In the dim room, the beautiful elf with long lavender hair and the pink-haired girl sat facing each other. For a moment, the atmosphere turned heavy.
Maybe one minute passed. Maybe ten. Then the pink-haired girl suddenly smiled and took out a small badge. The deep-red gem set into it gleamed with a captivating light beneath the sunlight slipping in through the crack in the window.
She placed the badge on the table and pressed one fair, delicate finger against it. Eta instinctively reached for it, but the pink-haired girl moved it out of her reach.
Eta narrowed her eyes at the girl, and pitch-black Slime Suit liquid began to flow behind her.
"Don't rush. Use this first."
The pink-haired girl took out a bracelet engraved with strange symbols and tossed it across the table to Eta.
"You don't trust me?"
Eta stared at the pink-haired girl suspiciously and asked.
"It's just to keep you from suddenly changing your mind. I don't think I'm afraid of death, but… how would I know whether you are?"
Speaking calmly, the pink-haired girl removed the white glove from her right hand, revealing the strange symbols on her wrist, identical to the ones on the bracelet.
"To put it in Master's words, there are always some things more important than your own life. Don't worry. For our shared goal, I'm prepared to give up my life."
Eta drew the Slime Suit liquid behind her back into her body, picked up the bracelet from the table, and put it on. The next second, the bracelet gave off a faint white glow and merged into Eta's arm. Rings of strange symbols appeared on her pale, slender wrist.
"Then I can relax. The research materials you wanted are inside. There are a few other things in there too, so consider them my gift to you.
When we first met, I knew you were very interested in this. It's yours."
After seeing the symbols appear on Eta's hand with her own eyes, the pink-haired girl smiled. She reached into the inside of her coat, took out a set of documents, and handed them to Eta.
"You're really willing to give this up. This should be all of your research results, right? You're just handing it over to me? Doesn't that hurt?"
Eta took the documents, flipped to the later pages, and looked at the pink-haired girl in surprise.
"You don't bring these things with you when you're born, and you don't take them with you when you die. If you want them, they're yours. There are only a few days left anyway.
Actually, the part of the data you asked me for surprised me a little. With your level of skill, you should have been able to crack that part on your own after our last conversation."
The pink-haired girl smiled freely, brushing her fingers through her hair as she spoke in a relaxed tone.
"Ah… someone's been watching me, so at most I could only experiment on slime brains. Progress in that area has been slow."
"Uh… Slimes have brains?!"
Eta's answer startled the pink-haired girl so much that she asked back instinctively, her voice rising a little.
"Hehe. After conducting experiments, I concluded that slimes do not have brains."
The two of them had been at each other's throats only moments ago, yet after that brief exchange, they were chatting about trivial things as if they were at a tea party.
"That joke was funny, but I'm not interested in your affairs, Eta. It's enough to know you haven't regretted our plan. This is the locator. It belongs to the same set as the one I gave you before. I'll leave the second step to you when the time comes."
The pink-haired girl smiled helplessly, shook her head, and handed Eta a necklace.
"Fine, fine. Now that I have what I came for, I'll be leaving."
Without even bothering to look through the documents in her hand, Eta controlled her slime to snatch up the necklace, then stood and prepared to leave. A mechanical arm blocked her path.
"I already set the Magical Power flow Magic Formulas inside it ahead of time. If you try to take it apart, the patterns inside will be destroyed instantly."
"Tsk… You don't even trust your own ally?"
Eta clicked her tongue in displeasure, turned around, sat back down, and started complaining.
"I don't think a lunatic is worth trusting."
Hearing the pink-haired girl's blunt words, Eta only shrugged indifferently. It had only been a casual attempt anyway. If she succeeded, she could go solo and make a huge profit. If she failed, she lost nothing. Either way, this plan could not proceed without her.
Without Eta as the mole, the technical provider, and the energy provider, she was rather curious how the pink-haired girl intended to carry out her plan.
"Well… let me introduce my Mind-Strengthening Device No. 24. The groove on top was custom-made for the ancient artifact you sent me.
By the way, the gift I gave you earlier is called Demon Possession Device No. 3."
