The train arrived at exactly noon. Heavy bell sounds spread throughout the city from Nine Holder's tallest clock tower.
"Count, I'll go find our carriage."
While Millen slipped through the crowd to find the carriage, Cider bought a newspaper published only in Nine Holder from a newsstand.
"What's in it?"
"The usual political talk. Stories about how His Excellency the Pri Minister is having a hard ti being pressed from all sides."
As control over the colonies weakened due to dostic and foreign affairs, hands reached out from everywhere targeting the massive fruit that was Paolun.
Durang, which occupied a small piece of land in northern Paolun, and Tisbia, which had secured the heir of the Kalindi vassal state that still maintained autonomy as a Paolun tributary, had joined hands to pressure the Paolun Governor-General's Office. Though it was just words for now, there was no law saying there wouldn't be military movents.
Talk went around that there might be war within the colony. It wasn't simply a matter of territory or economic power, but a matter of hegemony.
What had Daria been doing while intellectuals kept their antennae sharp regarding colonial dominance?
No special news had reached from Avondale. There was no news of dungeons either. All that had been reported was that monster byproduct research, which began to investigate the Sterling Harbor incident, had yielded results.
Cider had finished reading the article before he knew it and was staring blankly at the advertisent section. Esperanza suddenly stuck her head forward.
"Magic item advertisents?"
"'Special materials used' for custors. 'Guaranteed function.' It doesn't say what the effect is. Doesn't ntion the materials either. Strange advertisent."
Only then did Esperanza look closely at the object in the picture.
She had roughly grasped the technological level of this period, which was 13 years ago, now 12 years ago. However, since she had spent a full year with Cider Claiborne, the level Esperanza understood differed from the universal technological level of this era.
'What's the problem?'
Had he noticed it because the advertisent was strange? But the advertisent itself was plausible despite being vague. The problem was the item being advertised.
"A gentleman's walking stick. What function would a walking stick have?"
"None, usually."
Cider tapped the ground twice with his walking stick to demonstrate. Though it looked like an ordinary walking stick, pressing one button would turn it into a gun. It was the perfect item to get arrested for illegal firearm modification if caught.
But this was just Cider Claiborne carrying around his own invention, and ordinary walking sticks had no special function other than supporting one's weight while walking.
If anything, it was closer to a symbol of gentleman class. A cumberso accessory with handles decorated with gold and silver on fine wood. People who liked unusual things sotis used animal bones and leather, but that was also for showing off or collecting.
'Though it would be suitable for making into a magic tool.'
It's sothing always carried in hand, and there was an era when it was common to hide swords inside walking sticks and such.
"Could it be a weapon?"
"Well. That would be illegal. I think it's more likely to be a fraudulent advertisent."
It was actually sothing they could just skip over, but it was strangely botherso.
"It reminds
of the hat shop."
That ti was a combination of rumors and trends, but this ti there was a difference in that it clearly presented a purpose.
'Special materials used.'
Esperanza bit her lip. Since it was a walking stick, special materials could be used. Fine wood, or bones of rare animals......
At that mont, sothing flashed through her mind. A crystallized suspicion raised its head.
Checking would be fastest.
Esperanza's gaze swept through the train station interior, which had beco sowhat quieter than before. Among the gentlen sitting on benches and gentlen walking around with train tickets, she could see walking sticks of similar shapes. Though few in number, they all looked uniformly wealthy.
Esperanza's eyes, which had been thoroughly scanning the train station interior, soon found a suitable target.
"Tobacco shop at 11 o'clock. Brown frock coat, golden brown hair. Do you see him? Doesn't it look exactly like the walking stick in the picture?"
The man was gesturing rudely at the tobacco shop employee, apparently unable to find the cigarettes he was looking for. That wouldn't make the unavailable cigarettes appear. Cider smiled broadly while observing the irritated man.
"It does look like it. Shall we check?"
Cider approached near the tobacco shop where the man was arguing. His leisurely steps left no room for suspicion. Esperanza chuckled and followed.
anwhile, Cider positioned himself a couple steps behind the man as if standing in line. And the mont the man, who had been throwing a tantrum for a while, whirled around and took large steps, Cider slipped his walking stick in front of the man's feet.
"Argh!"
The man closed his eyes tightly as he fell ungracefully. The walking stick he had spent a fortune on slipped from his hand.
However, there was no sound of the walking stick rolling on the train station floor. Instead, a gentle voice ca from above his head.
"Excuse , are you alright?"
A lady with slightly bent knees held out the walking stick. Her fingers in silk gloves were slender, and the luster of the velvet dress that wrapped around her figure was elegant.
The man hurriedly got up and accepted the walking stick. The lady's hand clung to the walking stick a bit stickily as if reluctant to let go, then fell away cleanly.
