Prologue: The Final Phase

The castle was thrown into chaos after Imabayashi’s huge blunder.

This didn’t come as a surprise, since one of the player guilds that held all the political power in the world had just been smashed to pieces.

Tiger’s Eye, who controlled the La Vita Empire, one of the world’s superpowers.

The Crimson Moon Brigade, who controlled the Adventurer’s Guild.

Dragon’s Roar, who controlled the Holy Church.

And finally, the Lions of Patriotism, who controlled the Merchants’ Alliance and were spearheaded by Imabayashi.

Up until this incident, players were pulling the strings of this world from the shadows. But now, with all the guilds turning against Imabayashi, his own faction had failed miserably. This served as an unparalleled crisis for society—it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that its division of power had been completely thrown off because of it.

As a result, we would’ve held an emergency meeting among the guildmasters to discuss the postwar world going forward...

...but now that my sister Megumi has disappeared, I can’t join that anymore.

“Then we’ll hold the meeting at a later date. We wouldn’t be able to discuss anything without you there, what with you being the one who defeated Imabayashi and all.”

Ms. Kaori came to that decision after just a single glance at me, so I must’ve looked drenched in despair.

She practically had to force me to rest in the lodging space she’d prepared.

***

Nighttime.

A deep silence permeated the bedroom. The biting cold engulfed my body, making the darkness feel even heavier.

I was sitting on the bed, the sadness flowing through the room tearing me apart.

Why did you disappear?

Ripples of doubt seared through my mind. Just a short while ago, Megumi’s warmth had been in my arms. I couldn’t help but feel the remnants of it in my hands. My longing was so strong that I felt like she’d appear right in front of me if I went and opened the door. At the same time, I could see the expression she’d had in those final moments, one filled with so much sorrow. Every beat of my heart brought a burst of pain with it.

I felt like anything and everything had stagnated. The moonlight drifting through the window was cold. I curled up in bed and covered my face with both hands.

The shock left my imagination running wild with questions. Where had she gone?

A knock rang through the room. The bedroom door opened softly, and I lifted my head with a faint trace of hope.

Who came in alongside the creak of the hinges wasn’t Megumi, but Ms. Kaori.

I’m really far gone, aren’t I? As if Megumi would just appear out of thin air.

I did my best to sit up. “What’s wrong, Ms. Kaori?”

She didn’t answer me. Her footsteps resounded against the floor. When she sat next to me, the sweet scent of her perfume tickled my nose.

“Will you give me your answer?”

Ms. Kaori had been trying to court me for some time now. I’d told her that I’d give her my final answer once the whole deal with Imabayashi had ended.

“Shinobu,” she spoke softly. “I heard that your sister vanished.”

Nothing but silence filled the room. Ms. Kaori placed her palm in my right hand.

My heart started racing. “Huh...? Ms. Kaori?”

She was homing in on my face. Just like last time, our faces came so close that the tips of our noses were almost touching.

“I was trying to think of what I could do for you in such a trying time, and this...is the conclusion I came to. I won’t push it any further if you reject me, but if you choose to make me your lover...”

She whispered in my ear.

“I know that I’m a woman who can hold the man I love the right way.”

As frank as ever, I see.

It’d been a while since I’d first met Ms. Kaori, but everything she did was straightforward, without a single ulterior motive.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Ha ha ha... In the end, I’m getting strung along to your rhythm like always. Maybe you’ve finally arrested me.”

“Arrested?”

I grasped her hand tighter as she tilted her head in confusion.

“Shinobu...?”

The moonlight shining through the window enveloped us as I lightly brushed her hair aside. Up until now, I’d only seen Ms. Kaori as an older sister, but tonight...the intensity of her “womanhood” was so strong I couldn’t take it.

If someone were to point out that I was only feeling this way because she was showing me kindness during a moment of weakness, I wouldn’t be able to deny it. But in this world, I’d met nothing but people full of deceit and hidden agendas. No one could blame me for letting humanity’s disgustingness get to me.

Ms. Kaori was the only person with a moral compass here. Hence why I couldn’t bring myself to hate her, and had come to harbor affection for her.

And now, I realized that affection was rapidly transforming into love.

Almost a minute passed as we gazed at each other in silence. It wasn’t long before I laid my lips upon hers.

“I’m saying I love you.”

Emotions that transcended words blended together through this soft, calm kiss.

Ms. Kaori, evidently feeling shock and embarrassment at the same time, was at a loss. “Shinobu... I know I was the one who approached you first, but I...” Her face became progressively more red. “I’m...not used to things like this...”

I took a second to wonder why this was what finally made her embarrassed, but then had to chuckle at the redness having spread to her ears too.

“It’s fine. I’m not used to this either.”

She glanced up at me. “You don’t have to do this just because you pity me.”

“I’m not the type of person who would kiss you solely out of pity.”

After a short breath, she brought her gaze to my eyes again. “I’m a policewoman, and you’re a high schooler. Our ages are a problem. If I am to go any further with you, it would have to be at least after you graduate from high school back home.”

“Time has passed since we’ve arrived in this world, you know. By this time in the real world, I would’ve already graduated, so what’s the issue?”

“You know better than I do that the flow of time could be different between here and there.”

“Quite the stickler, aren’t you?”

I wasted no time closing her mouth with my own after her genuinely annoying remark. Circling my arms around her back, I made us both fall onto the bed.

“It wouldn’t be your fault if I were the one who went after you, right? We’ll just say you were attacked by me.”

“What in god’s name are you talking about?” Ms. Kaori squirmed in my arms.

“Nevertheless, I’m someone you like. Even if I do something like that to you, you wouldn’t consider it bad enough to report to the police... See what I’m saying?”

I could see the light bulb go off in her head. She paused briefly to think about it, then sighed lightly. “Ha ha ha... I see. So I’m about to be ‘assaulted’ tonight, is that it?”

“That’s right. If you don’t want this, then by all means, fight back.”

Another moment of silence passed us by, filled with nothing but prolonged eye contact. A flame of determination began to smolder in her irises.

“This will be my first time,” she said slowly. “Be gentle.”

Her voice was so soft I could barely hear it. The blush of her cheeks shot straight into my heart.

The two of us would then make love, the pleasant feeling of skin-on-skin gracing us.

***

About three hours later, I opened my eyes once more.

Next to me, Kaori was snoring without wearing a single thread. The sight took my breath away. This surreal scene of a naked woman sleeping by my side, the bluish-white cast of the moon revealing her pure beauty, could only elicit that reaction. Her porcelain skin, and her face that was delicately carved like a Greek statue... Her usual elegance was hidden by the shadows since she was sleeping so peacefully. I wondered if the faint innocence of a young girl I sensed was just my imagination.

I brushed the back of my hand against Kaori’s cheek.

“Ngh...” Her eyelids parted drowsily. Once she realized it was me, the light flush from before returned.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” I could tell I was smiling.

“No... I don’t mind.” She stretched her long arms out and pulled me in close. By then, I’d lost count of how many times I’d wondered why skin contact felt so nice without clothes getting in the way.

“Um...” Her voice was small. “Did I do well?”

This was Kaori’s usual habit. Despite how aggressive she was on the daily, it was times like this that she’d pull back and reveal how shy she really was. As if to prove this theory, she was staring pointedly at the pillow with the reddest face possible.

“I wouldn’t know,” I spoke blankly. “That was my first time too. I have no one else to compare you to.” Once I realized how bad that sounded, I revised my words. “But, er...I’m sure you did well, considering how great a time I had.”

“I see... Then...that’s good.”

“But I should probably be the one asking instead. A lot of people say the man is the only one who feels good the first time, after all.”

It was hard to believe, but Kaori’s face managed to get even more scarlet at those words. Her voice was as scarce as always when she spoke again. “I...felt really good too. I think you should be proud of yourself.”

The last part was so hard to hear that I was starting to feel bad for her. It made me chuckle again. She didn’t have to answer so honestly if it was that embarrassing, but the fact that she did made Kaori who she was.

She gazed at me as I laughed. “I noticed this earlier, but you drop the formal speech with your lover, don’t you?”

“Oh...” My face fell to a frown. “Would you like me to go back to speaking formally, Kaori? I don’t mind either way. I just thought it would be weird for me to speak like that to my lover.”

“No, this is good. Better, in fact—including you saying my name without honorifics. It makes me feel like I’ve really become yours.”

“Then we’ll keep it this way.”

“Though, it is true that it’s embarrassing.”

Silence overtook us for another long while, our eyes locked on each other’s. Neither of us could tell who initiated it, but our faces were getting closer again. We smiled, then exchanged the umpteenth kiss of the day.

After enjoying our hugs and kisses, Kaori stood up and walked to a corner of the room.

“What’s up?” The space she’d left next to me felt cold and vacant.

“I’d like to make one of my dreams come true now.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

She probably didn’t think I’d catch it, but she grimaced for a split second. “It’s always been one of my dreams to make coffee for my boyfriend in the morning and have him tell me it’s delicious. It would’ve been better if I could bring breakfast along with it, but unfortunately, it’s the middle of the night right now.”

“Why don’t you wait until morning, then?”

“Think about it, Shinobu. I can’t use the kitchen in this lodge, and moreover...”

“Moreover?”

The flushed cheeks and small voice were back. “I want to make something for my boyfriend as soon as possible.”

No, seriously. You don’t have to be so honest if you’re that embarrassed!

My ensuing laughter made me notice the change in my state of mind.

Just a few hours ago, my mind had been laden with Megumi’s disappearance. I’d been so visibly distressed that Gabriel and Kaori only needed one look at me to know.

But now, my heart was filled just enough for me to laugh again. Of course, I still had my many thoughts about Megumi and was worried sick, but rather than giving in to shock and drowning in those worries, wouldn’t it be better to start thinking about how I’d go about searching for her now that she was gone? In other words, I’d become able to look forward and find a tangible solution to the situation.

“Kaori, thank you.”

“Hm? I still haven’t made the coffee yet, though.”

Yet again, Kaori was making me laugh. That’s not what I’m thanking you for!

That’s when the “noise” ran through the world. B—, b—, b—. For a split second, my vision was filled with static, like an old TV. I was given a brief respite from it once it cleared, but the noise was back before I had time to recover.

This same thing had happened when Megumi had vanished earlier that day.

If I’d been playing this game on a phone, it would’ve been as if the screen were bugging out.

A message window appeared in front of my eyes.

“Wh-What’s happening, Shinobu?!”

Kaori was in the same state I was, with her stat window open in front of her.

“Be careful!” I shouted. “This is the same as when Megumi disappeared!”

Even I wasn’t quite sure what I meant by “be careful.” What was there to be careful of?

“Sh-Shinobu! Words are flying across the screen!”

Sentences were streaking through my message window at an incredible speed.

Player: Megumi Iijima confirmed Lost.

What’s the point in announcing this now? Megumi disappeared over half a day ago.

The time written in the text, however, was the current time—precisely midnight. Was the date change the trigger?

All player log-ins confirmed.

I had to gulp at this next set of text. The static, the strange situation, this announcement about Megumi... It all pointed to something having to do with her.

The game has entered its final phase. The Agartha Event will now begin.

The messages continued. Kaori and I took on the same shocked expression.

Event Name: The City of Hope at the Center of the World

Conditions to Clear:

Use the Keys to Agartha, which will be distributed periodically, to complete the final floor.

Rewards:

After hearing the truth of the world from either OBSERVER: Megumi Iijima or Tatsuya Mikagami, you will be able to choose one of the following two options.

1. Be the first in this world to log out.

Note that within twenty-four hours of a returnee emerging, every player existing in La Vita Online will be forcibly logged out after having their karma values calculated.

Additionally, every member of the group that completes the final floor will be individually given an appropriate reward.

Also, with the assumption that a significant number of players will die on the final floor, note that, as a salvation measure, members of the group that completes the final floor that have died will be revived and logged out within twenty-four hours.

2. Start a New Game on a different server from level 1.

Time remaining in the world: three hundred sixty-four days, twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes.

After reading the text over, and over, and over, Kaori and I finally looked at each other again.

The truth of the world? A new game from level 1? Karma values?

The announcement had been filled with nothing but phrases that I didn’t know the meaning of. Which meant...

“What does it all mean, Shinobu?” Kaori’s breathing was labored.

“It seems that, after four hundred years, the Agartha Event is now going to bring the game to a close.”

Now then... This is a huge development. I guess I won’t have to search for Megumi myself.

Once I clear Agartha, this shitty game will finally come to an end.

Chapter 1: The United War Front on Agartha

Just as she’d requested, I told Kaori that her coffee was “delicious” when she made it for me the following morning. She turned beet red and squeaked out a “you’re welcome,” indicating that this really was her first time dating a man. At the same time, she was determined to one day bring me breakfast alongside coffee, saying she was particularly skilled at making French toast. Her femininity was even greater than I’d previously thought.

Excited as I was for the taste, it was actually her dedication to doing something for me that was unbearably cute. Though, I’d keep that thought to myself for the time being. If I said that too genuinely, she’d just blush until she passed out, probably.

No... Wait. Maybe I want to make her blush that way. Kaori usually put up a super strong front, so it was exceptionally adorable when that wall was broken down. And besides, it had always been in my nature as a boy since elementary school to tease girls I liked.

As I grinned to myself at the thought, Kaori called out to me while she changed out of her pajamas.

“You sure you’re fine with going to Imabayashi’s castle today, Shinobu?”

I shook myself from my stupor. “We can’t just leave it like that, so yeah.”

The four grand guildmasters, along with their respective top brass, were all currently staying in Imabayashi’s castle. Now that we had a clear goal of completing Agartha, we needed to confirm whether or not each of the guilds intended on cooperating.

That aside... I glanced over at Kaori in her lingerie.

Her figure was so nice that it would make lesser models want to run away in shame. Not only did she have long legs atypical to a Japanese person, but her chest, while slightly modest, was gorgeous, as I’d seen for myself plenty the night before. Perhaps it was because she’d toned herself well through kendo, but she had the perfect amount of muscle, bringing her body into the realm of the highest art.

“Shinobu? What are you staring at?” Kaori had paused mid-change.

“Sorry, I was just noting how nice your figure is. You’re seriously beautiful.”

“You do realize that I don’t know how to react when you say something like that with such a straight face?”

As if on cue, her face flushed rosy and she spilled that thin voice. I nodded, satisfied at pulling out the exact reaction I wanted.

Tap tap. A knock came at the door, echoing throughout the room.

“Master Shinobu! It’s me, Alice. It’s time to depart to the castle, so I’ve come to get you! May I come in?”

Right. Alice was staying on the floor below.

Kaori answered. “Wouldn’t want to keep her waiting outside. Come on in!”

“Oh!” Alice’s voice was bright. “Ms. Kaori is there too?”

Though she entered with a big smile, her face froze over instantly. She looked at Kaori in lingerie, then turned to me. Back to Kaori in lingerie, then back to me.

Once more to Kaori in lingerie, then once more to—

“Wh-Wh-Why is Ms. Kaori in Master Shinobu’s room...in lingerie?!”

Well, that’s the appropriate reaction.

I face-palmed a bit, but Kaori, on the other hand, didn’t seem to understand what was happening.

“We’re both women,” she said in her usual tone. “I don’t mind you seeing me in my underwear.”

That’s not the problem here, Kaori...

Alice started blinking rapidly. “What in the world is going on here?! Is there something going on between you two?!”

That was what finally got Kaori to realize why Alice was frantically swerving her eyes back and forth between us.

“Ah.” Kaori’s tone was level. “Things happened, so now Shinobu and I are dating. We weren’t trying to hide it.”

Alice could only stiffen up in response.

A long pause passed as they stared at each other, Alice glued in place, and Kaori tilting her head in confusion.

Once it was over, Alice looked down at the floor.

“I get it.”

I couldn’t help but feel guilty. “Sorry for surprising you, Alice. But...well, that’s how it turned out.”

She didn’t reply, just turned on her heel and faced the door.

“Huh? Alice?”

“Could you...give me some time to calm my heart down?”

The sight of her shivering back gave me an indescribable feeling. Yeah, of course she’d be shocked. Even I hadn’t predicted things would end up like this the day before. Alice was at that age, so it was only natural she’d have thoughts about seeing two people she was close with in lingerie in a room together. Girls at this age, though... They tend to be overly fastidious about purity. My heart sank at the thought of Alice considering me “unpure.”

“Er...” I scrambled to find the words. “Well, I don’t think you should worry too much about it, Alice. Or rather, I’d prefer you didn’t.”

Without warning, she swung back around and shouted.

“I have no choice but to worry about it! How could I not?!”

Her tone had clear traces of rebellion in it. I’d never heard that from her even once since I’d met her. Augh... Looks like finding out about a man and woman consummating at such a sensitive age was really shocking for her. In a bad way, at that.

Alice was blinking repeatedly again, her gaze moving back down on the floor. She bit her lip and forced herself to speak. “Ms. Kaori is beautiful... She’s dependable like an older sister and is a good person overall... So I get why you’d fall for her, but...but...!” Her voice shook. “As soon as I realized that...my heart started to hurt...”

She spun around and walked toward the door.

“I’m just...really sad...and in pain.”

Alice had a tendency to see me as a godlike figure. Or, more frankly, she respected me for some reason. This was probably because I’d saved her from that slave market—it made me look like a perfect superman or a saintly being in her eyes. At least, that was my theory.

So what would happen if that saintly being did something seen as “filthy” by this girl who was in a sensitive period in her life?

Thinking of it that way, this reaction of hers was to be expected. The image of me she’d built up in her mind had been shattered all at once.

This is a troublesome development...

The clack of the door let me know that Alice had left the room for good.

***

The morning’s calm light was cast upon the town. The town was gently wrapped with the warm rays, its stone paving glittering.

I walked along the streets, with my usual party of Gabriel, Tsukuyomi, and Cerberus in tow. We passed under an arch made of old rock, and as we approached the center of the town, more and more shop stalls popped up along either side of the road, where merchants were lining up their products, all smiles. The passersby all jam-packed together made the area even more lively.

Beneath this bursting atmosphere, however, one person had dark clouds looming over her. Alice’s expression was filled with melancholy.

Gabriel slowed her pace to match Alice’s and called out to her. “Alice? What’s wrong? You look like the world has crumbled around you.”

Alice chewed on her lip for a bit before answering. “I found out...that Ms. Kaori and Master Shinobu are dating now.”

The rest of my summons swiveled around to look at her, all with shocked faces. Gabriel, after thinking it over, faced Kaori and gave a polite bow. Very maid-like of her.

“I believe we need to discuss this matter among ourselves,” she stated with finality. “Alice, Lady Kaori, could you two walk behind us for the time being?”

Kaori didn’t hesitate to comply. She and Alice followed us at a distance from that point on.

Gabriel eyed me. “Master... Was Alice’s statement correct?” Her question sounded so lonely that it made the bustling sounds of the market vanish for a moment.

I chose my words carefully. “Yes, I’m dating Kaori.”

“I was aware that she had been taking a very...proactive approach to courting you for quite a while now, but I see that you’ve finally given in. Considering her personality, I don’t believe you made the wrong decision. However...it is unfortunate that you did not consult the rest of us, even once.”

The end of that sentence was made of half sadness and half anger. Gabriel’s shoulders were slumped, and she had an intense expression on her face. In the depths of her eyes, something like resentment was being directed toward me.

Unlike Gabriel, Tsukuyomi was very intentionally glaring at me, her mouth agape. “You do realize that we female summons have our loyalty stats maxed out at 100 for you, don’t you? That basically includes affection and romantic inclinations as well.”

From far away, the toll of the cathedral bell reached the town.

Tsukuyomi stood tall. “I would’ve become your lover had you requested it, and would’ve been fine with a normal boss-employee relationship had you not. I’ve given you that much space, and I can even control my emotions so as not to bother you. For us, your summons, that is both our joy and our duty. But even then...I’m still envious.”

I’d somewhat suspected that was the case, but it was still surprising hearing it directly.

Tsukuyomi’s anger only served to escalate the tension in the air. “That goes for you too, right, Gabriel?”

“I cannot deny it.” Gabriel still wasn’t looking at me.

Even Cerberus, in his puppy form, had his tail drooping flat toward the ground dejectedly. He was apparently the only one who felt any sort of empathy for me. That being said, he appeared to be taking a neutral stance in fear of outright taking my side.

“Just what do you take a maiden’s feelings for?” Tsukuyomi wasn’t finished. “There’s no way you didn’t know what it meant for our loyalty stats to be at 100. It’s just so selfish of you. You couldn’t even spare a single word to any of us?”

“I’m sorry.” I did my best to sound genuine. “I really do apologize for that. I should’ve consulted you guys.”

My two female summons shrugged, exasperated.

“Any more than this and we’d just be bullying you, I suppose.” Tsukuyomi huffed. “Let’s end it here, Gabriel.”

Gabriel closed her eyes and sighed. “Rather than bullying, it’d be more like a futile argument.”

Just as Tsukuyomi had said, both of their emotional controls kicked in, and their faces were back to their normal positions before I realized what was going on.

“You’re going back to normal?” I asked. “Just like that?”

“That’s how we are,” Tsukuyomi drawled, rolling her eyes. “We wouldn’t be good vassals if we bothered our master too much.”

“But do note, Master Shinobu,” Gabriel said, a hint of warning in her voice, “I will continue to wish you had chosen me rather than Lady Kaori.”

“Same goes for me.” Tsukuyomi puffed out her cheeks a bit, but threw a glance at the two following behind us. “Take some time to think about the circumstances, Shinobu.”

I gulped. “Think about what?”

“Gabriel and I can control ourselves, but you’re very popular. Someone aside from us...may be just as sad and envious.”

“Huh? But the only ones who’d like me are you guys with your loyalty stats and Kaori.”

Gabriel and Tsukuyomi looked back at Kaori and Alice, then both threw up their hands in defeat in perfect sync.

Tsukuyomi heaved a sigh. “I suppose Shinobu technically hasn’t done anything wrong, so we’ll leave it at that for now.”

Before we knew it, we’d arrived at the castle.

***

As we passed through the gates of the castle, a man who must’ve been a player started flailing toward us once he spotted us. Based on his garments, he had to have been a member of Dragon’s Roar.

“Please, head inside, as fast as you can! Things just took a turn for the worse!” he squeaked.

“What happened?” I tried to calm him down.

“It’d be faster if you heard it from Guildmaster Tadokoro directly! Time is of the essence!”

What could have happened to make this guy panic so badly? He was acting like a disaster had taken place. I understood the players being in a tizzy due to the message windows popping up the previous day, but nothing in them really required us to rush. In fact, the players had always known the Agartha Event was coming.

“Well, all right. Guess I should hurry, then.”

My summons and I began to run through the castle. Once we reached the meeting hall, every grand guildmaster except for the late Imabayashi had already arrived.

There was a suspicious air in the room. Each guildmaster had armored players surrounding them. There had to have been at least twenty people total.

Originally, the guilds had readied themselves for an all-out war in a worst-case scenario at Imabayashi’s auction venue. They’d leveled up as many members to level 99 as they could, which I assumed was everyone here.

“Don’t you think this is going a bit overboard?” I projected my voice to announce my entrance. “What in the world is happening here?”

Mr. Tadokoro of Dragon’s Roar, who controlled the Holy Church, responded to me. “It’s terrible, Iijima!” He was blue in the face and shaking faintly, as if he were afraid of something.

“Tell me what’s going on.”

“The remnants of Mr. Imabayashi’s guild, the Lions of Patriotism, are out of control!”

“You mean the players who were obeying him have now gone rogue?”

I’d made sure that all of Imabayashi’s pets had been obliterated by Amaterasu the previous day, so that couldn’t have been right.

Oh, wait. Only twenty or so people were there yesterday. There still had to have been higher-level Lions in the region. Imabayashi had the biggest army out of any of the guilds, after all.

I voiced my thoughts. “Did Kagura go against our agreement? You know, the guy in charge of getting through Agartha?”

Kagura had been Imabayashi’s right-hand man. He’d been leading a group of players on the front lines, all of whom had made it past the original level cap. He was known as the strongest player of all. During the era of rampant player killings, he was said to have rivaled Mikagami for the title of the strongest, so there was no telling just how powerful he actually was. Not only that, but according to rumors of dubious origin, apparently, in the past, he’d been part of a mercenary unit made of foreigners in France, then moved on to making a living out of doing bloody work in Japan’s underworld.

In La Vita, his class was Ninja Master, a job that involved unexpected and tricky fighting styles. They didn’t rely on stats or skills, but rather using booby traps and taking advantage of enemies’ blind spots. It was no wonder that he’d become the unchallenged strongest after Mikagami left this world.

Despite him working for Imabayashi, however, Kagura had ended up making a ceasefire agreement with me during the last battle.

“He broke his promise?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Why would he suddenly do that?”

One guildmaster spoke up, “He contacted us about his progress through Agartha.”

So did another: “Apparently he changed his mind after yesterday’s announcement.”

Then the third: “According to him and his team, they want us to leave the completion of Agartha to them. If we don’t agree...”

Mr. Tadokoro took a breath, then finished that sentence. “If we don’t agree, they have something that will make us obey by force. You know how Mr. Imabayashi’s guild works, right, Iijima?”

I raised my eyebrows. “I’m not the most informed on them, but I do know Imabayashi’s personality well.”

“When the player killings were happening, he’d forced the players under him to level in heinous ways, without treating them like proper human beings. He chased tons of them to death, all in the name of strengthening his faction.”

“Not surprising, for him. Probably did it without batting an eyelash.”

“Agartha is apparently difficult to get through even at level 99. With the level cap getting released, Kagura most likely wants to force us to grind much the same way Mr. Imabayashi had. As it stands, they’re already monopolizing all of the assets from Agartha, so we won’t stand a chance against them if push comes to shove.”

By that logic, they might be trying to use us as cannon fodder for the bosses in the dungeon. There aren’t any second chances in this game. Until we had a surefire plan for the final boss, it would indeed be effective to sacrifice people for the sake of gathering information.

“They’re asking us to either resist or become their slaves.” Mr. Tadokoro sounded like he was on the verge of tears. “They’ve given us no other options! He even said he was on his way here to speak to us directly... Everything’s a mess!”

“But isn’t it odd that he’d be doing it this way?” I put my hand to my chin. “Judging by yesterday’s announcement—”

I stopped myself after seeing Mr. Tadokoro’s face suddenly hitch. I followed his gaze, turning to look behind me, then my own breath caught in my throat.

“Ka... Kagura?” The guildmaster of Tiger’s Eye, who was also the emperor of the La Vita Empire, wheezed out a noise.

Tens of men were now standing in front of us. How had they gotten so close without me noticing?!

The other guilds also had members with high-level danger- and presence-detecting skills, yet all of them were currently plagued with expressions of pure shock.

I had a feeling I knew what was going on. Tsukuyomi had a skill called Coat of the Moon Shadow, a stealth move that erased the user’s presence. At level 125, it would basically make her invisible. Then, combined with her shadow-hopping skill, she could pop up behind any enemy and land a critical hit on them. Abilities like these could typically be overcome by thief classes, yet up until now, Tsukuyomi had still reigned supreme. Why? Because of the sheer level difference between her and her opponents—they’d all been level 99 at max, never any higher.

Kagura, on the other hand, had not only gone past that level cap but was also a Ninja Master, the greatest stealth class. It was only natural that a true stealth player would be stronger than a summon at the same level.

I tensed up and readied myself to retaliate. “I just don’t think it’s fair that you’re able to apply your stealth effects to all of these other players too.”

“Hmm...” Kagura reacted to my words by letting out a light breath. “As soon as I set foot in here, everyone started panicking and their minds blanked out... Everyone, except you.”

“I wish I didn’t have to say this,” I smiled bitterly. “but I’m the only one here with any combat experience, in the truest sense.”

“Combat experience in the truest sense, huh?” Kagura’s lips were pulled into a grin.

He then began to laugh, as if from joy, but it didn’t reach his eyes, making the sound creepy enough to instill fear into whoever heard it.

“Ha ha... Ha ha hah! Okay, I get it. If you’re that confident you know what it’s like to fight for your life on the front lines, you must be the Iijima I’ve heard so much about, yeah?”

I kept my gaze fixed on him, watching for any sudden movements. “And you must be Mr. Kagura.”

He answered with a firm nod. I assumed he and his goons were the same level as me—125. There were around forty of them, all of them having fought to survive going through Agartha. Kagura was their leader. He was said to be the strongest player, who’d gone head-to-head with Mikagami in multiple duels.

The rest of the guilds had about a hundred people combined in this room, but unfortunately, none of them could be said to be useful in any way. Our members were severely lacking in battle experience, in other words. To be frank, it was obvious that they’d all try to run as soon as a few people were killed, and the situation would be thrown into chaos. Once some players escaped, others would inevitably follow out of fear. In that case, a prolonged team battle would no longer be possible, rendering our sole advantage—our numbers—useless.

With that in mind, counting the number of players on our side who could truly be considered our fighting power would bring me to the number six: me, Kaori, Gabriel, Tsukuyomi, Cerberus, and Amaterasu.

Alice was with us as well, but her level was too low at the moment. I could’ve counted her if the situation had been favorable for long-distance strikes, but alas, this was going to be a melee battle. Unless she managed to distance herself enough for a midrange attack, she couldn’t be considered one of our units.

The one thing keeping us afloat, though, was that although Kagura’s party members were decked out in armor, none of them seemed to have any weapons equipped. It was possible they’d just call up their inventories and pull their weapons out from there, but their demeanors indicated they weren’t going to attack out of the blue.

“Mr. Kagura.” I kept my assessment in mind as I spoke. “Looks like you’ve been building an army up, haven’t you?”

“I could say the same about you. Look at how many people you have here!”

Can’t deny that. Doesn’t change how out of favor this situation is for us, though.

The only leg up we had for sure was my trump card. We’d be able to get a good hit in on Kagura’s party if I used Amaterasu’s range bomb. But would it be able to wipe them out in one go? The answer was no. Her move was a last resort that could only be used once, so if it didn’t massacre them instantly, their healers would just swoop in and get them all to recover.

Kagura’s grin widened, as if he’d read my mind. “Just so you know, if you’re planning to use Amaterasu, don’t bother starting the battle with her big bang. We’ve got a bunch of different buffs and defense mechanisms ready to deal with it.”

“So you knew.”

“Of course. You’re the only one I’m worried about here.”

“Thanks for the praise.”

“Imabayashi told me all about you, see. I’ve been wary of you since he told me you emerged from the tutorial at an absurdly high level.”

“Pretty sure I was less than level 99 at the time.”

“Oh, please. Anyone with a brain would be wary after hearing that you willingly died over and over during the tutorial. Most of the players took the time to level up just enough to live comfortably, sure, but it’s rare to find someone who fought for their life in spite of the danger.”

He sure knows his stuff about me. In truth, I’d also determined that most of the players wouldn’t be of any use in battle, so I agreed with Kagura there.

“Okay. What’s about to happen, then? Are you gonna start a war?”

“I could, if you wanted me to.” That warning hung in the air as he began to walk toward me.

“Sounds like my option is to leave everything to you, or else you’ll force me to submit. Is that it?”

“We’ll start with the answer.” Each step he took shot another wave of nerves into our men.

Our party’s even lower quality than I’d thought. Someone’s muffled shriek could be heard in the background. The players had been so pompous in the face of the natives, but this was how they acted as soon as someone stronger than them showed up.