Eta proudly opened the box and took out a mysterious instrument outlined with all kinds of rare metals. The groove at its center matched the badge the pink-haired girl had brought out perfectly. A trace of pride entered Eta's voice.
Although Gamma and Alpha had worked hard to restrict her research capabilities, a genius with endless greed for knowledge could not be contained.
During the time she had been forced into this work, Eta's main assigned research directions were technological renovation and research into Sacred Gear. Well… Eta was barely interested in the latter. To be precise, she was interested in one function shared by every Sacred Gear developed by God.
As long as the user's emotions were intense enough, a Sacred Gear could surpass its own limits and become stronger. Just hearing that description made Eta certain that this was the world's strongest power Master had once spoken of, the power of the mind.
Only ordinary people would focus on the various abilities of Sacred Gear. Master had once said that as long as the application and quantity of Magical Power were sufficient, even a flower or a blade of grass could slay a dragon. The true focus was the application and quantity of Magical Power, not the flower or grass carried along by that Magical Power to slay the dragon.
Clearly, the various abilities of Sacred Gear were, at their initial stage, at most equivalent to ordinary knives. The true treasure was the mind-based Magic Formula that could strengthen those ordinary knives into dragon-slaying Sacred Gear.
After several months of continuous research, she had successfully isolated that program Magic Formula and dismantled it, creating the first Mind-Strengthening Device No. 1. Then, after the sacrifice of twenty-three experimental subjects, she successfully improved it into the No. 24 before them.
Theoretically, after so many improvements, No. 24 had already surpassed the original. The problem was that it had been improved too much. No raw material could withstand two rounds of wear, including the user. In other words, it was a single-use item.
"Your naming sense… is really good. I'll take it. Are there any other problems with the plan? If not, I'm leaving."
Against her conscience, the pink-haired girl forced out a compliment for Eta. She took the instrument, confirmed that it was probably fine, and waved her hand, ready to get up and leave if there were no other issues.
"Mm… there's a problem with the data you gave me."
After a moment of low humming, Eta waved the black-and-white documents in her hand.
"What problem?"
The pink-haired girl frowned, and her eyes immediately lit up. She had never imagined that the final problem would be with the data she had provided.
"The data here seems to be missing a section."
"…I've never conducted live-subject experiments."
Eta froze at the pink-haired girl's answer.
"You're betting our plan on a theory with no successful experimental cases at all? I thought that if you could propose this plan, you at least had a successful case!"
Under the force of her shock, Eta's speaking speed actually returned to normal this time.
"Don't lump me in with you. I have no interest in taking innocent lives. Besides, if it worked on animals and it worked on the dead, then in theory, it should work on the living too."
"Spend money and find death row inmates. Unlike me, you don't have a group of people watching you. As long as you're willing, you have a hundred ways to carry out the experiment openly.
But now, after all this, you're talking to me about innocent lives. It sounds hypocritical, and it makes me wonder whether you even have enough emotion to activate the device."
"Forget it. I'm leaving. If you want to do it, do it yourself. I don't want to end up like that."
The pink-haired girl knew she was the one in the wrong. She opened her mouth, then stopped, and in the end left only that sentence behind before turning to leave.
"Wait. We'll do it according to our original agreement. You pay. Ordering that many materials from the Mitsugoshi Company costs too much. I don't have enough funds on my side to cover it.
Also, I still need a laboratory. I need to recalculate everything."
"Here are the address and ID card. The money is there. You can go take it yourself, so don't hold back. Have the people there prepare a laboratory for you too."
With an annoyed expression, the pink-haired girl pulled out two cards and threw them at Eta, then turned and left.
Eta caught the two things in midair with slime tentacles, and a satisfied smile appeared on her otherwise calm face.
"Oh, right. This ring was made from the leftover materials. Give it to someone you care about. If that plan fails, it can save his life."
As if she had suddenly remembered, the pink-haired girl threw one more thing to Eta.
"You're not going to use it?"
"Me? Who would I use it on?"
Watching the self-mocking smile on the pink-haired girl's face before the door closed, Eta picked up the address she had given her and looked it over.
