Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 21 - Chapter 4

Chapter Four: The Invited Immortals

Dryfe Imperium, Micalos Wasteland

The imperial capital of Vandelheim and the Barbaros March to Dryfe’s southeast were separated by a vast wasteland.

Though it had once been a heavy producer of grains, the region had recently become barren—just like the rest of Dryfe—and now not even the most basic vegetation would grow there.

Now, the desolate soil was being showered with rain. The downpour and the clouds formed a thick veil that smothered most of the daytime light.

And yet, despite these unfavorable conditions, there was a caravan of ten dragon carriages making their way through it.

They were transporting people to Vandelheim.

The imperium’s capital was currently hiring a wide range of individuals in preparation for going to war with foreign powers. Some of the people in the carriages were rural folk who wanted a job simply to avoid starvation, while others sought to advance some sort of cause. Among those driven by their goals, there were youths who loathed Altar for turning their backs on Dryfe and vigorously claimed that the country must be defeated—as well as one elderly woman who hoped that the two lands could somehow be on good terms like they had been in the past.

Various conversations could be heard from the train of carriages cutting through the wastes. No one really knew which view was right, nor did they have anyone to guide them, creating a chaotic atmosphere that permeated each carriage.

“Hmm-hm-hmm...” But there was someone there who clearly seemed dubious.

In one of the wagons there sat a person wearing a mask made of intertwined wood and dressed in cheap-looking clothes, humming quietly.

Such an appearance would normally make people uneasy, but the crest on the back of the person’s left hand made everyone disregard all of this as just the typical quirkiness of a Master.

Under the mask, the man himself was wearing a smile.

He—Splendida the Evergreen—was simply enjoying this turbulent mood.

Following the incident on Eltram, he’d crossed the blazing heat of the desert, arrived at the Barbaros March, and hopped on this dragon carriage.

The imperator had invited Splendida to join Dryfe in the coming war.

As always, the scenery here isn’t much to look at, but the people’s expressions sure are colorful, he thought. The air around him was one of chaos caused by an imminent war, but Splendida found it nothing but delightful.

In the real world, he would never even think of heading to a country that was preparing for such a conflict—after all, he could die.

However, Splendida’s body was an avatar, and couldn’t die permanently even if it were killed. In fact, his avatar couldn’t be killed in the first place.

And because of this, he could enjoy what was happening purely as a game.

No matter where, when, or what—to Splendida, all of Infinite Dendrogram was an event.

Everything’s better when you take it easy, he thought. There were people in this world like the imperator and Crys. The former had invited Splendida despite the fact that he’d taken part in an assassination attempt, and the latter had struck deals with him despite the fact that he was a Master.

They were both people driven by a sense of duty toward their country or the world, but Splendida had no such feelings. He accepted the invitation simply because he wanted to watch a fun event from a front row seat.

He wasn’t like King of Beasts, who gave her all for the sake of a friend.

He wasn’t like King of Swords, whose spirit had been broken by love.

To him, Infinite Dendrogram was, from start to finish, nothing but an exciting game—an MMO so well-made that you could mistake it for reality, except that you could play without risking your life.

The chaos in this dragon carriage was just another thing for him to watch—an attraction he would observe from a safe vantage point.

And the war he would take part in was no different.

In a way, he was the healthy kind of ludo.

This reminds me that Altar should be having their Tournaments right about now. I was interested in that too.

The idea of a tournament that rewarded its winners with UBM fights was an enticing one, but he’d ended up accepting Dryfe’s invitation instead.

But even if he’d gone to Altar, he couldn’t have won The Tournaments anyway—because they were focused on duels.

Splendida could only use his powers in a real battle, for that was the nature of his combo.

Anyway, the imperator decided to let bygones be bygones and called little old me over to him. While I didn’t make it to the peace talks, the invitation is still valid. And I got a follow-up invitation through DIN too. Did he have any reason to call someone like yours truly instead of any other freelance Superior?

Part of that might’ve been that the imperator knew Splendida’s powers, but he felt that there had to be more to it.

