Chapter 4: The Demon King of Spiders

Chapter 4:
The Demon King of Spiders

 

—1—

 

THE LOBBY OF THE Adventurers’ Guild was a hive of activity. Pomera, Philia, and Rosemonde had to dodge around adventurers and guild workers alike. Assignments were being handed out to the lower-ranked members, telling them where to assemble and what wagons they would be guarding on the refugee caravans.

Gildo, still wearing his trademark pointed hat, met the trio and led them to the same meeting room they’d gathered in the night before. Garnet was waiting, and he looked somewhat relieved when he saw them enter.

“Ah, you’ve arrived! Saint Pomera, Rosemonde, and…young Miss Philia?”

“Y-yes! We’ll do everything we can today!” said Pomera, bobbing her head in multiple small bows.

Without Kanata around for social support, Pomera felt her anxiety start to build. Formal situations had never been her strong point. Even though Garnet was happy to see her, she wanted to disappear.

“You don’t gotta bow that much,” whispered Rosemonde, studiously ignoring Garnet’s greeting.

Philia moved close to stroke his beard. “It’s mister beard man!”

“Ph-Philia, stop! That’s rude! Mr. Garnet is a very important person!” Pomera fought the urge to flee the room with Philia in tow.

“Ho ho, no worries at all. Children will be children. You can touch this old man’s beard as much as you like,” said Garnet with a warm smile. Then his eyes narrowed, and he looked toward Pomera. “And where might Kanata be?”

“I-I’m sorry! The thing is…he had some sudden business to take care of. He won’t be able to make it! I really am sorry!”

One of the guild workers smiled. “Don’t worry. At least you’re here, Saint Pomera. Thank you for your assistance.”

But Garnet’s shoulders sagged, showing clear disappointment. “Sudden business, eh? Is that so… In what direction was he headed? If you don’t mind, I would like to send someone to find him and see if we can convince him to return. I understand that things do come up, but still…”

“U-uh, well… I don’t actually really know where he went,” said Pomera.

Garnet raised his face and looked into Pomera’s eyes, searching for any tell that she might be lying. The pressure was too much, and she dropped her gaze.

“I see. I suppose there’s nothing we can do,” said Garnet, disappointed.

“I-I really am sorry…” Pomera couldn’t stop herself apologizing again.

Rosemonde tapped Pomera on the shoulder with an overly armored hand and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Hey, kid. I know your boyfriend’s pretty stubborn about hiding his strength, but is there a chance he talked to the old fox about it? The guildmaster seems kind of hung up on Kanata.”

“N-no, I don’t think he’s said anything.” It was odd. Even though she couldn’t recall Kanata revealing any hint of his actual power to Garnet, the old man seemed distraught that he wasn’t going to participate in the defense operation.

With Garnet lost in his own thoughts, the trio went to sit at the circular table. Since Philia hadn’t actually been invited, Pomera was concerned that there might not be enough chairs for the rest of the adventurers who would soon arrive. She pulled Philia into her lap.

Rosemonde sat in the seat next to Pomera, her arms crossed as she brooded. She glanced over at Philia every once in a while and shuffled uncomfortably in her chair.

Yesterday at the adventurers’ meeting, Rosemonde and Kanata had seemed to be hitting it off pretty well. But this morning, neither she nor Pomera seemed inclined to start a conversation in his absence. Pomera wasn’t the chattiest person in the best of times. And the few times they had talked, she had ended up arguing with the armored adventurer. Rosemonde didn’t seem interested in talking either, so they both sat and stewed in the awkward silence.

Unable to stand it anymore, Pomera steadied her breathing and tried to make small talk.

“It looks like most of the people from last night’s meeting are here today,” said Pomera.

“Hmm? Is that some kind of jab about me thinking about sitting this one out?” Rosemonde’s goat mask tilted to the side quizzically.

“N-no! Th-that’s not—I didn’t mean that!” Pomera shook her head side to side.

Rosemonde let out a snort of laughter and looked around the meeting room. “I don’t see Aries’s Hand Kotone, though.”

“That’s the S-rank adventurer, right?” asked Pomera as she looked for Kotone’s face among the gathered adventurers.

“She probably didn’t feel like coming. She’s plenty strong…and a bit creepy. But I never have any clue what she’s thinking. If she’s not here, it means this job just got a lot more dangerous,” Rosemonde said quietly so only Pomera could hear.

Pomera gulped and looked at Garnet. He seemed stricken, and he motioned to his subordinate loitering near the door.

Pomera glanced at the clock on the wall; it was already past the time they were supposed to meet.

“Sir, we can’t wait any longer…”

“Hmph. I suppose not. Gildo, go look for Kotone. And then see if you can find Kanata.”

As Pomera watched them talk, she saw the door to the meeting room open slowly.

The glossy black hair and straight bangs were unmistakable. Cold, emotionless eyes passed over those in the meeting room. Kotone Takanashi had arrived.

“K-Kotone, you’re here!” said Garnet as he jumped up to greet her at the door the moment he saw her walk in.

Kotone checked the state of things in the meeting room then turned her gaze back to Garnet. “You haven’t started yet?”

“We were just waiting on you. Did you have some last-minute business to take care of?”

“No, I just overslept a bit. Sorry I’m late.”

“Ah. I must apologize for keeping you so late last night, followed by an early morning. In any case, I greatly appreciate your assistance with the evacuation.” Garnet didn’t show any sign of worry or annoyance.

“He changes really quickly,” said Pomera with admiration.

Rosemonde peered at Garnet and muttered, “That sly old fox knows when to use fire and when to use honey.”

Kotone headed toward an open seat but stopped halfway. Her eyes met Pomera’s, and the white mage jumped. Kotone changed direction and stood over her.

“N-nice to meet you, um, Kotone. Do you need something from me?” asked Pomera.

“Where’s the man who was with you yesterday?” Kotone asked curtly.

“H-he had some business today…uh…”

“I see. Where is he from?”

“W-well, to be honest, he’s never seemed to want to talk about it.”

“Do you know his family name?”

“I-I’m not sure that’s something I should go around telling people!” Pomera stammered, and Kotone’s eyebrow moved slightly. Rosemonde was right; Kotone was creepy.

“You don’t even know his name? Is there something shady he’s trying to hide?” asked Kotone.

“N-no. Kanata said his family name is Kanbara… Wh-why do you ask?” asked Pomera.

“Just curious.” With a last appraising look at Pomera, she turned to find a seat while murmuring Kanata’s name to herself. “Kanata Kanbara… Sounds real. I don’t think he’s from that fake-Japan. Yamato Kingdom or whatever it’s called…”

For a moment, Pomera thought she saw a hint of a smile play across Kotone’s face.

Pomera relaxed her tense shoulders as the S-rank adventurer finally sat down and ignored her. “Wh-what was that about…?”

“She’s up to something,” muttered Rosemonde. “There’s no way she just overslept.”

“Is she dangerous?” asked Pomera.

Behind her mask, Rosemonde was silent for a moment. “There’s never been any stories about her causing problems, and she’s considered a local hero for her track record defending the city from monsters. But she puts me off. I can’t tell what she’s thinking, but I know she’s up to something. It’s probably a bad thing if she’s got her eye on you.”

Pomera glanced discreetly at Kotone, but quickly looked away as Kotone’s eyes started to look back in her direction.

Garnet took his place at the front of the room, and it seemed that he was ready to lay out his plan now that Kotone had arrived.

“Pomera.” Philia was staring at her intensely. “Philia is going to work so hard!”

“Ph-Philia…that’s good, but please try to keep calm.” She suddenly remembered what Kanata had said before they separated. He’d said that this time, he’d take responsibility and cover for Philia if she caused a scene. “…Ah? But Kanata isn’t here now. Looks like it’s my job again.”

The blood drained from her face as she wondered what it would be this time. Another dragon? The Creepy Ball?!

“This is most likely everyone,” said Garnet, standing in the middle of the room. “Right. Let’s go over the new information we received overnight, as well as our action plan for today.”

Something was missing.

“W-wait… That’s weird…” Pomera said, looking at the adventurers in the meeting room.

