Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 7 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue 
Paladin, Ray Starling 
Upon confirming that Monochrome was gone for good, I passed out instantly. 
I didn’t just get the Fainting status effect, either — I actually became so relaxed that my consciousness turned off. 
I felt like I slept the whole time I was inside that weird space you go to when you’re out cold. 
Also, it might’ve just been my imagination, but I thought I saw a blackish, reddish humanoid silhouette act all sulky, saying, “I finished it and you come here like this...” or something. 
Anyway, upon waking up, I was greeted by several changes, with the first of them being the special reward, which, just like you’d expect, went to me. 
It was called “Black Warcoat, Monochrome,” and it was basically a crystalline, transparent greatcoat. 
Upon seeing it, Nemesis... oh, right. 
Speaking of her... after defeating Monochrome, she, still in her Shooting Wheel form, simply came back down to the surface like it was nothing, merged with the handle I was still holding in my hand while unconscious, and turned back into her human form. 
Now, upon seeing Monochrome’s special reward, she muttered something like, “How unexpected. Knowing you, I assumed it would be black and appear far more sinister,” which I found very rude. Just what made her automatically assume that my gear would be sinister? 
Anyway, the Black Warcoat had a passive skill called “Light Absorption,” and when I equipped the coat and activated it, it instantly went from transparent to black. True to its name, the skill absorbed light, and it seemed to do it so well that the whole coat turned completely dark. 
“I knew it,” said Nemesis. 
That aside, Light Absorption wasn’t the only skill it had. 
I expected the other skill to have something to do with flying or voice, but its name — “Shining Despair” — basically said it all. As expected, its description said that it fired a beam, and I could only assume it was a weaker version of the greatest one fired by the UBM. 
However, it left me wondering about something. 
When the monster fired that beam, I’d heard it say “Shining Disappear,” rather than “Despair,” so I was slightly curious why the pronunciation had changed after it became a special reward. Was it adjusted to me or something? 
Come to think of it, in Infinite Dendrogram, certain English words were used or pronounced differently than in real life. Was there something going on with the translation function? 
Regardless, on to the next change. 
While I was out cold, everyone in Torne had been fully healed. 
Like, even those with severe Scorches all over their bodies, and even those who’d lost limbs were now in perfectly good health — and I was among them. 
Most of the wounds I’d gained in my battle against Monochrome had vanished, and not only that, but the left arm I’d lost before this incident had grown back. The arm worked as smoothly as it did in reality, and it honestly felt like it had never been gone. 
According to Nemesis and B3, the healing had happened while they weren’t looking. 
I’d call this a mystery, but I had a strong guess about who was responsible. After all, the kingdom had only a single person who wielded healing magic powerful enough to cure loss of body parts. 
“So you were here, too... Miss Aberration,” I muttered. 
 
A certain pair of people 
“Ohhh, dear, am I tired. Weird, considering I didn’t do anything.” 
“Most excellent work, Lady Tsukuyo.” 
The spiritual leader of The Lunar Society, Tsukuyo Fuso, was in an empty part of Torne village, lying down on and rolling around the low grass as though it was the floor in her home. 
Her Mythical junihitoe was now covered in grass stains, but she didn’t seem to care one bit. 

“Hey, I didn’t do anythiiing,” she said. “They just became healed for some reason. Oh dear, what a shame, and I was planning to have Ray join us in exchange for healing his aaaarm. Just what in the woooorld healed them allll?” 
“I fail to see the need to feign ignorance when I was there to see it,” he responded. “And I feel you are overdoing it with the monotone.” 
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 
“Very well, then.” 
Despite being there to witness his mistress walk around the village and heal everyone, Eishiro Tsukikage was the first to give up. 
Anyway, to answer the question of how long The Lunar Society’s top had been in Torne... they’d actually arrived here long before Monochrome had appeared.

