Chapter 1: The Cursed Coin

*1*

“That reminds me, Nadine,” Laplace spoke suddenly, “what is that contraption you wear on your face?”

“Huh? Oh, these? These are my glasses.”

“They’re called ‘glasses’?”

“Yes, glasses.”

“Interesting,” Laplace muttered as she scrutinized Nadine’s face.

“Uh, Laplace?! We’re trying to take down an Earth Wyrm, remember?! Is this really the best time for idle chitchat?!” Tanya shouted. A split-second later, a beam of light shot from the tip of her Not-Excalibur, and a loud BWOOOOM cut through the air.

Here lies Earth Wyrm, R.I.P.

Now then, a few days after the Earth Wyrm met an untimely end—

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Early one morning, before the sun had fully risen, a scream echoed through the hotel room that Lilium called home. Laplace snapped awake, jumped out of bed, and reflexively dove on top of Tanya.

“Oups! What’s going on?! Are you alright, Tanya?!”

“Huh?! Wh... Laplace, get off of me! I can’t breathe! Get! Off! Me!”

“Non, non! We might be under attack! You’ll be safe here in the arms of the Great Sor—gggpphhh!”

“I asked nicely the first time! That’s what you get!”

“I can’t believe you’d just shove me away face-first... That’s my Tanya for you... hee hee... so strong...”

Laplace rubbed her red cheek. Meanwhile, Tanya peered over her shoulder at their surroundings.

The scream had come from Nadine. She was standing stock-still, holding her glasses in her trembling hands. One of the lenses had fallen out, and now it was cracked.

“Oof, that’s not good.”

“Tanya... Laplace... I’m so sorry to wake you at this hour...”

“Nah, that’s okay. I’m more worried about your poor glasses!”

“Yes, me too...” Nadine slumped her shoulders.

“I don’t understand. What’s the matter?” Laplace asked, confused.

Tanya turned to her.

“Well, Laplace... It looks like we’ll need to run some errands today.”

*2*

Eyeglasses: a magical vision-correcting tool created by mounting two lenses in a metal or wooden frame. The material for these “lenses” contained faint traces of mana; it could be harvested from any dungeon, then shaped into flat, translucent panes via precision processing. (Sadly, the technology to create this magical material from scratch had been lost to time.)

“I see... So these ‘glasses’ are something of a dungeon artifact?”

“Yes, exactly! I knew you’d understand, Laplace!”

“We had dungeons back in my day, you know, 300 years ago. But back then we didn’t really have time to explore them—too busy with the wars and all that. I didn’t realize they were littered with such nifty stuff! C’est magnifique!”

“To be clear, most of what you’ll find in a dungeon is just magical junk. You won’t find piles of lenses just lying around in there.”

“Correct. That’s why finding the perfect lens is sometimes purely a matter of luck,” Nadine sighed sadly.

“Nadine, who are you talking to?! That’s not Laplace—that’s a utility pole!” Tanya shouted.

“What?! Oh goodness, I’m so sorry!”

“Mon dieu! Oh, Nadine, you little rascal!”

“I... I’m really sorry, Laplace!” Nadine fell to her knees in apology.

“Uh, Nadine... That’s a piece of hanging jerky...”

“What?!”

“Let’s just hurry up and get you that new lens, okay?!”

“Okay!”

Taking Nadine by the hand, they gingerly guided her down the street. The second they took their eyes off her, she’d crash face-first into one passerby after the next. Good lord, where did all these people come from?

“Let’s try to take it slow, okay, Nadine?”

“Oui, oui! The beautiful Laplace is right behind you!”

“Nngh... Thank you...”

“Aw, no problem! You can make it up to us by treating us to dinner at the Little Vixen,” Laplace joked.

The Little Vixen was a popular, long-standing tavern located right here in the capital. And, as of late, it had turned into Lilium’s main hangout.

“Oh, there it is!”

Slowly but surely, they walked and walked... until at last, they arrived at the magic supply store in south Ode.

“Hmmm... None of these are a good match...”

Nadine stood in front of an array of lenses, each one a slightly different color, opacity, and price. After trying on the very last one, she set it down with a sigh.

“I’m sorry... I’m afraid this one isn’t right for me, either.”

“That’s a shame,” replied the shopkeeper, a small girl by the name of Miku. “Our selection’s not the best. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

“No, no, it’s not your fault.”

“Tell you what—I’ll get the special ones. You should try them on, just in case.”

With that, she retrieved a red velvet box from inside the cupboard behind the counter. The way she handled it made it clear the contents were highly valuable.

“This lens was harvested from Kujushin Dungeon, the most challenging dungeon in the greater Ode area. And this one was retrieved from Yor-Kohama Dungeon on the gulf coast.”

