Oh, in case you were wondering—yes, I had forgotten all about the summoner whom I’d left hanging on the tree branches. Luckily, I remembered before I’d managed to run all the way back to town, so I went back to get her.
“Huh?” Ighnoa said. “You’re back.”
“Yeah, forgot something. Sorry to interrupt.”
“Not to worry. We’ve finished our chat.”
I looked down to see that the plains had been returned to their previous state. He really was on a whole different level.
“If you’re done, I’ll take Ariya back.”
“Sure thing.”
For some reason, Ariya froze up. Shadows fell across her face.
“Hey—what’d you do to Ariya?”
“All we did was talk.”
Appraisal confirmed he wasn’t lying. I couldn’t find any afflictions or damage, which meant it was probably their conversation that was making her act like this. I’d just have to ask her later.
I took the woman down from the tree and put her over my shoulder. “Let’s go, Ariya.”
“Um...” Ariya seemed nervous. “I actually have a job request that requires me to be out tonight. I’ll be fine on my own. You should return by yourself.”
“Hm.” She had a point. It would’ve been weird for her to go back when she was technically on the job. On the other hand, I was supposed to have still been in the town, so I needed to return. I knew that this made sense...but something didn’t sit right with me. “You’re kinda making it sound like you want to be by yourself.”
Ariya jumped slightly. Did she still have things she wanted to discuss with Ighnoa? I looked at him, but he shook his head as if he knew what I wanted to ask. Apparently, they were done talking. I looked back to Ariya. She really seemed to be in a bad mood. It was as if she was uneasy about something, and her expression looked as though she was thinking hard. For the sake of her mental health, I figured it probably wasn’t best for me to force her to come back with me.
“Okay. Do what you want tonight. We’ll meet back up tomorrow.”
“Okay...” Ariya nodded. She seemed somewhat relieved.
As we made our way back to town, I asked the summoner a few questions. I learned more about her motives, what sorcerers and demons had to do with one another, and the background of the perpetrators and the suspects. By then, I more or less understood what’d been going on. I also searched through her clothes and found a certain magic tool.
“This must be it.”
It was a sort of jamming magic tool that could block any kind of powers like my Detect. Apparently, it was pretty rare. I might not have been able to sense it, but Sylph had apparently been aware of it. It seemed really useful, so I decided to keep it for myself. As for the summoner, she seemed like she’d be useful too, so I wanted to keep her somewhere where she wouldn’t be found. There weren’t any places like that in the city, so I decided to find a tree that’d serve as a landmark.
“That should work,” I said, having found a tree that had a unique-looking cavity in it. I was sure to remember the way there with Photographic Memory as well, to eliminate the possibility of getting lost. Next, I made a basement beneath the tree with Armament Craft. I knew that Skill had gained a new ability, but I hadn’t had the chance to test it out yet.
After creating the basement, I was sure to leave her a day’s worth of food and water. I had no worries about her running away since she was under my hypnosis. Maybe I was going a little beyond just violating human rights here...but you know what they say: it’s not a crime if you don’t get caught.