The First Step, the top floor of the Clan House. In the Clan Master's office, which only Clan Clerks and Clan Masters are allowed to enter, I looked down at the desk with a grin on my face.

On the desk, five small humanoid figures, each about five centimeters long, were playing a game.

The figures were so elaborate that they looked as if they were human beings shrunk to size.
Each of them was dressed as a mage, a monk, a swordsman, a thief, and an alchemist, and although the robes and armor disguised the details, I felt like praising myself for a job well done.

I rub my feverish bracelets and let the humanoids walk around the edge of the desk.
They were not real dolls, but illusions that I had created using the treasure I had just acquired: the Dancing Light Shadow. The corner lines and small mountains drawn on the desk are also illusions.
At first, I couldn't set the shapes and colors properly, but after practicing for the past few days, I had succeeded in creating a reasonably elaborate illusion of a human figure.

I suppose that the treasure trove itself has a function that complements the image to some extent.
However, it is still very fun to see the practice take shape like this. Whether it's useful or not, it's hard to find a more fun treasure trove to use as a hobby.

Poke one of the phantoms with your forefinger, and at the same time, make it move in a way that makes it sit up. It makes the other phantoms protest. I'm controlling all of them myself, but it's as if I'm using the dwarf spirits. I can't stop smiling.

I'd like to show it off to someone, but I'm afraid I can't, because my hard-boiled image would be ruined if anyone knew I was playing with such a doll.

Next, I added a dragon small enough to fit in my hand. Not just one, but two, three, four, and so on. Each one is a different color, of course.
I've encountered dragons many times when I was still following the party. The details are a bit sketchy, but there's no shortage of ways to create a rough vision.

The dragons are flapping and circling above me. I concentrate and try to find a more realistic way to fly.

The only weakness of this weapon is its range of one meter and twenty centimeters. If it were a little wider, the range of play would be even wider. I'm wondering if there is a superior version with a wider range.

Since it is an illusion, it is unaffected by physical barriers. I manipulated the dragon and sent it out through the window, but it got out of range and melted into the air and disappeared.

'You're a soft dragon.

Well, it's not the dragon's fault.
As he was playing with his dragon, the door to the Clan Master's office was suddenly opened. You shudder in surprise. It's Ava.
I don't have any work to do, but it would be awkward if she saw me playing childishly. I hurriedly turned off the dragon that was flying.

Eva's eyes widened in her glasses, as if she hadn't caught it in time.

I'm not sure. What was that?

'...... It's nothing. I was just surprised when you suddenly walked in.''

I'm used to Liz jumping in out of nowhere, but it's unusual for Eva to not even knock.
Eva's eyes twinkled in wonder at my words.

'What ......? I did knock, though.

I was so busy flying my ...... dragon that I didn't notice at all. I knew I shouldn't have done this in this room.

I don't need to ask what you're doing here. There was a disgusting amount of letters in Eva's hands as she approached.
Originally, the Ghosts of Sorrows had received less contact from the nobility than other high-level parties, but ever since they got involved with Sir Gladys at the auction, the number of letters they received had somehow increased.
Strangely enough, it seems that people are saying that I saved Miss Eclair's life. It wasn't me who saved her, it was Arc. .......

If you're a hunter with ambitions of becoming a successful man or looking for connections, you'd probably appreciate a letter from a nobleman. But unfortunately, I'm a hunter who wants to retire. I'll just politely decline.
If things get really bad, I'm considering fleeing Zebrudia.

As I sat back in my chair and calmed my breathing, I suddenly noticed that Eva's eyes were fixed on my desk. More specifically - to the vision of the dwarf she had forgotten to turn off.
Eva looks up and sees me. It's as if she's questioning my sanity.

The dwarf waddles over to the desk as if in a panic and jumps off the desk onto our side of the room. I gave a small cough and slumped back in my chair with my legs crossed.

'What was that about ......?

'? You think you can fake it with that? What the hell was that?

Eva turns around and peeks under the desk, but the dwarf has already disappeared. There's no way she can find him.
I decided to go for mysterious as well as hard-boiled. I clasp my hands together and smile grimly.

'Huh. ...... I've got secrets too, you know.

'I know that ............, but .......'

Ava frequently tilted her head and nodded broadly, as if forcing herself to be convinced.
She cleared her throat once, as if regaining her composure,

'There seems to be a lot of letters from the nobility this time. If you could take a look at them--'

Eva's expression tensed as she saw the miniature version of me on the desk with her hands above her head, ready to receive the letter, and she slowly looked at me.

