Instead of a proper answer, a dull sound popped out.
"Oh, you're not angry?"
Cider clicked his tongue.
"I don't get angry over something so trivial."
He definitely seemed quite angry until just a moment ago though. Esperanza moved her lips. He was definitely angry. But teasing him now wouldn't be a wise move. Esperanza put firm pressure on her lips that wanted to babble carelessly.
"I didn't recognize your face even though I knew it, right?"
Ah, that's right. She had passed it over so brazenly without even an apology that she had forgotten. Then she didn't need to apologize either, right? Esperanza cleared her throat to get to the main point. Cider clicked his tongue and tilted the teapot to fill the empty teacup.
She didn't know there was tea left. She moistened her tongue and lips with the tea that had cooled and become bitter, then opened her mouth.
"Starting a year from now, things called dungeons will appear indiscriminately and irregularly. They can appear anywhere—in the royal palace, in back alleys, anywhere—and monsters appear within those areas to massacre people. Dungeons disappear when all the people inside die and the monsters have nothing left to eat. Or they disappear when completely destroyed too......"
Despite it being a terrible story, Cider didn't blink an eye and listened to the story as if being drawn in. Esperanza added while wrapping her hands around the cold teacup.
"I heard that the item I'm looking for can completely eliminate dungeons."
"That's quite abstract."
"Is it? I thought it was specific."
The gray eyes wrapped in dense eyelashes flashed with sharp intelligence.
"How does that item eliminate dungeons?"
"Well, I don't know that either."
Wouldn't the developers of Golden Claw teach her when they gradually thought the game wasn't making money anymore and declared server closure?
'Wait, is now that time? Am I a sacrifice for server closure?'
It was quite a plausible thought. If she found the Golden Claw and closed the dungeons, the game would inevitably end.
How much money had she spent on this game so far. Such an absurd server closure announcement. Are they kidding?
"I don't know what you're thinking, but, Esperanza."
Cider, who had called her name in a mysteriously sweet voice to get her attention, said.
"Think about 'how' the dungeons will disappear."
"Won't they just stop appearing anymore?"
"What about the opposite? What if this entire world became a dungeon?"
She had never thought of that. That wasn't a clean way for a game to end. 'The world without our hunters became overrun with monsters?' Wasn't that too cruel as a way to bid farewell to a world they had shared for years?
"That can't be. The Golden Claw isn't like that. It's like a legendary item that all hunters are searching for."
"There's no basis, it's all speculation."
By that logic, Cider's thoughts were the same. But Esperanza held back her words. She couldn't convince him without revealing that it was a game. However, Esperanza had no intention of telling him that fact. Even though Cider already knew of Esperanza's existence.
A woman appearing from 13 years in the future was a very strange thing. Perhaps close to a miracle. But the fact that this world was merely a world created for someone's amusement—wouldn't that shake the very foundation of one's existence? The two things had different weights entirely.
"Either way, it's the same that I need to find it to return."
"That's exactly what's strange. Why do you think you need to find it to return? What does the elimination of dungeons have to do with you going back?"
'Server closure. Quest.'
"I can see your eyes rolling around."
Esperanza, who had been drinking tea, ended up choking. Watching her cough and beat her chest, Cider shook his head. Esperanza, who had cleared her tickling throat several times, finally managed to speak in a more hoarse voice than before. It was a crude answer compared to the time he had waited.
"Well, there's a way that everyone knows. Among hunters."
Cider raised one eyebrow, then soon let his body relax.
"If you can't explain it, don't."
"Is that okay?"
"It's a story you're telling for your own benefit, so whatever."
That was true. She was trying to get consultation right now. Fortunately, she seemed to have succeeded in capturing Cider Claiborne's interest. When she said she wouldn't tell, he changed the subject instead of probing further.
"Trying to approach it from a magical engineering perspective, I don't know anything about dungeons."
"I can tell you everything I know."
"You don't know anything about magical engineering."
That's true enough. But she couldn't exactly drag the future magical engineer and dungeon scholar Dr. Sullivan here either. The Dr. Sullivan from 13 years ago couldn't be a better magical engineer than the man before her eyes.
"Anyway, being a scholar is similar to being a detective in that it's a profession that seeks truth."
"Ah, yes."
Does it work that way? Isn't it a bit different? And he's an engineer too. Esperanza tilted her head and thought. Of course, the genius magical engineer had no interest in other people's thoughts.
