Winter had ended, and spring brought new shoots.

In Hasra, the capital of Pendia, a rumor that had begun at court started spreading far and wide, as rumors always did.

The king had decided to name whichever prince brought him a way to restore his health as his successor!

People could not speak carelessly about court affairs, but once a story like that got loose, there was no stopping it.

Before long, the two princes openly began recruiting accomplished warriors. They sought powerful fighters who could help explore the Demonlands, and even haughty knights who ordinarily would not have spared such a dangerous place a thought came forward.

Naturally, word soon reached the common people as well, and everyone talked about it in taverns.

Along with this came a natural surge of interest in the “mysterious warrior who slew a cockatrice.”

The tale sounded impossible: a warrior had successfully slain a cockatrice in the Demonlands, either alone or accompanied by only a mage and a priest.

No one knew who the warrior really was. Some described a man as huge as a mountain; others, a lean middle-aged warrior with piercing eyes. Still others claimed it was a tall woman.

There was even some nonsense about an Altoan boy who had not yet come of age, but even the Altoans in the slums found that so absurd they laughed at it.

Taking advantage of the mood, Kalion discreetly sounded out the noble houses he regularly dealt with that belonged to Prince Elvin’s faction. He would jokingly mention a wager with an acquaintance and ask whether the nobles would grant the cockatrice-slayer knighthood if the warrior turned out to be Altoan.

Naturally, lavish flattery and bribes accompanied these inquiries.

Unfortunately, every answer was negative. Even the most favorable response amounted to, “Lure him in with a promise of knighthood, then use him for as long as he’s useful.”

While Kalion took Roden with him on these tireless rounds, Shan found work of his own to do: looking after his most important asset, his body.

“Are you going out, young master?”

“I’m going to see the doctor. I won’t be long.”

Dressed in light spring clothes, Shan smiled at the maid who had asked his destination and stepped out onto the street.

After passing along two broad streets and a narrow alley, then crossing a river, he reached an amethyst tower he recognized from several previous visits: Pendia’s Magic Society, the pride of every mage.

His destination was one of the mages’ workshops behind the Society’s main building.

“Anyone home?”

KNOCK, KNOCK!

He knocked on the wooden door. A moment later, a small hatch opened with a click, and two eyes peered out at him. Soon the door opened, revealing a kindly-looking middle-aged woman.

“Shan, it’s been so long! Back from the Demonlands already, are you? You haven’t been hurt, have you?”

“No, Professor Maya. I just came for that examination we discussed, to see if anything’s wrong.”

Maya Bekaris was an authority on alchemy and the study of life, a professor with a formal degree from the Magic Society. People of her profession were also called doctors, though with most sick people going to priests, medicine was something of a sideline.

Sir Darkal had introduced them. Shortly after Shan began training for knighthood, Darkal discovered several ways in which his body differed from other people’s, dragged him here, and forced him to undergo an examination.

[“But a mage? That’s a little frightening... What if they do weird experiments on me?”]

[“Cut the bullshit and get in there!”]

Sir Darkal maintained that priests were far better at simply healing people, but since they had no idea what they were fixing or how, mages were much better at examinations and analysis. Hadn’t he said they had helped him considerably in systematizing training to awaken spirit?

Here, Shan had learned a good many of his body’s secrets. His bones were made of lighter, more flexible material than other people’s, for instance, and his muscle fibers were fine and densely packed, allowing him to exert greater strength with the same amount of muscle.

On hearing the results, Sir Darkal had merely remarked, [“Good. So you aren’t missing a few internal organs like I thought.”]

Teaching an Altoan pupil despite being an Old Faith believer, keeping a mage as an acquaintance—the more Shan thought about it, the more eccentric the man seemed.

“Come inside.”

Her workshop smelled musty and was cluttered with glass apparatus, research papers, and biological specimens. Remembering how he had once recoiled and refused to enter because it looked exactly like the witches’ cottages he had heard about in stories, Shan settled comfortably into the examination chair.

“I almost mentioned this last time, but why don’t you hire a servant? Even next to the Society, it seems dangerous for a woman to live alone.”

“I hired one once, years ago, but they sold off all the tools in my workshop and ran away. I’ve been too frightened to hire another since. If you know anyone trustworthy, do introduce us.”

