MLMAS 20

Chapter – 20

Against the sunset sky, the floating lights in the air gradually went out one by one.

The red signboard lost its glow, flickered weakly, and soon turned a dull gray.

The toy shop of the bald man, Rudycher.

Seeing the quiet street where customers had disappeared as it became late afternoon, Letus clapped his hands twice in satisfaction.

As if responding to that signal, the colorful lights decorating the signboard simultaneously lost their brilliance, and the notice board announcing opening hours spun around to point to “Closed”.

Letus walked into the shop with a pleased expression.

“Usha, I earned well today!”

It seemed to be a habitual line. Even while patting his swollen belly and laughing loudly, no one answered him.

Letus didn’t mind and quickly looked around at the busy employees.

They were sighing heavily while cleaning up the traces left behind by the children’s festival.

Letus, glancing over the empty display shelves, suddenly remembered something and called out to an employee dragging a broom.

“Hey there, what happened to the baby doll?”

“The baby doll?”

The employee tilted his head, trying to hide his exhaustion.

Letus quickly explained.

“Yes, the baby doll. You know, the one I said was a secondhand item that came in.”

“Oh!”

The employee, furrowing his brow as he recalled the baby doll, opened his eyes wide.

“That one was so popular that we left it at the checkout counter. I was afraid customers might take it from the display before paying… so I told them to remove it if it was the exact doll you mentioned before checking its condition.”

“What?”

Letus grabbed the employee’s shoulders in shock.

“How could you do the job like that! It’s just one doll—how long could it take to find it!”

“Well, um… trying to find it within an hour was difficult because there were too many dolls, and using magic would require buying a spell formula, so we kept postponing it…”

Letus let out a heavy sigh.

Then he asked in a low voice, covering his forehead.

“So, was there anything found?”

The employee thought for a moment, stroking his chin, then turned around and shouted to someone else.

“Manager at the checkout! Did you find the baby doll?”

The checkout staff who were preparing to leave work after finishing their tasks all stopped and looked at each other’s faces.

In confused voices, they replied.

“No. All the baby dolls we sold were new products.”

“We checked carefully, and there were no signs of use.”

“What?! What does that mean…?”

Letus’s face twisted. He pressed them, asking whether they were sure they had checked properly, saying it was impossible not to see signs after a month of use—

“Sir, there really is no report. All the baby dolls were new products!”

The employee’s answer was filled with conviction and resentment.

Could this make sense!

In Letus’s mind floated a great archmage holding a smoking pipe and breathing fire, and himself standing in front of him shedding tears.

‘If I can’t find the doll, that child Mariposa will be in big trouble!’

His face turned pale as he sent the employee away and returned to his office.

He didn’t know where the baby doll had gone, but if it was mistakenly sold, there would surely be customer inquiries.

If that happened, he could exchange it then, so it wasn’t completely lost.

With trembling hands, Letus picked up the communication device and entered a familiar number.

After steadying his breathing and wiping the sweat once, a green light flashed on the communication device.

— Did you find it?

Hearing Crofort’s voice that went straight to the point made his spine feel cold.

Letus instinctively brought his knees and hands together in a respectful posture.

He forced a smile and spoke in a polished voice.

“Yes, well… the thing is…”

— Speak quickly. I’m tired.

If Magia was evening, then in the human world, Mundus, it was currently dawn.

The two worlds were separated by about a 12-hour time difference, so it was just before morning—meaning he had woken someone who had been sleeping soundly.

Letus confessed through tears.

“I couldn’t find it. It seems the employee accidentally sold it.”

— What?

A chill seeped into Crofort’s voice.

Letus swallowed nervously.

“Well, but if we find out there is a problem with the product, the buyer will probably contact us…”

— Does that make sense? Selling it off just because it’s only a doll and you couldn’t find it?

“I did tell the employees to search carefully—”

— Enough. I don’t need excuses.

Crofort cut him off irritably.

Letus closed his eyes tightly, his face turning white.

After a short silence, Crofort’s voice, filled with anger, pierced Letus’s ear.

— Find it quickly. Otherwise, I will consider this a breach of contract.

