Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 20 - Chapter 2

Chapter Two: The Luxury Liner and Its Troublesome Passengers

About Goblin Street

Goblin Street had once been an Altarian PK clan that was infamous even by the standards of PK clans. Unlike other well-known PK groups like Mad Castle or K&R, Goblin Street had not hesitated to rob tian merchants as well.

Of course, this had gotten them on the wanted list, but the clan had been composed of high-level Masters and boasted King of Burglary, Eldridge as its leader. His great power as a single unit was evident, but he also excelled at analysis and was a skilled tactician.

Because of that, Goblin Street had been a PK clan that many knew and feared.

However, it had since suffered through five failures that had reduced the clan into the dirt.

First had been the counterattack to the blockade at Altea they’d put up alongside other PK clans. While Eldridge was away, they were attacked by a Superior, Lei-Lei, Prodigal of Feasts, who destroyed the clan for the first time. However, it hadn’t been a fatal blow to the group. Though many members who didn’t have save points in other countries were lost to the gaol, about half of them were spared. On top of that, it wasn’t as though Lei-Lei had defeated Eldridge—the strongest among them. Eldridge was a match for Superiors, and his clan still believed that he could win against them.

That belief had died with their second defeat, which came soon after they’d moved operations to the border between Caldina and Altar.

The members of Goblin Street had spotted a group that possessed a mobile save point carriage—an immense luxury only a few in Altar could boast. This treasure had both practical and monetary value that they simply couldn’t ignore.

Because of this, Eldridge and the rest of Goblin Street had tried to attack them, but luck hadn’t been on their side. As it turned out, the group was accompanied by one of Huang He’s Superiors—Xunyu. Her ultimate was a sure-kill skill that had torn out Eldridge’s heart and quickly given him the death penalty.

The other members had not stood a chance after that, and Goblin Street was destroyed for the second time.

This was when people began to leave the clan of their own accord.

After that, their third destruction came when they simply happened to be too close to The Earth, Fatoum, as he was making his way back home to Caldina. The Superior had sunk them along with an entire mountain—a luxurious burial, no doubt.

This defeat had led to people quitting the clan en masse even if they hadn’t been sent to the gaol. Whether they’d lost faith in Eldridge or simply noticed that their luck had run dry was uncertain, but there were still a few who stayed.

The next time was when they acquired a ship and tried their hand at piracy in Granvaloa.

However, right after they started, they stumbled upon another Superior, Great Admiral Antimicrobic Soy Sauce. The man nicknamed “The Human Bomb” had used his explosive powers to deliver Goblin Street’s fourth destruction. With that, the clan had lost almost all of its members, leaving only Eldridge himself, Niala, and Fey.

Then, they got their hands on another ship and tried to ply their trade in a part of the South Sea close to Tenchi—an area where Granvaloa had comparatively little influence. However, by some accident—which was starting to look like an inevitability—they encountered The Slash, Saki Muryo-Taisu, as she was rafting to the continent. This meeting ended quickly, with the Tenchi Superior splitting them in two along with their ship.

This was their fifth destruction.

All of these defeats came at the hands of Superiors, which made this entire sequence of events quite unusual.

Regardless, it had left Goblin Street absolutely destitute. Not only had they lost their ships and dropped items upon each death, they were also forced to buy replacements for what they lost and repairs for the items they kept. By the fifth defeat, they had almost completely run out of funds.

Without money to buy a new ship, they had no choice but to travel by land to Caldina and spend some time making money through normal quests and monster hunts.

Odd as it might have been at this point, they suffered no absurd Superior encounters while doing this.

This had caused Niala to put on a contemplative face and speak of “karma” and “retributive justice,” something she called an “eastern proverb.” Of course, this wasn’t really a “proverb” at all, but a concept originating in Buddhism.