Now that she mentioned it, quite a few things here looked as though they would fetch a handsome price from another mage.

Even as they chatted, Maya deftly collected samples of Shan’s hair and blood, placed them in several alchemical solutions, and measured his height and weight.

“You’ve grown quite a bit. Put on a good deal of weight, too.”

“I hope I keep growing like this, until I’m as big as Roden.”

“Then eat well and get plenty of sleep. Do that, and you’ll probably grow another twenty centimeters.”

She went on to examine several solutions and confirmed that he had none of the infectious diseases she had tested for.

“It amazes me every time.”

“What does?”

“That magic can tell you so much about someone’s health.”

“It’s the result of hard study and research. Magic gives you nothing for free. You have to work until your eyes fall out and your brain burns up.”

Tapping her temple with one finger as though the mere thought gave her a headache, Maya gestured at Shan’s body.

“I find your body far more remarkable. I’ve lost count of how many papers I’ve written on this subject alone.”

With a look of fascination, Maya elaborated. She had examined many Altoan bodies—all within the bounds of the law, of course—but had never seen physical advantages developed to such an extreme as Shan’s.

Usually, their differences amounted only to unusual appearances or even manifested as disadvantages. Mutations that improved physical or mental abilities were exceedingly rare, occurring in only one person out of several dozen.

Naturally, a mutation on Shan’s level was entirely unprecedented.

“I’d dearly love to meet your parents... Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right.”

After all their conversations, she too knew that Shan was an orphan whose parents had abandoned him.

Maya bowed her head slightly in apology for her slip, then returned to studying the solutions containing his hair and blood. Her eyes narrowed.

“Hmm...”

“Has something changed?”

“A little.”

Maya had asked Shan to visit after his return because she wanted to learn how the Demonlands’ unique environment affected Altoans. Most Altoans in the capital never had occasion to go anywhere like the Demonlands, and for those who had been there, she had no record of their bodies beforehand. Gathering data was surprisingly difficult.

“Did anything unusual happen in the Demonlands? Did you bathe in a strange spring, or get exposed to some peculiar light?”

“Nothing like that... Well, I did kill a cockatrice.”

“A cockatrice!?”

The way she started and stared at him with her eyes wide looked so much like a witch that Shan flinched despite himself.

“Those stories going around—surely not... A child your age? Good heavens! You could have died! You reckless boy!”

“It wasn’t all that hard to handle.”

Being treated like a little child playing at the water’s edge made Shan put on an unnecessarily boastful air.

Maya continued scolding him not to do anything too dangerous—though at Shan’s age, simply entering the Demonlands was dangerous—before changing the subject.

“Did you bring any parts from the cockatrice back? There are a few things I badly need. If you’re willing, I’d like to buy them at a good price.”

“We already sold everything to the guild.”

“Oh...”

Disappointment spread across Maya’s face.

Naturally, selling directly to mages in the capital would have been more profitable than selling to the explorers’ guild, since it cut out the distribution markup. But that would have directly encroached on the count’s interests.

Had they been caught selling the magic stone and other parts elsewhere while boasting about killing a cockatrice, he might well have tried every conceivable way to obstruct them.

“In any case, something has definitely changed. Haven’t you noticed anything yourself? A sudden increase in strength, for instance?”

“Not at all.”

With Shan’s command of his body, there was no way a change like that would have escaped his notice.

After several more tests, Maya sighed.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to work it out just yet. May I draw a little more blood? I think I’ll need some help.”

“Help?”

“Yes. A pupil... Well, that isn’t quite the right word, but one of the children I once taught is immensely talented. She’s terribly busy these days, so I don’t know whether she’ll have time. If not, I’ll at least try borrowing some equipment.”

* * *

“Damn it! Every last noble in this country is rotten!”

At dinner that evening, after Shan returned from his examination, Roden exploded in frustration. Beside him, Kalion silently nodded, suggesting that things had not been going well lately.

“Want some wine?”

“Thanks.”

Roden gulped down the wine Shan poured him, let out a sharp breath, and wiped his mouth. The drink seemed to improve his mood a little.

“They’re all the same. Some of those bastards even said they’d sooner knight a dog than an Altoan! For crying out loud, he killed a cockatrice on his own! What the hell does race have to do with it?”

“Keep your voice down.”

