novelCountermeasure Conference
| ← Ch.066 | Ch.068 → |
Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations
I "Appraised" her true identity, and my jaw immediately dropped.
When they saw the strange face I was making, both Haster and Levy... Nay, Livyatan looked at me dubiously.
—Should I catch her here and now...? No, if I make a fuss here, proof would be... I'll still have to catch her in the act.
While my mind may be in chaos right now, I at least understood that much.
Luckily there are still four days until the appointed theft. I still have some time to deal with this.
—But If she's Livyatan, then it's safe to assume that she's already found out about the countermeasures I gave Yig.
Because she has "Peerless Magic, " just like me.
I'll have to scrap all the interception plans I blithely brought Yig around wearing.
"Yuuri, what's wrong?"
"Ah, uhh, no, it's nothing. I was just think the reflection on the water sure is dazzling today, and felt a little fascinated."
"Hum? Yeah, it's'cause the weather is real nice today."
Somehow I managed to play it off as getting dazzled by the ocean behind her, rather than that I was looking at her, I guess?
Livyatan didn't show any sign of suspicion, and continued talking about the product.
"Hmmm, it seems fine I suppose?"
"Hm, what is?"
"Er, about the merchandise."
"Oh, so ya'll like it then? Seein' as the materials were basically free, a simple 5 silver coins is all it'll be."
"Alright then, I'll take that. Thank you as always."
"Right back at ya'll. Makes me right glad how life's been so nice and cozy lately."
She hands me the stone anklet in a paper bag while grinning.
In any case, I don't know how long I can hide what I know, so we have to hurry out of here. Acting is definitely not my specialty.
"Okay Haster, next is dinner. I want to have some fish today."
"Oh? Yeah, sounds good. Then there should be some good places up along the coast."
"Ya'll are as flirty as usual. It's all good, all good; this lady here'll just keep on sellin' things alone."
"I'm sure you'll find someone nice soon too, Li... Miss Levy."
Like a jailer for example...
I thought it felt a bit forced, but with that as our reason, I suggested we leave.
I payed the cost, and practically pulled Yig and Haster as we quickly got away from there.
~*~
The harbor of Cornus is mainly for the small fishing boats of the inshore fishing industry.
We unfortunately couldn't find any tuna, but of course mackerel and horse mackerel, sea bream, flounder, and even squid and octopus they had in abundant stock.
Once he chose an affordable restaurant, I decided to fully enjoy this long-missed seafood while considering countermeasures.
I suppose it's due to a difference in culture, but they didn't have any raw fish dishes, which was a real letdown...
However, they did have a variety of cooking methods from salt grilling to frying, which made me feel like I might spontaneously forget about the main issue at hand.
I ordered the fried combination platter, and he chose the salt fried flounder with a light drink. Then I reported the results of my "Appraisal" back there.
"So anyway, she's Livyatan."
"Buffuuh?!"
He grandly spat out the pre-meal drink of muddy wine he was enjoying.
That flew towards the seat directly in front of him, where I was sitting, and splendidly splattered all over my face.
"Stop that, please, I'm not the type of girl who enjoys having stuff splattered on her."
"Er, uhh, sorry. But are you sure?"
"My "Appraisal" very clearly gave the name Livyatan. It even showed the proper Phantom Thief job title for her."
There's one person "Appraisal" hasn't worked on before, but I haven't seen anyone fool it yet.
If she's even more of a monster than Bahamut, then it's not out of the question though.
"In that case, all our counter plans up to now..."
"Were all seen, yeah."
"So we got this far and we're back to the drawing board, huh."
"Since we discovered our opponent's true identity, rather than the drawing board, we're practically to the goal. We just have to catch her at the scene of a crime."
With [Transmitter] we would be able to find where she is without even looking for her, so I had been feeling quite at ease on that point.
"Why would we have to catch her at the... Ah, I suppose we would."
"Yeah, if we tried seizing her over there, it would just look like we were trying to rough up a merchant."
"Because there's no evidence. The only thing Livyatan has officially stolen is an imitation jewel, and that's about it."
"She's a phantom thief without any stolen goods to serve as proof of it. All we can probably do is take her down when she comes to steal Yig."
If she was a phantom thief with actual achievements, we could have held her down there, found the stolen goods and accomplished the request, but...
She hasn't had any decent results from her attempts, so there wouldn't be anything to count as evidence. Especially since nobody still knows what she looks like.
"On top of seizing her, what we need is a 'Gift Sealing' item."
"Indeed, if we don't make something like your Sealing Magic Mirror, she'll just be able to run away again."
"And it will have to be something she can't take off on her own."
"Like a collar?"
He glances towards my neck, and the corners of his mouth turn up in a smile.
Please stop that. The surrounding gazes towards this collar already hurt enough, you know? I'm only wearing it because you gave it to me.
"Better idea; how about shackles? And the type made of iron and welded together where they join."
"You really don't hold back either... In that case, I guess we'll try making them that way. Have you gotten a grasp of the Sealing Magic Mirror's spell formula?"
"For what's on these glasses, yeah basically. But I'm not sure if it can be used on "Recognition Blocking" the way it is or not."
There are way too many unknowns in the field of gifts.
If we make the same thing, it'll probably only end up being able to seal "Golden Ratio" away.