Eldridge had spent those days lost in negative thoughts. He’d been killed in an instant so many times now that he was questioning if he was worth anything at all. Up until now, he’d been able to analyze the strengths of his enemies and figure out a good way to counter them. However, Superiors kept killing him so fast he had no time to cook up any kind of plan. His self-worth had dropped so low that he began to believe that he was only strong by pre-Superior standards, and that he had no chance against the Superiors themselves.

He’d also started to feel bad for the two women that continued to stick with him even after all these failures.

They stay with me cause they believe Goblin Street can make a comeback, but what if I don’t actually have the power to make that happen? he wondered. Maybe the best thing to do here is to follow that armor-clad Barbaroy’s example and just end the clan.

In reality, the reason Niala and Fey continued to stick with Eldridge despite his recent failures had nothing to do with the clan—it was because of entirely different feelings. They would stay with him even if the clan stopped all its burgling activities entirely, but he had no way of knowing that.

Blind to their thoughts about him, Eldridge continued to worry about his Dendro future.

“Maybe I should talk to them about disbanding the clan. They’d probably be better off somewhere else. With a leader that’s not as pathetic...”

If he’d actually said that directly to them, the two might have revealed the actual reason they stayed around, and their relationships might have changed. Coincidentally, this was right about the time when their old country of Altar held the Love-Duel Festival.

Before he could actually convey any of that, though, something intriguing had reached his ears.

It was information that something of high value would be brought to the sand liner known as Eltram.

Eldridge had his doubts about the veracity of the rumor, but he also couldn’t deny that the implications if it was true were tempting.

Since this particular item would certainly be worth a great amount of money, claiming it and selling it off would help revitalize the clan and finally let him make up with the two girls who had put up with him for so long.

With that thought in mind, Eldridge entered the ship, ready to take its treasure.

◆◆◆

The first night since they boarded had passed, and the three were now at a relatively cheap café here on the ship.

Last night, they’d split up and gathered information, but they had yet to find out where they’d find what they were looking for. Then again, it was possible that it just hadn’t yet been loaded onto the ship.

Or maybe the info I got was false. Eldridge thought. If that was true, then there was no chance Goblin Street would make a comeback here. They’d have to return to doing simple guild quests again, and Eldridge feared that that would finally make the girls lose patience with him.

“Leader, I’m sure it will work out.”

“...Thanks, Niala.” Her encouraging words genuinely made him feel a bit better.

“This place is so big, though... It’s like a real luxury cruise ship,” said Fey.

“It’s so luxurious that even the third-class tickets cost us most of our savings,” said Eldridge. “This café is the cheapest here, but even that is so expensive I’m not sure we’ll have enough for all three of our daily meals.”

Their awful financial situation made the three of them sigh heavily.

“That’s exactly why we gotta get what we came here for, though. There’s still two more days left until we arrive at the final stop—Drac-Nomad. Everything will be fine as long as we find it before that...hm?”

Eldridge suddenly looked off in another direction.

“Leader?” Saying nothing, Eldridge signed to them to be quiet and crept closer to the pillar next to his seat, keeping his eyes fixed on one particular point.

There, he saw a Master who had a pretty face and a round, corpulent body.

That face, build, and crest... That’s Sefirot’s Moneygold. Eldridge was a man who gathered info about known Superiors and rankers so he could come up with ways to counter them. He’d obviously heard of Moneygold.

Why is he here? Is he after the same thing as us? No, I doubt it. But whether his goals were the same or not didn’t matter. What did matter was the fact that there was a Superior on this ship.

We go back to burglar stuff for the first time in forever and immediately, this happens... Maybe karma really does exist.

Overcome by a bad feeling and sensing an oncoming headache, Eldridge let out a deep sigh.

◇◇◇

Armored Pilot, Hugo Lesseps

It was the second day since we boarded Eltram—the day Moneygold would negotiate for the Orb.

Currently, we were having a conversation over a late breakfast.

“By the way, do we actually know anything about the Orb itself?” I asked. Since they’d already discussed a possible purchase, it seemed likely they’d been informed about the particulars.

