Chapter 99: Family (1) (1/2)

The Imperial Magic Tower, 77th floor.

Yeriel visited the [Head Professor’s Office] while Deculein was on his business trip. Perhaps because its owner was away, security magic was set all over the place, but each spell stopped working when a certain someone snapped their fingers.

“What request did you take?!”

Chairman Adrienne. Yeriel was caught by her in the middle of trying to sneak into the office room. However, this was better.

“I can’t tell you that. It’s work-related.”

“…Hmm! Then, I can ask Professor Deculein myself!”

“Yes. Please.”

Yeriel nodded calmly and put the papers from her handbag on the desk. She had brought along documents related to the underground opening and Rohalak concentration camps as a pretext. Each was sealed with a magical security mechanism that would open after recognizing Deculein’s fingerprints and iris.

She turned to regard the Chairman, who was still watching her.

“Could you go now, please?”

“…That’s suspicious!”

That raised the antennae of the Chairman’s busybody personality. It seemed that her intuition was reacting. It was funny how she stared like a predatory mantis, but Yeriel shook her head.

“It’s work-related anyway, so that it won’t be much fun.”

“…Humph, okay! I’ll go for now!”

The Chairman licked her lips but complied, walking outside. Only then could Yeriel begin in full. She had something to look for.

“…I like his personality at moments like this.”

She found what she sought quickly. Thanks to Deculein’s cleaning obsession, it caught her eye as soon as she opened the drawers.

[ ]

It was an untitled note. On the surface, it looked like something you could buy for 3 Elnes at a stationery store, but it was by no means an ordinary notebook. This was one of the many items given to them by the former head of the family, Decalane, and she had her copy.

“As expected, it was here.”

Searching the mansion had proved fruitless, but the tower she came to as a last resort was the right choice. Yeriel was going to figure out Deculein’s intentions with this.

“…With this.”

Her heart was still weak and cautious, and there were a lot of practical problems. Therefore, she chose this diary as a surefire way. Instead of moving hastily, she was trying to look into Deculein’s last feelings.

“Hmmmm…”

Yeriel put her diary in its place. As both were magical artifacts created by her father, there was no difference in appearance or function. And, above all, Yeriel was convinced that Deculein would not look into this diary.

The only one Deculein feared. That ‘father’ could be seen in this diary anytime he looked upon it.

“Now…”

So, the moment she came out of his office.

“!”

Yeriel ran into someone she didn’t want to see. The person approaching quickly noticed Yeriel and glanced at her with wide eyes.

“Solda Yeriel?”

It was Louina, beelining toward the head professor’s office with some students.

“…”

Yeriel thought about Louina. Deculein had kidnaped her under some circumstances she wasn’t aware of, but strangely, she had grown quiet these days. Rumors were now circulating that she had become Deculein’s henchman. Yeriel was curious about the story behind that bizarre event.

“…Professor Louina, what’s happening on the 77th floor? It’s my brother’s… hm. It’s Lord Deculein’s floor.”

“I thought the professor was back because the security magic had stopped working. I have documents that need to be re-approved.”

“-Ah! That money-eating hippo!”

From behind the wall, the Chairman appeared with a wild look in her eyes. Louina took a step back out of surprise while Yeriel let out a sigh. What did she want to accomplish by eavesdropping like that? What a mess.

“Professor Louina! Do you know how much you’ve spent so far?! Still, you want more?! Those documents waiting for approval are for payment this time too, right?! Approval to spend money!”

“What can I do if it costs a lot, Chairman? And, this is the keynote manager’s responsibility anyway, isn’t it? You can just leave it to him.”

“…We shouldn’t have created the Planning and Coordination Office!”

“Hey~, apart from my project, the keynote makes a lot of money, right? The projects carefully selected by the professor were all successful.”

“Louina, you are eating all those profits!”

“Hey~, it can’t be that much~.”

“Are you kidding me?! It is that much! It’ll reach over 100 million Elnes at this rate!”

“Oh, my. Is it not yet at 100 million Elnes? It’s less than I expected.”

“What!!!”