Kagura stared back at me. “Tell me, Iijima. What did you think of your foster father, Imabayashi?”

In all honesty, I had no idea what the right answer would be.

Kagura had chosen to abandon Imabayashi at the very end by taking a neutral stance, but the fact of the matter was that he’d also worked with him for many years. Though Imabayashi himself was now dead, Kagura could still have his own opinions on me, the one who’d caused Imabayashi’s death in the first place. It wouldn’t be a stretch for him to have had a change of heart.

That being said, dead as he was, there would never come a day where I would willingly praise Imabayashi for any reason.

“Isn’t it obvious?” I scoffed. “The only way to describe him is ‘human trash.’”

“I see...” Kagura whispered to himself, then called up his inventory.

He’s pulling out his weapon...? Did I give him the wrong answer?

I let out a noise of utter confusion once I saw what he conjured up.

“Is that...sake?”

Kagura’s empty-eyed smile was so intense that it looked like a type of mania.

“Imabayashi, man...”

But somewhere in that gaze, there was a dash of something that could be called soft, like a warm color mixed in.

He sighed. “I always hated him.”

That revelation instantly made me realize not only why Kagura was here, but also why he didn’t have his weapons out.

I’d had my questions while Mr. Tadokoro had been panicking, but Kagura’s imposing nature, his creepy smile, and all the bad tales I’d heard about him made me lose sight of them.

Kagura himself had probably been majorly befuddled at the tense atmosphere in here when he’d walked in. Although, rumors had it that he was a strange man obsessed with war who was constantly trying to toe the line of death. By that logic, even if we’d attacked him because of our collective misunderstanding, he’d just go with the flow and take us on. I wouldn’t have put it past him.

“Now then, Iijima...”

“Yes, sir?”

Mr. Kagura plopped himself into one of the chairs, then folded one leg over the other. After flicking off the cap to his bottle of sake, he said, “Why don’t we hurry up and deepen our relationship already?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m actually a minor, unfortunately, so I can’t drink.”

That comment made Mr. Kagura guffaw with glee.

***

Everyone except for me and Mr. Kagura had a look on their face that clearly asked, What in the world is going on here?

I couldn’t blame them. The guy they thought was going to throw hands was suddenly suggesting we drink the night away.

That atmosphere served as the backdrop for our discussion.

Mr. Kagura took the reins. “All right, everyone, why don’t we start by clearing up any misunderstandings?”

I nodded in agreement. “There are advantages and disadvantages for both parties. There’s no need for us to fight, right?”

“Oh, wow.” His eyes opened wide. “You already figured it out?”

“Yeah, as soon as I saw the announcement.”

“Seems like everyone else is lost, though.” He cackled as he surveyed the room.

Kaori finally managed to speak, “What’s going on here, Shinobu...?”

After a short breath, I answered her question. “You can still access yesterday’s announcement, yeah?”

Kaori and the members of the other guilds all opened their message windows in response.

Rewards:

After hearing the truth of the world from either OBSERVER: Megumi Iijima or Tatsuya Mikagami, you will be able to choose one of the following two options:

1. Be the first in this world to log out.

Note that within twenty-four hours of a returnee emerging, every player existing in La Vita Online will be forcibly logged out after having their karma values calculated.

Additionally, every member of the group that completes the final floor will be individually given an appropriate reward.

Also, with the assumption that a significant number of players will die on the final floor, note that, as a salvation measure, members of the group that completes the final floor that have died will be revived and logged out within twenty-four hours.

2. Start a New Game on a different server from level 1.

Time remaining in the world: three hundred sixty-four days, twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes.

I made sure they’d all finished their rereads. “The matter itself is really simple, Kaori.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we’re not playing a zero-sum game anymore.”

I’d originally thought we were because I was first placed in the tutorial, rather than having to spend four hundred years in this world.

What I was trying to say was that the main reason player killings occurred in the first place was because the Guild Coins necessary to obtain Log-out Tickets were a limited resource—at the time, that is. Now, every player was going to be given a chance to challenge Agartha periodically.

What really sealed the deal was the announcement clearly stating that all players would be forcefully logged out as soon as even a single person chose to return to Japan. And, well, pretty much every player was desperately trying to get home at the end of the day.

For example, even if one wanted to monopolize Agartha’s assets and widen the power gap between themselves and the other reincarnators, just as Imabayashi was attempting to do...

There wasn’t a point to doing that anymore. The only real reason to gain any more power in this world would be if one wanted to continue living wealthily and exploiting the natives. The presumption, might I add, being not knowing if you could ever go home in the first place. The players had initially warred over who became the most powerful here specifically because they couldn’t leave. With that stipulation gone, infighting was virtually pointless.

I cleared my throat. “All of you are too used to this world. You’ve become biased toward brutality.”

Kaori and a certain number of the players gasped when they realized what I was getting at.

“You guys were thinking that Mr. Kagura is the same as Imabayashi, that he was plotting to monopolize Agartha’s resources and throw you all into dangerous areas. But you were wrong.”

Mr. Tadokoro couldn’t stay silent any longer. “B-But, Iijima! We may not be playing a zero-sum game anymore, but he still needs someone to beat the final boss for him!”

“Indeed. You’re right about that.”

“Then, wouldn’t you also assume he’d throw anyone who opposes him into treacherous areas?”

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

He gulped down his rebuttal, question marks in his eyes.

Well, this is partially my fault too. I was the only one who’d negotiated with Mr. Kagura via Tsukuyomi. No one would be able to figure this out without the information I’d gained then.

“Mr. Kagura.” I straightened up and addressed him. “You and your party have either made it to the final floor of Agartha, or have a plan to get there, yes?”

He took on a surprised expression. “Why do you think that?”

“Because you all are storing a ton of zombies as collateral.”

“Pretty sure I never told you about what we were using them for,” he huffed.

“Anyway, since you have hundreds of thousands of zombies at your disposal, you’re technically able to crush any enemy to death, right?”

I’d gleaned this from Tsukuyomi’s report. Mr. Kagura’s group was storing hundreds of thousands, or even a million zombies on the third floor of Agartha. Imabayashi had used his political and military power to kidnap tons of natives, then had them transformed into zombies. His reason for doing so was a single, horrible one:

He was going to use his native zombie sorcerers to enact a kamikaze on the bosses of each floor.

Magic Ball, one of the weakest magic spells in the game, dealt fixed damage of only 1 or 2 HP. Imabayashi’s strategy was to use the zombies’ sheer numbers to his advantage. Theoretically, he could overwhelm any enemy with that alone.

Mr. Kagura was still miffed at my deduction. “Well, I guess anyone could’ve figured it out.”

“I know just how much of a brutal fiend Imabayashi was.” I shook my head. “What’s the current situation?”

“Just as you said. Once I decided to cut him off, I started giving him fake reports. In truth, about a week ago, we made it to Floor 13. The final floor.”

“So under the right circumstances, we’d be able to challenge the final boss at any time, right? All we need to do is pull the trigger.”

Mr. Kagura summed it up like this: He and his team had in their possession the ridiculous ability to deal about a million to two million damage, and they’d already progressed to the final boss’s lair, meaning they could challenge it at any time.

With that said and done, he’d now brought the topic of working together to us. There was only one theory that this could lead me to. There must have been a limit to how many people could enter the final boss’s arena.

A game with a field-sharing battle system could have a hundred people fight in the same area all at once. But to allow that for a final boss? That would just feel cheap to the players. As such, some games would have limits to how many could enter boss areas. Strategies for gathering party members included inviting your guild members, people on your Friends List, or even using a matching feature that would automatically find players around your level for you.

In this case, the final boss’s arena was probably limited to ten people. I didn’t know exactly how the game was going to implement a capacity limit like that, but I assumed this was the case.

“Yup, right on the mark,” Mr. Kagura confirmed my suspicions. “We’re limited to ten people. If we try opening the big door on the final floor, a message window pops up with our options for entering.”

“So what are you asking us for?” I got straight to the point.

All eyes were now on him. “It’s a simple request, really. We’d like you to give us twenty people of classes we think will be best against the boss. We have fourteen people settled on already, including backups. We’re currently missing six, so we’ll have six of you release the level cap, then work toward 125 at the same time. Of course, we don’t mind if you want to level on your own, but it’s imperative that you do it within the event’s time frame. The time limit says we have 364 days left, but we’re going to leave two months for tackling the final floor, so the real time limit is three hundred days.”

He was only saying what was best for the situation. I myself didn’t have any issues with his proposal, but the guildmaster of Tiger’s Eye and La Vita Empire’s emperor, Mr. Enzaki, raised his voice, distraught.

“B-But in your previous message to us, you said you would force us to obey you if you had to. What was that about?”

Mr. Kagura slowly pulled out a cigar, then lit it with Daily Life Magic. “If you all don’t agree to give us candidates for the final floor, or if I decide that you’re taking too long to level to make it in time for the deadline...”

His demeanor changed in an instant, sending a cold sweat down my back. The shine of his eyes was piercing. The pressure it put on the air made everyone gulp, including me.

I remembered this feeling. It was the same as what I’d felt from Mikagami and the Legendary Goblin King—it was the force emitted by an immensely strong foe.

“Then I’ll do what Imabayashi did and use reckless leveling methods to get you all where I need you to be. So long as running out of time means unnegotiable death, I can’t just sit around and do nothing. No matter how many of you die during this dangerous leveling process—even if it’s hundreds of you—I’m not doing it any other way. I’m going to make you all level up within this short period of time whether you want to or not.”

Whether you want to or not. Those words had no waver to them in the slightest, coloring everyone’s faces with fear.

He’d actually do it.

We all understood that fact at once. This isn’t good. I was thinking I could see eye to eye with him, but that isn’t the case at all. Kagura was a monster.

But at the very least, he didn’t seem to be a demon like Imabayashi was, since he was telling us he’d let us level up fairly at first.

Another speck of ash fell from his cigar. “Anyway, I need six people. I’m going to take into account the power balance between the people I’m predicting will be best against the final boss, then choose the members individually at a later date.”

No one would have a problem with that. We all agreed that someone had to clear the final floor.

“Iijima and Shinozuka”—there was authority in his voice—“you two will be participating. I’m not going to relent on that. I assume you don’t have any issues with it?”

“I don’t mind...” I bit my lip. “But why me? Summoners are notoriously useless in places with player limits.”

Summoners not only had to choose a select few summons they could use beforehand, but those summons would also count toward the player limit. If the player capacity was already maxed out, then summoners would naturally not be able to summon any more units. The class was geared more toward solo play styles, its only real benefit being that one could create their own party at will. As a result, each summon’s individual abilities didn’t even come close to those of players of similar classes.

Mr. Kagura then blindsided me. “We need a summoner. I’m still in the process of scoping out the boss, but we already have a decent amount of information on it.”

“I’m not the only summoner around, though. Why me specifically?”

“I can say this for sure, but when it comes to a life-and-death situation, you’re the most fit for one aside from me. You’re a must-have.”

“I think you’re upselling me a bit much.”

“You overcame a hellish version of the tutorial, then continuously put yourself on the front lines. Not only did you make even me wary of you, but you also went and smashed Imabayashi to pieces in no time flat. Are you trying to tell me anyone else is capable of all that?”

“Okay, I get that you’re confident in me. I’ll do it, since somebody has to.”

According to the announcement, the group that finished off the final boss got to meet Megumi, so this proposal was just what I needed. There was still one problem, though.

“But why are you picking Kaori... I mean, Ms. Shinozuka?”

“Two reasons.” A ring of smoke floated up from his lips. “First, as far as I’ve heard, Shinozuka’s swordsmanship skills that she polished in Japan have been proving useful in this world. They’re absurd, in fact. Also, she’s known to be a woman who isn’t afraid even in the face of death.”

His information was correct. Kaori had been doing kendo since she was a child, and her position as a policewoman made her naturally prepared for worst-case scenarios. So Mr. Kagura had a point in choosing her, but I didn’t like it. What kind of man in what kind of world would send the woman he’s dating to the front lines?

I swallowed my objections. “What’s the other reason?”

“One of the new skills rewarded from the Agartha Event is a special one for swordsmen. If we’re going to give the strongest swordsman skill to any of us, it’s gotta be Shinozuka.”

Any argument I could’ve thought of had then been rendered moot. If we were going to need a level 125 Swordsman, then excluding Kaori, who was said to be the strongest already, would be a foolish move. Sometimes, during events involving dungeons, one player who managed to get to the final floor the fastest would be chosen to receive a bonus reward. I was pretty sure this was intended to motivate dedicated players to complete each event in a timely manner. These rewards would typically become available to the public some time after the event, but in this case, there would be no “after,” so one player had the potential to gain an insane advantage over the rest. It was a no-brainer for Mr. Kagura to factor this into his plan, and it was no wonder he’d force the most suited player to participate.

I sighed softly. “It’s a little strange.”

“What is?” Mr. Kagura looked down at me.

“You and I were enemies just a little while ago, yet now we’re planning to fight together.”

“Well, I’d hid the fact that I’d made it to the final floor. If the message I saw there had different conditions, I probably would’ve tried to hog all the rewards for myself.”

If that were the case, then why were we now trying to form a team to work together?

The answer was simple: With a clear goal in front of us, and with the premise of a zero-sum game where we were forced to use each other as stepping stones gone, cooperation would now result in benefits for all of us.

Until now, the players in this world had been treating most of the natives horribly. Why? A big reason was that they had no clear way to leave. There were a few who’d gathered up Guild Coins and used the Log-out Tickets, but creepy rumors were going around about what had happened to them. The text at the end of the item name had been bugged. It was just too suspicious to attempt to obtain.

At present, we didn’t have items with bugged-out names, and a solid end date for the event was set for us. Not a single person intended on staying in this world...or at least, the number of people was very few. Everyone knew that they’d have to come up with the resolve to fight at some point.

“All right, then. Are we good with this alliance being made official, Iijima?” The creases around Mr. Kagura’s eyes appeared as he grinned.

“Yes.” I steeled myself. “Let’s do this.”

At this point in time, I couldn’t have known that clearing this game, that the truth of this world was... No, that this world itself was one giant trap.

Intermission: The White Field

Everything in view was white.

Within this space, where the boundary between the horizon and the sky was blurred, stood a table. A man and a girl sat on either side of it, facing each other.

The man had silver hair, an eye patch, jeans, and a hoodie thrown over his shoulders.

The girl had medium length hair and was wearing a sailor uniform. She looked to be in her mid-teens.

“Now then, Megumi. We’ve entered the final phase.”

The man’s words prompted the girl to nod silently.

He focused his one eye on something above them. “I wonder how they’re going to use the time they have left, what they’re going to achieve... I’m very invested.”

The girl trained her gaze on him, as if trying to discern something. “You talk as if you’re a god watching over them, Mr. Mikagami. Almost like you’re observing an ant farm.”

His brow furrowed at her suggestion. “I’m no god, that’s for sure. I wish you’d say that to the real gods who made both that world and this one.”

“‘The real gods’...? Indeed. To them, that world and this one—the game world and the real world, are nothing more than creations of theirs. To the people living in each, though, those beings may well be considered gods.” The girl could only sigh.

The man nodded to agree, and after a silence, he shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

“But you might be right. Maybe I am looking at these things from a god’s perspective. Probably a result of having spent so long in this room that I’ve started to dissociate.”

Once he snapped his fingers, countless translucent monitors appeared around the two of them. It resembled a monitoring room for security cameras in a big mall.

“Even someone like me ends up worn down after having to stare at these things day after day. The incarnations of you that exist around that world... Everything they see and hear, and everything that happens within a set distance from them, even if they aren’t there to experience them directly, gets fed to these monitors. Since you’re the scales, your splinters use the data they observe to calculate each player’s karma.”

“I fully understand my role as the scales, and therefore I understand why I was called here at the eleventh hour, but knowing that tons of versions of me exist around the world as its ‘eyes’...doesn’t exactly give me a pleasant feeling.”

The man chuckled. “My suspended sentence will finally come to an end soon.”

“‘Suspended sentence,’ hmm? That’s a fitting phrase for it.”

Her response was nothing more than tepid.

Chapter 2: Taking Care of the Aftermath of the World

There was a girl named Elina.

The only family this girl had left was her younger brother. Their parents had died from the village-wide famine the previous year, and there was no way for the young pair of siblings to survive on their own.

Elina was hired as a live-in maid for a prominent dominion lord in the La Vita Empire, but what could a twelve-year-old girl with no skills or experience bring to the table?

She was hailed as one of the greatest beauties, not just in her village, but in the surrounding cities as a whole. The slave trafficker she was taken by knew that she was the dominion lord’s type—and so did Elina herself. She knew all too well that her age and appearance matched his sexual preferences to a tee.

So when she began working in his mansion, her daily life was nothing but a series of sufferings.

Elina was not only shocked that this lord had over a hundred other girls in the same situation working for him, but also that his way of defiling a bed was nothing short of lurid.

But the girl was just fine with this.

The pay the trafficker had promised her was three times that of a normal adult’s, so she was using it to keep her brother living in the dorms of the magic academy.

She was aware that both she and her parents had been exploited by all those people and had agonized so much since none of them had been educated. Once she became an adult and stopped fitting the dominion lord’s preferences, her only option would be to sell her body to live.

At the very least, she wanted her younger brother to walk a normal path. That wish was the only bit of hope helping her live through these dismal days.

And yet, on a day when the lord called for her, an unbelievable sight would be brought to her eyes.

It was a boy, hung in the underground jail that was jam-packed with various torture devices.

The boy’s eyes were closed, and his injured body had turned cold, no longer capable of moving. It was clear from the open wounds all over his body that human-inflicted abuse on a grand scale had been brought upon him.

“Now then, Elina. How do you feel after seeing this?”

Elina couldn’t answer the dominion lord’s question, for the boy resembled not only her, but her father.

“Charles?”

Indeed. The boy was her beloved young brother.

The lord’s raucous laughter echoed off the walls. “Ha ha ha! Hilarious, isn’t it?! I had him kidnapped about a week ago!”

“Ah... Ack... Agh...!”

Formless sounds spilled out of the girl’s lungs as she blankly gazed at her unmoving brother.

“Those letters you sent him every month? It was just so, so funny reading them, knowing that this was the only outcome waiting for him...!” The lord could barely contain his laughter.

“Why...?” Elina’s voice was scarcely a whisper.

“I’m tired of playing the same old games every day. Life needs a little spice here and there. A young girl’s face twisting in anguish is more beautiful than anything!” His sadistic laugh somehow managed to echo even farther within the jail.

This was when Elina finally understood. From the very beginning, the lord had been planning to use both her and her brother as mere toys to eventually rip to shreds.

She began to walk into the cell where her brother, who would never speak again, hung. Her light touch to his cold hand wasn’t meant to be a goodbye.

The reason was more physical.

She grabbed one of the torture devices off the wall—a hatchet.

“Aaaaaaaaargh!”

As soon as the weapon was in her hands, she hauled it above her head and vaulted toward the dominion lord. His family was neither one of martial arts, nor one of magic. Sure, nobles might have all known basic levels of self-defense, but for Elina, this was her chance to end this monster and his days filled with gluttony, slothfulness, and depravity.

The hatchet came hurtling down, aimed straight at the lord’s head, along with killing intent that was clear as day.

“Grade 4: Iron Armor.”

Clank. The sound made the whole thing seem like a joke. The hatchet bounced off and flew through the air. It landed on the ground and rolled with several clangs.

“Huh?”

Elina had heard that it was possible for magic users to defend themselves by constructing a physical wall, so she understood why something like this would happen. But... What did this man just say? Grade 4? Wasn’t that a magic grade so powerful that only the strongest from the era of legends, well over four hundred years ago, could wield? The lord might have been a noble, but none of his family were mages. Why could he use long-lost magic?

“Unfortunately for you, I’m no ordinary dominion lord. Highly intelligent people call me a god.” A perverse smile appeared on his face as he picked up the hatchet. “Anyway, I’ve revealed my secret, so I don’t need you anymore, my little toy.”

It was his turn to swing the hatchet high above.

Knowing that death was imminent, Elina squeezed her eyes shut.

Oh, God...! Please, find it in your heart to save me...!

Was her life flashing before her eyes? Her mind was racing faster than it ever had before. At the same time, she cursed and despaired at the very same god she had just been praying to.

Why did this have to happen to me?

Her god would not answer her. Had a person who could answer been in that place with her, it would probably have been the person who’d caused her grief to begin with.

“Why do you do such horrible things?” That was Elina’s final question.

The man merely grinned with joy. “The weak get stolen from by the strong. So I’ve stolen from you, and now I’m going to kill you. That’s all.”

Ah... I see. His logic was nothing less than concise and correct. It couldn’t be described any other way than being the law of the world.

But if the girl were to be permitted one doubt against it, it would be about the teachings of “God.” Even within her days of being exploited by the strong, she had been told that if she prayed as much as she could, she would surely one day be saved. That was why she’d prayed every day, and had obeyed the religious doctrine as much as she could.

Yet, her god had not saved her.

Or rather, since this man could use Grade 4, which was said to only be wielded by gods, perhaps he was the closest thing to God near her.

If that was the case, then the only people who could fight back against this god were even stronger gods.

In other words, “survival of the fittest” applied even to the realm of gods.

Therefore, the god Elina had been praying to had merely been too weak. That was it, nothing more.

Her parents had died. Her brother had died. There was nothing left for her to regret about this world.

She closed her eyes in preparation. That was when the sound of air being sliced through hit her ears. Readying herself for the impact, her body reflexively stiffened.

However, that impact never came. What replaced it was the dominion lord’s scream.

“Gyaaaaaah!”

His right forearm, which had been holding the hatchet, fell to the ground—quickly followed by his entire body. His screeches made it sound like the world was ending as he crawled pathetically on the floor.

A low, cold voice came from above him.

“If stealing and killing are fair game, then...”

A young man wrapped in a black robe loomed over the writhing lord. It appeared this young man had cut off the lord’s arm with a deep-black knife.

“Then you won’t complain about getting killed, right? Second-class guild member of Tiger’s Eye—Kogoro Sakagami!”

Once he saw the young man, the dominion lord’s overwhelming arrogance and leeway vanished into thin air.

“Eeek! You’re...Shinobu Iijima?!”

The young man raised his hand up and released his cold voice again.

“Grade 5: The Curse of Demise: Omega Bind.”

The ebony restraining began. Despair overtook the lord’s face as black threads of light bound his arms and legs.

Was his power being swiftly drained with the binding? The more the lord struggled, the quicker he weakened. He passed out entirely once the black threads completely encompassed him.

Elina sat there, stunned. “Grade...5?”

A grade that was undeniably unique to that of gods, to the point where the common folk doubted its existence. No one could blame her for being shocked, since the gods’ world of fairy tales had bloomed right in front of her.

The young man didn’t even spare a glance at the dominion lord as he offered his hand to Elina. “I’ve come to save you. I’m sorry you had to go through something so harrowing.”

It was as if Elina’s heart was being drawn in by the young man’s vast irises. He appeared so divine to her, she could almost see specks of light enveloping him, like a halo.

As his large hand wrapped around hers, she realized. This young man was surely...

My god.

Unaware of Elina’s intense stare, the young man muttered to himself. “Something like this was happening right in the heart of the La Vita Empire? Where’s the regulation, Tiger’s Eye?”

***

Shinobu Iijima

At the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters, the base for the Crimson Moon Brigade. Guildmaster Kaori’s office had a high ceiling and every wall was lined with bookshelves. On top of the huge desk was a litter of old maps and reports, with a brass lamp burning silently. Sunlight streamed through the window, casting a warm color over the carpet. The furniture in the room didn’t give off any overextravagance, but you could still feel how good their quality was.

Kaori was chuckling at the newspaper she was reading at her desk. It was a single-page newspaper, like the ones that existed during the Edo period, roughly made as if it were a clay tablet that’d been engraved. No, the paper itself wasn’t anything to write home about—the problem was what was actually written on it.

“Look at this grandiose headline!” Kaori’s laughter was pure. “‘Our Savior: Shinobu Iijima’!” She pointed to another newspaper lying on the desk. “And this one says, ‘The Story of a Real-Life Hero: A Deep Dive into Shinobu Iijima.’” Apparently unable to contain her giggles anymore, she doubled over and held her stomach as she laughed.

“Don’t make fun of me too much.” I pouted.

As of late, I’d been acting as a sort of police officer, going around putting a stop to certain players’ tyranny.

That day, two months ago, when Megumi disappeared, this became my life’s work until the Agartha Event was to begin. I had my questions as to why things had turned out this way, sure, but I was otherwise satisfied with it.

Incidentally, those I’d released from the dominion lord Sakagami’s mansion were hired as members of Kaori’s Crimson Moon Brigade. All the money and treasures he’d possessed were sold off along with his land. Everyone who’d been abused by him received an equal amount.

“Ha ha ha!” Kaori’s beautiful brows lifted. “I suppose you’re right; I shouldn’t tease you too much. What the natives are going through right now is nothing to laugh at. You made your own blunder too.”

I grimaced. “How was I supposed to know a troubadour poet was among the natives I’d first saved? And it didn’t stop at their songs—it even made it into the papers!”

“You’ve been getting rid of violent dominion lords, bandits, big merchants—all people who’ve been infamous around the world. Of course the natives would start supporting you. I heard you’re getting so popular that they’re going to turn your heroic story into a book series.”

A book series? C’mon, man... Just hearing about it tired me out.

I tried changing the subject. “But, seriously. What’s going on with the other guildmasters? That was the seventh lawbreaker the Brigade’s caught this month!”

At Mr. Kagura’s suggestion at the original meeting, he and his team would cooperate with the four grand guilds to complete the Agartha dungeon.

Aside from him, Kaori, and me, those who’d volunteered to join the final team were mostly members of the Crimson Moon Brigade. This was a pretty natural outcome, since the members of the Brigade were all players who’d decided from the beginning that they wanted to put a stop to those who were rampaging in this world. They all had strong senses of duty and justice, so in a situation where someone had to do something, they’d volunteer even if it meant putting their lives on the line. There were way more of these types in this guild compared to the others.

In addition to us, the leader of Dragon’s Roar, Mr. Tadokoro, also volunteered. To me, this was more surprising than anything.

He wasn’t a bad person by any means, but he was undoubtedly weak-willed and cowardly, famous for preferring to let sleeping dogs lie. And yet, he’d been one of the first to raise his hand. When I asked him why, he chuckled, saying, “I don’t want you to end up thinking that all adults are despicable, Iijima,” but that answer wasn’t satisfactory enough for me. According to Kaori, after Mr. Tadokoro had made it through that one dungeon with us, he’d ended up rethinking his actions up to that point.

“Kaori,” I began. “You made sure to tell the other guildmasters about the conditions for participating in the final group, right?”

“Of course. You were there for our kickoff party, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, but with how unrestrained the members of the other guilds are, I have to doubt if they ever really intended to play along. We’re being stretched thin as it is.”

The conditions that we set for participants of the final group were plain and simple: They’d have to clean up this world.

By the present point in time, the world’s political power divisions had been long warped by the players. The continent’s largest country, the La Vita Empire, belonged to Tiger’s Eye. The Lions of Patriotism controlled the Merchants’ Alliance. Dragon’s Roar had the Holy Church, and even the Adventurer’s Guild belonged to Kaori’s Crimson Moon Brigade.

In this state, what would happen to the world if we, the players, suddenly all vanished back to our original world? The economy would be thrown out of whack. There would be no emperor so the empire would crumble, and a world war filled with coups d’état would be waiting in the wings. The Adventurer’s Guild would stop functioning, so monsters would rampage, and then if the leader of the Holy Church disappeared on top of that, Nietzsche’s “God is dead” would become a true statement. Just one conglomerate leader disappearing would be enough to cause chaos, and yet, most of the upper echelons of all the organizations in this world were players. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that all of them disappearing together would paralyze the world’s political state.

Since that was the situation, we, the Crimson Moon Brigade, proposed that we aim to bring the world to a soft landing using the near year we had remaining. We also proposed that the players stop abusing the natives as a whole, but that part was not currently being upheld. Each of the guildmasters were brushing it off as “we can’t control all of our underlings’ actions,” which left our guild no choice but to get out there and take matters into our own hands.

“It’s just as you say, Shinobu.” Kaori put the paper she was holding down. “It’s too much pressure for you to have to arrest them all by yourself. I wish I could help you, but...”

“Don’t worry about me, Kaori. Just focus on leveling for now.”

“I could help you if I get that done faster.”

“Just leave this to me. We have plenty of time. All you need to think about is getting your level up safely. I mean this in earnest, but don’t even think about taking risks just for leveling.”

Kaori was level 112. It was getting hard for her to bag ample EXP in dungeons other than Agartha, so she was scheduled to start farming on Floor 1, which was just a bit risky.

She didn’t look satisfied with that. “But the guilds themselves aren’t even controlling their own members. There’s no way we can expect a smooth transition of power to the natives at this rate.”

I clenched my fist. “That’s true. We’ll just have to put an end to it once and for all.”

After this conversation of ours, we decided to assemble the four grand guildmasters one week later.

***

The flame in the elegant fireplace fluttered within the La Vita Empire’s castle, which had high stone walls. The round table in the meeting room was wrapped in a sublime feeling, with the glittering candles lighting up the space. On either side of the entrance stood level 99 player knights decked out in full body armor. Embroidery and jewels gorgeously decorated the round table, giving off the impression that the room was meant for no less than the emperor himself.

But even within this luxurious place, remembering what the natives were going through forced me to keep my mouth shut.

For the record, Alice and my summons were waiting outside of the meeting room.

A man with a mustache sitting across from me opened his mouth. This was Enzaki, the guildmaster of Tiger’s Eye, who controlled the La Vita Empire. This also made him the emperor overall.

“I understand that we are now forbidden from oppressing the natives, so I’ve made sure to let all of my guild members know.”

This man had been sitting as La Vita’s emperor for four hundred years, making him known among the natives as the Undying Emperor, a supernatural being with indefinite life.

Forgot to mention, but the Merchants’ Alliance’s Lions of Patriotism weren’t participating here. After Imabayashi’s death, Mr. Kagura had become their leader, but he pretty much never left the depths of the Agartha dungeon.

As for the other two guilds, they would be the Crimson Moon Brigade, who controlled the Adventurer’s Guild, headed by Kaori, and Dragon’s Roar, who controlled the Holy Church, headed by Mr. Tadokoro.

I pinched the skin between my eyes and sighed in frustration. “That’s what you say, but Sakagami’s oppression was very clearly crossing the line. He was using little kids, for god’s sake!”

Enzaki looked genuinely surprised. “I looked over your report several times. It never said anything about not hiring sex slaves.”

“Are you sure you read it? The way he was treating them could only be described as horrid!”

He huffed. “It’s not like he massacred a whole village and stole slaves from there. He consulted a native broker, which is the most popular method for obtaining slaves. Slave trade was happening well before we reincarnators showed up. I wouldn’t be surprised if nobles in the Middle Ages back on Earth did this too. I wouldn’t be on board with it if anyone were intentionally committing murder, of course, but aside from that, all Sakagami was doing was having a little fun surrounded by a hundred minors. Is that really something so heinous that you’re this upset over it?”

Seeing his completely serious face sent a slight chill through me, instilling fear. Enzaki... Where the hell have your morals gone?