His father’s stern voice soon calmed Roden’s angry outburst. After a brief silence, he deliberately changed the subject.

“Come to think of it, apparently the Kingdom of Ajun sent an envoy recently.”

“Oh, is this about that?”

“Yes. Apparently, the crusader who died was a duke’s son. The duke’s wife is the king of Ajun’s younger sister, so that fits his claim of being the king’s nephew.”

As mere jewelers, they had no right to attend talks between two kingdoms, so this was only what they had heard. Still, the envoy from Ajun had reportedly taken a very aggressive stance.

He had demanded an intensive investigation of Pendia’s explorers, insisting they produce the culprits even if it meant arresting everyone who had recently excavated Altoan ruins.

Naturally, Pendia’s response to this outrageous demand amounted to telling him to go fuck himself. They already resented the so-called crusaders’ persistent interference with explorers, a national industry. If they obeyed now, wouldn’t they be treated as a vassal state?

Moreover, with the king bedridden, the two princes had attended the talks. Both were taking an unnecessarily hard line to impress their own nobles, leaving neither willing to concede an inch.

The talks had ultimately collapsed. Unless the Kingdom of Ajun infiltrated spies on its own, there was now almost no chance of their being exposed as the people who had killed its nobleman. With a rugged mountain range separating the two countries, even that would not be easy.

“That’s a relief...”

“And apparently this incident broke off the engagement between Ajun’s prince and our princess.”

“The princess?”

“That’s what I heard. Honestly, I never imagined we’d leave such a big footprint on international politics this way.”

Disrupting the bond between two kingdoms was an achievement on a scale no mere jeweler could manage in a lifetime—or even another one.

Watching Roden chuckle, Shan remembered the princess he had met at the Magic Society about half a year earlier.

Now, had her hair been blond? White? He could not quite remember.

He did not know much about them, but apparently there were two princesses, so it must have been one of them.

“Anyway, Roden, come get examined with me sometime soon.”

“Why?”

“I went today, and she said something’s changed since before I went to the Demonlands. We were together almost the entire time.”

“So if something’s wrong, it’s probably happened to both of us. All right. When should we go?”

“The professor said she’d send word when she’s ready.”

After securing Roden’s promise to accompany him to the next examination, Shan asked Kalion to introduce him to a blacksmith: someone discreet, with the skill to work the rare alloys commonly produced in the Kingdom of Ajun.

The merchants’ guild and blacksmiths’ guild were separate organizations, but their work overlapped in many ways, so finding such a person through his connections was not difficult. However, the smith’s proven skill and trustworthiness had earned him such a backlog of orders that it took about a week to arrange a meeting.

“You say Mr. Kalion sent you?”

“Yes. I’d like you to work this metal.”

Shan produced four chunks of metal. He had used A Thousand Forms to cut the shield captured in the Altoan city’s underground passage into smaller pieces, then scraped away every distinctive pattern. Even if its former owner came back to life and saw it, he would have struggled to recognize his own shield.

“I don’t know what you fought to leave it looking like this, but it must have been terrible... Hmm, wrought iron with a lot of keledo mixed in.”

Muttering technical terms Shan did not really understand, the blacksmith advised him that the metal absorbed impacts well and was best used for armor.

Shan had wanted a weapon to replace A Thousand Forms, which he could not use in everyday circumstances, but he would apparently have to settle for protective gear.

“Then I’d like a shield, please. A small one I can strap to my forearm.”

“It’ll offer much less protection if you don’t grip it in your hand.”

“That’s all right.”

“You won’t block much with it unless your reactions are exceptionally fast.”

In answer, Shan gave a simple demonstration of his reflexes, asking the smith to throw a nearby iron poker at him and catching it easily, again and again.

At first, the smith tossed it gently for fear of hurting him. By the time he was throwing it with all his strength from several meters away and Shan was still catching it, his face had gone slack with astonishment.

“Right. With reactions like that, you’ll manage fine even with something this small... I’ll have to melt it down and make it afresh. Would you mind if I adjusted the proportions a bit? I’ve got a few good ideas. It might cost a little more, but you can expect good results in terms of quality.”

Shan nodded his acceptance. If even the alloy’s composition changed, there would be almost no chance of anyone identifying the shield, even if he later encountered someone from Ajun. Plenty of people in Pendia used weapons and armor containing rare metals from Ajun anyway.

