. Boo Boo had unilaterally beaten the thousand meter Break News known as the Thousand Dragon, so was there anything he could not defeat?

Her question was quickly answered.

Right in front of his tent-like leaf house, Boo Boo was collapsed face down as he trembled with his hands over his head.

His b.u.t.t rose up like a small hill and a girl of about ten with long silver hair and a skimpy black outfit was sitting cross-legged on top of that hill.

“Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!! You may have gotten carried away after beating up the Thousand Dragon, but now do you see how pitiful you truly are, Nonhuman? That thing was only the lowest of the Break News. Now tremble in the face of real power!!”

“I-I never cared about strength.”

“But you do have talent. Why not take me as your master and have me retrain you from the ground up?”

“This old hag isn’t listening to anything I-…ow!!”

Beatrice was unsure how to react.

What was this? Had four meter Boo Boo really gotten into a fight with a ten year old girl and had he really been the one to get beaten up?

(Yeah… I have no idea what’s going on here, but I am glad this didn’t go: ‘You’re my enemy’ → Boo Boo beats the ever-living snot out of a little girl.)

That said, she could not figure this out, so she tried solving it a piece at a time.

So what should she ask first?

“I kind of doubt it, but…Boo Boo, is having a girl sit on you your idea of fun?”

“The only things I do for fun are puzzle rings and the ring toss. Heh heh. I can solve even the trickiest puzzle ring before you can count to three.”

“That’s because you break them, Boo Boo. Now, would you mind explaining who this girl is?”

Beatrice had started with that because of how the girl was dressed. If she was being generous, she would call it a black dress, but it felt more like the girl had a ribbon wrapped around her body and had added a miniskirt on top of that. She also had tropical flower decorations on either side of her head and on her back, but that was not the main point. Beatrice’s armor and skirt were technically Magic and every piece of equipment increased her strength or thought speed by a certain percentage…but this girl had none of that. Her clothing was most likely special-made from Ground Spider silk, but that meant it was not Magic. These were simply clothes.

And that led to a simple conclusion.

This girl looked just like a human, but she was clearly doing something humans did not.

And as the black ribbon dress girl gave off an aura of cruel delight like an evil demon king sitting in his throne, she stood up on top of Boo Boo’s b.u.t.t, placed her hands on her hips, and looked down at Beatrice.

“Hee hee. I am Sutriona, one of the Break News. I am of course the Queen of the Harlots who appears in the crimson night.”

“Bfhh!?”

Beatrice spat out the contents of her mouth at that sudden announcement.

(How can she say that with such a cherubic face!?)

“I had heard he had defeated one of us Break News, even if it was the lowliest one. I was curious, so I challenged to him to a bit of a fight. However, it was not even worth spreading my Wings of the Maddeningly Hot Night.”

“No, not that! I don’t care about that! What was that about harlots? Is this some elaborate joke!?”

“You care about that? But it’s the truth, so I’m not sure what to tell you. I am the queen of the thousands of sweltering nights and the sandstorm of maddening red heat that consumes eons of peace. What other t.i.tle could I use?”

“I really, really hope this isn’t it, but…are you seriously calling yourself that? No one’s making you do it after you lost a game or something?”

“I was sick of everyone calling me cute when I was Queen of the Fairies, so I changed the t.i.tle myself. For some reason, my shrine maidens at the waterfall altar have been sobbing ever since.”

“I had a feeling that was it!!”

“What is your problem? No one deserves to be called Queen of the Harlots more than me. For example, I am of course not wearing any panties.”

“G-get down from there!! Stop standing so triumphantly on top of Boo Boo, you old hag!!”

After some struggles and difficulties, Beatrice somehow managed to drag Sutriona, Queen of the Har-…of the Fairies, down from the small hill of Boo Boo’s b.u.t.t.

But was this slender girl really a Break News just as strong as, or even stronger than, the Thousand Dragon?

How exactly had she knocked Boo Boo down to the dirt?

When Beatrice asked, Sutriona put her hands on her hips, gave a proud snort, and answered.

“How, you ask? With your world’s wrestling techniques.”

“Where did you learn about those!? No, that’s not the point. How could you possibly wrestle with him!? Your arms and legs are too short to deal with Boo Boo’s giant body. You’d never be able to reach for a throw or a joint lock!!”