And as I expected, Moneygold replied with a nod.

“We do. Apparently, it’s sealing a UBM that turns nonhumanoids into humanoids—monsters into tians, basically. And they say that the resulting tian is always beautiful.”

“That’s a very...specific effect.”

“The previous owner of the Orb was a slave dealer who allegedly sold monsters he’d turned into humanoids. I guess turning common Little Goblins into attractive men and women must make for some incredible profit margins.”

“The previous owner...? So you’re negotiating with someone who isn’t that previous owner, then?” I asked. Moneygold nodded again, his chin wrinkling as he did so.

“Turns out that the transformation is temporary, and the humans turn back into monsters in about three days. Of course, that made the buyers very upset, which put the other slave dealers in hot water. And so, as punishment for messing with the market, the other dealers sent a hit man after the scammer, and that was that.”

“That’s...wow.”

“It also could’ve been a disgruntled buyer who sent the hit man, though. If a beauty turned into a goblin while we were doing the deed, I’d be mad too. That would be traumatizing.”

How am I supposed to comment on that? I thought.

“Anyway, the one who offered me—or rather, offered the Caldinan congress—the task of taking the Orb from him is someone who actually worked for the late scammer. In the chaos after his boss’s death, he grabbed the Orb and skipped town. Problem is, he didn’t know what to do with the thing, and it could make him a target, so he wants to sell it as soon as possible.”

“I see.” It seemed like this person had the right idea—the thing at Cortana made it obvious that the Orbs could cause some serious trouble.

“What will you do with it after you buy it?” I asked.

“Bring it to the congress. That’s my job here,” Moneygold replied. “Huang He would be pissed if we beat the monster inside it and turned it into an MVP reward, so we gotta be careful. I really don’t think they should act so big when they’re the idiots who let the damn things get stolen and spread all over in the first place, though.”

Looking somewhat irritated, Moneygold took out a cigar, and Isara, who was standing next to him just like last time, cut the tip using her fingers and lit it up with a lighter. The cut part of the cigar was completely smooth, so I could only assume that was because of a job or skill she had.

“It’s such a pain,” he went on. “Cortana’s change of mayor and rebuilding efforts and whatever else caused their auctions to shut down for the foreseeable future, so this Orb business affects me too, damn it...”

Moneygold took a long draw of the cigar and let it out with a sigh.

Caldina had had nothing to do with the Orb theft in Huang He, so you could say the country was just an unfortunate victim. Cortana was a major trade center, and now thanks to the mayor’s death and the giant hole in the city, it couldn’t fulfill that function anymore. That clearly made Moneygold upset.

“The congress is still negotiating with Huang He. If it goes well, maybe we’ll get to do whatever we want with the Orbs.”

“But there’s no demand for that lewd Orb, is there?” Cyco asked.

I’m pretty sure the human transformation Orb can be used for other things, I thought.

“On the contrary—the demand for lewdness will exist as long as humanity does. If we were allowed to break it, I’d want it for myself,” said Moneygold.

“I thought this yesterday too, but...aren’t you just a bit too open about stuff like that?!”

“Perverted, fat freak,” Cyco said.

“What I’m worried about is that AR-I-CA would probably want it too,” Moneygold added.

“You’re not wrong!” I said.

“So many perverts...” Cyco said. “I hope you all die.”

The power to create lots of beautiful men and women? I thought. Teach would be all over that! And if they both want it...what if we get another Clash of the Superiors over something this stupid?!

“Well, moving on,” Moneygold said. “If Caldina gets permission to break the Orbs, we’ll be able to make up for the losses they caused us. That’s why I hope our prez comes out on top in the negotiations.”

“I really don’t think a bunch of MVP rewards can make up for the casualties...” In the end, MVP rewards were just equipment and materials usable by only one person. A few of these couldn’t possibly be enough to cancel out the damage suffered by Caldina’s largest trade center being put in such a dire state.

