Chapter 8
The stand upon which the dagger had rested was a relic of the most ancient order something that had existed since a time so remote that even the word "ancient" required a prefix to encompass it. Over the long centuries, a great many objects had been placed upon it.
The reason for this was that the stand had once possessed the ability to shift its appearance to best complement whatever was set upon it. But so much time had passed that this function had long since faded entirely.
More than a thousand years, at a guess.
What flowed into Elliot was, as with the brush, the memory of the object itself rather than of any person. But the impressions were far fainter this time, and since it was his second experience of this kind, Elliot found he was able to receive the stand's memories with somewhat more ease.
The stand's name is Ryun.
And there had been someone who had cherished it deeply. The details were unclear, but it seemed as though some particular memory had taken root within it.
Love, perhaps?
Or affection.
What was the difference between love and affection? The owner who had handled it longest had apparently wrestled with that very question, more than a thousand years ago. And the memory ended with that owner concealing something inside the stand.
What was that?
It was nothing at all like the memories that had flowed from the piano or the brush. Just as things had seemed on the verge of truly beginning, the memory had cut off entirely.
Hm?
And then, without warning, the stand began to grow faint. A bright light bloomed in its place, and where the stand had been there now sat the carving of an unfamiliar bird.
What is this now?
It had not shattered and produced the carving as a byproduct. The object had simply transformed, stand becoming bird sculpture in an instant. Alongside this, a system message floated up.
[Eye of Truth (D)]By touching any object, one may gain a partial understanding of its purpose.
A rather unexpected ability to have acquired.
Is it because of all the different objects that have passed through it?
Subtle as it was, it seemed like it would prove genuinely useful.
This is quite different from what I anticipated.
Elliot exhaled slowly. Still, the timing was convenient enough. There happened to be something right in front of him on which to test the new ability.
That is clearly no ordinary bird carving.
Elliot activated the System and pressed his hand to the bird sculpture.
A map?
His instinct had been correct. According to the ability he had just activated, the carving was not merely a carving but a treasure map.
But what kind of map is this?
The System was indicating clearly that it was a map, however, and his experiences so far had given him too much reason to trust it to dismiss the reading. Beyond that, somewhere in the hazy memory he had just received, there had been something that carried the faint impression of a map.
Though in the memory it had not looked like a bird carving.
Blurred as the recollection was, he could not make out the details clearly enough to be certain. But the memory remained too indistinct, and Elliot let the thought go.
It is not urgent, in any case.
It had been an unexpected bonus that came alongside the dagger. Elliot shook his head a few times to clear it and set the bird carving down on the table for the time being.
Now then. The contract with Ridil.
Elliot closed his left hand around the flat of the dagger's blade. A system message appeared, but he selected NO. He had separate plans for the First-Time Bonus and intended to use it at a later point.
Entering the contract and drawing out the dagger's power did not strictly require borrowing the System's strength in any case.
Though using the First-Time Bonus would certainly produce something more spectacular. And with that, raiding the ruins would be settled in one stroke, damn it all.
Sustained thought was not something his current state permitted. The pain was sharp enough to draw profanity out of him instinctively. Elliot clenched his teeth against it.
The contract method is absolutely barbaric.
To complete the contract, he was required to grip the blade directly with his left hand, allow his blood to saturate the surface entirely, and speak the prescribed words. It had simply been too long since he had last experienced pain of this kind, and his expression twisted despite his best efforts.
Good grief.
Strangely, the blood did not drip downward. The dagger was drawing it in, absorbing it entirely. When enough time had passed for the blade to turn a complete and uniform crimson, Elliot brought his left hand to his forehead.
"I make this oath. I will not be the first to raise my hand against the elves. If words carry weight, then let this vow of mine be equal to ten thousand years."
What emerged from Elliot's mouth was not the common tongue of the continent but the ancient language of the elves.
Ten thousand years as a unit of weight I remember thinking the metaphor seemed wrong the first time I heard it.
