"To everyone's hard work—cheers!"
Jin, Reiko, Marcia, Reinhard, and Elsa—four people and one automaton—were currently holding a victory celebration at the same upscale restaurant they had visited before.
Both Jin and Marcia had been hounded by invitations from nobles and wealthy merchants after the tournament ended, so they had been more than happy to accept Reinhard’s offer to escape the crowds.
"Honestly, Jin, you completely outdid me! I never expected Lorelei to be defeated."
"It's true. I couldn't believe it when Lorelei hit her limit in the final stage."
Both Reinhard and Elsa were remarkably graceful in their defeat.
"Jin, just tell me one thing for now."
Judging by the way he said "for now," it seemed Reinhard had a long list of questions. When Jin asked what it was, Reinhard leaned in.
"That Warp Gate you used to reach this continent."
I knew that would come up, Jin thought.
"Ah, well, I’m not really keen on sharing that. If it were ever damaged, I’d lose my only way of returning to my hometown."
Jin offered a non-committal refusal. Reinhard nodded understandingly.
"Hmm, I see. I wanted to study it, but I suppose that’s out..."
"Rai, everyone has a secret or two they can't share," Elsa said. While the sentiment felt slightly broad for the situation, Reinhard took the hint and backed off.
"My apologies. But I’ll definitely invite you to my home base someday."
When Jin offered that as a bit of a diplomatic pleasantry, Reinhard immediately latched onto it.
"Oh, really? I'll look forward to that! I have to head to the capital as a diplomat starting tomorrow, which is a shame, but I'll definitely take you up on that eventually!"
"O-Oh, sure."
Jin felt a momentary prickle of regret for making a promise he wasn't sure he could keep.
The conversation grew more animated as they ate, shifting back to the competition and the golems Jin and Reiko had captured.
"In the end, since no evidence of cheating was found on the pilot Liche's part, she wasn't arrested. Valentino, however, is currently in custody being interrogated."
"Hmm. I suppose that's fair?"
Marcia, who had plenty of reasons to hold a grudge against Valentino, wore a complicated expression.
"You really did have a rough time of it, Marcia," Jin said, sympathizing with her.
Observing the two of them, Reinhard asked to hear the full story of their struggles.
Normally, it wasn't the kind of thing Marcia would want to relive, but buoyed by her victory and a bit of wine, she began to recount the hardships she'd faced leading up to the race.
"Wait. Tell me more about that, in order," Reinhard interjected, his expression uncharacteristically serious.
So Marcia started from the beginning: how she couldn't find a magi craftman until the very last second, and how the magi-stones had all been bought up. She moved on to the bronze, explaining how she’d been quoted double the price and then sold poor-quality materials.
"Hmm. And the arson attempt happened after that?"
Reinhard himself had put out that fire. It had been a clear attack on the boat.
Deciding there would never be a better time to speak up, Jin joined in.
"Actually, on the night before the qualifiers..."
He explained how Reiko had fended off an intruder and dumped him far away.
"Is that so... I see. Hmm..."
Reinhard pressed a finger to his forehead, lost in thought.
"Rai is cleverer than he looks," Elsa offered, a subtle edge to her praise.
"I wasn't entrusted with a diplomatic post for my looks alone."
After a moment, Reinhard seemed to reach a conclusion and looked up.
"The first thing we can say for certain is that someone was desperate to keep Marcia out of the competition."
Jin nodded. "Right. But I don't get why. Why target Marcia specifically? They ignored all the other participants."
Reinhard grinned. "That’s exactly the point. Perhaps the target wasn't Marcia at all, but the boat itself?"
"What?"
In other words, Reinhard explained, someone might have wanted the catamaran to disappear.
"Disappear? Who would want that?"
"Valentino, obviously."
Reinhard reasoned that if Marcia had been unable to enter the race, her story suggested she would have been forced to part with the catamaran. At that point, if Valentino offered enough money, she likely would have sold it to him.
"Well, I was broke, and maintenance until next year would have been expensive... so yeah, depending on the price, I might have sold it, even to someone like Valentino," Marcia admitted, confirming the theory.
