Chapter 175: 175

Chapter 175

 

Harriet seemed to be more sad than angry because she was unable to help us. She was dismissed by her family because she was still a kid, but she felt even more sad because even we seemed to dismiss her.

So what she felt was slightly different from being angry.

Eventually, Harriet seemed to feel better because of my words that time around.

She and I talked a bit more on the terrace. Harriet wore the pair of earrings I had given her—they weren’t that fancy; they were simple button-type earrings with an emerald half the size of a baby’s fingernail embedded in them. They didn’t really stand out much, so they felt just right as jewelry for a girl. 

“Th-this… Thanks… I feel a little weird.”

The corners of Harriet’s mouth twitched slightly. She had a slightly blank look in her eyes.

“What do you mean, weird?”

“How should I describe it… If I had to put it into words… I feel a little nauseous…?”

I definitely felt that it was a magical artifact, but it seemed like she felt a little weird because the tranquilizing magic was stabilizing her mind.

Was it because the spell kind of forced Harriet, who had always been rather high strung, to seem more like Ellen? That might actually feel really strange to her. 

I believd one could think of those earrings as an automatic tranquilizer administrator.

“You don’t have to wear them all the time, got it? Only when it’s necessary.”

“O-okay… Sorry.”

I gave them to her as a gift, but she felt sorry that she couldn’t wear them all the time. No, I actually gave them to her while thinking that she should only wear them when it was absolutely necessary. 

“But I don’t know how valuable these things are, so just how rare were these things? If it’s your family, you probably have a warehouse full of much better items, right?”

That was what I was worried about before giving her that gift.

The Duchy of Saint-Owan was a territory famous for its magic. The Grand Duke of Saint Owan, whom I had seen before, was an Archmage, so there was a good chance that there were hundreds of better magic artifacts in their warehouse, even if Harriet would hang onto my gift. 

So I was debating whether I should give the earrings to her or not. However, I felt a lot better after giving them to her. Harriet took off the weird earrings and held them to her chest, thinking for a moment. 

“There are three main categories for determining the rarity and price of magical artifacts. One: the number of uses. Two: what type of magic it could evoke. And three: the object that got enchanted.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. A single-use magic scroll is also deemed as a magic artifact, you know?”

Magic scrolls were disposable items. Harriet told me to wait for a moment and then went into her room, bringing something back with her—it was a wand about thirty centimeters long.

“What’s that? A magic wand or something?”

“It’s a self-defense weapon. I took it with me in case something unexpected happened. There are usually two types of magic wands and staffs. Some help to stabilize or control the user’s mana flow, and others are charged with magic spells. The difference between those and magic scrolls is that only people who know how to use magic can use them.” 

A wand or staff might help one in the use of magic or may be charged with magic spells.

“There are ten charges of Chain Lightning stored in here.”

“Then it’s a lot more valuable than a scroll, right?”

“That’s right. In some cases, these items become useless as soon as the number of spells stored in them had been used up, and there are some that can be recharged. Of course, the rechargeable kind is more difficult and expensive to make. This one’s a rechargeable artifact.”

Using that artifact enabled one to use the high-ranking destruction magic spell called Chain Lightning 10 times, and one could recharge it—it probably was a very powerful magic artifact.

…There was a reason that she felt so confident in being able to follow us, as she had something like that she could place her trust in.

“However, there are exceptions. These earrings are a little similar to my wand. The magic spell was permanently engraved into the artifact itself, so if you pour in your own magical power, the magic spell imprinted on it gets activated.”

“…I see.”

“These types are the rarest. Because one could cast the engraved spell directly without having to cast it. Things like these are incredibly rare. As far as I know, it takes every technology and practice I know of to make something like these earrings.”

The rarity of magical artifacts varied depending on the number of times one could use it and whether it was rechargeable or not.

In other words, artifacts with permanently imprinted magic spells were incredibly rare. I realized then what a ridiculous item the Flame of Tuesday hanging around my neck was.

Even a wand or staff with a single spell permanently engraved in it was treated as an ancient relic, but to use the Flame of Tuesday, one didn’t even need to be a wizard—it could create fire just by one’s will. It was an item that enabled one to use one type of element and not only one type of spell.

I already thought it was a great treasure, but hearing those things from Harriet made me realize just how powerful a magical artifact it was. It was probably one of the greatest treasures one could find on the continent.

“However, that’s only the case for destruction magic. Things like defensive and support magic are often engraved permanently. Engraving destruction magic that can be triggered is really difficult after all.”

Harriet showed me the earrings I had given her, holding them between her index finger and her thumb.