I gritted my teeth. “It seems our definitions of what counts as oppression don’t align.”

“Seems so.”

The players who’d been living in this world for centuries obtained both godlike powers and a situation in which they could do as they pleased, so his point of view wasn’t totally surprising. It was only natural for these people to go insane after such a long time.

Inevitable as it was, I still hadn’t anticipated the degree to which their ethics were broken.

I chose my words carefully. “Kaori... I mean, Ms. Shinozuka and I are trying to express that no player should be doing things that would be considered unethical by Japanese common sense.”

“Well then, specifically what is acceptable and what isn’t?” He was starting to get indignant. “Don’t just decide case by case depending on how you feel. Give me clear guidelines.”

“For example... Okay, I’ll use our topic from earlier. Let’s say a player pays a prostitute or someone similar for services, and both parties consent to it. No matter how rough the player gets with them, we wouldn’t say anything about it.”

“Of course not. You’d be impeding on our peaceful daily lives if you persecuted people over light games like renting out a brothel district for a few days.”

Your daily life would be impeded if you couldn’t rent out a brothel district? What the hell are you planning to do when you return to modern-day Japan?

I did my best to shake off his comment and continue. “You all also have enough of this world’s currency that you could never use it all. If you, say, used it to rent out restaurants in order to eat good food, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.”

“Another obvious statement. What are you even getting at here?”

“I’m trying to say that you can’t force the natives to do as you please. You can do whatever you want as long as they agree to it. You’ve got the money, so technically you can do pretty much anything, right?”

“Hmm...” Enzaki pursed his lips. “So you’re basically asking us to act as the rich did back on Earth, yes?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed in relief since it seemed he finally understood. Excessive oppression toward the natives would be harder to expect in cases where they consented and were paid properly, after all.

He smiled at me. “Hey, Iijima. Do you know who Tenno Buretsu is?”

“No?”

Enzaki began to explain. He was talking about one of Japan’s historical tyrants. This man’s legacy of terrorizing his people went something to the effect of: slicing a pregnant woman’s stomach open so he could see the fetus, forcing someone to dig for yams after pulling off all their nails, pulling out all the hair on someone’s head and then killing them by cutting a tree down after making them climb it, and pushing a person into a lake and then stabbing them with a spear.

All of these tales had rumors of being nothing more than fiction, but naturally, hearing about them made me feel disgusted nonetheless.

Enzaki wasn’t done yet. “And do you know where the phrase ‘hedonistic feast’ came from?”

“I don’t know that either.”

“An ancient Chinese king proposed a large-scale game. The lake in his garden would be filled to the brim with alcohol, lamb meat and cow meat would be hung from the trees, and tons of naked men and women would run through that garden. As you can imagine, the men would be the ones doing the chasing, and the women would be chased. There’s no need for me to say what would follow, yes? The king made them do that as he sat back, drank alcohol, and watched.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond.

Enzaki leaned forward in his seat. “There’s also Adolf Hitler’s Auschwitz. You have to at least have heard of the gas chambers, yes?”

I’d had enough. “Okay, you’ve been telling me one horrible thing after another. What’re you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that they were all people of power. Now look at me. What am I?”

“You’re the emperor of the La Vita Empire.”

Saying that made me realize where he was going with this.

“It’s not just me.” His eyes were black holes. “People like us can do anything. In fact...you could say that we’re in positions that allow us to do anything.”

“And I’m telling you to cut it the fuck out.”

“Well, since your Brigade has been so insistent with telling us to stop, I understand that you can’t forgive our hobbies no matter what, though I can’t for the life of me understand why. I just want you to wait for a while. I need time to come up with a compromise as well, you know.”

“Compromise?”

“I want you to at least allow acts of pleasure that were already being done in this world from the beginning.”

I let whatever was snapping in me have its moment, then responded. “Could you give me a specific example?”

“You see, here in the La Vita Empire, when grand nobles go out into town, the common folk line up to watch them. If a young girl catches one of the noble’s eyes, it’s customary for him to throw her into the carriage and have his way with her. Grand noble native families have been doing this since before we reincarnators arrived.”

“Okay. Any other examples?”

“When the emperor decides he wants a mistress, about ten thousand beauties from all over the empire are gathered up every year. Other people are hunted down during these periods as well, but that’s just another custom from before we came here.”

I was finding it hard to keep the veins in my temples from popping. “Could we...get away from the topic of women for now? Is there anything else?”

“Well, there’s the merrymaking bash that we do, where we drug hundreds of prostitutes. This is another one of our noble practices. Or rather, it’s a legendary one for the underworld in general.”

Just listening to him was giving me a headache. So his logic is that all that stuff is okay because the natives did it first? Or that people in power on Earth did horrendous things, so for us it should be the same?

That was what he was getting at, yeah, but Kaori wasn’t going to sit there and allow it.

As expected, this was the moment she finally decided to cut in, after having sat silently with her arms crossed the whole time.

“The use of narcotics is inexcusable! You’ve given us a very good look at your group’s disposition. At first I was considering giving you all some grace so long as you didn’t bother the natives, or even giving you a flexible gray zone to an extent, but I’m going to make it clear to you now—we’re going to use Japan’s laws as our basis!”

Not only was Kaori a police officer, but she was also extremely stubborn. She knew this well enough, so originally she wasn’t going to enforce Japan’s law system at all. But after having to listen to Enzaki go on and on about all he’s done and him repeatedly stomping down on her justice-filled land mines, she had no choice but to be fed up with him. It couldn’t be helped, since his tales had been just that awful.

He tried to reason with her. “Shinozuka, you do realize that your Brigade’s plan is to return this world’s power structure to the way it was before the reincarnators changed it, yes?”

“I do. Everyone here has gone too far, no exceptions. At this rate, this world will be thrown into mass chaos. We can’t let it go back to the natives like this.”

“Allow me to confirm. You believe this is a problem because we warped the native’s way of life?”

“That’s right.”

“In that case, this is where the contradiction begins.”

“Contradiction?”

“Right now, we can say for certain that the reincarnators hold all of the power in this world. You agree, yes?”

“I don’t remember saying anything to the contrary. So?”

“You all are telling us not to do the activities that the natives in power had already been doing. So allow me to ask: In this supposed situation where the powerful don’t act like the powerful...could that really be called this world’s natural way of life?”

“We’re telling you to keep it in moderation and not go overboard. Is that really so strange?”

“What you’re saying is to not have gross fetishes, like hunting people and killing them for fun, yes? But there are plenty of natives in this world who kidnap women and force them into sexual slavery. There are many cases where they treat them even worse than we do. Not to mention, we’re greater than the natives, you know. I’ve been telling you that we have a right to enjoy this world at least by the standards of the natives.”

And there it was—the right to enjoy. Then what about the sex slaves themselves and their rights to live healthy lives with at least the basic necessities? There were so many things wrong with his shitty logic that I couldn’t do anything but laugh with the most bitter taste in my mouth.

Kaori, at least, was able to put her thoughts into words. “Forget it. We, the Crimson Moon Brigade, are expecting you to abide by the rules of Japan’s law system.”

Enzaki sighed. “You’re so stubborn, Shinozuka.”

“You’re telling us you want to sit there and gorge yourself as your people starve. What more do you want?”

He ignored her. “And about the drugs. You know it’s not against the law in most of the kingdoms in this world.”

“That’s only because they aren’t aware of the dangers. Many of the kingdoms that follow shamanism use narcotics in rituals, so they manipulate the information available to the public so they can continue to. That’s all that’s happening.”

“So, Shinozuka, you’re insisting on even harsher regulations upon us than the natives are? You say you want to return the natives to the way they were, yet you won’t follow the rules of their way of life yourself?”

“When it comes to narcotics, we know of the dangers. Of course it’s our responsibility to act differently.”

“Bad laws are still laws. How is it fair that the natives get to use them but we don’t? You’re being quite tyrannical, you know, Shinozuka.”

“Tyrannical? That’s how you bastards have been acting toward the natives!”

“We’ve used our power and violence to get them to do as we wished... That much is true. But you know what, Shinozuka? You all are trying to force us to do what you want with the dungeon group as your condition. You’ll have a higher chance of completing the dungeon with us, yes? Everyone will be hindered if you all don’t clear it. So your condition is essentially ‘We’ll complete it for you, so do as we say!’ In other words, you’re threatening us with the dungeon as your shield. That’s nothing less than tyranny! You are the true tyrant here!”

No matter what we said, he had some nonsense to counter with. The word “contrarian” may well have been invented for Enzaki.

Kaori must have finally reached her limit, since her face had exhaustion and exasperation written all over it.

I couldn’t help but wonder, seeing this, if humanity’s base nature was evil after all. Do we really bully and exploit the weak as soon as we obtain a bit of power? Even the real world was structured for exploitation, even if it wasn’t quite as bad as the players were doing here. Or maybe it was just harder for the average person to notice that structure, and their taxes were being funneled into directly supporting it and the super powerful...

But that was that, and this was this.

To be frank, I was going to gain nothing from listening to Enzaki any longer. I was honestly impressed that Kaori hadn’t punched him square in the face yet. She had passed level 110. She’d recently acquired the skill that only she could use too, so excluding me, she could easily overpower every single person in this room by herself.

“Listen, Shinozuka.” Enzaki sneered. “Let me tell you how I really feel. I can’t live a life like this if I go back to Japan. That’s why I’m asking you to turn a blind eye and let it go.”

Our views would only be parallel lines from here. So long as neither of our words got across to each other, exchanging them would be meaningless.

I smacked my hands together to get everyone’s attention. “You all understand the intention behind this assembly, right? It’s to bring the main problem, this world’s structure of power, which was broken by us, the players, back to the natives in the most efficient soft landing possible.”

Enzaki eyed me. “Why are you repeating this, Iijima?”

“You keep repeating your issues with us trying to limit your actions, so the discussion isn’t getting anywhere. Matters like the ones you’re bringing up are so beneath us that they should’ve already been solved long ago.”

“But, Iijima, you can’t just go around telling us we’re suddenly not allowed to do this or that. You wouldn’t like us to do that to you either. If you hate our actions that much, then you and your guild can go do as you please by yourselves.”

I didn’t want it to have to come to this, but it was time to use my cards at hand.

“Enzaki... You seem to be misunderstanding something here. Mr. Kagura said he was leaving everything to me and Kaori—meaning he approves of our approach as well.”

It didn’t take long for Enzaki to notice the change in the air. He stopped being so talkative and his eyes widened. “Mr. Kagura may have agreed with you, but many of the rest of us don’t. That’s why we’re resisting.”

“It’s simple common courtesy to clean up after yourself. You’ve spent all these years running wild. Haven’t you had enough? We aren’t going to keep bringing up your past actions, but we’re telling you to stop oppressing the natives once and for all, and set things right before you head home for good.”

“That’s your thinking, not mine! What’s wrong with wanting to have fun at the very end?”

“You’re right. This is what both Kaori and I are wishing for. We’re being totally selfish. But keep in mind who is putting their lives on the line to get through Agartha for you. That’s who is asking here.”

Enzaki gulped audibly. “That doesn’t mean you have the right to impede on our freedom.”

“Don’t fuck with me. You mean you’re gonna sit there and complain on the sidelines as we’re the ones risking our lives? Let me tell you—I’ve always hated people like that.”

“There’s no point in you expressing your personal likes and dislikes in a place like this.”

“I forgot to mention the most important thing. Kaori and I have taken the risks to get past the original level cap, and now both have violent weapons we can suppress you with. I think that means there is a point to my personal likes and dislikes.”

“A-Are you threatening me?” His eyes were trying to criticize me.

I answered him with an icy voice. “You’re only just now noticing? This stopped being a ‘discussion’ a long time ago.”

“Urgh!”

That was when a man who’d been sitting at the other side of the table like an object stood up. It was Mr. Tadokoro from Dragon’s Roar.

“Hasn’t this gone far enough? Let’s not fight among ourselves. Iijima, Shinozuka, if we’re going to follow Japan’s law system from now on, this debate should also be settled by that as well.”

“By Japan’s law?” I asked.

“Yes. Through a vote—majority rules. All four guildmasters will vote for the plan they think is best.” He winked at me at the end of his sentence, as if telling me to leave it all to him. He seemed to have a plan. “Let’s just go for it since no one seems to be against it. First, Shinozuka will vote for herself, and since Mr. Kagura said to leave everything to her, his vote goes to her as well. As for me...or rather, the entirety of Dragon’s Roar and the Holy Church will back her to our fullest extent.”

I see. This really was a great plan, Mr. Tadokoro. No wonder he’d winked at me. At the end of the day, Japanese people were so used to doing things by majority vote that it was a weakness of ours. Plus, him putting his vote toward Kaori meant our victory was set in stone from the beginning. Enzaki also knew that if push came to shove and we had to fight, he stood no chance. Mr. Tadokoro doing this right after I declared that I’d use force if necessary was perfect timing.

As proof of the plan working, Enzaki’s face had turned positively pale.

Mr. Tadokoro smiled. “That seems to be that. No one has any objections, I take it?”

Had any natives of the La Vita Empire been watching this scene, they’d probably faint. Their emperor was known as the Undying Emperor, said to have felled an army of ten thousand by himself, dubiously rumored to be supernaturally able to use Grade 5 magic. He was further known and feared as a tyrant who propagated despotism and acted with reckless abandon.

At that moment, that man was—

“Urgh... Ugh... Aaaaaargh!”

—cradling his head in his hands like a child, on the verge of tears.

***

After returning to the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters and sending my companions back to their rooms, I went with Kaori for a walk along the beach a bit away from the center of the city. We could hear waves quietly crashing against the shore from far away.

It was evening, right about when the sky changed into a bitter orange color as the sun sank halfway into the sea and decorated the horizon with its final lights. With the reddish sky as its backdrop, the restless surface of the water shone vermilion as little waves went in and out, casting a golden glow over the sand while the wind softly blew against our skin. Off in the distance, seabirds danced across the sky, their wings drawing beautiful arcs through the sunset.

Going for a walk on the beach, huh? I guess it’s not too bad doing something couple-like every once in a while.

“Today was rough.” Kaori broke the silence.

“Yeah... Enzaki agreed in the end, but he was definitely reluctant about it.”

“Are you sure about leaving the next heir to the empire’s throne up to him? Enzaki’s...personality is like that. In addition to the person he chooses for emperor, his chancellors and ministers will surely also be buffoons and brownnosers.”

She was absolutely right. Japanese people tended to show favoritism toward their preferred underlings, so Enzaki was sure to hand over his power to ne’er-do-wells.

To be completely honest with you, I really hadn’t expected him to be that much of a scumbag. It was partially my fault for not researching the inner workings of the empire better. Just contemplating how to deal with it was enough to make my head hurt.

Kaori seemed to be of the same opinion, looking deep in thought. “If the natives Enzaki chooses are next in line, most likely nothing will change. The government will be overrun with corruption and fraud, and the people will continue to live in fear of oppression. It’ll probably be a bit better than Enzaki’s faction itself, but... We still have to do something about this.”

“I have an idea of what we should do already.”

My words made her expression change to one of both surprise and admiration. “I should’ve expected nothing less, Shinobu. Whereas I still have no idea what to do.”

“The empire is closely associated with the Holy Church, right?”

The most popular method for government institutions to receive aid was through religion. Someone once said that in order to more easily control humans, who are overly violent animals, offer them religion and box them into a cage called dogma. Kind of a reckless concept, but I felt like it was pointing out one of the many truths of reality.

Kaori tilted her head. “Indeed, there are cathedrals all over the empire. The La Vita Empire is one of the Holy Church’s greatest business partners.”

“And, of course, the Church has made its way into the inner workings of the government, right?”

“Oh, I see—so that’s what you’re getting at!”

Even Enzaki wouldn’t have too much of a problem with transferring power to one of the natives if the person were more like him. He probably wouldn’t care since we’d have nothing to do with this world once we went back home. There was even a possibility that he’d be happy to push his responsibilities onto someone else.

The only thing we had to worry about when it came to infiltrating the government was our severe disadvantage of how little information we had. But if the Holy Church truly was deeply ingrained into the government’s system, we’d have nothing to worry about.

I nodded. “We’ll have Mr. Tadokoro take the lead and initiate the reforms. That’s the best option for eradicating Enzaki’s inclinations.”

“I agree. Mr. Tadokoro would never let things go awry.”

“Right? He’s always been on your side during guild meetings, and he’s mostly sane. Leaving things to him is the most efficient option.”

“That takes care of the empire, but he’ll also have to handle the Holy Church itself.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Enzaki has run the La Vita Empire pretty much by himself this whole time, so suppressing him would take care of most everything. But Mr. Tadokoro’s guild was operating with two leaders until just recently. They’ve never been a monolith. Mr. Tadokoro is indecisive, so his guild will probably fight over what to do with the Church.”

“Makes our guild seem peaceful in comparison.”

“I don’t mean to brag, but the Brigade is made up of people who agree with my views. I’m proud that we not only condemn fraud and evildoings, but are a clean organization overall.”

She puffed out her chest as she said this. Sadly, her guild being the good guys made them lose every argument and have all the other guilds vote against them up until now. But I thought it was great that Kaori was like this. Had she been the type of person who only did what others wanted and pretended not to see what wasn’t right... I probably wouldn’t have fallen for her.

I grinned. “Not only that. Our biggest advantage is having Alice on our team.”

Alice had recently been going to a bunch of different hunting spots with Kaori to train and had finally made it to level 102. So even after the players all left this world, she was set to be an unparalleled powerhouse. As a result, after talking it over with Kaori, we decided to make Alice the next guildmaster of the Adventurer’s Guild.

Kaori hummed. “If it’s her, she’s sure to lead the world in the right direction after we leave. But... Shinobu?”

“Hmm?”

“Isn’t this favoritism too?”

“It is, yeah.”

“In the end, we, too, feel like gods and are doing nothing more than forcing our values onto the natives.” She sounded just a bit sad.

“That may be true. But still...” I picked up a small pebble and tossed it over the water. One, two, three, four... It hopped across the surface with satisfying splashing noises. “I think it’s fine. The only thing we can do is push forward with what we think is right. If there were other options, we’d be doing them.”

Taking a moment to think hard about it, she nodded slowly. “Yeah. You’re right.” She smiled as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

“Also, Kaori... Talking about Alice made me remember this, but... People in your profession have strong senses of justice, right?”

“I can’t deny it. It’s my way of life, and my pride.”

“But in my case, I don’t think my sense of justice is that strong.”

“Er... No. I think out of all the players in this world, yours is top class.”

“I just have normal values. I didn’t spend four hundred years here with godlike powers at my disposal. All I had were the average values of some guy in Japan. It’s not like I was going out of my way to do volunteer work back home.”

“Hmm... Then why are you going so far for the natives now? This is basically volunteer work too.”

“That’s just it. Now I’m desperate to care for this world and its future. I was thinking...maybe I’m doing it for Alice.”

“For her?”

“I don’t want her to live in a world that we fucked up. To me, Alice must be...a representative of all the people living on this planet. That’s why I gotta do what I can for her.”

“I see, that makes sense. She really is important to you, isn’t she?”

“I’ve been with her for a long time now, and I know what horrible things she’s been through.”

And more than anything, Alice was a hard worker. Even now, she was risking her life to level up because she wanted to be of use to me. I wasn’t sure why, but the way she respected me was the way you’re supposed to respect great people—unequivocally, with no strings attached. It would be impossible for me not to feel something toward her.

“I just have to do what I can. Alice will take care of everything afterward.”

Kaori smiled. “That’s right.”

The sky had turned dark without me realizing it. Looking up, two moons hung above. Glittering stars spread over the coastline, making it sparkle. The strong sea breeze blew, ruffling Kaori’s long hair and further deepening the night sky. Moonlight elegantly reflected off the water, giving the waves a silver shine.

“What a beautiful night,” whispered my lover.

I nodded in agreement. One of us grabbed the other’s hand, and we spent a long while gazing at the starry sky.

“Shinobu?”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t have much time to rest nowadays, what with taking care of the players and things, right?”

“I’m busy for sure, but it’s fulfilling.”

“It really should be my job instead, as the guildmaster. Thank you for working so hard in my stead. I have an idea too.”

“What is it?”

“I’m gonna give you twice the number of good morning kisses as thanks.”

Kaori would sometimes say things like this. I could never tell if she was joking or serious. At this point she was probably doing it on purpose to see me all flustered.

But that attack strategy only worked on me before we started dating. Now I knew the best way to get back at her.

“That proposal goes into effect starting today, right?”

“Huh? I guess so.”

“That means I haven’t received this morning’s set.”

I wrapped my hand around her waist and lightly pulled her close. Right before our lips touched, she shoved me away.

“Wha—?! H-Hang on!”

“Do you not want to?”

“No!”

I hadn’t expected her to reject me so quickly. I decided to ask about it since I didn’t think our relationship warranted such vehement refusals anymore.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s embarrassing to kiss...in public.”

Along with her usual thin voice, her eyes were cast downward and her face had reddened. Unfortunately for her, that reaction had the opposite effect than she wanted on me. When she opened her mouth to complain even more, I sealed it with my lips. She resisted for a second, then gave up and accepted my tongue. Her stiffened body let all the tension out.

With our soft kisses, the rhythm of the crashing waves seared this moment into eternity. The two moons gleamed silver in the night sky, and the stars surrounding them were like illusionary curtains of light, closing on this act of the night’s darkness.

***

Alice

After the meeting ended and we made our way back to the city, I was told to head back to my room.

I knew it was bad, but...I ended up following the two of them in secret. My beating heart was telling me that I was trying to see something that I wouldn’t like.

But I had to make sure. If I didn’t, I’d never be able to set my heart straight.

That’s right—in order for me to move forward, I have to come to accept Ms. Kaori and Master Shinobu’s relationship. That was why I needed to confirm the truth with my own eyes.

Hiding behind a boulder, I observed the two of them. With my demihuman hearing, I heard their whole conversation.

“I don’t want her to live in a world that we fucked up. To me, Alice must be...a representative of all the people living on this planet. That’s why I gotta do what I can for her.”

“I see, that makes sense. She really is important to you, isn’t she?”

Even after becoming lovers with Ms. Kaori, Master Shinobu was still treasuring me.

Really, you haven’t changed at all...

That truth itself was enough to fill my heart with relief. And that was exactly why it was dyed with despair the very next moment.

Watching Ms. Kaori and Master Shinobu happily put their lips together on the seashore hurt so much that it felt like my soul was being torn in half.

Why...? Why is Ms. Kaori the one there and not me?

Ah, I really can’t do this...

I’d thought that seeing this would finally give me closure, but it ended up having the opposite effect.

I’m sorry for being this way, Master Shinobu.

Whispering that, my heart became chained with my own powerlessness and anxiety. It seemed I was never going to be able to accept their relationship with grace.

Master Shinobu... Someone like me, who thinks this way and can’t celebrate your happiness, is not fit to take on a grand guildmaster’s position like you think I am.

These feelings of being incapable overtook me as my tears fell. I stifled my sobs as I broke down crying on the spot.

***

Ryuji Enzaki

A massive bed with four pillars stood in the center of the bedroom. Its sumptuous silk fabric lightly sparkled in the moonlight. The deep red carpet with long strands laid out across the marble floor brought the room as a whole to an equal harmony, complementing the extravagant furnishings that graced it to an artful degree.

In a corner of the room sat a golden vase filled with beautiful flowers, and sitting at the table next to it was the emperor of the La Vita Empire, Ryuji Enzaki.

He spat, vexed, as he poured vintage wine into his solid gold goblet. “That little brat! How dare he look down on me! Don’t you agree, Sakuraba?!”

“I believe you are fully in the right to be angry, based on what you’ve told me, sir.”

The man Enzaki called Sakuraba was the guildmaster of Soaring Deities, who controlled the Border Union.

Soaring Deities was at one point exceedingly powerful, to the point where Sakuraba was included as one of the five grand guildmasters, but he’d surrendered to Enzaki two hundred years prior. The Border Union officially became a vassal state under the La Vita Empire after that. It was a merger in all senses of the word, but some players still referred to the Council of Gods as the “five” grand guilds, and Soaring Deities would sometimes still be called to meetings with the other four. Because of that, the grand guilds would be referred to as “four” or “five” depending on the case and context, but Soaring Deities were essentially a subsidiary of Tiger’s Eye.

“Argh, it’s infuriating! I’ve never had anything not go my way since I arrived in this world, and yet... That impudent brat!”

“Shinozuka and her entire guild are strange people who still drag Japan’s logic along with them. I understand you completely, Mr. Enzaki.”

“Before, when that girl was noisy, all I had to do was join Mr. Imabayashi in threatening her to get her to shut up. She was so cute, yet now...!”

Enzaki threw his head back and downed his red wine in one go. The sound of him slamming the goblet down was so intense that one might’ve thought the table would break.

Silence followed. After pouring wine, downing it, then pouring some more, Enzaki whispered.

“Hah. I’d like to just kill them and get it over with.” He then gasped as he realized something, and his eyes opened up wide. “Wait... That’s it! I should just kill them! Just like always, the answer is to kill all obstacles I despise and rid myself of them!”

Sakuraba fidgeted. “B-But Mr. Enzaki, wouldn’t that be bad?”

“Bad? How so?”

“They’re part of the dungeon group. We still have to complete Agartha’s final floor at the end of the day...”

“They’ll be fine without a player or two. They said they had backups prepared.”

“So, you’re serious about this?”

“They’ve arrested several of our members already! Which is worse: Tiger’s Eye losing members or a slightly lesser chance of completing Agartha? You shouldn’t even have to think about it!”

Sakuraba folded his arms and contemplated before eventually nodding in agreement. “We won’t be able to live like this once we’re back in the previous world, after all. I’d also prefer to enjoy the time I have left.”

“Then that settles it.” Enzaki grinned with a debased leer. He poured another round and gulped it down. “It doesn’t matter what guild they’re in. Find all the guys who hate them and round them up.”

“But Iijima is quite strong, sir. He proved with Imabayashi that ten or twenty people are no match for him.”

“Indeed. Apparently, Imabayashi sent a bunch of guys after him, and they were met with a world of pain.”

“It’s just too risky to attack him head-on.”

“That’s why we won’t be going head-on. We can always fill in the power gap with strategy.”

Sakuraba leaned forward in interest. “So you have a plan?”

“That kid has a weakness too,” Enzaki replied with a smirk. “Everything should go according to plan if we strike it.”

“Won’t all our guys be arrested at once if we fail, though?” Sakuraba’s interest waned. “The whole thing just sounds super risky.”

“Sure, we wouldn’t be able to win if our attack fails and he fights back. It’s just that there’s no risk to us even if we do fail.”

“There’s no risk? What do you mean?”

“He won’t be able to fight back at us if we’re in Japan. We just have to escape out of his range until we return home.”

Sakuraba’s eyes widened. “I see! So you’re going to use the Shelters!”

“Precisely.”

In the era when player killings were rampant, most of the players who didn’t want to fight, including Enzaki and Imabayashi, searched for safe havens in fear of being attacked by others. That was where the Shelters came in.

In La Vita Online’s guild battles, it was expected that an enemy guild would go straight for one’s base. The guilds’ storage vault was sure to be plundered once the enemy made it to the deepest part of the base, so protection was necessary at all costs. Strengthening the gates required materials such as orichalcum, which could usually only be gathered via many guild members working together.

Unless you had the power of paid items, of course. Even the devs didn’t expect just a few whales to pour lots of real-life money into something like this, but in no time flat, impregnable bases with stupid amounts of endurance popped up in the game, becoming a hot topic among the players for a period.

Even now, post-reincarnation, bases like that still existed within this world. The players began calling them the “Shelters” during the player killing era.

“So, Mr. Enzaki, your plan is to hide in a Shelter if our attack on Iijima fails?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll have toys like sex slaves and drugs prepared in advance.”

“I see... They won’t be able to get in that way, and we’ll be able to have our usual fun, right?”

Sakuraba waited for Enzaki’s nod of approval, then exclaimed.

“That’s incredible! That plan is so perfect that it works in our favor either way!”

“Exactly. Either way, we’ll be able to enjoy this world to the fullest for our remaining days. It would be best if we could kill Iijima, though.”

Enzaki poured wine into both his goblet and Sakuraba’s. He held his out.

“Now then, here’s to our future shining bright.”

With a “cheers,” the clink of their glasses rang out.

***

Shinobu Iijima

Two months had passed since the guildmaster meeting. The situation with Tiger’s Eye was going exceedingly well.

At Kaori’s request, I’d created guidelines for how the players should be treating the natives, and apparently Enzaki had ordered for anyone who disobeyed to be strictly punished. None of us could bring ourselves to trust him, so Mr. Tadokoro had been keeping an eye on him undercover using the Holy Church, but so far Enzaki seemed to be genuinely cooperating. Members of Tiger’s Eye had also confirmed that he’d become more mellow, like a different person.

There were, however, some slightly odd things happening too. Players that had been notoriously uncouth were making strange movements. As a result of the big meeting, we’d ordered remarkable limits on the players’ actions regarding the natives. The majority accepted it with grace, since the time we all had left in this world was only about half a year. It would’ve been a different story if the remaining time were ten, twenty, or a hundred years.

Naturally, some people took issue with this. Including the Holy Church’s Dragon’s Roar, the notable ruffians of each guild announced their departures, and their whereabouts were currently unknown. So while their violence toward the natives was no longer backed by powerful organizations, it was still being done on an individual basis, making it that much harder to arrest them.

The heinous acts enacted by the players thus far were unanimously agreed upon to be crimes. Everyone knew this, so I’d have liked to believe that even the deserters wouldn’t go overboard, but...

Naturally, we—the Crimson Moon Brigade—used our control over the Adventurer’s Guild to our advantage to gather intel on incidents resembling player-induced abuse. We had the Holy Church backing us up on all fronts as well, so we were able to monitor the entire world. The deserters surely knew that going overboard wouldn’t fare well for them, evidenced by no incident being too ostentatious at that point.

Until it was time to challenge Agartha’s final floor, my role was to be an officer, but for the time being I had virtually no work to do. Perhaps it was only the calm before the storm.

“Hey, Kaori?” I called out to my lover, who was sitting at the desk across from me.

“Yes, Shinobu?”

Some time ago, another desk had been added to the guildmaster’s office for me. Ever since my work had decreased significantly, I’d started helping Kaori with her work on transferring power back to the natives, so I think our guild members had put this desk here out of courtesy, having seen me go in and out of Kaori’s office so often. They also knew we were lovers, so for a while they’d been leaving matching coffee cups and such for us. It’d been pretty funny. Kaori rounded up her subordinates and lectured them about involving private affairs at work, but her face was beet red and her voice was high-pitched, making it obvious that she was embarrassed. I’d chalked it up to her usual shyness at the time, but I felt bad for her underlings having to get scolded as a result of it, so I’d done my best to calm her down when the moment was right.

“Why don’t we go on a vacation?”

That question was enough to make her look up from her documents, confused. “Huh...? A what?”

“You’ve made it to level 123, right?”

“Yes. At this rate, I’ll be at the cap before the deadline.”

Though we’d made sure to embark on leveling with plenty of time to spare and plenty of safety nets in place, the chances of an accident weren’t zero. Until just a while ago, we’d been leveling the guild members up at quite the pace in order to avoid missing the deadline. Thanks to that, we now had a lot of leeway.

