75 71 When you find something crazy at work, its really...oh my gosh. (1/2)

Tanaka Jiro, 28 years old, with a girlfriend

Her Suela Hendelberg

Memory Tris

Occupation Dungeon Tester (full-time)

Magical aptitude 8 (general class)

Post Warriors

”We didn't expect someone like you to come along.

I woke up early in the morning and waited for an hour, sipping what we in this world call tea to at least wake me up, and then, as if measuring, the man appeared.

At first I thought differently, but as he quickly walked past me, he called out to me to say thank you for making me wait and announced his position.

I'm sitting at the end of the cafeteria.

I'm sitting at the end of the cafeteria, and the person who's waiting for me sits down next to me in a position where I can see each other's faces if I look away from him just a little.

The person sitting in front of you sits down and begins to polish a knife from his or her waist as if to make you believe that the comment was in his or her mind.

In Japan, this would be more of an arrest than an insanity, but here, before or after dinner, it's a natural sight to clean your weapon like you're passing the time.

Guildmaster.

This time it would be bad if I didn't come. It's the only way.

When I heard the job title, I was a little puzzled.

I didn't expect the big guy (the top guy) himself to show up.

We looked at each other for a moment, and then, instead of an empty cup of tea, I smoked a cigarette while a robust older man, still showing no signs of weakness, polished a knife.

From a distance, it doesn't look like they're having a conversation.

I didn't think the day would come when we would have such an open and honest conversation, but perhaps this kind of open and honest conversation would be less suspicious, depending on how you look at it.

Using my enhanced hearing, the other guild master will use his own innate skills to whisper to each other without looking at each other.

Furthermore, I sit in a position where you can't see me talking from the outside, and I speak at such a volume that you can't really hear me.

The guildmaster, despite being visible from the entrance, uses knives and gestures to hold a conversation without letting anyone but me see or hear.

I suppose I'd better be brief, though I honestly don't have a good feeling about your arrival.

”You should take care of your instincts, there is no one good story to tell.

I frown as if the smoke I inhale is bad.

I'm sure the people who are happy to hear that it's bad have more than a screw or two in their heads.

I'm sure you've heard of the false brave and the forbidden spell I'll show you is the face-peeling, which is a forbidden spell among us. Of course, it's the kind of thing that would have the heads of the top brass if it was known that the country was using it.

”Flaying?

There's something disturbing going on here.

That's right. To begin with, the art of disguising oneself as another person is classified as advanced magic. Gestures, tone of voice, habits, memory, human beings, even when trained, can produce movements unique to a person. If you want to imitate all of them and eliminate the sense of discomfort, it's no small feat. But the art of becoming a stranger is one that is worth paying good money for in any country.

Humans create if necessary.

And we use what we make for many purposes.

The point is, it's like a nuclear weapon, very dangerous in its power, but in demand.

An energy source or a weapon.

I shut up and listen while I smoke a cigarette.

And there's a technique born in the ancient past called 'face-skinning'. It uses another person's magic and soul to transform into that other person. not to mention their appearance, their gestures, habits, preferences, and memories. Its uses are many, to say the least.

”Then it was used to replace

As for usage, don't even think about it.

The only thing that matters is that your people have become enemies before you know it.

That's the only thing that matters.

That's just horrifying to hear.

And judging by the old man's story, some of the students may even be dead.

And they wouldn't even be noticed by their classmates.

No, they're alive. This technique has a drawback, too. It must be periodically drained from the subject to maintain its magic. So the target, a brave man, must be alive.

”I see.

That's a relief.

But then one question arises.

Why go to the trouble of using such a dangerous technique in your people?

From the story, we should see that this technique was used as soon as the hero was summoned.

Then it was prepared in advance.

Why?

But it doesn't make me feel safe either. The information the undead brought back contained what appeared to be a massive grimoire. It doesn't make sense.

”?　Isn't that a magical tool for using that art?

”You don't need such a large grimoire to strip a face. You just need a mage that's about the size of an ornament. So it's a risk, but not now. Here's the main thing.

My gut tells me that the part of the guild master that is stuck is headed to the same destination, though their roots are different.

To begin with, if you only come here to tell us this kind of story, you should just leave it to the morning messenger.

We don't know the whole story either, but we've been gathering information even so far. But there's one piece of information that caught my attention.

When it comes to enough information for the guild behind the scenes to care about, it's quite something.

Their expressions don't change, but the tension is growing.

Two months ago a large amount of mineral wood was brought into the temple. An unusually large number of other mages have been summoned as well. I suspect this has something to do with what's going on.

”The Miner and the Mage: ......

Hearing those two names, this really means that the summoning of the heroes could be a planned rather than spontaneous action.

Mineral trees are a rare kind of object.

Preparing a reasonable number of such things will take time.

There's an oversight here.

Some part of it is presumptuous.

So I went back to the origins of this war and pondered deeply to see if I'd overlooked anything.

And when the cigarette I hadn't smoked was reduced to ash

”No way.

I changed my mind about a point and saw a path.

Vaguely, the outline of the country's plan has now taken shape in my mind.

You have something in mind.

”...... is more of a surprise prediction than a hunch.

”I came originally to get information from you that we don't have. I don't need to have proof. You got something to tell me.

The guildmaster's voice carried more weight.

But I had a nasty equation built up in my head that I didn't care about.

Was this a coincidence?

No, if there is a God, then maybe we can call it fate.

Maybe we've been making a bad assumption to begin with.

”What?

Start answering that nasty equation.

It may have started with a mistake in a precondition that can be described as a careless mistake.

”We were told that this war was started by the Empire. Maybe it was the other way around.

The Empire had just completed a golem made from the remains of a demon king, and this country was going to war. I had someone from the organization check it out for me.

I'm sorry, I misspoke. The Empire was going to war. But I think they went against the grain, didn't they?