“Oh no—they will pay for themselves and then some. We’ll eventually acquire lots of new trade routes thanks to them.”

“Hm?” Trade routes? Did one of the Orbs have a power that makes it easier to travel on the desert? I wondered.

“Anyway, I have a question too,” he said, as if he was trying to change the topic and bring the conversation closer to the job at hand. “Did you memorize Eltram’s structure?”

“Yes,” I said. “I spent yesterday walking around everywhere that’s not off-limits and got a good idea of what’s where.”

“Well done.”

“It made me wonder, though...how many people are powering this ship, anyway?” Dendro was a world with magic and, specifically, magic power—usually known as MP. MP was a colorless type of energy that could be transformed into heat, electricity, wind, and many other kinds of energy, which meant that technological advancements were also generally powered by magic. Caldina’s sand-ships, Granvaloa’s powered vessels, Dryfe’s Magingears—everything like that required MP to run. Some larger ships were equipped with charged MP tanks, but if not that, the source of their energy was generally people.

And the more massive the thing was, the more MP it required to stay operational, so with Eltram being as big as it was, I couldn’t even imagine how much magic power it was draining.

“Zero,” said Moneygold. “This ship is powered by a restored core from the pre-ancient civilization.”

“Huh? They actually found a core?” That was really rare. I knew that the pre-ancient civilization had advanced technology that enabled them to build cores that produced magic power by themselves, but I hadn’t seen one since Ray’s Zephyrus Silver. Even that had been a small one, though. I definitely had never seen one large enough to move a ship this big.

“I didn’t even know they could be restored,” I said.

“There’re engineers that specialize in that,” said Moneygold. “The specialist who restored this ship’s core is particularly famous, though. If I remember right, the name is...Crys Fragment.”

“You mean people like that actually do exist?” I suppose Dryfe wasn’t the only country with skilled engineers.

“This person is mysterious and pretty damn weird, though. Crys has a knack for restoring all kinds of pre-ancient civ items and selling them to people right when they need it the most. For example, the large ship core installed here was sold to the biggest transportation company in Caldina. It’s high quality and barely needs any maintenance. Crys even went the extra mile and threw in a blueprint with ideas on how to improve the ship itself.”

Moneygold then took a break in favor of another smoke from his cigar.

“There were always plans to build gigantic sand-ships that would transport both passengers and cargo, but they were always scrapped because no one could solve their energy problems,” Moneygold went on. “Even I was surprised that someone restored and brought in a core that fixed it right away... Crys really should’ve sold it to me, though.”

His expression as he said that was the same as it was when he’d offered to buy White Rose from me.

Talking about this energy core made me think, though. If I had something like that—a smaller version, at least—wouldn’t it solve White Rose’s energy problem? Fran had made the robot for me, but because of its heavy Mythical alloy armor and focus on defensive skills, its biggest flaw was that I didn’t have enough MP to keep it running for long.

“You look like you’d like one too,” said Moneygold. “Be careful, though. The name ‘Crys Fragment’ is so famous that Caldina’s full of scammers using it to sell garbage.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I didn’t have Truth Discernment, after all.

This reminded me that Fran and the others in The Triangle of Wisdom had actually told me that they’d worked with a pre-ancient civilization energy core once.

Before the civil war, the army recognized the clan’s achievement with Marshall II and its mass production. They came to The Triangle of Wisdom with a well-preserved core that they had stored and requested that they create the strongest ever Magingear. They also provided limitless funding, letting the members go all out on their design...to which they responded by going too far and overloading the robot with gear and functions.

While my White Rose and Teach’s Blue Opera were experimental units Fran herself had built with Marshall II as a base, that robot was the result of the concentrated efforts of everyone in The Triangle of Wisdom—a golden unit I’d only seen in photos from that time. Unlike Marshall IIs, which were designed with mass production in mind, that Magingear was a one-of-a-kind super robot.

