I Returned with the Cheat Holy Sword

He may have been subjected to some outrageous tyranny by Gray, but in any case—

Felix and the Marquess Anastasia, who had stepped away from the table, soon returned to their seats.
“...It seems we won’t be able °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° to obtain it quickly.”
Somewhere in the middle of their conversation, as if he’d gotten stressed out, Felix began puffing on a lit pipe and muttered.

“Looks like someone’s already made off with the alchemy materials we were after. Bold bastards.”
“...Excuse me?”
How could the greatest merchant on the continent allow his merchandise to be stolen so easily?

Especially if it was something Felix had specifically requested—anyone with half a brain would have placed it under the highest security.
As Carlyle blinked at him with such implications written on his face, the Marquess beside him flailed with a gesture full of injustice and added:
“They’re no ordinary criminals! It’s a secret society, infamous across the entire Empire!”

“A secret society?”
“They’re called Pale Moon. Have you heard of them?”
“Uh.”
Carlyle knew that name.

They’re the top of the underworld guild hierarchy.
A group that claimed to belong to no one, flaunting their freedom.
Originally, they were known among the bottom-tier freelance mercenaries for having rare, irreplaceable skills in niche fields.

Unique mercs whose goal was to raise their value as much as possible and retire early.
Think of them as the Demon Hunter version of the Fire Tribe.
Carlyle had owed them favors in a few of his repeated regressions.

If it was them, then even something as sudden as this theft could be understandable.
No ordinary manpower could deal with them.
What was strange, though—

“...Do you have any idea why people like that would suddenly target your goods, Marquess?”
“They’re notoriously elusive and ghostlike. I’m not sure, myself...”
“I see...”

“You say that, but you definitely look like you’ve got a theory.”
At Felix’s pointed comment, Carlyle simply shrugged.
“It’s not a theory—just a sense of déjà vu.”

It was pure intuition, but one honed through Carlyle’s massive accumulated regression data. Nine times out of ten, it was correct.
Whenever something bizarre and inexplicable happened around Gray—
Demon?
[Demon.]

He didn’t know how or where the connection formed, but when things started going to hell in strange ways, it was safest to just close your eyes and blame them.
So far, that approach had never been wrong.
Well, setting that aside...

He still had no idea how a demon might be involved in this situation.
The real issue was how to retrieve the materials.
“...We probably can’t get them back through brute force.”

“...Yeah. Probably not.”
Felix nodded in agreement, tapping the stem of his pipe.
“We’d win in a fight. If it came to blows, we’d definitely win... but we don’t even know where they are. They’re a cult of paranoid freaks.”

Between the Gray Cardinal, who could summon the strongest forces of the Orthodox Church, and the Hero—humanity’s mightiest warrior—losing to other humans was out of the question.
But there was a reason this group was famous as a secret society.
Their secrecy wasn’t just high—it was on another level entirely.

They had hideouts all over the continent, secured with protocols so extreme they’d make even obsessive-compulsives scream, and they constantly rotated between them.
Even someone like Carlyle, who was well-acquainted with their methods, had to rely partly on luck just to make contact.
“......”

“We’ve been trying to gather information, offer a ransom, and negotiate the item’s return, but...”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Marquess. Those misers wouldn’t give up such valuable materials just for some money. They’ll take the gold and vanish.”
“T-That can’t be...!”
The Marquess’s rotund body trembled as if struck by an earthquake.

His expression said he couldn’t begin to imagine how they were supposed to retrieve the goods if money didn’t work.
“...Tsk. How long would it take to obtain replacements?”
“It’s an extremely rare metal. Even in the best case, we’d be looking at a matter of years. The ones we got this time were purchased at an astronomical price from a black market auction...”

“That’s... not ideal. We can’t keep a calamity-class monster floating over the Empire for years.”
Felix and the Marquess exchanged grim predictions in low voices.
The implication was that the materials were so rare there wasn’t even a viable substitute.

And in that pause—
Carlyle, who had been silently contemplating, finally spoke.
“No. I don’t think we need to get new ones.”

“...?”
“...?”
In fact, this situation might not be so bad after all.

True to their shadowy reputation, Pale Moon also functioned as the highest-tier information brokers in the Demon Hunter world.
If he could establish contact with them quickly, that might actually be an opportunity.
“You’re scheming again, aren’t you?”

