Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 20 - Chapter 3

Chapter Three: The Search and the Encounter

Armored Pilot, Hugo Lesseps

Now that Moneygold had the Orb, my job as a bodyguard had officially begun. I had to be on high alert until we made it to Drac-Nomad tomorrow at noon.

“Hugo,” Moneygold said. “Cyco can sense the Murder Princess, right?”

“Yeah,” Cyco herself answered. “I can sense that insane lisper right away.”

La Porte de l’Enfer was a skill that checked the target’s kill count for their own kind and applied Freeze to them. As an additional effect, Cyco could sense that kill count on anyone in her effective range.

Apparently, this sense of hers used to be more vague, but after she’d met Emily—the person with the highest kill count we’d encountered so far—it had sharpened considerably.

“It’s possible she got onto the ship from the town it just stopped at,” Moneygold said. “You should go on patrol again.”

“All right,” I said. “Will you be okay, though?”

“Looking out for him is my job,” Isara answered in Moneygold’s stead. “No need to worry.”

“Yeah. Isara’s pretty used to this,” Moneygold added. “Oh yeah, while I’m logged out, I’ll give the Orb and the comms device to her. When I’m not here, she’ll be giving the orders.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll go look around, then.”

“Bye,” said Cyco. “You fat lunatic.”

“Cyco...” Yet again she insulted him right to his face, but yet again Moneygold didn’t seem to care.

A bit later, Cyco and I were walking through an empty passageway. With just the two of us here, I felt like it was a good time to speak about what had been on my mind since yesterday.

“Cyco, I think you’re being too harsh on Moneygold. Sure, he’s a bit too honest, but he’s not actually a bad person—so be nicer, okay?”

In response to my words, Cyco made a slightly grumpy face and fell silent for a bit before replying.

“...It’s because that fatty is in second place.”

“Second place?”

“Second place,” she repeated. We were just echoing each other now. Looking irritated, Cyco continued. “My count for him is the second highest after Emily.” By that, she could only be referring to the kill count of their own kind.

Emily’s was by far the highest, and there was no doubt about that. But...Moneygold was the second?

“You mean, he’s above Teach, Gideon’s duel rankers...and even King of Destruction?”

“Yeah.” Her answer made me realize that you couldn’t get a kill count that high by fighting just Masters or in duels. It also did a lot to explain why Cyco was being so mean to him.

“That fat is probably a wide-scale extermination type. And he used his power on humans many times.”

“He doesn’t seem like someone who’d treat people’s lives lightly. But...”

“Seeming like a bad guy and actually being a mass murderer are separate things. The guy with the annoying succubus said something similar.”

Does that get in the way of him starting a massacre? The words that had been said to me in Gideon came rushing back. At the time, I’d insisted that Fran understood tians were living beings, and he’d said with total certainty that this understanding wouldn’t stop her.

Soon after that, Fran initiated the secret Plan C and tried to massacre the people of Gideon with a force of over fifty thousand monsters.

That was proof that even if I didn’t see her as a bad person, Fran was capable of committing tian genocide nonetheless.

Now that I think of it, Cyco is a lot meaner to her too.

“I bet that pig is exactly the same way—the type of person who won’t hesitate to pull the trigger if it serves his goals.”

Moneygold had said that he would never, ever try to take anything by force, and I didn’t think that was a lie.

However, that didn’t mean that he would never use force for anything.

“And I think that...” Cyco began a sentence, but couldn’t finish it.

I immediately knew who she wanted to bring up. “You think Teach is the same?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure Sefirot is totally made up of people like that...actually, no. This entire country is like this.”

A country of people who can eliminate others for the sake of their own goals—looking back on it, I’d found conflict surrounding the Orbs when I’d tracked them down in both Hermine and Cortana. And even though negotiations had been attempted every time, they’d always come with the expectation that they would most definitely fall apart.

“I’m not really fond of this country,” Cyco said as she stared at the desert outside the ship. This made me think of all the times she’d complained about the weather here, but I knew this wasn’t the same thing at all.

“It’s a dog-eat-dog country. Its people’s biggest enemies aren’t monsters, but other people, and they’re probably used to that. This is a country where people want too much.”

Caldina was in the middle of the continent, and it attracted more wealth and goods than any other country. Many people moved here simply because they wanted something it had.

“But satisfying them comes with a price.”

I remembered Moneygold’s words, and by now I was pretty sure the “price” wasn’t just referring to money.

“To me, it feels so...oppressive,” Cyco said. Cyco’s ability to sense people’s kill count of their own kind was hers alone—the rest of us could never understand how she felt. The people of Caldina might be hard for her to tolerate. And neither Moneygold nor Teach were exceptions to that rule.

Maybe Cyco had been feeling this way ever since we’d come here to Caldina, and she’d kept it hidden even from me, expressing it with only a bit of foul language.

But now, she was revealing it all.

“But this sense and skill...they’re the reasons why I was born as myself.”

“Cyco...” The reason Cyco was Cyco... I already knew where she was going with this.

“Hugo...I was born with this power because...”

She stopped in front of me, then looked me directly in the eyes.

“...Because your father was murdered.”

We were alone, so I was the only one who could hear her.

◇

My father died near the end of last year.