Unfortunately, it had disappeared somewhere during the mess of the civil war, and both Fran and the other members said that it felt like a big loss.

Actually...I wonder where it is right now.

◇

The ship arrived and stopped at the next city and the other party came aboard, just like Moneygold had told me.

“So what you want in exchange for this is Drac-Nomad citizenship and ten million lir so you can start a business, right?”

“Yes...that is all I want.”

Moneygold was negotiating with a man who was accompanied by a small child—the man’s daughter.

For a moment after I first saw them, I thought that they might’ve been Emily and that man who was always with her, just disguised as father and daughter like they had been back when I’d encountered them earlier. However, Moneygold had used some item he had to confirm that they were definitely the right people.

The negotiations were already approaching their end.

“It’s a deal, then,” said Moneygold. “We’ll also cover your living expenses here on the ship. We have a cabin for you too. You’ll get business funds and a place to live when you sign this and bring it over to a government office in Drac-Nomad.”

Moneygold then took out a coin pouch, a key, and a Contract and gave it to the man.

“You thought of everything...thank you so much,” said the man.

“I should be thanking you. I’m glad this went so smoothly.”

The two exchanged a handshake, concluding the trade.

“That’s one thing dealt with,” Moneygold said. The only ones here now were Moneygold, myself, and Cyco—Isara was leading the man and his daughter to their second-class cabin in a different part of the ship.

Moneygold was holding the Orb he’d just bought in one hand, using his other to smoke a cigar.

“You look like you’ve got a question,” he said, looking at me.

“Yes,” I said. “It’s about...the price you paid for that Orb.”

“The ability to open a business in Drac-Nomad, ten million lir in funds to get started, and a place to live sounds pretty good, but I know what you’re thinking. You think I could’ve gotten more for it, right?”

“...Yes.”

“Well, here’s your answer. The Orb is worth way more than that, and I could’ve paid ten, if not a hundred times more. There’s really no limit to how much I can spend, and if he’d been planning to raise the price sky-high, I was ready to respond in kind.”

Moneygold took out a wallet-like Inventory and turned it upside-down, letting the contents spill out on the table. The whole surface was covered by a pile of coins—some of them so valuable that almost nobody used them. I couldn’t even guess how much money there was in that mound, but a single glance was enough to know that all this was worth many billions of lir.

“But that didn’t happen, did it?” Moneygold said. “And since negotiating a price raise on something I’m buying would be stupid, our deal ended exactly as you observed.”

“Why didn’t that man try to raise the price?” Cyco asked.

“There’s people in this world who don’t have it in them to be vulgar,” said Moneygold, breathing out a cloud of smoke.

“People who can’t be vulgar? Do you mean people who are humble?”

“This isn’t about humility...I’m talking about those folk who can’t let their greed take the wheel even when they’re faced with the opportunity of a lifetime. The ones who can be charitably described as careful, and uncharitably as cowards.”

His words made it seem like he was making fun of the man for his inability to be greedy, but his tone and expression showed a different feeling.

“But that’s a kind of virtue,” Moneygold went on. “Overall, you’ll be happier if you’re like that.”

“Hm?” Cyco looked at him with a look of confusion on her face, which made Moneygold chuckle a little before he began explaining what he meant.

“Your threshold for happiness goes up as you experience more luxury. More delicious, more fun, more pleasurable, more wonderful... There’s no limit to human desires, but satisfying them comes with a price. This is especially obvious with desires you satisfy by paying for them. The amount of money you have to shell out just keeps on growing.” The man who claimed to be satisfied with just things that he could buy took one ultra high-value coin in hand. “A person becomes rich, gets a taste of luxury, and their desires spin out of control. Then they reach for luxury beyond their means and are brought down to ruin. That’s a common story, isn’t it?” he said, now looking at me rather than Cyco—and I wasn’t sure why.

“It is,” I said.

“And that’s why I try to satisfy my desires here. In reality, I just came back from delivering newspapers.”

