The place U-jin led the two to after saying he had a plan was none other than the rear of the train cars.
To be precise.
Not the three cars that had been disconnected, abandoning U-jin and Loxy, but the tail end of the train that was still properly attached.
“…Hup—cha.”
Compared to the crowded front cars, the rear cars were completely empty.
Just like the car Jerry had been in.
…It was only natural.
Unless you were insane, no one would want to stick around in a place where people had died.
Squish—
“…Filthy.”
Jerry muttered after stepping on a lump of meat that was unidentifiable as either human or Oni.
He rubbed his shoe on the sofa of a nearby undamaged seat to wipe off the splattered flesh and blood.
Loxy, watching Jerry with a look of fascination, turned to me and asked.
“Is he a new party member?”
“Well. Something like that.”
“Hmm— Since you picked him first, he can’t be an ordinary person……”
“……”
“The vibe he gives off seems pretty similar to my own. Am I right?”
Looking at the medal's magic circle, which had been changed to only allow the region's supervising Constellation to participate, I thought for a moment before answering.
“You’re right. He’s a human from the Demon King's Territory who’s going to be our sponsor from now on… No, wait. To be precise, rather than being from the Demon King's Territory……”
Ssk—
Jerry’s head turned, his gaze fixing on me.
“…I would appreciate it if you would refrain from misusing information with a person whose trustworthiness has not yet been confirmed. Though I have no idea how you know such things in the first place.”
“Don't be so uptight. We're going to be eating from the same pot for a while anyway.”
“…Is this woman trustworthy?”
At Jerry’s question, Loxy shrugged and answered in my stead.
“Don’t be so guarded. As you can see, I’m in a position where this one has me on a leash and I have to call him ‘Master’.”
“That title is something you came up with on your own. Don’t talk as if I made you.”
“Oh my, Master. Are you angry?”
“……”
Jerry’s gaze turned back to me.
For some reason, his subtly twisted eyebrow made my temper flare.
“…You have a unique taste.”
“No. Get lost. What the hell are you thinking, you lunatic.”
At that, Loxy chuckled and muttered.
“You two really do get along so well.”
Hwik—
“I told you, it’s just your imagination.”
“…I’m pretty sure I already said it was just your imagination earlier.”
“…That poor imagination of yours must feel so wronged. Always getting blamed for everything.”
Creak—
To refocus our attention, which had momentarily strayed, I opened the door to the next car.
…It didn’t seem like what I was looking for was in this car anyway.
With a creaking sound, the sliding door between the cars opened, and the next car, drenched in blood, came into view.
“……”
A brief silence fell.
It wasn't for any particular reason.
‘Damn… Did I get too into it?’
It was because of the traces of battle I had left behind.
“…I didn’t see it properly before since I was just passing through. This is seriously no joke.”
“……”
To Loxy’s eyes, it probably just looked like ‘the car where the most fighting happened’, but the point to note here wasn't simply the intensity of the battle.
Ssk—
Jerry stroked his eyebrow.
“……”
Optimization.
The crucial point was that my fighting style was optimized for the traits of a vampire to an excessive degree.
Like a berserker who had lost his mind to revenge, never taking a single step back.
This fighting style, like fighting on the edge of a thousand-foot cliff with one's life on the line, was a combat pattern unique to vampires.
It was certainly not a fighting style that a novice who had just acquired the trait could pull off.
Moreover, the flow of battle seen in this car showed a level of perfection that was almost flawless.
It seemed Loxy's eyes couldn't see that far, but on Jerry's level, having grown up watching vampires fight, he should have been able to read it.
Jerry's unique habit of rubbing his eyebrow whenever he fell into deep thought proved it.
“Hey.”
I performed first aid before Jerry could fall into deeper thought.
“I’ll explain everything later, so let's just move on for now.”
“……”
“You’ve had plenty of things you didn’t understand before this, anyway.”
Even if it were to be revealed someday, I couldn't reveal my ‘Regression’ at this point in time.
It was a trump card that had to be saved for the very, very end.
I had to let him harbor his unavoidable questions, but the timing of their reveal had to be postponed as much as possible.
Fortunately, Jerry nodded at my request.
“Fine.”
“……”
“…Are there going to be many more situations like this in the future?”
“Probably.”
“…You’re a more dangerous partner than I thought.”
With those words, the conversation ended.
Loxy, seeming to have noticed the strange atmosphere, also kept her mouth shut, and the mood became slightly more awkward than before.
In my experience, in cases like this, it was better to just proceed with things quickly to reduce the time for thinking.
Creak—
Therefore, I immediately headed to the corner behind the last seat of the second car and lifted the half-broken seat that had fallen backward.
And in the spot revealed beneath.
“…Found it. The clue.”
A severed index finger of an Oni was lying there.
* * *
“So… I get that you found something. But why is this a clue? It just looks like an ordinary Oni finger.”
As soon as we left the train car with the finger in hand, Loxy asked.
“Does it look that way to you?”
“Yes. It doesn't seem special at all……”
“Ordinary, you say……”
Tiring—!
[<Trait: Chosen One(★☆☆)> is activated.]
[Would you like to check the basic information of the <Unidentified Object>? Y/N]
[Target selected.]
[Checking basic information.]
+
[Code:#339-B8]
Name: [Index Finger of a Certain Mutant Oni]
Classification: [Magical Beast (Humanoid)]
Description: An index finger separated from the body of a certain mutant Oni. It contains a dense Earth-attribute mana.
+
To get straight to the point, this was no ordinary object.
Of course, the standard for ‘ordinary’ could vary wildly depending on the situation and level, but at the very least, this was an object we ‘needed’.