At this, Tanya whirled around. “What?! Yor-Kohama Dungeon?!”

While their beloved party leader had gained extraordinary strength as a Magi-Knight, at her core she was still a very studious person. This was the same woman who was once known as the Guild’s most talented Mage; when it came to anything magic-related, be it spells or magical tools, you could be sure she was interested in knowing more. In fact, you could say she was a little... obsessed. And this most certainly applied to dungeons chock-full of magical artifacts.

“Yor-Kohama Dungeon, as in, the one that has a supposedly infinite number of floors?! The one that changes its layout every time you return to it?! Man, I’ve always wanted to go exploring in there—my old party leader would never let me! But anyone who has even a basic knowledge of magic would kill to explore Yor-Kohama! There’s so much of it no one’s ever seen... Wait, so is this lens really powerful?!”

Seriously, she could go on and on like that for hours if the others let her. Laplace smiled at her with the warmth of a clear spring day. Tanya’s unbridled passion for magic never ceased to amaze her.

“That’s my Tanya, alright. Wouldn’t have her any other way.”

“Oh goodness, there she goes again... Is this lens really that remarkable?” Nadine asked, gingerly lifting, and inserting it into the try-on glasses to test it out. “Hmmm... Wha—whoa?!”

“What’s wrong, Nadine?!”

“It’s all spinny!”

“Huh?!”

“The lens... It adjusted itself to match my vision...!”

“What?!” Tanya shouted. She’d never heard of auto-adjusting lenses, and she was excited. “Where on earth did you find this gem?!”

“These are some of our best items in stock. You see, the boss is a bit of an odd case—she’s one of the few women registered with the Magi-Crafters’ Guild. She’s an alcoholic, and her life is a total mess, but she’s also an exceptionally talented Magi-Crafter! And although she’s currently traveling the country looking for new inventory... she left me some instructions.”

“What sort of instructions?”

“She said that in the event Lilium stopped by the store while she was gone, she wanted me to offer you everything we have, even the forbidden stuff!” Miku grinned. “She’s a big fan of yours, see. I bet she’ll be so jealous that I got to talk to you... See, whenever anyone brings you up, she always gets this big smile on her face! And she’s really not the kind of person who smiles on a regular basis! Normally she’s a total grouch!”

Tanya giggled. Miku was clearly very fond of her boss—you could hear it in her voice.

“A grouchy boss, eh? Reminds me of my old mentor.”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong—she has her good points, too!”

“Hahaha! I would always jump to my mentor’s defense the exact same way!”

Miku blushed furiously. She took a deep breath, collected herself, then turned back to Nadine with a friendly, professional smile. “What do you say, miss?”

“Yes, it’s perfect! I’ll buy it!” Nadine exclaimed, relieved to have found a match at last.

“Then it’s a deal. But you can keep your money.”

“What?!”

It was obvious this was part of her boss’s “instructions” regarding Lilium... but Tanya couldn’t accept it. And Tanya Artemiciov was the sort of woman who acted on instinct.

“Unacceptable!” she shouted, slamming a large leather bag full of silver coins onto the counter with a loud THUD.

“Gah! No, really, my boss told me—”

“I don’t care what your boss told you! You need to take the money!” Her integrity simply wouldn’t allow it. “I get that you’re just trying to help us out, but you don’t need to treat us differently from any other customer! It’s unfair!”

“Unfair...?”

“That’s right. Back in my old party, I was always given ‘special treatment’ just because I was a woman, and it was awful. That’s why I entered into the Sparring Tournament—to get back at them.”

She recalled the injustice she’d endured. Looking back, the idea of firing a party member solely due to their gender still seemed ridiculous to the point of insanity. And that was precisely why she was so opposed to preferential treatment in all its forms.

“I just can’t stomach that kind of biased thinking, you know? I want to be treated just the same as anyone else, no matter what gender I am or what party I’m in.”

“Oui, oui. It goes against our policy, you could say.”

“Yes, exactly!” Tanya said, relieved to have backup.

“I see...” Miku sighed. While she deeply respected her boss, this was the first time she’d ever thought of another woman as being powerful. Now she understood why her boss had come home from the Sparring Tournament completely smitten. These women were just so dignified.

“Just take it, okay?”

“O-Okay... Wait, what the?”

“Hmm?” Tanya cocked her head.

Miku had very nearly gone along with it, but she caught herself in the nick of time and retorted at the top of her lungs: “Why would you give me an entire bag of silver?! That’s too much!”

“Huh? Oh... Haha... I dunno, just tell your boss you made a lot of sales while she was gone!”