I couldn’t even begin to imagine this embodiment of vulgarity and luxury as a simple paperboy. The idea left me speechless.

“Over here, I’m the definition of excess. My desires are always out of control—I’ve completely cut the brakes on them. When you consider that, the guy we just dealt with was much more of a proper human being than me, simply because he still has working brakes he could step on to stop himself,” Moneygold said, looking somewhat amused.

If it was true that he was only rich here and his real self was actually living in poverty, those might’ve been his honest thoughts.

◇

There was something else that Moneygold’s words reminded me of.

It was my...I mean, Yuri Gautier’s father.

He also satisfied his wishes with wealth, as well as someone whose desires had no brakes on them. He’d amassed great wealth in his own generation, took an actress—my mother—as his wife, and lived an extravagant private life. He’d used more money than he had to, always boasted about it to others, and was satisfied in being like that.

A vulgar nouveau riche—that was how most onlookers saw him. In fact, even mother had described him to me that way.

She’d hated him enough to tell her own daughter that her father was a bad person.

But contrary to those words, father had always been very nice to me. And I’d been told that after Fran disappeared and mother and I ran away, he’d actually changed the way he lived his life. I didn’t know if that was because of loneliness or something else. We’d stayed in touch after mother and I had run away, but we’d never talked about that.

I could remember how his voice sounded whenever we talked by phone, and it always seemed kinda happy. I also liked him and I liked talking to him, so I always looked forward to seeing him again.

But the last time I’d ever heard his voice was some time before last year’s Christmas.

That was because he...

◇

“This isn’t really related, but there’s something that bothers me about the guy himself. The one we just traded with, I mean,” said Moneygold, bringing my attention back from the past to the present. He sounded more serious than he had when he’d been talking about his desires or himself.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s the fact that he even managed to make it here. The power and presence of the Orb, and the desires and grudges surrounding them are no joke, but he—along with his daughter, might I add—were able to outrun it all and get to this ship in one piece. That confuses me. You know that, right now, both Caldina and its dark underbelly are really sensitive to anything related to those Orbs, right?”

The people of Caldina already knew that the horrible event at Cortana was caused by an Orb that had leaked into the country from Huang He, and that there were several other Orbs throughout the world. Teach had told me that people were already selling fakes that were made using modified Jewels.

“So you think there’s something suspicious about those two?” I asked.

“They themselves are fine. I can vouch for that. But...” Moneygold looked outside—toward the town growing distant behind us. “...Someone might’ve protected and led them here in secret.”

◆◆◆

Eltram, Stern, Deck

At the same time as Moneygold was voicing his concerns, a man was looking at the flowing scenery with a comms device against his ear.

He had an appearance that didn’t stand out from the crowd here on the luxury liner, but upon closer inspection one would notice that his right arm, hidden by a long sleeve, was completely covered in bandages without even an inch of skin showing.

“Rascal, it seems that the negotiations went through without a problem,” he—Great Soul Daoshi, Zhang Zangqi—said to the party on the other end of the comms line.

“I see. So you got them there just fine.”

“Yes.” The person on the other side was The Weapon, Rascal the Bloodonyx.

The one who’d secretly protected the merchant and his daughter until they’d made it to this ship was none other than Zhang—a supporting member of IF. This was the job he’d been given after he was done with his task in Cortana.

“You stay there and keep on gatherin’ data,” said Rascal over the comm.

“Very well.” From this point, Zhang’s task was the same as it had been in Cortana—the Orb would create conflicts, and he was to gather info about the combat abilities of those who gathered, as well as any other valuable data.

“Odds are that our activities as IF will increase in the near future. I’d like to complete our list of unavoidable threats and possible allies while there’s still time to do so,” Rascal said.

“I am aware.” Zhang knew that well, as he himself was one of the people IF had picked up through a conflict caused by an Orb.

“Also, Machina and I are going there too.”

