Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 18 - Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Homes, Sweet Homes

Paladin, Ray Starling

It went without saying, but arenas were extremely important to Gideon. They were the reason why it was called “the City of Duels,” and it was the only city in this world that boasted a whole thirteen of them. One could say that they were the skeleton that defined Gideon’s shape.

Normally, someone in charge of the city would never even think of letting them go.

However, the count had explained himself a little further. “There are two reasons that made the eighth arena unnecessary for us,” he’d said.

The first reason was fairly obvious: its poor location.

Back when it was a city-state and a few centuries after it had become a part of Altar, Gideon didn’t have any problems of that sort, but over time the eighth district became an unlawful place. By the time the Count Gideon of several generations earlier realized this, it had already felt as though the place had always been in such a state. This had caused commonfolk to start avoiding the eighth district, and as it became a hot spot for outlaws and groups in the legal gray zone—such as pimps and thieves—the eighth arena began seeing less and less activity.

Another reason for the drop in activity was that the eighth arena was still a publicly run, clean establishment that hadn’t become corrupted by the lawless district where it stood, and with the locals preferring to bet on the more intense, unofficial underground events, even the people living right next door almost never visited it. It wasn’t uncommon for there to be duels hosted at the eighth arena without a single spectator.

Despite that, the barrier equipment required regular inspections and maintenance which could only be done by experts, whose services did not come cheap. Combined with the cost of cleaning and maintenance of other facilities, the eighth arena had become unprofitable to run.

The second problem was that as the spectators decreased, so had the number of duelists. Due to Gloria’s attack and the previous war, Gideon’s arenas had lost a significant number of their fighters, tian and Master alike. Some of those fighters had been rankers.

And with the duelists—the entertainers themselves—leaving, the city’s dueling industry suffered an overall decline. This was made worse as more and more wealthy Altarians moved to other countries and the kingdom’s economy suffered. These days, the only duels that could attract a full arena of spectators were those between high-rankers as well as special events like The Clash of the Superiors. There were also fewer people renting dueling areas for sparring matches, and the eighth arena almost stopped being used entirely.

And with every arena’s revenue dropping, the deficit at which the eighth was being run had become worse than ever.

That was when Count Gideon had begun to consider letting go of the arena.

The Gideon family had stored away immense wealth that would keep the city financially secure for now, but that obviously wasn’t unlimited. The treasury was also losing significant amounts to things like rewards to Masters, so the count wanted to reduce his losses somehow.

At first, he’d thought of giving the arena away to the royal family so the knights could use it as a training area, but decided against that because a location situated in a district often known as “The Town of Vices” seemed like an inappropriate donation to a royal lineage.

Instead, he’d gone on to look for someone to sell it to. Even though it was in a bad location, an arena was superb real estate that many powerful clans would desperately want to have.

However, the clan at the top—The Lunar Society—was an awful group on which to bestow that particular benefit. Considering their negotiations with the royal family, it wasn’t unlikely that they would use the arena as a base of operations from which they would spread their influence into the eighth district—and then the rest of Gideon.

The count had then considered K&R, which conveniently boasted a number of prominent duelists among their ranks, but he wasn’t sure about the morality of selling such a property to a PK clan. In a way, they seemed like an even worse option than the religious group.

The once-great Babylonian Battlegroup was no longer active enough for such a purchase, while AETL Union, which was a combination of the princesses’ and Liliana’s fanclubs, would never leave their idols’ home in Altea.

Holding on to the eighth arena was a net negative, yet the count couldn’t find a viable potential buyer.

Just when he was at a loss for what to do with it, a new clan appeared on the scene, and its name was Death Period.

In other words...us.

When he heard that we were looking for a base here in Gideon, the count saw it as an opportunity to finally sell the eighth arena.

We were Altar’s top second clan, we were trustworthy, and we had the power to set up in the eighth district without a problem—in fact, there was a chance that the locals would fear us and our presence would act as a deterrent against lawlessness. We even had the duel champion, Figaro, so selling it to us meant giving him easy access to the arena facilities for training and the like.