I learned of it while I was at school, shortly before I was supposed to come home for Christmas.

I’d always felt that my relationship with him was good even after he and mother divorced. He called me every year and invited me for a Christmas dinner with him. He covered the tuition and other expenses to let me go to Lorraine Girls’ College, saying that it was his mother’s—my grandmother’s—dream. He sent me birthday presents every year, always worrying if I’d be happy with what he got me.

He was nice to me—and only me—from beginning to the end.

So, upon hearing that he’d died, I actually collapsed from the shock.

The most shocking thing of all, though, wasn’t the fact that it had happened, but how.

The cause of his death was clearly murder. Someone had shot him dead in his own home—the very place I grew up in.

The culprit might’ve been a burglar, or maybe someone with a grudge against him. He’d made many enemies while building his business, so the latter wasn’t out of the question. The case was never solved—in fact, the police were still searching for the murderer.

However, at the time, I just couldn’t believe it.

I couldn’t believe that someone who’d always been so nice to me had been murdered.

When the funeral ended and it was time to bury him, not many people remained. The only ones present were his legal team and some people from his company.

And as far as family went, I was the only one.

My father’s parents—my grandparents from his side—were no longer with us, and he was an only child. Mother said that she didn’t feel like going, while Fran was still missing after running away from home.

Rain fell as I watched his casket descend into the ground.

After that, the legal team talked to me about the inheritance. Apparently, someone would buy his company, but the money from that and everything else he had would be split between me and Fran.

In France, if there was no will saying otherwise, all the inheritance went to the children. And since he probably hadn’t expected to die, father hadn’t prepared a will—so according to the law, his immense wealth would be split between us.

That was when he gave me his final present.

The real gift wasn’t the wealth itself, but what came with it—a reunion with Fran. Because they had to distribute father’s money, the legal team hired detectives and investigative firms in many countries to find her, and when they did, I got to meet her for the first time in years.

That was how we got in touch again, and she ended up inviting me here to Lorraine Girls’ College. Even in death, father had helped me with my life.

And that was why I could never come to terms with the fact that he was murdered.

Mother managed it, and even though Fran looked a bit sad about it, she didn’t seem very shocked.

But I just couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t accept what had happened.

Perhaps mother and Fran had many different—and more negative—feelings about him. But he’d been a nice, caring father to me until the very end.

I just couldn’t tolerate the idea that someone had killed him.

That feeling festered within me ever since that day.

In my desire to see that culprit punished, a part of my heart became as cold as ice.

And out of that was born Cyco—the frozen hell of Cocytus.

◇

“I’m an Embryo born from your anger,” Cyco said.

This was the first time she’d ever spoken openly about the reason for her creation, but I’d suspected this was the case from the moment I first met her.

“But however Embryos come out, they’re always based on their Masters.”

That was what Fran told me while she was explaining category-based personality analysis to me.

A Master’s personality, skills, desires, life, nature...or maybe even their traumas and psychological complexes. Embryos referenced all of these things in order to assume forms and powers that reflected their Masters.

That was why Ray’s Nemesis possessed the power to avert any tragedy he saw before him.

That was why Fran’s Pandemonium commanded limitless, unrestricted creation.

And that was why Cyco was born as an Embryo that punished murderers—kin-slayers.

“And since I’m the one who made you like this, I’m part of the reason you’re feeling so uncomfortable,” I said.

“Yeah,” Cyco answered with a nod.

She didn’t hide anything or try to sugarcoat it—she stated flat out that I was the reason she was who she was. The part of me that couldn’t accept my father’s murder had turned her into a bringer of judgment.

This was the first time she had ever expressed this discomfort, and I was the origin of everything.

“But that doesn’t matter,” she continued. “You don’t have to let it bother you.”

“Huh?”

“There’s something way more important than that,” she said, as if to disperse the clouds gathering on my heart, and puffed her chest.

“Something more important...? What do you mean?” I asked. However, before answering, Cyco folded her arms and took a moment to think about something—specifically, it seemed like she didn’t know whether she wanted to say something or not.

“No. Not now,” she eventually said.

“Cyco...”

“I will say it someday—and there’s something I wanna ask you too. But now isn’t the time, so you’ll have to wait for it. For now, just focus on what you have to do.”

She was looking right at me as she spoke. As always, her face was expressionless, but I could see a strong will reflected in her eyes. I got the feeling that whatever she wanted to say, it was something she would never compromise on, and that’s why she wanted to wait for another time...

“All right.” And that was also why I chose not to push it.

“But I can’t just ignore how uncomfortable you feel right now,” I added. “If you really can’t handle it, I want you to return to the crest and rest.”

“Mhm.” Cyco nodded before touching my chest with her fist. I couldn’t tell whether it was her way of saying “I’m fine,” or “I’ll keep that in mind.” For all I knew, it could’ve been both.

Regardless, I would do as she said and focus on what I had to.

My role here was to reduce casualties in the event that Emily attacked the ship looking for the Orb—to prevent what had happened in Cortana from happening here.

And so, we resumed walking toward the part of the ship where the passenger cabins were.

◇◆◇

Eltram, Commercial Area

The luxury sand liner had many shops and other establishments in it, and there were many that offered the same kinds of wares and services as others. This was because there were several classes of passengers aboard. Those in first and second classes were generally far wealthier than the ones in third, and the establishments targeting a specific class provided quality and prices different from those in other classes.