“They are small.”

“…?”

“Do you think it’s easy to permanently engrave spells on such small objects? It’s not even a low-level spell like Lightweight—it’s a spell to stabilize one’s mind. Although Tranquility isn’t a spell of the highest order, it’s a mid-to-high-ranking mental spell. Just by wearing these little things on one’s ears, one could enjoy their effects. It couldn’t have been easy to make these.”

The third way to determine the rarity of a magical artifact was to look at the item itself.

In other words, the size mattered. Large items such as armor and swords were easy to enchant. However, in the case of ornaments and jewelry, it seemed like a very high level of skill was required to enchant them.

And the earrings I had given Harriet were half the size of a baby’s fingernail.

“So… they are very valuable..”

Harriet looked at me and smiled.

There was only one reason why Harriet would give me such a long explanation to my question of how valuable they were.

“Thank you, Reinhardt.”

She was trying to explain to me the worth of my gift that I was completely oblivious about and thank me.

“Erm… esteemed guests?”

And as we were chatting away on the terrace, someone suddenly came to us.

It was the mansion’s head maid.

“What?”

In response to my words, she muttered something in a slightly perplexed tone of voice.

“There… There has been a problem.”

“A problem?”

“…The young lady left her wallet behind.”

‘Ah. That clutz idiot.’

She would forget her own head if it wasn’t attached.

* * *

Being a clutz idiot was a bit different from being an idiot.

Although one seemed to be doing quite well for themselves, one would make unexpected mistakes at weird times.

That was what applied to Liana de Grantz.

She planned and prepared everything before she left to shop, but when she arrived and wanted to pay for something… she couldn’t seem to find where she put her wallet.

That was what kind of situation she was in.

The servants probably were incredibly surprised when they saw a bag of gold coins just lying on Liana’s bedside table when they were cleaning her room. 

Of course, since she was a great noble, her name held more than enough credits, so she could just act like that with Duke Grantz as her shield.

 

However, that wasn’t the Imperial Capital.

Even though she was a noble, I wasn’t sure if the prestige of Duke Grantz would suffice on those distant southern islands across the sea.

She didn’t even take any attendants, except one coachman, with her.

“…Adelia didn’t take her wallet with her either.”

“…I think the same goes for Ellen.”

We looked through everyone’s luggage. While we couldn’t confirm whether Heinrich took some with him or not, we ascertained that Adelia and Ellen didn’t take any money with them.

Although we were sure, we didn’t believe that Heinrich actually took it with him. He didn’t go with them to buy something. He just wanted to follow Liana.

Duke Grantz’s wizard could teleport those things to them, but the guy seemed to be busy until the day we would return to Temple—that seemed to be the reason why the servants tried asking us, as they didn’t have much of a choice.

At that rate, something like the Grand Duchy’s young lady, excited to treat her friends to something, unable to pay for anything because she stupidly forgot her money, would happen. They would have to wash dishes because they didn’t have enough money after eating—that would be a huge disgrace.

“Well… Now that I think of it, they should have already reached Rajak, so how are we even going to get there if we wanted to take their wallets to them?”

Wouldn’t it be better to wait for them to come back after they were done with whatever they were doing?

I didn’t think we’d be able to find them if we just went there. Harriet nodded silently.

“Did one of them take their student ID with them?”

What Harriet said, that one of them might have taken their student ID with them, was quite plausible. Well, although Ellen might not have taken it with her,  one of the others might have. Our Temple student ID could be treated as a regular ID card. One never knew when one might need something like that.

“Can you locate their student IDs?”

“Yes.”

Harriet nodded her head.

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“I now know how to access the tracking magic placed on the student IDs.”

That seemed to be a result of my sudden disappearance a while back.

During that incident, Harriet seemed to have studied how to access the tracking magic placed on our student IDs. Of course, I had actually artificially blocked the spell at that time.

How should I put it?

I felt proud, sad, and grateful.

That was it.

 

* * *

 

The servant requested our help as if grasping at straws in case that girl would suffer from humiliation, but that somehow seemed to have been the correct decision.

Harriet and I borrowed a horse from the mansion to catch up to them as fast as possible

“…Do you know how to ride a horse?”

“…I learned how to do it a while ago.”

Harriet’s eyes widened at the fact that I knew how to ride a horse. Obviously, Harriet knew how to do it, as it was a basic skill for any great noble.

Of course, it would have been a rather big problem if we fell off the horse while in a hurry to get to Rajak, so Harriet and I only rode at a slightly faster pace.

We weren’t too far away from Rajak. We also rode a horse there, so, soon we reached the outskirts of the city where horses and wagons were placed.

