After holing up in her room, Dorothea was lost in thought.
In fact, if she thought about it calmly, even if one of the treasures was in this city as the Tin Knight said, Dorothea had nothing to lose.
After all, it was obviously easier to find something in the middle of a busy street than to go digging through some secret ruins in a strange mountain valley.
And yet, the reason Dorothea grumbled was simple.
‘…Somehow, I feel like I'm being swayed by that guy more and more each day.’
The Tin Knight.
Her familiar, bound by contract, and her guardian.
An outstanding warrior who could effortlessly slice through dozens of armed soldiers, and a scatterbrain whose flippant and impulsive nature didn't match his skills.
“For a magic doll, he's far too expressive.”
Ordinary magic dolls were inherently low in intelligence and incapable of complex thought.
Come here, get that, wait, fight.
They couldn't properly understand anything but simple, intuitive commands, and their ability to make proactive judgments was severely lacking.
But the Tin Knight?
Far from lacking judgment in a pinch, he was perfectly capable of doing things he wasn't told to do.
Like how he'd rescued Ronnie and the other slaves on his own whim, or how he'd later coaxed Dorothea into accepting Adel as a companion.
Of course, none of it had particularly harmed Dorothea or hindered the goals she was trying to achieve.
She did have to use magic for Adel's share during their journey, but she received the necessary catalysts for that magic as payment, so that too was a gain.
Objectively speaking, there was no loss. None, but still.
「Good grief, you foolish child. The problem starts with a familiar acting on its own without being ordered. To think you can't even properly control your own familiar. And you call yourself my apprentice?」
It was as if a vision of her master, clicking her tongue in disapproval, appeared before her eyes.
The image was as clear as her own face reflected in a brightly polished mirror.
Trying her best to ignore it, Dorothea leaned back in her chair.
She pushed the backrest further, rocking her body back and forth.
The chair, which should have stood on four legs, now balanced precariously on just two.
It was the kind of action perfect for tipping over backward with a single slip, but Dorothea's expression remained utterly indifferent.
Staring blankly at the wood stains on the ceiling, Dorothea continued her train of thought.
It wasn't that there was no solution.
She just had to add a clause to her contract with the Tin Knight.
Clauses like: Don't do anything unnecessary. Only follow orders. Act with Dorothea's safety as the top priority. Things like that.
Dorothea held a card that would make such a contract possible.
It was none other than the mana she possessed.
Whether it was because he was an old model or for some other reason, the amount of mana the Tin Knight required was exceptionally large compared to ordinary magic dolls.
It was a level that would overwhelm not only warrior types, who focused on increasing the 'quality' of their mana, but even mages, who focused on increasing its 'quantity'.
To not only provide that much mana as easily as dispensing a cup of water from a purifier, but to also use all of her own magic on top of that, was a feat possible only for Dorothea, who, in the words of the 'Wicked Witch of the East,' was 'overflowing with rotten mana'.
Conversely, if Dorothea were to cut off his mana supply, the Tin Knight, having no suitable alternative, would have no way to resist.
If she exploited that weakness, it wouldn't be difficult to forge a contract that was unilaterally advantageous to her.
“Tsk.”
Dorothea clicked her tongue softly.
Even though the answer was laid out plainly before her, for some reason, Dorothea didn't want to use that method.
And she didn't even know why she didn't want to use it.
She could only describe it as simply not liking it.
“…Hah, whatever. If I need to, I'll do it then.”
Thud. The two front legs of the chair, which had been hovering in the air, landed on the floor.
She had plenty of catalysts for now, so she thought she'd buy a book and read it in her spare time.
It was a reasonably sized city, so there was bound to be a bookstore or two.
Dorothea opened the door and left the room.
On one side of the second-floor hallway were the wall and the guest rooms, while the other side had a waist-high railing.
Below the railing, she could look down on the first-floor dining area, but perhaps because it was an odd time of day, there were hardly any customers.
She figured that by the time she visited the bookstore and returned, it would be about time for a meal. She was about to walk away when she saw it.
Right next to the door.
Dorothea saw something strange at her feet.
A pitch-black snake, with a texture that looked as if a shadow had gained three-dimensional form.
Dorothea knew what it was.
She had seen it so often until just recently that she was sick of it.
A shadow snake.
One of the eight animals that guided people to the locations of the kingdom's eight treasures.
Specifically, the one in charge of the ‘Key of Opium’ that Dorothea possessed.
Dorothea reflexively checked the Animal Compass she carried.
Of the eight emblems, the only one that was faded and blurry, its cooldown not yet finished, was the purple mole.
The shadow snake's emblem was shining clearly, ready to be summoned at any time.
In other words, the shadow snake before her had not come from her compass.
「You received a magic tool from the king that reveals the location of the eight treasures, didn't you? That wasn't made by our kingdom. It was a gift from the Kingdom of Heaven that roams the skies. Our foolish king was overjoyed, thinking they meant to return the treasures to their rightful owners, but there's no way that's true. Those fiends have undoubtedly given the same item to other countries. They'll make the nations of the world dance in the palm of their hands. It's a massive conspiracy. You must not get involved!」
The face of the kingdom noble who had tried to dissuade her from her journey came to mind.
Dorothea's judgment was swift.
Crack!
First, she crushed a miniature skull to alert the Tin Knight, who held its matching pair.
Kwoong!
The defensive magic engraved on her staff manifested at maximum strength.
Dorothea's quick thinking was rewarded.
In the form of saving her own life.
WHAM!
Just as a deafening noise struck her ears, 'something' burst through the room's window and lunged at Dorothea.
