"It moves on all fours, and it knows how to skillfully use its tail. A form that's somewhere between a beast and an insect... According to what you sent me before, it seems like it's hungry almost all day. Is that right?"

"That's what they say."

Kishiar replied, looking down at Pethuamet with an emotionless expression.

"It's a relatively common characteristic among monsters that absorb magic. They move by absorbing a small amount of magic that dwells in all things, using it as a source of energy."

As Hellem, who was circling around us examining Pethuamet, suddenly reached into her pocket and pulled out a glove. Yuder was startled and stepped forward, but Kishiar and Nathan remained calm.

"Is it okay?"

"The expert in this field is Hellem. It's rare to find someone who's been studying monsters for over 70 years and still has all limbs intact."

"Leave me be. I was enjoying the concern of a handsome young man for a change."

"Such a thing. You used to say that you didn't care for Nathan's and my concern, so it seems my assistant is to your taste? I've never lost to good looks, so this is a little disappointing."

Kishiar raised an eyebrow and smiled slyly at Yuder.

"Hellem doesn't compliment just anyone. It seems she quite likes the assistant."

"..."

Yuder avoided answering. Enon, who had caught his eye, was grimacing more than before.

"Now, shall we start the collection?"

Hellem tapped Pethuamet's head with her hand inside the cage. The monster, apparently angered by the interruption to its meal, let out a small threatening sound and whipped its tail, which had turned black. But the attack bounced off the glove, not causing any harm.

After repeating the same action a few times, Hellem deftly shook off Pethuamet, which had dangled from the end of the glove biting it, and turned away. Her expression, as she looked down at the glove smeared with the monster's venom, was incredibly calm, as if she had done this hundreds of times.

"Now, let's look at this side too."

Hellem, having taken off the glove, approached Yuder.

"You're tall, so it's hard to examine you. Sit down here."

"...Yes."

Yuder sat down as instructed. Hellem, who had come close to Yuder's left eye, lightly touched the top of her glasses. The ordinary-looking lens changed to a dark color, concealing her green eyes. As she fearlessly moved Yuder's jaw this way and that, Yuder swallowed a strange and embarrassing feeling.

"The traces of the poison absorbed are not completely gone, indeed."

Hellem, who had been peering into Yuder's unseen left eye, soon returned the lens color to its original state.

"I heard the monster follows you. Can I see it now?"

"Grandmother! You said to wait, but you've already gone through everything?!"

At that moment, someone ran down from the upper floor, huffing and puffing, and interrupted. The man, with his disheveled black hair like a bird's nest, was shameless even in the face of other people’s stares. Looking at Pethuamet inside the enclosure, he quickly brightened and approached.

"Ah, you're the monster that even swallowed the magic circle, huh? Cuter than I thought?"

"Greeting your lord should be the priority."

Hellem frowned and spoke, and the man grumbled under his breath before turning around.

“Grandmother, it is Your Lordship, not mine. She always does this. Anyway... it’s been a while, Your Highness. After hastily summoning me and making me wait for half a day, I had nothing to do but drink a little wine. I trust you'll overlook this much.”

Despite an audacious attitude that was hard to believe, Kishiar rather smiled brightly.

“That’s right. This one here is my assistant, Yuder Aile, and this one is Enon, a capable pharmacist of the Cavalry who's studying treatment methods for injuries caused by that monster. You can introduce yourself.”

“Ah... Is this...?”

A man who had been staring intently at Yuder with eyes similar to Hellem's extended his hand for a handshake.

“I’m Mick Shuden. I run a trading company, and I've been of great assistance in business dealings with Duke Peletta. I don’t particularly like being addressed formally, so please call me Mick.”

Yuder slowly shook his hand, feeling a peculiar sensation.

‘Shuden is the surname. ...Mr. Shuden, who runs the trading company?’

When Kishiar had asked where Shuden was upon entering, the situation had passed too quickly for Yuder to think deeply about it. But upon hearing a proper introduction, strange suspicions arose when combined with his previously known profession.

Shuden, and the trading company.