They might have been on the same ship, but they lived in totally different worlds.

Most passengers knew that well, so they stayed away from shops and services that didn’t cater to their own class.

“Ohh...” That was why the scar-faced girl looking into a high-class boutique stood out like a sore thumb.

The girl—Goblin Street’s Fey—stared at the expensive clothes with wistful eyes before checking the Inventory she used as a wallet and sadly shaking her head.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh. Niala.”

Addressing Fey was a fellow Goblin Street member, Niala.

“Do you have any idea how badly you stand out? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be looking for the thing our leader mentioned?” Niala went on.

“But that dress is so pretty...and there’s gonna be a ball this evening,” Fey said with a sad sigh. “It’d be so romantic to wear that and dance with him...”

“I have three reasons why you should give up on that,” Niala said, holding up three fingers. “First, while first and second-class passengers have access to the ball covered by their initial fee, we third-class passengers need to buy tickets separately, and we don’t have the money for that.”

“Noooo...”

“Second, we also don’t have the money for the dress. I can’t even lend you enough to buy it.”

“Ngh...”

“And third, we don’t have the time. We still haven’t found what we’re looking for.”

“Guh...” While Fey griped and groaned, Niala continued to speak.

“There’s an Eastern idiom that goes something like ‘no leisure for the poor.’”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a bit like the English ‘no rest for the wicked.’ We don’t have the wealth or the time to go to that party.”

“That’s so painful...” Unable to counter anything Niala said, Fey’s shoulders slumped as she succumbed to despair.

A moment later, her stomach growled.

“I can treat you to some lunch, though.”

“Thanks! You’re the best friend and rival I could ask for!”

“Whatever you say.”

By “rival,” Fey meant their role in the competition for Eldridge’s affection.

“Okay, so let’s have lunch at the open-air restaurant with the best food on the shi—”

“Don’t get carried away. We’re eating at the café terrace for third-class passengers,” Niala said, lightly tapping Fey’s head before she began walking. Fey rubbed her head and followed after her.

Once they arrived, Fey wasted no time stuffing a sandwich into her face. “Mghmgh...thish makesh me feel sho alive...” she said with a peaceful expression.

“Don’t talk while eating. It’s bad manners,” said Niala, politely eating a salad with a fork.

“Hrmm...I’m having a harder and harder time using my brain... I feel like I’m gonna starve and get the death penalty soon...” Fey whined. Niala thought that was definitely an exaggeration, but she also understood that their financial situation wasn’t anything to laugh about.

“There might be more Masters with financial problems than we realize,” she said. “Even in real life, I have a stu—an acquaintance who said something like that.”

“We can’t even buy food...and we used to eat so good before! The last time we had a feast was...oh yeah, when we got some delicacies from the port during the Altea blockade,” Fey said, sounding nostalgic.

Those delicacies they’d stolen were actually what had drawn Lei-Lei’s ire and ultimately destroyed their clan, but they didn’t know that.

“That is true,” said Niala.

“Huh? What’s wrong...? Ah! Don’t tell me you don’t even have enough to pay for this food we’re eating!”

“I do. I’m just a bit sad that our leader seems to consider himself responsible for this desperate situation we’re in.”

“Ohh...” Fey nodded in understanding. “Yeah, that guilty face he makes sometimes does make me feel down.”

“I understand.”

“And down bad.”

“That’s just you.” Niala smacked Fey’s head again before she sighed and said, “It’s true that we’re going through a rough patch right now, but it’s not good that our leader seems to blame himself for all of it. We’ve just had some unlucky encounters recently—it wasn’t like there was ever a problem with our leader himself. Despite that, he thinks it’s all his fault and feels terrible about it.”

“Didn’t you say something about it being karma?”

“That was just a figure of speech. It wasn’t directed at him. Anyway, what we need to do now is to get this job done so he can regain his confidence,” said Niala.

“Yeah!” Fey said with a nod. “And then I’ll use the momentum to shoot my shot and we’ll have ourselves a Dendro marriage!”

“I have no intention of letting you have him, but is that a real thing? A Dendro marriage, I mean.”

“I’m sure it exists. There’s probably someone out there who’s done it!”

“I don’t think it’s common enough to be its own thing.” This conversation was happening at the exact same time as the Love-Duel Festival in Altar, which had once culminated in two particular people becoming a couple, but that was another story.

“Anyway, if we want to help our leader, we need to hurry up and find the targets,” Niala went on.

“Maybe they’re not on the ship yet.”

“That’s possible, but we’re arriving at Drac-Nomad tomorrow at noon. I don’t think they’d cause an incident right at the doorstep of Caldina’s congress.”

“Since we’re so close and they haven’t done anything yet, maybe they already gave up. If that’s the situation, we should give up too and just enjoy the cruise... I really wanna go to the ball.”

“I’m telling you we—”

“Beautiful bambina and signorina! What’s this I hear about wanting to go to the ball?” Suddenly, their conversation was broken by an unfamiliar—and awfully energetic—man’s voice.

Overcome with shock, the two looked toward the source—Niala with wariness of how much he’d overheard, and Fey with pure surprise.

They were met with a sight that left them at a loss for words.