Well, whatever it is, I finally made it to Dryfe. All that’s left is to meet the imperator and accept the request. That’ll take me off the wanted list.

That was the reason Splendida was wearing the mask. While tians tended not to comment on how Masters were dressed, things were different if the Master was wanted.

I gotta say, though, this carriage sure is cramped.

While Splendida looked dubious, none of the other passengers were actually avoiding him. That was simply because there was no space to do so. There were people seated on every space available—including the ones to his sides—as well as on the floor in the middle. This caravan had ten carriages, but that wasn’t enough to prevent this overcrowding.

Splendida turned his masked face to the side. “Eek...!” The tian lady sitting there uneasily let out a yelp and shrank back. Who could blame her?

How sad! I’d usually try to pick up a cutie like that, but I really can’t take my mask off here! Just as he enjoyed various incidents like they were merely in-game events, Splendida was a Master who courted women far more casually than he did in real life—unlike they did there, such actions didn’t come with the risk of social damage in Infinite Dendrogram.

“U-Umm...what is the matter?” the lady asked, somewhat unsettled by the masked man staring at her without saying a word.

“Oh! Sorry about that! I was just wondering why this carriage is so crowded! Though that’s not to say that tu did not catch my eye with your beauty, bambina!”

“I-I see...” The words Splendida wove from under his mask made the lady feel overwhelmed, but also somewhat relieved. Perhaps she felt that he might have been more amiable than he appeared.

“Umm, this is just a rumor I heard, but...” According to the lady, this row of carriages belonged to traders and thus carried not just people, but cargo. And since there was more cargo than usual today, the amount of inventory left less space for people.

“Mm-hmm. I see.”

If something was being brought from the Barbaros March, it would be either products of mining or goods smuggled from the neighboring countries of Altar or Caldina. And whether that was food or plant-based potions, they were precious here in Dryfe’s current situation.

Ohh...that would explain it... Splendida thought.

And the moment that thought crossed Splendida’s mind, an explosion shook the dragon carriage.

The Demi-Dragon pulling it cried out, and the passengers screamed. Mixed with those sounds, there was the distant roar of an engine.

“Dr— B-Bandit attack!”

“They’re after the cargo...!”

The words of the coachmen reached Splendida’s ears.

“Well, it wouldn’t surprise me if Dryfe had those too...”

He’d heard rumors that some people in Altar were fed up with the country and decided to steal a fortune before fleeing the country. Splendida thought it wouldn’t be that strange if Dryfe had people doing the same thing. Even ignoring the coming war, Dryfe was on the verge of running out of resources.

“But...what he said...” Splendida was still hung up on that one coachman’s exact words. It felt as though he’d wanted to say something else at first, but then hastily changed it.

However, the situation didn’t give Splendida much time to dwell on it.

“Th-The ground ahead was blown away! There’s a net too... It’s an ambush!”

“Where’s the bodyguards...?! Didn’t we have a group of Masters in the back?!”

“Dunno when this happened, but they’re gone!”

The sudden attack filled the dragon carriages with a chaos quite different from one before. Some people were desperately jumping off the vehicles and running on the muddy wasteland, only to slip and fall. Some carriages tried to force their way ahead, but the net that had been laid out overturned them.

The entire caravan could no longer move, and the screams of the people under attack echoed all around.

“Ah...ahh...!” The lady next to Splendida was shaking so much that she was frozen to the spot. Not saying a word, he put his right hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

But a moment later, the carriage they were in was turned over as well. Up became down as the people inside were tossed about.

“AAAHHHHHH!” Splendida quickly took the screaming lady in his arms and crashed into the ground through the carriage’s cover.

A multitude of pained voices could be heard coming from inside the flipped carriage.

“Are tu all right, bambina?” With a slightly hoarse voice, Splendida questioned the girl he’d saved.

“Y-Yes. Thank you...!” the girl said, gazing at her savior...

“Ohh, that’s good to hear.”

...only to see that his neck was tilted at a right angle, clearly caused by a fierce impact with the ground.

“Ahh...” At this sight, which might have been straight out of a low budget horror film, the girl fainted dead away.