Yesterday, Eishiro had told Tsukuyo that Ray was heading there alongside Shijima’s son-in-law. 
At first, her reaction was just a lukewarm “Really now?” She didn’t seem to care at all. 
But come morning, she said, “I wanna go see the Windstar Fest. Oh, but it’s got nothing to do with Ray,” and then went out to Torne. 
This seemed to be something she’d decided on after a whole evening’s worth of consideration. Perhaps she wanted to see what kind of choice Ray would make when faced with the Shijima family’s problem. 
Tsukuyo was accompanied by Eishiro, and for their means of transport, they invited a member of The Lunar Society — a Master who used a Pure-Dragon-tier skydragon. 
Thanks to that, they arrived at Torne in no time. But right after they did, B3 called Eishiro on his real life mobile — yes, the same call in which she and Ray asked about Shijima’s relationship to The Lunar Society. 
Eishiro had to log out to answer, while the Pure-Dragon’s Master had to look after his creature, so Tsukuyo ended up walking around the stalls all by herself. 
Of course, with her being an infamous, stand-out beauty known to wear a junihitoe, there could’ve been many people noticing her and realizing who she was, but that was countered by the disguise Eishiro had given her before logging out. 
Tsukuyo went on to have a decently good time walking around the stalls, and upon Eishiro’s return, he told her about the situation. 
Then, once Ray logged in again, they went on to watch him from the shadows — quite literally — and Tsukuyo was somewhat satisfied to see him resolve to tell Farica and Louie about Shijima. 
But then she said, “Oh, dear. We should stop this. Kage, what did you even tell him?” and tried to call out to Ray, but that was exactly when Monochrome appeared. 
Ray instantly took to the sky, and even their Pure-Dragon rider joined him and challenged the UBM. 
Tsukuyo had heaved a sigh, but then, she and Eishiro had begun walking around the attacked places in order to heal the ones who’d been critically hurt. 
“Oh deaaaar, I could make a really good deal with the first princess if she was here, but now I’m working for freeeee,” she whined despite indiscriminately healing all those injured while still hiding in the shadows. 
Thanks to her efforts, not a single tian died. 
And during it all, she watched over Ray’s struggle and didn’t do more than that.

“Shouldn’t we have been the ones to defeat the UBM?” Eishiro asked. 
Though she’d helped the tians, Tsukuyo had done absolutely nothing to influence Ray’s battle. 
This was despite having the options to assist Ray directly or to defeat Monochrome by themselves and taking the special reward. 
The reason why she didn’t do that was simple. 
“Ehh? But that would’ve been boring.” 
And there was nothing more to it. 
She’d watched Ray the whole time — saw his resolve and the actions he’d taken — but not even once had she considered assisting him. She believed it would’ve sullied the purity of his behavior. 
Tsukuyo wanted to see Ray at his most natural. In a way, she was continuing the observation that had been ruined by Figaro’s intrusion back at their HQ. 
The conclusion? Tsukuyo ended up liking Ray even more than she had after their conversation when she’d kidnapped him. So much so that she’d cast Mercy of the Holy on him, giving up on using it as a card in a deal. 
“Oh deaaaar, Ray’s healed and I didn’t even do anything, so now I’ll have to put off inviting him to CID until the next time he’s almost dyiiiing,” she whined. 
Eishiro gave her a flat look, not saying a word. 
When it came to deals, Tsukuyo’s style was to present the other party with severe conditions and wait until they had no choice but to accept them. In this case, however, she’d betrayed her style twice — first by lowering her condition to him joining CID, rather than The Lunar Society, and then by actually giving him the treatment for absolutely no reward. 
Her strong, continuous, repeated assertion to Eishiro that she hadn’t done anything back there was just her way of denying the reality that she’d departed from her principle and helped Ray for nothing. 
She reminds me of herself when she was a child, Eishiro thought in response to the highly unconvincing and ineffective denial. He chose to say nothing more. 
“But... well...” Tsukuyo continued. “At least Shijima’s family is saved, and Ray gave me a good show. I guess that was his way of seizing miracles.” 
“‘Miracles,’ you say?” Eishiro commented. “I believe people consider wounds that cure themselves to be miraculous, as well.” 
“I don’t know what you meaaaan.” 
“Oh yes, of course, of course. I must say, though...” Tsukikage sighed at his mistress’s obstinance before letting out a whisper. “Miracles are certainly commonplace nowadays.” 
 
