Chapter 11 — I Was Hoping For Some Kind of Awakening Event
Passing through the wall that encircled the center of the Underworld, the students came upon another forest. After walking through it for a time, it suddenly became what could only be described as a void: the hole at the center of the Underworld.
Looking closely, it was clear that the hole wasn’t a perfect circle, but was actually a complex network of cliffs. They guessed the size of it was twenty kilometers across, but the far end was too distant for them to actually make out.
As the sun began to set, they decided to rest. Although the sixth level of the Underworld had its own sun with its own day and night cycle, it seemed to be a considerably faster pattern than that of the surface. The group still had the energy to continue, but ultimately decided that it was too dangerous with the limited vision they would have in the dark.
Returning to the middle of the forest, they set up a base camp. The Carpenter in their group cleared out a section of trees and set up a fortress. After scouting the area to make sure it was safe, they turned in for the night.
Within the fortress was a single dining hall, where the Sage candidates could gather at night for a feast. The tables were covered with luxurious foods, prepared by the girls in the class who were skilled at cooking. The ingredients came from the supplies stored at numerous bases they had set up throughout the Underworld.
“Should we really be partying like this?”
“Why not?” Romiko responded to Tomochika.
“Well, it’s been easy so far, I guess,” Jiyuna Shijou observed.
The three of them were sitting at one of the tables. They had reached the edge of the sixth level without issue, and would reach the seventh level the next day. At first, the unfamiliar landscapes had been somewhat bewildering, but they had grown used to them by now.
The atmosphere in the dining hall was very relaxed. At this point, the girls far outnumbered the guys in the class, so the male students were starting to feel a bit awkward.
“Shouldn’t we set up some kind of lookout? We’re right in the middle of enemy territory, aren’t we?”
“On our way to the capital, we took turns keeping watch. But now Arima’s gotten strong enough that he knows everything that’s going on around us.”
Osamu Arima. He was the one with the Carpenter class. At first, the best he could do was make a small shack, but now he was capable of building a fortress like this with ease. In addition, a Carpenter knew everything that was happening inside of the structures he built. That ability reached as far as the fence that was set up around the fortress itself. In short, he was able to keep watch over the entire area from inside.
“Huh? Isn’t that a problem? I mean, that’s why the Eroge Nobles were shunned, right?” If he could see what was happening inside everyone’s bedrooms, Tomochika would have expected a lot of people to complain.
“Arima is pretty popular, so that was never an issue,” Jiyuna answered. “And he himself suggested that he be bound by Akino’s Oath skill, so maybe that honesty is the secret to his popularity?”
The Eroge Nobles had accepted Akino’s Oath reluctantly, but if Arima had volunteered, that was different.
“He’s really too much, isn’t he?”
“He wants to be an architect, is good at school, has the looks, and is a gentleman to boot. It’s no wonder he’s popular. Do you not like guys like that, Tomochika?”
“It’s not that I don’t like them, but...” As she thought about it, she realized that she had never really looked at the guys in her class that way.
“You like boys more like Takatou, don’t you?” Romiko asked.
“Wh-Why are you bringing him up like that?!”
“You two are always together; it would be weird not to notice.”
“That’s not how it — wait, where is Takatou?” Tomochika unconsciously turned to look for him, at which point she realized that he wasn’t in the dining hall.
“Huh, he’s totally gone,” Romiko remarked, looking around as well. The dining hall wasn’t large enough to lose someone in, so he must have gone out. “Well, he’s kind of a loner, so maybe all the partying was too much for him.”
“That’s kind of mean to say,” Tomochika quipped, although in truth she couldn’t help but agree.
Sitting in the middle of the forest, Yogiri studied the stone fortress in the light of the moon. The Underworld’s moon was quite bright, making it easy to see one’s surroundings even at night.
Their Carpenter had built the fortress. Clearing away a section of forest, he’d brought out block after block, putting together a huge structure in no time at all like it was some kind of video game.
Cheerful voices now spilled out from the building. The others were eating, but Yogiri had finished quickly and left immediately afterwards. He couldn’t help but feel that this place felt a bit like the facility where he had grown up. Although it was far underground, you’d never know it by looking around. His home, too, had been in the middle of a forest deep underground, so he felt like the setup was similar. And from that perspective, this Dark God wasn’t all that different from how Yogiri himself had once been.