“Well, anyway...” Splendida grabbed his head with both hands and snapped it back into place. His neck was broken, and the muscles had been torn, but it was instantly reconstructed. Compared to the attacks he’d weathered from Moneygold, this was but a scratch.

Splendida recovered in no time, and walked out of the carriage.

Straining his eyes to look behind the curtain of rain, he saw a group armed mainly with guns.

They must’ve seen this rain as an opportunity. A horde of what must have been nearly a hundred people rode buggies and replica Prism Steeds as they approached the caravan in a crane wing formation.

“Hrmm...as I’ll soon be working for Dryfe, I’d like to do something about this, but I suppose that’s a bit difficult.”

If he fit into any specific category, Splendida was a solo combat build—or, to be more precise, a solo survival build.

He was specialized in his own survival, and when it came to facing opponents who outnumbered him, he was even less potent than the usual solo combat build. He could spread his poison, but this was an outdoor battle with tian passengers littered about, making that more risky than it was worth.

Even if Splendida somehow got to fight them individually, he didn’t have a high enough AGI. It would take time, and the bandits would easily be able to loot whatever they could and run—and it was hard for him to use the escape-preventing MVP reward that he’d used on King of Beasts.

Mm-hmm. If I say so myself, all that little old me can really do is buy time in a one-on-one fight... Why is the imperator inviting me, again?

As far as combat capable Superiors went, Splendida was definitely on the weaker side, so it begged the question of why the imperator would take him in and even go so far as to take him off the wanted list.

But as this thought crossed his mind, these supposed bandits were only coming closer. There clearly wasn’t much he could do by himself, and as Splendida wondered how he would handle it...

“If you’re not a bandit, get down.”

...he heard these words.

The passengers were already on the ground and shivering in fear, Splendida was standing in place and thinking, and the armed attackers continued their approach, seemingly not hearing the voice.

It was a chaotic situation—and this chaos was torn asunder by a thunderous sound reminiscent of an electric chainsaw—the sound of a Gatling gun.

The bullet storm that followed tore through the cover of the rearmost carriage and turned the attackers—along with Splendida—into mincemeat.

“Oh, my.” Some of the bandits dissolved into sparks of light, while Splendida immediately recovered even from being torn in half.

Unfortunately, it was his top half that regenerated, so his lower half ended up completely exposed. That was embarrassing, so he chose to cover himself up with branches that he grew out of his body.

“They turned into bits of light, so I guess the bandits are Masters too. Oh, and my clothes are ruined again!” Splendida must’ve been used to this, as being split in half only made him laugh.

“I said, if you’re not a bandit, get down!”

“Ohh, my bad. I was slow to react! So, who are tu?” Though it wasn’t intended to be an answer to this question, the owner of the voice then showed themselves from beyond the torn cover.

What came out was a large suit of mechanical armor wearing a sand-colored cloak. In its chest area there was something luminous, and as it shone in the smoke, it looked like a single giant eye.

“A Magingear? No, it’s not that...” At first glance, the figure looked like a Dryfean Magingear, but it was definitely something else.

The human-shaped machine was larger than Marshall, but smaller than Marshall II. It seemed to be right in the middle in terms of size, which wasn’t standard for Dryfean weapons.

And most importantly, it had no headpiece. The shape made it seem as though its head was buried in the chest, and Splendida had never once seen a unit like that, customized or otherwise.

“May I have a name? Ohh, and Splendida’s good enough for me.” In response to that, the mechanical construct said, with a voice slightly colored by static...

“Y’golonac.” This was a name from the Cthulhu Mythos, belonging to a god who had no head.

In Infinite Dendrogram, though, it had another meaning.

“So tu are the Unfaltering.”

Y’golonac the Unfaltering—that was the name of a Superior who didn’t serve any country, just like Splendida himself.

“Were tu called here by the imperator, as well?” Splendida went on. The mechanical armor seemed to reject both Reveal and Identification, which made it unclear whether “Y’golonac” was the name of an avatar or an Embryo, but regardless, it was well known that the name belonged to a freelance Superior who had defeated many monsters and and acted as a capable bodyguard all over the land.