Paladin, Ray Starling 
One more thing seemed to have happened while I was asleep: Louie and Farica received a letter from Mr. Shijima. 
It was from before he’d taken the surgery. Apparently, Mr. Shijima had put it in a metal pipe and given it to Gringham ahead of time so the lion could deliver it to them just in case he himself wasn’t back after half a year had passed. 
The man had entrusted it to Gringham, believing that his loyal beast would listen to his desire even after returning to the wild. 
Mr. Shijima’s letter said that he was fighting his illness and that the fact he wasn’t back yet meant that it was lasting longer than he’d expected. However, he also added that he would definitely come back. 
Aside from that, it contained his most heartfelt feelings for Louie and Farica. 
Upon hearing that, I decided to call off telling them what I’d found out before Monochrome’s appearance. 
The letter contained Mr. Shijima’s own words, so I had no business getting involved in this anymore. 
Not to mention that there was a decisive misconception on our part regarding this whole situation. 

When I’d asked Tsukikage how the man had ended up, the goddamn King of Secretaries had put on a depressed tone and said, “‘Miracles’ are called ‘miracles’... because they’re unbelievably rare.” 
Those words had seriously shocked me, but now that I thought about it... that sneaky bastard hadn’t said anything about the miracle not happening or the man dying. 
And to top it all off, when I’d logged out just a moment ago and ran a search for “Fuso hospital terminal illness” I’d instantly got a result for a medical article from two months ago, titled, “SURGERY FOR GLOBALLY INFAMOUS DISEASE SUCCESSFUL IN JAPAN FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!” 
It said that the patient would have to spend a few months in an ICU for follow-up medical care, and that the patient’s condition was stable. 
Out of respect for his privacy, the man wasn’t named, but it was more than likely that it was our guy. 
The miracle... had actually happened. 
“Man... I’ve been had,” I muttered. 
I knew today was April Fools’ Day. And, well, I had clearly been fooled. Hook, line, and sinker. 
Was I feeling bad about that, though? Nope. Not at all. 
That evening, after thanking me for saving him and Gringham, Louie went on to withdraw his request, saying, “I’ll keep waiting for Dad with Mom, Gringham, and my little brother or sister! He will come back!” 
He made the right choice, if you asked me. 
After all, the day he was waiting for wasn’t too far away. 
 