“Oh? Did you just say ‘short’, human girl?”

The long, silver-haired girl gave a dark smile and an ominous aura surrounded her.

“Skinny, I’ll allow. Small, I’ll put up with. …But you just said ‘short’, didn’t you?”

“Eh? What?”

“If you want to know that badly, I’ll show you just how I brought down that Iberian Orc. I used this fifteen joint lock combo from h.e.l.lllllllllllllllll!!”

“Eh? Iberian Orc is a real species name!? And wait, you idiot!! Are you saying you pinned Boo Boo down like this without any underwear on!? And this pincer hold- vrrvbrvrchhhhhhhhhh!?”

With an almost silly sound of violence, the Holy Swordswoman who had free use of fourteen thousand types of fire Magic was balled up like something from a joke.

Three hundred seconds later, Beatrice was face-down on the ground and trembling with her hands over her head. Meanwhile, Sutriona was sitting with her legs crossed on top of Beatrice’s b.u.t.t.

“There. You should have a good idea of just how unbeatable I am now.”

“E-even after you used it on me…I still have no idea how you did it…?”

“That weak Thousand Dragon was invading my territory and devouring my Fairies when I was away. I planned to punish that thing eventually, but now I need to thank you for doing it for me. Rejoice in this rare opportunity to spar with someone so far out of your league and try to turn this defeat into valuable experience.”

Sutriona was mocking her, but Beatrice’s rapier-like s.h.i.+ning Weapon was emitting a flas.h.i.+ng sign into the empty air. She drew it from its sheath with her b.u.t.t still sticking into the air and was shocked to find she had earned quite a few Experience Points. It was actually far more than she would get from a trip to the Labyrinth, but she was afraid what bizarre path she would head down if she got used to earning them like this.

“B-but… We’ve come a long way if we’ve survived two encounters with a Break News…”

On top of that, this one spoke the human language and saw the Fairies as her own. That was rare for the Break News who generally followed a random route through the island as they (in a way, selfishly) spread different sorts of chaos. Of course, that did not mean this one had the same morals or standards as humans.

“Oh, it’s all connected if you pay attention. Besides, isn’t it customary to bring a small gift when moving in?”

“…? I think I just heard something I can’t just ignore.”

“Weren’t you listening?”

Boo Boo sounded fearful, but Sutriona put a hand on her slender waist and ground the finger of the other against her temple while winking.

“Defeating that weak Thousand Dragon created a change in our territories. I need to rule this area as well now, so I stopped by to say h.e.l.lo.”

Boo Boo decided right then and there that he was moving, but the Break News dissuaded him with a wrestling move.

Palm-sized Fairy Meridiana repaired the leaf house’s roof to keep out the rain as she viewed the h.e.l.lish scene below.

“Oh, dear. Oh, my. Would you look at that, Boo Boo.”

A visit from the Fairy Queen was a rare thing. The Break News generally liked to show off and the humans and Nonhumans would live peaceful lives by steering clear of their path as if they had detected a coming storm. But Sutriona was an exception. She was well-known as a Break News that no one could track. She would appear so unexpectedly that not even the Fairy village could predict it, to say nothing of the humans. Probably only the other Break News could see through her actions.

Thus, the Fairy village had Elder Morgan as a leader in Sutriona’s place and Meridiana saw Sutriona as more of a G.o.ddess than a queen. Meridiana had been taught Sutriona was always watching over them, but she was not to be mocked even if she did not come to save them. That was the unrealistic sort of higher being Sutriona seemed to be.

But now that G.o.dlike Fairy Queen had appeared so easily.

Boo Boo had caught the attention of someone on that level.

“Perhaps I should prepare some Red Rice for tonight. Eh heh heh.”

Meridiana flew down from the roof.

But even if Sutriona was playing around, she was still the Fairy Queen and one of the Break News. Boo Boo and Beatrice’s bodies would be crying out in agony. With kind thoughts in mind, Meridiana started for the forest to gather the standard Grandnir herbs used in compresses.

She planned to bring them first aid medicine and a small celebratory meal.

The Fairy saw paying back Boo Boo with housework as her meaning in life and she was the type to delight in having lots to do.

“I need to work even harder to make sure Boo Boo can live comfortably.”

That evening, Boo Boo grimaced at the sharp smell coming from his house.