There wasn’t much of a reason for him to have gone outside. It was just that he had trouble relaxing in a place full of people. There was nothing for him to do out there, though, so he took his handheld out and began to play.
At the moment, he was hunting monsters in the game to collect materials. He had already finished the solo quests, so all that was left was to try the multiplayer ones. It was possible to clear the higher-level quests alone, and for a skilled player, they would even be easy. But Yogiri wasn’t all that good at the game. Trying to do it by himself felt like more trouble than it was worth. His desire to return home was starting to grow.
As Yogiri wracked his brain again, hoping to think of a way back, David came out of the fortress. He walked unsteadily towards where Yogiri was sitting. As Yogiri stared, wondering what he wanted, David walked right past him, not even meeting his gaze.
“Are you drunk?”
There was no answer. The vice-captain simply continued to stumble off into the forest.
Feeling that something was wrong, Yogiri couldn’t leave him to wander off alone, so he got up and followed. As his concern grew, they emerged from the forest, coming upon a cliff that looked out over the pit at the center of the Underworld.
Aware of the danger, Yogiri tried to grab David’s shoulder, but the young man easily shook him off and continued on his wavering path towards the cliff. Although he had no idea why, it wasn’t hard to guess what was about to happen. David was going to walk straight off the edge.
Yogiri suddenly felt the presence of death. It wasn’t entirely clear, but there was a blurry black haze in David’s path. It didn’t specifically represent a danger to David’s life, but rather showed that if Yogiri followed, he himself would be in danger. Even so, he ran up to David’s side. Grabbing him around the waist, he threw him to the ground, knocking him down easily as if the man couldn’t fight back at all.
Yogiri straightened up and looked at David’s face. “Hello? Anyone in there? Doesn’t look like it.”
David’s eyes were empty. Not only was he not looking at Yogiri, he didn’t seem to be aware of anything at all.
“I really should have learned how to carry people from Dannoura...”
For someone who wasn’t used to it, carrying an unconscious adult wasn’t easy. Grumbling, he grabbed David’s feet and began dragging him back towards the fortress. The vice-captain would get a bit scratched up, but it was better than leaving him there.
As Yogiri struggled, he heard a cracking sound, like something breaking. The black haze around him grew thicker, signaling a stronger forecast of death. The change was so sudden and dramatic that there was no time for him to respond.
The rocky ground beneath them abruptly crumbled, sending them tumbling into the abyss below.
Haruto looked out the window of the dining hall. No one else seemed to notice, but there was an owl in one of the nearby trees. The owl was being used by him, and seeing it there was a sign of success. The Consultant class had no way to monitor Yogiri’s condition in real time, so other methods were necessary.
“What’s up, Haruto? You seem happy about something.” Sitting across from him was Yui Ootani, and at her comment he realized that a small smile had risen to his face.
“Do I?” The party had grown quite energetic, so the fact that he looked like he was enjoying himself was hardly out of place.
A coincidence on top of a coincidence, this was hardly something he could call “planned.” After all, he had never expected to succeed. It had all been set into motion under the assumption that it would fail. The premise was simple: he had to make Yogiri willingly step into danger. In that case, it wouldn’t matter if the danger was detected beforehand.
So, how could he accomplish that? Once again, the answer was simple: appeal to the other’s emotions. While Yogiri didn’t seem to involve himself with others much, he didn’t actively isolate himself either. If someone he was close to was in danger, he was likely to help them regardless of the risk. One plan based on that idea was to use David as bait. Tomochika Dannoura was much closer to Yogiri, but that presented its own difficulties. She didn’t tend to put herself in vulnerable positions often, and Yogiri probably expected her to be targeted. In short, going after Tomochika might be seen as being close enough to targeting Yogiri personally.
The next idea was to use Ryouko Ninomiya or Carol S Lane, both of whom he had recently become close to. However, their combat abilities were extremely useful, so sacrificing one of them was hard to justify. On top of that, all of the Sage candidates were strengthened by the Gift. There was a possibility that drugs or curses wouldn’t even work on them.
With that in mind, David seemed like the most ideal way in. He and Yogiri were reasonably close, and although he was part of the royal family, he wasn’t anywhere near the level of the students. Most importantly, Yogiri wouldn’t expect anyone to go after him.
