The detective, despite all sorts of hardboiled depictions in media, wasn't fond of tobacco smoke.
He was a straight-laced sort of guy, even if his work was often twisted by the higher ups.
Nevertheless, working in a high-stress field like his meant occasionally dealing with the ways his associates and coworkers coped with that stress, even if it was often something he would never partake in himself.
A bit of tobacco smoke was far from the worst vice he had to deal with in his line of work.
After thinking it over in his head for a while, Vincenti finally broke the silence.
"Let's review the kid real quick, then."
"Sure. It's not a complicated case, so I've got it all up here... or we could go over actual evidence, if you'd prefer."
"Nah. We wouldn't pay you the big bucks if we didn't trust your insight. So, walk me through it."
"Sure. She's the dungeon boss of a beginner dungeon. She's got ties to Naraka. Some thugs kidnap her, seems they wanted to get something over on the Narakans. She shoots all but two of them herself, then just gives in. The Demon King shows up, kills about a tenth of the people responsible, breaks some stuff, grabs her, and takes her home."
"Yeah. Pretty much the whole country knows he's been active," Vincenti adds.
Well, propaganda was basically his job.
Anieli didn't care as much about that, but it was clear that Vincenti did, and probably for good reason, so he just offered a shrug. "Yup. Fortunately, there's all sorts of rumors about why he's active, so there's still time before the dust settles on that."
"Right. But the girl. She is a problem."
"Yeah?"
The detective was happy to hear his colleague seemingly agree, but he couldn't suppress his worry that he meant it in a very different way than he had.
Heavy handed government types could be pretty brash about how they dealt with problems, after all.
"Certainly. We can't have the Demon King come in breaking things every time something happens to her."
"Right."
Putting two and two together, Vincenti suddenly ran his hand over his face in abject despair.
"Ugh... it really is that simple isn't it?"
"Huh? What is?"
"Rejoice, old friend. For once, your work won't be buried. Just... given a little spin."
***
The so-called meditation technique that Zaitenmodi taught me just let me feel the mana in my body.
Although I had a few doubts about it.
For starters, how did my body even accumulate mana?
Was I like a Terran, able to store it throughout my physical body? Or was something else going on?
Not to mention, was I actually feeling mana, or just lulling myself into a sufficiently suggestive state that I could merely convince myself that I felt it?
Of course, he confirmed my results, but he didn't exactly have a scientific approach to any of this.
The way he taught it to me in the first place had involved a Skill.
Savi had listened in and took copious amounts of notes, despite being too afraid to speak for some reason, but I don't think she actually learned how to do it, since he only used that Skill to teach me.
Narakans seem more dependent on Skills than even Terrans, though since I only knew their emperor, perhaps his eccentricism was skewing the results.
Either way, I had been taught something valuable to his culture, so while I was dubious of its nature and value, I was still thankful.
"But... how do people use this to learn Skills?" I asked.
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"They simply do it every day. There are more advanced techniques that build upon that one. I'll teach you another one when you serve me a drink of your own making, though I think you should be able to develop your own before long as well."
'Develop my own meditation technique, huh?'
It would be a way to repay Zaitenmodi... at least, if it was novel.
You might think that I should have little hope of developing something new from the roots of his culture's advancements, since they ought to have long mastered anything I could even think to do.
But it wasn't impossible.
As the perpetual alien I was, I was quite used to both the advantages and disadvantages of having a different perspective than whole cultures and societies.
Indeed, since my values were usually alien just for being an immortal, it wasn't very hard for me to come up with new ways of doing things that mortals would never think of.
Of course, that being the root of my own eccentricity, whatever I did usually wouldn't hold much value to anyone but myself.
But Zaitenmodi was supposedly an immortal too, or at least someone with incredible longevity. He's been the Demon King for as long as the Empire can remember.
'Doesn't that mean he'd have beaten me to the punch, though...?'
Well, he described himself as a teacher, so perhaps he put more emphasis on what his subjects and followers needed than what would benefit an immortal.
***
The Azure Dragons were angry with themselves.
They'd put off rescuing a child, or at least an immortal stuck as one, just because she was momentarily safe and they were hoping for a better opening.
Only for a dragon and a demonic emperor to swoop in and save her instead.
But they were reasonable adults.