“My house smells weird!”

“Your house always smells, Boo Boo. But what is this? It smells like someone soaked a compress in a bucket of water and just left it for three days.”

“I feel like you’re picking a fight with me, Beatrice.”

“You’re imagining it. But…what is this here? It’s red and sticky… Is it a grain?”

“I promised myself I wouldn’t waste food. …Ew!? This rice has the room’s smell all over it!”

“Hmm… If I put this in my mouth, I’m pretty sure something unpleasant would reach my nose.”

For a while afterwards, Boo Boo lived in fear of the poltergeist threatening his peaceful home.

A kilometer wide green circle sat in the center of Roppongi, Tokyo.

It was the Detached Magic Palace.

After pa.s.sing through a rectangular frame of light, the silver- and red-haired swordswoman in red armor and a miniskirt became a girl with black twintails and a ball dress.

In the garden surrounded by green trees, a round jacuzzi was protected by a gazebo-like roof. When she arrived there, she gave into her exhaustion and threw herself into the hot water without removing her clothing. The long skirt with a large slit up the side spread out along the water’s surface. The girl flipped over onto her back and pulled a hard key resembling her s.h.i.+ning Weapon rapier from the bottom connector of her smartphone.

She could feel the exhaustion rising within her, but she could not let the sleepiness get the better of her.

(The battles in the Labyrinth seem to wear out your head more than your body. So let your guard down for a moment and you fall asleep.)

“Phew.”

She checked the approximate time on the screen. She had spent about four days and seven hours there this time. The girl had been born in this world and on this planet, so spending too much time in Grandnir could mess with her internal clock and cause serious irregularities in her body and mind. This was the main reason that the humans used the inn town as a base but did not have any permanent residences there.

The three maid sisters were not here today.

She floated face-up in the open-air bath and grabbed a pitcher of water from a tray floating with her. She poured the cold water in a cup and gulped it down.

Allotting her earned Experience Points and learning new Magic could wait.

Her smartphone contained a Log of her time spent searching the Labyrinth since it had been saved to her s.h.i.+ning Weapon. When she looked back through it, she could tell the battles with the lifeless Gimmicks were very different from the battles on the surface. They were more like games of red light, green light than games of tag. The Gimmicks only moved when she did, so she had an unlimited amount of time to think up her next move right in front of the enemy. In a Party battle or Guild battle, teamwork became important. Would they all move together as a single group or would individuals stay still to give the attackers and healers more chances to move?

However, even the slightest fidget could be seen as a movement and, when there were multiple people in a single area, the Gimmick could react to someone else’s movement even if you remained entirely still. So if your accidental movement put someone else in danger, it could earn unnecessary resentment.

(Oh, this is just useless… I want to review my mistakes, but my brain doesn’t want to do anything…)

She closed the screen but then started fiddling with the smartphone to have something to do. She found a few new articles at the top of a news site.

These were the headlines:

“UN Resolution Fails, Standing Member-Nations Unable to Agree”

“Special Report: Has the Countdown in the Atlantic Really Begun?”

“The Euro Crash. Are Major US Investors Really to Blame?”

“Asia Ignored. Where will the World Police Turn Next?”

“The European s.h.i.+ft to the Far Right Accelerates. Is it a Reaction to Reduced Strength in Exports?”

None of them made her want to tap on the link. Checking the video sites and full-seg mobile TV would likely only show the same sort of news.

“I need to stay focused…”

The twintailed girl spoke quietly to herself as her red dress spread out in the water.

Once she had gotten a light meal and some sleep to readjust her internal clock, she would return to Grandnir. There was a Piece the nations and corporations desperately wanted and she could not let them beat her to it after so much work.

A Piece was a factor that could provide a breakthrough to stalled human technology and cause a sudden change to the global civilization. They were created with a processing technique that used Magic.

A Piece was registered by an individual and its rights were bought by an interested corporation or nation. It was not revealed who bought it and the individual simply received the payment. Only then did the Piece lead to actual production.

The Pieces were useless to the girl and the others in Grandnir if they simply held onto them. To a normal person, a physics textbook was only useful for studying, but the knowledge contained inside was used to create rockets that flew into s.p.a.ce. This was the same.

Who would acquire them?

Where would they end up?