“Eugh...” A sound escaped Fey’s lips, and who could blame her? The man was wearing a shirt that barely covered his chest and his face was slathered in makeup—he looked like a real pick-up artist that had decided he wanted to really embody the visual kei style. People like him were a rare sight in Dendro.

“Perhaps little ol’ me can help?! I happen to have a few spare tickets!” he wheedled, tickets in hand, and it was soon clear that this situation was just as outrageous as his appearance. “What do you say, bambinas? Would you accompany me to the ball—as my dates?”

He said those words with a wink, but the two women had no taste for Italian visual kei playboys. They were both into a weird combination of an intellectual and a bad boy—specifically, they were both into Eldridge.

“No, thank you.”

“Not a chance. We’re already interested in someone.”

And so, they bluntly refused.

“Oh, what a shame! I envy whoever has stolen your hearts!” The man gave an exaggerated shrug, but he didn’t seem too shocked—perhaps he was used to rejection. “I see now that my very offer was terribly rude. Allow me to make it up to you with these tickets—as a gift. Ha ha ha! No need to thank me! Ohh, and there are dresses you can rent, so why not give that a try?” he said as he placed the tickets on the table.

“Oh, we really shouldn’t—”

“YAY! Tickets!”

Niala tried to refuse, but before she could, Fey gladly took the tickets.

“Ah ha ha! Well then, ciao!” the playboy said before pompously blowing the two of them a kiss and leaving the café terrace.

Left with no way of giving the tickets back, the two could only watch him leave.

“We got the tickets...! That guy sure was weird, though.”

“Fey, take a moment to think. There’s an Eastern idiom that goes ‘nothing is more expensive than what is free.’ These tickets could lead to something bad down the road.”

“But it makes things so much easier for us. Now we just have to rent dresses and we’ll get to go to the ball!”

Niala sighed, realizing nothing she said would matter. The Eastern idiom “reading the sutras into a horse’s ear” came to her mind, but she didn’t say it.

Still, she couldn’t deny that they’d received a windfall here—a “bean mochi from the shelf,” as another idiom went.

Honestly, I also think the idea of going to a ball with our leader is pretty appealing, she thought. And it looks like we could actually have enough for the dresses if we rented them...

On the inside, Niala shared Fey’s desire—she’d only kept her cool because she’d put effort into doing so.

“Anyway, let’s tell the leader about this,” she said. “We’ll go to the ball if he says it’s okay... How many tickets are there, by the way?”

If there were only two, there would be no avoiding a catfight over which one of them would accompany him.

“Three,” said Fey.

“That’s perfect, then,” said Niala. “Wait, three?”

That number seemed strange to her.

She could understand if there were two, since Niala and Fey were the only ones here. She could also understand if there were four tickets, since the man might have given them tickets for each of their crushes.

But there being three tickets made it feel like he knew that they both had a crush on the same person.

“Maybe it’s his own ticket. These tickets could’ve been the only ones he had.”

“But if he went to pick up more girls after this, wouldn’t he want to keep at least one?”

Or perhaps the number was just a coincidence?

Regardless, there was another thing that bothered Niala.

“That man also seemed kinda familiar...” she said.

“Huh? I don’t think you could ever forget a weirdo like that.”

“No, I just feel like I’ve seen his face somewhere... Also, for a passenger on this ship, his clothes seemed kinda...cheap.”

His gear was weak and certainly not made from high quality materials. The design was decent, but ultimately, he was wearing just a shirt and a pair of jeans—the kind of clothes you could buy in bulk.

It definitely didn’t suit the kind of person who would carry around multiple tickets to a high-class ball.

“You definitely have a better thief’s instinct than me...and I am a thief.”

“You could just say that I have a keen eye. Anyway, that’s another thing we need to bring up with our leader.”

Niala trusted Eldridge a great deal, so she assumed he would know something.

“All right! Let’s go pick out a dress to rent!”

“...Again, we need the leader’s permission first.”

◆◆◆

Eltram, Interior

While the two women were having their unserious exchange in the café...

What the hell’s going on here?

...Eldridge himself was sitting on an empty staircase near the cargo area, hanging his head and whining to himself about the current circumstances. How am I this unlucky...?

All of this was because of the people he’d spotted while taking a look around the ship.

It’s not just Moneygold. There’s also Fullmetal Princess, Isara—one of the best in her field in Caldina. Hugo Lesseps, who’s rumored to have stopped the Murder Princess herself. And to top it all off...there’s another Superior.

It was this gathering of big names that had caused Eldridge to lose hope. Once, this would not have affected his confidence whatsoever, but now that he’d lost so many times and had been left with only a tiny fraction of his original clan, this situation was an unbearable burden.

Why? Why are all these tough guys on this ship? Did I miss some important info about all this?

That assumption was correct, but Eldridge had no means of knowing what, exactly, he had missed. Regardless, the instincts he’d honed in his multiple brushes with disasters and his natural analytical ability told him loud and clear that this place was dangerous.

Things were looking so bad that Eldridge was starting to think it might be a good idea not to steal anything at all and just disembark at the next stop.

“It’d be real easy if I could do that,” Eldridge mused. If they weren’t successful here, though, it’d be over for good. His clan didn’t even boast enough people to fill a party now, and this was most likely his last chance to fix its financial situation.