Listening carefully to their useless, but still related to the tower, talk, Yeriel sneakily boarded the elevator.

* * *

A blue summer afternoon without a single cloud in sight. After completing the entry and exit procedures for Locralen — marking exported items, search and inspection, etc. — we boarded the train and arrived at [Hairich Station].

“Whoa! We’re finally back!”

Allen let out the exclamation while stretching. I looked up to the sky outside the car window for a moment. It was just an ordinary business trip, but it felt like a long journey had ended for some reason.

“…I didn’t know they would take my diary too.”

“They’re just doing this because they’re afraid you’ll have a problem with your memories.”

Allen responded to Epherene’s blunt self-talk.

“Yes, I understand… and, fortunately, I remember a bit. I guess my mental power isn’t that bad.”

“Right~. I don’t remember much of the lectures, but what happened that day and the daily parts are fine.”

“…I only remember fainting.”

We disembarked the platform while chatting. Rose Rio and Kreto, who happened to be on the same train, approached. Kreto held out his hand first.

“Professor Deculein. You helped us this time again.”

“Yeah. Hey, Professor Deculein, your skills are great. Why are you still a Monarch?”

“Sir Kreto, thank you. Rose Rio, you as well.”

I bid goodbye to them. Allen, Epherene, and Drent stuck around to have a brief chat, after which we split up and headed down the

“Oh, my?!”

Now in the heart of Hairich, Epherene suddenly pointed off in a direction.

“The Pig’s Flower.”

Epherene stared blankly at the restaurant’s entrance. It was a little different from the Pig’s Flower restaurant near the Imperial University. It was an extremely high-end branch decorated in a much more luxurious way according to the style and concept of Hairich, the wealthiest village in the empire.

“…Slurp. I. Sluurp. Sluurp. Ah. Why can’t I stop drooling? Julie said they would open a new branch this time, but I didn’t think it would be in Hairich….”

“Is it that delicious?”

At Allen’s question, Epherene nodded. Not once, not twice, but three, four, five times. I produced my wallet.

“Allen.”

“Yes?”

“Buy her a meal and then send her back.”

When I easily handed over a check for 10,000 Elnes, Allen accepted it with a look of shock.

“That’s too-“

“You will end up using it all on eating. Hairich’s prices are beyond imagination.”

“Oh… yes, yes. Thank you, professor!”

Allen took the check with trembling hands. Epherene, watching me from the side, couldn’t contain her smile.

“I will go first.”

“Yes! Thank you! Bye, Professor!”

“Bye, Professor.”

“Goodbye~!”

Farewells from Allen, Drent, and Epherene, respectively. Without paying attention to them, I climbed into the prepared car. Looking outside the window, I could see Allen leading them into the restaurant.

─Let’s go~, hurry up~.

Epherene’s steps were light, a bright smile covering her entire face.

“…That Epherene.”

Does that mean that in the future, she will become an archmage? I smirked.

“Professor, how was your business trip?”

Julie, sitting quietly next to me, asked. I looked at her and nodded.

“Not bad.”

Julie smiled broadly, and I told the driver.

“Let’s go to the tower.”

* * *

Arriving at my tower office, I first produced the 「Advanced Attribute Catalog」.

“…It’s a good reward.”

Unlike the item catalog, the attribute catalog was an immensely important item. There weren’t many opportunities to obtain it in the game.

However, advanced was a bit vague. The order of attributes was [ ordinary – low-grade – intermediate – advanced – rare – unique – intrinsic ]. Here, ordinary and low-grade were bonuses that couldn’t even be considered attributes like Psychokinesis Master, and only from intermediate and advanced onward could they at least be considered as such.

[1. Common License ]

[2. Tiger’s Throat]

[3. Aggressive Attack Stance]

No matter how far I scrolled down, I couldn’t find anything useful. My eyes kept scanning down, down, down…?

“What is this?”

I discovered an attribute with an unfamiliar name.

──「Encryption」──

◆ Rating

: Advanced

◆ Description

: The ability to encrypt the target by consuming magical power. (However, living things cannot be encrypted)

: The output of the attribute is affected by the owner’s mental power.