Well... okay, that may have been a bit too much credit.
But they did have Van, who punched anyone in the arm or ribs whenever they got too glum.
"Relax. This brought two of the most troublesome dungeon bosses closer together."
"It'll help all of Terra, probably."
"Besides, you don't sincerely think she was actually trapped? She was just waiting for the same thing we were."
"It all ended for the best."
His words felt a bit overly optimistic, but since he'd become an A rank adventurer solely by being that good at gathering and using information, it was hard for anyone to actually deny him.
Moreover, he had forced their dour mood into a celebratory one instead...
***
"Haven't you learned anything?"
I was walking Zaitenmodi to the portal. I felt it was the least I could do.
"Huh?"
"You're walking alone again. Well, it is true that at my side you're as safe as you could ever be, but you'll need walk back alone without me."
"I do that all of the time?"
"And did you not get kidnapped for it?"
"Ah. No. They took Lilac hostage."
"Is that so? Do you think I could not take you with me, if I so wished?"
"There's no point in wasting effort trying to stop something that can't be stopped."
"Hahaha!"
'What a strange guy...'
With that sort of odd, light-hearted conversation, it only took two hours for us to reach the portal.
Of course, the arrival of two dungeon bosses made all the would-be adventurers, and even the Azure Dragons junior who was supervising them, all stiffen.
It was probably more his arrival than mine that did it, though.
"Farewell, Kid. I expect invitation, ere I'll arrive before long without."
'How troublesome...'
"Sure."
And then he left again.
***
When I got back home after that, it had been such a long day that, although there was still some light out in the sky, I just went right to sleep.
I'd changed back into my usual clothes. Although I was down a tank top and a pair of pants, Lilac had recovered my hoodie and other stuff I'd left behind at the place they'd taken us, so it wasn't a total loss.
When I woke up, she'd even washed the dress the kidnappers had given me.
I didn't particularly care for it, but she seemed to like it, so I ruffled her hair a bit for being so thoughtful.
"(If you want, you can wear it too.)"
She was a bit smaller than me, but not by that much. I was just tall for my physical age.
I was still shorter than pretty much every adult I'd ever encounter, but at least I was taller than most kids, even if they usually quickly outgrew me once puberty hit.
"(But... it's yours...)"
"(Kids sharing clothes is pretty normal.)"
Though I wasn't certain either of us were actual children in any way except appearance...
While hosting Zaitenmodi, I'd gotten a chance to confirm that all the plants had in fact been taken care of while I was gone, thanks to Savi and Lilac.
I wasn't sure how to thank Savi, but Lilac at least got a couple more pats on the head for her efforts.
Before I could do much, though, I got a message from Van.
***
Somehow, uttering that strange foreign word again and again into that strange foreign device had actually saved her.
"Help."
And within hours, Lilac was whisked around this way and that way, from one strange building to another, with a myriad of strangers inspecting and helping her all along the way.
It was all so unusual.
Well, she was used to being forcibly dragged around by goblins and hobgoblins, but this was new.
Most of the people were gentle and kind with her, and frankly even the ones who weren't still seemed so by the standards she was used to.
Before long, she was walked back to her home by a few people she recognized. She knew two of them thanks to Kid: Suon and Van.
Apparently, they were people she could go to if there was ever any trouble.
It was all pretty confusing.
As if she and Kid weren't supposed to be grabbed by those two strangers.
'Ah, of course not.'
Even if Kid was only a half-goblin, they weren't hobgoblins or anything.
They were just a pair of humans defying the natural order of things like a pair of troublemakers.
No wonder they'd all stopped moving...
But for some reason, Kid hadn't returned along with her.
Of course, her master was always going out for hours at a time, so it wasn't too unusual at first.
But once hours stretched into days, she began to worry.
'Is Kid not coming back?'
She tried asking Savi, but the language barrier was still too high.
All she got told was, "(It will be okay.)"
And Savi seemed unable to elaborate why. The most she got was, "(Kid will be okay.)"
'Was Kid in danger?'
That seemed impossible, but she speculated that maybe those guys who'd stopped moving had belonged to someone important.
These sort of slightly-deluded thoughts filled her head over the days leading up to Kid's actual return, that when it finally happened...
It was like a dam burst.
All the emotions she'd been suppressing just came forth all on their own.