I nodded to her, and then fearfully tried to place the letter on her hands - the weight of the letter flattened the miniature cry.
Eva's face turned pale, and she hurriedly lifted up the letter, but of course there was nothing left underneath it. The miniature cry had vanished like an illusion.
Well, not like a phantom, but a ...... phantom, you know.

'What? What? I--'

'Oh, don't worry about it. So, what was it?

I gave a gentle smile to Eva, who was unusually flustered. This is a lot of fun. .......





Zebrudia Southwest Decadent City District.

I'm not sure what to do. This is why magic societies are such a pain in the ass. They don't stand up to you head on. ......'

'Most of the surviving illegal magic societies are very cautious. ...... I think the Akasha Tower is particularly troublesome among them. ......'

The answer came from Citri, his face as hidden as possible with his hood pulled deep over his eyes.

Liz and the others were searching for traces of Akasha based on the information they had bid on at the auction.
They looked into the bidders at the auction, then the sellers, and finally the hunter who bid on Akasha - the one who contacted Greg.



Lies and the Ghosts of Sorrows are used to dealing with criminal groups. It's not the first time they've been involved with the Red Party, and it's not the first time they've crushed a criminal organization or magic society.
But this time, the opponents were on a different level than the little guys Liz and her team had dealt with in the past.

Three well-built men were kneeling in front of Liz.
Their bodies, which had been trained through practice, wore the intimidation that only those who had absorbed a large amount of mana material could exude, and their abilities could be seen even through their well-worn armor. The black-painted daggers, swords, and staffs lying on the roadside are of high quality and would cost well over ten million guilders if you were to buy them new.

The Imperial City is a sacred place for hunters. But where there is light, there is also darkness.
These men were the workmen of a hunter who Lise had found by following a few threads. They are dark hunters skilled in interpersonal combat who take on jobs that violate the law, including violence. His abilities are far beyond the average of hunters, and he has often been a problem for the Explorers Association in the Imperial Capital.
However, in Liz's opinion, these men are simply misfits. They are losers who forgot what hunters are supposed to do and chose to flee from the treasure house full of demons, phantoms and vicious traps and exploit the weaker ones.
It's not that I deny exploiting the weak, but there's no reason to fear such a loser who only deals with inferior people every day.

The men who were made to kneel had their arms tied behind their backs and paper bags over their heads. Although we could not see their facial expressions, their bodies were clearly shaking with tension, and the stench of sweat and blood mixed together filled the narrow passageway with poor air circulation.

The other party was a true professional workman, always on the alert and in a gang of several people, but it was easy to beat him. It was more difficult to find him.

However, the information obtained as a result of finding his whereabouts, carefully and carefully subduing and capturing him so that he would not die, and interrogating him was different from what Liz had expected.

The information obtained from the interrogation was not what Liz had expected. She had no information that could lead to the client.
The request was made by letter and paid in advance. If he had been able to retrieve the object, the client would have shown up, but it would be too late to change his strategy now.

He didn't seem to be lying.
There aren't many people who can remain silent under the murderous intent of a high-level hunter like Liz, and Citri is giving him a forbidden potion to make him talk. I don't think he had a tolerance for personal information such as names, family members, and backgrounds, as he spouted them off.

The last few days of probing have been in vain, and Liz, who is now completely depressed, complains to Sitri.

'What do you mean, you were part of the team and you don't know anything about it?

'It was a complete division of labor, and I was going to be there for a while longer. ......'

Sitri made a troubled expression under his hood at Ryz's words.

The sorcerous society known as the Tower of Akasha is secretive.
Each of the excellent mages who were banished from their homes are conducting research according to their own theories, but there is no communication between the laboratories and no detailed information is available. There is no communication between the labs and no detailed information is available.
As Noto Kocurea's number one apprentice, Citri participated in many research projects, but he never went outside Noto's lab. He had intended to reach out to the outside world at some point, but Noto Kokua's research was highly regarded in the Akasha Tower, and there was little need to find a new lab with the facilities and budget available. If I had not been ordered to return from Krai, I would have been happily engaged in that research even now.

However, if this had been the case, I should have gathered information little by little. The head of the room, Noto Cochlear, might still have known something, but the former Great Sage had lost his memory and was now in the Great Prison. There was nothing he could do.

We're dealing with a huge organization that's been the enemy of the world for a long time. No matter how strong Lyss and Citly were, to stand up to them required a different kind of influence than brute force.
It was certain that they had roots in the upper echelons of Zebrudia, but even if they took the trouble to investigate and denounce them, there would be nothing they could do. In such a situation, the law would probably not be on the side of Liyes and the others.