Despite that, he hadn’t even seen his target yet.

If we don’t finish this job...

Eldridge was bracing himself to tell the girls that he would disband the clan, if it came to that.

“...Hm?” Suddenly, Eldridge felt something strange and shifted his gaze toward a specific direction.

It was the large door he could see from here—the entrance to the cargo area.

The cargo area was a giant safe, and its inside was full of Inventories—their combined content no doubt bigger than the ship itself could physically hold. Many passenger ships in Infinite Dendrogram simultaneously served as cargo ships.

Focused, Eldridge looked at the cargo area’s door.

He felt something strange behind it. The thick door made him a bit uncertain about it, but he could have sworn something else was looking around the area.

Eldridge readied his skills as King of Burglary on both of his hands, wary of whatever it was and ready to fight if need be.

A minute passed, and by that point the strange presence had completely vanished.

Was I just imagining it? Or was there actually an intruder in the cargo area?

It went without saying that Eltram’s cargo bay was filled to the brim with expensive materials and goods. If someone was planning to steal something from this ship, that would be the first place they’d go.

However, Eldridge wasn’t planning on taking anything from the cargo area. You couldn’t put Inventories into Inventories, so if he tried to take any cargo, he would either be forced to pick certain items to store in his own Inventories, or just run out with the Inventories in their entirety. He wouldn’t have time for the former because of the number of powerful people he knew to be gathered here, and he didn’t have enough allies to accomplish the latter.

And even if he did steal something and managed to flee the ship, he’d be stranded in the middle of the desert.

Things would’ve been different if he had a ship of his own, but Eldridge no longer had the money for that.

“I’m not suited for it, anyway.” Unlike the thief grouping, which focused on stealing through stealth, the burglar grouping that Eldridge belonged to specialized in just taking things directly. If he tried something, he’d probably trigger the alarm right away.

His clan member Fey was a high-rank thief job, but she also didn’t have proficiency to not trigger the alarm.

I guess Zeta...King of Thieves could do it, he thought. That reminds me of the national treasures. Weren’t they stolen by King of Thieves, actually?

It was said Huang He’s national treasures—some Orbs holding sealed UBMs—had been stolen and spread across Caldina, where they were now causing trouble. It was rumored that King of Thieves was behind the crime—and as it happened, those rumors were true.

The Orbs, huh? Not interested. They seem hard to handle, so they probably wouldn’t solve our money problem.

Eldridge figured that if they got an Orb and brought it before the Caldinan congress for a trade, they—as Masters and criminals in Altar—would just end up having it taken away from them by Sefirot. Maybe someone on the black market would buy the Orb, but he didn’t know anyone who would deal in something so dangerous. He’d only recently come to Caldina and hadn’t had enough time to establish himself here.

Not like I’ll ever see any of those Orbs anyway, he thought. This ship sure as hell wouldn’t have one, that’s for sure.

Not even stopping to consider the possibility that this assessment was entirely wrong, Eldridge got up from the stairs and left. By then, he’d already more or less forgotten about the strange presence he’d felt from the cargo area, dismissing it as something not worth thinking about.

He then went to meet his clan members at their rendezvous point, where Fey—and even Niala—pleaded for his permission to attend the ball. Uncertain if this job would go well and feeling terrible about all the trouble he’d caused them so far, Eldridge agreed, wanting to give them at least a little hope.

That made Fey jump with happiness and rendered Niala unable to hide her joy, which filled Eldridge with relief and made him think, They wanted to go that badly? I’m glad I agreed to it, then.

And he remained as clueless as ever about the true reason for their joy.

◇◇◇

Armored Pilot, Hugo Lesseps

We walked around the section with all the passenger cabins, but Cyco couldn’t find Emily anywhere. Had we been worrying for no reason? Was Emily not even on this ship? Or...

“Is she offline?” I wondered. If that was the case, it would be impossible for us to find her at all. And if she stayed offline right up until the moment she did something terrible, there was no way we’d be able to counter her in time.

I thought that we could also try to find Emily by looking for someone she was traveling with, but that proved to be difficult as well.

According to Cyco, she could easily sense and locate extreme outliers like Emily, but Caldina had no shortage of people with kill counts so high they could qualify as mass murderers.

But that was the problem—Cyco didn’t know if they actually were mass murderers. She couldn’t differentiate between tian-killers, player-killers, player-killer-killers, and regular duelists. That was exactly why Fran’s plan had placed her against Gideon’s Masters.

“The fact that she can’t tell them apart won’t make this any easier...” Cyco had actually sensed a big number on a Master wearing a crimson jacket with a lion motif, but again, we didn’t have any knowledge to guess how he’d actually gotten that kill count.

Only Emily herself had a number big enough to be conclusive evidence that we’d found her. Without that, the only thing we could really do was investigate everyone we found suspicious.

“I don’t think I’d be good at that.” That seemed like a job for a detective...and that thought made me remember the boy who’d seen right through me, which just made me kinda upset.

“What now?” Cyco asked.

“Let’s end the search for the time being,” I said. “We’ll resume when we stop at the next city.”

There was one last stop on the route to Drac-Nomad. If Emily and whoever she was with were planning to get on this ship, that would be their last chance.

