Chapter 9 — I Might Die If I Get Caught in the Door!
Jan, who held the role of thief in the orthodox adventurers’ party, was running through the mountains. He was still fleeing the city of Kadan.
His ability to dodge the roaring shield that had been thrown at them was mostly a fluke. He had only been able to react fast enough because he had happened to be standing behind the two who had been killed, and even then, he had only dropped to the ground in a panic without any thought for where the shield was going. If it had been thrown vertically, it would have split his head in two.
“Dammit! The difficulty rating was only three! Why was there an enemy like that?!” The difficulty rating for quests wasn’t absolute, but it did serve as an effective guide. An orthodox party should have been able to handle anything up to a difficulty of level five. Even if the difficulty rating wasn’t supposed to be perfectly accurate, if they could get killed in a single hit right after the mission started, it didn’t seem to be useful at all.
“Should we have planned more thoroughly, since it was an emergency quest?” Emergency quests were those that appeared suddenly with no previous warning. In this case, the hiding royal had been discovered, so they must have wanted her dealt with immediately. The quest was made up of multiple missions, but perhaps due to its nature as an emergency quest, the details were pretty simple.
Emergency Quest: Eliminate the Remnants of the Royal Family!
Mission 1: “Go to the city of Kadan!”
Mission 2: “Find the Remnants of the Royal Family!”
Mission 3: “Eliminate the Remnants of the Royal Family!”
Normally, quests had many more missions and far more detailed, clear conditions.
“Maybe because it was an emergency quest it wasn’t properly scouted out? Dammit, what am I supposed to do even if I make it back?!”
Even if he survived, he wasn’t sure he could continue his life as an adventurer. Jan only worked as one because he’d been with his childhood friends. He didn’t think he could get into another party very easily.
“Anyway, I can worry about that once I’m home!”
Being alone in the west was bad. Jan ran through the empty wasteland, diving into one of the rocky mountains.
The mountain was an illusion. Once inside, it disappeared, revealing a hole that led underground. He descended the ladder that was set up there. Only adventurers could use the portals, but having their locations known would still be bad, so the portals were hidden as much as possible.
Passing through the underground cave, he made it to a wider cavern. Inside was a set of stone ruins containing the teleportation portal.
“What—?!”
Jan froze in front of the ruins. The light spilling from them illuminated a ghastly scene. Everything was covered in blood, with numerous dismembered bodies lying around. The bodies, scattered about carelessly, were damaged so thoroughly, it was clear they couldn’t be alive.
It appeared all of the victims were adventurers. There was a warrior, a mage, a priest, a thief, a paladin, a minstrel, an alchemist, and a necromancer. Each type of adventurer had characteristic gear, so they could be identified at a glance.
“What happened here? Was there some monster lying in wait for them?”
But looking closer, it appeared the wounds on the bodies had all come from blades. At the very least, something intelligent enough to use a weapon had done this.
Jan hesitated. Should he look for another portal to use or try to rush inside and use the one in front of him as fast as possible? While he stood there indecisively, one of those options was taken away from him as someone appeared from inside the ruins.
“What... What did you do?”
The woman who had appeared held a sword covered in blood. It wasn’t much of a stretch to assume she had been the one to cut down the adventurers. He needed to run away. There was a possibility that she wasn’t the culprit, but if he didn’t act like she was, he wouldn’t have a chance to regret it later.
Still, he had to ask. The woman had a unique role—that of hero. The hero Kris. Every adventurer knew that name. She was a master adventurer, admired by all.
If this was really Kris, then even if all of the adventurers around her had fought her at once, it was unsurprising that they had been killed. But he had no idea why a hero would do something like this. He couldn’t help but feel like she must have had a reason for it.
“I received a revelation from God,” Kris said casually.
“God told you to do this?!”
If that was the case, it couldn’t have been any proper god. Perhaps one of the Dark Gods, or even an Evil God was responsible.
“No, I was told to kill the enemy of humanity, the boy Yogiri Takatou.”
“W-Was he here?”
An enemy of humanity. If that was true, it made sense for a hero to be involved. Their battle would have been fierce, and it made sense that a number of adventurers would have been caught in the crossfire.
“No, he wasn’t.”
“Then...”
“I was given the power to take the abilities of others by slashing them, so I thought I’d try it out.”
“What?”