We were also a clan that had a whole four Superiors, which was unheard of here on the western side of the continent, so the count was sure that we would have the money to purchase it as well as the funds to maintain it.

Basically, we were the best potential buyers the count could ever ask for.

The price, by the way, was 15,000,000,000 lir for a full purchase or 500,000,000 lir for yearly rent.

“...That’s cheaper than I’d have guessed,” Shu and I said in unison.

“HUH?!” Io and Fujinon exclaimed, also in unison.

Their response really highlighted how absurd my words really were.

My sense of scale here is a real mess, huh? I thought. That’s probably because even the armor I’m wearing is worth 200,000,000 lir.

Shu also was a guy who could spend billions on a single battle. There were few things King of Destruction destroyed better than his own bank account.

Purchasing the arena was a bit too expensive even for us, though. Due to the recent payments they’d had to make, Shu’s and Figaro’s finances weren’t in a good state right now, so we couldn’t buy the place even if we pooled everything we had.

The yearly rent, however, was perfectly payable. I had eight billion on me, so I could cover the first year with just my pocket money.

And apparently these prices actually were on the cheaper side. The historical and functional value of an arena was astronomical, but the count had priced this one after considering its location and deterioration from age.

“...It’s a hell of a facility to have, though,” I said.

The arena was all that we wanted out of a base and then some. First of all, there were personal rooms. Just like the other arenas, this one had box seats, all of which were equipped with air conditioning and the like. All they needed was some furniture to become high-class hotel rooms.

Since there were a whole twelve of them and since Figaro and Hannya would live at Figaro’s home, there were more than enough for each of us. We might have difficulties if we got a few more members, but in that case we could then just use the waiting rooms or remodel the place to make new ones—the count said that we were allowed to do that. We didn’t even have to make a deposit.

The building also had the large baths that the girls wanted so much. An arena was, in a way, a sports facility, so it wasn’t surprising that it would have places for people to wash off the sweat. They were properly split into men’s and women’s baths too.

Io and Fujinon took a look at them and said that though they needed some cleaning, they were up to par.

There was a space the arena’s staff used for meetings, which could easily function as a meeting room for our clan. And the building obviously had the space for monsters that Rook and Kasumi wanted. Designed to enable even battle royales, the arena stage itself was more than large enough for that.

Of course, we couldn’t ignore the cafeteria that Nemesis insisted we have. Though, since we had no cook, we’d have to hire someone or cook for ourselves.

Somewhat unexpectedly, though, we also had the pool that Marie and Babi wanted.

Just like the Roman Colosseum was used for various kinds of events, so was this arena equipped with functions to support several types of competitions. Among these were aquatic contests, and thus the stage could be turned into what was essentially a pool.

Of course, filling it up with water would be costly and maybe take some time, but the arena was properly supplied in that regard. Though, considering how little business this place was having recently, the pipes would probably have to be checked first.

Ignoring Shu’s “popcorn factory” request, the arena ticked every box our clan had. On top of that, it offered a barrier function that none of us had even considered.

The advantage of having a duel barrier in your base was immense. It would let us freely test new combat tactics and skills, as well as spar without worrying about how much longer our reservation would last. We didn’t have to care about any prying eyes either, and that might end up being the most beneficial thing of all.

All of this combined made the arena perhaps the best base we could have here in Gideon. It seemed like a miracle that we even had the opportunity to buy it.

The only real problem with it was the price.

“So buying it is thirty years of rent... What do you think, bro?” I asked Shu.

“Time’s thrice as fast here, so that’s ten years IRL,” he said. “I’m pawsitive we won’t be movin’ away furom it, so it’s cheaper to just buy it. Though, it’s hard fur us to get the money fur the purchase right now.”

“Yeah. It’s a pretty serious deal, so I think we should discuss it with the rest of the clan first.”

Sure, they entrusted the matter of the base to me, but this feels like too important a purchase to make without their approval... I thought.

“Huhhh? You know you can pay the rent for the first year and then just save up the money to buy it later, riiight?”

Oh yeah. That’s an option.