Maybe I should talk to Moneygold first, I thought.

“Umm, may I have a moment?” Someone called out to me just as I was thinking through all of that.

My attention instantly shifted to whoever it was—and I jumped in surprise when I saw who had spoken.

“Ohh! Please don’t be afraid!” said the person—a petite woman wearing a hood, probably to hide from the sun. Below the hood, wrapped just above her eyes, there was a piece of cloth covered in complicated patterns. It reminded me of some nineteenth-century native costumes from central Asia that we’d seen in Miss Nina’s class.

More importantly, though, she had gloves on her hands, so I couldn’t tell if she was a tian or a Master.

“I saw you walking and looking around, so I spoke to you because I thought you were searching for something...” she said. “Umm, I’m nobody suspicious, though! I’m not your enemy!”

So I’d caught her attention because I was poking around somewhere that was mostly empty of people. I’ll have Cyco check her anyway, just in case. I thought.

When I looked at Cyco, though, she said nothing and shook her head. That was her way of saying that this lady wasn’t “it.” She wasn’t Emily wearing a disguise, nor was she a murderer. Cyco even held up her fingers in a circle to indicate that the woman’s kill count for her own kind was zero—meaning everything was okay.

“Umm...?” the lady said, probably unsure what to make of our silence.

“Oh, sorry,” I said. “Thank you for being concerned. I was just looking for someone.”

“Oh, then you should go to the information booth at the mall. If you make a request, they’ll use the ship’s speaker system to tell whoever it is that you’re looking for them and where they should go to meet you.”

That sounded like a lost child announcement...I didn’t realize this ship had a service like that. I’d be really surprised if Emily actually showed up in response, though, and it felt more likely that making an announcement would just attract other trouble.

“Thanks for the advice,” I said.

“Oh, you’re welcome,” she replied with a smile on her face—but it didn’t seem like she was planning to leave.

“Uhh, is there something else?” I asked.

“Sorry if I am mistaken, but are you Mr. Hugo Lesseps? The one who distinguished himself so much during the Cortana incident?”

My heart skipped a beat before I remembered that the Cortana thing had indeed given me a bit of a reputation.

“I wouldn’t say I distinguished myself,” I said. “I just slightly reduced the casualties, and I wasn’t the one who ended the situation anyway. That was King of Tartarus, Benetnasch.”

“Don’t be so humble! Benetnasch may have prevented the Orb from causing disaster, but you were the one who stopped the Murder Princess’s slaughter, weren’t you?”

She sure knows a lot about it, I thought. Newspapers might’ve summarized the events, but you’d only know those kinds of details if you’d bought them from DIN or something.

“This is who I am, by the way!” the woman said, handing a business card to both me and Cyco. On it, there were the words “Freelance Journalist: Stal Tune.” “These days, I’m following all the incidents happening here in Caldina, and since you were so deeply involved in the one at Cortana, I was wondering if I could get an interview!”

“I’m sorry, but I’m working right now. I don’t have time for interviews.”

Being a journalist explained why she was so well-informed, but I couldn’t spare her the time when I had my bodyguarding job to do.

“Noooo! Umm...are you...really sure that...you can’t?” Stal looked up at me with teary eyes, and honestly, it made me feel kinda guilty.

“My lady,” Cyco said to me telepathically. “We shall stop your tears. I promise that you will greet tomorrow’s morning with a smile on your face.”

Could you stop bringing up my old lines like that? I thought. It’s true that ignoring a lady’s plea is against my code of honor and it’s going to make it hard for me to sleep at night, but we have to keep looking around. It’s our job!

“Umm, if just an interview’s no good, what would you say to an info exchange instead?” Stal asked.

“An info exchange?”

“Yes. You answer some questions in exchange for my latest information about the incidents surrounding the Orbs! It’s all precious intel I haven’t even published any articles about yet!”

Okay, I’m a bit interested now, I thought. That information could be useful for my job—and maybe even Teach’s Orb search as well. But...

“What do you think I should do?” I asked Cyco.

“You’re free to decide yourself,” she instantly answered.

“Okay,” I said. “We can do the info exchange.”

“Thank you very much! Let’s go to the mall, then—there’s a café with private rooms there! Oh! Don’t worry, I’ll pay for everything! Go go go go!”

“Uh, wha—?!” Dragged along by Stal, who was all smiles, I found myself led to the ship’s mall area.

After almost half an hour had passed since she’d dragged me to the café, I was exhausted.

“Thank you for the interview!” Stal said.

“...You’re welcome.” She’d spent the entire interview asking me this and that about the Cortana incident, and now it was finally over.

And while I was getting a sore throat from all the talking, Cyco had been enjoying one of those lassi-like drinks again the whole time.

“Anyway, thank you for your time,” Stal said as she prepared to walk away.

“Hold on. I never got the info you offered me,” I countered, grabbing her hand. She’d almost gotten away with a free interview and I wasn’t gonna let her do that, especially after I’d practically lost my voice talking to her.

“Ngh...I thought just ignoring that part of the deal might have worked, but I guess it didn’t...” Stal said.

“So, what info do you have?”

“Nnghh...okay. I’ll talk.” she said before sitting back down. “Umm, you’re gathering Orbs, right?”