“You’re going yourself...?!” Zhang was keeping his voice down for the call, but he still couldn’t hide his shock. Rascal had entrusted Zhang with everything in Cortana and the protection of the Orb as it made its way to the ship, and yet he would still be showing up here in person—the significance was obvious.

“Why...?” he asked.

“Because there’s somethin’ there that’s gonna cause trouble for us later if we don’t completely destroy or retrieve it.”

“Why not leave that to me?”

“You’d have no choice but to destroy it. I wanna retrieve it if I can. It’s precious,” said Rascal.

“Huhh?” said another voice on Rascal’s end of the line. “But I could probably make it too. It’s probably just a Pure-Dragon-type.”

“You’re the one who said that it’d be ‘stupidly expensive.’ And this is right after you made three of the so-called ‘cheaper’ Demi-Dragon-type versions. Do you have any idea how bad of a headache I got once I saw the recipe? You used up several types of rare mats you can only get in Ruins.”

“OWOWOWOW! STOP GRINDING YOUR FIST ON MY HEAD! THAT’S STRONG ENOUGH TO KILL A SMALL CHILD, YOU KNOW! Oh, wait, maybe don’t sto—OWOWOWOW...!”

“And then you went and said, ‘Oh. Just two would’ve been better for the unit’s balance. We didn’t need the third. Whoopsies!’ Seriously? Are you screwin’ with me?”

“NHHEEAAAAHH...!”

Zhang was conflicted, for he truly did not know whether to intervene in the ridiculous-sounding exchange on the other side of the comms unit.

“Anyway,” Rascal continued. “I’m going there, and that’s final. I’ll take care of some minor business first...and I should be there by tomorrow, early dawn, since it’d be a pain to get there when it’s too close to Drac-Nomad.”

“This vessel is set to arrive there tomorrow at noon.”

“If I get there at dawn, their reinforcements won’t make it. Everyone who can cover large distances fast has already been sent out. The only ones left are King of Toys, Grandmaster; The Fight, RAN; and their leader.”

“Sent out?” Rascal’s words made Zhang confused.

Drac-Nomad was the seat of the Caldinan congress, the country’s most important city, and Sefirot’s headquarters. How could it be that there were only three of them left?

“As you already know, King of Revelry, Moneygold is on that ship with you.”

“Yes, I’m aware.” Since he’d been in charge of protecting the man and his daughter during the negotiation, he obviously knew who they were negotiating with.

“Then there’s the three who were sent to the west. King of Termination, Albert Schwartzkaiser; God Hand, Yumeji Iryo; and God Hunter, Carl Lourlou. They ran into some Legendarians on the way there, though.”

Zhang was wondering how Rascal knew such details, but he quickly figured that IF probably had supporters like him all over Caldina.

“And The Earth, Fatoum; The Cannon, Eve Selene; and The Ace, AR-I-CA are all at Vennsayle the Lake City to the south.”

“Why are they there...?”

“Preparing for war. It’s not like they’ll activate the War Boundary, though.”

Most of Caldina’s combat power was focused in its Masters, and there were many clans of all sizes there. Because of that, unless Caldina was given a longer time to prepare than other countries, a sudden War Boundary activation would kick out an unusually high number of Masters. Even if it didn’t affect the country’s combat potential, it was worth avoiding its use for economic reasons.

“War? With who...? Wait, you said ‘south’...” Zhang was briefly befuddled by the sudden outpouring of information, but he soon came upon the answer.

“Yeah. When it learned about the Orbs, Granvaloa landed on Caldina’s shores. They actually sent all of the Seven Great Embryos of Granvaloa who can actually do shit on land.”

Those words shocked Zhang, since they meant that Granvaloa sent four of their Superiors.

“They’re negotiatin’ right now, but there’s no way it won’t fail. The south’s gonna be a hellscape dominated by wide-scale extermination specialists.”

That mental image made Zhang break out in a cold sweat—everyone involved in this conflict was extremely fearsome.