The girl and the others truly did hold history in their hands. Most people carelessly use their Pieces and carelessly uploaded them. They were blinded by the lucrative contract fees that rivalled a lottery win if a Piece was deemed useful by a nation or corporation (or someone pretending to be one of those), so they did not think it through that far. However, if someone was paying that much, then it was worth that much.

“Honestly…”

The red dress girl looked back down and used the hard key to allot her Experience Points and manage her Magic.

In addition to the ever-changing headlines, the news site had one special article that never moved from the very top as if it had a hall of fame position.

It had the following headline:

“Is an Atlantic Sovereignty War Really Possible? What Would be Gained in a Conflict between an Old Giant and a New Giant?”

“The humans are the ones you really need to watch out for, Boo Boo.”

Fairy Queen Sutriona had not prepared anything to eat in the confusion of moving in, so she helped herself to Boo Boo’s dinner as if it were only natural.

The leaf house had no kitchen, so it was a super wild meal of venison cooked over a fire out back with only some rock salt for flavor. Boo Boo had originally planned to eat it raw, so Sutriona’s intrusion may not have been all bad.

“You need to watch out for the humans even more than the Nonhumans or even the Break News. Even though they’re weak…no, because they’re weak, they change the world in ways you would never expect.”

“Can you make this easier to understand?”

“Sure. Since I look like this, I occasionally visit the inn town pretending to be a human.”

There was a small pile of large red flower petals next to Sutriona. If Beatrice had been there, she might have said they looked like hibiscus petals. They came from the Crimson Heaven Flower and Sutriona had been munching on them like snacks while the meat cooked. They were slightly toxic, so Boo Boo did not touch them.

“Thanks to that, I’ve seen and heard for myself what they do. I know what those humans tend to be thinking.”

“Beatrice is a good person, so I bet all humans are good people. There are sometimes some weird ones, though.”

“It would be nice if it was that simple, but she’s actually an exception when it comes to humans. Humans are a selfish species.”

“But they’ve promised they’re just here to visit the Labyrinth so they won’t hurt us.”

“That’s not because they’re afraid of Grandnir’s residents or because they’re considerate. They just want to prove they’re not here to conquer our world and to show off how gentlemanly they are by following the rules.”

“Hm? Can you tell a good person from a bad person, Sutriona?”

“Keh heh heh. When you’ve lived as long as I have, it comes naturally. I don’t even need to take a direct look at the color of their soul. The look on their face and the tone of their voice is all I need to see to the very depths of their heart. It’s the same for human and Nonhuman alike. Incidentally, you fall under ‘not bad’, so rejoice.”

Sutriona roasted the venison stuck on the end of a wooden stick and let the heat remove the excess fat.

“Do you know what they’re so desperate to accomplish? How to produce a new preservative known as Imortalise. …It’s apparently a chemical that prevents food from rotting. With that, they could store it indefinitely and transport it indefinitely. If it can be carried longer distances, they claim they can obtain equality between the places with so much food it rots and the places with so little food the people starve.”

“I’m no good with complicated things.”

Sutriona responded to Boo Boo’s words by moving the meat in the fire a little.

“It means they could leave this on the ground around here and it wouldn’t rot. If the rumors about Imortalise are accurate, it would last a month or two. If the food doesn’t rot, the extra food can be shared with people who live far away, right?”

“Hm? That sounds like a good thing to me.”

“At face value, yes. …But if you can quickly transport as much food as you want, you can also make use of far more soldiers, right? Eternal Foods will provide absolute certainty to the safety of food. Canning, freezing, drying, and vacuum packing still leave a modic.u.m of risk, but this will eliminate even that. That means the beginning of a world in whichanyone can easily start a war.”

“What’s a war?”

“The loss of many lives. It’s an unpleasant topic, but you need people to kill people, right? A lot of killing requires a large force of people. And the food is actually more important than the weapons, Boo Boo. Plus, if they can sell a whole bunch of food, they can use that money to buy weapons.”

Sutriona put on a cynical and crafty smile that did not suit her appearance.

“A dictator’s conscripted soldiers might obey their orders to eat rotten bread and meat that reeks of chemicals, but it seems wars these days are fought between ‘kings’. That is, between the wealthy nations. If word gets around that you will be sickened from within by your own allies if you go to war, no one will volunteer. And they can’t go to war if they can’t gather an army, so I can see why they’re eager to ensure the safety of the food if those ‘kings’ wish to wage war.”