Thus, Splendida assumed that someone like that had come to Dryfe for the same reason as he had.

“I see we’re alike in that regard, Evergreen.” And Y’golonac seemed to have heard of Splendida too.

Somehow, these two Superiors summoned by the imperator had ended up in the same caravan.

“If that’s the situation here,” Y’golonac said, “I suppose that makes them the unfortunate ones.”

Could a mere hundred armed men win against two Superiors? The Gatling gun Y’golonac had just used to blast some of the attackers was a good display of the firepower they needed to overcome those odds.

“Then you can just leave the carriage protection to little old me. Wipe them out, if you don’t mind.”

“Roger. I’m on it.”

Agreeing with Splendida’s suggestion, Y’golonac leaped into action. The construct discarded the Gatling gun, replacing it with two missile launchers that it placed on its shoulders before immediately firing them at the mass of attackers.

Targeted by homing missiles, the opposing force was gradually reduced to glowing lights. Someone among their ranks defended against the assault using a floating shield Embryo, but Y’golonac switched to an anti-tank rifle and blasted right through it.

At that moment, an AGI build Master drew close and swung at the construct with a long naginata-shaped Embryo, but Y’golonac switched to an even longer Greek-style spear and impaled the attacker for an instant kill.

The opponent seemed like a fairly high-level Master, but the way this unfolded seemed one-sided.

I guess it’s a powered suit Embryo with powers focused on weapon switching? Rather plain for a Superior, but it’s sure got a lot of utility. I feel like I’m looking at an FPS character, Splendida thought.

It seemed that Y’golonac also had a good balance of STR, END, and AGI—and so far, there didn’t seem to be any major flaws to it. This was in stark contrast to Splendida, who was hyperspecialized and could only really do one thing.

It looks like he’ll take care of it if I just leave it to him...hmm?

As that thought passed through his mind, Splendida’s eyes caught a silhouette that didn’t belong to a buggy or a Prism Steed replica.

It looked somewhat like a dragon carriage, but it wasn’t that either. It was being pulled by what looked like an upper Pure-Dragon-tier landdragon, and it wasn’t a passenger car, but a platform.

On the platform there was a giant cannon—one that looked like a railway gun.

“It did feel like they had more firepower than you’d expect from ordinary bandits, but this—” Splendida’s whisper to himself was cut short by a loud noise in the distance.

The railway gun, or whatever it was, had fired at Y’golonac. However, Y’golonac noticed it, read the shot’s trajectory, and quickly moved to evade it.

Just as he expected, the shell was heading toward a patch of ground over ten metels away from him...but right before it landed, it turned horizontally to the side.

Assuming an impossible trajectory, the shell flew straight toward Y’golonac, piercing right through him. It broke through the powered suit—supposedly a Superior Embryo—like it was paper, blowing away the top of the torso. A large section of his body gone, Y’golonac swayed back and forth before collapsing forward.

If he was a robot, the shell would’ve destroyed his core circuitry; if this was a powered suit instead, whoever was inside would certainly have died instantly.

“Whaaat?” Splendida looked down at the collapsed Y’golonac.

The expression under his mask was a dubious one, and the thought behind those eyes was Seriously?

◆

A man below the giant gun was watching as Y’golonac collapsed. Clad in a thick army coat and a multipurpose visor the shape of sunglasses, he let out a sigh.

“A confirmed hit.” The man—King of Magic Cannons Heldine Rockzapper—muttered his observation of the results.

He knew the attack would hit.

Heldine Rockzapper held a Superior Job specialized in the use of magic cannons, and its ultimate, The Freeshooter, fired shells that never missed. He set the target using his sight, and the shell he fired continued to home in on it until it landed.

Heldine’s artillery also couldn’t be defended against. His Embryo and weapon, Gun-Goddess of Collapse, Fenrir, completely negated all and any defense.

Neither defensive skills nor attributes meant anything to it. Like the god-consuming creature from which it took its name, Fenrir would slaughter anything it hit.

Guaranteed hits and defense negation—this attack-focused build of his was exactly what had landed Heldine in high positions on both kill and clan rankings of Dryfe.