“...Just a plan that might wear my body down a little.”
The Marquess looked confused, and Felix’s expression twisted.
But in Carlyle’s mind, there was no more efficient solution than this.

System Log
▶ Target “Gray Chasefield” has begun working to change the nature of the relationship!
▶ Related events will now begin triggering in succession!
Hm.

Carlyle narrowed his eyes at the floating window before him, thoughts spinning in his head.
Young lady, you’re acting a little strange lately, aren’t you?
[So... showing goodwill toward you is what you call “strange”?]

Then yeah, no shit that’s strange.
[...]
A lunchbox.

A lunchbox, of all things.
Unbelievable.
How desperate must she have been to do something so horrifying?

[...Desperate?]
Maybe it just built up and came out all at once?
What was that?

I mean, you haven’t really had anyone to beat, stab, or kill lately, right?
...That’s true. But what about it?
You’re the kind of creature that suffers if you don’t do those things regularly.

[...]
It’s obvious. You’re acting weird because you haven’t been doing the stuff you usually do. Case closed!
The Holy Sword went dead silent.

Carlyle could tell it was a silence laced with about 50% acknowledgment...
And 50% the urge to murder him on the spot.
“......”

Hmm.
He didn’t quite understand why she was that angry, but anyway.
From a certain perspective, if he could give her a justifiable reason to let loose—

That might actually be a pretty good idea.
“Marquess. Could you synthesize a few of those alchemy ingredients I asked for?”
Saying that, Carlyle quickly scribbled a recipe onto a sheet of paper.

Felix, watching him from the side, tilted his head and commented,
“...This is what hunters use, isn’t it? For tracking?”
“Wow, you recognized it instantly?”

“There’s a guy among the Templars who uses something similar. But how do you know this? That recipe’s an old regional secret.”
When it came to obscure skills and trivial knowledge, no one could compete with him.
Carlyle smirked to himself as he handed the paper to the Marquess.

“In that case, Your Eminence, could you pass on a message to the young lady later?”
“?”
***

The next day.
Gray Chasefield being in a foul mood wasn’t anything new.
She was, after all, a human-shaped embodiment of stress who spent half the day seething with irritation and anger.

But there were times when even that stood out more than usual.
Her face was now twisted into such savage menace that people around her instinctively kept their distance, walking on eggshells or outright fleeing.
“......”

“......”
And this morning, Gray stalked through the halls of the Anastasia estate radiating such violent energy that no one dared approach her.
...That bastard.

Grinding her teeth, she replayed Carlyle’s reaction from the day before.
The more she thought about it, the more furious she became.
How dare he— how dare he reject the olive branch she offered?

Let’s see if he can act like that next time...
But more than the situation itself, what truly infuriated her was the state she found herself in now—dwelling on it like this.
Why the hell do I even care?

Why was she so hypersensitive to every little thing that guy did?
He doesn’t like me? Fine, I don’t like him either!
Whatever happened to him from now on, she wasn’t going to give a damn.

Hmm.
Actually, maybe not forever. He had helped her a few times...
Okay, not forever. Just for now, she wouldn’t care.

...No, screw it. Still makes her mad.
Alright then, maybe she wouldn’t care for a while.
“......”

Why did she even have to think about this?
Clicking her tongue in frustration, Gray spun on her heel.
When she got this irritated, swinging a sword was always the answer.

With that thought, Gray slung the Holy Sword over her back. With her savage aura and a literal weapon on her, she was now nothing less than a beast on the prowl.
Probably the only person in this place who could still approach her was the Gray Cardinal.
“Lady Chasefield, there you are. This is urgent.”

“......?”
Gray tilted her head at Felix, who looked unusually flustered.
He never acted like this. What was going on?

“It’s about Carlyle. We need your help.”
“......”
Gray’s face twisted into something monstrous.

Rage welled up from deep inside.
She’d just sworn to herself not to care about whatever happened to that bastard.
She absolutely didn’t care.

No matter what misfortune befell him, she wouldn’t even snort—
“...What’s that got to do with me? I don’t care what happens to that asshole.”
So she said, turning to walk toward the training yard again.

—Or she tried to.
“He’s been kidnapped.”
“......”

“If we don’t act fast, something seriously bad might happen.”
Gray froze mid-step.