She somewhat changed the subject from there.

“Anyway, few are powerful enough to start a war and fewer still have the true power needed to maintain a war indefinitely. That’s why wars are not so easily started. A poor command will only wear down your own country. If you want a peaceful world, it’s important to maintain a system that makes going to war difficult.”

Sutriona bit off a small piece of the meat she had cooked, but it must have been too hot because she stuck her tongue out.

“Everyone’s gone to so much trouble creating that unreliable suspension bridge and now someone wants to swap it out for a stone bridge with absolute reliability. Wars of no-risk and high-return will begin. And no matter how many foolish commands are given, the wars will continue. People will begin investing in that great and unreachable industry as casually as in the development of a housewife’s nifty little invention.”

“…”

“And since supporting the food supply looks charitable and humane, no one can stop them from developing it on a large scale. In other words, the exploration of the Labyrinth and the conversion of Experience Points into Magic is nothing more than the humans competing to see who can first obtain a method of economizing war and who can monopolize that method. …Of course, I have my doubts that very many of them are even looking beyond the vast sums of money to see that their decisions here could lead to the destruction of their own civilization.”

Boo Boo fell silent for a while.

He glanced over at the wood-carved human statue sitting near the fire. It showed a human as a messenger of heaven, just as the Nonhuman oral tradition stated.

Only the crackling of the fire could be heard.

“Humans are good people. They wouldn’t want to do that war thing.”

“Don’t be so sure. Based on what I’ve heard, they can only use Magic here. So no matter how much they fight here, they can only bring back so much. First on that list are the Pieces. We need to be aware that they are almost certainly preparing for war.”

“What good is war? They’d all be happier if they ate food, lay down, and took a nap together.”

“For better or for worse, humans are a clever bunch. They have such a great desire for ever greater happiness that they end up trampling the happiness they already have. Although very few of them seem to even notice it.”

“But Beatrice wouldn’t do that. She doesn’t kill more than she needs to eat.”

“Boo Boo, it’s about who gets it first.” Sutriona gave a faint smile. “She can say she won’t do it all day long, but there’s nothing she can do if someone else gets their hands on it. And if that happens, it will lead to an age that works against her. So whether she wants it or not, she has to secure those Pieces. It’s either take them or have them taken. Those are the only options available to the human countries.”

“I refuse to believe that.” The giant Orc grew stubborn. “Beatrice wouldn’t do something so horrible. She’s way smarter than me, so she would use all her brains to make sure that didn’t happen.”

“That would be nice…”

The girl in a black ribbon dress sighed before saying more.

“Whatever the case, the humans can’t relax right now. You need to be especially careful about a Guild named Elkiad. Not only is there a severe moral hazard at work inside their ranks, but they’re different from the other Guilds on a fundamental level.”

“Yeah. Beatrice said that too. I remember her talking about Ensoed.”

“Only the first and last letters of that are right, Boo Boo.”

Beatrice returned to Grandnir.

It was a small island, but she enjoyed the freedom there. A Break News would occasionally go on a rampage and significantly alter the landscape, but it was generally a peaceful and simple world.

It may have been because she could use Magic, but the world seemed to spread out endlessly before her despite the limited surface area. The underground Labyrinth was suspected to reach other islands or continents from the ocean floor or even pa.s.s through a Transfer wall to reach other dimensions, but she found the normal forests and beaches felt larger than the complex Labyrinth.

She walked to the inn town and found White Witch Filinion and Fighter Priest Armelina enjoying some tea at a café. If they were indulging themselves, it meant they had sold some field guides or maps for plenty of gears rather than paper money.

Beatrice asked a question without ordering anything for herself.

“How’s the Setup going?”

“All done.”

“We have a place ready, so we’re ready when you are.”

The three of them left the café and walked down a stone-paved road.

They pa.s.sed by a great variety of people. There were Knights with bulky armor and large s.h.i.+elds, there were lightly-equipped Thieves, there were Hunters and Scouts who specialized in projectiles, and there were even provocative Dancers. The only point in common was the s.h.i.+ning Weapons of various shapes and sizes they all carried. There were obvious ones like swords and spears, but there were also tents, frying pans, brooms, magnifying gla.s.ses, and more.