The only place where those two overlapped was known to Yuder.

“...Excuse me, but what is the name of the trading company you run?”

The man, noticing Yuder's probing gaze, smiled knowingly.

“Why, of course, it’s Shuden Trading Company.”

Indeed. Yuder finally confirmed his identity.

Shuden Trading Company, despite its short history, had quickly become one of the famous trading companies on the continent, focusing on the trade of special luxury goods. Yuder had thought it necessary to recognize the connection when Kishiar had casually used the company's badge during a secret visit to meet Revlin at Apeto House.

He never expected to meet someone associated with that company in this manner.

‘I didn’t have time to pay attention to companies like that in my previous life...’

“It seems His Highness didn’t properly explain what I do?”

Mick Shuden cheerfully asked, apparently interpreting Yuder's contemplative expression in his own way.

“...The Commander mentioned that you ran a small trading company, but it seems there was a misunderstanding.”

Kishiar, catching Yuder's gaze, smiled faintly.

“Aha. Our company isn't really that big, so I guess calling it small isn't entirely wrong.”

Mick Shuden looked younger and more unbridled than one would expect for someone running a famous trading company. But the moment he looked around Pethuamet, his eyes completely changed.

“Really intriguing. To continuously eat and digest everything like this means it has good digestive ability, but... its body is small.”

“Its bodily fluids are all poison. It probably dissolves and digests with that, so it doesn’t need to be big.”

When Hellem, who was standing nearby, explained, Mick's eyes sparkled, and he turned his head.

“Poison? You've collected some, haven't you, Grandmother?”

“I have, but don’t think about stealing it. I won’t give it to you. You gather your own.”

“Oh, that's mean. I’m not as skilled as you, Grandma. It's hard for me.”

“I have no intention of helping a merchant.”

As Mick and Hellem exchanged words, Yuder discreetly asked Kishiar a question.

“How did you come to know the one who runs Shuden Trading Company?”

"Well, it's a long story, but... I happened to help quite a bit at the beginning of Shuden Trading Company. We've been maintaining a friendly relationship ever since. Shuden is someone who has a keen interest in items made from monster by-products and has a wealth of related knowledge."

That Kishiar had helped Shuden Trading Company at the beginning was truly unheard of.

'... Such an old friendship, and yet he did not stand up for the Kishiar of his previous life.'

Even after his death, Shuden Trading Company remained silent all along. In fact, not only Shuden but everything associated with Kishiar had been quiet. The Peletta Knights, Nathan Zuckerman, everyone related to Peletta had dispersed quietly and obediently around Kishiar's death.

The Emperor Katchian had no need to even lift a finger, such was the ease of victory, and previously there had been no need to think about what lay behind it. The remaining rebels who sensed defeat and did not diligently display loyalty, but instead fled, were a common occurrence in history. But now, memories that had seemed forgotten were somewhat revived, and things were different.

Would those around Kishiar have abandoned him so easily?

Apart from Nathan Zuckerman, he could see how wholeheartedly all the knights and others around him followed him. And yet, if they dispersed without any resistance, there must have been some reason for it.

Yuder suddenly thought of a hypothesis he had never entertained before, looking at Kishiar's smiling face.

'If all of this was according to Kishiar's own will.'

Before deciding whether it was possible to create a place of defeat for himself, surrounded by many who moved for him, or what the reason could have been if there was one, his head ached with annoyance.

"Hey, assistant. Weren't you going to show me that this monster follows you? I'm sorry I didn't let you do it previously. Can you show me now?"

Before the headache continued, a call broke his thoughts. Yuder slowly got up from his seat towards Mick and Hellem.

"... I'm not sure if it's possible now, but I will at least try."

In fact, there was nothing worth calling an attempt. What Yuder did at that time was just standing near Pethuamet's cage and moving his hand a little.

Yuder stood near the cage, looking down at Pethuamet just like before. Whether due to being tormented by Mick and Hellem's hands for a while, the little monster still had its tail raised, trembling.

Yuder slowly reached his hand toward the cage.