Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 21 - Chapter 5.7

Interlude: A Story That Was Spoken and a Story Untold

Sorcerer Ray Starling

“...And that’s how I beat King of Plagues and became famous as the mysterious PK known as the Superior Killer. After this, I was flooded with contracts and had to count on help from the twin CEOs of DIN, among other things...and one of the jobs I got out of that led to our first meeting.”

I silently listened. Expanding upon the articles that speculated on her means and contained various other pieces of information, Marie had told me about the event and had now reached the conclusion I already knew—that the Superior Killer had defeated King of Plagues and sent him to the gaol.

“Well, with how big the whole thing was, there’s probably some stuff that I don’t know about it, so all I could really tell you was what I heard here in Altar and how the battle played out for me,” Marie said. “I also don’t know much about what King of Plagues has been doing after he was thrown into the gaol—though I did see that recent video of him being a little terrorist in there.”

“Oh yeah... I saw that too.”

Someone I’d known since our high school days—a fellow EGRS member—was a streamer and content creator who’d gotten sent to the gaol and occasionally made videos about it. He was eccentric to begin with and there weren’t a lot of people making gaol content, so those videos always got a good amount of views.

I’d watched some of them myself, and, well...that lip fetishist sure seemed to be the same as ever. Not that I approved of what he did, though Stealing the fairy queen Titania’s cup was a pretty crazy thing to do.

That aside...

“By the way, Marie...”

“Yes?”

“How would you describe King of Plagues? His appearance, I mean.” The news articles wrote about his deeds, but there was nothing about what he looked like.

“His appearance? Well, it was definitely pretty weird.”

Weirder than somebody wearing a business suit in a fantasy world? I thought.

“I mean, he wore a samurai helmet and a raincoat! That’s not exactly a look I’m ever going to forget.”

“Ohh, that is weird. I never met him, but I’m sure I’d recognize that outfit right away.”

“Well, he’s in the gaol now, so it’s not like we’ll ever see him again.” Marie had beaten King of Plagues, and Shu had beaten King of Crime, but no matter what they did, as long as they were Masters none of them could actually die. They would just come back once their death penalty expired—but if their sins were grave enough, they’d be sent to the gaol.

So far the only people who had made it out of there were people like Hannya, and knowing the extent of his crimes there was no chance that King of Plagues would ever get free.

I mean, it’s not like the security there is so lax that he could just escape, right?

“Anyway, that’s more or less how the King of Plagues incident went,” said Marie. “Do you have any more questions?”

“Just one.” There was actually one more thing that Marie probably knew about, but hadn’t yet mentioned. “It’s about the boy who survived. How did Mahr end up?”

I wanted to know about Marie’s client—the sole survivor of Mahem. Marie had neglected to mention what kind of life the boy had ended up living once all was said and done.

However, the only response I got was silence. Marie clearly looked like she didn’t know what to say.

“Was he sent to some orphanage?” I asked. “Wait, don’t tell me that he...” Joined his friends and family? I completed the sentence in my head, feeling uneasy.

However, Marie’s answer didn’t align with my assumed worst-case scenario.

“I don’t know. I think that once it was all over, the dragon that helped me took him with him somewhere.”

The dragon who was a friend of The Hero and his tamed monster—the one that had gladly agreed to help Marie with her plan. With the boy having lost his family, friends, and homeland, that dragon was, in a way, the only connection he still had.

“His friend entrusted the boy to him, so...I guess the dragon took him into his own care?” I said.

“Probably. Well, the dragon seemed reasonable, so I’m sure that boy is living a decent life somewhere.”

Well, that seemed like a good enough outcome to me. I could only hope that the boy found something to live for in the time after the tragedy.

◇◆◇

The following events occurred after the incident, yet were unknown even to Marie—the one who had finally ended it. Neither most of the players on the board nor human society at large could fully grasp the story that unfolded.

◇◆◇

After King of Plagues’s Defeat, Kingdom of Altar, Ajani County

Mahr first heard of King of Plagues’s defeat from Arcal, then from the workers in the offices where he was currently staying.

With that, he understood that black mist—the professional killer—who had accepted his request had actually done what To’ori could not and defeated King of Plagues. The people here told Mahr that although Masters couldn’t die, the crimes King of Plagues had committed were so serious that he would never leave the gaol.

With the incident finally in the past, Altar was overcome by relief.

But now that it was all over, Mahr was left with absolutely nothing.

He’d lost his homeland, his family, his friends, and now even the person responsible for all of that loss was gone.

Recent examinations of Mahem’s lands proved that the bacteria were on the decline and that it would soon be a place where people could live again, but that didn’t mean anyone had survived.