Not something…someone. A certain blond A-rank adventurer wasn’t there. Pomera was so nervous and caught up in the situation that she’d forgotten to be on guard against Alfred.

She and Kanata had been certain that he would make a move during the evacuation operation. But it was more worrying that he wasn’t here. That meant she had no idea what he was doing.

“What’s wrong, kid? You seem worried,” said Rosemonde.

“W-well, I don’t see Alfred… He was at the meeting last night though,” said Pomera. Rosemonde snorted a laugh.

“He’s long gone by now, kid.”

“Huh…?” Pomera’s eyes opened wide. “N-no, I don’t think that’s the case…”

“He looked like a ghost after the meeting last night. I saw him grab his lady’s arm and move with a quickness. He even shouted something like ‘Someone like me can’t die in a place like this.’ I bet he nearly wet himself when he heard Garnet say there was a demon king.”

“Oh…”

“I’m pretty sure if you looked up ‘drama’ in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of Alfred. The only thing strong about him is his vanity. Good riddance.”

“O-okay… Thank you for letting me know,” said Pomera. But she wasn’t totally convinced.

 

—2—

 

LUNAÈRE GRABBED HER dark Impurity Sealing Robe by the hem and pulled it off before running her fingers through her silky hair and letting out a small sigh.

“Noble, I’m back,” she called. From the shadows, the jewel-encrusted treasure chest bounced into a beam of morning light coming through a window.

“Well?” Noble looked up at her with doubt.

Lunaère turned to face him, then closed her eyes and silently gave him a small nod. “This time…there was nothing I could do.”

“Seriously?!” He snapped his lid angrily.

“D-don’t look at me like that! It’s not my fault ! I really was planning on talking to him this time. I swear, I was just there…”

“Then what was with the whole dramatic entrance?! Fine, I get it! You have no real intention of talking to him!” grumbled Noble.

“Oh, by the way, I bought you a souvenir. Some sort of local pastry. You can eat them.”

Lunaère placed a small, cute pouch emblazoned with the words Manaloch Groundnut Pies on a nearby table. Small groundnuts were unearthed, shucked, then smashed into a butter before being sweetened and spread between two cookies.

They were a favorite of young ladies in the city, since they were both cute and sweet. Even so, they were high in protein and several adventurers had secretly acquired a taste for them. When they thought no one else was watching, they bought the pastries and stashed them away in their magic bags.

“Don’t try and butter me up, Lady! When are you going to talk to him so we can stop hiding in this dump?” said Noble.

“Y-you don’t understand! It was really just bad luck!”

Noble heaved a deep sigh. “All right, I’m listening…”

“Good, you’ll understand it’s not my fault.”

Noble waggled his lid noncommittally and wondered what her excuse would be this time.

It wasn’t like she was an idiot. She was a lich…a high-class lich, in his opinion. In theory, she could live forever, and there wasn’t any knowledge that she didn’t know or couldn’t find out. Even if love was a new experience for her, it couldn’t possibly take her this long to wrap her head around it. He got the feeling that she was being willfully dense.

Noble felt he’d said everything to her that he could at this point. He’d begged and shouted, pleaded and demanded, teased and consoled. Now it was up to her to figure out a solution for herself.

“Kanata seemed really busy. I didn’t want to distract him.”

“Oh! Well sure, that seems reasonable.” Noble said, and Lunaère beamed because he understood her predicament. “Now we can head back to Cocytus.”

“That’s not what I mean. You’re making me angry, Noble.” Lunaère glared at the mimic.

“No! I’m the one getting angry! This trip is going nowhere. All you do is make assumptions and then get upset and then don’t do anything. I could believe you were going to try talking to him the first time, and maybe even the second. But after the third, and the—”

“S-stop saying it like that! I didn’t have a choice. It’s just—”

“Pah! More excuses!”

“I’m trying to tell you my reasons. Don’t make fun of me. It wasn’t the kind of situation where I could just casually walk up to him and start talking. There were…obstacles. Don’t talk to me like you know what I’m going through! You act like it’s easy, but you’re not the person who has to do it.”

“Fine, then I will do it.”

“Huh?!”

“I’ll go talk to Kanata,” said Noble with a tilt of his lid.

“Uh…”

He began to hop his way out of the church. Lunaère stood there with a shocked look on her face, bewildered by this sudden turn of events.

“I’ll get it all straightened out,” said Noble. “I’ll say, ‘Kanata, Lunaère couldn’t resist her love for you and came to find you. But once she got here, she chickened out and started throwing tantrums. She’s annoying me to death, so can you come do something about her?’”

“Gravity Bomb!”

Lunaère pointed her finger at the exit. It was encompassed in shining darkness for a moment before the light from outside, the door frame, and all the physical space around it collapsed into the center of the spell. Then the singularity exploded.

The walls broke and pillars crumbled. Slowly, cracks spread across the stones of the abandoned church, and it began to collapse from the abuse.

“Argh, Lunaaaaaaaaère!” screamed Noble.

“Space-time Magic Level 22: Object Memory.”

A blue light rushed through the area and the falling stones stopped in midair. They reversed, lifted up, and reassembled themselves into walls and ceilings as time flowed backwards. The stains on the walls disappeared, and a fresh coat of paint spread across every surface.

“I may have gone back a bit too far…” Lunaère’s breathing was heavy as she wiped her brow. Lost in thought about her greater predicament, Lunaère had let the spell run to completion. “Don’t you dare tell Kanata any of that, Noble. I promise that if you do, I will never forgive you for all of eternity.”

“I was bluffing and you know it. I couldn’t even walk down the street without causing a riot.”

“It’s your fault for joking around. And…don’t embarrass me in front of Kanata. He respects me. I’d never be able to face him again,” said Lunaère, a few tears flowing from her downcast and gloomy eyes.

“Maybe, maybe not. Listen, you’re trying too hard to look good. You want him to think you’re cool, to see you in good light…and that image is making it impossible to talk to him like a friend. He already likes you for who you are.”

Noble bounced farther into the church, giving the teasing a rest to avoid another close call with a Gravity Bomb. It was possible that he had enough HP to take a direct hit, but he didn’t really want to find out.

He sighed. “All right, go on. Go try again.”

“Huh? B-but…”

“Kanata can’t be busy twenty-four hours a day.”

“I think he’s left the city. I should probably wait for things to settle down…”

“Nope. No more excuses. You’ll lose your chance to see him if you keep putting it off!”

“Y-you don’t have to tell me! It’s ju—uh, umm…” Lunaère realized that “it’s just” was a lead in for another excuse, but she couldn’t help herself. “Well, it’s obvious it would be better to leave it for later, in this one case!”

“Gimme a break! There’ll never be a perfect opportunity, no matter how long you wait! What’s the next excuse? The weather? Your health? If you keep looking for a reason to avoid him, you’re always going to find one.”

“I-I guess, but…”

“Was it that girl, Pomera? They might not be an item now, but at the rate you’re going, it’s going to happen sooner or later”

“W-weren’t you the one who told me not to worry about that girl any more than I needed to?”

“Well, no one else would have told you that—I’m the only person you talk to these days! Tick tock, Lady. Kanata might be oblivious to her charms now, but he’s not going to stay that way forever.”

Lunaère stared in stunned silence.

“Eh, not like it would make a difference. You still wouldn’t talk to him even if Pomera started making moves.” Noble turned his back to Lunaère and let out a heavy sigh. Maybe this would be the thing that finally got Lunaère into action.

But after waiting a while, she made no reply. Noble glanced back at Lunaère.

“Kanata is all I have. Why would she do something that cruel?” asked Lunaère. A drop of fresh blood dripped from where she was biting her knuckle.

“No, that’s not what I meant…”

Lunaère walked unsteadily toward the exit of the church. “I’ll find him.”

“Lunaère, don’t do anything crazy.”

Lunaère didn’t turn back; she didn’t even nod. She just kept walking out of the church.

“Sorry, Pomera,” Noble sighed. “You seemed nice enough, even though I never got a chance to meet you.”

He stared at the door for a while. Then, now bored, he noticed the small pouch on the table. He snatched it up with his tongue before swallowing the groundnut pies, pouch and all.