“What are the losses?”

“The powered suit took out like twenty percent of our guys.”

“More than I expected. I guess we really are up against someone pre-Superior or higher.”

Upon hearing the casualty report from the subleader, Heldine analyzed the opponent’s power. The reason he didn’t assume Y’golonac was a Superior was because, just like Splendida, he thought Y’golonac looked too plain for that. Still, the construct was a force that couldn’t be ignored and seemed to cause trouble for Heldine’s clan, so he’d gotten involved personally and had attacked Y’golonac.

“But, man, to think they only just hired firepower like that,” Heldine said. “I suppose it’s all to bring that to the capital...?”

“We did the right thing by getting involved. The war with Altar is just around the corner. We can’t turn a blind eye to the seeds of any future trouble.”

Their conversation didn’t sound like it was coming from a group of supposed bandits.

“That leaves...just that masked man.”

“He has impressive regeneration. He may be an endurance-focused pre-Superior.”

As they talked, Heldine focused his sights on Splendida.

“I don’t know how many times you can keep regenerating, or how much.” He used his visor’s zoom function to glare at Splendida’s mask...

“So I will keep you in place until my subordinates fulfill their objective.”

...and Fenrir—the cannon bearing the name of the godslayer—fired once again.

◆

Mechanical remains were scattered on the muddy, rain-swept wasteland.

“Well, what do I do now?” The enemy’s artillery had completely destroyed Y’golonac. Splendida guessed that the attack’s trajectory and power were the result of some skill combo. Being a solo survival build Superior, he’d weathered countless attacks and had gotten quite good at analyzing their nature.

Not every Superior was like Splendida or Emily, and it was entirely possible for them to die. Even if the attacker was weaker, a critical hit could easily cause what had just happened to Y’golonac.

“Whoa.”

And, as he looked at Y’golonac’s state, a shell struck Splendida and completely pulverized him.

He instantly began regenerating from the head down, but another shell came flying in to put a stop to that.

Oh dear. I can’t do anything like this.

While Splendida couldn’t die, destroying his body over and over would incapacitate him, and his poison-focused attacks couldn’t reach someone attacking from over two kilometels away.

Meanwhile, keeping their distance from Splendida and the bombardment focused on him, Heldine’s subordinates were approaching the dragon carriages. They weren’t holding back, but there was a certain refinement to the way they operated.

Hrmm...I feel like they might not be bandits after all. The thing that the coachmen said is bothering me too...

Even as he was being scattered into pieces over and over, Splendida never stopped thinking.

After an obscene amount of explosions, Splendida’s head was blown off and landed next to Y’golonac. The two Superiors were now lying next to each other like good friends.

Oh? It just hit me that Y’golonac hasn’t disappeared, Splendida thought. He himself had a combo that made him immortal, so it was a given that he wouldn’t be vanishing. But why was Y’golonac’s body staying around as well?

“Hm?” Splendida, reduced to nothing but a head, realized that he could hear something faintly over the noise of the rain.

Y’golonac’s broken remains were releasing a sound that crackled with static.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Y’ggy’s broken! Get a grip, Vito!”

“Stop talking! There’s no way I could’ve seen that coming!”

“The attacker is about two kilometels away. That’s outside the effective range.”

“Now’s not the time for that, Micchi! Shit! Okay, time for the super long-range artillery gear...”

“No. We’re probably dealing with a pre-Superior who specializes in long-range combat. We’ll close the distance as soon as we recover. Large, prepare your active skill.”

“O-Okay!”

“Roger that, Hikaru! Don’t mess up this time, Vito!”

“Shut up!”

The sound was a conversation.

This is... Just when a certain thought was about to cross his mind, Splendida’s head was hit by another one of Fenrir’s shells, blowing him to bits. It seemed that the type of shell had been changed, and this one created an explosion big enough to engulf the surroundings.

The smoke it spread and the dust it flung up from the ground covered the bodies of both Splendida and Y’golonac.

◆

“Is it done...?” Heldine had switched from shells that ignored defense to ones focused on explosive firepower and effective area.