“I’m really just helping with that, but yeah.” She’d already known that Teach and I were gathering the Orbs, so when she asked to confirm, I could only nod—especially since she probably had Truth Discernment.

“In that case...this is the info for you,” she said, reaching into her Inventory and taking out a document folder. “Take it. It’s a copy, so you can keep it.”

The document in question was a map of Caldina with six locations marked on it. Two of those were Hermine and Cortana, and another was the city that the man Moneygold had negotiated with came from.

“These are...the locations of the other Orbs?” I’d been told that the stolen Orbs numbered seven in total, and this showed the locations of all but one. This would be totally new information to Teach—and Sefirot as a whole too.

“Yes. These places have eyewitness accounts of Orbs creating strange phenomena.”

We’d already found the ones in Hermine and Cortana, and the one from that third city was currently on this ship. That left three more markings on the map.

“Which one of these marks the Orb that turns water into land?” I asked.

“I believe that would be this one,” Stal said. She pointed at one of the markers.

That was the Orb Teach had gotten through a trade with Benetnasch. Now I knew where that one came from, so that left just two.

“Wintersorb the Northernmost City, and Vennsayle the Laketop City...” These two locations were at the opposite sides of the country—one to the north, other to the south. It was possible that the Orbs might have moved since this map was made, but I could confirm that three out of six of these markers were correct. That made it likely that the rest of them were too.

“The Orb locations... This is some really important info,” I said. “Couldn’t you have made a fortune if you sold this?” I felt like this map was worth way more than the interview I’d given.

“Oh, I’m not playing with that fire,” Stal said.

“Fire?”

“Imagine if I sold this info to someone looking for the Orbs and it turned out that they weren’t in those marked locations. I’m sure the Orb hunters would get revenge by stealing everything from me, flaying me, and harvesting my organs before killing me outright...”

Well, that made a certain kind of sense—this really was a dangerous game. Four of those Orbs had already left the cities marked on the map, so not selling it was most likely the right call.

“I actually got my information on these events by trading for it with other freelance journalists who were looking into it, and...one of them was found dead recently...” Stal continued.

“That’s pretty scary,” I said. But it all made sense now—I’d been wondering how she knew Orb locations that not even Sefirot had uncovered, but if this was the result of many people’s hard work, I could definitely understand it.

“And that’s why it’s best used for info exchanges like this,” Stal said. “Also, if I give this info to the people who really need it, that might move the situation a little and lead to some events I could write articles about.”

I nodded in understanding and thought, I guess it’s not just DIN’s Journalists who are like this.

“So...are you satisfied with this?” Stal asked.

“Yes. Very,” I said. “Can I ask one thing, though?”

“What is it?”

“Do you know anything about the Orbs’ powers? There’s nothing about them in the document.” Even though they weren’t listed, when I asked about one of the Orbs by referring to its abilities, she instantly showed me its location. That meant that, even though their powers weren’t written down here, she was actually familiar with them.

“Very well. Consider this a bonus. The one in the north is said to be a healing Orb, while I think the one in the south has a power related to frost.”

“I see...thank you.” A healing Orb and a frost Orb. They seemed way more straightforward than the maggot Orb in Cortana or the human transformation Orb here. Well, at least the lightning Orb we got first was pretty standard.

“So that’s all the info you wanted in exchange...?” Stal asked.

“Yes. Thank you, Stal.”

“Don’t mention it. Oh, but I gave you a bonus this time, so do talk to me the next time we meet!”

She then stood up from her chair and left the café, taking the check as she did.

For someone who had been planning to walk away without giving me any of the information she’d promised, she did seem to have a bit of integrity.

“Okay, I guess we should go back to Moneygold and talk to him about this and our job,” I said. We had to tell him that we suspected Emily was staying offline right until the moment she planned to do something.

“What a stroke of luck, though,” said Cyco.

“Yeah. We got some good information just now. Though...”

For some reason, this brought to mind an incident from the past. Specifically, the time Fran gave Ray a potion spiked with an Animal Ear Drug and a PPS—the Peeping Spy Slime.

“No way, right?” I shook away the worry that Stal might’ve had some ulterior motives.

◇◆◇

Eltram, Deck

Come evening, Eltram stopped at the final city before it set its course toward the end of its route at Drac-Nomad.

Though this journey on the sands would only last until noon tomorrow, there were still many people boarding the ship at this city. Many of them were simply heading toward the capital, while some were the eccentric, wealthy elite who were solely interested in the ball that was set to happen that night.

Thus began the final night of this luxury sand liner’s maiden voyage.

The ball meant to celebrate it would be an extravagant event that would leave its participants with no shortage of stories to tell. That was why the first- and second-class tickets that came with an invitation to it were awfully expensive, and the separate ball tickets available for the third-class passengers were a luxury few of them could afford.

“Hm-hm-hmm...” And despite that, there was someone who’d given no fewer than three of these tickets away for free—the man dressed head to toe in visual kei who’d approached Niala and Fey earlier in the day. Right now, he was humming a cheerful tune as he watched the evening sun sink into the desert.

There was no one nearby—which was unsurprising, for he was taking in this romantic view not from the deck full of people, but from the vessel’s very topmost roof.

