Gyashikinu's Hideout

“‘Gyashikinu’...... what's that? Somebody's name?”

Darakerus became intensely curious at Fret's suggestive slip of the tongue.

But he had no schooling.

That word, he didn't know what it meant.

Still, his instincts worked just fine!

And those instincts were insisting, loudly, that Fret's slip had something to do with making money!

Eyes gleaming, Darakerus put the question to Fret!

“............”

Naturally, Fret did not answer.

He looked away, mouth bent into a tight frown, sweating bullets, and kept quiet.

“Gyashikinu is...... the Great Mage's, comrade. Magic tools, he made them?”

But just when it looked like the silence would drag on, the one who answered Darakerus's question was, surprisingly, Emi!

“Wha!? Why would a mere cursed child like you know that!?”

“A friend of a friend.”

“Haaah!?”

Fret couldn't help panicking, honest to a fault, and that reaction told Darakerus beyond a doubt that Emi's answer was right!

“So, this house was...... like, some amazing inventor fella's, hideout?”

He'd come looking for a soothing place to live, and now it reeked of money, too!

At this extremely convenient turn of events, the corners of Darakerus's mouth curled up nastily!

“Gu, nu, nu......!! That's right...... this house is indeed the hideout of the legendary magic tool craftsman Gyashikinu, also called ‘the man who advanced the history of magic tools by two hundred years’!!”

“Which means! In this house...... there's gotta be a mountain of inventions left that'd sell for big money, ain't there!? He's a ‘legend’, right!?”

Realizing there was no hiding it anymore, Fret grudgingly let slip part of what he knew of the house's secret.

At that, Darakerus shot to his feet in excitement, wiping away the drool that had come spilling out.

He looked as if he might charge off on a treasure hunt this very second!

“Sit back down, you idiot!!”

Fret glared at Darakerus and showered him with abuse!

“Gyashikinu was one of the Three Sages who sought to revive the Super-Ancient Magic Civilization...... no other magic tool craftsman or workshop could come close to his technology, and his inventions are full of advanced techniques that cannot be reproduced even today!! Which is precisely why, true enough, if they were ‘properly’ brought to market, they would fetch a decent price...... but!!”

Here, Fret paused for breath.

Swallowed, to wet his parched throat even a little.

And then.

“But!! What good would it do if a fool like you, who cannot even tell what things are worth, brought that sage's legacy to market!? Not just knowledge, but trust, credit, connections, you have none of it, nothing at all!! No one would give you the time of day, the great inventions would be bought for a pittance, and they would end up gathering dust in some warehouse, and that would be that!! Loss, loss, great economic, and technological loss!! Which is precisely why!! The inventions sleeping in this hideout, and the sage's hidden knowledge!! The one who can fully understand and make use of that knowledge, is none other than!! I, Fret Full, the one most worthy to inherit THEEEM!!”

He screamed it all in one breath!

“Geho, gehogehogeho!!”

Then, after a terrible coughing fit, he wheezed and gasped for breath, his face bright red.

Only the sound of his breathing echoed in the quiet room.

The gentle sunlight streaming through the window lit up the fine dust drifting in the air, making it twinkle......

Amid it all.

As he caught his breath, Fret checked whether the fools had properly grasped what was, to him, a perfectly reasonable argument.

The cursed child...... was expressionless.

He couldn't tell what she was thinking.

Was this one even listening in the first place?

The vagrant old guy...... was grinning.

Oh, this guy's hopeless.

What he'd just said...... it wasn't that the guy didn't understand, he didn't even want to!

“But see,”

As if to confirm Fret's dread, Darakerus.

“This house bein', y'know, that Gyashi-whatsit's hideout, see, is that even true?”

Came out with that!

“Of course it's true!! I decoded the ciphers in this diary and tracked it down......!!”

Fret pulled the diary from inside his jacket and thrust it at Darakerus.

But!

“Proof?”

“That's, in this diary......!!”

“You keep goin' on about codes and whatnot, but you're just tired from work and got it wrong, I bet. This house, it's a hideout some rich guy built way back, and now it's my house. So I'll do what I want with the stuff in it, and you go look for that Gi-whatsit's real hideout, somewhere else.”

“D, d, don't screw with MEEE!!”

Fret's claim that selling the inventions would never work for him didn't get through to Darakerus one bit.

After all, until you tried it, you never knew.

There's no way it won't, work, “maybe.”

“Eh, it'll work out somehow.”

To begin with, Darakerus liked this hideout as a place to live...... so all that talk of economic and technological loss came second, at best.

Regardless, he wanted this house.

He wanted to kick this yappy short man in front of him out.

His half-baked logic for that...... was “You've got it wrong, so get out of here.”

“......Fine!! ......If you insist, then I'll show you!! Physical proof that this house is Gyashikinu's hideout!!”

But naturally, Fret couldn't just go ‘Oh, okay then’ and leave either.

Thoroughly worked up by now, Fret revealed something new.

“Physical proof, huh?”

“That's right!! This house has a basement, and down there should be Gyashikinu's inventions, as well as his papers and notes, hidden from the world...... and what's more!!”