Shu was funneling his wealth into ammo and Figaro also wasn’t in a good situation financially, but after the thing with Dryfe was over, we’d have plenty of time to gather the billions to own the property permanently.

“Also, it’d be pretty awful if you saved up to buy it only for the kingdom to go bye-bye by next yeeear. It won’t hurt as much if you just rent it for a year, will iiit?”

“If that’s a joke, I’m not laughing... Hold on.”

That was when I realized that I was hearing a familiar voice that didn’t belong here. Turning around...

“Eh he!”

...I saw an eldritch abomination.

Yes—Miss Eldritch Abomination herself.

“...And so we’re joined by the fox,” said Shu.

“That you are, Mr. Beaaar,” she said in response.

This reminded me of my first encounter with her.

But how did she...? Oh, I get it now, I thought as I held up my left Miasmaflame Bracer, ready to fire it into my own shadow.

A moment later, a silhouette jumped out of it and, upon landing on the ground, corrected its posture and gave me a bow.

“...Tsukikage.” Another familiar face—Miss Eldritch’s right-hand man, Eishiro Tsukikage.

“Greetings,” he said. “You noticed me faster than you did before.”

Of course I would, I thought. I had no idea how long they’d been there, but apparently they were both hiding in my shadow.

“So...why are you two here?” I asked.

“We saw you, so we decided to follow you,” she said. “Nothin’ more to it!”

“Who in their right mind slips into a guy’s shadow just because they see him?! Why are you in Gideon in the first place?!”

“Hmm? We’re here for The Tournaments, of couuurse. We gathered some volunteers from our faithful and brought ’em all with uuus!”

That was a bit of a shock to me. Thinking about it now, The Lunar Society did have the right to participate in that event, but...

“...You know you have to sign a Contract to participate in it, right?” I asked. She obviously wasn’t the type to tie herself down, especially after just being freed from one such obligation.

“You don’t gotta go to war if you don’t want the extra rewards,” she said. “And we don’t do crime, anyway, so signin’ a Contract that prevents that doesn’t mean anythin’. The Lunar Society is a clean religious organization.”

“...Correct me if I’m wrong, but you did kidnap me, right? Also, Azurite said you implied you’d be willing to commit acts of terrorism.”

“Huhh? You’re a Master, and as you suuurely know, crimes against Masters aren’t criiimes. And implyin’ somethin’ isn’t the same as doing it, is iiit?”

...Her face as she said that was so annoying. It felt like she was in a better mood than usual and wanted to make it as obvious as possible.

“Well, whatever,” I said. “At least we won’t have to worry about The Lunar Society doing anything stupid in the kingdom.”

“Whaddya mean? We only brought less than a third of our fighters. The rest can still do whatever they want. Kage isn’t in the tourney either, so that’s another negotiating card I can playyy!”

Yeah, I should’ve expected something like this, I thought. I could totally understand why Azurite called her “parasite.”

“By the way, you buyin’ this arena?” she asked.

“That’s the plan... What about it?”

She put in an even wider smile and said, “If you’re not takin’ it, I thought we should pick it up instead. A little bit o’ blackmail and some negotiatin’ and the count would—”

“Count Gideon, we’ll take one year’s worth of rent for now, please. I’m paying out of pocket.”

“Oh. Excellent. Thank you very much.”

Not wanting Miss Eldritch to have this establishment, I instantly agreed to the rent arrangement.

Thus, it was decided that this arena would be Death Period’s base.

Miss Eldritch, by the way, instantly left, shouting, “I’ll get back at you in The Tournameeeent!” as she did.

“...What did she come here for, anyway?” I wondered.

“Fur you. To light a fire under ya, to be precise,” said Shu. A fire? “If she really wanted to take the arena, she’d have gotten it without tellin’ us a thing. All she came here to do was act unbearable, annoy you, incite you...and motivate you to rent this place.”

“Huhhh...?”

“Also, she said that Tsukikage won’t pawrticipate in The Tournaments...but that implies that she herself will. That was a roundabout way of sayin’ that she won’t commit any crimes against the kingdom.”