“Oh wow, these are delicious. Wonder if she’ll buy me some more?”

 

—3—

 

POMERA AND THE OTHER A-rank adventurers relocated to the city gates where the wagons were assembling to carry the citizens to safety.

The refugees were headed for the merchant city of Ploroque. Sixty years ago, it had been an impoverished slum-town. Then the city caught the eye of a young visiting merchant by the name of Grede. He knew that location was everything and Ploroque was an ideal spot for a trading hub. He financed monster hunting in the area to improve local safety and built up a merchant association. Now it was one of the richest cities in the kingdom.

Ploroque was also the ideal point from which to make a stand against the demon king. Grede maintained a large armory for equipping the adventurers and personal guards he had at his disposal. Because the city flourished as a center of trade, he could also easily call on other settlements for support if things took a turn for the worst.

“If you ask me,” said Rosemonde, “Grede’s a pretty shady guy. He’s not someone I’d want to share an ale with.”

Rosemonde had opted to team up with Pomera, and her previous stoicism had faded away. Now she was chatting Pomera’s ears off while the white mage struggled to carry a napping Philia on her back.

“You think so?” Pomera asked. “Based on what Garnet said, Grede sounds like a hero.”

“Grede likes people to think he did Ploroque a good turn, but he made out like a bandit and he’s above the law. There’s a rumor that he hired some alchemists to work on homunculus experiments, and it got some people killed. He hushed it up with money and threats. I mean, the guy made a mint in one generation. He’s gotta be hiding something,” said Rosemonde with a nasally laugh of contempt.

Pomera couldn’t decide who she disliked more, silent Rosemonde or talking Rosemonde.

“So, uh…what’re you guys planning on doing?” asked Rosemonde. “I don’t feel like I have any debt to Manaloch once we get the caravan to Ploroque. I’m sure as hell not going to go fight a demon king just for the glory. I’m not going to let Grede run me around either.”

“I’m not sure… I’d have to talk to Kanata and have a think about it. I don’t know what he wants to do.”

Pomera missed him already. Kanata had said he was going on a kind of spy mission, and Pomera thought she knew what that meant—he was headed to the center of the ragno nest to try and gather more information. While Pomera wasn’t sure what answers he would find, he seemed pretty optimistic about fighting the demon king. She imagined that Kanata would choose to stay in Ploroque and accept Grede’s mission to destroy the monster.

Rosemonde took a long, hard look at the final caravan assembling in front of the town gate. “This show’s running late. Looks like there’s a bunch of folks getting their panties in a bunch because they don’t want to leave. Hey kid, go find someone in charge and ask how it’s going.”

“Wh-who, me?” asked Pomera.

“Do you see anyone else here? I don’t like talking to the lord’s flunkies and they don’t like talking to me. We’ve had our…problems.”

“Okay… Would you mind holding Philia while I go?”

Rosemonde jumped.

“Rosemonde…?”

“Y-you know what, it’s fine. If they have any important information, they’ll come find us. No news is good news, right? Rushing them won’t gain us anything.”

“Are you afraid of Philia?” Pomera worried there was some lingering trauma here.

“I am not! Are you jerkin’ my chain, kid?!” snapped Rosemonde.

“S-sorry! I wasn’t trying to make fun of you…”

Just then, Philia’s eyes popped opened and Rosemonde let out a yelp of surprise.

“Pomera, what’s wrong? Are the spiders here?” Philia sleepily rubbed her eyes with her arm.

“Urgh!” Rosemonde took a step back from Philia, who looked up at the sorcerer in confusion.

There were a few seconds of silence before Pomera narrowed her eyes at Rosemonde.

“Wh-what? You got a problem?” asked Rosemonde.

“I didn’t say anything…”

Just then, mounds started to appear on the ground around them. First dozens, then hundreds of tiny hills rose from the earth as the nearby civilians began to panic.

“Earth Magic Level 5: Clod Bomb!” Rosemonde raised her staff and created a magic circle.

A red sphere of light appeared, peeling dirt from the ground and pulling it onto the sphere’s surface. Moments later, a perfect ball of dirt hovered in front of the sorcerer.

“First strike wins the fight!” shouted Rosemonde as she swung her staff down. The sphere dropped and expanded slightly as it made contact with the ground, then exploded. The mounds were swept clear by the blast and the emerging ragni caught in the explosion were flung upwards.

“I knew it was those bastards! Demon king or not, they’re coming heavy for the civilians. It’s gonna be a scrap, kid!”

The townspeople turned to flee back into the city as more ragni surfaced. So far, it was mostly the common type, but a few of the larger variant were beginning to surface as well.

“Dammit, this is why I didn’t want to stay.” Rosemonde sighed and readied another spell. “Fine. Let’s give them a fight, guys!”

“A-all right!” said Pomera, readying her staff.

The area was flooded by ragni in a matter of moments, and humans fell into one of three groups: those who ran, those who hid, and those who stood to face the monsters.

“H-how did they know we’d be here?!” cried a man as he ran, a ragno chasing after him.

Rosemonde rushed to intercept, using the butt of her staff to skewer the spider. Bodily fluids erupted as its legs spasmed, then it stopped moving. Rosemonde looked at the running man from the corner of her eye and let out a snort of laughter.

“Ha! Maybe this will light a fire under the idiots who are still dragging their feet.”

Normally, even a single monster who strayed too close to the city would cause an uproar, but a horde of monsters would never make their way into the city without the influence of a demon king. Anyone still in denial about the situation was about to get a rude awakening.

“Philia wants to help too! Philia will protect the city and get all the compliments!” The girl energetically extended her arms and prepared to summon…something.

Pomera panicked and tried to push them back down. “W-wait! Philia, you’ve got to stay calm. It’d really help if you behaved yourself while in front of other people.”

On one hand, Philia was very possibly able to save the day single-handedly. On the other hand she was just as likely to destroy the ragni and the city at the same time. Either way, Pomera would have to take the credit or the blame. Pomera wasn’t sure which eventuality she feared more.

“B-but Philia wants to protect the city too! Philia wants to work really hard and tell Kanata about all the amazing things Philia did…” Her whine turned into a pout and her shoulders slumped.

“Ph-Philia, it’s just…” Pomera thought fast. “Well, it’s because you’re our secret weapon.”

“Philia’s a secret weapon? Cool!” Her eyes sparkled and Pomera breathed a sigh of relief.

“E-exactly. So, I’d like you to wait until the enemy gets the upper hand before you help us, okay?”

“Okay!” Philia nodded vigorously and gave a thumbs up. Then she began to search for any sign that the ragni might be about to overwhelm the defending adventurers.

With a worried expression, Pomera reminded herself that she needed to do her best to make sure that Philia didn’t find what she was looking for. Who knew what the Sand of Dreams might manifest to deal with the ragno threat?

“Earth Magic Level 5: Clod Bomb!” Rosemonde raised her staff and another sphere of dirt exploded, blowing away eight ragni at once.

“Hah! These donkeys are scuttling so close together it’s easy to get multi-kills, kid! This is a nice change of pace!” Rosemonde closed in on a ragno flipped over by the blast and whacked it with her staff to finish it off.

The other adventurers nearby were evaluating Rosemonde’s performance. Rosemonde looked back at them and let out a happy bark of laughter.

“Sh-she’s reckless…” said one of the spectators.

“That’s Annihilation Rosemonde for you. She’s one of a kind, and her fighting style lets her take on multiple enemies at once.”

“How ’bout that, girly?” Rosemond jeered at Pomera. “You’re not bad at magic, but I can take on more—”

“Fire Magic Level 7: Fireflies!” Pomera raised her bandaged staff and a magic circle appeared. Dozens of balls of fire flew through the sky like they had a mind of their own, headed straight for a cluster of nearby ragni. The explosive impact incinerated dozens of the monsters.

Cries of astonishment filled the area and Pomera hunched her shoulders bashfully.

“Wh-what was that spell?! She independently controlled multiple fire missiles!” exclaimed one of the other adventurers.

“She’s completely mastered that seventh level spell! And it doesn’t seem to have drained any of her magic. I heard she defeated an A-rank adventurer, but I didn’t think she’d be that powerful…” said another.