Reinhard continued his deduction.
"Once Marcia secured her qualification to race, he couldn't buy the boat until after the tournament. That's when he resorted to arson."
This proved that he didn't necessarily want the boat for himself, but rather that its continued existence was a problem for him. Reinhard took a sip of wine to clear his throat before continuing.
"The arson failed. The boat was protected by an autonomous type golem made by Jin. If he tried anything too direct, he risked the perpetrator being identified."
The table sat in silence, captivated by Reinhard’s logic.
"So he turned to his last resort: harming or kidnapping Marcia to keep her out of the race. But that failed too."
The serious, sharp expression on Reinhard's face made him look like a completely different person.
"His final, desperate move was those underwater golems. But thanks to Lady Reiko's intervention, that scheme also vanished like bubbles. He even tried to sabotage the other boats to steal a win for himself while he was at it—quite pathetic, really."
Reinhard paused for a breath before delivering his conclusion.
"I’m certain that if we examine the catamaran, we’ll find the answer."
Currently, the boats that finished in the top three were under the supervision of the Tournament Committee. They couldn't be touched easily, but given the tactics used so far, they couldn't be left alone either.
Furthermore, Valentino was an assistant to the lord. Even if he was being interrogated now, his influence was a concern.
"If we're going to investigate, the sooner the better."
At Reinhard’s suggestion, everyone quickly finished their remaining food and left the restaurant. It was pitch black outside.
They walked through streets illuminated by magi-lamps, heading toward the port. The night breeze was cool and refreshing against their flushed faces.
As they walked, Reinhard questioned Marcia.
"When exactly did you build that catamaran?"
Marcia thought for a moment. "About two years ago, I think. I've tweaked it here and there since then. Oh, and I did a major overhaul last year."
"Last year, huh... And when did Valentino start pestering you to be his concubine?"
"Last year... Oh!"
There was definitely a connection.
The group eventually reached the public dock. A single guard was on duty.
"Good evening. I’d like to check on the boat for a moment, if that’s alright?"
As the owner of the second-place "Blue Marine" and an honored guest, Reinhard’s request carried weight. The guard nodded and unlocked the side entrance to the dock.
They offered a quick thanks and stepped inside. Though it was dark, Jin, Reiko, Reinhard, and Elsa all cast Light magic, flooding the space with brightness.
"Alright, Marcia, could you take a look?"
As the ship’s creator, Marcia immediately began the inspection.
She started with the hull. However, since Jin had used Surface Treatment to bleach the wood, nothing stood out at first glance.
She moved on to the right hull. The interior was meant to be entirely hollow aside from the structural supports.
"Wait, what's this?"
In the right hull, tucked into a gap between the girders in the rear corner, was a scrap of parchment.
"It's no wonder I never noticed it, hidden away in a gap like this."
Marcia pulled it out. It bore a crest, some text, and a drawing. Marcia began to read it aloud.
"Let's see... 'Transaction for four Elradrites, contract of sale'?"
Reinhard and Elsa’s eyes practically popped out of their heads.
"That's..."
"E-Elradrite?"
They both gasped in shock. Jin, however, tilted his head.
"What's that?"
It was a gemstone he had never heard of.
"Ah, well..." Reinhard began to explain.
He told Jin that it was a gemstone discovered about a century ago and was extremely rare. Because it had the ability to amplify magical energy, its distribution was strictly regulated in most nations. Even here in the Kingdom of Elias, it was supposed to be a state monopoly.
A single stone would likely fetch no less than ten million Tolls. Four of them would be forty million—roughly equivalent to four hundred million yen.
For an individual to be trading such things... it meant only one thing: smuggling.
"I—I don't know anything about this!" Marcia cried out. The thought of being linked to the trade of such priceless gems was terrifying.
"We know. This isn't the kind of gem an ordinary person could ever get their hands on."
Reinhard was just remarking that this must be the contract Valentino was so desperate to hide when—
The dock's main door was forced open with a thunderous crash.