Fret flipped through the diary and pointed to a certain page.

It looked like nothing but an old man's daily life, but according to Fret, it was apparently a cipher.

“In the anteroom of the basement's development room, there's a desk...... and on it, there should be an ‘iron box’!! That is the key to truly reviving this hideout, the key to making full use of its functions!!”

After screaming that much, Fret slowly stood up and grinned.

“Whoa there, you plannin' to go tearin' through my house? Can't let ya do that.”

But Darakerus got to his feet too.

“That iron box? I'll look for it for ya. Though, there probably ain't any such thing.”

“Hmph!! That's impossible!! The stairs to the basement are sealed by a magic lock, and they will never open unless the password written in this diary is entered!!”

“Hmm......”

That was a problem.

Darakerus knit his brows.

He simply wanted this house.

But what was that about ‘the key to making full use of its functions’ for this house?

Without it, could he really say he'd gotten this house, in the truest sense?

Say he kicked this short man out and got to live here himself.

But then the functions he should be able to use, he couldn't?

This hideout, which should have been perfect, would be flawed.

That was kind of annoying, and a waste!

If he was going to live here anyway, he wanted to use this house 100 percent, down to the last drop!

But to do that, he'd have to admit this short man was right, get him to enter the password, and get his hands on this iron box or whatever?

“Mu, mu!?”

Darakerus was confused!

He wasn't dumb by nature, or shouldn't have been...... but he was hopelessly lazy and hated using his head!

He wasn't used to making decisions!

“Hahaha!! What will you do, what will you do, vagrant!? HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!”

Fret, for his part, felt a little better at having stumped the filthy nuisance in front of him, and got carried away, roaring with laughter!

Since he knew the key to the basement's magic lock...... the password, Fret now held a huge advantage at this negotiating table!

Earlier, exhaustion had made him slip up, but not anymore!

He would bring every trick of the trade he'd honed as a merchant to bear, drive these two out of this hideout without fail...... and keep every profit this house had to offer for himself!

All for the future, of the brilliant Fret Full!

In his mind's eye, a pure white staircase gleamed, leading up into a sky shining gold!

What waited for him at the top...... was, of course, the word ‘success’!

“......Um, hey.”

But, alas!

Just then, the cursed child, who'd been quiet for a while, cut in, staring at Fret.

“Haaah!? What!?”

His good mood interrupted, Fret forgot the fear he felt toward the cursed child and glared at her!

And then, what do you know.

The cursed child slowly stood up and rummaged around in a pitch-black, pouch-like bag at her belly.

“The iron box, is this?”

......And she pulled out, of all things, the very ‘iron box’.

The box bore the sunflower design so often carved into Gyashikinu's works...... and it gleamed white in the sunlight pouring in through the window......

“Ha!? HAAH!? HAAAAAAH!?”

At the sight, Fret's eyes went perfectly round and his mouth fell open so wide his jaw nearly came off; he was flabbergasted!

“W, w, w, why do you have that, you WREEEEETCH!?”

Because that was...... the very device the diary had described for “starting up” this house!

“Last night, when I explored the house, I found it.”

“No, no, that makes no sense!? The stairs to the basement are behind an iron door, with a magic lock!?”

As Fret flailed, Emi just pointed to the back of the room, blank-faced.

And there...... hard to see, tucked behind a shelf...... was a massive-looking iron door.

But that iron door had been ripped apart like paper by some terrifying force, leaving a gaping hole in it......!

“Kinda, I pushed it, a little, and it broke.”

Blank-faced but sheepish, Emi insisted, “It was an accident!”

“As if that could be true!!”

But no matter how you looked at it, the iron door had been intentionally destroyed by monstrous strength!

Emi's excuse didn't fly......!

“Whoa, whoa, whoa...... eh, did she stick her hand in and rip this open...... scaaary”

Darakerus found dents in the iron door, ‘finger marks’, like clay after a child had played with it, and shuddered in silence......!

【Great Mage】

Real name: Majurog Majugam.

In his youth he made his name all over the world as a special-grade adventurer, and after retiring he devoted everything to reviving magecraft technology. A great man, he served as headmaster of Somatoko Academy, a world-leading academic authority.

From his career and titles alone he sounds like a great man indeed, but over his 130-plus years of life he married five women, and he was also a man of many loves, called a ‘womanizer’ and a ‘dirty old man’ behind his back.

As far as the world knows, he was poisoned and is long dead, but in fact he moved his soul into a beautiful-woman-type ‘Magic Prosthetic Body’ and is stubbornly hanging on.

Due to various circumstances, he was imprisoned in the Delenezo Great Prison, but he met Emi, and after one thing and another, he broke out.

He is currently on the move toward some goal.

To Emi, he is her magecraft ‘Sensei’, one of the people who are like masters to her.

Appeared in Arc 25.

【Super-Ancient Magic Civilization】

A civilization that once existed in this other world, Ardyst. Powered by magecraft, it developed technology more advanced than modern Earth's.

But it angered the gods, and was destroyed.