Along with the small shield, he decided to have the remaining metal made into an open-faced helmet.

Shan could perceive and evade or block almost any attack, but in a truly desperate moment, a piece of equipment like that could mean the difference between life and death.

* * *

Maya’s message asking him to come for his examination arrived the day after he commissioned the blacksmith. It requested that he arrive at noon on the last day of the week in which the Goddess had fashioned the world.

Fortunately, Roden had no particular plans that day either, so the two set out for Maya’s workshop in time for the appointment.

“Hmm?”

Shan had been walking without hesitation, but his eyes narrowed slightly. Something felt unusual about the person leaning against the side of Maya’s workshop, who at first glance looked like an ordinary mercenary.

The instincts he had gradually developed through encounters with other warriors told him that the man’s ability was far out of keeping with his attire. He sensed something similar from the sword-wearing woman standing by the building opposite.

“Roden.”

“Yes?”

“The man in front of the workshop and the woman across from him are both at least as good as a fairly capable knight. Do you recognize either of them?”

“What?”

“Don’t stare.”

At Shan’s whisper, Roden cast a quick glance their way and shook his head.

“No.”

“If anything happens, get behind me.”

“Don’t worry, you idiot. It’s not as though anyone would suddenly attack us in the capital...”

Roden swallowed the rest of his words. Come to think of it, a surprising number of things they had done might give someone reason to attack them. In particular, if Ajun had discovered their identities, sending assassins would hardly be out of the question.

As Shan approached the workshop and knocked, he felt both strangers turn their eyes toward them. But they merely glanced over without reacting. Soon Maya opened the peephole, and her eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Roden.

“Oh, Roden, you’re here too? You should have told me you were coming!”

“I went to the Demonlands with Shan. He kept insisting I get examined with him...”

As another of Darkal’s former pupils, Roden was acquainted with Maya as well. After a moment’s hesitation, she opened the door and invited them inside.

“Excuse us.”

Stepping into the familiar workshop, Shan realized Maya had company. A girl with dark blue hair tied tightly back was wearing a stained dress. She had dark amethyst spectacles on, perhaps because her eyesight was poor. For some reason, she flinched when she saw Shan.

“Who’s this?”

“The girl I taught, the one I mentioned before. She’s so busy that I only meant to borrow some equipment for the examination, but your body seems to have fascinated her. Would you mind if she helped examine you? I can’t say the same for her theory, but her instincts are better than mine.”

“I don’t mind, as long as I get a proper examination.”

Having answered, Shan glanced around when Roden said nothing. For some reason, Roden was staring at the girl with his eyes wide.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.”

Shan realized that some mysterious exchange of looks had passed between Roden and the blue-haired girl in those few moments. Was this what people called love at first sight?

He had no desire to interfere with his friend’s first love, so rather than behave tactlessly, he calmly asked her name.

“What’s your name?”

“... Oh, me? She—ri. Sherry.”

“Nice to meet you, Sherry.”

After greeting her, he sat down first in the examination chair, and Maya began adjusting several large instruments. Since they were not usually there, she had apparently borrowed them from the girl named Sherry.

“Hmm, I’ll need you to remove some clothing to use this. Would you take off your shirt?”

“Of course.”

As he pulled off his shirt, he heard a sharp intake of breath beside him. Realizing Sherry was staring at his body, Shan smiled awkwardly.

“Sorry. It’s ugly, isn’t it?”

He knew perfectly well that his scar-covered body was unpleasant to look at. Still, if she overreacted to something like this, how would she manage an examination that involved cutting skin to draw blood?

Fortunately, despite her rather clueless first impression, Sherry’s gaze turned as sharp as any professional’s once the examination began. Using various instruments, the two women exchanged all sorts of remarks that neither Shan nor Roden could understand.

“The sublimation reaction in the solution looks similar to Alvart’s example.”

“Shall we add a little Kosa solution?”

“That would work too.”

Apparently her interest in Shan’s body was genuine. Sherry cheerfully examined the blood samples in every imaginable way. Though he did not understand the details, she seemed to be learning much more from them than he had expected.

After several dozen minutes, Maya finally delivered the results.

“It seems your body is becoming tougher.”