Using a drug that he had acquired in the capital, Haruto had effectively hypnotized David into walking towards the cliff. The cliff itself had already been compromised, making a collapse likely. The entire plan was based on Yogiri’s apparent weakness to being moved against his will. If Haruto had set up a trap to shoot an arrow or drop a large boulder on him, it would never have worked. He would have just killed the threat. But what about a cliff unexpectedly collapsing beneath him? If he was the one falling, there was nothing he could target to stop the fall.
Yogiri had been brought to this world against his will, just like the rest of them. He didn’t seem to have a way to avoid such things. That being said, the success of Haruto’s plan still depended entirely on luck.
During the party, Yogiri had found the atmosphere too much to bear and went off on his own.
Haruto was able to manipulate David easily enough.
David walked towards the compromised cliff.
Yogiri noticed David heading for the cliff’s edge.
Yogiri stopped him before he could fall.
With the two of them on the cliff, it collapsed under their weight.
None of those things were guaranteed to work. One small change could have ruined the whole plan. But the uncertainty of it was intentional. The more sure the outcome was, the greater the chance that Yogiri would notice it. After setting up the rough scenario, all Haruto could do was leave it to fate. There would therefore be no killing intent, just a series of coincidences that led to his death.
He looked over at Yui. “Everything is going well. There’s been no real difficulty getting this far, has there?”
“Yeah, and tomorrow should be fine too,” Yui replied, echoing his sentiment.
“We won’t know until we actually see the seventh level, but I’m sure our power combined will be more than enough.”
“The fact that you’ve made it to this point without any real difficulty is a bit problematic, isn’t it?”
A voice pierced the sounds of the party around them. It held such an allure that one couldn’t help but be drawn into it, leaving no room for the words to go unheard. At some point, a woman in a white dress had appeared in the middle of the dining hall: the Sage, Sion.
Most of the class hadn’t seen her since their initial encounter on the bus, so she was the last person any of them expected to meet. The noise in the room immediately ceased as everyone turned their attention towards her.
“Is there something we can do for you? If it’s about our last conversation, I believe everything has gone according to plan.” Haruto figured she was there to confirm that Yogiri had been eliminated. His plan had only just succeeded, so it made sense that she would appear.
“Ah, yes, please continue with that,” Sion replied. “This time it’s about something else, though. As I said, it seems this ordeal has been a bit too easy for all of you. There’s a high chance that even if you defeat the Dark God, a Sage still won’t be born from among your group.”
“W-Wait a second! That’s not what you said before!” Yazaki cried. “I thought if we accomplished this feat, we’d be able to become Sages!”
“Not at all. I just thought if you achieved some great feat, the experience would provide you with enough strength for one of you to awaken as a Sage. But considering how easy things have been for you, it won’t work out that way. So, I was hoping for some kind of awakening event...like an opponent that pushes you to the absolute limit, or the death of a friend pushing you over the edge, perhaps.”
A premonition of terrible things to come settled over the class. Up until that point, they had been fully enjoying themselves, but things were about to change.
“So, I thought I should have you all try to kill each other. You should be well accustomed to your new powers by now, no? Why don’t you fight each other until only one of you is left alive?”
The whole class stared at her, dumbstruck.
The whole class, that is, except for one person. Paying no attention to Sion at all, Ryouko Ninomiya was staring at the smartphone gripped in her own trembling hands. The screen was flashing brightly, displaying a clear, unmistakable warning.
“Wait...why is the second seal...?” she murmured, the feeling in her gut telling her that she was witnessing the beginning of the end of the world.
As the cliff gave out under them, Yogiri and David plunged into the abyss. Without solid ground around him, there was nothing Yogiri could grab on to. All that was left was for gravity to pull them down.
Haruto had been certain that, aside from Yogiri’s ability to inflict death and detect killing intent, he was otherwise an ordinary human. And if he fell from such a height, there was nothing for him to do but die.
But those who knew Yogiri would have wondered about that. Haruto was certainly not the first person to think up such a plan. Obviously, others would have tried similar scenarios in the past. There was no way an attempt like that would succeed.
If such a thing was enough to kill Yogiri, the world would have been saved years ago.
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