“A trip like this wouldn’t be complete if tu don’t bear witness to something like this and inscribe it upon your memory. The scenery in Dryfe wasn’t exactly pleasing to the eye. Indeed, a desert sun deserves a lingering gaze far more than the sun setting over a dying land.” The man spoke as he watched the evening sunset with spellbound eyes. “Would tu like to join me in watching this scene?” he said without even turning around.

He was no longer alone. There was someone else standing there—a person wearing a long, crystal-colored woven cape and a mechanical mask.

“Unnecessary. This unit has witnessed the Caldinan twilight hundreds of thousands of times.”

The mask changed the person’s voice to give it a mechanical flavor. Despite that, it could still be construed as feminine.

“Tu have sure lived a long time, haven’t tu?” said the man. “But there is not a day in the world which is not unique, wouldn’t you say? And whether tu witness each day’s passing alongside someone else is important as well!”

“Still unnecessary. The core of your relationship with this unit is transactional, not friendly.”

“How cold of tu, Crys Fragment,” said the man, addressing the person using the name of the elusive engineer said to be the greatest in Caldina.

“Do not use this unit’s name lightly. I may be using a deception barrier that prevents us from being noticed by hostiles, but all risks must be minimized,” she said, checking the barrier made through imitation of the Incarnation of Dreams.

“Ha ha ha. I am well aware. That is exactly why I trust that I can say it out loud!”

“Tch...” the face behind the mask—Crys Fragment—clicked her tongue.

“Oh come now, there’s no need to be upset. We’ve known each other for so long, after all.”

“Two years is not long by any means.”

“It’s still about half of my entire playtime. It’s a long, looong time. The people I’ve been acquainted with longer than tu are few and far between. Oh, wait, I guess that’s not exactly true!” the man said, right before bursting into an inexplicable peal of laughter.

Seemingly irritated by his attitude, Crys said just one terse phrase.

“Progress report.”

“I gave the tickets tu gave me to a few Masters I thought would make things interesting. I have especially high hopes for the remnants of Goblin Street. Though their leader is among them, so I suppose they’re actually the main force now!”

“And the Superior?”

“Moneygold? That walking bag of cash will go to the ball with or without my help. It’s a premium event meant to celebrate the last night of a luxury liner’s maiden voyage. Someone as vulgar as him will be there no matter what.”

“And you?”

“Hmmm? Little old me? Of course I won’t attend. I may be here to see the sights—and I do want to go—but an evening party is just not it. I’m a morning and daytime person. I get very sleepy when night falls.”

In response, Crys said nothing.

“Well, I suppose tu are already aware of the real reason I’m refraining—it isn’t safe,” the man continued, raising his hands in resignation. “It is rather unfortunate, though. If only they’d scheduled it for noon. I would’ve gladly been there in that case!”

“You would not participate even if this unit requests that you do so?”

“Of course not. After all, our relationship is a shallow one. I am simply a spectator who goes here and there to see the sights, while tu are my sponsor. I tell tu of things I see and learn, and sometimes fulfill a simple request like the one tu gave me today. There is nothing more between us.” The man smiled before adding, “And the information I gather is good enough to make up for it, isn’t it? There is no one who can draw out an opponent’s power and learn all about it quite as well as little old me. My Apex info is especially valuable, wouldn’t you say?”

“...Rebuttal impossible.” Her words didn’t suggest it, but Crys’s mechanical voice held a hint of discontent.

“There is also the next job to keep in mind, so I don’t want to stand out too much before that comes. I don’t know the details, but tu are hiding a few cards, aren’t tu? Like the soldier has-beens or the thing hidden in the cargo area.”

“You...”

“Of course I would notice! My stance is to enjoy things from a safe distance! Though for now, tu are the only one I share them with.” Silence. “I’m not lying, am I? Unlike tu, little old me doesn’t have that handy little feature, so I can’t hide my lies. I don’t think I’ve told a single lie since I got on this ship, actually. That’s why, well...I might’ve actually gone to that ball if I got a date, even if it wouldn’t have been safe—and thus would be against my principles,” he said, his own words making him grin wryly.

That was when the sun finished sinking into the sands.

“Anyway, looks like it’s time for me to log out. I’ll come back when the night ends. I don’t know what will come of this plan tu have, but if tu have any simple errands for me then, I’ll be ready to accept them.”

“I will request as necessary.”

“Va bene! Anyway, ciao!” said the man, mixing Italian into his words as usual, before logging out and disappearing from the rooftop...and the world.

Once left alone, the other person—or unit, as she herself would say—clicked her tongue in frustration.

Crys saw the other Master as clueless, insolent, and hard to understand. Nevertheless, he was useful as a source of information, so she occasionally had him fulfill tasks for her. She knew that rather than despising all Masters and keeping them all away, it was better to make use of them wherever it was appropriate.

The preparation is complete for the things that will happen on this ship, as well as the things that will follow—the plan entrusted to us by Integra...and the Creator. Caldina’s environment and circumstances are favorable for the process of investigation. Though...“IF” was their name, wasn’t it? The fools who spread those Orbs throughout this land...

Just like the man who had stood there earlier, Crys looked toward the now-dark horizon.

“It will not be long before they learn what they were playing with...what the Orbs were seeded with.”

She looked over the world as though she pitied it.

“A known calamity will awaken soon.”