It's not that I'm afraid of death, but I'm not that interested.
Lizzie sighed heavily like a cat and said matter-of-factly.

'I'm bored. Why don't we just give up? It's a waste of time, and Greg's safe now, maybe. I don't have time to be bothered by a chicken, you know. I've got the golem thanks to Cry, so I don't care about the rest.

'Sis, ...... is always bored too!

'If you want new materials, since you got three of them, why don't you use these?'

Lyss indicated with his chin the three captives who had already lost the will to resist. Sitri countered, annoyed.

'How are we going to carry them? Wouldn't it be conspicuous if we carried them from here to the lab? Besides, I wanted the next specimen to be a mage type--'

'I don't know. Why don't you just catch them around here?

'Oh no, you know the rules of the party too, right?

The Ghost of Sorrows has three rules.

Everyone must get along.
No messing with the public.
Democracy. If there's a disagreement, it's decided by majority vote (the leader has five votes, by the way).

A little too cautious for my taste, but I think it's a reasonable rule.
And as long as the second rule is in place, Citri can't touch ordinary people. Even when he participated in the Akasha Tower, he didn't directly touch the ordinary people in the abandoned city who were kidnapped for human experiments. This was the reason why his former master, Noto, once said that he was still naive, but that was something that Citry couldn't do anything about.

The murky eyes of the inhabitants of the decadent city district are watching from outside the alley and from the windows of the buildings, watching the outcome of the commotion caused by Lizzie and her friends.
In the event you're not sure what you're looking for, you'll be able to find a lot more information on the web.

'...... Okay, I've decided! I'm not sure what to make of it.

'............'

'Don't worry, Krai-chan is kind and I'm sure she knows what she's doing. If you're afraid of Shito, I'll apologize and ask him to help you! If you're afraid of Shito, I'll apologize and ask him to help you out, so you don't have to waste time, and you can use the time to date Crye and train Tee. It's decided!

Before Sitri could say anything, Liz quickly came to a conclusion on her own and crossed her arms confidently.

I look at her smile and think.
In his heart of hearts, he wanted to avoid causing trouble for the leader. However, taking too much time could result in trouble, and he had already caused trouble many times since he became a hunter. We've been talking about this for a long time, and we're not the kind of people who are afraid to bring trouble to the table.

He pondered for a while, but came up with no good ideas. In the end, Citly came to the same conclusion.
This is what usually happens when two people have different opinions.

Reading the conclusion from her sister's expression, Ryss straightened up and pointed at the three prisoners.

'So, what do we do with these guys?

'Hmm, we can't just take them back to .......'

In response to Lizzie's question, Sitri looked down at the three captives again.
His arms were tied and he had been injected with a confession drug.

To tell the truth, I don't care. The lab is too far away and it's too risky to take it home. The Ghost of Sorrows was nowhere near as bitter as he had been.
Putting a finger to his lips, Sitri blinked.

'If you kill it and leave it alone, the people here will gather around it and tomorrow there won't be a piece of bone left. ......'

'Hmm. Shall we do that then?'

The tone of voice was casual, as if they were deciding what to have for dinner.

Out of nowhere, I start to hear a clattering sound.
It's in a paper bag. The sound of teeth grinding together.


He didn't raise his voice, probably because he didn't have the energy to do so. But he could hear the conversation, and his body was trembling helplessly.
He sensed the seriousness in their casual tone, as if they were having an everyday conversation.
These two have no regard for their own lives. They are people who can get their hands dirty without intending to kill.

The bodies of the three kneeling men swayed. At that moment, Citri thought of a good idea and shouted brightly.

'Oh, but wait, sister. Maybe it's better to make a servant of him than kill him! I just wanted a subordinate who is used to getting his hands dirty, and even though he's too crude to be Kyrgyz, don't you think it's better to reuse him rather than throw him away?''

'Eh? A minion? I don't need weak minions.

'Then I'll take all three of you! Oh, but I'll have to ask ...... him what he wants, and if he doesn't, I'll have to get rid of them. ...... But it seems that Kry-san doesn't like killing very much... ...''

Sitri walked around in front of the three kneeling men and lightly touched their exposed necks. A choking sound came from inside the paper bag. Unlike Kyrkil's paper bag, nothing could be read from the dirty paper bag with no eye holes.

Calming his breathing, Citly asked softly, "What do you mean? From behind him, Lizzie teased.

'Hey, guys. Would you be willing to be my subordinate at ...... while I continue to work at the shop? Of course, I won't force you. If you're willing, that is.

'Oh, no, right? I don't want to be Sito's subordinate. I'd rather die than have a dark future. Hey, say something! You useless bastards!