“I decided to start with the people that came with me. When I did, I realized I obtained something that had been inside each of them. I thought it was interesting, so I just continued testing it and eventually, it ended up like this.”
“You’re...a hero, right? Aren’t you strong enough without taking other people’s powers?!”
“Oh, I did get stronger by training, but not because I liked training itself. If there was an easier way, anyone would choose that, wouldn’t they?” Kris asked, as if it were obvious.
Like she said, if one found an easier way to obtain the same result, it was more efficient to take that path. But if that easier path meant killing your own companions, Jan could only have written it off as impossible.
“But did you have to go this far?”
The adventurers had expressions of intense suffering on their faces. With her abilities, she should have been able to easily kill them in a single stroke, but they had all been meticulously sliced apart.
“Oh, yes! The secret is to cut them without killing them! I gain their powers when I cut them, but the power I get is random. So if they’re still alive, I can just keep trying over and over! At first, I didn’t really get that, so I just cut them down immediately.” Kris acted as if she were relaying a great discovery.
“I-I see. Well, I was just about to head back to the east.”
Jan couldn’t spend any more time with this crazy woman. He just wanted to get out of there.
“Oh, okay. Then by all means.”
Kris stepped out of his way. He had expected her to kill him too, so he felt immediately relieved when he saw that. Thinking about it, killing someone like Jan would have offered no benefit to someone as powerful as her.
Jan stepped into the ruins. The magic circle was just inside. The moment someone recorded as an adventurer stepped into it, they would be transported back to the capital. Although he was bewildered by the recent events, he could think about what to do once he made it back to the capital and calmed down.
He tried to take another step forward, but his foot never reached the ground. Losing his balance, he fell over. An intense pain ran through his leg. Looking down in shock, he saw that everything below his ankle was missing. Kris was looking down at him.
“Why...”
Kris had acted like Jan wasn’t the least bit interesting to her. He had thought she was letting him go.
“Killing someone who has turned around and let their guard down is a lot easier.”
“E-Even if you kill someone like me...”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got the hang of it now, so you won’t die right away.” Pain ran through his hand. His little finger was now missing. “Oh, I only got stamina that time. I guess that’s a miss. Please give me a skill or something.”
Hell had begun.
◇ ◇ ◇
Loud music and bright lights filled the room in Ent’s imperial palace. The thick smoke and smell of alcohol saturating the air made this the place Yoshifumi was most fond of. If one was looking for him, this was the first place they would look.
Of course, the one looking for him was not Hanakawa, but a girl named Luna. Hanakawa had only come here because he was following her.
Is this some sort of nightclub? An otaku of such high moral fiber as myself has never visited one, of course.
Round tables surrounded by stools were populated by scantily clad women drinking alcohol. Yoshifumi himself was sitting at the bar, leaning back with his legs outstretched and watching the women dance.
“Yoshifumi! Do something about this guy!” Luna said, jumping into the Sage’s arms and pointing at Hanakawa.
“Have I done something to bother you?” Hanakawa was wearing his jester’s outfit. Given to him by Yoshifumi, it alone was what guaranteed his safety within the palace.
“Huh? What’s with you all of a sudden?” Yoshifumi complained. Normally, someone acting like that would have been killed in an instant, but as Luna was one of his Four Heavenly Kings, he allowed the familiar behavior she had just displayed.
“This guy is so disgusting! I can erase him, right?!”
“What? Are you trying to disregard my decision?”
Yoshifumi grew angry, and Luna immediately looked terrified. She realized at once she shouldn’t press the issue further.
“This guy is my jester. I already decided that. My word is absolute here. You know that, right?”
“R-Right, of course. I’m sorry, please forgive me.” Luna must have thought that Yoshifumi would do away with someone like Hanakawa in an instant if asked, but she hadn’t realized how important he considered Hanakawa’s role.
“Of course, the only thing he’s allowed to do is speak. If he breaks that rule, you can do whatever you like to him... So?”
“I haven’t so much as laid a finger on her!”
“Of course not! If you had, I would have erased you in an instant!”
“Erase” wasn’t a metaphor in this case. Luna’s ability was to create the city around them, and part of that allowed her to erase things so that she could rebuild them. She could erase any part of the city she wished, and anyone inside it would be removed along with it.
“I was just enjoying her scent.”
“He’s so disgusting!”
