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「Anyway, let’s move onto the times I was put to sleep.」

It seemed like the preamble was over, and the detective finally moved on to the meat of his deduction of Fuzzy Dice’s class. He would finally explain why he believed the thief used Forbidden Arts, when there were other spells that could put people to sleep.

「According to the results from the medical team, the symptoms resembled the sleep induced by none other than Stropo Toxin!」

Hearing that made Mira tilt her head quizzically, as she had never heard of Stropo Toxin before.

Mira had been expecting a simple conclusion, like the fact that no residues could be detected meant a spell was used, and Forbidden Arts had the strongest spells like that. But the conversation went into a more complex tangent.

And surely enough, that made the detective’s eyes gleam with excitement.

「You see, Stropo Toxin is…」

Seeing that Mira was confused, the detective began explaining that. His assistant Julius seemed to be used to that already though, as he acted like he was listening while receiving the plates with the pancakes for the three.

「Also, please bring us three cups of blended tea, hot.」

Julius could tell the conversation would drag on, so he quickly ordered something more before placing the plates in front of everyone. Then he whispered to Mira, 「It really doesn’t matter if you listen to him or not, he’ll just keep talking. Feel free to start eating.」

It seemed like the detective simply enjoyed the sound of his own voice, so Mira did not need to pay attention the entire time.

「Well, let’s dig in then.」
「Yes, we certainly should.」

The sweet fragrance of fresh pancakes wafted up from the plates, tickling their appetite. It felt almost like a sin to resist it. Mira felt just a little bit of guilt seeing that the detective was still talking as she took a piece of her pancakes and moved it to her mouth.

Soon a soft and fluffy texture spread through Mira’s mouth. According to Julius, they accomplished that by mixing mascarpone cheese into the pancake batter.

And so Mira began to relish in the delicious pancakes, keeping the detective’s voice as BGM.

She did not pay much attention to the detective anymore, but he seemed to be so good at explaining things that somehow she still managed to get the gist of what he was saying.

He mostly focused on the details of Stropo Toxin, which was the name of a sleep inducing compound.

It was rather potent and acted quickly, and was mainly produced by a type of flower called Stropo.

Stropo flowers were widely used as a sleeping aid, and in the right doses could treat insomnia.

The main difference between regular sleep and that induced by Stropo Toxin was an increase in metabolic activity. So far all symptoms caused by Fuzzy Dice’s white fog pointed towards Stropo Toxin, except that the toxin itself had not been detected.

But the medic team was still focusing mainly on that possibility.

Stropo Toxin was still a natural toxin, so the detective was very confident that Fuzzy Dice was using spells to recreate the toxin with mana.

The basis for that confidence was something he read in the latter half of the Analysis of Status Effects Spells, Definitive Edition book. Given that it was the definitive edition, it included a lot more research that Mira was not aware of, including detailed descriptions of all types of toxins discovered, both natural and magic in nature.

The detective had read through all of that, and so he smugly detailed how there was a sacred beast known as Aktarka that fed on Stropo flowers, and had been found to be able to create a mana-based version of the toxin.

There were cases when the same type of toxin existed in natural form, as well as magic. That applied to the one they were investigating as well.

The Stropo Toxin ingested by Aktarka would be broken down within its body, and turned into a type of magic with the same properties.

「I see, so that’s what you were getting at the entire time.」

Mira reached for her tea, being slightly baffled that it had taken this long just to get to this point.

At this point, someone with little knowledge about spellcasters would wonder how Forbidden Arts would be related to this, but that did not apply to Mira. She had once been recognized as the best summoner, leading one of the Silver Linked Towers as a Wiseman, and had done a lot of research. She was leagues ahead of most spellcasters.

「I believe there was a spell named Paradise Fog, yes?」

Mira knew of it. It was a sleeping spell used by Aktarka which employed the same type of toxin as Stropo Toxin, called Paradise Fog, and it also was usable through Forbidden Arts.

Forbidden Arts did not only include spells usable by humans, but also allowed one to learn those of monsters, sacred beasts, and even divine beasts.

In essence, Forbidden Arts was the class to fight magic with magic. And everything would be explained if Fuzzy Dice had learned to use Paradise Fog.

「Precisely. Only someone versed in Forbidden Arts would be able to utilize Stropo Toxin in magic form!」

The detective had finally said everything he wanted, nodded in approval of Mira’s quick understanding. Then he finally began eating his pancakes.

「With all that evidence I’d say it’s rather conclusive that the thief uses Forbidden Arts. But he’s also more troublesome than I expected.」

Fuzzy Dice had easily incapacitated ten rank A adventurers, showing his expertise. That alone did not worry Mira though, as she was still confident she could win against someone like that. Not to mention that he had only accomplished that thanks to a spell to put them to sleep.

The problem was the specific spell Fuzzy Dice had used. Mira was no expert, but she knew how Paradise Fog had to be obtained, and how difficult the process was.

「More than you expected, you said? Does this mean you’ve been able to get a measurement of Fuzzy Dice’s skill from this?」

The detective noticed something about Mira’s wording, and his hand slowed down from cutting the pancakes as he prodded further.

Putting ten rank A adventurers to sleep was already something impressive, showing Fuzzy Dice’s power. But that did not exactly show his true combat proficiency.

As impressive as that was, almost anyone could also accomplish that through the right means, but Mira knew the path to get there, and the fights that entailed.

「From what I’m hearing I presume the book did not detail how all of those spells are obtained, did it?」

Mira’s voice gained a slightly smug tone as she glanced at the Analysis of Status Effects Spells, Definitive Edition that was placed in a corner of the table. Her guess had been correct, as the detective confirmed that the book did not contain that information.

「Does this mean that the process to obtain said spell can give us a clue about the thief’s true power?」

Now the detective’s hand was completely still, his eyes filled with curiosity as he pushed Mira to elaborate further.

「Well, I guess it’s my turn to talk then.」

The two of them were not too distinct from each other, as Mira also enjoyed speaking at length. Especially when it came to her topic of expertise, spellcasting, so she did not hesitate to explain everything she knew.

「First of all, new Forbidden Arts are learned by…」

Starting like that, Mira began explaining how Forbidden Arts were learned, talking like she was a preacher on a podium.

There were various methods to obtain new spells. One was to find a monster or beast, then killing it and dissecting it to find the organs responsible for casting the spell. With those, it was possible to analyze them and extract the spells built into them.

Another method was to overcome a test given by a sacred or divine beast. Such tests were also varied, some requiring fighting prowess, others intelligence, or a mix of the two. Regardless of how varied they were, there was still one common point in all tests. They could only be completed by one person without help from others.

「So what you’re saying is that since Aktarka is a sacred beast, and they have a test that must be completed alone, whatever that test is will give us a baseline for Fuzzy Dice’s power?」