For so reason feeling his mouth go dry, the man rolled his eyes. Only after reflecting on the fact that he had embarrassed himself by falling in front of a lady could he finally open his mouth.
"Ah, well. Thank you."
Just as the man, who had barely answered in a choked voice, was about to say more, another man grabbed the lady's elbow.
"Excuse us. Are you hurt anywhere?"
It was an apology that didn't sound like an apology at all. The man who was about to snap back checked the other person's face and grimaced. This wasn't soone worth getting into a fight with here.
"I'm fine. Well then, excuse ."
Still unable to hide his displeasure, the man disappeared with quick steps, thumping his walking stick on the ground.
Cider twisted his lips upward. What was in those types' heads was obvious. Of course, he didn't bother to voice such thoughts. Instead, he turned his head and asked.
"How was it?"
"It's not a weapon. I'm not certain since I only touched it briefly, but it felt like there were lots of chanisms inside, though it wasn't heavy. I tried putting in a little magic power inconspicuously, but there wasn't much difference...... I'm not sure."
Still, they couldn't dismiss it as nothing special. Even if they couldn't figure out the function, they had confird the other aspect. Esperanza opened her mouth while recalling the texture of leather that had wrapped around her hand.
"It used monster leather. Definitely."
"......So it cos to this?"
The public supply source would be Sterling Harbor, but there would be a separate dungeon actually supplying it.
But Cyrus and Daria wouldn't have been able to enter and exit this world until before the new year, so how was the leather supply resolved during that ti? No, when did these kinds of items start circulating in the first place?
It had only been a couple of months.
When the previous hat shop had established itself as a social trend, it had relied on superstition-like rumors.
But this ti was different. It was openly promoted as a magic tool, boasting about its function and materials. Would the owners of these walking sticks really not know what those materials were?
The fear of dungeons whose reality was unknown had quickly subsided. Like in Avondale, no traces of that disaster could be found on the faces of Nine Holder's people.
What if curiosity about new materials filled the place where fear had subsided? Businessn are quick with their hands, and trends spread like wildfire. It's a natural phenonon.
However, there was intent behind that series of natural phenona. Though Daria's intentions were obvious, they couldn't be ignored either. After all, they needed to draw Daria out to obtain the Golden Claw.
"We should visit a magic item shop."
One by one, step by step, but it needed to be swift.
??????°??☆????°??????
The Avondale mansion in Nine Holder, which they had returned to after a long ti, looked exactly the sa as when she had co without Cider. The mansion where Butler Howard and Mrs. Lux greeted them with bright smiles. Steam rose from the bathtub where she had relaxed on the first day.
Esperanza, who had practically thrown her fatigue-relieved body onto the bed after bathing, exhaled while staring blankly at the ceiling.
When Esperanza first lay on this bed, she had known nothing. Why she was here, what this world was, what she was.
Now, exactly one year later, nurous facts had been revealed, and changes significant enough to turn the world upside down had accumulated. Now Esperanza had goals and people to depend on. She knew what she had to do and how to do it.
Really just one step away from going back. Yet strangely, it felt like she couldn't see even an inch ahead.
She hadn't closed her ears to Nine Holder's news while in Avondale. But sitting in the mansion with distance and no information sources, trying to understand the situation with only morning newspapers had its limits. Cyrus was also tied up once Daria's activities beca active.
Cider didn't even read newspapers and focused on research. From what he ntioned in passing, he needed over ten types of magic stones, each requiring different refining thods.
From basic work of fitting machine parts to refined magic stones to establishing the big picture while closing the laboratory and fixing the security system—he had to split ti down to seconds, so he had no ntal capacity for other things.
Esperanza also helped with simple tasks beside him until dawn. When hands were short, even Millen was mobilized from the middle.
'Though neither of us was much help......'
After spending such hectic ti, they had returned to Nine Holder. Now Cider would finish the remaining research. Since it was the work of remaking a machine he had made before, it wouldn't take long to complete. With just the Golden Claw, the core component, it would really be a matter of ti.
So really, not much ti was left. Finding Daria, obtaining the Golden Claw, completing the machine, and going back. Esperanza let out a big sigh.
It was a problem that didn't require deliberation. Rather, it was a problem that had an even more certain answer before.
During the year when she had revealed the answers to all uncertain problems, what she had always taken for granted was the fact that she had to go back. However, now that she had solved nurous questions, it had beco unknowable instead. Suspicion suddenly crept into the fact she had taken for granted without question.
Must she go back? Why?
Esperanza shook her head to shake off the suspicion.
Of course she had to go back. Twenty-seven years of accumulated life, blood relatives and friends were all there.
She closed her eyes tightly and tried to sleep. She wouldn't think about reasons why she 'didn't have to go back.'
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