“But I’m… I’m supposed to be the one who…” Rosemonde said, her staff lowering as she slumped. She looked at Pomera and grumbled something quietly.

“What’s wrong, Rosemonde?” asked Pomera.

“Even without your boyfriend, you guys make me look like a chump,” said Rosemonde, her shoulders falling ever lower.

“R-Rosemonde?”

The sorcerer snapped out of her depression quickly as a new wave of ragni surfaced. Pomera took Philia’s hand and headed toward a particularly thorny skirmish, firing off spells and reducing the ragno numbers as they went. Rosemonde seemed to get her competitive spirit back and followed along, trying to match Pomera’s kill rate.

The ragni continued to burst forth from the ground, but their numbers began to dwindle with each new wave.

“Whew, looks like we’re down to the clean-up,” said Rosemonde, her breathing heavy as she thrust her staff into the ground and used it to lean on. The area-of-effect spells had sapped her magic power and left her exhausted.

“Fireflies!” Pomera was still casting with no sign of fatigue.

“Don’t you think…there’s something weird about the amount of magic you have…?” Rosemonde eyed Pomera with suspicion.

Pomera was about to reply when she realized Philia was nowhere in sight. “A-ah! Where did she go?!”

“The kid wandered off when you were focused on fighting the bugs. I wouldn’t worry about it. She’s probably tougher than you and me put together.”

Pomera facepalmed. “It’s not Philia I’m worried about. I’m worried about everything else but Philia.” What on earth was the little girl doing while unsupervised?

Pomera had no idea what Philia might get up to if she wasn’t properly minded. Actually, Pomera knew that Philia was fully capable of doing something totally unexpected even when she was being watched, and Pomera couldn’t do anything to stop her.

“I-I see… Listen, I’m sure she can take care of herself for a few minutes,” Rosemonde assured her. “We’ll find the kid, but we gotta keep moving and hunting these ragni.”

“You’re right… We haven’t been in that direction. Do you think everything’s under control over there?” asked Pomera, looking at a fenced-off area near some buildings.

“Don’t worry. Kotone is stationed over there.”

When they looked again, they saw Aries’s Hand Kotone standing on the roof of one of the buildings as ragni swarmed up the walls to attack. It looked like the monsters recognized that Kotone was the biggest threat in the area and concentrated their numbers in a desperate attempt to overwhelm her.

The S-rank adventurer readied a bow and volleyed a series of arrows at the approaching spiders with incredible speed.

“She can use any weapon like it’s a part of her own body. No matter how much power it takes to wield, no matter if it’s cursed. Normally, you can’t even lift a weapon above your level. That’s not the case with her,” explained Rosemonde.

The building was swallowed by the throng of ragni and Kotone leapt high into the air.

“Space-time Magic Level 8: Dimension Pocket.”

Her bow was surrounded in light and disappeared. In its place, Kotone grasped a massive axe forged of a blue metal and engraved with magic runes.

“Ancient Axe of the Giant,” shouted Kotone.

Easily five times longer than Kotone was tall, the weapon looked absurd compared to her small frame. Regardless, she swung it in a clean arc before it cleaved deep into the roof of the building. Cracks ran through the structure and it collapsed swiftly, burying the ragni alive.

“Y-yeah, she’s probably okay over there…” said Pomera with a gulp.

The axe remained lodged in the mountain of rubble and Kotone dropped to stand on the upturned handle, staring at the area around her with a bored expression. Something about her eyes seemed sleepy, but then she blinked in surprise and looked toward the top of the city wall.

Pomera followed her gaze. Standing atop the battlement was a pink-haired girl with pigtails on either side of her head. She was adorable, except the lower half of her body was a spider’s abdomen, complete with eight scythe-like legs.

There was no way she was unrelated to the ragno attack.

 

—4—

 

“TH-THAT’S NEW…” said Rosemonde as she leveled her cross-shaped staff at the girl.

Other adventurers started noticing the half-spider girl as well.

“Hey, there’s something standing on top of the city walls!”

“What is that thing?!”

“I’m, I’m, I’m the youngest of Momma’s four daughters. My, my, my name is…Lily.”

She bowed her head over and over in an almost subservient manner to those gathered before her. Her eyes rolled in their sockets, moving independently as they darted between the adventurers below. The creature’s mouth hung slightly open and oozed saliva across a set of wicked reddish-purple fangs.

“Momma told me to come and, and, and eat you all up. If I fail, my, my, my big sis Molly will make fun of me, so, so, so please don’t resist while I eat you. Thank you!”

Lily opened her mouth wide, disgorging blood, drool, and a number of severed fingers—it looked like she’d already made a snack of a number of people on her way to the fight.

The adventurers recoiled in fear as Lily leapt from the rampart with a cackle. Dancing through the air with irregular movements as she closed in on her prey, Lily descended on thin silk threads attached to nearby buildings.

“Hee hee hee hee hee!”

The hapless adventurers were unprepared for her landing, and they fell as she struck out with her razor-sharp forelimbs. Chunks of flesh were carved cleanly from their bodies. Arms and legs scattered about in a shower of blood.

“Humans, humans… Ahh, so weak, weak.”

Lily lifted a dismembered arm, raised it above her head, and lapped at it. Several drops landed on her cheek, and she used her unnaturally long tongue to sweep them into her mouth. Then she smiled ecstatically.

Screams rang out across the battlefield as the townspeople realized that the tide of the fight was turning against them.

Kotone moved without hesitation and swung the Ancient Axe of the Giant. Her attack was in vain. Leaping into the air with an unnatural motion, Lily climbed her threads to dodge the strike. Then she released her hold and fell through the air to balance on the tip of Kotone’s axe.

“The, the, the only nice thing here is this weapon, weapon, weapon.” She looked down with a smile of contempt. “Ah, humans, so pathetic.”

Kotone let go and sprinted backward to put space between her and the axe.

“Space-time Magic Level 8: Dimension Pocket.” Kotone’s arms glowed and a pair of large golden gauntlets appeared around them. “Elder Dragon’s Claws.”

Lily kicked the massive axe away and rushed at Kotone. Her fingers stretched to show their wicked reddish-purple claws, and she swiped violently with both arms. Kotone barely managed to fend off the attacks and was forced to fall back. Lily struck again and again, and though Kotone could parry the deadly swipes, she couldn’t find any opening to counterattack.

“Y-you’re kidding me. I can’t believe that thing can survive a tangle with Kotone,” Rosemonde said, shocked. “Maybe it’s even better—”

“H-hurry up, Rosemonde!” called Pomera, and Rosemonde jumped.

“Huh?! You got a death wish, kid? Not even an S-rank adventurer can stand up to that monster! Besides, I’m almost out of magic already!”

Pomera didn’t listen. She’d already dashed off toward Kotone.

Staring at Pomera’s back, Rosemonde shook her head and chased after the white mage. “Bring it on, then! We’ll show that freak what Manaloch adventurers are made of!”

While Lily kept Kotone’s attention with a flurry of claw attacks, she used her front leg to trip the adventurer.

“Ah!” Instead of falling, Kotone leapt back to correct her footing. Lily slashed out at the fighter’s stomach, almost like she’d anticipated Kotone’s move.

“I’m not going to make it that easy,” said Kotone as she twisted in air to evade, then delivered a sharp kick to Lily’s face.

“Agh!” Lily pressed a hand to her face and fell back.

Kotone advanced and landed a gauntlet-clad karate chop in Lily’s midriff. Blood spurted into the air.

“O-ow, so, so, so mean! You’re just a human! How could you, you, you hurt…me!”

Unfortunately, the hit was just a superficial wound. Even multiple attacks of that caliber that wouldn’t be enough to take down Lily.

The demi-spider leapt backward and the Ancient Axe of the Giant started to move of its own accord. Its handle was covered in fine silken threads and Lily pulled the strings. Slicing through the ground, it headed straight for Kotone.

The fraction of a second Kotone needed to grasp what was going on meant that she lost any chance to dodge. Instead, she crossed her gauntleted arms in front of her and parried the axe’s strike, but the blow flung her back. She crashed to the ground and was sent rolling.