“...I see.” She’s shady, openly awful at times, and filthy when it comes to money...but I suppose she’s not rotten to the core, at least... Even if she did kidnap me once.

“Anyway, we got our base now,” said Shu.

“Yeah,” I said. “Hm...?”

As I nodded to his words, I noticed that he was looking at the eighth arena. His real eyes were hidden by his costume, so I mostly had to guess from body language and stuff, but it felt like he was putting on a so-called “distant look.”

It seemed like he was looking at the arena, but it felt like his eyes were fixed at something else entirely.

We just got a base for our clan... Does he find that significant in some way I don’t quite get right now?

◇

After signing the contract, we told all the other clan members that we got a base and had everyone—except Lei-Lei, of course—gather at the eighth arena.

The fact that the base was an arena was so unexpected that even Rook looked surprised.

Despite the shock, though, all of them approved of my decision. In fact, the more experienced among us were extremely happy to have an environment where they could test out the aces up their sleeves without worrying about anyone seeing them.

And I’m glad they like it, I thought.

“But man... The crazy good armor, the money for the powder, Big or Small, the axe, and now this arena. That’s a lot of things to get in one day...”

I felt like all of this was a little too lucky.

Nemesis often noted that my luck was on the bad side, so this made me concerned about what would happen once the pendulum swung back and I had to pay my dues for all the good luck I’d been having today.

“I understand why you would harbor such worries, but I do not believe they are necessary,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because nothing that you received today was by mere luck. The material you exchanged for armor and money was your reward for defeating the whale. The bracelet and axe were your rewards for your part-time job uncursing the items in the vault. And it is because of your hard work that this arena has remained here and Count Gideon began to trust you enough to make this offer. All you have received is merely the results of your actions. It just happened to arrive on the same day. There is nothing more to it.”

“...Really?”

“Be proud! Your actions deserve to be acknowledged!” she said, poking my chest.

Her words and actions made my anxiety wash away.

“Thanks for that, Nemesis.”

“That’s the spirit!” she said with a bright smile.

“Yep, she’s completely right,” added Marie as she barged into the conversation. “As someone who has watched you since your early days here, I fully agree with her!”

Nemesis seemed dissatisfied with Marie’s sudden appearance and her words, apparently struggling to keep herself from pointing out that Marie was actually responsible for my first death penalty.

“By the way, Ray,” Marie continued. “Wouldn’t you say that now is a good time to use it?”

“Use...what?”

“The thing you told us about yesterday! The ticket you won at the event!”

“...Oh!” So much had happened that I’d almost forgotten about the ticket.

I’d recently participated in a battle royale event at an uninhabited island—The Anniversary—and since I was one of the three winners, Cheshire had given me a gacha ticket that guaranteed an S-rank pull.

“You’re also participating in tomorrow’s Tournament, aren’t you? I’d say it’s a great time for you to power up. And let’s not forget you’ve just gotten a perfect environment to train and maybe test out whatever you pull.”

Marie was right—it seemed like there was no better time to use it than now.

Juliet and Alto had both gotten MVP rewards from their tickets, and Rook’s natural S-rank pull had also given him an MVP reward, so if that happened to me too...I’d have my fourth.

Though, since the MVP rewards from gacha were adjusted to suit the late tians who’d once had them, whatever I received might end up difficult for me to use—which was why I would probably need to test it in our arena before tomorrow’s Tournament.

I reached into my inventory and took out the ticket, making everyone gather around.

“...What is it about gacha that makes you want to watch people pull?”

“Let me explain, Fujinon,” said Marie. “It’s because people are attracted to things that have an unknown result. Also, if it’s other people pulling, you don’t suffer at all even if the pulls are trash.”

“...Marie,” I said. “This ticket guarantees an S-rank pull. It literally can’t be trash. Whatever comes out will be worth at least the maximum amount you can put into the gacha, which is 10,000,000 lir.”

“But in your case, it can easily be a hundred-in-one set of Tomb Labyrinth Exploration Permits, don’t you think?”

“...Don’t joke like that...please.” I’d pulled even more of those after the second one...

At least the unsigned ones can be sold... I thought.