But that had been a judgment made by human standards. Elves perceived weight in terms of time. That was simply how they understood such things. Elliot held himself still, his thoughts drifting to the elves, and remained that way for ten minutes.
The dagger returned to its original color. And from somewhere impossibly distant, a solemn voice pressed itself into the back of his mind.
The contract is concluded. Should you break it, you will be cursed.
The contract was guaranteed under the authority of Elaim, the spirit king of water. If Elliot were to move against the elves without justification, drinking even a single mouthful of water would become a struggle.
The condition was neither unreasonable nor particularly difficult to maintain. Circumstances such as vengeance, or an elf initiating hostility first, would constitute valid exceptions, and under such conditions the contract imposed no restriction.
"Huu."
Elliot exhaled and sank back onto the bed. Whether from the blood loss or the exertion, he was thoroughly drained. The moment he released the dagger from his grip, it faded from sight, and a voice drifted out of the empty air.
"Hello, master."
It was Endairon, higher water spirit.
"Hello."
At Elliot's greeting, Endairon materialized in the air before him, taking the shape of a translucent blue wolf. It was a form Elliot had known well in his first life, and seeing it now was deeply familiar. And yet even through that familiarity, there was something about the presence that remained undeniably mysterious. The warmth of seeing it again was genuine.
"?"
Endairon, who was more sensitive to human emotion than almost any other being, tilted its head and drifted closer.
"You are happy to see me?"
"I am."
"Why?"
"It has been a long time."
"But this is our first meeting."
"That is true."
In this life.
"Then why?"
"Because I am glad to see you, even so. Is that not allowed?"
"It is not that it is not allowed, but it is strange. Being happy to see someone you have never met before. Does that make sense?"
"Why should it not?"
"...I suppose it does?"
The intelligence of a higher spirit varied enormously depending on how much of the world it had experienced, and Endairon, sealed for most of its existence within Ridil, had spent very little time outside. As a result, its understanding of the world was roughly equivalent to that of a ten-year-old child.
"Ooh!"
Having emerged into the outside world after so long, Endairon was immediately distracted by everything around it, twisting this way and that to take in the room. It was just an ordinary room, and yet it seemed to find everything in it endlessly fascinating. Elliot watched with quiet amusement.
There are no spirit users around, in any case.
Without fully materializing, Endairon was invisible to ordinary eyes. Even a spirit user, unless they had reached a certain level of attainment, could only sense a faint presence rather than perceive the spirit directly.
"Hm? Why is this here?"
Endairon had spotted the bird carving on the table.
"Do you know what that is?"
"Yes, it is a map. A map of a tomb that a queen made for her descendants. Elaim helped at the time, and I was there to see it!"
A hint had emerged from an entirely unexpected direction.
"Do you remember when that was?"
"Mmm, not exactly. It feels like a long time ago."
But what Endairon knew was fragmentary at best.
"Which country's queen was she?"
"The queen of the biggest country at the time!"
"And when was that?"
"Then was then. That time."
Endairon's ears flicked as it tilted its head. Endearing as the expression was, the frustration was unavoidable.
"But I know where it is!"
"Where?"
"If you go north from here, quite a long way?"
The perception of distance in a spirit was entirely unlike that of a human. If Endairon was using the phrase "quite a long way," the actual distance by human standards would be something truly immense.
"Far?"
"Very far."
Elliot decided to note the hint and look into it later.
"In any case, may I explore freely?"
"Within range, yes. But you may not materialize without my permission. And you may not interfere with the physical world on your own."
Ten kilometers, centered on Elliot.
That was the range within which Endairon was free to move.
"Promise me, and I will allow it."
"Okay! I promise!"
Endairon bumped its nose lightly against Elliot's forehead and then vanished through the window. That gesture was the seal of a promise.
For ordinary humans, words are not always binding. But between a spirit and a spirit user, the weight of a spoken word is considerable.