Without resisting the impact that grazed the nape of her neck, Dorothea threw herself over the railing as if she'd been flung.
CRASH!
“Whoa, wh-what the!?”
As a person fell onto a dining table, the innkeeper, who had been letting out a lazy yawn, cried out in surprise.
Dorothea rolled off the table.
The defensive magic must have worked properly, as she had no major injuries, but the nape of her neck, which had taken the unidentified attack, and her back, which had collided with the corner of the table, throbbed with pain.
Dorothea looked up at the railing.
The 'something' that had attacked her was perched on the railing, looking down at her.
-Ooki?
At first glance, it looked like a monkey.
But it was also clear that it was no ordinary monkey.
A pair of wings reminiscent of a bird's were attached to its back, and it had very long arms and claws that brought hooks to mind.
Dorothea realized it was those claws that had just slashed at her neck. She also realized that if she hadn't used her defensive magic in time, her carotid artery would have been severed.
The fur covering the monkey's body was golden, and its texture was less like an animal's pelt and more like hard metal.
“A-a magic beast? Why is one in the middle of the city?!”
The innkeeper screamed.
As if reacting to the sound, the golden monkey looked at the innkeeper.
-Shaaaak!
When the golden monkey bristled its fur threateningly, the innkeeper let out a short scream and fled outside.
The golden monkey watched him go and clutched its stomach laughing, but it still paid close attention to Dorothea's every move, as if she were its only target.
This was not the behavior of an ordinary wild animal.
The golden monkey's actions radiated both a clear sense of mischief and malice.
Dorothea's blue eyes narrowed.
The innkeeper had called the golden monkey a magic beast.
He wasn't wrong.
The definition of the term 'magic beast' was extremely vague in the first place, so ordinary people tended to call any creature they didn't know or thought was a bit dangerous a magic beast.
But even if a layman used an inaccurate term, an expert should not.
Dorothea knew a more precise word to describe the monkey before her.
A heretical lifeform, created by whimsically stitching together, twisting, and strengthening all sorts of creatures.
A being that those with knowledge, filled with contempt for its unethical nature, called a synthetic creature, a chimera.
And in rebuttal, a being its creators insisted was a creature born of their own hands—in other words, no different from a child—and called a little person, a homunculus.
Alchemists—one of the many branches of mages, just like necromancers.
A familiar exclusive to them was now staring at Dorothea with clear killing intent.
-Eeeek!
The golden monkey's wings flapped, and its body shot forward like an arrow.
Dorothea dodged under a table.
Slice!
The sharp claws instantly splintered the wooden table.
Seeing the faint shimmer of mana at the tips of its claws, Dorothea revised her assessment of the enemy's attack power upward.
If she were hit without her defensive magic, it wouldn't just be her carotid artery—her entire body would be torn to pieces.
Black orbs scattered from Dorothea's hand.
They had the form of magic bullets, only black in color, but in reality, they were lumps of curses filled with the grudges of the dead.
Physically, they delivered an impact comparable to being struck by a hammer, but their true value lay in showering living creatures with a slew of debuffs like nausea, chills, and dizziness.
-Ooki!
And as if mocking her counterattack, the golden monkey took the black orbs head-on with its body, neutralizing them.
SWIPE!
Another swipe of its claws struck Dorothea.
Dorothea swung her staff to strike the golden monkey, but the monkey dodged it with swift movements.
Dorothea ripped a leather pouch from her waist and scattered its contents into the air.
Strands of multicolored hair received her mana and instantly turned to ash, which then reformed into the shapes of spirits and began to spew words of lament and curses.
《Die die die die die》
《It hurts, it's agonizing, I can't breathe》
《You too, just like us…!》
-KISHAAAAAK!
The golden monkey roared, as if annoyed by the swarm of spirits clinging to it.
As the golden light enveloping the monkey intensified, the spirits that touched the light rapidly melted away.
Dorothea quickly tried to cast her next spell, but the golden monkey was faster, swinging its long arm to strike her.
CRACK!
The wooden staff Dorothea was holding split apart with a loud crack.
As the staff, which had served as a catalyst for her defensive magic, could no longer withstand the attack and shattered, part of the remaining impact was transferred directly to Dorothea.
“Ugh, kgh!”
Kicking up a long trail of dust, Dorothea's body rolled across the floor.
Her cloak was torn from its place, and a searing pain shot through the skin scraped against the ground.
Ignoring the pain, she forced herself up and ground her teeth.
“Do you have any idea how much trouble I went through to make this staff…!”
-Ukikikik!
The golden monkey burst out laughing, as if delighted by Dorothea's frustration.
The matchup was the worst.
Their physical abilities were incomparable, and its golden fur seemed to possess resistance to all sorts of mana.
If magical attacks didn't work, she would have to resort to physical ones, but necromancy was not a school known for its outstanding physical destructive power in the first place.
No, to be precise, there were spells of that type, but every single one of them was not to Dorothea's taste, and moreover, they were unusable in the current situation.
She couldn't just find a corpse to suddenly self-destruct in the middle of the city.
The golden monkey lowered its stance.
It looked ready to pounce at any moment.
Dorothea, who had worn a stiff expression, suddenly relaxed her face.
The golden monkey interpreted it as resignation.
A golden flash cut through the air.
Sharp claws aimed for Dorothea's chest and the heart within.
CLANG!
A shrill metallic sound rang out.
At the unexpected sensation, the golden monkey's eyes widened.
Before the golden monkey could react, the intruder swung a shield and slammed it into the monkey.
[The 'Tin Knight' delivers a strike of fury!!]
WHAAAAAM!