“R-Ray, are you certain about this?” asked Nemesis. She’d been encouraging me just a few minutes ago, but even she looked concerned now.

“D-Don’t worry, Nemesis... I’m not that unlucky.”

My luck really wasn’t good, but yeah...

“But...when it comes to gacha, you are predisposed towards downright comedic pulls.”

“I’m not gonna accept that assessment!”

“I still believe you should save it,” she insisted. “Considering how the gacha has been until now, you should pull when you are cornered and out of options. Does it not seem like you might receive something very powerful then?”

“I don’t wanna rely on gacha in a situation like that!”

“But think about how it’s been in the past...”

“No! My past self was weak! Here and now, I will surpass it!”

“I would prefer it if you did not waste such impressive words on something as mundane as a gacha pull...”

Shaking away Nemesis’s words, I mustered up my courage and used the ticket! It dissolved into shining bits of light and a rainbow-colored crystal appeared in my hand as though to replace it. This was an S-rank capsule, just like the one Rook had gotten on his pull.

I’d used the gacha many times since then, but this was the first time I had an S-rank capsule myself. I was overwhelmed, but the S-rank was guaranteed in this case. The real challenge began now.

“...Hm?” Hidden within the crystal’s rainbow light, I noticed a bunch of letters written on its surface. It said Open only in spacious areas. “...This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this text.” The capsule that had given me Silver had it as well.

“In that case, the prize within the capsule must be at least as large as Silver,” said Nemesis. “That rules out most kinds of equipment.”

“And it’s definitely not a Permit or anything. What a relief...”

“...You were actually worried?”

“...Yeah. I put on a bold face, but I’m well aware of my gacha luck...”

“If only you were aware of your fashion sense, as well...”

Anyway, it was time to open the capsule. We needed a large space, but we now had a whole arena stage for that. There was enough surface area there for even a large ship.

Hell, if we got something that was too big for the arena, you could say that I really hit the jackpot.

And so, with everyone watching from a safe distance, I went and opened the rainbow capsule.

After a bright flash of light, a large object stood before me.

“Stood” didn’t seem accurate, though, since it was floating.

“This is...?”

For a moment, I didn’t understand what I was looking at.

It was large enough that I had to crane my neck to see the top of it, as well as wide enough that I couldn’t have wrapped my arms around it.

Roughly cubic in shape, it seemed about three meters in both height and width.

At that moment, I realized that the object was actually a house floating a little more than fifty centimeters above the ground, and its name was “Carriage House of Legend.”

“Well it’s...not an MVP reward,” I observed. Ship and building MVP rewards did exist, but based on the naming, this wasn’t one of them.

According to the explanation, this thing was a house built by the King of Building from a long time ago. Since it floated, it was immune to earthquakes and the like, and it wouldn’t move even in the center of a raging storm. It was also too durable to be affected by regular attacks and even regenerated the damage done by the stronger ones. The owner could easily move it around too, making moving and setting it up really simple.

It even came with an inventory made specifically for it. All in all, this was a house that could be set up anywhere and at any time.

The inside was amazing, as well. Though it seemed small on the outside, looking in, I saw a whole bunch of rooms. It reminded me of B3’s dragon carriage, but this was a giant leap ahead of that.

And to top it all off...

“Oh. This house acts as a save point.”

It was a simple kind of save point that couldn’t be used if you were returning from a death penalty, but it was a save point nonetheless.

I’d heard that Xunyu had received a save point dragon carriage as a reward for her bodyguard duties, and this house here seemed like a similar kind of treasure.

“Ohh? Somebody I know said that items with save points are beary useful,” said Shu.

I see, I thought.

As far as houses went, this one here would certainly be counted among the best. I sure as hell didn’t pull trash this time, and it was no doubt worth more than 10,000,000 lir.

However...

“You pulled a house while celebratin’ gettin’ a house! It seems like a bit of a waste!”

“GUH...!” Io’s words made me drop to my knees.

I could sense the others thinking stuff like, Why would you point that out?

And so, this became a day on which Death Period received two houses.

I guess I really am predisposed towards joke pulls, huh...?