Wayne stood by the window and waited a while. Only after confirming that Miss My Little Pony's presence had completely vanished did he exhale, then quickly moved to close the window.
But just as the shutters were about to meet, a dark shape shot up from below, accompanied by Amber's hollering.
"Hey mister, I just saw a thief..."
SMACK.
Wayne: "..."
A few moments later, the physically and emotionally devastated Miss Amber was finally standing steadily on the floor. The unfortunate half-elf pressed an ice pack to her forehead and glared at Wayne furiously. "That was uncalled for!"
"How was I supposed to know you'd come flying in through the window?" Wayne glanced at her. "What is with everyone today? Does nobody use the front door anymore?"
"I'm a thief! Asking me to use the front door is an insult to my professional standards!" Amber seethed. "And I just got punched across the sky, you know! You haven't even mentioned workers' compensation yet, have you no shame? Are all you nobles this stingy?"
Wayne looked at Amber, who was still bouncing around with full vitality, confirmed that aside from smashing her face into the window frame she was essentially uninjured, and shook his head. "I'm broke right now. But once I have money, I'll make it up to you."
Before she could respond, he added. "I'm an elder. I don't lie. Happy?"
Amber's eyes went wide. "You said it! I have an excellent memory!"
Wayne waved her off, directing the noisy half-elf to sit quietly to the side, then went to the desk and examined the crystals laid out on its surface.
There were five crystals in total. One was the item Miss Mailita had just delivered, the deposit from seven hundred years ago, theoretically an important object that Gwayne Seawright had entrusted to the Mithril Treasury. But for some reason, there were absolutely no corresponding memories in his head. The other four crystals had come from the mithril strongbox hidden beneath the study floor.
But Wayne didn't know the origin of those four either.
He had memories of the mithril strongbox, but regarding its contents, he only knew about the platinum disc, which was actually a key that could open a storehouse presumably unknown to anyone alive today. As for the remaining crystals... he only recalled the image of Gwayne Seawright placing them into the box, but not where they'd come from.
It was as though all memories related to these crystals had been erased.
Wayne turned the crystals over in his hands. They were made of the same material, but the one from the Mithril Treasury was clearly intact, perfectly symmetrical, roughly the size and shape of a palm-sized spindle, though without pointed tips. At its center, a faint blue glow was barely visible. The other four from the strongbox were obviously fragments, the remains of another spindle. Wayne tried fitting them together and found they assembled into roughly two-thirds of a spindle at most.
"What's this?" Amber had barely stood still for a few minutes before boredom threatened to launch her into orbit. She sidled up to Wayne, unable to resist. "Crystals, huh? They're so dim, though... They look totally worthless."
Wayne didn't look up. "Lucky they look worthless, or I'd silence you right now to keep you from getting ideas."
Amber clutched her chest dramatically. "Wow! You nobles are so cruel!"
Wayne looked at her with some curiosity. "You're always going on about nobles this, nobles that. Do you have a grudge against the aristocracy?"
"No grudge. But isn't it natural for poor people to curse nobles?" Amber rolled her eyes. "There's nobody else to blame, so whether it's birth, death, sickness, natural disasters, or man-made calamities, obviously it's all the nobles' fault."
Wayne gave her a half-amused look. "That doesn't sound like a poor person's attitude at all. Truly poor smallfolk wouldn't have the nerve."
Amber preened. "Well, duh. Your average pauper can't Shadow Walk either~~~"
Wayne ignored this motor-mouth who couldn't produce a single honest sentence, and waved her off to go fetch Rebecca.
"Fetch the little lord?" Amber blinked, then glanced at the crystals in front of Wayne. "Wait... are these things actually valuable?"
Wayne had no idea how she'd made that leap. "What makes you think that?"
Amber's analysis was remarkably coherent. "This timing, this atmosphere, plus that Mithril Treasury agent you mentioned, this is clearly the 'reading of the will' vibe. Don't tell me House Seawright's eternal legacy is actually stored in these crystals?"
Cold sweat broke out on Wayne's forehead. "If you don't go right now, I'm going to flatten you against the wall with my sword!"
Amber dissolved into shadow with a whoosh, gradually fading into thin air.
Wayne slowly exhaled. With the noisy half-elf finally gone, he could truly settle into silence and think about the question that had been nagging at him, what exactly was behind his "resurrection," or rather, his possession of this body?