Speaking of which, Alice was working on leveling up as well, with six other players. None of them had died yet. This was in big part due to the level cappers headed by Mr. Kagura training with them, but according to Kaori, even with that and the safety nets, this result was still pretty baffling considering the amount of risk being taken.

Mr. Kagura himself was usually holed up slaying monsters in the deeper floors of Agartha, saying that he didn’t want his battle prowess to rust. He was by all definitions a fucked-up kinda guy. He’d apparently been on par with Mikagami, which gave him a reputation for being strong as all hell, but I wondered what his fighting was like in person. I’d asked him to spar once, but it went something like this:

He’d sniffed. “No. I wouldn’t be able to hold back with you as my opponent.”

“That’s fine,” I’d said. “It may be a mock battle, but the point is for you to give it your all.”

“My ‘all’ is both of us putting our lives on the line.”

He’d claimed this with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, so I could only respond to it with an almighty no-thank-you.

I’d also observed Mr. Kagura’s unit fighting together as they worked on leveling. But essentially, so long as nothing unexpected happened, their program was set to where no one would ever die. That was why they could help the guild members level up so simply and safely, and also why I couldn’t gauge how strong they actually were. Chances were, I’d only be able to see Mr. Kagura’s full ability on the final floor.

I broke out of my reverie. “We should go on vacation since your leveling’s going so well, and since we hardly have any guys to suppress anymore.”

She looked at me disapprovingly. “But we still have this work to do.” She pointed at her documents on power transfer.

“The drafts are all done, though, right? There isn’t as much left as you’re making it out to be.”

In four months, a new leader of the Holy Church would be selected from the natives. Its upper echelon would also mostly be rotated, as was typical of any big organization restructuring. Its top members would also take their factions with them. Completely normal. Presumably, the Holy Church would then become a normal religious organization and become a place where bloody wars would not occur. Internal wars inherent to restructuring would also happen, of course, but in this case they wouldn’t have much to fight over, since the group holding all the power would be one-sidedly stepping down.

As for the Merchants’ Alliance, the change of hands was expected to go smoothly since the players had only been controlling it from behind the scenes and not publicly.

The real problem was the La Vita Empire. The entirety of its imperial family and grand noble families would be changing, so giving it our desired soft landing in a natural-ish way would be difficult.

The current proposal was to avoid bloodshed at all costs, reminiscent of the Meiji Restoration and the French Revolution. Starting with a fabricated agricultural uprising led by the Holy Church, we planned to pass off lordship to farmer natives one by one. We would try to seamlessly transition that into a fabricated overthrow of the government led by the Adventurer’s Guild, followed by an armed demonstration, ending with a complete, peaceful surrender by the La Vita Empire’s imperial palace.

The end goal was to have a council comprising commoners chosen to represent the Adventurer’s Guild and the Merchants’ Alliance as one wing of the government, then a council made up of nobles chosen to represent the Holy Church and the La Vita Empire as the other. This would become the world’s first people-led governing system.

Kaori pursed her lips. “I suppose we do have everything planned out, and there haven’t been any delays in our schedule thus far...”

“So wouldn’t it be a good idea to take it easy for now?”

“No. By all means, we have to go overboard with our selection of which natives will be in charge. Going slowly and carefully brings us the most benefits with the least disadvantages.”

“Hmm... You really are a workaholic, you know that?”

“This world’s future is riding on us. Wouldn’t it be irresponsible of us to not give it our all?”

“But we’ve been diligent about it so far. We’d be graded at least ninety points, if not a hundred.”

“Doesn’t it make more sense to aim for 120, if that’s the maximum?”

I raised my eyebrows. “At the end of the day, this world is the natives’ responsibility. I think it’s fine for us to just build a general platform for them, then leave the rest in their hands. We don’t have much time left for ourselves either. We won’t be able to meet Alice, Gabriel, or anyone else anymore, so can’t we at least make some time to spend with them?”

“You have a point... But I want to aim for 130 points, not just 120.”

Whoa... Just for a bit—no really, just for a little bit—I felt like I understood Imabayashi and Enzaki’s reasons for berating Kaori’s stubbornness in the past. I agreed with her point of view, but it seemed “moderation” wasn’t a word in her dictionary. I was sure Mr. Tadokoro had felt this exact way many times before.

“Kaori?” I kept my voice level.

“Yes? Why do you look like that?”

“I agree with you that it’s important for us to consider how the people of this world are going to live from here on out. But isn’t it more important to consider not only yourself, but also the people close to you?”

That made Kaori go silent. Those had apparently been the right words to strike through the heart of even the most stubborn woman.

“You’re too uptight about this, Kaori. I understand that as a police officer you prioritize people you don’t know a little more than the average person, but still.”

In times of disaster, the police and the JSDF were the ones who always evacuated last in Japan. Of course the victims’ lives and livelihoods were important, but even the police had their own lives...not to mention families.

“More than that, I want to make memories in this world with you. We don’t know for sure that we’re actually going back to Japan, and besides...”

I was hinting at something I’d been thinking but never dared to say aloud.

“Even if we do make it back home, there’s no guarantee that we’ll retain our memories from this world.”

None of us had any idea why we’d come to this game’s world...but I wasn’t so stupid as to believe that in all of history, we were the only ones who’d ended up in a situation like this. The fact that it happened to us meant that it’d happened to people before. In fact, it might’ve made more sense to think that that situation was still happening to this day. And no historical record or news article had ever mentioned someone returning home from a mysterious world. Since that was the case, it meant that either the victims’ memories had been erased, or no one had made it back to the real world at all.

I cleared my throat. “That’s why I want to have fun with you in this world. Maybe once we’re back in Japan, we’ll bump into each other by chance...and then pass each other by without ever knowing who the other person was. Even if that happens, the only truth will be that once upon a time, we shared memories together here, in this world.”

“Saying that is so unfair...” whispered Kaori. The trace of loneliness on her face quickly changed into a smile.

“How so?”

“You can say something like that because you love me, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Do you expect me to keep resisting when you’re using your love as a shield?” She resigned with a shrug. “But I’ll be the one to decide where we vacation. I think the Spring of Miracles would be best.”

I was momentarily happy because my convincing had worked, but...the Spring of Miracles...? I’d heard of that somewhere.

“Would that be...for Fairy Nectar?”

“Yup. We found it by coincidence as we were assessing the state of the world. According to recent astrology news, the planets will be aligning this year.”

“If I recall correctly, they held this event in the game when Jupiter and Saturn got really close to each other in the real world.”

It was common for corporations to cash in on hot topics. I remembered laughing about La Vita implementing an event involving stars aligning at the time.

“We’ve also confirmed a dragon there,” Kaori continued. “I think that’s a sign that this game event is about to start.”

The story of the star-aligning event went as follows:

Astrologists would be frothing at the mouths for the upcoming planet alignment.

In a rural fairy country, the water in a lake would shine beautifully.

An evil dragon would appear around the lake and kidnap the leader fairy, throwing the country into chaos.

The players would go to the fairy country to investigate the cause.

The reason the evil dragon appeared was because the planet alignment released a ton of mana into the lake. Its goal was to absorb the stars’ power.

The players would be tasked with defeating the dragon.

Once the dragon was defeated, the stars’ power would flow back into the lake.

The water quality would completely change, becoming Fairy Nectar.

Fairies loved Fairy Nectar, so they’d be highly pleased.

The players would then receive a reward for saving the fairy country.

Kaori was right—if we went there and defeated the dragon, we could get the event reward. The only problem was that this was an old event, and we were currently in the middle of preparing for the newest one. We wouldn’t feel satisfied with getting an event reward that was implemented before Grade 5 magic was even available.

“I get why you want to go there, but what would be the point of doing this event? The rewards wouldn’t be worth it.”

“We wouldn’t be going for the rewards—we’d be going for the lake changing.”

“Huh?”

“We’d be able to get as much Fairy Nectar as we want.”

“Sure, but isn’t that just a low-level status healing item? We don’t need that.”

She chuckled. “Think a little harder, Shinobu. That item may not be useful to us, but...”

“Ah... Oh!”

“The market price for Fairy Nectar in commoners’ stores is quite high. It’ll be very useful to the natives to have an item that can heal status effects like poison and paralysis.”

People who only ever thought of themselves wouldn’t come up with an idea like this, but for people like Kaori, who only ever thought of other people, it was a natural train of thought.

“Besides, Shinobu, Fairy Nectar is edible in this world. It’s like a blend between maple syrup and honey. It’s rather tasty, and it’s nutritious.”

“So it’ll help with the famine problem too?”

She nodded and smiled, satisfied with my conclusion. “I’m thinking of asking the fairies for permission to use the lake, in lieu of the event reward. I’ll leave maintenance of the spring to the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters, so it shouldn’t be anything too strenuous for Alice once she becomes the guildmaster.”

“That makes sense. Hardly anyone would die from hunger in the surrounding regions if there’s a lake permanently full of honey.”

“That’s why we’re going there for our vacation.” She puffed her chest out, proud.

That’s when I noticed. “Uh... Kaori?”

“Hm? Are you still not clear on something?”

“Do you...know what a ‘vacation’ is, by any chance?”

I’d proposed a vacation specifically to forget about work, but she’d taken it and turned it right back into a job. I’d heard that police officers would get called while off duty sometimes, so it was almost like they were constantly working. If I ever settled down with Kaori in Japan, I’d probably have to deal with that all the time.

I sighed in resignation. That was how we decided on our vacation.

***

In the outskirts of the fairy country, inside of a creepy, dark cave where stalactites hung from the high ceiling: Green moss was packed into holes all over the ground, and the cave walls gave off a verdant color, probably reflected from the faint light above.

The dragon’s nest was a grand space that spread deep within the cave. Upon setting foot in it, one’s eyes would immediately be drawn to the giant golden egg sitting in the back. Gleaming like a jewel, this bright, otherworldly shine lit up the entire nest, as if foretelling not only of the birth of life, but also of the dragon’s prowess. Treasures and jewels were piled up here and there, and the space was dotted with diamonds that could only be described as large boulders, making it akin to a treasure box.

Residing in the center of the nest was a massive dragon. The surface of its body was covered in tough scales, and its golden eyes, while cold, certainly had an arrogant sparkle to them that confirmed the dragon’s status as a powerful being.

Within this chilly cave, this golden dragon was the king. Its gaze was overflowing with unwavering confidence.

The dragon’s voice had bass tones that rang all the way to the bottom of the listener’s lungs, with power befitting of a king.

“Diminutive human. This is no place for a weakling such as yourself.” It took a moment to smirk. “Although, I am not one to let prey simply walk out after it comes here willingly.”

I looked up to meet its eyes. “Unfortunately, I’m not your prey. I’ve come to defeat you.”

“You, a human, defeat me? Hah hah hah!” It spread its huge wings and laughed even harder. “Hah hah hah! Haaah hah hah hah!” The dragon’s laughter was overflowing with absolute superiority, ridiculing the human race. “A mere human, challenging a being such as myself? I’ve never laughed harder in the three hundred something years I’ve been alive!”

A woman tied up behind it raised her voice. “Human... Do not attempt to challenge this dragon.” She had shining, translucent wings. Since she was human-sized and larger than an average fairy, she must have been the kidnapped leader of the fairies. “If you’ve truly come to take it down, that can only mean that you are beyond foolish. Humans can only wield magic up to Grade 3, barely enough to defeat smaller dragons.” It was hard to tell whether she was pleading or had given up on us. “This dragon is not one of the underdeveloped ones you’re used to. It’s one of the ancients whose name has been known since long ago. And now, it’s absorbed the stars’ power and has evolved into a Celestial Dragon. Beings such as yourself cannot even begin to fathom its presence.”

I sized up the dragon. “Say, if I manage to defeat it, could you do me a favor as my reward?”

“I suppose you may do as you wish, but...” The leader fairy looked uncomfortable. “I’m telling you, it’s pointless! Apologize to the dragon and beg for your life immediately!”

I took that as agreement from the leader of the fairy country. I’d been a little anxious about whether or not I’d be allowed to use the lake, since the normal reward for the quest was just equipment.

The dragon had run out of patience by that point. “Leader of the fairies... This human has rubbed my scales the wrong way. It cannot possibly be allowed to exist in this world any longer!”

I nodded. “Okay, then let’s begin.”

“Human! You’ve made it apparent that you understand nothing!”

It stood up on its hind legs, then swung its huge tail at an incredible speed toward one of the giant diamonds in the cave. The diamond went flying and hit the wall with an ear-shattering crash. It split in half and dust swirled around. Once that dust cleared, the giant halves of the diamond rolled on the ground.

“Did you see that, human? Even the toughest diamond boulder stands no chance against me!”

I walked toward the nearest diamond piece as the dragon let out its prideful laugh.

The dragon looked skeptical. “What are you doing, human?”

I didn’t answer him, and instead balled my fist up as tight as it could get. I took the stance of a baseball pitcher and threw my fist at the diamond half in a perfect straight right.

Bang!

My fist landed on the diamond with a low noise. The diamond then crumbled with many sharp cracking noises toward the wall.

“And that’s how it’s done.” I checked my work. “Have I made it clear that I’m serious now?”

The dragon’s eyes remained large, wide circles. It didn’t seem to understand what had just happened. Its mouth had fallen agape in terror.

“Sorry, but I don’t really have time to waste here.” I steadied my wand and chanted my spell. “Grade 5: Kagutsuchi of Fire.”

Hot magic power flowed from my heart, through my right arm, and into my wand. The red-hot heat that spewed from it was said to be so powerful that it could even melt the metal of the gods—hihi’irokane. There was no need to worry about the flare going astray since we were inside of a cave. I’d made sure to split my magic resources to where it would disperse before hitting the walls to avoid explosions, but even with that, it should’ve been powerful enough to defeat the dragon.

“Waugh?!”

Once the flare hit its mark, a hole with a two meter diameter opened up in the dragon’s stomach. Kagutsuchi of Fire was a spell that dealt fixed damage, so the opponent would take fifteen hundred damage regardless of their magic resistance stats. The downside was that its MP cost was so high that casting it just five times would deplete my MP in its entirety, but since it also ignored elemental resistances, it was well worth the price.

“All righty then. Ms. Fairy Leader, I’ll take you back to the fairy country now.”

The fairy leader only had a shocked expression on her face. “Ah... Huh? But...how...?” Her eyes and lips were opening and closing over and over.

Mission complete. We’d planned for the Adventurer’s Guild to manage the lake the Fairy Nectar would come out of, but of course we’d only use as much as the fairies would allow us to. Seeing how large the lake was, though, the fairies alone surely wouldn’t be able to use it all by themselves.

***

And with that, we returned to Abrasil. The merchant city was doused in the sunset, its light shining on the stone pathways, giving a warm glow to the old buildings. The sky gradually changed from orange to a light indigo. Main Street had a bustling market, the enticing fragrances from the food stalls violently stirring up my stomach. The merchants were hurriedly setting up the evening lights, perhaps trying to get them lit before the sun went down for good.

As nice as it was that this city was crowded and lively, it had originally been the home base for the Lions of Patriotism, who controlled the Merchants’ Alliance, during Imabayashi’s reign. Not exactly a location of good memories for me. With Imabayashi gone, however, Mr. Kagura had become the new guildmaster, so neither of us had to worry about having an opposing relationship anymore.

We decided to stop here for the first night of our vacation since it was close to the fairy country.

I called out to Kaori next to me. “How about we have dinner before heading to the lodge?” I’d spotted a bar called Dragon Dining.

Kaori gave a light nod to confirm, as did Gabriel and Tsukuyomi. Cerberus in his puppy form wagged his tail and woofed.

Something was amiss. “Alice? Are you not feeling well?”

Alice hadn’t answered and had a dark look on her face. She shook her head. “It’s nothing. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Well, all right. Let’s eat here, then.”

The bell at the top of the door to the bar clinked when we opened it. It was noisy inside, with adventurers of all races sitting around tens of round tables, enjoying their drinks. There was a huge counter in the back, with all kinds of barrels and bottles lined up behind it. In this world, most bars were actually restaurants that happened to have alcohol, so they always had proper meals to provide. I didn’t drink myself, but Kaori loved alcohol. I’d known she hadn’t been drinking since we’d been so busy, so I specifically chose a bar since we were on vacation.

Within that bright atmosphere, a boisterous laugh came from one corner of the establishment. The vulgar laughter from a group sitting near the counter had exceeded even the realm of “loud” laughs. It was ruining the vibe, so the other patrons and I all looked over at them. Had they gone overboard with the drinks? They appeared a little too happy as they began crowding around a nearby woman.

“Hey, lady. How’s one night sound to you?”

“I-I’m not a prostitute!”

“Who cares? Wait, does that mean you don’t even need money? Heh heh heh. What a goddess!”

“G-Get away from me! I’m saving these seats for my friends. Don’t sit down!”

“Let it go, miss. Don’t you know how much stress piles up for us men during the day?”

I couldn’t even bear to listen to the guy. I observed them a bit longer, thinking I’d step in the moment he crossed a line, when I heard him say something very interesting.

“You’re in luck, lady. A long time ago, we could kidnap any woman who got on our nerves whenever we wanted. We can’t do that anymore because of that bastard Iijima.”

The woman recoiled. “Stop talking nonsense! You all have had too much to drink. I won’t say anything, so just go home before the guards get here!”

“Guards? Call ’em up. If you think those idiots can do anything to us, you’re dead wrong.”

“Don’t touch me!”

I took him grabbing her shoulder as my cue to cut in. “The guards may not be able to do anything, but what about me?”

“Huh? Who the hell are you?”

Kaori, who’d followed me, spoke up. “You know the Crimson Moon Brigade, yeah? I’m Shinozuka.”

The ruffian was bleary-eyed. “Oh, you’re one of us? Wait, ‘Shinozuka’? You’re Kaori Shinozuka? Then, the guy next to you must be...”

I cocked my head. “I’m the Iijima you were just talking about.”

The air froze. Perhaps the man’s comrades sobered up for just a moment, but their relaxed facial muscles switched to fear in an instant. The man himself, however, gained a shit-eating grin on his face and started blabbing.

“It’s your fault that we can’t have fun anymore! You’ve gone too far!”

“Too far?” I looked down at him. “Compared to the way you were just trying to hit on this woman, I think Kaori and I are doing much better.”

Kaori chuckled at those words. I hadn’t particularly said them as a joke, but I understood why some people might take them as one.

The man glared at me. “So, Mr. Iijima... You got a problem with us, or what?”

“You know what our ideology is, right? Stop bothering the natives.”

“It’s not like I raped her or anything. I just got drunk and hit on her, that’s all.”

“Drink by yourself.”

“I haven’t broken any of your rules! I didn’t punch her, so what’s the problem? Men do this even in bars in Japan!”

“Sure they do. Then they get banned from said bars, don’t they?”

“It’s not so bad that the police get involved and they go to jail. Therefore it doesn’t break any of your rules. Am I wrong?!”

My head was starting to hurt. His logic was that of a grade-schooler when getting punished by their teacher. No one could blame me for sighing. Kaori had a look on her face that clearly said, This guy’s hopeless.

I schooled my expression. “So you’re saying that this is bound to happen at bars, yes?”

“That’s right. If you really got a problem with it, then say so!” He cracked his knuckles with a grin that said he thought he’d won.

“Fistfights also happen at bars sometimes. I don’t remember implementing a rule against battles between players.”

Fear ran through his face. I’d decided to fight dumb logic with dumb logic, and it seemed to be working.

One of his goons whispered to him. “Th-This is bad, man. Let’s get out of here!”

The man reluctantly agreed. “Iijima, you bastard... I’ll remember this!”

After making sure that all the men had gone out the door, I thought that everything had wrapped up nicely. However, it appeared we’d made too much of a scene. All of the other customers were looking at us. We hadn’t necessarily done anything wrong, and the people seemed to be approving, but I was ambivalent about it.

“We should leave too, Shinobu,” Kaori urged me.

“That seems to be the right choice. We’ll go somewhere else.”

It wouldn’t feel good to have a meal while everyone’s staring at us. That’s how we ended up leaving, but...

Damn it, the food here looks really good!

It was hard to take my eyes off of other tables’ meals as we walked out.

***

Before we knew it, the sun had completely set. As we walked along the lit up Main Street, the scent of spices from the stalls flowed to us.

“Why don’t we walk while we eat?”

All the other bars had started to fill up, so none of my party dissented. We discussed having a look at all the stalls as we ate. Once we’d had enough of milling around aimlessly, Kaori grabbed my hand. She’d begun holding my hand in public more often recently, so this was nothing new.

She seemed lost in thought. “Holding hands while on a food course... We’re on vacation, but we’re doing the usual date things.”

“We’ve got friends with us this time.”

Gabriel’s and Tsukuyomi’s glares stung, but I’d gotten used to them by that point. Though they were sure to become dour upon seeing Kaori and I flirt, I’d heard that they were supporting us in their own ways. That in itself made me wonder why they were getting bothered in the first place, but with their affinity stats at 100, I couldn’t blame them for their complicated dispositions.

“Speaking of dates—I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, but Kaori, if we’re on a date, then isn’t it weird to hold hands like this?”

“Weird, how?”

“I mean...this.”

I changed the way we were holding hands by intertwining my fingers with hers.

She arched an eyebrow. “What are you doing? All you did was change how our hands were positioned.”

“This is how lovers hold hands.”

“Really?” She laughed, embarrassed. “I see. It’s not bad.”

“Also, I think couples walk in certain ways.”

“Certain ways? Like how?”

“If you grab onto my arm, we’ll really start looking the part.”

She’d seemed happy about the hand-holding, but not about this idea. Her cheeks went red and she bit her lip.

“I told you, stuff like that is embarrassing in public.”

I hadn’t asked her to kiss me or anything, so I wondered what there was to be embarrassed about. Though, she’d come from a family of strict police officers, so she’d probably been firmly taught how to act in public. Albeit, that did leave me questioning why her way of approaching me before we started dating had been so aggressive. Or perhaps the outdoor part was what was really bothering her? I didn’t recall her ever trying to court me in public.

I smelled something delectable. “Oh hey, the skewers at this stall look really good.”

“They do. Why don’t we buy some for everyone? How’s that sound?” She addressed the rest of the party at the end.

Alice responded with a listless voice. “I’ll pass. I haven’t been doing so well these days. I don’t have much of an appetite.”

She really did seem sick. Her usual bright vocal color was low and suppressed, and her expression was dark, as if a shadow had been deeply engraved into her. Her gaze had no target, like it was wandering somewhere far off. Her body movements also seemed to be heavy, almost... No, definitely painful.

“Er... Would you like us all to go back to the lodge with you?” I volunteered.

“I’m going to go back, but you all still haven’t eaten, right?”

“Gabriel or I will go back out and buy stuff for everyone, so it’s no problem.”

“No, I don’t need that. I’ll be fine by myself.”

“Would you like Gabriel to escort you?”

“Didn’t I just say I’ll be fine by myself?! Do you even listen?!”

There was clear malice to her words. This was the first time she’d ever talked to me like that, so I stiffened up.

“I’ll be going now.” That was her last statement before turning around and walking off, without even a glance back.

This wasn’t the only day she’d been down. Part of my reasoning for taking her on this trip was to cheer her up, but now I was really starting to get worried. She didn’t seem to be physically ailed by anything, so maybe she was emotionally drained from having to endure life-threatening leveling?

It seemed I would have to discuss it with her soon. I heaved a deep sigh.

***

Alice

The city lights were bearing down on me, yet I was trapped by the feeling of walking through a dark cave.

People passed me by happily, sometimes laughing, sometimes chatting, but it was like I was shut away from all of it. I was the only person in the entire world.

Master Shinobu and Ms. Kaori have begun holding hands as they walk. Not only that, but the conversation they’d been having made me feel like I was sitting in a chair of needles.

In the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the signboard for Dragon Dining.

I’d heard that drinking alcohol let one forget about life’s worries. Of course, Master Shinobu forbade me from drinking any because of my age, but I didn’t care anymore. Or rather, precisely because he didn’t want me to was why I suddenly took an interest in rebelling.

Even though I knew this was a stupid train of thought, my legs took me into the bar regardless.

The bartender cackled upon seeing me. “I think milk would suit a little girl like you more than alcohol.”

“Are you making fun of me?” I glared at him as I slammed a silver coin onto the table.

“Oh! How scary! Oh, well. I don’t care as long as you pay up.”

I sat down at the counter and ordered an ale.

What am I doing?

Was this feeling self-hatred? I got jealous all on my own, then got hurt all on my own...and now I was rebelling all on my own. As childish as it was, age-wise I really was a child, so no one could do anything about it.

“Here you are, one ale.”

I took the glass and swirled it, feeling like my dark emotions were spinning with it.

What’s the difference between Ms. Kaori and me? Why am I not the one by his side?

Maybe, at the end of the day, I really was just a game character to Master Shinobu. It was only natural that I stood no chance. I was on a different playing field altogether.

I knew that in my head, but my heart just couldn’t concede.

I’m just sick of it all. I don’t care anymore. About any of it.

That was how I ended up drinking alcohol for the first time in my life.

***

Ryuji Enzaki

In a bar in Abrasil, I spilled all the ale I had in my jug onto a man’s face.

“Just how stupid are you?!”

It seemed all of the barbarians that Sakuraba had gathered were nothing but useless pieces of shit. And I knew better than anyone that the most important thing when training these shitheads was to make sure they learned who was in charge. They were no different than dogs, cats, or monkeys. In which case, I didn’t need to hide my irritation at all, and in fact needed to punish them with all my might.

“Since Iijima and Shinozuka are away from their guild, this is our chance! Don’t you remember what your job is?!”

The man whimpered. “To gauge Iijima’s movements from the shadows and report them all to you, sir.”

“That’s right. From the shadows. So what kind of idiot confronts the target directly?!”

“I-I just had a bit too much to drink... I’m sorry.”

This was the first time I’d seen such a useless buffoon. Sakuraba, I told you to gather guys with bad behavior, not bad brains! I’d have to put him in his place at a later date as well.

I sighed heavily, then noticed a familiar girl sitting at the bar. I couldn’t have been sure of how much she’d drunk, but she was slumped over the counter and snoring.

I grinned. “Ah, well. All’s well that ends well. I’ll praise you just this once.”

“H-Huh? What do you mean, sir?”

“Our prey has fallen right into our lap.”

My original target had been this girl called Alice. Iijima and Shinozuka were tough players, but this girl was a native. Her master’s strong point was also his weakness—his sense of justice.

“Kidnap that girl and take her back to base. We’re going to get the drop on Iijima.”

Taking a hostage was a template tactic, but orthodox methods were effective for a reason.

Now then... How should I bully that little brat? Rather than torturing Iijima directly, deflowering Shinozuka in front of his eyes may be the best option. They’d both die either way. The experience itself was what mattered.

Just imagining Iijima’s face filled with despair was enough to make me smile.

***

Shinobu Iijima

Enzaki called us out to a place deep in the mountains.

The cave that opened up on the rock face had obviously not been formed naturally, as it had a door. Had this been the secret base for bandits, that wouldn’t have been so strange, but this door was an odd royal crimson color.

Before the cave stood over thirty imposing men who worked under Enzaki. They were all fully armored, their malice and intent to fight emanating all the way over to us. Among these burly men was Alice, evidently having been forcefully pulled over with her hands and feet tied up. Her clothes and hair seemed to be in order, so she probably hadn’t been assaulted yet.

At either side of her were two men, each brandishing a large blade, letting me know that one wrong move would result in Alice’s head being cut off.

Enzaki took a step forward. “It’s time for you to pay your taxes, Iijima.”

“Enzaki...” I surveyed the area. “I knew you didn’t like me, but I never imagined you’d go this far.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He didn’t drop his vulgar smile as he licked the knife he had in hand. “Tell me, Iijima. You only have two real options here. Do you know what those are?”

“My options are to either let you all do as you please, or sacrifice Alice by fighting against you, right?”

“That’s it. And I’m aware of the possibility that we’ll all die should you choose the latter, but I’m letting you know now that that won’t happen.” He pointed to the door behind him and began to babble arrogantly. “What do you think this cave is?”

“Is it a base for a guild?”

“We call them Shelters.”

I’d heard that those had been used during the era of player killings. In La Vita Online, enemy guilds could raid your home base, and losing meant your guild’s shared items would be lost as a penalty. By spending a bit of real-life money, you could increase your base’s durability to the point where it would become virtually impregnable.

“I see...” I cocked my head. “You’re gonna run in there if I try to fight back.”

“I’m glad you’re so quick on the uptake. I don’t quite understand how it works myself, but my comrades and I can pass through this door without opening it. You can’t, however, and you can’t destroy it either.”

His grin was joyous, with a hint of derision—the type of expression you’d see on someone who believed they had the absolute upper hand.

“You’re really pitiful, you know that, Enzaki?”

“Pitiful? What are you on about?”

“You called us all the way out here just to lord this over us? You’re so stupid.”

I called out to Alice, who was standing quietly with her limbs bound a distance away.

“Just how long are you going to play along with him, Alice? I get that dealing with these numbers if you’re not a melee class would’ve been hard by yourself, but I’m here now!”

I sucked in a huge breath and ordered Alice with a booming voice.

“Fuck ’em up!”

All it took was Alice spreading her arms out to burst through the chains. The ones around her legs crumbled as she ran forward.

Enzaki was horrified. “What?! Only a level 99 melee specialist should be able to break through those chains!”

That didn’t stop her. She was moving too fast for human eyes. She snuck between the legs of the two men on either side of her, then jumped up with an uppercut both times. A satisfying noise rang out as each of them flew into the air.

Alice then ran amok on the battlefield. One man, two men, three men. A pause, then another man.

“How is she so fast?!” screeched Enzaki. “No one told me about this!”

Yet another person would fly every time one of Alice’s limbs swung out, as not a single person could keep pace with her. This was her advantage as a demihuman.

At the end of the day, however, she was still outnumbered. There was a limit to her endurance, and the tides could turn as soon as someone landed a hit on her. Her opponents were level 99, after all. That was probably why she’d let them hold her hostage and had observed the situation without immediately resisting. She’d had the option of fighting back at any time, so she’d either been searching for a chance to escape, or waiting for rescue to come.

At present, though, she was one-sidedly tossing these guys up into the air like a big hurricane, so I firmly believed she could’ve handled this whole situation by herself.

Enzaki was seething. “Iijima... Explain yourself! I thought the brat was a long-range fighter!”

“You must’ve seen the records of Alice fighting with Imabayashi’s guild, then. I admit that Alice isn’t the best at melee combat.”

“But her punches are effective against level 99 melee classes! She was only supposed to deal this much damage from far away, since she’s only level 30 or so. She’s supposed to be useless in melee fights!”

God, this guy was stupid. If he’d really wanted to go after Alice, the first thing he should’ve done was thorough research on her. His information was so outdated it was ridiculous.

“That’s old news, Enzaki. Didn’t you know that we’ve been leveling up our members for the upcoming Agartha dungeon?”

“Yes. There were only a few of you and some backups.”

“Alice may not be part of the dungeon team itself, but she wanted to get stronger, and we’re going to leave the Adventurer’s Guild to her in the future. Kaori’s been training her and knows that Alice is my comrade. Do you understand what I’m getting at?”

“I-It can’t be...”

As terrified as he looked, he was only getting his just deserts. He’d stepped on the tiger’s tail of his own volition, so I had no sympathy for him.