"If I dig into your situation thoroughly, I think more interesting stories will emerge than before. Something more essential that constitutes the world. And I even have a feeling it connects to my field."
That's probably true. The core of this world was monsters and dungeons, hunters, and 'magical engineering.'
However, Esperanza hoped he wouldn't figure out the essence. Because if he approached the deep essence, he would know too. That this world was an illusion, created merely for someone's amusement and to make money from that amusement.
"So what should we do now?"
We?
Cider spoke without hesitation. He hadn't expected an answer anyway.
"We need to gather information. My study, the library, maybe rumors or legends."
Information.
Jack's information.
She jumped up.
[Inventory]
There was information. Even if it wasn't about the Golden Claw. Esperanza smiled with a confident face for the first time in a while.
[Item: Jack's Note]
Dungeons, monsters. Rumors, legends.
Papers with the same name poured out in heaps. The notes piled at her feet reached up to her calves.
Cider Claiborne muttered without hiding his surprised expression.
"Where on earth in my drawing room did all those dirty papers......"
In a completely different direction from what Esperanza had thought.
'Then how about this?'
In the state where she couldn't move a step trapped in papers, she took out one more item.
[Item: Monster Encyclopedia 7th Edition (Author: Alfred Sullivan)]
"It was Alfred. Alfred Sullivan. Well, you might not like it."
The encyclopedia-thick guidebook passed into Cider's hands. Cider carefully received the dust-covered book. Unlike when looking at Jack's Notes, he dusted off the leather cover with humble gestures.
"Is it okay to dust in the drawing room?"
"They'll clean it up."
Cider's attitude toward knowledge was almost reverent. He carefully turned the pages as if caressing them. He had also properly lowered his carelessly crossed legs. The arrogant tone that had dismissed Dr. Sullivan was nowhere to be found as he slowly read each page, each page of the book as if savoring it.
Cider Claiborne, who had been reading the fifth page, raised his head.
"This Dr. Sullivan fellow isn't completely worthless after all."
"Is that book okay?"
"It's useful."
That seemed to be the best praise he could give. Well, he had just been cursing him as a worthless fellow until moments ago.
"I wouldn't have organized it this way, but that's an unavoidable part."
"Ah, yes."
Cider glanced at Esperanza, who answered in an indifferent voice, then turned his attention back to the book.
"Anyway, I think it has academic value. If I read through all of this, I think I'll get a sense of what dungeons are roughly about."
At least it would be better than a layperson's rambling explanation. It was fortunate she hadn't discarded that book. Thanks to hating to throw things away and accumulating miscellaneous items in her inventory, it was finally helping like this. How many times had she spent real money to increase inventory capacity.
No, let's put aside this thought.
"But what's that?"
"This, the notes. Written by a kid named Jack who sells newspapers. He knows a lot of various rumors, so I paid money and got some help from him."
"Rumors."
Rumors are chaff in many cases, but very occasionally, they also contain real information that can't be known elsewhere. Stories that dare not be told through official routes circulate underground, in back alleys. To buy filtered information, you have to pay money to information dealers, but rumors can be obtained just by becoming acquainted with back alley people.
"They're just notes so there's not much information, but just in case. There were quite a few quests that used the Golden Claw as bait......"
"Quests?"
"Missions given to hunters. There's dungeon destruction, and escort or item transport missions too. You might get caught up in dungeons in the middle. Sometimes participating in events or standing guard."
"For a profession that's only 12 years old, it uses quite unique terminology."
Esperanza, feeling pricked, buried her nose in Jack's Notes and mumbled.
"It's quite a closed community. It circulates like slang."
Since only players could become hunters, it was truly closed in a sense.
"I guess not just anyone who wants to can become one?"
"......Yes. Qualifications are needed. Though I don't know exactly what qualifications either."
"Hmm."
Cider, who tapped his chin with his finger while turning pages, nodded. He didn't seem particularly interested in hunter qualifications.
"Ah. This monster hide. It's the hide wrapped around your scythe, right?"
She approached to check the book. When they became close enough for foreheads to touch, Cider pulled his body back a little.
"Which one? Ah, that's right."
The book was meticulous. A small piece of thick ogre hide was cut and attached. It was possible because it was a limited edition book with only a few copies released. She probably remembered receiving it as an episode completion reward. She had never opened it even once, so she didn't know it was described in such detail.
'But even this would be insufficient from that man's perspective.'
How could one match the endless standards of a genius? She'd have to be self-sufficient.