“This, this, this axe…is kind of nice. I think I’ll keep it,” said Lily happily, narrowing her uncoordinated eyes in a smile.

“Spirit Magic Level 8: Laelaps’s Fang!” Pomera said, pointing her staff at Lily.

A magic circle appeared and a bolt of lightning shaped like a beast rushed forth. Laelaps charged straight at Lily, carving up the ground as it did.

Lily leapt into the air and the beast passed cleanly below her feet.

“Impossible…” Pomera stared in disbelief. Fast and powerful, Laelaps’s Fang was the strongest spell she had at her disposal. It never missed.

After beating Alfred, she’d begun to think she might never encounter an opponent more powerful than herself. But now it looked like Kanata had been right to worry about her level.

“What was that, that, that?” asked Lily with a sneer. “There’s no way a straightforward attack like that would hit at this distance, distance, distance…”

Lily stood taller and smiled creepily, then began stalking toward Pomera. Her focus had shifted away from Kotone entirely.

“Fire Magic Level 7: Fireflies!”

Pomera cast another spell and a dozen balls of fire shot toward the fiend. Pomera hoped that the multiple seeking missiles would succeed where Laelaps’s Fang had failed.

But even they couldn’t keep up with Lily’s erratic movements. At the last moment, the spider girl’s maneuvers made the missiles veer off target, strike the ground, and disappear in small explosions. One ball of flame stayed true, but Lily slashed it with a claw, and it dissipated.

“Is, is, is that it? Hee hee hee… Is that it, it, it?”

It didn’t look like any of Pomera’s attacks would work against Lily. Fireflies had done a better job than Laelaps’s Fang, but there was still no way Pomera was going to do damage at this rate.

“N-no way. B-but Kanata taught me so much. I thought I’d grown so strong…” Pomera’s arms trembled as she gripped her staff. She was no match for the monster. She couldn’t even hold her ground.

At their current distance, the battle still favored a magic user. But if Pomera didn’t act quickly, Lily would close into melee range. Pomera was well aware of this, but she still hesitated. What could she cast that would make any difference?

“Hmph, I knew you were still green. This isn’t the time to freeze up, kid,” said Rosemonde, readying her staff and moving in front of Pomera.

“R-Rosemonde?! What are you—”

“You ready? I’m going to draw its attention! When you see an opening, you hit it with everything you got. I’m sticking my neck out here, and I’ll be hells of pissed if you miss the opportunity I’m about to give you!”

“It’s too dangerous! You’ll die if we fail!”

“Come on, kid! You took this job knowing there was a demon king. You shoulda been ready to die the moment it showed up. I warned you not to go into a fight without thinking about it first. Besides, I’m wearing this armor for a reason.”

“R-Rosemonde…”

As Lily rushed toward them, she saw Rosemonde and shook her head in pity. “So, so, so…pathetic! I’ll eat you all!”

“Eat this!” With all her might, Rosemonde swung her cross-shaped staff against Lily, but the spider girl easily kicked it away with a front leg. Rosemonde was sent flying and skidded across the ground. Shattered pieces of her armor flew in all directions. Her goat mask was left lying on the ground, broken.

Pomera was poised to strike, but there wasn’t a single opening in Lily’s defenses.

“It’s futile, futile, futile…” Lily said with a giggle. She then turned toward Rosemonde, who was struggling to stand up.

“Don’t miss, kid,” said Rosemonde, grinning. “Earth Magic Level 7: Ground Bomb!”

The ground in front of Rosemonde peeled away and formed a huge dirt sphere—Rosemonde’s most powerful spell, and the reason she wore her heavy armor. But her armor was in tatters and there was no way for her to escape the blast radius.

Pomera couldn’t stop her; Rosemonde had known the risk. All Pomera could do was to make sure the sacrifice wasn’t in vain. She readied her staff and focused her mind. The opening she was waiting for was just a moment away.

“Get wrecked!” howled Rosemonde, and Ground Bomb exploded.

Not even Lily could evade Rosemonde’s suicide attack. The silhouette of the spider was framed by the bright fire of Ground Bomb’s blast.

“Thank you, Rosemonde! Laelaps’s Fang!” A beast of lightning shot from Pomera’s staff toward Lily.

The spider girl leapt up, escaping Pomera’s spell for a second time. “Even, even, even with a clever trick like that, I know what you’re doing!”

“I-I missed…” Pomera listlessly dropped the arm holding her staff.

Then something fell from the sky, heading straight toward Lily.

“Guillotine of the Mad Queen!”

Kotone’s hands gripped a blood-red blade almost as tall as she was. In the confusion, she had used Short Gate to appear high above Lily. The weapon didn’t even have a pommel; it was a simple, cruel, red blade.

“Impossible!”

Lily tried to parry with her right hand. She succeeded in deflecting Kotone, but her right arm was sliced off as it repelled the blade. Blood spewed from the wound and she crashed to the ground.

“G-gaaah! A-agh! My arm, my arm, my arm!” Lily pressed down on her severed limb with her functional hand as she rose back to her feet.

It was just in time for Pomera’s next lightning beast to charge straight into her body.

“Gaaaah!” Lily wobbled, smoldered, and collapsed to the ground.

“Th-thank goodness…” said Pomera in relief, then she ran over to Rosemonde. “Rosemonde! H-hold on, I’ll heal you now!”

“Huh? …Oh. Good job, kid,” said Rosemonde, rising to her knees.

“Please lie back down!”

A cheer rose from the adventurers who had been watching in horror from a distance.

“Th-they beat that monster?”

“Amazing! That magic user finished off an enemy that even Aries’s Hand couldn’t stand against!”

When Pomera got to Rosemonde’s side, the sorcerer was looking at the adventurers in the distance.

“Good thing I stuck around, kid. You probably wouldn’t have been able to kill that spider chick without me,” said Rosemonde.

“You’re right. You helped a lot,” said Pomera with a small smile.

Lily rose to her feet.

“D-d-don’t assume I’m dead, dead, dead.”

“Not again…” groaned Pomera in shock as the crowd fell silent.

“M-my body wouldn’t move for a moment, moment, moment, and I fell over. That’s all. Did you re-re-really think a little spell like that could kill me, me, me?” Lily pressed down on her severed right arm. Her shoulder spasmed violently and a new limb began to grow from the stump. Lily smiled in satisfaction at the look of terror on the adventurers’ faces.

“A few, few, few measly humans thought they could beat me… Ah, humans are so em-em-empty-headed it’s…p-p-pathetic!”

Lily leapt toward Pomera, and the white mage felt peace wash over her as she accepted her imminent death.

Two huge arms appeared from the ground and grabbed Lily.

“Wha, wha, what?!” said Lily in confusion. Then the hands clenched into fists, sending crushed bits of Lily plopping to the ground, along with copious amounts of goop. Then the two arms disappeared.

“A-aaah! How, how, how?!” Lily’s torso writhed on the ground for a moment before her neck flopped to the side and she stopped breathing.

Pomera turned back to see Philia looking apologetic and smug at the same time.

“Sorry, Pomera,” said Philia. “U-um, Philia didn’t know when to attack… Maybe it should have been sooner, right? Is Pomera mad?”

Pomera couldn’t speak for a moment, but then she slowly patted Philia’s head. “No, Philia, I’m not mad. Thank you. But maybe you should apologize to Rosemonde too. I’ll apologize with you…”

Even the adventurers in the distance remained silent.

Rosemonde tried to speak, but couldn’t find anything to say.

 

—5—

 

THE CIRCLE Garnet had drawn on the map was almost spot on. I was constantly surprised by his ability to see things as they were, and I couldn’t help worrying that he might have figured me out too. Either way, I owed him a lot, and I still wanted to have him as a friend rather than an enemy.

Probably shouldn’t let my mind wander…

The tunnel continued as far as I could see, and every inch of the surface was covered in squirming ragni. If I closed my eyes and threw a rock, I’d still hit one. There were just so many.

“I can’t believe they did this so close to Manaloch.”