At the heart of the explosion, Splendida had been blown to smithereens.

Heldine didn’t know if his opponent’s regeneration was tied to how damaged his body was, but he thought that this would at least serve to buy some time.

“Hm...?”

However, when the torrential downpour scattered the smoke, he was met with a strange sight.

It was not Splendida, who was currently regenerating even from the immense explosion.

“Resuming combat.”

Heldine was met with the complete disappearance of the remains scattered about, as well as Y’golonac, standing there without as much as a scratch.

He spoke with the same voice as he did before his supposed destruction—a voice unlike any Splendida had heard.

A moment later, the construct vanished and reappeared right before Heldine and Fenrir.

“Ah...?!” Heldine was shocked—an enemy that had been far in the distance only a moment ago had just appeared right in front of him.

This was enough of an opening for Y’golonac to equip submachine guns in each arm and fire toward him.

“Ngh...!” Acting faster than Y’golonac in response, Heldine blew a whistle and ordered the Pure-dragon pulling his platform to leap in front of him.

The Pure-Dragon became a shield, bearing the bullet storm using its natural defensive power and a damage-reduction skill.

A moment later, the Pure-Dragon vanished, going back into a Jewel through Re-Call.

Behind the vanished meat shield there was Fenrir, now in a smaller form, and Heldine, brandishing it like a lance.

“FIRE!” Instantly shifting focus to retaliation, Heldine fired at Y’golonac from a close range. Though this smaller form had a lower range, its defense negation was still active.

This second hit on Y’golonac also opened a hole in his chest and scattered his limbs—instant death for a person, and irreparable damage for a weapon.

Suffering such catastrophic destruction, Y’golonac was reduced to pieces...

“Reactivation.”

...only to instantly recover and resume attacking.

“This one too?” Heldine clicked his tongue. It was unclear whether the thing before him was a powered suit or a robot, but he now understood that it and the masked man were birds of a feather.

Indeed, they both were solo survival builds, boasting immense regeneration.

Y’golonac also possessed far more methods of fighting and much more mobility than Splendida. He had both firepower that made him a capable solo combat build and the ability to respawn an indefinite number of times.

He was so powerful that Superior Embryo didn’t seem like enough to accomplish this feat.

“Fen! Cluster fire!” In response to Heldine’s words, Fenrir changed the barrel’s shape and began firing buckshot meant for close-range encounters.

Y’golonac responded by switching from the submachine guns to a large shield, which he threw at Heldine—a shield that was large enough to not only block his line of sight, but also crush him to death.

“Ah!” Heldine fired repeatedly to knock the weapon away before it struck home.

Not missing this opening, Y’golonac vanished once more and thrust a spear at Heldine from a blind spot.

Heldine turned his body and evaded it, however barely. While midair, he fired more defense-ignoring shots—but without Heldine’s ultimate job skill backing them up, Y’golonac was able to dodge it.

It was a true back-and-forth. In close range combat, the two were more or less equal.

However, while Heldine’s only lifeline was a Brooch and his own HP, there was no telling how many times Y’golonac could get back up. It dawned on Heldine that the situation would only get worse for him.

Still, he couldn’t retreat here.

“Leader!”

“I’ll keep him in place! The rest of you, secure the cargo and the coachmen!” Brandishing Fenrir, Heldine roared as he continued to engage Y’golonac.

And so...

“Don’t let this gang smuggle their drugs to Vandelheim!”

Silence. Those words made Y’golonac freeze, stopping in place like a game character that had ceased responding to controller inputs.

“Hm...?” Finding that strange, Heldine went on high alert when...

“What did you just say?”

...Y’golonac let out several voices that couldn’t have belonged to Y’golonac.

Watching the battle from a distance, Splendida nodded in understanding as he mused to himself, “Ah...I get it now.”

◆

A few minutes later, Splendida and Y’golonac were sitting on the ground before Heldine.

They were currently in the Japanese “seiza” sitting posture—an apologetic pose that Y’golonac had assumed instantly. Splendida had looked at Y’golonac, thought, Giapponese seiza?, and mimicked it.