“Where exactly is it?”

“There’s a district to the south that’s been deserted ever since there was a fire. We’ll be borrowing a place there.”

“…Oh, the waterway district.”

“Huh? Why do you sound so blue, Beatrice?”

“No reason,” she said as a non-answer.

Humans could travel between their own world and Grandnir, but the Nonhumans could not. Other than the s.h.i.+ning Weapons, no objects could either. That was why people worked so hard to bring back the data known as Experience Points.

That meant anyone who died in Grandnir…that is, anyone who lost their life and became a mere “object” could not be brought back. No matter how it happened, anyone who died here could not be buried in their homeland’s soil.

But Fighter Priest Armelina didn’t seem to care about those sentimental issues.

“I bet it’s because she always has so much trouble with water. Even in the Labyrinth, she’s always getting dragged away by the octopus-type Gimmicks and getting the bucket-type Traps dumped right on her head in the underground waterways. It never takes her long to end up soaking wet and all see-through. It’s always the same sad story with the strongest fire user.”

“Th-that isn’t true.”

“Ohh? Can you say that again after checking through these results? One look at your Event List and Conversation Log goes a long way toward inspiring the imagination. You should be thankful I was kind enough not to save Replay videos. And looking at this, you really do have trouble with water.”

“Curse you!! Either erase those records right this instant or I’ll turn them and your s.h.i.+ning Weapon to ashes! The choice is yours!!”

Perhaps due to a management issue, her ahoge began burning with a torch flame as she shouted.

At the same time, a small girl with a hood pulled deep over her head pa.s.sed by.

In that instant, a voice seemed to slip into Beatrice’s ear.

“Be careful. They’re already on the move.”

Beatrice looked back, but there was no sign of the girl in the crowd.

“Is something the matter, Beatrice?”

“No…it’s nothing.”

She shook her head and started walking again, but Armelina still seemed bothered by her behavior.

“What, did someone try to hit on you? Did you feel a bolt of lightning when you saw your soulmate!? You’d never run across a knight in s.h.i.+ning armor in a concrete jungle ruled by big data, but this is a fantasy world of swords and magic! Anything goes here!! Heh heh!!”

“Armelina, you’re surprisingly girly. You believe in soulmates?”

“No, no, I don’t! D-don’t be ridiculous. I’m a Fighter Priest, so I’m all about who can punch the hardest!!”

Armelina blushed and began fiercely swinging her hands around.

“Yes, she does seem like the type that believes in the red thread of fate or four leaf clovers.”

“Eh? You mean collecting four leaf clovers doesn’t bring good luck?”

This revelation brought a shadow over Armelina’s face and her shoulders drooped.

“A-anyway, Beatrice. Is it true you’re going out with a huge pig-faced Iberian Orc? I keep hearing rumors about that around the inn town.”

“Kh!! Th-the flow of time is cruel, but I have no regrets!! A-and he doesn’t have a pig face! It’s, um, uh, a slack boar face!!”

“Oh, dear. Does this mean you aren’t building up conversational Experience Points by interacting with other races like some of the others do? It sounds more like you’ve fallen for someone with a kind heart.”

“No, I wouldn’t put it like that. Saying someone is ‘kind’ is the same as saying they’re convenient, don’t cause any problems, and are easy to make use of, right? But Boo Boo is completely different. Setting aside whether he’s kind, he’s most certainly not convenient, he causes all sorts of problems, and I can’t make use of him at all.”

“But you are with him, aren’t you?”

“Well, he’s comfortable. I don’t have to think about all the intrigue around him. …And in Grandnir that’s rare. It’s worth a lot to have someone who you can speak honestly with while letting the weight off your shoulders and not trying to get anything out of it. That’s how I feel about Boo Boo.”

The White Witch and Fighter Priest exchanged a glance at her words…or rather, at her expression.

“Oh, I see.”

“Hm, so that’s it.”

“Wh-what are those know-it-all looks for?”

“Well, we’d a.s.sumed everything we’d been hearing was nothing more than rumors, but let’s just say this is better than what we were expecting.”

“I think it’s great. You’re not a monk in training, so it’s nice that you have more to focus on than entering the Labyrinth, earning Experience Points, and learning Magic.”

