391. Vanadium




What can you see?
Yeah.
Erieli?
It's just the way it used to be.
Oh, yeah, hey, here?

 From my gaze, a vision of erythronium? Alice figures out where the
 She was exactly right, pointing to the tacarabaco where Erythronium was.

'Ah, there it is.'
Right, hey, can you see the melasma?

 The melamella perched on Alice's shoulder wavered.
 Doesn't it look like a kindred spirit, Phosphorus?

 I'm not sure.

I'm not sure I'll be able to find it. But I know you're there.
Yeah.
Then let's take it down in a flash. For Erieli.

 I look down and meet eyes with Eli, who is still by my side.

'Yes, ......, wait a bit longer.'
......(country)

 Nodding, Eli, I drew my gun and set my sights on the takarabako with the illusion of erythronium on it.

 The phantom smiling at me, Nikoli.

''Thank you.''

 With that, she disappears.
 Pulling the trigger, a growth bullet shot through Takarabako.

 The defeated Takarabako dropped a thick book.

''Um, what's this?''

 Alice runs up to me as soon as she can, but she can't read the words on the cover and gives me a troubled look.

 I slowly head over with Eli and pick up the book.

'The World's Most Powerful Elemental Book ...... so?'

 Written in Japanese, it's definitely an over there (...) book.

What do I do with it?
There's a clue in here about Eli's new name.
Really?
Yeah.

 He opened the rather thick and heavy illustrated book, using another tacarabako as a desk, and opened it up.

'Let's start with Erythronium, the periodic table, I suppose.
"A scorecard?
"Sailor Liebe, my ship: ......

 I worked hard to memorize it when I was in school, so I open the page with the periodic table of familiar shapes and find the one I'm looking for.

 It's erythronium, so I guess it's "Er".
 I looked for it and found it at .......

 Er, the atomic number 68, and I open the page for it.

'What!'
What, what, what, what?
'Erbium ...... No, it's certainly an Er, too, but ...... is that El then? There is no .......
Hey, what the hell is going on? Can you teach me how to do that?
There's no erythronium.
No?
Ah. To put it plainly, this is a table with all 118 spirits' names on it: number 15, Phosporus (P); number 79, Aurum (Au); and number 113, Nihonium (Nh).

 He goes on to name the spirits who live with him now, who leave their own dungeon and live in the mansion at night.

Tellurium, Silicon, Arsenic, Selenium, Prumbum, and Sarfa: ......

 Furthermore, he goes on to name the dungeons and spirits he has been involved with, although he doesn't live with them.

'It's all there, but only Erislonium is missing.
Why is that?
"I don't know, it's ...... ****nium and it's not supposed to be there, but ......
'Hey, do you think it's possible that somewhere in there is the name of Elieli?'
Well, let's do it another way instead of the periodic table.

 Now I open the index.
 A way to look up dictionaries and illustrated books that I've rarely done since I went from using a computer to a smartphone and a device with a search function.

'Err ...... erythronium erythronium ...... not ......'
No?
Yeah.
Is there another way to write it?
Another way to write it?
See, is Melamella phosphorus or something like that?
That's not exactly what's written on the website: ......

 I let my thoughts run through my mind to see if there is anything else.
 Eli, I dig up things about erythronium from my memory.

'...... fake chrome'
...... (freaky)

 The moment he mumbled, Eli freaked out.

'Sorry! That's not what I meant, I just meant that's what you called me.
......(country)

 A small nod and Eli clings to me again.
 That was a stupid move, a word I shouldn't have said even if I'd thought about it.

 I don't think such a word is in the illustrated book, but I pull it up in the index for a moment.
 Then I looked up the word.

'There was .......'
What?
You're kidding me. You have one?
Really? Did you find it?
Oh, wait a minute.

 Turn to the page that says there is fake chrome.

 Number 23, vanadium (V).

 Discovered in the 18th century and once named erythronium, it was first identified as chromium.
 Later, after the element vanadium was found, it was determined to be the same as the former erythronium.

 In other words, erythronium was vanadium.

'Hey, hey, what was it?'
"Vanadium.
What?

 I say to Eri, who is still holding onto my sleeve, not Alice, who is pestering me.
 At first I wondered if I should name the elements after them.

 Eli from Erythronium, I wondered if I should change that pretty name and re-name it after the elements.

'Your name is Vanadium. A beautiful metal named after the beauty goddess Freya's alias Vanadys.
......!
Vanadium, that's your real name.

 The moment I told him that, Eli's--Vanadium's body and the dungeon a short distance away began to shine at the same time!