kscans

Chapter 35 - The Unease Hidden in the Documents and the Salvation of Coffee

After leaving Leonhard, Mireille went back to the second box of documents by herself and opened them again. She had assumed it was her master who had left the contents of the box there.

The first box had been a collection of monster weaknesses and ecology.

Leonhard had been astonished by the detailed information on monsters from the king's direct domain, but for her master and Mireille, it was 'business as usual'.

The clientele of an alchemist was truly diverse. Adventurers, merchants, travelers...

"I want a tool that's effective against this monster."

"What should I bring if I'm passing through this region?"

"How many should I buy for a week-long journey?"

Requests like these were a daily occurrence.

That was why the Moonshadow Teahouse had always updated these records by gathering information on foot or through interviews, earning trust by providing products based on accurate data. The only difference this time was that it was the king's direct domain.

--So, if she thought of it as their usual habit, she could accept the contents of the first box as normal records.

But the second box was clearly strange. Or rather, it wasn't like her master at all.

The second box contained statistical data and alchemy recipes.

But first, among that data, the kill records were too heavily skewed towards large monsters.

It was the same when she and Leonhard encountered one yesterday. If a large monster appeared, then naturally, there should have been swarms of smaller ones, many times more. And yet, the records of small monsters were almost zero. There was also very little material gathering.

Her master had always said, "Don't kill monsters needlessly. Even if they're small, if you're going to take a life, use every part of it." --Yet, what could be read from these statistics was the complete opposite.

Furthermore, the breakdown of alchemy items used in the hunts was also strange. There were too many bomb-type items. That would tear the materials to shreds. It would be understandable if merchants or amateurs were using them, but she couldn't imagine her master choosing such a reckless method.

There was also something strange about the content of the hunts. On the same day they hunted a group of water-attribute monsters, they also hunted a large number of fire and lightning-attribute monsters. ...That kind of feat was normally impossible. The only explanation was that multiple groups were moving separately.

To top it all off, the alchemy recipes were also odd. She could vaguely understand the theory, but they were for operating a massive device. At the very least, it wasn't the kind of product handled at the Moonshadow Teahouse.

What could be deduced from this was that a large number of large monster cores were required to operate this massive device.

And from the wasteful hunting and disregard for monster materials, wasn't it likely that the purpose of the hunts was not alchemy, but to obtain magic cores to power this device?

(Master... what are you doing now?)

(Are you doing this of your own free will? Or are you being forced...?)

(Is that why you ran away? Darius-san... how much do you know?)

The more she thought, the more her chest ached.

Just as she was holding her head, wanting to give up, a whiff of coffee wafted over.

A cup was placed on the desk. There was even sugar on the side. When she looked up, Leonhard was smiling gently.

"Why don't you take a little break?"

The moment she saw that smile, the thread of her composure snapped. --Ah, there was still someone here I could trust.

Her tears wouldn't stop, and before she knew it, she had thrown herself into his chest.