“I am allowed to step closer and sniff, am I not?! It is your own fault for giving off such a scent in the first place. If you do not wish me to smell it, then simply cease giving off such a pleasing odor!”
“This guy came into my room!”
“Why didn’t you just lock the door?” Yoshifumi asked, exasperated.
“No, you don’t get it! He was staying super close behind me, and then said, ‘Oh, if you close the door on me, that counts as attacking me, you know. Do you think he’ll allow that?’ In that gross way of talking he has!”
Hanakawa was allowed to say whatever he wanted inside the palace. He could never be punished. That’s what Yoshifumi had promised. As long as he continued his work as court jester, his safety within the capital was guaranteed. In short, no one could attack him.
“I wonder about that. If I were caught in the door, I might die!”
“No you wouldn’t... But still, rules are rules.”
“Wahoo! I have received permission! Ah, allow me to clarify some further issues. Locking me away somewhere counts as an attack against me, correct?”
“I guess so. I guaranteed your freedom. I won’t forgive someone who gets in the way of that.”
“So in short, I am permitted to move about and speak freely, is that correct?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“And hurting anyone within the palace, breaking something important, or stealing anything is against the rules, yes?”
“Of course. You’re supposed to be harmless.”
“But some would consider even opening and closing doors to generate some form of loss. I will not be chastised for such a thing, correct?”
“Come on, use some common sense.”
“As such, if I were to fish through Miss Luna’s underwear drawer, there would be no problems, then?”
“How do you figure that?!” Luna interjected.
“Entering Miss Luna’s room and opening and closing her dresser inflicts harm on no one! Even if I take her underwear in hand to enjoy its delicate construction, as long as I return them to where I found them, it is as if nothing happened, right?! There should be no cause for complaint!”
“Stop it! Your finger fat will get all over them!”
“What?! Do you really believe that such a thing counts as being within the realm of common sense? Regardless, I would be more than willing to launder them for you afterwards. And if I’m going to go through the trouble, there should be no issue if they are soiled further before being cleaned, correct? Such as if I were to rub them on my face, or lick them, or wrap them around myself!”
“I want to kill him... I want to kill him so bad...” Luna was shaking. Even Hanakawa could feel her overflowing desire for murder. But no matter how much she hated him, there was nothing she could do.
“Well, that’s how it is,” Yoshifumi said. “Stop complaining about him to me all the time, okay? And make sure you tell the others. I won’t accept ‘I didn’t know’ as an excuse.”
“Okay...understood.” Luna managed to squeeze out.
“But my, what a dazzling room this is,” Hanakawa said, changing the subject, seeing as the conversation had reached its conclusion. “Was this constructed by magic?”
“What? No, it’s electricity.”
“Is that so? I was unaware there was such a thing in this world.”
“As long as you have magnets, you can make electricity work. Come on, I’ll show you.”
Yoshifumi stood up, leaving the room. Hanakawa decided to follow him for now. He could likely decline the invitation without punishment, but he was curious about what Yoshifumi would show him.
Heading down the hallway, they stepped into an elevator. It also seemed to be running on electricity. The elevator brought them underground, where they stepped out into a dimly lit space. Hanakawa couldn’t see that far, but it appeared to be fairly large. The air was warm and humid and filled with the sound of machinery. Once his eyes had adjusted, he saw a number of people pushing something.
“Uhh...these are perhaps...”
“Turbines. I saw something like this in a manga once.”
An enormous cylinder sat in the middle of the room, with numerous poles sticking out of it. People were using those poles to push and rotate the cylinder. A number of turbines were set up across the room, all being spun in a similar manner.
“You mean The Legend of the Savior From the Turn of the Century?! Oh, well, I also have read that manga, but I thought such a thing would be totally impossible.”
“Ever since I became emperor, I thought I really needed to do something emperor-like. So this is what I thought of. Pretty emperor-like, don’t you think?”
“So, in the west, those mohawked men appointed to be ruffians are...”
“Oh yeah, that was an old idea I had.”
“As I thought!”
“And if you try to pull anything, this is where you’ll end up. Actually, would it be more interesting to give you a mohawk and send you to the west?”
“Ah, ha ha ha... I shall take your warning to heart...”
Hanakawa’s present circumstances all rested on Yoshifumi’s mood. Something that had begun as a whim of his could end just as easily, so there was no guarantee he would remain safe for long.
Hanakawa began to think it was necessary to come up with an escape plan.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login