Chapter 332
TL: Elphie / PR: Mikan
āIs it that time again? New arrivals?ā
Thereād been a lull in dungeon activity lately, which meant things had been quiet, at least by Fortress standards. That peace was clearly over. Soon, the humans would come pouring in again, dragging their treasures and trash alike, expecting him to identify it all.
He sighed. Braced for the usual monotony. And thenā
ā¦!!!!!!!!!!
A thunderclap tore through his mind. Not a sound, but a floodāa brutal, brilliant surge of memory slamming into him all at once.
It was some time before he could process it.
But when he did, the realization hit hard.
That madman had been nearby all along?
And now, he remembered everything: Michael, the Impossibility, and how Irene had defied it all.
And now, in this very moment, he remembered something elseāthe part that made his pulse, if he had one, race the most.
The two of them, Michael and Irene, had met again, just like at the beginning. Full circle.
And buried in that cascade of returning memories was something small, absurd, but powerful enough to shake him to his phantom core: Chomp-chomp had promised to help him find his body.
The monster King and his Queen had reunited.
Of course, much of that had been thanks to his efforts, naturally. So now, it was his turn.
– Find my body!
With that triumphant cry, the Hand of Appraisal made a break for it, bolting out of the artifact room.
Behind him, he could hear the shouts and sobs of the staff as they realized their sentient magical tool had escaped.
– Too late, humans! Live long and eat wellāI’m off!
He left them behind without so much as a backward glance.
It didnāt take long for the Hand to track down Michael and Irene. It had taken the pair a little longer than expected to leave the Fortress, but eventually, he succeeded in fleeing alongside them.
From that point on, while helping them identify and sort artifacts, he pestered them constantly to help find his body.
Fortunately, Irene and Michael were nothing if not trustworthy.
Even from his perspective, it was clear that they were genuinely trying. They did everything they could to help him.
[Honestly, Iām the one helping the most here. Iām the only one who can move freely between the Monster Realm and the human world, right? So you should all be grateful to me, keh-heh.]
The one who called himself Chomp-chomp, a name so ridiculous it made the Hand physically itch, was grating on his last nerves. But he held his temper. Because, unfortunately, the tentacled nuisance wasnāt wrong.
Of the three of them, only Chomp-chomp could slip between realms with ease. That made him indispensable, irritatingly so.
Still, Michael and Irene were doing their part. Every time they acquired a new artifact, they brought it straight to the Hand.
And unlike the random junk they used to scrape up back at the Fortress, these ones werenāt worthless. Far from it. Everything they brought now had weight, resonance, power, and memories.
With those artifacts came encountersāsome faint, some vividāwith beings who had known him after his fall. He pieced together scraps of history from the shattered remains of what had once been his legacy.
And so, one full year passed in the human world.
Eventually, the Hand of Appraisal began to suspect where his true body might be.
– Roughly speaking, it was like trying to find a single vanilla bean inside a tub of vanilla ice cream. Still, compared to before, this was progress.
After that convoluted analogy, Irene tilted her head and frowned.
āThatā¦doesnāt sound hopeful at all?ā
– What are you talking about? Before, I didnāt even know if I was dealing with vanilla ice cream in the first place. It couldāve been vanilla bean, or sand from a beach, or a pebble in a mountain stream. Compared to that? This is practically the finish line.
Was it, though?
Irene didnāt look convinced, her expression still caught somewhere between skepticism and concern. But seeing how full of hope the Hand himself looked, she didnāt argue further.
Unfortunately, that was as far as the progress went.
From that point on, even with Chomp-chompās help, they scoured the surrounding regions of the monster realm without luck. The Handās body was nowhere to be found.
And as those fruitless days stretched on, the Hand came to a new conclusion.
– It seems I may have left my body in a higher dimension.
āA higher dimension? How are we supposed to get there?ā
– A place not easily reached. Even Chomp-chompās true body resides in a higher dimension, but itās not like he can waltz into just any one of them. You need a special passagewayāsomething that opens by design, not by will.
Chomp-chomp nodded in agreement.
And so, the conclusion was made. Until they could find a way into a higher plane, the search for the Handās body would have to be put on hold.
Then one day, after theyād finished clearing out the small dungeon under the house, the Hand of Appraisal wandered through the space, drifting through the quiet like a bored ghost.
And the moment his fingers brushed against a corner of the room, he froze.
– Wait a second. Are these traces of a higher dimension?