“Look, that carriage… It has Duke Grantz’s crest.”

We could immediately find Duke Grantz’s carriage, as it was just the most dazzling among all the carriages parked there.

 

We left our horse with the waiting coachman and entered the city of Rajak.

 

“…This feels like a port city.”

“Yeah.”

Although the sea was pretty far from the place, I could still smell the scent of the sea wafting over it. However, the smell was more refreshing than unpleasantly fishy.

Rajak was a very busy city, however not as much as the Capital. Placed on a hilltop and a steep cliff some distance away, I could see a building that seemed to be the Royal Castle of the Edina Kingdom. 

 

When we went into the city, it went slightly downhill, like a slope, giving us a panoramic view of the city. 

There were numerous ships coming and going at the great harbor and docks.

“This place hasn’t implemented Warp Gates yet.”

Harriet was staring at the moving ships in amazement. Due to the Warp Gate technology, trade routes had been drastically shortened, so that way of transportation seemed to be a thing of the past.

Overall, there were many white buildings, so the city looked rather clean than eye-catching. I could see then why Liana said that the place was only a lesser-known tourist destination. 

Looking at those huge ships sailing back and forth in the transparent sea made me feel kind of good for some reason. The port town was like out of a painting, not dirty or filled with an oily and watery smell about it.

 

“Let’s go look for those guys.”

“Yes.”

Harriet closed her eyes and fell silent for a short moment as she casted the tracking magic. After some time, Harriet opened her eyes again.

“Uhm, over there.”

Harriet pointed her finger in one direction, but I couldn’t quite tell where exactly she was pointing.

Harriet took the lead, and I followed after her.

”Magic really is fascinating.”

Harriet wore a strange smile as we walked.

“What?”

“To be honest, I learned that student ID tracking magic because of what happened last time… However, even if it’s not you, someone might disappear again, so that’s why I tried hard to learn this.”

It seemed that Harriet studied such magic because she held regrets like, “I wish I knew more, I wish I knew magic that I could have used in that situation.”

“But I can’t believe I’m using this spell just to return someone’s money bag…”

She had studied that spell in case someone went missing again, but she would have never imagined that her first application for it was to return a friend’s money bag to them. She ended up using it in a way completely different from its original purpose. Harriet found that quite curious.

“Well, the same happened with the underwater breathing spell as well.”

“So you just learn some magic because you think it’s interesting and just use it right away, huh?”

She would completely skip all the middle steps.

If you want to learn a spell, just learn it. What’s so hard about it?

I wasn’t a magic major, but I had a feeling that if her major classmates heard her talking like that, they might hit her. A genius was still a genius.

Harriet first frowned and then looked at me with a sneer.

“Well, I always said that I was smart. Why are you acting as if you just found that out?”

“When did I ever say that you weren’t smart? I just said that you’re a bit of an idiot.”

“There it is! Y-y-you called me i-idiot again!”

Harriet blushed as she complained to me.

I liked that girl’s tension way better. It had been a long time since I saw her angry, so I instantly felt better.

 

Ah.

It seemed like I really was a sadist. Only limited to her, through.

“Anyway, let’s hurry up and find the others, idiot.”

“Are you doing this on purpose to make me angry when I was just about to forget about that?! You act all nice to me, but you always do this to me! It always ends up like this!”

Sorry.

To be honest, it felt like I was doing a daily quest.

I didn’t really have to do it, but if I broke my chain, I would feel kind of upset.

“How did you know? Rather, why did you notice that only now?”

“You’re so annoying!”

-Hit!

She huffed and clenched her fist in anger, then hit my chest.

“What? Did you hit me just now?”

“And you’re not even hurt! My hand hurts even more!”

The situation was rather embarrassing, as I couldn’t even feel that punch of hers.

 

* * *

 

Just where were those kids, and what were they doing?

After we wandered around the city for quite a long time, Harriet suddenly sighed.

“What’s the matter?”

“…This situation seems to be more complicated than we expected.”

Well, there might be more to it than we first thought, but how did she know that something was clearly amiss?

“Why do you think so?”

“Their location hasn’t changed. They are still in the same place.”

I believed that I vaguely knew what she was talking about. The location of the others Harriet sensed was exactly the same even after we walked around for such a long time—that was why we could make some guesses.

Maybe they were stranded somewhere, or maybe they realized that they didn’t have any money on them. That would mean that Heinrich, our last hope, didn’t have any money on him either. 

“We’re almost there. It’s over that way.”

The place Harriet was pointing towards was a pretty big restaurant.

____

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