Author: Himezaki Shiu	Original Source: Syosetu
Translator: Jiro	English Source: Re:Library

Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

Knowing that our task was to aid the spirit was one thing, but without any idea of its whereabouts, we were at a loss. And even if we managed to find it, helping might prove far more difficult than expected.

When I thought of spirits, I thought of existences that were on a different level than people. I imagined them as being more like gods than living creatures. So, capturing one seemed like an incredible feat.

They were trapped in some kind of super hard cages made of Orichalcum or Mithril, or something like that. I wasn’t sure if we could destroy such a cage on our own.

But since they were cages, I believed there had to be a key.

As such I did my best looking for that first. Michihisa helped me, and we eventually found it. Well, Michihisa did¹.

It wasn’t that I did nothing; rather, I worked hard to conceal the fact that Michihisa wasn’t at school. In other words, I talked to a lot of people. I was so nervous I thought I was going to die. When Michihisa finally returned, I could allow myself to relax.

After coming back, Michihisa said that he had gone as far as the royal castle. The key had been hidden in an old warehouse, and the spirit was at the school. I had been searching for it, but I wasn’t sure I’d found anything yet.

Michihisa then told me that, to reach the spirit, we needed a book that belonged to the royal family. After which he took out the needed book and showed it to me. That’s right, he’d already gotten it.

He admitted that he had stolen it, but I didn’t think that the royal family would have been so naive as to agree to simply hand it over to us so that we could free the spirit. On the other hand, it was more likely that we’d get executed for treason or something. So, I didn’t blame him, but I wished he had consulted me first. It would likely take the royal family quite a bit of time before they noticed the book had disappeared. And once they realized it was gone, they would come to the school to investigate.

Due to these reasons, we quickly began our Rescue the Spirit mission. As a side note, Michihisa told me that at the castle, he’d overheard talks about the spirits from other kingdoms disappearing one after the other. That led me to think that there might be others like us trying to free the spirits.

◇◇◇

We’d worked hard to get here. It was difficult, but we managed to reach the cage where the spirit was being held. The spirit inside the cage appeared as a sphere of light, large enough to fit in both hands. It shone brightly, but I got the impression that it was somewhat listless.

I had tried to appraise the cage for a while, but I could hardly figure anything out. First of all, the description was difficult to read, with some places being completely butchered. By piecing together the fragmented text, I figured that the cage was not from this world.

It was likely something built by the first heroes, but even if we went at it full force, I doubted we’d even be able to leave a scratch on it. Luckily, we had the key with us. All we had to do was use the crystal ball-shaped key and press it against the cage. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t appraised the crystal ball yet, but it was probably the same as the cage.

If someone had asked me to appraise it to figure out how to use it, then I would’ve been in a lot of trouble.

And so, when we finally managed to free the spirit from the cage, my gaze naturally met Michihisa’s, and we both did a victory pose. We had been through a lot, but moments like this felt good.

As I was thinking that, a girl’s voice suddenly said, “Would you mind handing it over to me?”

For a moment, I thought someone from the royal family—a princess, perhaps—had arrived. But judging by Michihisa’s reaction, who’d already heard the voices of the royal family, I had a feeling that wasn’t the case. I was sure I had heard this voice somewhere before.

I had the bad habit of getting caught up in rummaging my memories as soon as something piqued my curiosity. It always threw off the tempo of the conversation and made the other person uncomfortable, one of the reasons why I wasn’t the best at communicating.

“I never thought our reunion would be here, Fini².” Michihisa turned around as he said that.
“It’s Finis.”

When I looked back as well, I saw a cute girl standing there. She was Finis, an adventurer we had met and parted ways with in the border town of Fraus. I smiled at the thought that she still hated being called Fini by Michihisa, but I quickly dismissed that naive thought.

We had come all this way, hiding as best we could and even checking to make sure we weren’t being followed. Yet we hadn’t noticed her at all. It was hard to believe that we had been careless.

If that was the case, then Finis might have had abilities even stronger than ours, something that wasn’t any weaker than Michihisa’s Spy. However, when I had appraised her before, I hadn’t found any such skills.

Even her status had been weaker than ours, and from this world’s perspective, our growth rate was abnormally high. Even if Finis had been summoned from another world and was in a similar situation, I didn’t believe that the gap in our strength could be that huge. And yet, this pretty-faced girl gave me an unsettling feeling. I was sure Michihisa felt the same.

He was talking as usual, but sweat had begun to collect on his forehead.

“So, I would like you to hand it over to me. Could you do that?”
“Do you know what this thing is, Fini?”
“It’s Finis. And I think it is you who does not know what it is. That child has a will of its own, so it is not okay to simply refer to it as this thing.”

Despite her words, Fini didn’t seem to feel sorry for the spirit at all.

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