“Miss Taula, I’m surprised to see you here. Welcome to the borderland. How have you been since we last met?”
I say to Taula.
“Mister Rust, thank you very much for your help. I have been very well, thanks to you. I actually came here to speak to you. I just happened to pass by Toma and heard that they were heading here, so I asked if I could accompany them.”
Taula answers while pointing to Zahle and the others.
“This lady knight saved us from monsters many times on the way. We can’t thank you enough.”
Says Zahle.
“Thank you for that. They are bringing things to me.”
I thank Taula, and after a small nod, she peeks over to the others.
“I’m sure you’re tired. It isn’t much, but do you want to come to my tent?”
I invite Taula, because I get the feeling that she has something to say that she doesn’t want others to hear.
“I accept your invitation.”
I ask them to take the kagero fruits to the square in the center of the camp, and leave with Taula and Hipopo.
For some reason I can feel Ahri’s silent stare on my back.
◆◇
“This is incredible.”
Says Taula while looking around inside my tent.
I guess for someone who isn’t used to it, a room covered with vines really is odd.
“Well then Miss Taula…”
I say with a dry smile to start the conversation, before sipping rose tea poured by Rose.
“You can call me Taula. You saved my life after all, and I made an oath to lend my sword to you. I have nothing else besides the god I converted to, so such formality is excessive.”
Says Taula while joining her hands together.
“Then you can call me Rust too. Now Taula, if you want, drink while it’s warm.”
I accept Taula’s proposal to drop formality and offer her rose tea.
“Thank you, it smells very rich.”
We silently enjoy the aroma for a while, and for some reason I feel like this breaks the ice. Taula starts speaking, and her tone sounds more relaxed.
“It’s about the shaman who put a curse on me.”
“The one who sent the familiar to you?”
“Yes. After you left, I followed him to the capital. He is the one responsible for the destruction of my church. That was when I was cursed, but since you lifted it, I managed to track him down without being noticed.”
Taula puts the cup back on the table as she gets into the main reason why she’s here.
“Unfortunately, he ended up escaping, but I found this where he was hiding, and a lot of it.”
Taula reaches into a hidden pocket in her priest outfit, and takes out a magic circuit board.
“Can I see it?”
Taula silently nods. I put on the gloves with the purify effect I use when harvesting materials just in case, and take the board.
After checking it thoroughly, I use a 《Transcribe》 scroll to get more information.
“Hm, did you show this to the alchemist association in the capital?”
“Not yet. I thought it was suspicious, so I went to the alchemist association, but it was in a terrible state. The walls had holes of different sizes that were hastily covered up, and there was a pungent smell in the air. All the employees’ faces looked like they were the walking dead too.”
Taula grimaces when she mentions the smell.
I see. Did slime or something run wild in there? I’m guessing no one was there to take care of it… I think while staring into the distance.
“I figured this board could be bad news, considering where it came from. I left the rest with an acquaintance in the capital, and decided to take this one to someone I can trust and is probably familiar with it. And that is why I came here.”
“That was a wise decision.”
I face Taula again and answer.
“So, it really is…!?”
“Yes. This is a magic circuit board to turn magic elements into flames. Not only that, but it’s for military use. There’s almost zero doubt that it was made by the alchemist association. The transmutation is very much characteristic of the alchemist association.”
“I see… There were also a lot of magic guns in his hideout.”
“It’s all very suspicious.”
Guns that shoot magic elements are very effective against non-human lifeforms. Monsters die if they take in too many magic elements, but humans are unaffected by them. Because of this, magic guns are said to be simple weapons for people with no knowledge of military arts. Even if they hit another person, it’s not much of an issue, so magic guns are very safe weapons.
Changing the element of magic elements leads to something called conversion loss. Basically, if someone wants to shoot monsters, there’s no point in converting the element because raw magic elements are effective against monsters. If someone wants to go out of their way to convert the magic elements into flame, there can only be one reason why.
“So it really does mean it’s supposed to make them usable against humans.”
Taula reaches the same conclusion.
“Yes. There’s only one issue.”
“Issue?”
“This will probably discharge accidentally if used, and cause a lot of damage to those around it. And it doesn’t look like that’s the point, it looks defective.”
I say while giving the magic circuit board back to Taula.
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Yes. Give an evil cult defective weapons for your greedy profit margin. BWAHAHAHAHA!