I tried not to think about the bugs too hard, because they kind of made me nauseous. There was a constant rasping sound of their legs rubbing against each other. That sound echoed up and down the tunnel, so I heard it layered on top of itself many times.

Chunks of a strange glowing ore that were embedded in the walls served as lamps. It was still dim, but I could at least see where I was going. Ragni could see in the dark, so the fact that they had intentionally installed lamps meant that there was something else down here that couldn’t.

Then the walls came alive with ragni scuttling toward me. They had finally realized I was an invader. Thousands of them surged down the tunnel.

“At twenty-five thousand each, I’d be set for life…” I muttered to myself and sighed. I knew that was unrealistic. Even a rich city like Manaloch would run out of money before they could pay off all these bounties.

I stopped daydreaming and focused on the matter at hand. If I spent too long in the nest, the demon king would notice me. I needed to get the information and get out to deliver it to Garnet.

“Space-time Magic Level 10: Dimension Slash.”

I made a slashing motion with my index finger and the massed ragni came apart as my gesture passed across them. The tunnel was awash in ragno blood and ichor.

Ugh. Gross.

I ran deeper into the den, stepping through the fallen bodies of ragni and casting Dimension Slash to clear the way before me. I needed to be cautious; a spell like Gravity Bomb or Inferno Sphere might accidentally collapse the tunnel and leave my path blocked. Thankfully, Dimension Slash mowed them down without me even having to break a sweat.

I had been going for a little while when I heard the rustling of something that wasn’t any sort of ragno that I recognized.

“Impressive. You made it all this way by yourself.” The voice was human, but I looked around and saw no one.

“Who are you? Where are you hiding…?” The cavern’s echo made it impossible to find them by sound alone. I peered through the gloom.

“You can call me Molly… Of the four sisters that serve our Mother, I am the third. Your skills have given our ragni quite a difficult time, but I don’t think you’ll do so well against me.”

“F-four sisters serving your Mother?”

“Yes! Four! Though I doubt you’ll be meeting any of the others. Ha ha! You know, I thought all humans were pathetically weak—but you seem a bit different. At the very least, try to entertain me.”

I gulped.

This was the first intelligent monster I’d encountered since leaving Cocytus. Its level was likely on par with creatures I’d fought there.

Even worse—it didn’t sound like the one in charge. Who was this Mother it was talking about? Was that the demon king?

“Ha ha ha! I’ve been having such trouble finding an opponent who can give me a suitable fight. My threads can slice through anything… Let me test them out on you!”

“This actually works out well for me,” I said. “I wanted to know more about you and your allies. Maybe you’ll still be this talkative after I capture you.”

“Catch me if you can, human! I’ll have my fun with you, then kill you!”

Something fell through the air behind me. That answered the question of where she was: she’d been hiding on the ceiling.

“There you are!” I turned to point at a red-haired girl hanging upside-down from a suspended thread. Her upper half was human, but the bottom was a spider. She glared at me with wide eyes and a cruel smile. She was enjoying this.

That’s when I heard something tear.

A red line ran across Molly’s abdomen. She looked down in puzzlement.

“Wh-what…? Impossible. But… Mother, I’m…”

Molly’s body started to slide apart, bisected. Her upper body fell to the ground while blood poured from the spider half that was still hanging from the ceiling. I was pretty sure she wasn’t trying to trick me with an illusion. She was dead.

How the heck did that happen?!

Then I glanced at my index finger, still extended. It all fell into place.

While I had turned to face Molly, I had accidentally hit her with a Dimension Slash. I’d never dismissed the spell and had been pointing anywhere I looked.

She was way weaker than I expected. Guess I shouldn’t assume too much about intelligent monsters…and maybe I need to be more careful with Dimension Slash.

I considered putting a stop to my Dimension Slashes entirely, but it was still the best way to take care of large waves of ragni.

Now I just needed to find the other sisters, and maybe Mother. Garnet was right, they were intelligent. It shouldn’t be too hard to get information on the demon king.

 

—6—

 

MORE DEAD RAGNI fell to Dimension Slash as I explored deeper into the expansive tunnel system. The path kept branching off, and I was starting to get worried that I might never find my way back. Hopefully, I would be able to follow the trail of dead bugs.

Down in the lower levels, the ragni started to change. Above, they had always been a uniform black. Now I was seeing some that had mottled red spots, and occasionally I even came across ones that had a shiny gold carapace.

They all still died in one hit.

I stood in an open cavern, waving my finger around. Hundreds of ragni split apart and leaked their juices across the floor. Even though I could cast the spell with little effort, the constant use left me a little tired. My breathing was heavy, and I wiped the sweat from my forehead.

A pale blue thread flew at me, and I leapt backward. It pierced the ground directly in front of me, bubbling and dissolving the earth underneath.

That’s not good.

I heard a gravelly, vaguely feminine voice say, “Hmm…well evaded. Welcome, my little hero. You’ve finally made it.”

A massive monster stepped into the dim light of the cavern.

Just like Molly, this creature had the top half of a woman and the lower half of a spider. But unlike Molly, she was colossal—easily thirty feet tall as she walked out of the gloom.

Also, while Molly’s human half had been vaguely attractive, this creature wasn’t cute at all. Her pockmarked face was pale blue and split from ear to ear with a gaping mouth. Eight red eyes of differing size rolled and quivered on her forehead, looking at everything and nothing at once. Embedded in her lower half was a plum-colored crystal that glinted evilly in the dim light of the ore lanterns.

“Aren’t you a bold one?” said the creature. “I knew the humans were aware of our presence, but I never thought one of you would come barging in here alone. Did you think you could kill Mother all by yourself? How naïve.”

So, this is the demon king?

I had wanted to eliminate the three other sisters before taking on the demon king. The last thing I wanted was another high-level monster cutting in during our fight. Better to whittle down their strength a little at a time instead of facing them all at once, you know? But, well, that plan was out the window.

I had no doubt that this was the demon king—the monstrous aura she emitted was in a totally different league from Molly’s. Hopefully, I could still complete my mission instead of blundering into a terrible death here in the center of her nest.

Keeping my eyes on Mother, I slowly backed toward the tunnel. My original goal had been to confirm her level—once I used Status Check, I could run away with a clean conscience and that would be the end of my spy work. With that information in hand, the human kingdom would have a chance to develop a strategy against her. Hopefully, there’d be enough time to do it before she could make more spiders; I’d managed to seriously reduce the number of ragni on my way down.

“Oh… Running away after you made it this far?” said Mother. “You’re in too deep, little hero. Spiders are excellent at chasing down prey. You seem capable, but you’re not that fast. There’s no turning back.”

Her eight red eyes narrowed threateningly. It was time to use Status Check before it was too late.

 

MOTHER

Race: Queen Arachne

Lv: 999

HP: 7192/7192

MP: 3561/3596

 

“R-really? That’s it?” I said, dubiously. Something was weird. It was like she’d reached a max level.

I checked her status again, just to be sure. The information didn’t change.

Why was her level exactly 999? Levels above one thousand had been the norm in Cocytus, and Philia was level 1,800.

But Philia was a homunculus created in ancient times to protect humanity against demon kings. She was even worshiped as the God of Terror. She could probably have handled this whole situation by herself, provided she didn’t get distracted by a butterfly in the process.

“I suppose this means you’ve killed my beloved Molly.” said Mother. “And it looks like you’ve killed so many of my littler children too. No mercy for you, little hero. I’ll pluck off your arms and legs. I’ll drink the juices of your brain while you still live. Ha ha! The brain of a high-level adventurer is a delectable thing indeed!”

If that was the case, then Mother’s brain probably tasted pretty mediocre…not that I’d try eating her brain in the first place.

Seriously, this is the demon king that everyone is so worked up about?

I gawked in amazement. People were freaking out about an enemy who wasn’t even level 1,000? Granted, most A-rank adventurers weren’t even level 100—but this just seemed like a letdown.

“Oh dear, what’s wrong? You’ve frozen up in fear. Come now, show Mother what you’re made of.”

Mother seemed like she wanted me to respond to her heckling, and I needed some more information. What did I have to lose? I asked, “Um… You’re not one of those four sisters or whatever, right? I just want to make sure. You are the demon king?”