All the more so when a contract already bound them. Breaking a promise was grounds for dissolution of the contract, and even short of dissolution, the bond would inevitably begin to loosen.
If circumstances allowed, I would let it use its power freely, so long as it caused no harm to others.
But caution was still warranted. There was no knowing what situations might arise, and if Endairon were to materialize and exert its power on a whim, there might be nothing left in reserve when it truly mattered.
Fortunately, the power regenerates on its own at a fairly steady rate.
Simply wandering about was well within acceptable limits.
Ah, right.
Thinking about Ridil had sparked another memory. The dagger came with a minor secondary function, the ability to make use of a small pocket dimension. And beyond that, a retrieval function, which would return the dagger to its owner's hand whenever desired, even if it had been lost.
Why did I forget that?
There was no reason he should have forgotten. He had made regular use of both functions as Ridil's owner in his first life.
A lingering effect of the regression, perhaps?
As he turned through his recollections, Elliot came to the unsettling realization that his memory contained gaps scattered here and there. He was relieved to have noticed it now rather than later.
Fortunately, it seems like having the right trigger is enough to bring the memories back.
Elliot clicked his tongue as he tucked the bird carving into the pocket dimension.
"Tch."
Memory gaps. The larger things seemed intact, but smaller details had holes in them, and that was enough to draw a sigh out of him.
"Huu."
He resolved to think of it charitably. The memories were not gone entirely a trigger was all it took to recover them. As a price for regression, it was a remarkably light one.
Still, it is not something I am pleased about. But there is nothing to be done. In any case, now that I have assembled a reasonable degree of capability, it is time to move the plan forward.
Elliot abandoned his earlier thought of taking things at a leisurely pace. He had made up his mind to move on the ancient ruins that would be discovered in the Skypiea domain before long.
The ruins were called the Palace of Time and Memory.
It was a long shot, but there was a chance however small that something within them might shed light on the mystery of his regression.
Memory is the key.
There was something within those ruins that could address the problem his memory had developed. Among the many treasures that slept inside, the one that would eventually become the most renowned was a device known as the Memory Assistance Viewer.
It had two functions.
The first was the ability to restore faded memories to perfect clarity, provided they had not been fully erased.
The second was the ability to review the memories of the dead. However, the second function required that the body remain fully intact, and no more than thirty days could have passed since the time of death.
The incident of the forged will left behind by the dying archmage.
The second function would eventually become tied to a case involving the mage tower, and the story would spread until even ordinary people had heard of it.
That is something I can put to use later.
And while he was there, he could help himself to whatever else the ruins had to offer.
Elliot had extensive plans for wealth-building ahead of him, and for any of it to work, he needed starting capital and negotiating material.
Relics from ancient ruins even the minor ones would have people salivating.
Keep the good things for himself. Give away the lesser ones as gifts.
Everyone benefits.
And with the foreknowledge he possessed layered on top of that, turning a substantial profit was not a difficult proposition.
"Huu."
Thinking about what lay ahead, a certain degree of organized power was going to be essential.
Wretched demon race.
He had been turning the thought over ever since returning to the past. No matter how many times he considered it, he could not simply stand by and let the world end as it had before.
So something has to be done, one way or another.
Talented people were what he needed.
With that in mind, his first target for recruitment wasLiam Lampar, currently concealed among the estate's ordinary knights. He was the true master of the thieves guild that had taken root throughout the Nert domain, and in the future he would become a Sword Master.
All right.
PersuadeLiam Lampar, then go directly to the elves. Offer knowledge in exchange for personnel, and establish trade relations with the family. That would open the door to borrowing the other items from the secret vault as well.
While building trust with the elves and cultivating a network of influence alongside it.
And that, in time, would become the seed of genuine exchange between elves and humans. Human greed would need to be carefully managed, but it was something both sides genuinely needed.
Time to move.
Elliot decided to seek the duke's permission first, then arrange to meetLiam Lampar.