It was the first morning after the Monochrome incident. 
B3 and I were about to leave Torne as Louie, Farica, and Gringham were seeing us off. 
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that Gringham was tamed by Farica. If he’d stayed untamed, he might’ve been accidentally killed by someone, so yesterday, she’d gone out to get the Tamer job and made him hers. 
Of course, an Aries Leo wasn’t exactly a creature that could be tamed by a completely new Tamer, but it was different in Gringham’s case. They were family, and he’d wanted to be tamed, so the process had been completed without a problem, and he was now lying asleep on their grounds like some enormous housecat. 
Now, he too, would be waiting for his original owner alongside his family. 
“Thank you so much for everything you’ve done,” said Farica as she bowed her head. Louie followed after her. “You helped with Louie’s request and even saved us from that Monochrome...” 
“No need for that,” I replied. “I did those things because I wanted to.” 
It would have left a bad taste in my mouth if I hadn’t done them, and having done them, I was feeling nothing but refreshed. That alone made it all worth it. 
“Oh, right,” said Louie. “I canceled the request, but the money...” 
“Oh, no need for that, either.” I raised my hand to stop him. 
“Yes,” B3 nodded. “We never agreed on an amount.” 
Exactly — we hadn’t decided on a reward. Not to mention that... 
“Thanks to this matter, we chanced upon a windfall,” she continued. “And that’s payment enough.” 
...Yeah, the reparations from K&R would do just fine. 
I’d gotten a closer look at the contract and found out that the interest for delayed payment was insane in more ways than one. If Rosa didn’t hurry and pay up, she’d be in for a serious debt hell. 
Anyway, we were about to depart, but before that... 
“Louie,” I addressed the boy. 
“Yes? What is it?” He looked up at me. 
There was just one more thing I wanted to tell him before I left. 
“Make sure to support your little brother or sister when he or she’s born, all right? Little brothers rely on their big brothers more than you’d expect.” 
“...Okay!” 
And with that exchange as our last, we left the Shijima household. 
Silver, having recovered from the effects of that “Gremlin” Embryo, was pulling B3’s carriage forward. 
Nemesis, B3, and I were all on the coachman’s seat. 
Looking around, I could see people reconstructing the parts of the village Monochrome had destroyed yesterday. 
A group of Masters with mohawk haircuts looked particularly enthusiastic about their volunteer work. 
Can’t judge a book by its cover, huh? I thought as I watched the scenery when I felt B3 look at me, both silently and intently. 
“Is anything wrong?” I asked. 
“No, it’s just that... I find it strange that you aren’t saying anything about me when I was in armor. Tone, looks — nearly everything about me was different, so I expected you to ask.” 
Yeah, she’d definitely been more manly back then. That was what she’d called being “turned on” or something. Nevertheless... 
“Well... I’m used to it.” 
“‘Used to it?’” 
“I have two family members and a few friends whose tones and behaviors, like yours, drastically change depending on the situation, so I don’t really mind it at this point.” 
“I... I see?” 
Both of my siblings, Marie, Hugo... probably Rook, too. Looking at it like that, I realized I had quite a number of two-faced characters around me. But at least they were all good people at heart. 
“By the way, may I ask you something?” Nemesis joined the conversation with a question for B3. “What should we call you from now on? ‘B3’ or ‘Barbaroy’?” 
“Oh, uh, please use ‘B3’ when I’m not wearing my armor and ‘Barbaroy’ when I am.” 
She separates them...? 
“Hm... Why the separation?” asked Nemesis. 
B3’s face turned slightly red as she said, “Well... That makes it cuter... and cooler, right?” 
Those words of hers made me suddenly burst into laughter. 
She turned all sulky and lightly whacked my head a few times before escaping into her carriage. 
Yep. She’s an unexpectedly charming person, I thought with a grin. ...Those hits took some of my HP, though. 
“You have no one to blame but yourself,” said Nemesis. 
Can’t argue with that. 
And so, our carriage left Torne. 
I turned around for the last time and took a look at the village, now a small dot on the horizon. 
“Now that I think about it... what will happen to the Windstar Festival now?” I muttered. 
Monochrome, the origin of the festival, had awakened, greatly damaged the village, and vanished. 
Though not many had been hurt or injured, the same couldn’t be said for their homes, which were charred or even burnt to the ground. 
Reconstruction would take a lot of time, and it wasn’t certain whether they could continue the Windstar Festival tradition. 
“It will go on,” said Nemesis, sounding certain. She was sitting off to my right. 
“Why do you think that?” I asked. 
“People are creatures that advance forward while etching their pain and grief into the past, so I’m certain they will do the same with this incident.” 
I silently pondered, thinking that it seemed much like throwing a festival during the anniversary of an air-raid or some other calamity in order to comfort the dead and pray for restoration. 
“You and I are like that, as well,” she added. 
“You, too?” 
“Indeed. I am an Embryo that changes your pain and sadness into power that lets you keep moving forward,” she said as she gently grasped my left hand — the one I now had again. “But the will to do that is none other than yours... and the same applies to everyone else. So if those calling this village their home have the will to move on, it will be restored in no time, and the festival will continue to happen as it always has.” 
“...That’s true.” 
We rode the carriage as it traced the road leading back to the capital. 
A gentle wind was blowing over it, spinning the windstars decorating the fences. 

The following year’s Windstar Festival happened without a problem to name. 
However, there was a slight, but noticeable, change — the windstar decorations were now being held up by small paper dolls, which seemed to represent the person who’d shattered the star of the black sky. 
At the year’s Windstar Dance, one could see a certain family dancing among the crowd — a wife with her husband, and a young boy with a silent girl. 
Not far away from them, there was a lion with a baby sleeping on its woolly mane. 
Though it was much like the scenes from years before, it was definitely new. 
And that day, too, there was a pleasant wind that gently spun the windstars. 
END. To Be Continued in the Next Episode...