Mother swung an arm. Four massive sword-like claws slashed through the wall and the ragni that were clinging to it. The small spiders exploded in a spray of blood and goop, their bodies falling to the ground. The other ragni quickly scurried away from Mother.

Mother charged toward me, screaming. “The insolence! Are you trying to anger me? Well, you’ve succeeded. I will have my satisfaction and kill you!”

Th-that’s fair. It would be pretty weird for a daughter to be called Mother. I should have thought of that earlier.

“I’ll fix your arrogant attitude! The demon king will teach you the true meaning of fear!” Mother raised a tree trunk-thick arm. “Half-wit! You dare challenge me by yourself! Lament your stupidity as I tear you to pieces!”

Mother slashed down, aiming for me with her claws. I easily moved to the right to evade as the claws pierced the ground, causing cracks to run across the stone floor.

“Your reflexes are swift, little hero! But how long can you keep that up?”

Mother struck again with her other arm. I leapt to the side and up, dodging the claws. I wished I could see her full stats—Status Check only told me her level, HP, and MP. Then again, I didn’t think her other stats would be mind-blowing.

“Scurry and run, scurry and run… I had planned to take off your arms and legs first, but you’re far too annoying! Enough!” Mother lashed out with a claw attack aimed for my head.

I bent my neck and the swipe safely passed overhead without making any contact. Mother’s attacks were getting sloppier as her frustration grew. Nothing was hitting me.

“How strange. Have I grown dull while hiding myself in the nest? I can’t even scratch a measly human!”

Mother struck with a descending blow. I lifted my left arm and stopped her claws with my bare hand.

“What the…?!” said Mother.

I could tell she was pushing with her arm, desperately trying to destroy me. She pushed harder and harder with growing agitation.

“No! There’s no way a human can be as powerful as I am!”

“Okay. I think we’re done,” I said, drawing the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh with my right hand as my left held back Mother’s claws. Eight misshapen eyes all looked at the blade at the same time and her massive mouth began to tremble.

“Stop!” All of her eyes stared at me, emitting a red glow that wrapped around my body. “How unfortunate…for you! Ha ha ha! I normally save my Binding Stare for real threats. Your strength is surprising, but I still have the upper hand against an enemy with no magic!”

Mother raised her other arm to strike. I focused all my magic and pushed back against the effect.

“Hah!”

“Agh, aaaah! My eyes, my eyes!”

My magical feedback pushed the red light back to her face and triggered a chain reaction. One after another, all eight of her eyes exploded. Mother howled in pain and staggered back.

Grasping her clawed hand, which had been trying to crush me, I lifted and threw her against the far wall.

“Gaaaaah!”

The entire nest shook from the impact, and the ragni surrounding us dashed away in fear.

Mother pulled herself up from the rubble and turned to me. The whole nest shook again, and clumps of dirt fell around her.

“H-how?! How could my Binding Stare have no effect? Stop, stooop! I command it!”

The ruins of her eyes still shone with a dull red glow. As the crimson light washed over me, it tried to latch onto my body, but I kept brushing it away with my magic.

Each time I did, Mother’s eyes spurted blood. I guessed that the Binding Stare relied on superior magic power to harm the person she was staring at. But since my MP was so much greater than hers, it kept backfiring.

“Stooop! Pleeease stop! Whyyy?!” screamed Mother, her mouth gaping wide. Her pockmarked face was slick with blood, and it contorted as her muscles tensed with pain. Her empty eye sockets opened so wide that it looked like her eyelids might tear away at the corners, and the red light intensified.

“Gah!” My feet suddenly felt heavy and I couldn’t move forward.

“G-g-good… Y-you really gave me a hard time, but this is the end for you!” she said.

I channeled my magic into my legs, struggling to overcome her Binding Stare. Finally, I felt a hint of control return, and I forced my foot forward. The crimson light around me shattered.

Mother’s massive body was rocked back. Her arms trembled violently.

“Gone… Gone?! How?! It took all of my magic power just to hold this human for a brief moment?!”

I readied the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh and advanced.

Clods of dirt began floating around Mother. I squinted to see they were being held aloft by silk threads.

“No! I’m special! I am chosen by the will of the world! I am a demon king among demon kings! A god among monsters! I will end the age of humanity and build a new world… This, this isn’t how the story was supposed to go!”

Mother recklessly swung her arms, sending the floating dirt clods flying in my direction. My sword cut them from the air, each one smoking and fizzling to ash as the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh’s magic worked its effect.

“S-stay away! Get back! Monster! You mooonster!”

I closed in for an attack before the demon king could surprise me again. Both of Mother’s arms fell to the ground, blood oozing from the stumps as she shrieked.

“Noooo! Lily! Molly! Mary! Dory! Save me! Save your mother!” The demon king writhed in pain.

I struck again, carving a wound across Mother’s abdomen. Blood and organs spewed out as her upper body landed with a thud on the ground.

“Aah, aaah!” Mother’s top and bottom halves convulsed, but the movements slowed as her spilled blood pooled on the ground beneath her broken body. “No, no! I have the protection of the will of the world, I can’t…”

Her babbling cries grew quieter and quieter. The fight was over. Having been cut with the Heroic Sword Gilgamesh, Mother’s body started to decay into sand and ash. She would soon be dead.

“Looks like this is the end,” I said, letting out a sigh of relief. I returned the Heroic Sword Gilgamesh to its sheath.

“Th-th-this is the end? Ah ha ha, ha ha ha!” Mother had decayed up to her neck, but she put every ounce of strength she had left into mocking me with her weak voice. “Y-you’re wrong! This isn’t over yet!”

“Wh-what…?”

Maybe she was just refusing to accept defeat, but maybe there was something more. Coated in blood, her face twisted into an agonized grin as she let out a disturbing laugh.

“Aha ha! You may have defeated Molly, but…what about my other three daughters?” she said.

I gulped. She was right, I’d only seen Molly.

“Lily is already attacking the city. Hee hee, it will be a mountain of corpses by now.”

“Manaloch?!”

She was probably fighting Pomera and the others right about now. I wished I could run to their aid, but I had to trust them to do their jobs as defenders.

Except…could Pomera defeat an opponent like Lily? How high was this Lily’s level?

Pomera was around level 200; things would get tough for her if Lily was any higher than that. I was seriously regretting killing Molly before I’d been able to confirm her level. Philia was also in Manaloch, so I didn’t think they would have any problems, but…

“My second daughter, Mary, is very cunning, and the oldest, Dory, hides an even greater potential than me. My beloved, treasured daughters will sense my death and flee to where you will never find them. They will grow in power and become your ruin… They will kill you. They will be the end of you!”

This was not good. It would be a mistake to leave survivors behind. I had to find them and finish them off before they killed anyone else.

As Mother cackled at my predicament, the room shook, and a crack formed in the ceiling. Part of the roof collapsed, and something fell down from above, dust filling the air.

It was a spider, even more gigantic than Mother. But it didn’t have a human upper half—it was a plain old giant black spider.

It lay on its back, dead and unmoving with blood streaming from its palps.

“Dory?! M-my Dooory?!” screeched Mother, basically just a screaming head at this point.

A girl stood on the belly of the gigantic spider. She had white silken hair, which she worked to straighten after it had been mussed by the fall into the cavern. The tips of her hair were red, almost like they’d been dipped in blood. Illuminated by the dim golden light of the ore lanterns, she looked godly.

She ran her slender fingers through her hair and glanced at Mother’s head. Then she looked at me with one emerald and one crimson eye like nothing had happened.

“L-Lunaère-san…?”

She wasn’t wearing the black robe she’d had on when I saw her in Manaloch. Instead, she was in her usual white clothing that she wore in Cocytus.

I’d never seen another girl so beautiful.

She blinked when I said her name, then tossed something idly to her feet. It rolled off the body of the gigantic spider and fell to the ground.

It was a human head. No, it was a monster head with eight eyes, arranged symmetrically on its forehead.

“M-Mary…! Ah, agh, no…” Mother looked up at the cavern roof listlessly. Her head faded to white as if it were turning to stone. Cracks ran through it, and it crumbled away.