“Uh-oh, Tanya’s a sloppy spender,” Laplace snickered, and the others laughed along with her.

While Nadine’s new lens underwent processing to fit her frames, Miku let them look at the supply store’s “behind-the-counter” products.

“Oh my goddd! Are these nesting golem dolls from my hometown?! No, that can’t be right. The spell formula is too old... and really elaborate... Is this another magical artifact excavated from a dungeon?! Oh my god, oh my god!!!”

“Your hometown, you say?”

“Yeah! I’m from a snowy island up north called Irigel. Wait... Oh my god, is this a seal talisman from O’toyok Dungeon?! Holy crap, look at the formula! I can’t read a single word of it! This is amazing!”

The resident magic geek was, naturally, geeking out like crazy. Smiling to herself, Laplace wandered along, looking at each of the “special” items set out on the counter.

As a Great Sorceress who’d been alive 300 years ago, the vast majority of them were of little interest to her, save for the artifacts excavated from the dungeons. After all, these were relics from before her time, harvested from what amounted to historical locations. She couldn’t help but be a little curious.

Then her gaze landed on a small box, curious, her slender fingers lifted the lid—and she froze. The color drained from her face.

Inside was a single coin.

“Is this...?”

“Hmm? What’s up, Stone Cold Stunner?”

“Pardonnez-moi, mademoiselle. Is this coin one of your ‘artifacts,’ too?”

At Laplace’s question, Miku peeked out from the lens workstation in the back. “Oho, you have good taste! That right there is one of Laplace’s Orichalcum Coins!”

“What?! Aren’t they insanely rare?!” Tanya shouted, goggling down at it in surprise. She’d only heard of them in passing.

Meanwhile, Laplace stared down at the coin, unmoving. Normally she was all smiles and jokes, but right now, there was an uncharacteristically hard look plastered on her face.

“Uh, La—Stone Cold Stunner?” Tanya asked timidly, conscious of Miku’s presence. To keep her true identity hidden from the public at large, this Great Sorceress was currently masquerading as no more than the beautiful and talented Stone Cold Stunner from the Sparring Tournament.

“So you’re saying,” Laplace began slowly, in a low whisper, “this item is known as Laplace’s Orichalcum Coin?”

“Huh? Yes, that’s right. They say the Great Sorceress herself minted a whole bunch of them by mixing gold with a rare alloy called orichalcum. That said, there’s no record of anyone ever using them as currency. Oh, but rumor has it these coins were cursed by Laplace herself! They’re imbued with a really intricate spell formula. All the magic nerds go ga-ga over them... Like that one, for example.”

“Huh?! N-No I’m not!” Tanya frantically wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth.

“Interesting. So you were told that I made these.”

“Wait... You...?”

“Gah! Uhhh, just disregard that! I think she’s a little tired today!” Tanya hastily cut in.

They couldn’t afford to let the townspeople find out that the mythical Great Sorceress was walking among them once more. The entire city would fall into chaos.

“I don’t know how these coins get circulated, but for some reason, it seems like every magic supply store in Ode has at least one,” Miku continued.

“What?”

“No joke. Me and the boss went to a town hall meeting a while ago, and there were tons of people bragging about their collections.”

“Hmmm... I see... Your name’s Miku, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Could I purchase this coin?” Laplace smiled affably.

“You certainly can, but... I’m afraid that bag of silver...”

“Isn’t enough?”

“Yeah... Sorry...”

“C’est bon. There’s more where that came from. Right, Tanya?”

“What?! You want me to pay for it?!”

“Hahaha! Oh, I’m just kidding around! Tell me, do you accept these?”

“What are these...? Oh, wow! Antique currency!”

Most modern stores didn’t accept the 300-year-old money Laplace carried, but this was a shop that dealt in ancient relics.

“It’ll fit right in with your other artifacts, don’t you think? Alternatively, you could melt it down and use it in tool crafting. It’s got a higher gold composition than modern money, after all.”

“But... this is really too much...!”

“Nonsense! Just tell your boss you picked up some new stock while she was gone. I’m sure she’ll be over the moon! I mean, these are the real deal, you know. I used this money all the time 300 years ago.”

“What?”

“Nothing!!! Don’t worry about it!!! Right, Stone Cold Stunner?!?!”

“Hahaha! Right, right! Don’t worry about it!”

Secretly, Tanya was relieved to see Laplace laughing again, because her reaction to the orichalcum coin had been kind of frightening. Was it actually hers? Tanya wanted to ask, but now wasn’t the time.

“Safe journeys, Lilium! Come back again soon so you can meet the boss, okay?”

And so they left the store, Laplace with her single coin and Nadine with her newly fixed glasses. Their destination: the Little Vixen.