I watched Alice punch another guy up into the air. “You all have been treating the natives like pets up until now.” I took a deep breath. “But you underestimate them far too much.”

Enzaki’s soul had long since vacated him. He just stood there popping his lips open and closed in shock.

Alice had taken care of about fifteen of the men by that point.

One of Enzaki’s underlings was halfway screaming. “Iijima and Shinozuka are right there! What the hell are we supposed to do if we can’t even win against this runt?!”

It seemed they finally understood that their hostage had not really been a hostage, meaning that their chances of winning were nonexistent. And now that the battlefield was crumbling before them, their next natural choice was to escape.

“R-Run, run, run!”

“Get into the Shelter!”

“We’re all gonna die!”

They all ran toward the cave door in unison.

Enzaki had lost all sense of decency and was running at the helm. “Out of my way! This is my Shelter! I’m going in first!”

I probably could’ve suppressed a lot of them before they reached the gate, but they’d been in a formation anticipating escape from the beginning. I wouldn’t be able to capture all of them, so it would be more efficient to let them run into the Shelter, then round them up all at once afterward.

As Enzaki had said, the men could phase through the door. I could hear Enzaki himself cackling from inside. “Ha ha ha! Maybe I couldn’t manage a complete victory, but I still won in the end!” His laugh was forty percent superiority and sixty percent a challenge. He thought he’d won, but things wouldn’t work out for him that easily. “Ha ha ha! Ha ha hah! There’s nothing you can do now!”

I shook my head. “As always, your information is outdated, Enzaki.”

“Is that your final lament, Iijima?! No one can break this door and get inside!”

“That was the case before Agartha.”

I hadn’t chased after any of these men specifically because there was a person here who could obliterate that door. This person would require the strength to break through the door’s endurance with a single hit. A “single hit” was the focal point here. If they couldn’t overcome it with that, the door would rebuild its endurance gauge in an instant. This setting was implemented because it was originally used with the intention of giving players higher scores based on the damage dealt. In cases where the user would be raiding an enemy guild’s base, they’d have to use this skill only when the enemy was watching. The devs had to have the whales spend a pretty penny for cases like this. They needed them to indulge in the feeling of superiority, so the strategy was to leave the damage score challenge to the whales in charge of blowing up the enemy guild’s gates and have them release the maximum amount of super firepower. In the end, though, the players defending against this tactic ended up spending money too, reaching endurance values unexpected to the devs, resulting in bases that couldn’t be broken into.

“Before Agartha? What are you saying...?”

It was about time for me to show him the moment when his impenetrable shield would break.

I looked over at Kaori, who nodded. She breathed deeply and began to wrap herself in fighting spirit. It was as if countless numbers of clear threads were enveloping her, with their waves of energy flowing out. Still taking huge breaths, her eyes lit up and her floating fighting spirit became an explosive energy that covered her sword. The bright flame effect appeared around it.

This was the unique skill we’d entrusted to Kaori, the greatest swordsman. In this world, she was the only one who could use it in battle, albeit only once. It was an invincible move that no one could match.

“A Dance of Light and Shadow!”

A wave of forty-eight strikes that ignored the opponent’s defense occurred in the blink of an eye. Up until this point, the highest number of consecutive strikes from a skill was fifteen. This skill was obviously a result of inflation trending upward in the game, despite how utterly broken it was. It dealt three times as much damage as the highest recorded for a swordsman, so it went without saying that one’s common sense when it came to regular skills wouldn’t apply anymore.

The gate to the Shelter broke away, as it should have, into specks of light and disappeared.

I called out to Kaori. “It was so fast I couldn’t see it. What number did it break at?”

She called back. “It broke on the forty-third strike.”

It only barely worked! I hadn’t even factored in the possibility that the door wouldn’t break—I didn’t realize how dire the situation was. I let out a sigh of relief.

The guys inside of the Shelter were looking out at us as if we were monsters.

Enzaki was flat on his ass. “Eek... Eeeeeek!”

He looked like a caterpillar that had lost all of its energy. No one who saw him like this would imagine that he was the emperor of the great La Vita Empire.

I called up my summons: Gabriel, Tsukuyomi, Cerberus, and Amaterasu. With them, Kaori, and Alice, I had the power to take on all four grand guilds at once.

“You understand just how strong we are now, right, Enzaki? Take the hint already.”

Those words made him finally give up on it all, and he hung his head. Though he was accepting his defeat, I wasn’t going to let him off with a slap on the wrist. Especially since, within the cave, I could see a ton of naked elf women strung up.

“I’m sure you know this,” I began. “but this was an unjustified attempted murder. It also appears that your oppression of the natives has been awful too.”

“W-Won’t you go easy on me?” Enzaki pleaded. “Anything but that, please!”

He was fearing the punishment we enacted on players who committed crimes. He knew that he was in for the most heavy punishment we had in store, so despair overtook his face and he started to beg.

The punishment in question was essentially imprisonment, but it was a harsh one. This magic was used in a very famous RPG, where it would turn a human into a bundle of metal and make them invincible to all attacks for a period of time. In turn, they wouldn’t be able to move at all. This was useful because one would be able to observe a new enemy’s attack patterns without dying.

The magic could be learned via a Scroll obtained in the lower floors of Agartha, and anyone could use it, save for pure melee classes that couldn’t use magic at all. Why was this in Agartha? Possibly because it was necessary for the boss on the final floor, but I’d set that aside for the time being.

The important thing to note was that the effects could last up to twenty-four hours if one wanted them to. Since the point of the magic was to allow the user to observe their surroundings, it would put them into a completely frozen state while retaining their consciousness. It’d probably be easiest to understand if you imagined yourself as a statue in a town. Perhaps you’d be able to handle it for one or two hours, but around the twenty-four-hour mark, your emotional state would be in hell.

We already had seventeen criminals doing this, gathered in the basement of the Crimson Moon Brigade’s guild base. Those of us in the dungeon group who’d already finished our leveling were taking turns recasting the spell once a day.

I reasoned with Enzaki. “It won’t be for eternity. It’ll only be for about half a year until we beat the game.”

“Wait... Wait! Please, don’t! Anything but that!”

I raised my palm as I cast him a cold gaze.

“Noooooo!” His voice resounded around the cave, but no one would ever respond to it again.

“Grade 5: Cocytus Zero.”

Ice appeared at the bottom of Enzaki’s feet alongside my words. Like blooming flowers, patterns of ice appeared along his skin, and the ice sculpture began to complete itself. Soon his ice coffin had fully materialized, and Enzaki was encased within it. Had a beautiful girl been in there, perhaps this sculpture would be given an artful title such as The Frozen Sleeping Beauty, but alas.

“What a disgusting block of ice.”

We’d bagged ourselves a lot of evildoers today. When I looked over at the remaining guys, they all whimpered formless noises and their faces warped.

***

Alice

At the entrance of the cave, I watched dumbfounded as Master Shinobu used Cocytus Zero to turn the criminals into ice.

The unique skill that Ms. Kaori used earlier... So that was the ultimate power of the players.

I, myself, had become decently strong, but I’d never be able to pull off anything like Ms. Kaori obliterating that gate.

Forty-eight consecutive strikes. I could only tremble with fear, just like Enzaki, at the overwhelming destructive power. Seeing Ms. Kaori’s incredible firepower in person made me finally understand what Master Shinobu had meant when he’d said he was playing a game, that I was a character in a game world.

At the same time, it finally hit me why he’d chosen Ms. Kaori over me.

I wasn’t a human from the same world as him. I was just one of the many natives of this world. Master Shinobu and Ms. Kaori both told me that I was a human just like them, despite me being from a game world...

But if that were true, then why can Ms. Kaori use such a special skill?

If that were true, then why did Master Shinobu choose Ms. Kaori without even considering me?

Master Shinobu called out to me. “Alice, I won’t scold you since everything turned out all right, but as you know, I’ll be returning to my original world soon. You understand that, right?”

I didn’t respond.

“We’re going to have to part ways. I know you’re strong now, but you can’t let your guard down. You have to be able to hold your own. Please, whatever you do, be cautious.”

That’s just it, Master. We have to part ways, don’t we? That’s set in stone, isn’t it? There’s no option for you to stay in this world with me, is there? I bet you didn’t even consider it. That’s... That’s how...

You’re going to leave me behind, aren’t you?

That’s it, isn’t it? I’m just another character living in a game world. You don’t care about me at all, do you? That’s why Ms. Kaori is so much better.

Then why did you even bother saving me in the first place?

Why did you save me when I was on the brink of death?!

Why have you been so kind to me all this time?!

He saved me and made me fall for him all by his whims... What a horrible man.

A cold sweat ran down my back. What was I thinking?

Master Shinobu hadn’t done anything wrong. I’d known that this whole time. I was the one who’d fallen for him. It was all on me.

I couldn’t keep doing this. I’d break eventually. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop the negative emotions from flowing out of my heart.

I was so upset that I just wished the whole world would end.

***

A week passed after that.

I declined continuing the vacation, saying that I wasn’t feeling well. I spent my days holed up in my room in Izanach, Master Shinobu’s home base.

Ms. Tsukuyomi had said, “If Alice isn’t going to be here, then wouldn’t you prefer to be alone with Ms. Kaori, Shinobu?”

Master Shinobu had wanted to spend his remaining time with his summons, but those ladies had their own ideas of what would make their master the happiest. They decided to pull back and not get in his way. The master could’ve ordered them to stay by his side, but he wasn’t the type to do that. He had to reluctantly accept their decision, since Ms. Tsukuyomi added that they were also worried about me.

Master Shinobu and Ms. Kaori were probably having fun right about now. My chest tightened in pain at just the thought of it, feeling like someone was stabbing me with sharp nails.

I sighed. “What in the world am I doing...?”

Anxiety, irritability, and self-loathing overtook me like a stroke. I stood up and walked out into the hallway to distract myself from the pain. Even after walking for a while, the only thing I could do was walk forward in a straight line. My steps were uneven, as if representing my heavy inner feelings weighing me down.

Once I reached my destination, I knocked on the door.

Ms. Gabriel appeared from within. She smiled at me as she guessed what I was there for. “I’ll call Tsukuyomi too. Come on in. I don’t know if we can help you, but we’re here for you.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Gabriel.”

“You don’t need to apologize. You’re a fellow member of Izanach.”

***

“We were like family. That alone was enough to make me happy. I was satisfied with just that...”

Those were the words I began with. Ms. Gabriel and Ms. Tsukuyomi didn’t cut in, just listened quietly with docile demeanors.

Envy, sadness, anxiety, despair.

And, of course, envy.

I was simply venting out every bit of emotion that I couldn’t bear to keep inside anymore. It was pretty much the same as me vomiting out everything into a toilet, yet the two of them kept listening.

After I’d spilled everything I could and silence befell the room, Ms. Tsukuyomi opened her mouth.

“We understand, Alice. We feel the same way too, you know?”

I managed to look up at her through the distress. “You two feel the same way...?”

“We’re female characters with our affinity stats at 100 for Shinobu. It would be strange if we didn’t feel anything.”

“Does that mean you two love him?”

Ms. Gabriel nodded. “If we were to translate these parameters to a relationship between a man and a woman, it could only be considered ‘love.’”

“Oh...”

Ms. Tsukuyomi agreed with her.

But if that were true... “Then how are you two fine with this? Don’t your hearts hurt? How can you stay so calm?!”

I was raising my voice before I knew it. I could tell it was getting hoarse. I had no other option, though. I’d been worrying by myself that whole time, unable to remove myself from the equation. The only thing I could do was lash out.

“We accept Master Shinobu’s decision,” Gabriel answered.

“But why?”

“The point of our existence is to support the players. That’s why we were created.”

Ms. Tsukuyomi stared up at the ceiling, a bit sadly. “It sucks, but we’re Shinobu’s shadows. We take his orders and live for him. That’s our duty, as well as our happiness. We were set to be this way.”

So these two had long accepted being game characters...? But if that were the case, then why was I feeling this way, when I was also just a character?

Ms. Tsukuyomi’s smile was ephemeral. “Humans sleep, wake up, and eat without being told to do so, right? They want to sleep when they’re tired, and are happy when they get to eat something good. For us, doing things for Shinobu is the same as that. It’s completely natural.”

Ms. Gabriel continued that train of thought. “If we acted out because of our envy of Ms. Kaori, that would cause trouble for Master Shinobu. Our emotional controls would most likely kick in before that happens.”

Then why didn’t that happen for me?

“It’s different for you.” Ms. Tsukuyomi guessed at my doubts. “You consider yourself to be just a game character, but that’s just your misunderstanding.”

I furrowed my brow. “How so?”

“Our loyalty stats, our battle system—most of our components are built into the game’s system. That’s why we fit so strongly into the category of ‘game characters.’” She took a pause that clearly indicated a caveat. “But it’s different for you. I’m sure you thought of him as a selfish person, to the point where your heart tore itself to shreds and you couldn’t take it anymore. Didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry...” I bit my lip. “Master Shinobu did nothing wrong, yet I thought of him that way.”

“You don’t need to apologize. This is proof that you’re human. I asked you that question in order to pull out this answer.”

I blinked at her in confusion.

“As you said, Shinobu didn’t intentionally play with your feelings or anything of the sort. He pulled you up from the brink of death, treated you as his own family, and even granted your wish of wanting to become stronger. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes, that’s all true.”

“You consider that very same man to be selfish and criticize him for it. This is also correct?”

“Yes.”

Ms. Tsukuyomi smiled at me. “Then you’re perfectly human, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Because Shinobu, who treated you with godlike kindness, made another woman his lover, you became wrought with absurd envy and disparaged him for being selfish. A being such as you...”

Though she sounded exasperated, she was also incredibly kind. Just as her name meant, Ms. Tsukuyomi was a goddess that softly lit up the night.

“...could only be described as human.”

Her words shot through my heart.

Thinking about it, she was absolutely correct. An obnoxious being such as myself couldn’t be anything other than human. I’d hated myself for being a mere game character, but wasn’t that just an excuse?

I still had something to ask. “Do you know what the trigger was for Master Shinobu and Ms. Kaori to start dating?”

Ms. Tsukuyomi and Ms. Gabriel exchanged glances, their eyes both widening up in surprise. “Did you not know, Alice? Ms. Kaori was advancing so hard onto Shinobu that it was giving us secondhand embarrassment.”

Ms. Gabriel made a gesture with her hand. “I believe it would be best to describe the situation as the master having been beaten down.”

“Ha ha ha...” Dry laughter spilled from my lungs. So that really had been how things had happened. “This is just a what-if, but had I done the same thing to Master Shinobu before he’d met Ms. Kaori, how do you think that would’ve turned out?”

“The master doesn’t have a preference for young girls, so I don’t think it would have worked. But what do you think, Tsukuyomi?”

The black-haired goddess pondered it. “Hmm... I feel like he’d say, ‘I’ll give it some thought once you become an adult.’”

“I agree, he would say something like that. Though, even if he did, based on his personality, I find it hard to believe he’d suddenly change his mind just because Alice came of age...”

Ms. Gabriel then gasped and stopped talking, as if she’d realized something.

No, it’s fine, Ms. Gabriel. You don’t have to tiptoe around me.

I see, so I once had a chance too. I’d met Master Shinobu before Ms. Kaori, and even had an advantage over her. I didn’t take that chance, took my position as his family for granted, and didn’t tell him what I really wanted. It’s all my fault.

From the beginning, it had nothing to do with being a character in a game. I hadn’t even tried to fight on this battlefield, so of course...

I lost.

That’s all that happened.

Ms. Tsukuyomi brushed her fingers through her hair. “We’ll lend you our chests just for today, since you can’t lean on Shinobu for help in this case. We may only understand a fraction of what you’re going through, but it’s understanding nonetheless.”

I had my opinions on the two women in front of me smiling so kindly. Ms. Gabriel? Ms. Tsukuyomi? If you ask me, aren’t you two also confusing yourselves with mere game characters? You two sat here and listened to such an annoying child’s complaints, and even comforted me with so much warmth. How could you be anything else but human?

Violence.

Anger.

Envy.

Hatred.

What Imabayashi and Enzaki embodied.

Then, love.

Kindness.

Gratitude.

Hope.

What Master Shinobu and you two embody.

Right and wrong, justice and evil... These extreme emotions that only humans can have. If we have them, then...

Yes, I get it. I finally understand everything.

What I’m feeling right now is nothing but pure gratitude.

I’m so glad I met these people.

The sight of the two beautiful women in front of me made something hot rile up in my chest. The impulse that flowed from there made my blood pump through my body, swelling with energy.

Ms. Tsukuyomi gave a devilish grin. “Seems she’s regained herself.”

“I’m sure she’s had things she’s wanted to say.”

“I’d thought she’d grown up quite a bit since we first met her, yet she’s still such a child. Her breasts and height haven’t grown at all, though, so perhaps those should’ve been our first clues.”

Ms. Gabriel giggled. “Don’t call her a child, call her a girl.”

Since they’d begun joking with each other, something really must have changed on my face.

“I’ve decided,” I said. “I’m...going to put an end to all this. I’m going to tell Master Shinobu exactly how I feel when he gets home.”

Thinking about it, ever since I’d met him, I’d been wholly influenced by everything he did.

I’d become strong because of him.

I’d met so many people I’d come to love because of him.

And now, even these emotions of love and gratitude swirling in my chest had been given to me by him.

The main character of the story within me had always been Master Shinobu. I’d always, always followed him blindly, going with the flow, only chasing after his back.

Everything had been given to me. I’d never won even a single thing on my own.

I couldn’t stand that fact anymore. That was why I’d lost to Ms. Kaori.

“Alice?” Ms. Tsukuyomi brought me back to reality. “Even if you tell him your feelings, all it’s going to do is cause him more trouble.”

“That’s right,” Ms. Gabriel chimed in. “Perhaps you’re only being self-indulgent here. It’s selfish. But that’s just fine, because...” She grinned. “Children are supposed to be selfish.”

The answer I’d arrived at was my own. I’d thought of it and decided on it all by myself.

If nothing else, I was going to achieve a victory or a loss for the feelings in my heart. I’d never forgive myself if I just half-heartedly accepted defeat without even trying.

It’s time. Let’s put an end to this love.

So that I can start walking my own path. No... This story is mine and mine alone. It’s time for me to steal back the position of main character from that person.

***

The towers of the Heavenly Palace Izanach stood tall at the four edges of this floating island. I gazed out at the scenery from the stone garden at the northern station. At this height, I could see the round stars meeting the horizon. No human could survive at this altitude without the aid of magic and status effects due to the air pressure.

Above us, the pitch-black sky and the stars were spreading out, but that wasn’t necessarily because it was night. As proof, when I turned to the surface of the earth, I could see that the sea was blue, the clouds were white, and the land glowed green. This view, where light and darkness were starkly contrasting, could be seen precisely because of the high altitude.

Just one look at this planet, and you could tell that it was spherical. It reminded me that once upon a time, I’d had no idea that the world was round. Back then, I’d been surprised at each and every thing that Master Shinobu had done. Remembering when I’d first met him made me so nostalgic that tears almost welled up in my eyes.

“Why’d you call me out here so suddenly?”

“Because we’re going to have to say goodbye soon. I decided to tell you exactly how I feel.”

I tried to make my voice as prominent as possible. That difference was enough to make Master Shinobu waver.

“You seem to be feeling better,” he noted.

“Yes, all thanks to my wonderful older sisters.”

“That’s good. So what did you want to tell me?”

Far off, shooting stars ran through the sky. They cut across the deep darkness, their trains of light shining in space. Another one ran between the two moons. The place we were in was far, far above the earth, so every shooting star appeared far larger than the usual ones. What began as a single shooting star increased one by one, and eventually, one side of the sky was dyed with long tails of silver, like magic.

“Wow! This is amazing, Master!”

“It really is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.”

“Huh? But didn’t you see a bunch of pretty sights while on vacation with Ms. Kaori?”

“Sure, yeah, but nothing like this.”

“Heh heh heh!” I couldn’t help but giggle.

“What’s up?”

I wasn’t so foolish that I’d blurt out, “Then I took your first!” but I was still happy about it.

Ah... I really do love him.

We weren’t even seeing this gorgeous sight together as lovers, and yet my heart was still fluttering pointlessly.

“Hey, Master Shinobu? Can I be a little bit selfish right now?”

“Want me to do something for you? I’ll do what I can.”

You’ll do what you can, huh? It’s hard hearing that, since what I really want is impossible for you to grant.

No, wait, Alice! Don’t think about that! Today you’re here to let it all out!

I told myself that, then clenched my fist tight and steeled myself once more.

“Master Shinobu. Remember the first thing we ever did together? We...defeated that Sky Dragon, right?”

“Hmm...” He put his hand to his chin. “I guess?”

You guess? It’s the truth! It has to be true, since I remember every single memory I’ve ever made with you and treasure them more than anyone else!

I fidgeted. “Er, well, speaking of dragons, could you let me ride Bahamut with you? I’ve always dreamed of riding a dragon, ever since I was little.”

“On the back of a dragon, yeah? Actually, I’ve never done that either. I’m pretty sure I also dreamed of it as a kid.”

“Then, please! Let’s do it!”

“Sure,” he chuckled, then lifted his palm. “Grade 5 Summon: Flame Emperor Bahamut.”

The area was filled with light, and when it cleared, a gigantic dragon was enshrined there. Its scales glimmered vermilion, like shining jewels. It spread its huge wings and motioned for us to climb onto its back.

“If this were back when we first met, you probably wouldn’t have been able to jump up there, but you can do it now, right?” Master Shinobu was looking somewhere far off.

“Um... Can I ask another selfish request?”

“Go ahead. What’s up?”

“Uh, well... Er... I... I want you to carry me like a princess.”

He started to laugh, probably thinking I was joking. “Ha ha ha! Okay, I don’t mind. Why that, though?”

“We’re going to part ways for good soon. I want you to spoil me today!”

As I puffed out my cheeks, Master Shinobu plopped his hand onto my head and patted me. “Gotcha. If Gabriel and Tsukuyomi are your older sisters, then I’m like your older brother, right? I’ll let you be as selfish as you want today. Now, let’s go, Princess!”

He then scooped me up and kindly held me like a true princess. He placed himself in front, with me behind him. I circled my arms around him so I wouldn’t fall.

Bahamut lightly lifted himself into the air. After a while, the floating island faded into the distance. That’s when I knew it was time.

“Um... Master Shinobu?”

I threw out my words in fear, searching for his response.

“Hm? Yeah?”

“I told you I called you out here to tell you how I feel, right?”

“Oh, right. You did. What exactly did you mean by that?”

“I... Well, I—”

As soon as I shouted “love you,” a huge pressure hit me from behind. The fierce gust of wind flipped my hair up, and the wind pressure slammed against my face, making me feel like I was trying to be pushed off.

Bahamut had started flapping his wings to speed up.

My master laughed. “Oh, wow! It’s like a roller coaster! I think Bahamut’s excited since this is his first time flying through the stratosphere!”

“Um, Master Shinobu!” I yelled with all my might.

“Huh? What was that? I can’t hear you!”

I was a cat-type demihuman, so I had superior hearing. I could barely hear what he was saying, but he couldn’t hear me at all.

He can’t hear me, but I can hear him...

I could only give a dry laugh at the irony. I’d mustered up my courage to tell him, yet this had to happen. But maybe it was for the best.

As a comrade in battle, as a potential lover... I’d only half-assed everything. This might’ve suited me.

But you know what, Master Shinobu?

One day, when I’m all grown up, I’m going to be way more of a wonderful woman than even Ms. Kaori. If we ever meet again, I’ll have become so beautiful that your old man self will be utterly shocked.

Though, I can’t deny that it’s unthinkable right now.

I knew there was no point in doing it, but I had no choice but to. I was going to take advantage of the fact that he couldn’t hear me to throw all of my feelings at him.

I inhaled with everything I had. “Thank you very much for saving me from the brink of death in that slave market!”

No response.

Could he really not hear me when I was shouting so loudly? With how unbelievably strong the wind was, and with how thin the air was, he certainly couldn’t.

I took an even deeper breath and threw another ball of words at him. “I couldn’t even use Grade 1 magic when you first picked me up. Thank you for helping me get so much stronger!”

Of course, he had no answer for me. He wouldn’t even turn around.

But that was just fine. I was one-sidedly putting an end to it all, to relieve only myself. This was how it should be.

“Thank you very much for letting me meet Ms. Gabriel, Ms. Tsukuyomi, Mr. Cerberus, and everyone in Izanach!”

“Thank you for letting me eat so many delicious things!”

“Thank you for showing me so many beautiful sights!”

“And thank you for taking me to so many different places! It... It was all...so, so much fun!”

My words of gratitude wouldn’t stop, couldn’t stop. These were my true thoughts that I’d always had. Even if I used ten thousand words, it wouldn’t be nearly enough to express my thanks to Master Shinobu.

But it was time to end it. I had to. My next words would be my last.

Within the errant blasts of wind, my voice wouldn’t reach my master. But even so, I was going to face his big, big back, and throw everything I had at him!

“I... I love you, Master Shinobu! Um... Er... I... It’s not the same kind of love as for a friend or family. It’s... It’s... It means I—”

My voice was at its limit. At its most powerful, at its most open, at its most straightforward, aimed right at your back with every emotion I had.

“I’m in love with you!”

It was over.

I’d done it. There was nothing else to be said.

It was a bit lonely, but more than that, mysterious feelings of exhilaration and accomplishment filled my chest.

Yet against my will, tears fell.

These tears weren’t ones made of envy and pain like they were before.

They were tears necessary for me to move forward. They were tears of farewell between my days as a young girl, and a rite of passage for my progression into an adult.

I was able to become this happy because I met you, Master Shinobu!

And so, my first love ended quietly, without him ever knowing.

Chapter 3: The Final Floor

Shinobu Iijima

Half a year passed after the battle with Enzaki.

We finished cleaning up the issues with the natives’ power institutions. The overthrow of the La Vita Empire became our final task to deal with.

It was a huge ordeal. We had an uprising that began in the agricultural communities and spread to the city, followed by the palace surrendering without putting up any resistance. We ended up imprisoning a lot of people, mostly nobles, but those guys had been conducting evildoings since they’d arrived in this world, so we had no sympathy for them.

No casualties arose as a result, causing the whole incident to be called a bloodless revolution, rather than just a bloodless surrender. That meant that we’d managed to clean up this power transfer perfectly, without any kinks leftover.

Having finished taking care of the aftermath of this world, the only things left for us to accomplish were beating the game and going back home to Japan. We’d finished preparing everything, including leveling and the like, so our sole task was to challenge the final boss.

***

With that, we found ourselves on the final floor of Agartha. We’d set up a base camp outside of the cave that served as the final boss’s lair, and were holding one last meeting before our attack.

In front of the huge tent sat a blackboard. There might have been no whiteboards or dry-erase markers in this world, but these blackboards and chalk were readily available. We’d organized desks and chairs in front of said board, so I probably wasn’t the only one feeling nostalgic for my high school days.

After handing out papers to all of us, our teacher—I mean, the leader of our group, Mr. Kagura, instructed us.

“I’m sure you all have gone over our plan a million times by now, but we’re gonna do one last check.”

The sheepskin papers in our hands served as the resume for the final boss. How’d we get this information? To put it simply, Mr. Kagura obtained it all by himself.

The boss was supposed to be challenged by ten players, but that was just the maximum number allowed; one person could very well enter alone if they wanted to. Furthermore, once the time limit of ten minutes passed, the players inside would automatically be transported back to the entrance of the lair. We had Cocytus Zero, the spell that was perfect for observing enemy movements, and Mr. Kagura’s class was a Ninja Master, which meant he specialized in undercover actions. According to him, with all of these factors lined up, it would be stupid of us not to get some recon done on the final boss.

Frankly, I hadn’t been the only one who’d been utterly horrified by his suggestion.

Sir, you know that the unthinkable could happen in that lair while you’re in there, right?

There could’ve been instadeath traps, or some other mechanism that could kill one of us on sight no matter how well we thought we’d prepared. No one could say that his plan was one hundred percent safe. In fact, it was probably better to think that one’s chance of dying was higher in this case, yet Mr. Kagura had decided and executed his plan all the same.

While Imabayashi had still been alive, Mr. Kagura had apparently been the first person to volunteer to throw himself into danger when they first began working through Agartha. And during the era of player killings, he’d taken the initiative to launch attacks on the more dangerous players by himself. Hearing these stories made me understand his infamy as a “death seeker” all too well.

“Saito!” he shouted. “Read out the attack patterns for this floor’s boss, the God of Space-time: Chronos!”

“Y-Yes sir!”

Saito began reading out the following:

Meteor Shower Inferno: A shooting star-type AoE magic. Chronos will lock on and rain bullets down on us. *Once you’re in range, you can’t escape.

Chrono Shock Wave: A wave of fighting spirit with physical attack properties will be emitted from Chronos. *Once you’re in range, you can’t escape.

Death Scythe: An instadeath attack by Chronos using its giant scythe. It’s able to use it once every thirty seconds. *If it lands this hit on you, there’s an eighty-five percent chance of death. It cuts through any and all instadeath preventive moves.

Time Cutoff: After the battle begins, Chronos is immune to all attacks for a set period of time. The players, however, can take damage.

Chrono-Timer: Level Drain: Chronos uses this attack once every minute. Everyone on the field’s level goes down by 20 at each interval. It’s only a field debuff, so once you escape or exit the field after defeating Chronos, your level will return to normal. Chronos’s level will also go down, but only by 15 per interval.

This was the information Mr. Kagura’s Eye of Judgment bagged us, and was about the best we could obtain at present. Mr. Kagura also claimed that there wouldn’t be much point to only gathering information the one time, so he went into the boss’s lair about ten times to get all this. That’s why he was sure that the attack patterns written on these sheets were the only ones.

Instadeath moves and level lowering... I’d learned this information a while back, but even now, looking at it made my head hurt.

Mr. Kagura continued his lecture. “The enemy has about 450,000 HP, give or take 5,000. It has high defense, so we might as well say that only moves that ignore defense will work for melee attacks. It also has high magic resistance, so don’t go thinking normal attack magic will work.”

He’d managed to glean that information by actually attacking Chronos and seeing how much its HP bar went down. This enemy was intended to be challenged by ten players. The fact that Mr. Kagura not only removed Cocytus Zero and actually attacked this instadeath boss, but also attempted consecutive melee attacks on it was incredible in itself.

I should mention—Cocytus Zero wouldn’t be effective against the level drain move. It worked like a field debuff, so it would affect Cocytus Zero too, even though that spell could negate enemy attacks. So while Mr. Kagura had been using it, his level had progressively gone down and had reached 1 by the seven-minute mark.

“Chronos’s most annoying skill is Chrono-Timer,” he said. “My level hit 1 at around seven minutes. Nakabayashi, tell us what our best move will be, knowing this.”

“It’s for us to fully support Shinozuka, who has the strongest consecutive hit skill that ignores defense, as well as Iijima, who’s a summoner!”

“What will we be doing specifically?”

“We will be fighting defensively until Chronos’s absolute defense barrier Time Cutoff is lifted!”

“And after that?”

“As soon as the defense barrier lifts, we’ll have Shinozuka throw her big skill at Chronos as soon as possible, while she’s still high-level, then the rest of us will switch to defending Iijima. After that, the plan is to drown the boss in a barrage of attacks by Iijima’s summons once the time is right.”