“Oh dear, we almost ended up taking part in something bad.” Splendida spoke with the tone of someone who wasn’t feeling the slightest bit guilty, while Y’golonac maintained a silence.

The order of events that had led to the current situation went something like this:

A group within the Dryfean underworld received illegal substances—namely drugs—through Caldina. With Dryfe being in the gloomy state that it was, it was a good place to sell such items for a major profit. But since bringing them in just like that would get them caught immediately, they chose to deliver it by masking their caravan as a passenger transport service.

However, Dryfe was aware of this, and requested Fullmetal Wolves—Heldine’s clan and the second in Dryfe’s rankings—to seize the drugs and capture the criminals responsible.

What had made it a more complicated task than expected was the presence of two Superiors on the caravan who’d been invited by the imperator.

When Heldine told him all of this, things finally made sense to Splendida. It explained why the coachman’s shout about a “bandit attack” had felt so off. He’d probably wanted to shout something like “Dryfe inspection,” but caught himself at the last moment.

“I apologize for getting in the way of your duties.” Y’golonac bowed deeply to express his regret.

Y’golonac was a Master that the coachmen had hired as a bodyguard. He’d been invited by the imperator and was heading to Vandelheim anyway, so this job was just right for him.

And so, he and Splendida had ended up fighting Fullmetal Wolves, oblivious to the fact that they were both backing up a very shady group of people.

Y’golonac had Truth Discernment, but the criminals could circumvent it by saying things like “we would like a bodyguard for a caravan carrying people and cargo” or “we’re bringing pharmaceutical products to Vandelheim,” neither of which were lies per se.

Though, for some reason he also hadn’t heard the coachman’s words.

“Fortunately, the only human casualties were Masters. No real trouble at all... Though, we’ll have you make it up to us in the war against Altar.”

Splendida and Y’golonac both showed their invitation letters and explained themselves, and though they weren’t completely innocent, the fact that they hadn’t disrupted his work on purpose was enough for Heldine to not hold them responsible.

In this operation, nobody had died besides a number of Masters from Fullmetal Wolves. The criminal group responsible had all been apprehended. There were some coachmen who’d tried to force an escape and caused their carriages to topple, but though that caused some injuries, none of the passengers had been killed, and their wounds had already been treated.

In fact, the one who’d suffered the worst injury from a toppled carriage was Splendida himself.

Incidentally, when the lady he’d protected had woken up, she’d just kept muttering, “The neck, the neck...” in pure confusion—but when Splendida showed himself, fully healed and naked, she instantly fainted yet again.

Regardless, though there had been a few complications, Fullmetal Wolves had fulfilled their objective, and it was decided that they would escort the caravan to Vandelheim. Heldine didn’t seem to like the idea of leaving the innocent passengers in the wasteland.

Splendida and Y’golonac would be accompanying them as well. Some might say this was Fullmetal Wolves escorting “VIPs invited by the imperator himself,” while others would characterize it as “persons of interest” being dragged away.

“The road had some twists and turns, but it looks like we’re back on track,” said Splendida. The platform that had supported Fenrir was now covered in order to transport Y’golonac.

For some reason, though, Splendida was sitting right next to him right now.

“By the way, where are you controlling that from, and how many of tu are there? Is ‘Unfaltering’ the name of your party?”

“...I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Watching the battle had given Splendida an idea of how Y’golonac worked, but the latter still feigned ignorance.

Well, if he just went and admitted it like it’s no big deal, it’d just make me worried. About the war and stuff, Splendida thought despite putting on an exaggerated and disappointed expression. Little old me and Y’golonac. I see the imperator’s inviting survival-focused Superiors. Maybe this war won’t be your typical one.

Splendida realized that the Dryfean leadership had some sort of plan to win the upcoming conflict, and that inviting them was part of it.

Well, anything’s fine by me. If that’s how it’s gonna be, I’ll probably get a front row view of all the highlights.

The Superior whose goal was simply to do some sightseeing—the immortal tourist—pictured the coming event.

“Heh heh heh...” Splendida chuckled merrily—not realizing that Y’golonac was staring at him, just a little creeped out.