After turning a corner, the lively energy of the crowd suddenly vanished. The stone-paved road and the brick buildings were not destroyed and had not crumbled. In a town made of stone, a fire was not going to change the scene that dramatically. But all life had been stripped from the surfaces. It was a lot like sterilizing a plate with boiling water.

The Holy Swordswoman, White Witch, and Fighter Priest entered a random building and faced each other around a round table in the center.

They pulled out their differently-shaped s.h.i.+ning Weapons.

Holy Swordswoman Beatrice’s was a rapier.

White Witch Filinion’s was a white first-aid kit.

Fighter Priest Armelina’s was a metal staff. However, it was made so she could add on chains and metal b.a.l.l.s with Magic.

They placed their s.h.i.+ning Weapons on the round table. They placed the rapier and metal staff parallel to each other with the first-aid kit in the center.

“Having the strongest fire user sure is convenient. As long as we have you with us, we have one of the necessary Elements ready to go. It’s like getting dealt a joker in a game of poker.”

“I’m thankful to have you two. I can’t use any Element besides fire, right? And your expertise in Mixing is a huge help, Filinion.”

“Being able to share Magic and create Pieces within the same Party is really useful for the people as abnormal as us.”

As they spoke, they called up the data on the Piece they were after and found the Magic they needed for it.

This process was known as Mixing.

Beatrice thought it was more like a dinner or c.o.c.ktail recipe than it was an industrial processing technique. What mattered was the type and distribution of Magic needed. The rest occurred at a scale one would need an electron microscope to see, so Beatrice and the others’ senses could not keep up. It was the same as shaking the c.o.c.ktail shaker and knowing a delicious drink would be waiting afterwards.

Filinion pulled out a key hanging from her neck by a thin chain and stuck it into the keyhole on her first-aid kit s.h.i.+ning Weapon.

“The points we must stop are B-12, G-29, and Y-03. The effective detour points needed to avoid those are V-71 and P-01. …That will be the hottest point. Where should we start?”

“Why not from the most certain point? We start at P-01 and, if that works, we can reach for V-71 as insurance.”

“Nice. I like your resolve. It’s like felling the trunk without worrying about the branches and leaves.”

Three s.h.i.+ning Weapons sat on the abandoned round table. White Witch Filinion placed a transparent palm-sized crystal ball alongside the first-aid kit in the center. Various types of Magic would process that into the unknown material known as a Piece.

“Now, let’s create the opposing tech. To review, what tech is it we want to keep out of the hands of the nations and corporations?”

“Imortalise. …B-12, G-29, and Y-03. These will create a composite technology that extracts a natural preservative with almost no health risks.”

“Then what is the Piece we’re creating? That is, the opposing tech brought about by V-71 and P-01?”

“Managed crops for unmaintained land. They’re wheat or potatoes that can grow in any wasteland or desert. I think it’s technically a chromosome-damaging ultraviolet emitter that messes with the seeds. Basically, the compet.i.tion is between the idea of preservative-soaked ingredients being s.h.i.+pped around the world or the idea of crops actually being grown all over the world. And when the people are growing the crops, they can both eat them and use them for their livestock. That means as much meat and vegetables as they can eat.”

“If this works, the concept of a grain-producing region will vanish and the entire world will be covered in burgers and fries.”

“But…”

“Yes. No matter how much work is put into this tech, no one will ever complete it. Even with V-71 or P-01.”

But the people being manipulated would not notice. They would not be allowed to notice.

The preparations were complete. Corn grown for oil would solve desertification and the energy crisis. But couldn’t that be used to feed people and animals as well as for energy? Because they were always just one step away from achieving their goal, they would continue to reach for it.

That mistaken hope and expectation would completely crush Imortalise which was expected to pave the way to war.

They activated the three s.h.i.+ning Weapons.

The flashy explosions or slashes seen when exploring the Labyrinth were absent here. Instead, lines of pale light ran both inside and outside the transparent crystal ball, showing that something was happening.

Bars appeared next to the s.h.i.+ning Weapons to show the status of the activated Magic and the progress of the overall work. When the slowly-moving bars filled all the way up, Beatrice breathed a sigh of relief.

“Did it…work?”

“I’ll check the structure just to be sure. …Yes, I don’t see any problems. Our P-01 matches the diagram exactly.”

Filinion touched the side of her gla.s.ses and Armelina gave a casual comment.

&ld