The people that made up Mahr’s life—those he had any ties to—were all dead.

In silence, Mahr looked back upon those days that would never return, his eyes fixed in the direction of Mahem. The office workers had already tried talking to Mahr about his life from now on, and the town had a state-sponsored orphanage that had asked if he would like to live there. The suggestion was made out of kindness on their part, and it was probably the best path Mahr could have taken, but Mahr just couldn’t see it that way.

Altar was still Altar. It wasn’t the homeland in which he’d lived his entire life so far.

The fact that the homeland was all but eradicated didn’t change that.

The office workers concluded that the boy just needed time to think, and so they let him stay as long as he needed.

However, Mahr was planning to leave this place soon. He had no means of surviving on his own and would probably die, but he didn’t feel that it would be a particularly unfortunate outcome. In fact, he was gradually feeling less and less of anything, becoming more hollow as time passed.

Even when Arcal or the people in Altar’s government offices told him that King of Plagues was defeated, Mahr didn’t feel anything that resembled happiness. It made the burden on him a little lighter, but he did not get any positive emotion out of the news.

Mahr didn’t even feel sadness or rage anymore, let alone joy. The moment he’d asked the hit man to kill King of Plagues might’ve been the last time he’d felt any kind of intense emotion whatsoever.

Now, with a hollow heart, he merely stared in Mahem’s direction from dawn until dusk.

But as he was doing exactly that, Mahr thought he saw something strange in the sky—a distortion in the air, so vague it would likely vanish if he glanced away.

This strange object that his eyes captured by pure chance seemed to have the shape of a creature. If his eyes weren’t deceiving him, it looked like a translucent dragon, swimming through the sky.

“It has been long indeed since the eyes of mankind have caught my reflection.” A moment after Mahr saw that hazy dragon, he heard an unfamiliar voice by his side.

Silently and showing little surprise, the boy looked toward its source. This was the second time something like this happened in a short while. It couldn’t shock him any longer. His heart and mind had become too lifeless for that.

What Mahr saw looked like a miniaturized version of the dragon he’d seen in the sky. He couldn’t tell dragons apart by their faces, but he felt as though this one was somewhat similar to the dragon he already knew—Arcal.

“This reflection is woven from spirit and nature’s lingering magic. To witness it is a sign that your heart is profoundly hollow—that you are attached to nothing. There is not a single thing that concerns you now—even the question of your own life or death is a distant thing. Am I wrong?”

Mahr said nothing and didn’t even nod in response, but he did feel that the dragon was right.

“Hmm,” the dragon said. “So this is more than a state of mind.”

The transparent dragon gazed into Mahr’s eyes. It was no doubt an unsettling scene, but the boy wasn’t scared in the least.

“Keh heh heh...how unusual indeed. You even have the talent. You carry what it takes to inherit the throne of the lost Superior Job that has stood vacant since the pre-ancient times.”

“Hm...?” Mahr finally spoke.

“Had you not suffered a tragedy such as this, you would have died without this potential ever coming into bloom.” Mahr understood the spectral dragon’s words, but the deeper meaning was lost on him.

It almost seemed as though it was saying that Mahr was...special.

“Young Mahr.” The dragon spoke the boy’s name easily, as though he already knew everything about him. “You are special.” The creature clearly affirmed the very thing that Mahr had assumed was a misapprehension. “Were you to train with me, you would soon—at least in terms of the outside world’s time—become a being of great power. You would be someone truly special, just like The Hero himself.”

Silence.

“Shall I take you under my wing?” the dragon asked.

To become special, just like The Hero To’ori Kusanagi—this used to be one of Mahr’s greatest desires. He’d dreamed of being someone truly special and living out amazing adventures.

Back then, he would’ve immediately agreed to all of this, but there were things he’d come to understand since those days. He now knew that being special didn’t stop To’ori from feeling exactly the same way, and Mahr had realized with painful clarity that the adventures he’d envisioned were nothing but catastrophes for most everyone involved.

Mahr no longer wanted anything special. What he wanted—what his nearly hollow heart wished for—were those simple days that would never come back.

“I’m not going. I don’t need it.”

That was why he responded to the dragon’s offer with a slow shake of his head. If this upset the dragon and drove it to eat him alive, Mahr wouldn’t even run.

The boy no longer needed to be special. There was nothing that he wanted at all. He didn’t even desire to keep living.

He was “■?#.”

“Very well...”

Upon hearing Mahr’s answer, the dragon nodded...

“You pass.”

...and as he proclaimed this, a veil of light began enveloping Mahr’s body.

“Hm...?” Mahr said. To some, this would seem like an attack. Mahr seemed to be obviously in danger, yet he wasn’t shocked or surprised or anything like that.