He'd originally assumed it was all coincidence. That he'd been floating up there until some device reached the end of its operational life, the escape system kicked in, and he'd been dumped into someone's ancestral tomb by sheer luck. But now it seemed... perhaps his arrival was an accident, but Gwayne Seawright's resurrection was not.
A man destined for a limited lifespan, one who had in fact died young, would not purchase an indefinite storage plan at the Mithril Treasury.
Unless he'd known all along that he would one day return to claim his belongings.
Of course, it was also possible that he'd simply had money to burn... but that probability was too low to consider.
Wayne's finger traced absent-mindedly across the desk, writing three words.
Who am I?
Wayne.
From Earth.
Previous life ended in a plane crash.
Transmigrated here.
Though the mechanism remained unclear, he'd first spent tens of thousands of years suspended in the sky, watching this world's geological ages unfold, then possessed a body. It had been barely two months since he became Gwayne Seawright.
His memories were seamless, his personality intact, his logic clear and sound.
So it wasn't the scenario he feared most.
Then the anomaly had to lie with Gwayne Seawright. His resurrection... could it have been derailed by an uninvited guest falling from the sky?
When he thought about it, a man whose body hadn't decomposed after seven hundred years of death was itself deeply suspicious. Perhaps the legendary warrior had arranged, seven hundred years ago, to resurrect on some future day, say, when his worthless descendants had nearly squandered the family fortune, or when those nation-destroying Others returned and broke through the defenses, or when both catastrophes struck simultaneously.
He would rise again in the spirit of undying devotion to protect his family and kingdom. But amid all his meticulous calculations, he'd failed to account for one thing. a sentient satellite's soul happened to crash-land right on top of him...
When he thought about it that way, it was entirely plausible!
Wayne frowned, running through every possible scenario in his mind, but the vast majority couldn't be verified.
The only thing he could confirm was that he was still himself.
He didn't bother with overly complex, ultimately pointless philosophical questions like "changes to the subconscious are imperceptible, just as the brain cannot detect its own thinking, and a mind that's been influenced cannot recognize the influence." Suffocating himself in philosophy right now would be a pure waste of time.
As long as he could confirm his thoughts remained free, that was enough. Only with clear thinking could he continue doing what needed to be done.
Footsteps outside the study interrupted his thoughts. He heard Amber's chattering voice at the door. "I'm telling you, your ancestor's being all mysterious. Met some Mithril Treasury agent in the dead of night, then suddenly asked for you by name, nine out of ten he's divvying up the inheritance... Oh, and that Treasury agent punched me, so you need to file that under workers' comp..."
The crackling sound of a fireball forming.
Amber's voice. "...Of course, I'm not asking you to pay right now..."
The door opened. Rebecca appeared in the doorway, with Amber peeking around the frame beside her.
"Great Ancestor, you wanted to see me?"
Rebecca asked while studying Wayne. Though the blabbering half-elf thief's words were generally not worth believing, the earnest young lord had instinctively checked her ancestor's complexion to make sure he wasn't actually about to dictate his last will and testament...
Wayne looked at Amber. "Stand watch outside. Make sure no one gets close. If someone slips in again this time, forget workers' comp, you won't even get a wage."
Amber pouted, muttering as she headed for the window. "As if you've ever paid me wages..."
Wayne: "...Do you HAVE to use the window?!"
The highly professional Miss Amber once again returned to her post via the window.
Wayne sighed, deciding that reasoning with this disgrace to all living things was a lost cause. He turned to the desk, first putting away the crystals whose purpose he couldn't yet determine, then pulling the platinum disc from inside his shirt.
"What Amber said isn't entirely wrong, I do have something to entrust to you," Wayne said, then quickly emphasized. "But it's definitely not an inheritance."
Rebecca looked curiously at the platinum disc in Wayne's hand. "What is it?"
"A key. It can be used to open..."
Wayne was only halfway through his sentence when Amber's shout rang out from the rooftop. "Thief! I've caught you again!!"
This was followed by the sound of running across the roof tiles. Remarkably, there was no "ahhh!" of Amber being swatted away, which genuinely startled Wayne.
Had a goose proficient in shadow stealth somehow climbed onto the roof?
He immediately reached for the weapon beside the desk, preparing to go up with Rebecca to investigate. But before he could move, a mass of shadow suddenly surged up in the study. Amber leapt out of the dark mist, and in her hand she was holding an unconscious young man with black hair, dressed in black leather armor.
Wayne looked at the figure and couldn't help but marvel.
Sure were a lot of visitors tonight...