"That won't be a problem. What those glasses seal isn't the gift itself, but the "influential power inflicted on those around" by it."
"Influential power... It's pretty impressive that you could improvise something like that, huh?"
I'm pretty sure he made these glasses just two days from the time we met. Though he switched them out a number of times.
"They weren't improvised. I researched the subject thinking I would use it for myself."
"For yourself?"
"I've had plenty of unpleasant encounters on account of gifts too. If I could restrict their influence, I figured I could change my life."
Considering he's a gift holder as well, he was probably looked at with rose-colored glasses, and became a target of hatred as well.
From my perspective, he's the type who doesn't like people.
When coming face-to-face with others, he deals with them calmly and politely, but on a basic level he prefers to be alone.
If I'm the only exception then that's fine, but...
"In that case, we'll strengthen this spell formula, and prepare an item welded together."
"The problem is where are we going to get something like that, though."
"And we can't use miss Levy's place."
That's when I suddenly felt piercing stares stabbing into me.
Upon quickly raising my head and looking around us, I noticed the other guests were looking at us strangely.
Come to think of it, from an outside perspective we're a collared little girl brought along by a young boy, talking about "where could we find some shackles?" while enjoying our meal together.
"Yup, we are suspicious to the max right now."
"Huh?"
"So you're not self-conscious in the least, huh? ... Haster, right now you're eating with a collared little girl, right?"
"So I am."
"And you are talking about where you might find shackles next, you see."
"... So I am."
"Thinking normally, who do you expect those shackles would be used on?"
"......I guess I'll need to purchase some for you too, huh?"
"How did you come to that conclusion?!"
Could it be that he actually wanted a slave or something? I'm not really into that sort of play.
In any case, if we stuck around any longer, they would give us really weird looks, so we soon departed from there.
Note: the fried horse mackerel was delicious. Let's come here again.
~*~
As soon as we got back to the inn, we called an emergency meeting.
"So anyway, we want some shackles to seal her gift away, but..."
"In that case, how about using mine?"
"Why, exactly, do you have some, miss Bella...?"
"Eh? To use them, of course."
On who... is something I won't ask. Mister Bhav, I hope you find happiness.
He has a sort of hopeless look on his face, though.
"Levy's the one who always opens shop on the upper areas, right? She was so cute, too."
"Jack, you always say that about girls that age, don't you?"
"I mean, they're cute though, right?"
"Mister Jack, I am basically around 15 you know?"
"You're lyiiiing"
"OKAY, don't move from that spot. You'll be a great victim for my Rail Cannon."
"Calm down, Yuuri. You'll destroy the inn. Do it outside."
"Stop her, will you?!"
Anyway, we managed to obtain some shackles to restrain her with.
Now we just have to figure out what to do about our countermeasures being made completely useless.
"She's probably seen through all of the magic tools we've made as countermeasures up to now."
"Could she really tell just by looking? I wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of them."
"Mister Oreas, she's a gift holder. And she has "Peerless Magic", just like me. This gift exhibits tremendous effects in relation to magic spells."
"Though she may not look it, Yuuri can roughly turn a magic spell into her own at a single glance. She's a true genius."
"Taking up that burden depends on a person's physical and mental abilities though. Her athletic abilities were extremely high, so she probably doesn't have as much magic power as I do."
"But "seeing through" the spells isn't related to how much magic power you have, huh."
"Exactly. So about that..."
I announced the "trap" I seriously thought about while heading back from the restaurant.
"Is that really going to be effective?"
"It will; I've already tested it. The problem is who will step away from being fighting power for us."
"But if it means we can neutralize someone who's able to avoid Yuuri's magic, then it will be well worth it."
"Bhav, can you avoid Yuuri's magic?"
"Do you want me to die, Jack?"
It would seem mister Jack isn't feeling the seriousness of the situation yet.
Let's pound this nail down right here and now.
"Mister Jack, if you don't take this more seriously..."
"I mean, come on. She's after that little dragon, right? If we just leave this alone, he'll come right back, won't he?"
"Now that you mention it... I never thought about what she would want to steal him for."
Thinking about it, there's no way she'd be able to tame him after kidnapping him.
If she lets go of him, he'll be able to run away. And she doesn't appear to have a master like Haster around. Does she have a spell of her own that will restrain Yig?
Yeah, what she's doing is definitely strange.
It's as if she predicted the rumored powerful and fresh-faced Forest Bear party would come, began her activities, and practically provoked people with her notices.
And then she didn't worry for a second about her failures, meanderingly continued her job in the same city, and targeted us as if she'd already aimed for it.
When it comes to large cities in the area, there's also Comb. Why hasn't she gone over there...?
"There's no real point in going after Yig in the first place. She did say flying dragon pups are rare, but..."
"Yeah, baby wyverns are certainly unusual, but it's not like they can't be found for the right price."
"Actually, it's almost like she knew you two were acquaintances of Forest Bear and purposely targeted him because of that."
"Does that mean Forest Bear is her true target?"
"We can't say for certain. At least not right now."
It would seem there are even more things we'll need to ask her directly.
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Translator's Note: I should be able to get the next chapter out tomorrow!
| ← Ch. 066 | Ch. 068 → |