However, he did have a question: what did the dragon mean by “You pass?”

“You lose your right to it the moment you seek it,” the dragon said. “That is why it is lost, that is why it presents such a challenge...and that is why you are deserving. And although you shall not seek it yourself, it does not mean that I will turn a blind eye to you.” The dragon cracked an obviously joyful smile. “A piece this peculiar is not one I would idly remove from the board. As I wish to continue spectating the game, I shall take you with me and have you grow.”

Mahr said nothing, but he realized that the answer he’d thought would make the dragon mad had actually made it more interested in him than before.

He would now be enveloped in this orb of light, stored away, and probably taken somewhere far off.

However, the boy didn’t intend to struggle against what was happening to him. While he might’ve not been seeking life or power, he also didn’t exactly desire death.

He wasn’t attached to anything. He was nothing but a stray child who’d lost sight of anything that could tie him to the world.

When Mahr was fully embraced by light, the door to his room burst into pieces.

Stepping over the remains of the door, a man—Arcal in his human form—entered the room.

“Father...!”

“Kyeh heh heh...Arcal? I see you’ve kept yourself well all this time.”

The reflection of the dragon—one of the three dragon kings, Skydragon King, Drac-Heaven—chuckled as he welcomed his son.

“Mahr...!” Seeing the boy, enveloped in an orb of light, Arcal grew pale.

The boy had been entrusted to him by a late friend. If Mahr didn’t wish to go into an orphanage in Altar, Arcal had planned to invite the boy to travel the world with him. He hoped that the journey could help cure the boy’s hollow heart.

But now that he actually came to present this offer, he found Mahr with someone else—his own father.

“What do you intend to do with him...?!” Arcal cried. It was very likely that his father had been watching—spectating—the entire King of Plagues incident. And through the chaos, for some reason his attention had fixed on Mahr.

Arcal asked his father about his plans for the boy, and the Skydragon King replied, not hiding a thing.

“I will take him to the Border Mountain Belt—no, to the Timedragon’s Mausoleum.”

“Ah...! Mother’s...?!”

“Kyeh heh heh. The custodians ordered me to never let in any Masters, never use it to enhance monsters, and destroy it rather than allow them to set foot in it... But they have not told me anything about letting tians in. This is most appropriate.”

The Timedragon’s Mausoleum was a profoundly special place.

For Arcal, it was his mother’s grave. And for the rest of the world, it was the most unique natural dungeon that existed.

“Listen, Arcal.” As Arcal grew more and more confused, unable to read his father’s intentions, the Skydragon King spoke to him in a voice only he could hear. “No matter where you are, all that lives will eventually die. Lunnings and Mahem are no different in this regard.”

Arcal’s eyes widened. Both of those were places where he’d lost close friends. At Lunnings, Arcal had even died himself; at Mahem he’d come close to dying again.

“Even your power may not be enough to protect him,” Arcal’s father continued. “Surely you are aware of this?”

“Yes.” Recalling these heavy defeats, Arcal nodded with a bitter face.

“The turmoil in this world will only continue to grow, and the only way those living here can ensure their survival is to become as powerful as they can possibly be. And the optimal means of achieving this goal lies under my wing.”

Arcal was silent. As one who had already experienced death, he knew well that his father spoke the truth.

“Have faith in me. I would have Mahr gain the power to survive by himself—make him powerful enough to at the very least, win against King of Plagues as he is now.”

As he grinned, the Skydragon King and the light orb containing Mahr both began to vanish.

“Father...”

“If you are still concerned, feel free to visit now and again. Although...considering the environment, this might not even take a month to achieve.”

With that, the Skydragon King and Mahr vanished from the room. They were likely already in the Border Mountain Belt.

All that was left was silence. Arcal’s face was bitter and full of anguish, yet he was unable to deny the truth of his father’s words.

He also knew that his father kept his promises. There was no doubt that Mahr would be granted special powers, even if he himself didn’t desire them.

“If I too...” Perhaps Arcal could have contradicted his father if he’d been stronger than he was—and perhaps if he’d been stronger long ago, he might not have lost so many friends in the first place, and Mahr’s heart might not have ended up as hollow as it was.

Following that thought, he reached the conclusion that he had to address his own powerlessness before he could deny his father.

And thus, he also left the room.

◇

When the people working in the office arrived, all they found was a broken door. They tried searching for Mahr, but even with the use of skills, they couldn’t find any trace of him.

And with that, this little incident that followed King of Plagues’s defeat became a cold case.

After all, no one would ever come to the absurd conclusion that the Skydragon King had taken the boy to the Border Mountain Belt—even though that was exactly the truth.