"It's by the sea?"
Eta's eyes lit up when she noticed the location. She picked up her phone.
"Nu, have someone take these things to Itogami Island. Be careful not to damage them."
As she spoke over the phone, Eta sent Nu the storage location of the side money she had secretly earned over the years. Then, before Nu could object, she hung up.
...
A huge haul. A huge haul!
Looking at the handbag in his hands, Cid could not hide the joy on his face.
To fulfill the feast he had promised Delta and ease his tight finances, Cid had taken the morning off from school under the pretense of investigating the murderer. He had come to the Mitsugoshi Company to sell the materials he had looted from that Black Dragon man.
He had not thought they would be worth much. After all, they were just raw materials that still needed processing. But to his surprise, that pile of junk with no collectible value at all was actually worth this much money.
It might be a bit exaggerated to put it this way, but he had seen people display famous paintings at home, raise rare plants, and show off thousand-year-old antiques. But who displayed piles of gold or diamonds?
If they had been the dragon fangs, dragon bones, or dragon wings of Great Red, he might have been interested in collecting them. But the corpse of an ordinary dragon-man? Selling it for money was far more practical.
Cid held the light handbag in his hands, and for a moment, he nearly teared up. It had been a long time since he had felt this kind of weight.
He had done the math. Although this money was only enough to buy one-fifth of the collectibles he had his eye on, after treating Delta to a feast, the remaining money should last him about a month if he spent carefully.
Losing his collectibles and money was not the truly frightening part. The truly frightening part was losing the heart to keep collecting art.
Cid strode toward the store entrance. Because he was carrying something valuable, his guilty conscience kicked in, and he instinctively used his stealthy movement technique.
Maybe it was just an illusion brought on by excitement, but right now, Cid felt only that "there has never been such a wonderful opening" and "the advantage is mine."
"Ah!"
Joy turned to disaster. Because he had not been paying attention, Cid crashed hard into another hurried black shadow at the corner.
Thanks to his solid footing and his intense focus on protecting the handbag, Cid was not really hurt. The black shadow, however, was not so lucky.
Cid had not been walking especially fast, but the black shadow had been moving quickly to begin with. The rebound from the collision sent her staggering back several steps before she fell to the floor.
"Um… are you okay?"
Looking at the pink-haired girl sitting on the ground in front of him, head lowered as she covered her nose after the impact, Cid held out a hand and asked.
"Ah, I'm fine."
She apologized while covering her nose with one hand. With the other, she avoided Cid's offered hand and waved to show she was all right.
"I'm really sorry. It was my own… Cid-kun?"
She raised her head to explain and apologize, but the words stopped the instant her clear, pretty eyes met Cid's.
"…Sherry?"
Cid met the girl's gaze and fell silent for a while. Tilting his head, he barely managed to pull the girl's identity from his memories.
"Yes, it's me."
Seeing that Cid had recognized her, the girl's face bloomed into a flower-like smile. She took Cid's offered hand and stood up with a firm pull.
This is bad. I ran into someone I know.
Sherry looked very happy, but Cid was not happy at all.
To introduce her, the beautiful pink-haired girl with an ahoge in front of him was named Sherry Barnett. He had met her by chance, and she seemed like the kind of brainy support character who would provide Wisdom to the protagonist group at crucial moments and create miraculous tools.
If someone asked what his relationship with her was, Cid could only say it was the relationship of a father's killer. In order to play the role of an Eminence in Shadow, he had cut down the foster father who had treated Sherry like his own daughter, then spoken a few cryptic lines in front of her.
"Long time no see, Cid-kun. I didn't expect you to be on this island too."
After picking up the things that had fallen to the floor, Sherry walked naturally to Cid's side.
Hey, don't stand so close to me. I'm the one who killed your father!
"Yeah. Since we rarely get to meet, want to walk around together? My treat."
Although he wanted to put some distance between them in his heart, it was hard to refuse when, on the surface, they were good friends, while behind the scenes, he was the mastermind who had killed his friend's father.
Cid patted the handbag and showed her a bright, sunny smile.
There was no helping it. He was that kind of psychopath.