The important thing to remember here was that everyone on the field, including Chronos, would be constantly going down in level. Players down 20, Chronos down 15 at a time, so the longer the battle dragged out, the more favorable the circumstances would be for Chronos. However, at the end of the day, the level drain was just a field debuff, so my summons wouldn’t be affected until they were actually deployed. It made sense, since they wouldn’t be physically on the field until then.

That was the main reason I had been chosen to be on this team. For events like these, the more players on the team, the fewer summons could be called up. Even if I wanted to summon more after the first few fell, I wouldn’t be able to because of the player limit. Summoners were classes intended for solo play, and their summons were naturally weaker than players of similar classes at the same level. Normally, I wouldn’t even have been considered for a boss team like this, but in this case, I was the team’s trump card.

Mr. Kagura wrote out our plan in detail on the blackboard:

Ride out Chronos’s invincibility period by strengthening our defenses.

Have Kaori Shinozuka use her skill while she’s still at the highest level possible.

After that, we’ll hold out for the long haul for as long as we can, and I’ll bring out my summons at the right time. At the very least, I’ll wait until we hit the five minute mark to bring out my level 125 summons, when Chronos will be level 35.

That level gap should be enough for us to take Chronos down all at once.

Mr. Kagura slammed his chalk down with a thunk. “No one has any problems with this method, I take it?”

In addition to him having been the one to risk his life to get us this information, there were also no holes in his strategy. It’d be weirder for someone to dare to take issue with it.

“The guy uses instadeath moves. I hate to state the obvious, but some of us are going to die tomorrow. We formulated this plan based on the announcement saying that we’ll be revived and sent home to Japan as long as some of us beat the boss.”

His words made us all gulp. We didn’t know how much we could trust these system announcements, but once we started doubting them, we’d have to doubt the entire premise of having to beat the game in the first place. Our only option was to trust it. Unfortunately, this situation itself was halfway a gamble, so everyone here was feeling anxious. But even so, we’d have to launch our attacks soon, or else we’d hit the time limit and every single player would die.

“That’s it for today, then,” Mr. Kagura drawled. “Be sure to psych yourselves up before tomorrow.”

***

That night, in an open grassy area near our base camp, Mr. Kagura and I were gazing at our bonfire. He’d called me out to talk about something, but I didn’t have any idea what.

He softly lifted his cigar to his lips. Him lighting it directly from the bonfire was really aesthetic.

I broke the silence. “I’ve been wondering this, but why do you have a handgun equipped, sir?”

He always donned camouflage gear with a gun holstered to his back. Of course he had high-level game weapons like assassin daggers too, but handguns weren’t particularly good for super long-distance assaults. Those kinds of weapons didn’t have any advantages compared to others when you already had godlike power.

Mr. Kagura chuckled. “Think of it like a good luck charm. This has been my basic gear since I was in Japan.”

I almost laughed since I thought he was joking, but I recalled the rumors that he’d worked in the underworld, which killed my laughter immediately. He might not have been joking at all.

As the warmth of the bonfire and the aroma of Mr. Kagura’s cigar wrapped around us, he puffed out smoke with a calm expression on his face.

“Say, Iijima. Ever done drugs?”

“What the hell?! Where’d that come from?!”

He laughed gleefully at my reaction. “You know I’m called the ‘death seeker,’ yeah?”

“Well... Yes. You’re famous for not even taking danger into consideration, ever.”

“There are these drugs called ‘uppers.’ Toeing the line of death gives me the same kinda rush as those. My pupils dilate, my focus is heightened to maximum capacity, and my mind becomes much sharper. It feels like the world goes in slow motion. My heartbeat increases rapidly, to the point where I’m at my most exhilarated.”

I bit my lip. “So?”

“I’m...broken, see? Something traumatic happened to me long ago, and fog’s been clouding my head ever since. Nothing feels real, no matter what I do, so I don’t ever feel like I’m living. I feel bored of everything. I was sick of being alive, point-blank. The only time that fog clears is when I’m fighting for my life.”

I didn’t know how to react. He paid me no mind and kept going.

“There’s a phenomenon called ‘runner’s high.’ Ever ran a marathon?”

“During gym class, sure.”

“You know how some runners take on 42.195 kilometers for fun? Normal people would think doing something so taxing just for kicks is stupid, but the runners have a reason for doing it—it’s because a drug gets released in your brain, and you can get addicted to it. In my case, it’s an extreme version of that. When I was a soldier in France, when I did underworld stuff in Japan, when player killings were happening in this world...and I guess going through Agartha counts too. The fog in my head goes away when I’m on the front lines, and it comes back as soon as I return to daily life.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Another puff of his cigar, and another slow release of his smoke. “After we beat Chronos tomorrow, I’m thinking of choosing to start a new game from level 1.”

My voice caught in my throat. “Huh?”

It was normal for games to have a new game plus after being beaten, so there wasn’t anything strange about that option’s existence in itself.

But...someone actually choosing it? I hadn’t even imagined that as a possibility.

“I can’t live a normal life.” Mr. Kagura was looking somewhere far off. “I’m thinking it might be good for me to fight to the end once more.”

“But you were already a mercenary before, weren’t you? Couldn’t you just do that again once you get back to Japan?”

“Do you think I’m some kind of slaughter machine?” He chewed on the end of his cigar. “It’s because I’m fighting for my life that platitudes won’t work. I have to kill, or I’ll be killed. When the time comes for me to be killed for real, I’ll let it happen without hesitating. But you know what? My enemies have families and lovers too.”

“I’m surprised you’re the type of person to worry about stuff like that.”

“The same went for the guys in my unit. We ate from the same bowls—it was only natural for me to develop feelings for them. I’ll give it to you straight: I don’t want to see my comrades die.”

Him mentioning that made me remember his reasoning for cutting Imabayashi off. Imabayashi had been forcing his underlings into reckless situations, so Mr. Kagura took it upon himself to make his own decision.

“If I really want to toe the line of death, I’d better do it alone. Ha ha ha... I know my fetish is a bothersome one. Even I think I’m unlucky for having it.”

I’d never met someone with such a strange condition. I honestly understood nothing that went on in this man’s head, to the point where I’d intentionally distanced myself from him so that I wouldn’t step in too deep.

But even for someone I couldn’t understand, I realized that he had his own reasons for doing things.

“So.” I cocked my head. “Why are you telling me all this?”

“I think I might be feeling the same thing from you and Mikagami as I feel from myself. That must be why.”

“The same thing from me and Mikagami?”

“Depending on the situation, you won’t hesitate to kill someone if you have to, right?”

“That’s true.”

I’d killed natives—the Three Supreme Sages—before. I’d also run players to the edge of death, albeit in self-defense.

“That doesn’t make you a psychopath.” Mr. Kagura was staring directly into my eyes. “Your worth as a person would drop if you went and killed for fun. Not many people are like that. Think of Shinozuka, for example. She can’t kill anyone. Or even if she managed to, her sword would metaphorically rust from hesitation and her combat abilities would lower significantly.”

“I see. Compared to her, we might really be the same type of person.”

“I’m probably the only player who’ll choose to remain in this world, but it’s not like I don’t feel anything about saying goodbye to Japan for good.”

His next suck on his cigar was a deep, deep one.

People were multifaceted. There was no way to categorize them as good or evil all at once.

This man was reliable as a comrade, but as an enemy he would most likely become a man-eating fiend. Would Mr. Kagura be classified as a good human or a bad one? People changed based on their circumstances and positions, so trying to contemplate it made my head hurt.

The smoke he let out was purple. “Maybe I wanted someone to remember that a guy like me existed. And maybe I wanted that someone to be you, since we share similarities. That’s all.”

This man, who was called the strongest player, saying something like that so sadly, engraved a deep impression on my heart.

***

Inside the cave, a cold wind blew through the deepest part of the final floor. A murky fog flowed along the ground.

We stood in front of the imposing last door, which was made of old stones. An ebony mist that held an intense magic power was seeping out of it, like a vortex of magic. Even for us at the level cap, we had to tremble at the strength of the foe that lay behind it.

Mr. Kagura turned around to look at us. “Everyone ready?”

We all responded with silent nods.

Past the door was a long hallway. Within the dim space, a bluish-white light was shining down from far off. According to Mr. Kagura’s information, that was the open area that Chronos sat in. He’d said there was no need to be wary of traps, but we progressed cautiously nonetheless.

About ten meters out from Chronos’s lair, the voice of a young girl came from behind us.

“Um... Master Shinobu?”

It was that familiar, childlike face. This young girl with cat ears had features that could only be described as beautiful. She was—

“Wha—Alice?! Why are you here?! What about the player limit?!”

I was so astonished that I yelled without intending to. It wouldn’t have been so surprising for Alice to be here if it weren’t for the player limit. Players who’d worked up to the level cap that were fit for the final floor were necessary, after all. We’d tested her in mock battles, sent her on item-gathering missions, and even given her a room in our base camp.

But beyond the door on the final floor was an area with a firm entry limit. The other members of our party were so shocked that they began fretting.

Alice looked so small at the back of the group. “You all are players, but... Um... Well... I was thinking since I’m a native, maybe I won’t count toward the limit!”

I hadn’t expected this, but she definitely had a point. How could I have missed such a simple idea?

That’s when I realized. I’d told Enzaki that he underestimated the natives way too much, but the truth was that all of us had underestimated Alice. We’d only ever considered beating the game with just players, so we hadn’t even thought of bringing her along. That didn’t matter now, though.

“You idiot! Why did you come with us?!”

“I wanted to help you!”

I appreciated her feelings, but the situation didn’t call for them. We were conducting this battle under the presumption that people would die during it. For us players, even if Chronos killed us, we’d be revived and would get to log out as long as someone beat it.

That was not even remotely the case for Alice. The system announcement hadn’t mentioned anything about the natives, which could only mean that if one died here, they’d be dead for good.

“Go back! Right now!”

“I tried, but the door won’t open anymore!”

“God damn it!”

This sudden development was throwing my mind out of whack.

“But, I...” Alice was making her way through the crowd to me. “I really want to help you.”

“I appreciate that, but it’s just too dangerous.”

“Master Shinobu, I haven’t done anything to repay you yet!”

Mr. Kagura then spoke up. “Change of plans. As soon as we get to the lair, we’re all going to cast Cocytus Zero and pull back.”

I latched onto the idea immediately. “Let’s do that.”

“Huh?!” Alice wasn’t having it. “No... Please let me help, Master!”

One member of our group, Mr. Imagawa, could be heard with a breathy voice. “If we can bring natives in here, then why don’t we bring a lot of them? It’ll be less risky for us that way!”

Mr. Kagura shook his head. “No, we only have two weeks before the deadline. At the very least, anyone battling against Chronos needs to be able to handle at least one of its AoE attacks. We don’t have the time to level any more natives up to that point. We can’t use this girl either.”

“Why not?” Alice protested. “He just said it would be less risky for you all if I helped!”

“Iijima won’t cooperate with us if we use you. He’s our trump card, you know.”

Mr. Kagura glared at Mr. Imagawa, whose shoulders drooped. “That’s true. I guess we can’t do anything about this, then.”

At that moment, something unbelievable happened right in front of my eyes.

Above Alice appeared a skeleton wrapped in a jet-black, hooded cape.

A grim reaper had just manifested.

Its scythe had an unparalleled amount of magic power floating around it, giving off the feeling that it would freeze even the breaths of all living beings.

This death god announced something to Alice.

“I shall present you with death.”

I used Eye of Judgment as fast as I could. It told me how despairing this situation was.

Skill: Time-Lock Death Scythe

One of Chronos’s skills. Instigates an instant death attack on the challenger with the lowest magic resistance.

Activates once every minute. Eighty-five percent chance of instant death. Any and all anti-instadeath moves are negated.

The death god’s scythe then came slicing down. The light in Alice’s eyes vanished in a split second.

Unable to hold her own weight anymore, she fell to the ground like a marionette that had its strings cut. Her hair became disheveled, covering half of her face. It was obvious from her expression that the flame of life had been completely snuffed out of her.

“Mr. Kagura! What the hell is this?!” I found myself screaming. “You didn’t tell us it had this skill!”

He gulped. “I’d been alone when doing recon. Seems like its attack pattern changes against multiple targets.”

I understood the logic, but still found it incredibly unfair.

We’d come here because we’d been told that everyone would be revived within twenty-four hours of someone beating this boss. But...

But...

Alice doesn’t have that safety net...at all.

There were ways to revive yourself in this world after your HP hit zero. You’d only be considered temporarily dead before then.

That didn’t count for instadeath moves, however. If we’d been playing a game on a phone, we could press the retry button at a church or our home base, but we couldn’t do that here.

Damn it... I don’t understand anything anymore! I slammed my fist into the ground.

Kaori placed a hand on my shoulder. “Shinobu... Calm yourself. There’s still a way to save her.”

Those words cooled my head down instantly. She was right. There was still...a glimmer of hope.

I forced my voice out. “The... The reward we get for beating the game, right? The ‘most appropriate’ reward that would be prepared for us...”

“Yes. The message said we’d be revived and logged out within twenty-four hours. If that’s true, then the system should have the ability to revive her.”

Mr. Kagura, who was studying his watch, clicked his tongue. “We can’t fall back! We’re gonna have to go for it, Iijima! Chronos is going to come at us every minute. The longer this goes on, the more of a disadvantage we’ll be at! Hurry up!”

We could only challenge this boss once per day. If I wanted to save Alice, I would have to put an end to things today.

I steeled my resolve and ran toward the light—the open area.

We left the hallway Alice had fallen in, and soon, we were completely shut off from the outside world.

The only thing left was to kill or be killed.

Until we defeated the boss, the path home would not open.

***

The space Chronos resided in was wrapped in a strange balance of light and darkness. A chandelier hung from the high ceiling, casting an illusory shine. Giant clocks had been placed on all four sides of the area, their hands ticking nonrhythmically. The sounds of their gears thickly resounded. The floor was paved with large black stones, and on top of them, a huge magic circle was drawn.

Chronos sat on a throne in the center, wrapped in a jet-black robe, occasionally emanating pure darkness. Its robe had a mysterious pattern engraved into it, like it was projecting stars in space.

Above its head was its HP bar, indicating that it was a boss. It looked to be around, say, a meter long? So long as we could whittle that down, we’d win.

When Chronos turned to face us, the magic circle at its feet began to glow.

Activating Chrono-Timer: Level Drain. Player levels will decrease by 20, and Chronos’s level will decrease by 15.

The system announcement rang in our ears. Once our levels hit 105, the battle began.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Our healer immediately got to constructing defensive walls around us. If we couldn’t retreat, our only option was to up our magic resistance. The countless shooting stars blowing around us were only the size of pebbles, but they were innumerable. Our view became akin to that of TV static, and these countless beads stabbed into our skin. As we’d been told, it really was inescapable.

Checking my stats, my HP had taken a gigantic hit. At the same time, several healing green lights began to shine around us, so our main healer, Mr. Tadokoro, was probably hard at work.

Including me, our strike team was composed of six people. For melee damage dealers, we had Kaori and two other swordsmen. We also had one healer and one tank. The tank’s role was to support me and Kaori as a meat shield. Stealth classes could do anything, including healing, via their skills, so Mr. Kagura and one of his subordinates were there for unexpected developments. They’d cast optical camouflage over themselves, so they were in charge of surprise attacks on Chronos, aiming for critical hits.

After all of us, the summons I would bring in would round out our numbers to ten.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

At that moment, the whole space began to rapidly flash between intense light and darkness.

With Chronos in the center, an intense wave of fighting spirit shot out in a circular shape toward the edges of the area. This wave became a wall, hitting all of us without exception. As we were engulfed in it, we were thrown against the back wall at an accelerating speed. I could feel the unholy impact on my back alongside a sense of foreboding.

You’ve gotta be kidding me... It just took out a third of my HP!

The main point of an attack of this caliber was the knock-back effect, its saving grace being that it wasn’t too powerful. And yet, I didn’t feel protected by that grace at all.

The next thing to come at us was a heartless string of system announcements.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Mr. Kagura had warned us about this, but it was even more severe than I’d expected.

Chronos was completely invincible and wouldn’t take any of our attacks, yet it could still rain down a turbulent barrage of attacks onto us.

We managed to get through it somehow with our healer working overtime, but without any replenishments, we were already being obliterated at the very start of the battle.

Too bad for you, though! We made sure to plan for this!

Deactivating Time Cutoff.

Nice! Now our attacks will work on it!

Putting our tank in front, Kaori and the swordsmen struck at Chronos.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

The tank spread his arms to shield the two swordsmen. The reason was obvious—his goal was to get our melees close enough to where their blades would reach.

He ended up thrown over yonder, but thanks to him, the knock-back effect of Shock Wave was heavily reduced. Once he was gone, the two swordsmen reached Chronos and swung at it. They lifted their blades high above their heads and brought them down onto its cranium.

Frozen Blade: an action-suppressing sword skill that we’d predicted would have an effect on this boss. It would’ve been preferable for us to have tested this out before this final battle, but Mr. Kagura wasn’t a swordsman, so we decided to give it a try here and respond accordingly afterward.

As it turned out, the freezing status effect did not affect Chronos. The tides would’ve turned in our favor had it worked, but there was nothing we could do about it now.

Next, Kaori gave out a war cry with everything she had in it.

“Aaaaaaaaargh!”

Her fighting spirit enveloped her. She took deep breaths, her explosive spirit wrapped around her sword, and the shining flame effect appeared on it.

This was her unique skill that we as a group had all entrusted to her, the greatest swordsman. As of that moment, she was the only person in the entire world who could use this invincible move though she could only use it once per battle.

“A Dance of Light and Shadow!”

In the blink of an eye, she released a hail of forty-eight consecutive strikes, ignoring the enemy’s defense stat entirely. Every hit took out a significant chunk of Chronos’s HP bar, until it went all the way down to about twenty percent left.

Once she was finished, Mr. Tadokoro yelled out a “Yeeeeees!”

No wonder this skill could only be used once per battle. We’d used it as a focal point of our strategy, so our morale would’ve gone down significantly had it not worked.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

No sooner than Kaori had executed her move did we all get thrown against the walls.

Activating Chrono-Timer: Level Drain. Player levels will decrease by 20, and Chronos’s level will decrease by 15.

We’d only barely made it. The whole point of having Kaori use her trump card so quickly was so that she could get it done before her level went any further down.

Even after planning for it, the level down announcement was still a bad omen. Our levels had become 85, and Chronos was only brought down to 95. The more that gap widened, the larger our disadvantage would become.

Activating Time-Lock Death Scythe.

The next thing we heard was the number one announcement we didn’t want.

The death god appeared above our tank, and his scream rang out. That meant that we were now down a member.

I hadn’t realized that losing comrades while my summons still hadn’t been deployed would be so disheartening. Every time I’d faced a difficult foe, they’d been right beside me. I could’ve called them right then and there to support me, but I knew I shouldn’t. They were my trump cards, and would have to live up to that title. Our strategy for whittling down Chronos’s HP was to have Kaori land a precise hit at the very beginning of the fight, then after sticking it out for five minutes, I’d bring my summons to the field. At that point, Chronos would be level 35 and my summons would be 125, so we’d be able to put it six feet under just with that difference. This was Mr. Kagura’s formula for unbeatable success.

I could hear him roar out, “It’s do-or-die now!”

Chronos’s AoE attacks burned us in the next moment.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

As it hit us with these fierce attacks, Kaori and the swordsmen struck at it, resolute. Every time they landed a hit, they were blown backward, repeating a tug-of-war of full-on dashes and knock-backs.

Even though their attacks were landing, the damage they dealt was very slight compared to Kaori’s initial forty-eight consecutive hits. That being said, Chronos’s HP bar was slowly but surely going down. Mr. Tadokoro was casting full heal AoE magic all the while, so things were going smoothly for the moment. During this stable period, we could’ve well defeated Chronos had our MP been infinite, but unfortunately, that kind of luck wasn’t on our side.

Activating Chrono-Timer: Level Drain. Player levels will decrease by 20, and Chronos’s level will decrease by 15.

Activating Time-Lock Death Scythe.

The situation changed in an instant. At the same time as the two swordsmen who were aiding Kaori fell, our levels dropped to 65. The boss’s level dropped too, but only by 15 compared to our 20. We hadn’t planned for Chronos’s time-based instadeath move, so our situation was extremely tight.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

At the rate our HP bars were decreasing, Chronos’s AoE attacks were doing more damage to us with the widened level gap now.

Two minutes down... Three to go.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

“Please heal us, Mr. Tadokoro!”

He’d responded to us every time we called out to him, but this time, his healing light didn’t shine, and there was no answer to my request.

“Iijima—I’m out of MP! I can’t use my field heal!”

The time had finally come. The concept of an AoE full heal in itself was almost cheating, so of course its MP cost was unbelievable. It couldn’t be helped that he’d run out since he’d done nothing but cast it since we entered the fray, but it happened way faster than we’d expected. We still have three minutes left until I can bring out my summons, you know?!

“What should we do, Mr. Tadokoro?!”

“I’ll switch to individual heals from here on out, prioritizing you, just as we planned!”

That meant that he’d only be healing me and himself starting that moment, and our melees would be sacrificed...including Kaori.

“Are you sure that’s the only way?!”

“Of course I’m sure! There’s absolutely nothing else I can do!”

So long as we beat this boss, she’d be revived... I knew that in theory, but my heart wouldn’t accept it.

Kaori yelled out. “Don’t worry about me, Shinobu! If we don’t have our tank or healer anymore, then all I can do is accept an honorable defeat. I’ll keep attacking until my life runs out!”

With yet another war cry, Kaori lunged at Chronos.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

She took its attack head-on, yet kept running at it.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Her face twisting in pain, she swung her blade down onto the boss.

One hit, two hits, yet another hit.

Her method was to completely disregard defending and just focus on repeatedly attacking with the most power, at the highest speed possible. Only someone who was prepared to throw their life away could use this fiend-eating god blade.

My impulses were screaming at me to run to her aid, but I bit down on my lip and did everything I could to bear with it.

Wanting to reunite with one’s young children.

Wanting to celebrate one’s anniversary with their beloved wife.

Wanting to reunite with one’s parents.

Wanting to see one’s younger siblings grow up.

Wanting to care for one’s sickly grandmother.

Everyone had their reasons, but they all shared a common point.

We all just wanted to go home to Japan. That single emotion connected us all with a strong bond.

We didn’t know if the announcement that told us that was even real, and we had no way to confirm it. No one knew if we would even die when the time limit was up. We had no idea what would happen.

But if we missed this chance here, how many hundreds, or even thousands of years would it take before we were released? There was no way of knowing if another chance would ever come upon us, no matter how long we waited.

We all know that, which is why we’re here in the first place!

So what should I do?

If this were a relay race, I would’ve been the anchor. Once the baton was in my hands, my duty was to stay alive until the right time came.

I’d steeled my resolve for that, but the scene playing out in front of me was trying to snap my heart in half.

Activating Time-Lock Death Scythe.

Kaori took the Death Scythe as she landed her final hit on Chronos, the light fading from her eyes.

“I leave...the rest to you...”

My heart was breaking, but I couldn’t let Kaori’s sacrifice go to waste. It was my job to give Chronos back everything it’d done to us!

Activating Chrono-Timer: Level Drain. Player levels will decrease by 20, and Chronos’s level will decrease by 15.

Our levels had gone down to 45, and there were still two minutes until our counterattack signal would smolder.

The only ones left were me and our healer, Mr. Tadokoro. Mr. Kagura and his subordinate were supposedly there, but they were invisible, being camouflaged, so there was no telling if they were still alive or not.

Within those two minutes that felt like an eternity, the soulless announcements kept ringing out.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Perhaps it was because of the level gap, but even the attacks that had initially only taken out twenty percent of our HP bars were now taking out thirty to forty percent.

The storms of shooting star gusts and the vortices of fighting spirit. The individual heals that kept coming. Is it not over yet? Just how much more do I have to endure?!

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Mr. Tadokoro’s MP had evidently reached its limit. He shook his head.

“This is...my final heal, Iijima.”

His palm glowed green, and my body was wrapped in a kind light.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Time-lock Death Scythe.

Activating Chrono-Timer: Level Drain. Player levels will decrease by 20, and Chronos’s level will decrease by 15.

Mr. Tadokoro took the grim reaper’s scythe head-on, and he fell to his knees.

All that was left was me, at level 25.

Technically, Mr. Kagura and his subordinate were still camouflaged somewhere, but only healer classes could use AoE full heals. So long as that had run out far faster than we’d anticipated, our two stealth classes could’ve already died, having had no way of escaping from Chronos’s Shock Waves.

I didn’t have the time to worry about that anymore, though. I had to focus on healing myself repeatedly and surviving the final minute, making do with what HP and MP I had left.

I checked my current stats.

Level25 / 125

HP582 / 382

MP6,213 / 740

Even though my level had been decreasing, my stats themselves remained the same, going past the decreasing max values. My HP had taken its final heal at around level 45 so it was 582, but my MP was far past its max value, overflowing by over 5,000. Since it was only an overflow, once it dipped past 740, I’d only be able to recover it up to that much. The good thing was that thanks to me saving my MP up until that point, I’d be able to use recovery magic with my level 125 MP value. Unfortunately, my level gap with Chronos was no laughing matter by then, with me at 25 and it at 45. Would I really be able to make it through its next attacks all by myself?

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Activating Chrono Shock Wave.

Activating Meteor Shower Inferno.

Those attacks took out about half of my HP. I kept using full heal magic after every one, so my MP was being reduced at an absurd rate. I had about 5,100 MP left, so not even twenty percent down. If that kept up, I’d be able to hold out, but...

In this final minute, Chronos’s instadeath attack would activate once. Would I be able to make it through an instadeath move alongside another level drain? The rate was eighty-five percent—way too risky with my life on the line. And up to that point, every single one of the Death Scythes had landed. Every minute, someone else had died.

Activating Time-Lock Death Scythe.

Activating Chrono-Timer: Level Drain. Player levels will decrease by 20, and Chronos’s level will decrease by 15.

Here it comes...!

If I made it through this, I’d be able to bring out my summons and commence my counterattack. I didn’t feel like I could, though.

Right as cold sweat ran down my back, the grim reaper appeared in my field of view.

“Huh?”

It had appeared on the other side of the ring. Beneath it, two blurry shadows began to manifest. At first, they were translucent like air, but their outlines slowly materialized. Was this the stealth class’s optical camouflage?

Mr. Kagura and his subordinate, who was being haunted by the death god, had appeared.

“Wh-What the hell? How did you two survive those AoE attacks?!” I screeched.

“I told you that Muraoka and I were going to prepare for unexpected events. Ever since Chronos surprised us with its time-based instadeath move, we knew that the most important thing for us to do was get that move away from you. We’ve been focusing on our own survival since the beginning, so that we could be targets instead of you.”

That’s when I noticed that near them were the dead bodies of our tank and the two swordsmen. Had Mr. Kagura and his subordinate been using their bodies as shields against the AoE attacks? Ninja classes were almighty. They could do almost anything, so even though they didn’t have full heal abilities, they still had powerful healing skills at their disposal. Come to think of it, when Kaori had used her trump card at the start, our tank had been a useful meat shield. So maybe that’s where they’d gotten the idea? And it somehow worked? Looking closely, Mr. Kagura and his subordinate were wearing different armor than before as well. Time-Lock Death Scythe targeted the enemy with the lowest magic resistance first, so they’d probably changed their armor so they’d get targeted first. Mr. Tadokoro’s equipment had been optimized for MP, ignoring magic resistance entirely, so our stealth classes had made it to where I’d be targeted last.

They had to have come up with this plan only after the moment Alice had died, right? So they were telling me that from that very instant, they’d foreseen this entire battle, prepared this strategy, changed their armor in the midst of instadeath moves and the storms of AoE attacks that dealt horrifying amounts of damage, and even changed their methods to use our tank’s body as a shield?

That’s not in the realm of just “responding to unexpected events”!

Dry laughter fell from my lungs. I shouldn’t have expected any less, Mr. Kagura. No wonder you’re called the strongest player.

This wasn’t the time to be impressed, though. Thanks to him, I’d evaded instant death.

I had a job to do.

The preparations are all complete! Come on out!

“Grade 6 Summon: Reign down! Seraph Gabriel!”

Gabriel, donning her iconic maid uniform and shining silver wings, appeared. With her blue eyes deeper than the depths of the sea and her lips dyed crimson, she declared:

“Wonderful work making it this far, Master Shinobu. Please leave the rest to us from here.”

I’d just seen her earlier that day, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was reuniting with an old family member after years and years.

Ah... I’ve missed you so bad, Gabriel!

Everyone else, you come on out too!

Tsukuyomi, Cerberus, and Amaterasu!

My trump cards popped out one after the other, each with a flash of light, and they all glared down at Chronos.

This signals our counterattack!

Reuniting with my trusty comrades made me smile out of relief without realizing it.

***

Gabriel struck first and, as a melee specialist, it was insanely easy for her to pummel Chronos with both fists.

Straight right.

Middle kick.

Left hook.

Front kick.

A spin, then a back blow.

My own level had gone all the way down to 5, but that meant Chronos itself was now sitting at level 35. My summons, however, remained at 125—and that made all the difference.

Chronos couldn’t keep up with the ungodly quick succession of hits, and its HP was getting blown away comically fast.

Time-Lock Death Scythe would summon a grim reaper with a scythe for a midrange attack, but apart from that, Chronos had its own scythe. But even its move that used it up close for an instadeath strike was easily dodged by Gabriel in swift motions, one after the other.

But the boss still had its time-based instadeath move, and its next target would probably be Mr. Kagura, followed by me, so we had to deplete its HP within the next two minutes. We might have had the vast upper hand by that point and most likely wouldn’t need two whole minutes, but we couldn’t let our guards down. The only thing we needed to focus on was defeating Chronos as fast as possible.

Gabriel’s attacks only accelerated. Though she wasn’t as powerful as Kaori had been earlier, she was still able to overwhelm Chronos without having to guard.

W-Wait a second... She really isn’t guarding or retreating at all!

She took another Death Scythe head-on, then grinned. “Kuroinu! Make yourself useful!”

“Understood!”

Cerberus, our tank, took one of Chronos’s attacks in Gabriel’s stead. He collapsed on the spot. This fit perfectly into our battle strategy—rather than have him fight alongside Gabriel, it was more efficient to let Gabriel’s ungodly speed do all the work without her having to worry about anything else.

“Haaaaaah!”

Gabriel’s war cries were coupled with hit after hit after hit. I had a feeling that she could’ve defeated Chronos all on her own if she’d just had the time and leeway to focus on retreating.

Once the boss’s HP was down about forty percent, it was able to use Death Scythe again to cut Gabriel down.

“Less than two minutes left! Whittle him down as fast as you can!” I yelled.

Tsukuyomi evidently didn’t need the order, as she rose up from Chronos’s shadow. She was using her shadow-hopping skill in tandem with her most powerful stealth skill, Coat of the Moon Shadow, also known as her special combo. It guaranteed her a critical hit so long as she was completely undercover. Attacks that ignored defense were Chronos’s weakness, so she was able to take out a good chunk of its HP.

Nice! Ten percent gone in one hit!

Both the goddess of the moon and the god of time backstepped away from each other, then faced off with their scythes.