AR-I-CA rode a flying Magingear and used a Superior Embryo that granted foresight. Eve Selene had the Superior Embryo with the greatest combat range currently known. And then there was the man with unmatched magic power—the one the entire world knew as the “Magical Apex,” Fatoum.

All of them were known and feared in and out of Caldina. However, Granvaloa’s forces weren’t any weaker.

Miroslava Swampman had a Superior Embryo that was a gigantic amphibious superweapon. Scala Edwards rode a Superior Embryo that could break the sound barrier several times over, and Maude Edwards fired a Superior Embryo with absolute homing ability.

And then there was the man who could turn any liquid into explosives, making entire patches of ocean vanish. Known as the “Human Bomb” or the “Apex of the Four Seas,” he was a man who’d defeated an SUBM—Antimicrobic Soy Sauce.

Zhang had lots of combat experience, but even he couldn’t imagine how the battle would unfold. The only thing he knew for sure was that the resulting storm of devastation would be something beyond human comprehension.

“Wouldn’t it be better for me to go there instead?” he asked regardless. The destruction that would surely hit the south wasn’t bad enough to convince him to abandon his duties. If it was his role to gather combat data, then Vennsayle would be the best place for that after the negotiations failed.

Needless to say, however, there was almost no chance that even Zhang could survive an area being ravaged by Superior wide-scale exterminators.

“You need to value your life more,” Rascal said. “Like I said before, if you feel like you’re in danger of dying, you’re free to abandon your mission. I obviously wouldn’t send you into an environment like that—the odds of your survival aren’t ones I’d gamble on. I’ll leave the south to some Ideas. They can be replaced.”

“...Thank you,” Zhang said, appreciating Rascal’s consideration for his safety.

“Don’t mention it. Also, that ship you’re on may be attacked by a group of tians. They’re probably after the same thing I am. I want you to intercept them if it comes to that.”

“Understood.”

“Then again, if that happens, Emily might take to action before you do... Speakin’ of, is she wearin’ the accessory I sent her?”

Rascal was referring to a piece of equipment that one of their go-betweens had delivered to them.

“Yes.”

“It’s an item Machina made as a counter to the kinda thing that happened in Cortana.”

Zhang made a bitter face at those words. Back then, he had been rendered powerless—completely unable to help Emily in her time of need. That had made him even more determined to make sure something like that never happened again.

“Don’t worry. Emily has only two weak points, and that accessory takes care of one of them.”

Emily had almost no actual weaknesses to speak of. When it came to pure combat prowess, she was no match for the “Apex” Superiors, but she had a limitless ability to revive. Even the Apices would have a hard time killing her until she ran out of lives.

Because of this, there were only two ways to defeat her.

First was long-term binding, like what had been done to her in Cortana. If forced into a situation where she couldn’t move or log out, she would have no choice but to forcibly log herself out using the Suicide function.

However, the accessory that Emily had been given completely nullified this weakness.

The other means of defeating her was achievable by so few people it was hard to call it a weakness in the first place.

“I’ll take to action as soon as I arrive tomorrow at dawn. Until then, keep an eye on Emily and try to keep her from going on a rampage.”

And so, the call ended.

A moment later, Zhang felt something pulling on his sleeve.

“Zhang. Are you done?”

It was Emily. From what he could tell, she’d been waiting for him to finish talking.

Looking somewhat drowsy and a bit gloomy, she was holding on to Zhang’s sleeve.

Emily was a wanted criminal, but nobody here on the rear deck was wary of her, for she was wearing an accessory created by Machina that made her look like someone else. They’d also entered the ship by means other than the main gate, so no one had given them a thorough checkup.

“Yes. Rascal said that he’s coming here tomorrow too. Let’s wait for him in the cabin.”

“Okay...I’m sleepy, so I’ll take a nap...”

The two then went to the cabin Rascal had prepared for them ahead of time.

And anyone who looked at them walk off saw nothing but a father and his child.