Unlike Loxy, who hadn't noticed at all, Jerry was staring intently down at the finger I had picked up.
Then.
“…You've encountered it before?”
“Looks like you’ve got a rough idea.”
“Indeed. This could be a clue. The bloodstains left in the engine room were because of this.”
“Hmm… I still don't get it, no matter how I look at it.”
In contrast to Jerry, who had more or less reached a conclusion, Loxy tilted her head and muttered, unable to find anything different no matter how she looked at it.
Then, after staring at the finger for a moment, she brought it to her nose and sniffed.
And—
“Keuk! This thing… Cough—!”
She immediately recoiled, screwing up her face with a violent cough as if she were about to hack up a lung.
It was only natural.
With a few special exceptions, mana that doesn't circulate is bound to oxidize.
And the denser the mana, the more intense its foul stench became.
On top of that, the body of Kim Sia that she inhabited was under the influence of <Trait: Reconnaissance Unit>.
Regardless of her intention, the intensity of the smell must have felt at least twice as strong.
I'm not sure about a Named Magical Beast, but it probably smelled something like a cheesecake left in a broken freezer for a month.
Pfft—
“Want another whiff?”
When I made a motion to offer it to her, Loxy freaked out and covered her nose.
“Why would I!”
“Because this is the finger of the Named Oni we're looking for.”
“What does that have to do with me smelling it……”
Her expression changed as she stopped mid-sentence, seeming to have guessed my intention.
“Trait: Reconnaissance Unit.”
“……”
“It’s a trait exclusively for searching, considered Tier 1 at our level.”
…The reason I called the finger a clue was because of the trait Loxy possessed.
To be precise, it was because of the <Trait: Reconnaissance Unit> that ‘Hero candidate Kim Sia’ had.
The trait ‘Reconnaissance Squad’ was a 1-star trait useful enough to be unrivaled, at least in its search function.
A Named-class Magical Beast would leave a distinct trace of mana in the first place, and with such a definite physical injury, it was bound to have been dripping mana as it moved.
Considering that not much time had passed, it was possible to track it just by following the lingering stench if we moved quickly.
“Hurry up and find it before you forget the smell. Otherwise, you’ll have to smell it again later.”
“Hey, it’s not like I’m some kind of hound……”
As if she didn’t like it.
Loxy let out a small sigh and whined, but she must have really hated the idea of smelling it again, because she immediately closed her eyes right where she stood.
It was a sort of ritual to maximize the sensitivity of the Reconnaissance Squad Trait.
And soon, after scrunching up her face and sniffing the air a few times.
“…This way.”
She turned her body and pointed in one direction.
It was the direction from which a faint breeze was blowing.
“I smell something similar from the opposite direction, but this side is much denser… and… hmm… how should I put this……”
“Just say whatever comes to mind.”
Shrug—
“It’s more shitty.”
“…Good.”
“…We might be able to handle this faster than I thought.”
The direction with the fainter smell was the scent wafting from the mana footprints the target had left behind.
And the place she described as shitty was most likely the scent wafting from the space where it was currently staying.
There was no way it could have treated such a wound immediately in these poor, unfamiliar conditions.
It was probably still gushing blood and mana from the torn wound right now.
“Lead the way.”
* * *
Loxy, who swallowed a few gags during the process of reaching our destination, pointed with her index finger as soon as the location became somewhat certain.
“Ugh… It’s here.”
“…Are you sure?”
When I asked again to confirm, she nodded her head repeatedly while pinching her nose.
“Huuap… This is definitely it. It’s not a smell you can get confused with in the first place.”
“……”
…Judging by Loxy’s words and her reaction, it was clear that the Oni who took the Mana Stones was here where she pointed.
Now that the location was certain, all we had to do was go there and take care of business.
The problem was.
“…A wasted trip.”
Hwiiing—
The problem was that ‘here’ was at the bottom of a sheer canyon with no visible floor.
‘…….’
Through the knowledge from my past life, I knew that ‘he’ was residing in this land of Kunlun at this point in time.
But I didn't know his exact location.
‘To think he was hiding at the bottom of a canyon.’
Well, considering his circumstances at this point, it wouldn't have been strange for him to be hiding anywhere.
Still, it was a bit startling for something to happen that was outside my predictable range.
‘…….’
Of course, that didn't mean giving up was an option.
If it were, I wouldn't have come.
The reason I chose the 'Train Guardian Request' despite knowing it would fail was because this route was the only point where I could knock out three bucket list items at once.
Coming all this way just to turn back was a waste of time.
Now that I had started the job, I had to accomplish all three bucket list items.
“Huuu… So.”
“……”
“What are you going to do?”
Loxy, who seemed to have recovered now that the nose-piercing smell had subsided, asked.
“We’re going.”
I answered, looking down at the canyon without turning my head.
“……”
A moment of silence followed.
Jerry asked.
“…Do you have a plan in mind?”
“I have a separate plan. A way to get down there safely.”
“…Unlike before, I have some doubts about this one.”
“…It’s just your imagination, right? Probably?”
Loxy, also displeased with my less-than-confident answer, let out a small sigh.
Haa—
And she shook her head with a dissatisfied expression.
“…You know, you’re most unsettling when you make that blank face, right?”
“……”
“…So what is it, that plan?”
Instead of answering her, I pointed with my fingertip somewhere down in the canyon.
“Both of you, look over there.”
“…Over there?”
Nod—
Loxy, who was a step behind, took a step closer to the cliff, and Jerry also frowned and leaned his body in the direction I was pointing.
And I.
“What in the world is even supposed to be there……”
“…Is it just my imagination that I can't see anything……”
Push—
“…Huh?”
Whoosh—
I hugged both of them from behind and threw our bodies off the cliff.