Tsukuyomi threw hers to the ground.

Chronos seemingly wasn’t expecting this, which led to an opening for Tsukuyomi. She vanished into the air, and a thin, white hand grew out of Chronos’s shadow. In other words, she was using her sneak attack combo yet again.

She didn’t have a weapon this time, opting instead to get Chronos in a full nelson hold from behind.

“You should be honored.” She smirked. “You’re being hugged by the most beautiful goddess in the world. No one but Shinobu is allowed to have this!” She then laughed mischievously with her bewitching voice. “Chronos won’t be able to defend itself now. Any attack will land a critical, so I leave it to you, sister!”

In this situation, this really was our only hope. The magic Amaterasu used was called cheating even within the game. If Tsukuyomi were to take the brunt of her sister’s explosion head-on, then she was sure to be sacrificed as well, but it wouldn’t be instadeath. Her HP would hit 0 and she’d be deemed temporarily dead, so we could revive her. And even if Amaterasu didn’t finish Chronos off, we’d be assured that Tsukuyomi could be revived. That being said, Amaterasu would probably be able to deplete Chronos’s HP with this move anyway.

I shouted with all my might. “Obliterate him! Amaterasu!”

“Yes, sir!”

As carefree as her voice sounded, her next actions were fearsome.

A single hit would destroy everything, so every player who heard its blunt name and learned about its effect for the first time had the same reaction: “What the fuck?” That’s how infamous the move had become. Many players ended up rage-quitting the game because of how broken it was.

The light behind Amaterasu glowed a deep red. The principle of this magic was very simple, praised by physicists as beautiful.

Beyond that of nuclear fission. Beyond that of nuclear fusion. The move was a direct conversion of mass by magic. It could be considered a weapon that followed the logic of science fiction, more fitting for an interstellar war rather than anything fantasy; it activated just as the theory proposed by the genius Judea laid out. The worst, strongest magic that would materialize a demonic sun to the earth.

It was called—

“Grade 6: Mass Conversion Bomb: E = mc².”

The flash of light that signaled final destruction enveloped Chronos.

How do you like that?! No matter how high your magic resistance may be, Amaterasu renders all stats ineffective! It’s broken as hell!

Since Chronos’s HP bar was down to thirty percent, I figured we’d won. The red bar shrunk at an incredible rate.

Yes... Yes... Yes!!!

It cut down ten percent, then another five, seemingly like it would never stop. The bar reduced from right to left, eventually reaching the end of the left side.

“Yeees!” Mr. Kagura and I shouted in perfect sync.

Having used up all of her MP, Amaterasu fell to the ground, entering hibernation mode while snoring.

With that, I’d used up all of my summons. Man, I really had to use every one.

Just as I breathed a sigh of relief, a new announcement played.

Activating Skill: Bite and Bind.

Activating Skill: Sudden Death. Every player on the field will have their HP reduced to 1.

With the activation of Sudden Death, the number of players on the field and their HP will be fixed. From here on, revival magic and recovery magic will not work.

Ten seconds until Meteor Shower Inferno activates.

Huh?

Even Mr. Kagura’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates now. We were both confused at the unexpected situation.

Chronos rose up. Checking its HP bar, it had indeed recovered its HP by just one centimeter.

This made me recall the phrase “on sight.” This sudden recovery meant that Chronos would use its AoE attacks to catch the players off guard at the very last second to win.

“Iijimaaaaaa!”

“On it!”

I jumped at Mr. Kagura’s yell. The only time we had to spare was the little bit left until Chronos’s next Inferno. We had to get rid of the last bit of HP it had recovered, but the problem was that both Mr. Kagura and I were level 5, so we couldn’t do much damage to it. Had more members been alive, we could’ve all attacked at once to win, but at present, there were only two of us left.

The catch was...I had more than 5,000 MP at my disposal. I could still use Grade 5 magic.

Chronos had high magic resistance, and with the level gap, Grade 5 magic might not even work on it, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t try. The original strategy for completing Agartha was to have one hundred thousand zombies use the Grade 1 magic Magic Ball against the boss. The fixed damage of 1 or 2 that spell would deal would multiply by one hundred thousand, becoming an effective source of damage.

And I had a Grade 5 spell that dealt fixed damage too.

“It’s been a long fight, but this is the end.”

I faced Chronos and pulled my wand from my pocket. Pointing it at the boss, magic power flowed through my heart, into my arm, toward the staff.

This spell was the Grade 5 Super Magic: Kagutsuchi of Fire, named after a flame god that even killed other gods.

Who cares about our level gap? Who cares about your magic resistance? I’m gonna use up a ton of my MP, but I’m about to deal 2,000 damage to you! The centimeter of HP you have left stands no chance!

“Not a censured human, but a censured god. Slaughter such a god and manifest the crimson lotus to this land. Grade 5 Nuclear Magic: Kagutsuchi of Fire!”

A blinding flash of light.

A resounding bass tone.

A continuous heat wave.

Once it landed, my whole vision filled up with dust.

The next spell I cast was also Kagutsuchi of Fire. With my MP still on par with that of level 125, I could use it five times in a row. I’d used recovery magic on myself, so there was enough for three left.

“Grade 5: Kagutsuchi of Fire!”

All I did was continue to fire off, not even checking to see if Chronos was still alive or not. The shrill noise of the blasts rang out, and I kept firing.

“Grade 5: Kagutsuchi of Fire!”

Only one left! If this doesn’t work, it’ll all be over. I’m gonna end it here!

Please... You’ve killed other gods before, haven’t you? Then pierce through this God of Time!

Do it...! Do it...!

“Let’s goooooo! Grade 5: Kagutsuchi of Fire!”

My final spell shot out with my war cry. It was followed by a piercing headache.

I’d used the last of my MP.

If one’s HP hit zero, they would fall into a state of temporary death, and if their MP hit zero, the headache would symbolize their inability to take any more action.

If my MP could recover naturally by just one, I’d miraculously be able to use magic again, but so long as I was unable to use Kagutsuchi of Fire, I might as well have been immobile.

I fell to my knees, my shoulders heaving with breaths.

“I don’t even have it in me to get a nosebleed.”

I’d attacked Chronos that many times while its HP was only a centimeter long. My chest clenched at the idea of it still standing beyond the dust clouding the area.

And then, I heard that announcement of Chronos’s skill for the umpteenth time that day.

Activating Chrono-Timer: Level Drain. Player levels will decrease by 20.

You have to be kidding me...

If its skill was activating, that meant Chronos was still alive.

Another announcement played.

Chronos confirmed defeated.

Defeated?

Then why did the level drain activate?

That’s when I noticed that the magic circle drawn on the ground was still glowing.

Oh... So the skill was latent to the field itself, not the boss...

The dust and smoke gradually cleared away, and the full, huge crater came into view. There was no sign of Chronos. In the center of it all, where Chronos had last been, was a single bird feather shining gold.

I used Eye of Judgment on it.

Judgment Results:

Feather of the Undying Bird

The only item that can revive those killed by instadeath attacks.

An instadeath recovery item? There’d never been such a thing in this game. Were the devs planning on implementing even more instadeath battles in the future?

At any rate...we’ve won.

My MP was empty, and my body was so exhausted that it wouldn’t listen to me anymore.

With my sigh of happiness, I collapsed on the spot.

***

Taiga Kagura

After it all ended, a stark white door appeared in Chronos’s area.

Iijima couldn’t move anymore, as he’d run out of MP. That meant that I was going to fulfill the completion requirements for everyone, per his wishes.

We’d been told that everyone who’d died during this battle would be revived within twenty-four hours, but Iijima had pressed for getting things done as quickly as possible, and I agreed.

I’d originally intended on starting a new game, but as you would expect, I couldn’t bring myself to do so after seeing Iijima work so hard with that tragically heroic expression on his face. I wasn’t so much of a scumbag that I would prioritize my own wishes. I may well have accepted him as one of my comrades that toed the line of death with me.

I sure am getting soft... I thought as I passed through the door.

Beyond it was a white space, a plane that continued endlessly with nothing but white. I couldn’t even see the horizon in there, yet strangely, I could still tell just how far it reached.

Before I knew it, Mikagami was standing before me.

He had silver hair, one of his eyes was covered with an eye patch, and his outfit was a simple pair of jeans with a hoodie. His face, as always, was beautiful.

“It’s been a while, Mr. Kagura,” he said.

“Why are you here?”

From what I’d heard, he’d used his Guild Coins to log out and return to the real world. How could he possibly be here?

That’s when I realized something. “Was the item description of the Log-out Tickets a lie? Then that announcement was too?”

A chill ran down my spine at the thought of having the rug pulled out from under us at the very last second.

Halfway accepting it, I pulled out a cigar.

“No.” Mikagami had a light smile on his lips. “None of the announcements regarding the completion conditions have been lies. As for the Log-out Tickets... Well, let’s just say they were part of the act.”

“Part of the act?”

“They had to be in there, or else the true nature of humans would never come to light.”

A moment of silence. “What does that mean?”

His smile grew larger at my confusion. “In other words...”

He then began to explain the truth of this world.

***

The explanation took about ten minutes.

After hearing it all, I began to laugh loudly.

“Ha ha... Ha ha ha! That’s disgusting!”

“It bothers me too.” Mikagami tilted his head. “They pushed all kinds of duties onto me because of it. So, what are you going to do?”

“Me?”

Mikagami snapped his fingers. A message floated up in front of my eyes.

Rewards:

After hearing the truth of the world from either OBSERVER: Megumi Iijima or Tatsuya Mikagami, you will be able to choose one of the following two options:

1. Be the first in this world to log out.

Note that within twenty-four hours of a returnee emerging, every player existing in La Vita Online will be forcibly logged out after having their karma values calculated.

Additionally, every member of the group that completes the final floor will be individually given an appropriate reward.

Also, with the assumption that a significant number of players will die on the final floor, note that, as a salvation measure, members of the group that completes the final floor that have died will be revived and logged out within twenty-four hours.

2. Start a New Game on a different server from level 1.

Mikagami leaned back on his heels. “I’m asking you whether you’ll choose the first or the second option.”

“The second, without a doubt.”

“Oh? Didn’t you just promise Iijima that you’d pick the first?”

“That changed after hearing your explanation. And could I return to Chronos’s space on the final floor before starting that new game? I’ve gotta receive that ‘appropriate reward’ for beating the boss, right?”

Mikagami gazed at me for a bit, as if weighing his options.

He answered calmly. “We weren’t originally going to give them to those who chose the second option. What did you want, specifically?”

“I want to...fight to the death with Iijima.”

“I don’t mind sending you back, but Iijima is currently at level 1. He hasn’t left Chronos’s lair, so the field’s skill is still in effect.”

“I’m also at level 1. Strictly speaking, this space is technically still in Chronos’s place, right? That’s why the field is still affecting me.”

“Oh, right. The coordinates of this room are set to be that way. I suppose there are even things I didn’t know. Then I’ll ask just to make sure, but what are you doing this for?”

“I thought it would be fun to have a raw battle that doesn’t rely on stats.”

“Heh heh. That’s very like you. Understood, then. I’ll give you a special reward.”

Mikagami then snapped his fingers one more time.

***

Shinobu Iijima

A few minutes after Mr. Kagura went into the white door, I stood up, finally able to move again. The headache and lethargy I’d been feeling were gone, as if they hadn’t happened in the first place.

Checking my stats, my MP had automatically recovered and was now at 1.

When I picked up the phoenix feather, I heard the creak of the white door opening. Looking over, Mr. Kagura had come back in.

“Iijima,” he said. “The circumstances have changed.”

“Changed how?”

My head became filled with question marks, but Mr. Kagura paid me no mind, continuing with a strange look on his face.

“I chose to start a new game, instead of logging out. Since no one has beat the game yet, no one can log out. That’s the situation.”

I was at a loss for words. “What are you saying?”

“I told you before, didn’t I? I’d been planning on choosing a new game.”

“But you also said you’d prioritize beating this one for everyone else’s sake!”

“And now I’m telling you that the circumstances have changed. I’ve decided to put my own wishes first.”

His mouth warped into something resembling a grin, but his eyes weren’t smiling. This was that creepy expression I’d seen before. I didn’t know what had happened beyond that door, but it was like he was a different person now.

“Okay.” I stared straight at him. “Then I’m going to go in the door and choose to end the game. I can move fine now, so...”

As a feeling of foreboding overtook me, I began to walk slowly, so as to not trigger Mr. Kagura.

After just a few steps toward the door, he blocked my path.

“I’m not gonna let you do that.”

My bad feeling had been right, but I couldn’t believe it.

I’d known that I didn’t completely understand this man, but I’d also felt like I’d come to know him to a certain extent. Reckless as he was, he wasn’t despicable. I knew he felt something toward his comrades.

Mr. Kagura wasn’t the type of person to suddenly go back on his word.

I gritted my teeth. “What are you doing?”

“I told you once that I wanted to try fighting to the death with you, just one time.”

“Hang on—you weren’t like this before! Don’t you know how much we’ve all struggled to get to this point?! Just what happened in there?!”

“You can see for yourself after beating me if you’re curious. I wanted to play with you one last time before I start a new game. That’s all.”

“Play...? Our lives are on the line here! If you kill me, none of us will be saved!”

“It’s still a game either way.”

Remembering how Kaori had died made anger surge up from the pit of my stomach. We... We finally made it to the finish line after risking our lives, you asshole!

“Why are you doing this?” I seethed. “How could you say something like that?! Answer me, Kagura!”

I rushed forward and grabbed his collar.

He shook his head with a deep sigh. “We’re both level 1 now. Our physical abilities are now no more than the average human’s.”

“Then why?!”

“You’re grabbing the collar of a guy who practices martial arts. You really don’t know anything, do you? I’m disappointed, Iijima.”

Both of his hands cleverly wrapped around my right arm. After a moment, it bent. A joint lock?!

“Aaaagh!” When the pain shot through me, it channeled into a scream.

Next, a dull sound accompanied my right arm twisting at an unnatural angle.

H-He broke it!

It had all happened so fast that this move could only be described as godly. I could only think he’d cast some sort of spell on me.

“Our stats are no more than that of a normal person’s.” His body language was unreadable. “You understand that that means our physical combat abilities are what will decide this, right?”

Understand? You made me feel it with my body!

At this rate, if he were to slam my head into the ground by a judo back throw or something, my skull would crack right then and there and I’d die.

“Our pure fighting abilities right now are a normal guy with a broken arm for you, and a third-class judo specialist for me. You understand the difference, yeah?”

I couldn’t change my stats without magic. With my MP at 1, I couldn’t even use Grade 1 magic, much less summon anyone. Even the stat boosts that my armor provided me wouldn’t be applied since I didn’t meet the level requirements. This guy was asking me, some random dude, to fight against him, a former mercenary.

He let go of my arm, then took several steps back. I could see him reach for his holster on his back, which let me know that the situation was even worse... No, even more despairing than I’d realized, whether I wanted it to be or not.

He had a handgun.

Had I been level 125, that would’ve been no more than a water gun to me, but at level 1, I was in dire straits. I could maybe deflect a bullet with an object, but if he aimed at my face, it was all over.

“So what’ll it be, Iijima?”

What do you want me to do here?! I glared at him without answering.

His eyes remained unsmiling. “Let’s begin. Our final battle, at level 1.”

I’m done for. My arm was broken, and my opponent had a gun.

“As you would expect—” He suddenly lowered his gun. “This situation is boring for me. I want a fight to the death, not to slaughter you.”

“You’re just doing whatever you want, aren’t you?!” I spat.

Did this mean that he was always as scummy as Imabayashi and Enzaki? Or had something just that severe happened behind that door?

I had no idea what was going on, but one thing was clear: I had to do something about this.

Kagura sighed. “It’d still be boring even if you called up your own long-range attack method. I won’t let you pull up your inventory, but I’ll give you ten seconds. Use that time to prepare yourself.”

“Ten seconds...?”

“I’ll give you a hint. Use that phoenix feather to revive Shinozuka. Her armor will protect her from the bullets, and she has the skills with a blade to offset being level 1.”

He was right. If I did that, I’d have a chance at winning. If I took swords and shields from the bodies lying around, I could also potentially fight alongside Kaori.

I glared at him. “Why the head start? You could just pull the trigger now and get it over with.”

“I’m telling you—this is a game. I have to enjoy it. There wouldn’t be a point if I didn’t get to see you struggle, especially after you’ve exceeded all my expectations thus far.”

I didn’t respond.

“I’ll start the countdown when you take your first step. You should be able to reach Shinozuka if you take the shortest path.”

As Kagura checked one of the clocks, I stayed silent and inhaled deeply, then exhaled.

After making sure the shortest path was clear, I imagined myself running with my whole heart and soul.

Could I do it? Just barely?

I picked up a fragment of one of the stone pavings and took off at a sprint, in the opposite direction from Kaori’s body.

“You’re going to the entrance of the lair?” Kagura started laughing out of interest. “I see, so that’s your plan. You’ll go back to level 125 if you exit the field. But is that really gonna work?”

Running at full force in a straight line while bearing the pain in my right arm, I thought of nothing else but getting to my destination.

“There’s over a hundred meters between this space and the entrance.” Kagura’s laughter echoed. “Five seconds left. What’s gonna happen?”

The world record for a hundred-meter dash was nine and a half seconds. I didn’t think I could even get remotely close to that in the state I was in.

But what would be the point in reviving Kaori? Kagura would just shoot her in the head and she’d be dead again. Even with armor on, she still had lots of exposed areas too. If he took out several of her fingers, she wouldn’t be able to hold a blade anymore.

Besides, with this one closer than Kaori, why wouldn’t I run this way?

I stopped right outside of the lair and threw the phoenix feather right on top of her.

“Revive—Alice!!!”

Chronos’s instadeath skill caused instadeath, just as it promised, so there was no reason that the only instadeath recovery item shouldn’t work.

As if to flaunt the power of a phoenix, a red light wrapped around Alice. Color returned to her face right before my eyes, as did her warmth.

“Ah... Eh... Uh...? Why am I...? Huh? Didn’t I...die?”

She didn’t understand what was happening, but first things first.

“Get up, Alice!”

“O-Okay!”

“Grab this! With all your might! Right now!” I handed her the fist-sized stone I’d picked up.

She grunted and gripped it. It comically crumbled into dust, fluttering to the ground.

Yes! Just as planned!

I ran behind her. That’s when my victory was sealed.

I now had a level 125 aegis shield that guaranteed me absolute defense.

“Um... Er... What’s going on, Master Shinobu?”

“It’ll be too confusing to explain, but you said you wanted to help me, right?”

“Oh, yes! Of course!”

“Thank you. I’m gonna stay alive thanks to you.”

Chronos had been guaranteed to use its Time-Lock Death Scythe along with its level drain. Except for the very first time—when it took out Alice in this hallway, the level drain hadn’t activated. Why was the first time the only exception? As soon as we had entered the lair, the magic circle had glowed all around, but the circle didn’t reach this hallway. In other words, Time-Lock Death Scythe was Chronos’s skill, while the level drain was a field effect created by the magic circle. That led me to theorize that this hallway was outside of the range of effect for the level drain.

I couldn’t believe my trump card at the very end would be Alice.

Kagura and I were both at level 1. At this moment, the person with absolute, overwhelming power was not a player, but Alice, a native.

A voice came from the lair. “I shouldn’t have expected any less, Iijima. You got the answer right.”

Judging by his words, had he known that I would do this?

I balled my fist. “You knew it would happen, yet you still strung me along?”

“No, I figured there was about a thirty percent chance you’d go for Shinozuka. Had that happened, you and her would’ve had to fight for your lives against my gun. I would’ve preferred it, actually.”

“But there was a seventy percent chance I’d do this instead. So why did you bother giving me time?”

“It’s a game. No matter which you picked, your and Shinozuka’s futures wouldn’t have changed. That’s why I wanted to play with you for real at the very end. That’s all.”

Our futures wouldn’t have changed?

He then pointed his handgun at his head.

“Hey! Kagura!” I shouted.

“According to Mikagami, my new game will start once I die here. I don’t have anything left to do in this world, so... See you, Iijima.”

A dry noise rang out as soon as he finished speaking.

Kagura then fell to the ground with a thud.

Epilogue: Our Second Meeting, and...

“This is goodbye, then, Master Shinobu!”

A smile like a sunflower bloomed on Alice’s face with a burst of energy.

I had a lot of feelings about having to part with Alice. Of course I felt sad and lonely. I’d wavered on it the whole time.

I’d been most worried that she’d cry when we had to say goodbye. But seeing her smile here made me feel like I’d worried about all that for nothing. I did feel like she was maybe not sad enough, but this was better than a sad atmosphere.

“You’re...strangely happy about this.” I fidgeted.

“Well, I... I’ve been thinking a lot ever since you told me we’d have to go our separate ways. I’ve really thought about it so much.” Her smile never faded. “After all the ups and downs, I realized that things end, either by choice or force. There’s nothing I can do about stuff like this... So there’s no point in being so down about it!”

That’s when I realized how stupid I’d been.

Alice was obviously forcing herself to smile. She’d prepared for this farewell in her own way, and was doing her best not to cry.

That made tears fall out of my own eyes.

“Master Shinobu, no! You can’t cry at a goodbye! You’ll just get sad and nothing good will happen!”

Her saying that made it hard to tell which of us was the older one here.

She’s really grown up... My tears fell even harder.

“Come on, don’t cry! You’re gonna make me cry too... Are you really going to cause me even more trouble after all this?”

She was chuckling faintly. I did my best to wipe away my tears with my sleeves.

No, really... Which one of us is older here?

The pathetic feelings, sadness, and the happiness that Alice had grown so much was making my head spin.

“Alice, I have to go now.” I gulped down more tears.

She nodded with another smile. “Yes, please do! You don’t have much time left, right?”

Alice didn’t want a sad farewell. That’s why I gave her the biggest smile I could.

“Goodbye, then, Alice!”

I turned on my heel and walked toward the white door.

“Thank you for everything up until now!”

With her bright, energetic voice behind me, I pushed through the door.

***

When I came to, Mikagami was standing in front of me.

“You’re finally here.” His eyes were half-lidded. “Now I can be dismissed from this position and go back to Japan. It’s been so long.”

“Where’s Megumi? It was either you or her that was going to explain things, right?”

“You’ll get to meet with her, so calm down. We figured it would be best for you to hear it from me.”

I took a breath. “I have a lot of things to ask you. You’re going to tell me everything you know.”

“Of course.”

He snapped his fingers. In this space where nothing was, the scent of coffee wafted over.

A table had appeared out of nowhere, complete with a cloth and tea cakes.

“Have a seat.” Mikagami gestured. “Is Blue Mountain okay with you?”

I kept silent and sat as directed.

He took the seat across from me and gave a light shrug. “It won’t be a long tale, but it won’t be short either.”

***

“Have you ever heard of the ‘simulation hypothesis’?” Mikagami’s first words were completely unexpected.

“I’m a normal high schooler. Of course I haven’t.”

According to him, the simulation hypothesis stated that the real world we lived in could actually be a simulated one of some form by some higher being. More specifically, it was created in the image of reality by high technology from the future, or by an alien species, via a computer system. Environments, people’s actions—everything in society was simulated.

As for why, scientists have theorized the following objectives:

For better understanding of the progression of knowledge, science, and the development of culture. By observing scholars’ actions and the interactions of learned societies, new technology could be further developed.

Entertainment. By simulating a past reality, high-quality entertainment could be achieved for advanced cultures, providing them with different experiences and adventures.

Ethical and philosophical experiments. Should this simulation have been created for ethical and philosophical reasons, insights could be had from ethical dilemmas and philosophical questions people faced in society. By observing the processes and results of people’s actions and decisions in unique scenarios and circumstances, deeper understanding of ethics and philosophy could be achieved.

“Okay, so I get the point.” I tilted my head. “But what does that have to do with this situation? It’s kinda preposterous too. You can tell me this is all an experiment by a culture from the distant future or aliens or whatever, but I don’t get it.”

“It’s not really that hard.” He smiled. “Iijima... Have you ever met someone from the future?”

“Of course not.” My tone had turned curt since I thought he was messing around.

“Within the categories that humanity can fathom, we’ve materialized a lot of good progress technologically. The generation of metals, invention of bullets, steam engines, automobiles, nuclear weapons, the internet, space rockets... AI has been gaining traction recently too.”

He had a point. Our ancestors from just two thousand years ago struggled to make earthenware, so from their perspective, our world would seem unbelievable, even more than how we view science fiction works today.

Mikagami took on a strange expression. “Yes, humanity ends up creating whatever they imagine. We’ve made so much progress within just two hundred years, and after the industrial revolution, technology has developed at an exponential rate.”

“And what does that have to do with people from the future?”

“One, two, three thousand years... Or maybe even tens of thousands? We can say for sure that humanity will have moved into space by that point. And in hundreds of thousands of years, or hundreds of millions, or even trillions, culture will have developed greatly. Doesn’t that bring questions, though?”

“I guess if you put it that way, it’s pretty suspicious that a time machine wouldn’t have been invented at all.”

“But as of the present, we haven’t confirmed any beings from the future.”

I thought about that for a moment. “Even if someone came from the future, they’d have to hide their existence so as to not change the events of the past, right?”

“But after trillions of years, or tens of quadrillions, lots of people will supposedly have visited the past, right? There has to be at least one criminal among them. It’d be strange if not a single being didn’t reveal themselves. In conclusion, in the future of the world we live in, no time machine will have been invented. The concept of a time machine may even have been forcefully canceled by those guys.”

“Uh... Who? Are you trying to say that the Earth we lived on was just a simulation?”

“I only have pieces of the story, but if I am to believe the beings that gave me this information, then yes, that would be the case.”

“That’s...unbelievable.”

“Is it really? We were able to create the world of La Vita using the simulation technology we had on Earth.”

“No... Are you saying...?”

“Alice and the natives. You could only view them as fellow humans, right? I know it would mean accepting that you were transferred from one simulation to another, but if you’re going to deny the simulation hypothesis, then why do you believe that the world of La Vita is real?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

I had no choice but to believe him since he brought up Alice. Since I classified her as a human despite her supposedly living in a game world, I could only classify her the same way I did for those of us who lived on Earth. Her world was a simulation, and so was ours. It made sense why I could only view her as a fellow human—she’d been made by the same things as us.

“Regardless of whether or not I believe it,” I said, “I understand what you’re getting at. So why were we sent to a game world in the first place?”

“You remember your final moments in your apartment, right? What happened to that building?”

“A fire broke out of nowhere, and I jumped out the window...”

“The cause of that fire is what had so many humans involved on such a large scale.”

“The cause? You’re not talking about arson or an accident, are you?”

“There’s a rather malicious intervention system in the simulation. As a result, tens of millions of humans’ information data has been deleted since history began. In order to make it make sense in the real world, this took the form of huge terrorist attacks, nuclear explosions, wars, pandemics. These death processes were spread out over time so that they wouldn’t affect the world’s governing as much as possible. In your case, a new type of bomb the size of a briefcase exploded in Ikebukuro.”

Ikebukuro...?

Agh, no! I don’t want to believe this, but the pieces are starting to fall in place.

I’d fought with Mikagami in a destroyed Ikebukuro before.

“Near the center of the explosion, an event was happening, where this game’s rankers gathered.”

“Hang on!”

My mind wasn’t keeping up, but the threads were starting to weave together.

“This time, several unexpected deaths were involved, so the system implemented a rescue measure: the world of La Vita. Those who managed to return home from this world would be judged as ‘alive’ on Earth, and those who didn’t would be deemed ‘dead.’”

“Please, wait. I’m not getting it at all. If there was a rescue system in place, then why didn’t they just revive everyone?”

“If my theory is correct... Well, it’s mostly been confirmed at this point, but the beings that created our simulation had the third goal of the simulation hypothesis: ethical and philosophical experiments. They were curious as to how Earth’s humans would behave if they were given overwhelming power in another world. So we were placed in La Vita for them to observe, given bait such as the Guild Coins, Log-out Tickets, and gold bars to take home. Anyone playing this game simply had bad luck. It was convenient for the experimenters that so many of La Vita’s rankers had died; they used the opportunity for a large-scale experiment. That put the fates of those who weren’t supposed to be involved in their hands. They summoned them here with everyone else.”

“That doesn’t answer why they couldn’t have just revived us.”

“This part is confirmed, not theory: Apparently, it takes a lot of effort to restore and rescue the data of people who died in accidents. If judged as ‘alive,’ their data has to be rolled back, and a logical reason has to be applied for why they survived the accident. I assume they have to overwrite your data as well. Because of all those loose threads they have to tie up, reviving everyone would be a hassle, so instead, they chose to thin out the numbers through fixed criteria. In addition, they wanted to gather data from the La Vita experiment in the most fitting situation.”

“What is that ‘fixed criteria’?”

“We call it the karma value. Bad people are deemed unworthy of returning to the real world. It’s their last judgment. Everyone undergoes it when logging out.”

I took another breath. “Megumi seems to be one of the operators of this whole thing. What’s going on with her?”

“As the criteria for judging karma values, or rather, moral values, the youngest, most innocent human among the summoned was chosen. That was your sister. Her copies exist around the world, fulfilling their duties as the system’s ‘eyes.’ That’s why we call ourselves ‘observers.’”

“Then what happened to the people who used Log-out Tickets? Didn’t you use one to log out?”

“That’s where I was caught. The Log-out Tickets were essentially tickets that allowed you to skip the judgment day, where it would be decided whether or not you were worth keeping alive. Basically, a trap set up by the system.”

“A trap?”

“We had no choice but to kill in order to obtain Guild Coins. Naturally, those who chose to engage in player killing for their own wiles were judged as not worthy.”

“That’s...terrible.”

“And there were gold bars you could get in exchange for Guild Coins too, right? Those were also important fake items for observing human behavior.” He shrugged, exasperated. “The experimenters essentially watched humans commit murder within a system set up for murder. Since I specifically targeted other player killers, I was released under special circumstances, and am now working as a sort of overseer.”

“So... Our powers being way stronger than the natives’ was also a trap?”

“Yes, it was. Each individual was being observed to see what they would do in a situation where anything was possible.”

“This is seriously excessive.”

“I agree. It meant that dying before you could really do anything was the best option for living in this world. For a lot of people, it would’ve been best if the monsters that attacked them right after logging in killed them on the spot.”

That was why Megumi had told me it would be best to die too. And...if I remembered correctly...the Legendary Goblin King had also said so.

“One more thing. It’s thanks to Megumi that you were thrown into the tutorial at first.”

The tutorial? Oh, right. I was the only one who’d been placed in the tutorial at first, so my actual time in this world had been short. My data from the game had been erased, so I’d thought that I’d have to work my way up from level 1 again.

“Keeping your time in the world as short as possible is the most important thing for beating this game in the realest sense. You understand that, right?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I’ve seen all those people fall to savagery after spending so much time here.”

“Had anyone else been put into the tutorial, most of them would’ve died immediately because of how low their levels would’ve been. For you, you used tricks to stay alive, and ended up with the strongest powers among the players.”

“Okay, I think I’ve got most of the picture now. So why did Mr. Kagura do a one-eighty at the end there?”

“I think he really just wanted to play with you.”

“Oh. So that’s it.”

Mr. Kagura’s goal had actually been to play a game with his life on the line. However, he wasn’t the type of person to slaughter someone by will.