B, breach of contract?!

Letus’s mouth fell open. Crying, he clung desperately.

“Yes! Please, please don’t say such things… breach of contract, I beg you!”

— If you cherish your life, you’ll do it properly.

“I am truly doing my best! Please trust me!”

— There is nothing to trust or not. Find it. That’s all I have to say.

Whether Letus cried or not, Crofort let out a rough sigh and continued.

— I’m hanging up now. I’m tired.

“W, wait a moment!”

— What is it.

Crofort’s patience was reaching its limit.

Despite his trembling limbs, Letus had a question he could not retreat from, so he clenched his eyes shut and asked carefully.

“Um, Crofort-sama. Didn’t you say the stone inside the doll was just a normal bead? Why are we looking for it again…?”

He was told not to bother searching since it was just a simple bead for Mariposa. He had even been scolded harshly for going to the toy shop over something like that.

But after Mariposa returned home, Crofort immediately called Letus again.

— Find it. That doll.

“Pardon?”

— Find the baby doll Mariposa lost. Can’t you do it?

“Oh, no. I can do it. Please leave it to me!”

Though confused, selling used goods was also morally wrong, so he intended to search anyway. It was a promise he had made with Mariposa in the first place.

But for the Primus Magia’s only great archmage to urge him so much just because of a simple bead, Letus, with a sharp merchant’s instinct, sensed that it was not an ordinary stone.

Tension covering his sweat-drenched hands, Letus waited.

After a moment of silence from the communication device, Crofort answered honestly.

— It’s an eavesdropping magic stone.

“…Pardon?”

— I said it’s an eavesdropping magic stone. Not a bead. It’s a ruby.

“Wha—what?!”

Letus was greatly shocked.

An eavesdropping magic stone?

Eavesdropping magic stoone?!

It was not even an ordinary magic stone, but a stone that could eavesdrop?

Alarm bells rang like a nightmare inside Letus’s head.

“What, why would something like that—!”

— …Do I really have to answer that? If you knew it was a bad object, find it quickly. Before your shop gets stained.

Crofort, in a bad mood, ended the call after saying that.

Staring at the darkened communication device with his mouth hanging open, Letus suddenly grabbed his head and cried out.

“Eavesdropping… My toy is eavesdropping… What kind of situation is this!”

Moreover, it was a ruby.

If such an expensive gemstone had an advanced magic circuit for eavesdropping engraved on it, its value was beyond imagination.

Letus trembled violently and bent his waist.

Tears fell onto the dark office floor.

Must find it.

No matter what, he must find that baby doll!

I can’t let my toy become a device that eavesdrops!

Damn it.

Crofort threw the communication device aside and puffed out smoke from his pipe.

Letus didn’t know, but the doll Crofort made for Mariposa and Shasha was like a magic bag that could hold 1500 kg of objects.

On top of that, it contained a very expensive magic stone, so its value was beyond imagination.

He sighed and brushed his messy long hair back.

Losing the magic stone was painful, but what concerned him more was Mariposa’s condition.

“Was she constantly watching my reaction…”

Now he finally understood why she had been hesitating in front of the storage room.

He should have listened earlier. Regret came too late.

‘She’s an overly mature child. I need to pay more attention.’

But too much attention was not good for children.

Getting entangled with him would bring nothing good…

Crofort sighed, tapped the pipe carelessly on the desk, and stood up.

Having woken up early anyway, he decided to check what he had not finished reading last night and headed to the research room.

Entering the research room quietly so as not to wake Mariposa, who was a light sleeper, Crofort looked at the piles of old books and the large desk.

There were hundreds of letters stacked there, all different in appearance, folding style, and the type of writing on them.

With a blank expression, he sat on the old chair and tapped his pipe.

Among the unopened letters, the cleanest one landed smoothly in his hand in an arc.

Crofort skillfully opened the neatly folded letter.

[Primus Calendar Year 512, April 29. Report on the Duke Sol’s movements since last winter.]

Crofort’s blue eyes darkened.

He stared at the first line for a long time, then moved his stiff hand and began checking the dozen or so pages of the letter.