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Having explained that so far, she stood up and walked to the pillars touching one after another while saying 「This one is for wind spirits, this is for fire, and here’s water.」

「And this, this, and this, I have no clue!」 Lastly she slapped in frustration at the last three ones. She could not stand the thought that as a summoner, a class that closely worked with spirits, there were types she had no knowledge on.

Arlon could somewhat understand what Mira was trying to say, but at least he could see why Mira would be so frustrated, while also being surprised at how much Mira was actually familiar with. If she knew those spirits, it meant that she had a contract with them. So in other words, Mira already had a huge number of spirits under her command.

「Still, there’s so many of them…」

Arlon muttered, earnestly glad to learn all that. That explained the holes in the pillars, but Mira’s explanation still continued after that.

After discussing and exchanging ideas for a while, they settled on the theory that the position of those orbs were more important on the barrier around the Spirit King than simply having the orbs present. Whether they had stolen all the orbs, or fabricated replicas, without the correct location the barrier was impossible to deploy. That was probably when they realized the importance of those holes, so they sent members back to check where everything went. All those sketches of the pillars made more sense that way as well. With that theory complete, Arlon and Mira returned to the strategy room and told Hebi and Sasori all of it.

「There were four sets of drawings, so they must have wanted to have multiple references. Probably because they expected our interference.」

Arlon finished the explanation with that, looking around at the four scorched bodies, saying 「I guess they didn’t expect that though」 while grimacing.

「They were all needed, but also expendable in a way. I guess Chimera still makes everyone work independently even if multiple people have the same mission.」

Understanding why there were four sets of sketches, Sasori spoke like that as she walked up to the closest corpse and looked down at it. That scorched corpse was still fresh. The same went for the other bodies, showing they had all been killed at around the same time. They were given the same mission, went to the same place at the same time, and were all killed by the same person. As a result, all of their preparations and sketches never reached Chimera Clauzen and they were stuck without the means to fully seal the Spirit King.

「What should we do? If they never receive the sketches, they’ll send new people. If we wait long enough, we might be able to capture those.」

Arlon spoke as he looked at the girls. Their mission there was to capture someone with a high rank in Chimera Clauzen. But that had failed the moment a third party entered and killed their target. How they would proceed was something the four had to decide and agree on.

It would probably take some time before Chimera realized that their mission had failed and they sent a new group of members. Maybe even days, when the due date for the sketches passed. They could try to capture whoever would receive the sketches instead of wasting time sitting in the Libra Fortress doing nothing. As to where that delivery would happen, the permits and maps gave them a pretty clear idea.

「We probably should go to the Mirage Maze. Since they already had permits to enter there, my guess is they were headed there next. So we could go there in their place and take care of the rest.」

Mira picked up all the sketchbooks, her lips twisting into a dark smirk that gave off a completely different aura to her usual self.

「Yeah, that sounds good. Might be our best chance too.」

Arlon also smiled like Mira, laughing in a cunning way. Meanwhile Hebi had already picked up a map of the Mirage Maze to learn the best route through it.

「I think there are already five of our members going there. Maybe we should let them handle it?」

The Spirit King’s palace was said to be at the very end of the Mirage Maze., and that was one of the three dungeons where the Fifty Bells had sent the Hidden. Sasori knew that, so she decided to trust her other comrades.

「It’d be easier to do that, but I feel like the situation has advanced more than expected. They were supposed to deliver the sketches straight to the Mirage Maze, which means they’re done with all preparations there and are one step away from the Spirit King.」
「Yup, and from what we’ve seen here, they’re trying to harness his power to themselves. Mira is right, if they’re on the last step of their plan this is more important than we thought, and they probably have a considerable number of guards in the Mirage Maze.」

Arlon also picked up a map of the Mirage Maze and looked through it. Chimera Clauzen’s plan had moved ahead a lot, and it was very possible that the sketches were the only missing pieces to finish it. Mira, Arlon, and Hebi had been able to see that much from the found items.

「So uhh… you’re saying that they’re amassing all their fighting power there, so only five members won’t be enough to fight them?」

Sasori quickly understood what they meant, and briefly surmised everything while asking for the last bit of confirmation from Mira and Arlon.

「Pretty much.」

Arlon replied affirmatively, taking another sketchbook in his hand 「Though that’s assuming there were only four of these.」 Bringing another possibility to light.

「If they left the four here as a decoy and there was one more, then there’s still one sketchbook that will get into their hands.」

If they got rid of the sketchbooks, they had probably made a dent in Chimera Clauzen’s plans. Though considering how careful they normally were, it was hard to tell how far ahead they had planned. Maybe there was even one sketchbook that had already made its way to their hands. Or at least that’s what Arlon was thinking about now. Mira looked at the four bodies scattered through the floor, then thought about how they got to that state.

「That sounds possible, but I think it’s rather unlikely there was a fifth.」
「Hoh, why do you think that?」

Hearing Mira, Arlon asked, full of curiosity for her reasoning.

「That man from the Sky Denizens. When he realized we weren’t his enemies, he gave us valuable information. I asked Hebi about him earlier, and apparently he’s a priest, and killing is taboo for him. Yet he still stained his hands with blood.」

There was no fifth one. Mira’s certainty came from one place, as she recalled the man in long clothes, he asked them 「Do you still remember his face?」

「…I see. If even one had managed to slip away, he wouldn’t have taken the time to talk to us.」

He had a cold, ice-like stare with a sharp gaze. That face Arlon recalled had enough bloodlust to convince him he would never let anyone go.

「So that’s it.」

Mira watched with a smug smile as Arlon nodded convinced, impressed with her deduction.

Having their next objective set, the group disposed of the items gathered. Sasori used a mallet of white wood to crush down the daggers used to harm spirits into fine powder, then Hebi used her Necromancer skills to set the bodies ablaze, while Arlon threw the sketchbooks into the fire that caused.

While the three were busy with that, Mira went to the control room and stood in front of the stone table. That was an emergency device to escape the fortress. To use it, one had to possess the blessings of at least five spirits, and as far as she could see, the device had not been used in a long time. That was something else she had looked for while examining the control room earlier, and the fact it had not been used was another reason why she did not believe there was a fifth.