But he’d found out that whether or not he killed me, his fate wouldn’t have changed much either way. That’s why he truly wanted to “play” a “game.” He was getting the most enjoyment out of this game world as he could. In that sense, he might just have been using this system the right way.

I sighed. “Man... Everyone was so cunning. Including you.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Mikagami’s smiling face was so beautiful it pissed me off.

“What’s going to happen to everyone else?” I asked.

“Space-time is a bit warped here so I know this, but Mr. Kagura was the only one who chose to start a new game. And I know you’ve seen what kind of people everyone else was.”

“I can imagine not a lot of them will be going home.”

“Indeed. About sixty percent of those who chose to beat the game won’t be.”

“What about Kaori? I’m sure she’ll be fine, but...”

“Both she and you will be going home. Well, most of the people who stuck around the two of you will be. Those that had been influenced by you and aggressively worked to free the natives at the end obtained better karma values.”

I’d felt a bit of anger at being told it would’ve been better to die first thing in this world, but in the end, the things we did here had been worth it after all. Kaori’s principles had touched a lot of people, which ended up saving not only natives, but also players.

Thinking of it that way... Yeah, it’s a good thing I worked so hard.

“Hey, Mikagami? So in the end, what are Alice and my summons?”

“They’re living beings. You know that, don’t you?”

“If we were created for our simulation, then the residents of this world, who were created by the same technology, are the same as us. That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Exactly.”

“I’m going to forget about them after getting home, aren’t I?”

“How’d you know?”

“It’s strange to think I’m the only one who thought of that. I don’t know all this about people from the future or aliens or whatever, but this isn’t the first ‘malicious intervention,’ is it? Instead of considering this a onetime event, it’s more natural to think of it as one case among ten or twenty cases. For example, for a large-scale intervention, all those people who didn’t make it back were explained away as having died during a world war, right?”

Mikagami nodded to confirm. “Iijima, on Earth, there’s no record of anyone who went to a strange world. You’ve never heard of such a thing either. That’s what you’re trying to say, right? Just as you’ve theorized, this is not the first case.” He paused. “You are going to forget everything you’ve experienced here.”

My breath hitched. “I see.”

“But don’t be sad. You may not remember it, but the experiences will remain in your heart.”

That’s where my deepest memories will be kept, in other words. As pretentious as that line was, Mikagami saying it with his too-beautiful face made it sound genuine, and I hated it.

“What about Megumi?”

“She doesn’t have a karma value. She was just this world’s eyes, the scales that provided the criteria for judgment.”

“All right. As horrible as this whole tale has been, at least all the effort I went through wasn’t for nothing.”

Mikagami laughed to apologize for that. “Ha ha ha. That’s not the only good thing. Remember how everyone in your final party will receive a separate reward? It’s just something small, but...the most appropriate thing for you has been prepared. You’ll receive it sometime after returning to the real world, so look forward to it.”

He downed the rest of his coffee. “Now then, it’s about time.”

“Can I ask just one more question? The root of all this... The beings that acted like gods and put us through this—what did they want, in the end?”

“I can answer that if you’re okay with a theory.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“It’s what I mentioned earlier—they wanted to observe human nature.”

“They were trying to observe good and bad behaviors under unique circumstances, right? I get that they wanted to see people’s true natures, but I’m asking why?”

“If I had to guess, if these really are people from the future, then they must harbor some sort of hope for humanity, despite being exhausted by them. Or maybe they’re looking for hope.”

I didn’t understand. “Hope?”

“They’re returning those with good karma values, and won’t return those with bad. From there, we can determine that these people see good deeds as righteous and preferable.”

“For example... They were trying to get hints on good, humane nature from Kaori’s actions?”

“Something like that, I would think.”

Thin beads of light wrapped around my body. It seemed my time had come.

“Hey, Mikagami?”

“Yes, Iijima?”

“If what you’ve told me here is true...then humans...or us, even. What are we?”

“Remember what I said earlier. Do you think of Alice, Gabriel, and Tsukuyomi as mere game data?”

“No, of course not. They’re alive, just like us.”

He smiled and nodded firmly. “There’s your answer.”

Ah, that’s right... They’re alive.

That means I’m alive too.

Whether or not Mikagami’s explanation is true... I don’t really care.

From here on out, I’m going to live to the fullest, do everything I can, and have fun until I die.

That’s all that’s going to happen.

Starting from my fingertips, my body turned into specks of light and melted into the air.

My consciousness was eventually swallowed by the darkness.

***

“Shinobu! Breakfast is ready!”

Megumi’s bright voice wafted in alongside the smell of miso soup. When I followed her call to the kitchen, she greeted me brightly.

“I tried making today’s breakfast gourmet!”

Really? That’s great. Taking a look at the table, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. White rice, wakame miso soup, natto, raw eggs, and cucumber tsukemono. She’d called it gourmet, so I’d expected ham steak or fried fish, but I was let down.

“Seems the same as usual, though,” I remarked.

“Evidently you don’t understand how luxurious this is. Such a fool you are, brother. Allow me to spell it out for you: Today’s eggs are high-quality!”

That’s what’s luxurious about it?! I wanted to shout out a biting rebuttal so bad, but swallowed it down. She’d probably budgeted our household finances carefully to afford those eggs.

***

Two years later.

For a while after the terrorist bombing in Ikebukuro, I’d been in a coma in the hospital. Now that I’d recovered, I was living a busy daily life.

My foster father died in that accident, and I’d been set to inherit his absurd amount of savings. I didn’t feel like touching his money, though, so I waived the inheritance off. My friends said it was a waste, and while I agreed, having that money while knowing it had belonged to that man would’ve made me physically sick. There was nothing I could do about it.

However, Imabayashi had been pocketing the life insurance money left behind by my actual father, so I was using that for both Megumi’s and my tuition fees. Now, I was making my own money via a part-time job while attending college so I didn’t have to rely on the insurance money, living with Megumi in a two-bedroom apartment.

“Shinobu?” Megumi pulled me from my reverie. “Are you really gonna go to that offline meeting today?”

“Yeah, I am.”

Today, there was going to be an offline meeting for a certain MMO. The game had long gone out of service, but particularly feverish fanatics still kept in contact with each other over the internet, which made me think the game really was a good one after all. Although, it was actually just a few of us in a group chat on a site created by some guy named Mikagami.

Megumi shuffled in her seat. “You’re really, really gonna go? Isn’t it dangerous to meet with strangers online?”

“I told you, one’s a doctor, and the other is a police officer. They can’t be dangerous.”

This “Mikagami” person managed the website. When asked about his IRL profession, he claimed he was a medical student that had competed on national sports teams before. Made me wonder why a real-life superman was playing some dumb game. At least I could tell he really loved the game since he’d gone as far as to create a whole site dedicated to it.

Mikagami was also apparently a skilled programmer. He’d pulled all of the data from the MMO right before it had gone out of service and created an offline version. At this point, the man’s existence itself reeked of cheat codes.

The offline version didn’t have much to offer, though. No events would be implemented—only pseudo-daily login bonuses and quests were available.

One thing notable about it, however, was that it had a “navigator” function that hadn’t existed in the online version. These were AI replicas of popular characters such as Gabriel, Tsukuyomi, Cerberus, and Amaterasu. The player could press the respective character’s button on the home screen to start a voice chat with them.

It was strange... Whenever I logged in for my dailies, I always found myself clicking on the chat function. The AIs were really well-made; it felt like I was talking to real people. In fact, I’d delved so deep into it that recently I’d been staying up until the late hours of the night getting life advice from them. And somehow, they were even asking me for life advice back!

At present, I couldn’t even calm down properly unless I heard each character’s opening greeting once a day, starting with Gabriel’s “Welcome home, Master.”

For this Mikagami guy to have developed such high-functioning AI—just who the hell was he? Honestly, he could have made billions if he worked for MVIDIA or Micronsoft, but that’s neither here nor there.

“That person could be lying about being a police officer.” Megumi broke me out of yet another reverie.

“Her name’s Kaori Shinozuka. She’s apparently been in the news for participating in national female kendo tournaments. That’s like a ninety percent chance that she’s safe.”

“That person could be lying about their name! What if they try to rope you into some shady multilevel marketing scheme? I’ve heard on the news that this is how some people get murdered too!”

“You’re even more of a worrywart than I thought.”

Tears welled up in her eyes.

I panicked. “Wh-What’s wrong?”

“You’re the only family I have... We only have each other. I can’t help but worry.”

I couldn’t bring myself to respond. Hmm... What should I do about this?

Megumi was right. We didn’t have any other relatives. I did think she was worrying too much, and to be frank, she showed signs of having a brother complex. That being said, I wasn’t sure if going to this offline event was worth making her sad.

“I’d hate to cancel on them out of the blue.” I tried to console her. “But if you really don’t want me to, I’ll think about it.”

That’s when Megumi’s demeanor suddenly changed.

All traces of color vanished from her eyes, as if her soul had vacated her body.

She said nothing.

“Uh, Megumi?”

Again, nothing.

“Hey!” My voice grew louder.

The color came back to her eyes, and she smiled happily.

“You can go!”

“What just happened?”

“Well, I dunno... I just feel like it’s fine for you to go.”

I tilted my head and looked at her suspiciously.

Her voice was clear. “You like that game, right? Then by all means!”

What’s going on with her? What on earth just happened? “No, seriously, you did a complete one-eighty. You were just telling me not to go.”

She thought about it for a second, then shrugged nonchalantly. “I dunno!”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I dunno, but that’s how I feel, so whatever!”

Is this what they meant by “a woman’s heart is as fickle as autumn’s weather”?

Whatever the case, she was telling me to go, so I would.

After finishing breakfast and getting ready, I headed out for the offline meeting.

***

“Hi. Are you Shinobu Iijima?”

Waiting inside a fancy café in Daikanyama—a place that I for the life of me had no business being in—was Mr. Mikagami.

He was shockingly handsome on top of being a med student and good at several sports. It was hard to believe he was categorized as a fellow human man.

But... How should I put this? Hmm... It’s hard to say, but I kinda feel like we’ve met before.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Mikagami,” I greeted him to make things less awkward.

“You’re a strange one, you know that? I can’t believe anyone would bother coming to an offline meeting for a game that’s long out of service.”

I shook my head. “I’m not necessarily here for the meeting part—I’m really just here to thank you. I’ve been enjoying your offline server so much that I’ve been logging in every single day.”

“I figured you’d like it. Especially you, in fact. I think the ladies are glad to get to talk to you too.”

“The ‘ladies’?” He’s talking about the game characters as if they’re real-life people...

He tapped the table. “I’ve been meaning to ask, by the way, but don’t you plan on playing La Vita Online II?”

“I played a bit of it, but... Maybe it’s because their designs changed, but I just can’t bring myself to like the characters.”

Mr. Mikagami nodded, satisfied with my answer. “Can’t bring yourself to like them, huh? A lot of players have that opinion, but I knew you in particular would too.”

“Besides that...” I started listing out my thoughts. “In the new game, the number one player in the rankings is that guy named Mr. Kagura, right? You know, the one famous for always coming back despite being banned countless times. Well, I don’t know why, but he keeps messaging me to fight him... It’s getting creepy...”

Mr. Mikagami suddenly looked down. His shoulders started to shake rhythmically, meaning he was desperately trying to contain his laughter.

“Heh heh heh... Creepy? As harsh as that is, you’ve got every right to phrase it that way.”

Sir, that guy sends me messages even though I haven’t accepted any of his friend requests! He has to be a hacker or something. How can you laugh at me when I’m in the middle of a disaster? Perhaps Mr. Mikagami wasn’t as nice as I’d thought he’d be.

That was when the door to the café opened up, and a woman with long hair and slim limbs strolled in. She headed straight for us when she spotted our table.

“Are you Mr. Mikagami and...Mr. Iijima?”

As soon as we made eye contact, I went rigid.

A long moment of silence, maybe even a whole minute, passed between us. She’d frozen too.

I finally found my voice again, but it was strained. “Are you...Ms. Kaori Shinozuka?” It took everything I had to force these words out.

“Yes, I am,” she said. “I wonder why...? You... Have we met somewhere before?”

“I also don’t feel like this is the first time we’ve met. We definitely know each other.”

“Indeed. Though, I’m not sure where we could’ve crossed paths.”

Mr. Mikagami’s smartphone rang at that exact second. He tapped it several times and did something with it, then gave a deep sigh.

“An emergency case just came in at work,” he lamented. “I suppose this is where I’ll have to take my leave.”

“Huh?” I croaked. “Does that mean I’m gonna be alone with Ms. Shinozuka?”

He cackled gleefully. “Ha ha ha! You’ve met each other before, right? Then there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. Or do you have a problem with her?”

“No, not at all. I just...”

“Get acquainted, then. If it’s you two, you’re sure to get along great. Oh, one more thing. I’ve made the final update to the offline version of La Vita. Feel free to download it when you get home.”

“The final update, huh...? It makes me sad knowing that it’s really coming to an end.”

“With this, I’ll finally be released from my role. Your reward is being fulfilled at last, after all.”

“Huh? My reward? For what?”

“Nothing you need to worry about. I’m gonna get going, then.”

He left a ten-thousand-yen bill on the table, then walked toward the exit.

“Mr. Mikagami, this is way too much money!” I called after him, but he went out the door without looking back.

“Shinobu,” Ms. Kaori instructed. “We’ll just have to give him the change at a later date.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Kaori. As if I could take this much money!”

Both of us paused. “Huh?” we exclaimed in unison. We turned to each other and tilted our heads.

“We had to have met somewhere before.” I was taken aback. “Our interaction just now was way too natural.”

“I agree. We know each other somehow. I didn’t even flinch when you said my name without an honorific, despite the fact that you’re younger than me. But... I just can’t remember. What in the world is going on?”

The questions just kept piling up as the mystery deepened, but something was bothering me about the update Mr. Mikagami had mentioned. He’d called it a “reward” for me, which, for some reason, made me feel like I had to go check it out as soon as possible.

“Shinobu... I mean, Iijima, what’s that on your phone?”

“Kaori—er, I mean, Ms. Shinozuka... Mr. Mikagami just mentioned that update, right?”

“Of his offline version?”

“He can do anything, can’t he?”

I accessed the site, where a young girl with cat ears popped up. The update log claimed that a new AI character voice chat had been added—one called “Alice.”

Alice...? Was there a character by that name?

Feeling the same strange sense, Ms. Shinozuka pulled out her own phone. “I can’t find anything about this character in La Vita. Not anywhere online, much less on the wiki.”

“Hmm... Maybe Mr. Mikagami made an original character that catered to his tastes? Maybe he likes cat girls.”

“I don’t know, but... I can’t explain why, but I feel like this character really is part of La Vita.”

I gulped. “I do too.”

According to the site’s description, these AI characters used an in-universe crystal ball to communicate with us. The summon characters lived in their summoner’s base, so it was possible to communicate with them at any time, but that wasn’t possible for this Alice character. Apparently, she worked for the Adventurer’s Guild and was terribly high-ranked there, despite her age and appearance. She was too busy to be available at all times.

The lore was that the crystal ball used Grade 5 magic to connect their dimension with ours, as well as a spell that pulled out one’s soul, so those who used it would occasionally connect with each other via dreams. Seeing that written in the site description made me recall a recent, strangely realistic dream I had where I’d met with Gabriel in Izanach.

There’s no way that actually happened, though.

Mr. Mikagami wrote in the update details that the crystal ball was located in the summoner’s base, so if Alice wasn’t there, tapping on her button wouldn’t work. Man, he really put a lot of thought into the settings and programming of this one.

My phone finally finished downloading the update data, so I went ahead and ran the app, then clicked on “Alice” on the home screen. She popped up with a smile blooming like a sunflower, and very energetically said this to me:

“Welcome home! It’s been so long, Master Shinobu!”

Fin.

Post-Story: If I’m Ever Reborn

The throne room of Izanach was where the master would sit. The crystal ball was set upon its throne, as if to enshrine said master.

Standing next to the throne was Gabriel, with her silver hair and maid outfit. She reverently greeted Shinobu, who was on the other side of the crystal ball, in the real world.

“Master Shinobu, great work on the negotiation the other day.”

“It was honestly all thanks to your advice,” he chuckled wryly, shrugging.

“It was nothing, sir. You were the one who took a risk and sealed the investment.”

Shinobu lips parted for a moment, then he gave a large yawn. “Sorry, Gabriel. I’ve got an early shift tomorrow...”

“In that case, you had better hurry to sleep, Master. Good night.”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow.” The light from the crystal ball disappeared.

Having watched the call end, Tsukuyomi sighed, exasperated. “As an archangel, your intellect far surpasses that of humans, so you can predict group psychology with ease... But even so, isn’t it quite problematic to recommend him a two hundred percent yearly investment plan? You’re hitting the mark a little too precisely, wouldn’t you say?”

Gabriel didn’t falter at all. “Master Shinobu is the hero who saved our world. Heroes must be given the most fitting rewards.”

Tsukuyomi furrowed her brow. “Shinobu just thinks we’re well-designed AIs that understand investing, but isn’t that in itself an issue?”

“Heroes have a right to receive rewards.”

The goddess of the moon sighed. “Well, with how stable he likes his finances, he’s sure to only invest a bit of money. If he gets a lot in return, be sure to teach him properly, all right?”

“Hm? But I was planning on having his assets grow larger than those of global billionaires...”

“No! Do not do that! That would be a serious problem!”

“Why? He’s a hero... Or rather, the king of this world. He requires a fitting reward—”

“I keep telling you—Shinobu is a normal office worker working a normal job. Keep your assistance to helping him pay for the down payment on a house!”

Alice, watching the two of them banter, giggled. “You two really don’t change, do you?”

Tsukuyomi shook her head. “Of course we don’t. But... Shinobu started working for a company, and Megumi’s attending a national graduate school. A lot has changed for them.”

Alice nodded softly. “Speaking of Ms. Megumi... You guys know that she’s been accessing us via Mr. Mikagami’s app, right?”

“We do. What about it?”

Alice’s expression darkened ever so slightly. “She sometimes asks me for advice, and, well... There’s a bit of a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“It seems...she’s suffering from the same problem as me.”

Tsukuyomi narrowed her eyes. “If it’s the same as yours, then...”

“Precisely.”

“But he’s her brother!”

Alice nodded lightly but firmly. “That’s why things aren’t looking good.”

***

Megumi Iijima

After I graduated from high school, I went on to college, then was accepted into a research program for cultural history at a graduate school.

I’m still living with my brother, but our living situation is better than when I was in high school. I’d gotten myself a well-paying part-time job as a private tutor, but once Shinobu entered the workforce, he started making good money from his investments, so we’ve even been able to go on vacations recently.

That aside, grad students are always busy. I had staring contests with historical documents every day, trying to write my thesis. My professors invited me to stay at the university, but working in an academic post (university researchers such as professors and the like) was notoriously risky finance-wise, unless you were a genius of some sort. I’d gotten my teaching license, so realistically, one of my options was becoming a school teacher. That decision would be left for my future self, however.

With all that going on, I was spending my days drowning in study materials. No, wait—thinking about it, I’d become genuinely serious about studying ever since I started living alone with my brother. That was probably because I knew how hard he was working to support us, and he’d flat out told me to study hard.

So, that’s who I am. And I’ve been worrying about something recently.

Looking objectively at my daily life, as a woman over twenty, I was decidedly...clumsy when it came to relations with the opposite sex.

It wasn’t like I wasn’t interested in romance. In fact, I was enamored with the idea of it. The thing was, the number of years I didn’t have a boyfriend was equal to my age. That was why I occasionally went on group dates with my friends when suggested, but...

“Would you like to have dinner sometime? Just the two of us?”

Whenever I received a message like that from a new acquaintance on LIME, I always sent the same response: “I’m sorry, I’m too busy...”

If I’d only done this once or twice, it could be explained away by compatibility issues. But totaling the sum all the way from my first year of college, it didn’t just include group date partners—it included coworkers, people from my friend circles... Many different people expressed interest in me, but I gave each and every one of them the same response.

Since that’s how severe it was, even I would eventually be forced to accept the truth:

I can’t open my heart up to the opposite sex.

And I was pretty sure I knew the reason for that.

You know how everyone had their ideal image of the opposite sex? For example, their preferred types. Stuff like that. Well, people would bring it up in conversation at every opportunity they got, and so I’d tell them, without any intention of hiding it:

The person that my subconscious conjured was my brother.

In other words, I had an extreme brother complex.

I was utterly shocked when I realized that, but it wasn’t like I had any interest in him personally, as a person of the opposite sex, or sexually. Even now, Shinobu maintained an odd, strong sense of responsibility. I knew, because I’d spent all those years with him as his only family. In that sense, there was no logical fallacy in saying that he was my ideal figure of the opposite sex.

And I mean, he had a fiancée named Ms. Kaori anyway, so my only choice was to wait for someone like my brother to become my object of affection. If no such person ever appeared, there was nothing I could do about it. I wasn’t old enough to start panicking, so I was fine with how things were for the time being.

People around me called me an “iron maiden” behind my back, so maybe that was why I had started receiving silent calls on my phone. The first few times, I was just like, “Man, a lot of people have been misdialing me lately,” but they’d started to become a regular thing, even coming in the middle of the night.

Naturally, I found it creepy, so I set my phone to not receive calls at all, but that wasn’t enough to calm the sense of foreboding spreading in my heart.

That was what I’d been dealing with as of late.

***

That day, I stayed a bit longer than usual at the university.

The deadline for my thesis was coming up, so I was doing the final touches under my professor’s instruction.

The clock had hit 10 p.m. before I knew it. No people were around, and the campus cafeteria was closed.

“It’s gotten late...” I lifted my bag onto my shoulder and sighed lightly.

I wasn’t fond of having to return home around this time, but there was nothing I could do about it. I set off on my usual path home.

A cold breeze brushed my skin. Streetlights dimly lit up the road, casting long shadows over the asphalt.

There’d been other times I’d had to go home late, so I was used to walking at night, but there was something different about this day.

I could feel someone watching me from behind.

I sped up my pace without thinking about it, the bad feeling spreading.

The presence behind me came closer, as if to match my speed. It seemed like it hadn’t been my imagination after all—there was someone following me.

My throat grew dry, but I kept walking, pretending to be calm.

Then, right when I turned a corner—

“Hey.”

A low voice resounded behind me.

My feet involuntarily came to a stop. Turning around, a familiar face was standing there.

Oh, this guy is...the man I met at that group date about half a year ago?

I accidentally gulped. An unsettling craze was evident on his face, his smile sending chills through me.

He didn’t blink at all. “Are you going home alone? This late at night?”

I tried to keep my voice as level as possible. “Do you need something?”

He took a step toward me. That action made my spine freeze up.

“You know what? I’ve been really interested in you...”

I didn’t answer.

“...for a looong time now.”

His hand shot out and grabbed my upper arm.

“If you try to run or resist, you’re in for a world of pain.”

Why? Why...is this happening?

That’s when I realized how foolish I really was.

This guy was behind the silent calls.

There’d been signs, yet I’d ignored them and put myself in the path of danger. This man hadn’t actually done anything to me, so the police would’ve just turned me away at the door even if I’d asked them for help. But even so, I should’ve at least taken basic safety measures such as not walking alone at night.

If only I had something to defend myself with.

As I lamented my own lack of caution, the man pulled something out of his pocket. My heart leaped—it was a knife.

Oh no.

This...is really, really bad.

The blade glinted coldly in the moonlight, and a fear that froze my soul pulsed.

He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?

The word “murder” came up in the news every day like it was nothing. Everyone was so used to it that it would pass them by.

That very word was upon me then. Realizing that, blood drained from my face.

“Ah... Ah...” I wanted to scream out to alert the whole neighborhood, but my voice stalled and my knees shook. The only thing I could do was stand there.

At that moment—

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

As if tearing up the silence, a low voice I knew all too well rang out.

Standing before us was my brother.

When I saw him there, illuminated under the streetlamps, the nerves that were strangling me let up slightly.

“Who the hell are you?” The man pointing the knife at me glared at Shinobu.

“Same goes for you. The fuck are you doing to Megumi?”

The man swung his knife at my brother, who ducked to dodge it, then used his whole hand to backhand both of the man’s eyes. He didn’t punch him or poke his eyes out; just slapped him.

“Argh!” The man brought the hand without the knife to his face, as if to cover it. “Gah... Ack...!”

Shinobu punched him square in the stomach, grabbed his other wrist, then stole the knife with unbelievable ease.

My brother took a deep, deep breath, then yelled louder than I’d ever heard him before.

“Excuse me! You, over there! The police! Please, call the police!”

I turned behind me. Some ways away from us stood my professor, who’d probably been on the way home.

***

After giving the full story at the police station, the sky was already starting to lighten up once we got home.

I was exhausted, shakily preparing myself cream of corn soup in the living room.

“Shinobu... I didn’t know you knew martial arts or defense techniques.”

“I don’t, though.”

“Then what was all that earlier? It was incredible.”

“I’m surprised, myself. Was a spur-of-the-moment kinda thing.”

“Spur-of-the-moment?” I handed his mug to him, then sipped on my own.

“My only option was to hit him in the eyes. Even normal people can do that much. And since I wanted to get the knife out of his hand, I waited until he finished swinging at me. Would’ve turned into a brawl otherwise. I didn’t try to go around him or anything, just went straight for the knife, hoping I wouldn’t die. I really could’ve gotten hurt.”

He was speaking so lightly it sent chills through me.

“You could’ve died, yet you thought rationally and made on-the-spot decisions. I don’t think normal people can do that, Shinobu.”

“I wonder why that happened? I can’t believe it either.”

“It was as if...you’re used to fights. Or at least, that’s how it felt.”

The two of us thought about it for a while, but came to no conclusions.

“Oh, by the way, how did you know I was in trouble in the first place?” I put my mug down and looked at Shinobu.

He avoided my gaze for a second, then took a quiet breath. “I don’t really know.”

“Huh?”

“My mind got all fuzzy out of nowhere while I was on my way home from work. I saw a weird dream.” He laughed bitterly. “To tell you the truth, it was one of the AI characters from that app you use for advice. You know, the one with Alice, Gabriel, and Tsukuyomi? They told me you were in trouble through a daydreamlike vision.”

“What...?”

“I was running before I knew it, and then found you in trouble.”

That was unbelievable. I was at a loss for words, but my brother’s expression was completely serious.

“But... If that’s true...”

Shinobu clutched his mug, whispering while staring at the dim light of dawn seeping through the window. “Maybe we’re...being protected.”

“Shinobu? That app was made by a really passionate fan of that one game, right?”

“Yeah, his name’s Mr. Mikagami.”

“The thesis I’m writing at uni is about the cultural history surrounding gods inhabiting objects, and...”

“You mean tsukumogami?”

“Yes. People from long ago thought that gods could reside in tools with strong emotional attachments, like dolls. In this case, even though they’re characters in a game... If their creator was really that passionate...”

Saying that much made me realize how far gone I was. I’d just been involved in an incident a few hours prior, so I was probably just sleep-deprived.

“Ha ha.” I laughed to try and cover it up. “I think I’m too tired to figure it out.”

My brother just nodded, seeming strangely satisfied. “I see. You never know... Things like that might just be true.”

“No way!”

“If it is, then we’ll have to give our thanks to them.”

***

The throne room of Izanach.

Tsukuyomi quietly observed. “Theoretically... Is there any way we’ll ever get to meet him again, Gabriel?”

“We are not immortal beings—and that’s not even mentioning Alice. Beyond soul reincarnation, and even further beyond the world of the dead... If we were to be reborn, in a world that isn’t this one, in a future that isn’t the present... Perhaps it may be possible.”

Alice whispered upon hearing those words. They seemed to have stirred something in her. “In a world that isn’t this one, and a future that isn’t the present... Huh.”

“What’s wrong, Alice?” Tsukuyomi asked.

Alice chuckled shyly. “In that place, at that time, Ms. Kaori and Master Shinobu won’t be married, will they?”

“You never know. They could be. I can’t imagine their love for each other would change just because they were reborn.”

Alice clenched her fist. “In that case, I’m just gonna have to make my move before that happens!”

Gabriel and Tsukuyomi exchanged glances, then both shrugged, exasperated.

This girl.

Afterword

After all is said and done, this is the final volume.

I think it wrapped up well, if I do say so myself, but what do you think?

This series was originally a web novel I uploaded so long ago that I can barely remember it. Around when I finished writing the first volume, I switched focus to my other work, I Am a Villager, What About It?, so this one ended up “eternal” (never to be updated again). For this work to have an official publication that not only didn’t get axed but made it all the way to the finish line... I’m speechless.

Apparently, in this industry, I’m known for writing template power fantasy stories. That’s not wrong, but since this was the final volume, I tried writing about all sorts of things that deviate from the norm.

Usually, once you get used to writing stories like these, you learn to automatically eliminate the characters’ “burning wills” and such. If you ask me what I accomplished in this final volume, it’s that I let Alice go absolutely wild (LOL).

In my head, Alice was extremely intent on telling the protagonist her passionate feelings, so even though I knew it wasn’t good, my publisher gave me the green light to do as I pleased, since this was the final volume. In the early stages of this series, each character kinda just did whatever they wanted, but they’ve calmed down in recent years...

I treated them more like pro actors than characters, feeling like they were acting as the scenario progressed. Thanks to that, writing felt both nostalgic and fresh. It was a precious experience.

In the end, the question is, in a story where the main character is the strongest, do you treat the other characters as plot devices, or as people, to some degree? I wonder which.

There’ll never be an answer, but I think this volume served as a good platform for that question to be presented to me.

I haven’t uploaded web novels in recent years, focusing entirely on manga scenarios. People only seem to want Shiraishi the Businessman’s skills in the template power fantasy stories, but writing this volume got me thinking... In the next few years at least, with these power fantasy stories as a base, maybe I could bring myself to upload more works like these ones. Why am I thinking this? Well, it’s really just because it’s fun to write characters with such strong wills (laughs). With this series’ original version featuring characters like that, it makes me feel like back then. I was really writing, not just working. How should I put this... It’s like I realized what it means to never forget your original intent. Let’s just say Shiraishi has a new flame lit within him.

Also, in the original version, sci-fi elements were present too. I really wrote whatever I wanted, didn’t I? It’s like I put the “chuunibyou,” or rather, “kounibyou” (middle school and high school cringe eras) ideas I’d fantasized about in middle and high school directly into the story. “What is a ‘world,’ even?” That pure question from those days was funneled right in there.

Now that I’ve written all this in this afterword, I have to wonder if it was really okay for me to do anything and everything I wanted in this volume just because it was the last one. But this is just one of the many correct ways to write a work, from the perspective of what makes one what it is.

Hmm... Yeah, I won’t be getting the answer anytime soon.

See what I’ve been worrying about? Leads me to believe that the only way to arrive at “my inner truth” is to explore many different things, in a “three steps forward, two steps back” kind of way.

Changing the subject completely, I’ll express my words of gratitude at the very end here.

To my editor: Thank you so, so much for allowing me to revive an ancient work all the way to completion!

To Yunagi, who decorated every single volume with beautiful illustrations: Thank you so, so much!

Then, to the proofreaders, sales representatives, and everyone who was involved in this production: Thank you all very much! With your help, I was able to write to the finish line.

And more than anything, the biggest thanks to you all, the readers!

Thank you, everyone!