The death of her beloved daughters had broken her spirit. If she had died just a little faster, she could have left without the knowledge that her children were dead. Bad luck for her…even if she was a demon king.

Well, that’s three down…

All that was left was the youngest, Lily, who had gone off to Manaloch. If Pomera and Philia managed to defeat her, that meant the threat was truly gone.

Lunaère must have run into Mary and Dory on the upper floors. They’d probably started fighting, and, well…the spiders never stood a chance. Considering how weak Mother was, the four sisters wouldn’t have been able to scratch Lunaère even if they attacked her all at once.

But why was Lunaère here now? She’d said she couldn’t leave Cocytus because of her aura of unholy impurity. But I was certain that the black-robed magic user we’d run into in Manaloch was Lunaère, just in different clothing.

Why wasn’t she saying anything?

Had she forgotten to tell me something important before I left? Why was she here?

Not that I didn’t appreciate the assist on getting rid of the daughters, but I doubted that was the reason for this visit. My questions were endless.

“L-Lunaère-san, what… Why are you here?” I asked. She blinked her mismatched eyes, then gently brought a hand to her mouth in unease. “Lunaère-san?”

She cleared her throat lightly and looked away. “Kanata. What a coincidence. I didn’t expect to run into you in a place like this.”

“Th-this is clearly not a coincidence!” I said without thinking. Normally I’d have given her the benefit of the doubt, but this was just too much!

Lunaère jumped, and her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. With her usual emotionless tone, she said, “Is it really that strange? I sensed a powerful monster and came to investigate. That’s all. If left to its own devices, a monster like that could easily destroy a whole country. I’ve always done this sort of thing. I had no idea that you would be here as well, Kanata.”

“B-but you said you absolutely never left Cocytus…”

“Ah, yes… But there have been a few exceptions. It happens so rarely that it’s easy to forget.”

“But…”

“Well, I suppose it’s not entirely coincidence that we met here,” said Lunaère, as if she were rationalizing our encounter. “The only people who would set foot in the den of an unknown demon king are you and me. Isn’t that right?”

“I guess so,” I said.

That…sort of made sense. There was no doubt that Lunaère had complicated emotions when it came to the safety of humans. She had been concerned for me despite not knowing me at all, given me valuable items, and worked hard on training me. Maybe someone like that would secretly protect the world from the threat of demon kings.

I’d gone and assumed Lunaère had left Cocytus to come see how I was doing, but that hadn’t been the reason at all… Now I felt really bummed out.

“W-well, it would be a lie to say that I didn’t want to see you… I suppose some part of me was hoping I could,” said Lunaère, watching me from the corner of her eye as she twirled the red tips of her hair around one of her fingers.

“Really? That makes me so happy! I…I thought it might be years until I could see you again,” I said.

“I-I see. So you’re really happy to see me?” Lunaère cast her eyes down and dropped her voice slightly. I thought I saw the beginning of a smile.

My face started to turn a little red. I tried to look into her downturned eyes, but she quickly looked away.

“Lunaère-san?”

“Ahem. Well…it seems that you’ve dealt with the demon king,” she said, refusing to face me as she looked at the ashy remains of Mother.

Mother’s body was almost entirely destroyed. All that remained were burned muscle fragments, bodily fluids, and bones. In the center of the charred lump of flesh was the large plum-colored crystal that had been embedded in Mother’s chest.

“I’ve never seen a monsters’ nest this large,” said Lunaère. “It must have developed very rapidly, considering that it went undetected until now.”

“So this is a serious incident?”

“Yes. Were you able to check her level?” She poked Mother’s remains with the toe of her boot.

“It was 999. She had a lot of underlings too…”

Lunaère narrowed her dichromatic eyes. “She was that high?! I’ve never heard of a demon king going undetected until they got that powerful… I hope it’s not a sign of things to come.”

“It was that bad?” I asked.

Lunaère sighed in frustration. “You only know Cocytus, and you haven’t spent enough time outside. She was powerful enough to destroy a large country even if it threw its entire army at her.”

“Huh…” An image of Mother groveling on the ground in front of a smug Philia appeared in my mind. If level 1,000 was the most powerful class of demon king, then what the heck was Philia at 3,000?

“The weakest type of demon kings are usually around level 300,” continued Lunaère. “Even those can wipe a small country off the map if they don’t handle the situation properly.”

“Seriously?”

Notts had been near level 400. Did that mean he had been powerful enough to take on an entire kingdom by himself without Zolophilia?

“Kanata, don’t be so dense,” said Lunaère. “Your ideas have been skewed by the Cursed Mirror of the Warped Realm. But it’s hard to believe you can be so naïve. Although…I-I guess it’s kind of cute. I don’t hate it…”

I was utterly confused. Was this why my standards were so off? If…if all that was true, then there was a very important thing I needed to know.

“Lunaère-san?”

“What is it, Kanata?” she asked with a smile.

“Uh… You said that I should be at least level 4,000 in order to live safely in the outside world …”

The smile vanished from Lunaère’s face and her eyes opened wide.

I continued. “But if level 1,000 is a high enough level to destroy a large country…wh-what does that make me?”

“N-n-no, you misunderstand! Uh…i-it’s just…” She desperately avoided making eye contact as she became agitated. “I-I swear I wasn’t trying to wear you down with incredibly unrealistic training so I could keep you in Cocytus forever!”

“Calm down, Lunaère-san! No one’s accusing of something so horrible! It’s just…my sense of things is so off that I wanted to correct it.”

“I-I was sad to see you go. I might have set your target level a little bit higher than necessary, but…umm.” Lunaère pressed her fingers to her mouth, then blurted out, “Th-they exist! Level 4,000 and even level 5,000 enemies. M-maybe I was exaggerating when I said a level 1,000 demon king could stand against a large country.”

“Lunaère-san…”

“I-I’ve even run into enemies who were nearly level 10,000!”

“Really?!”

“R-really! I swear!” Lunaère, normally so expressionless, looked at me uneasily like she was begging me to believe her.

“I-I see. Is that so? And people from another world seem to get targeted more often. I’ll be careful,” I said with a nod, acting like she’d convinced me.

Lunaère let out a heavy sigh of relief. “W-well, with your level, I think you’ll be able to manage most dangers you find yourself in.”

M-maybe I should switch topics…

I made a mental note to apologize to Rosemonde. After these revelations, I knew exactly why she’d been so angry with me for not knowing anything.

“So, Kanata, how have you been since you left Cocytus? How is civilization treating you?” asked Lunaère.

“Things have been tough.” I nodded, thinking to myself. “I ended up getting into some…unexpected situations. But I think overall it’s been pretty fun, and I think I’m adjusting well.” I forced a smile.

Culturally speaking, that was true. I never felt any stress when it came to the food or customs of Locklorian society. The world had been created by the gods for the express purpose of bringing people from other worlds to it and turning the locals into characters in a show; it made sense to ensure it would be understandable to an outsider.

And thanks to Lunaère’s training, I’d managed to overcome any other problem I’d faced—dangerous adventurers, Zolophilia, and now the demon king.

“That’s good,” said Lunaère. “So…how are you doing on the, ah, relationship area? Any new friends I should know about?”

“Uh…relationship area?”

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. I-I just wanted to know what kind of people you’re associating with.”

“Oh, right. I’ve met a lot of people. Garnet-san really stands out, I think.”

He seemed like the heart of Manaloch. In a strange way, he reminded me of Lunaère—an inherently friendly person that somehow managed to be really scary at times.

Lunaère’s eyebrow arched very slightly in question.

“You’d really like him if you met. He’s both the guildmaster of Manaloch and an executive of the Mithril Wand, an alchemy research institute—”

She cut me off with a wave of her hand. “Are…are there any other people you see more often?” asked Lunaère like she was hurrying me along.

“Uh, well… I guess I could tell you about Philia-chan.” I wondered if Lunaère had ever heard of Zolophilia.

“Perhaps you’re avoiding talking about someone because you feel guilty…?” Lunaère stared at my face with her bicolored eyes.

“Huh?”

“N-nothing! It’s nothing. S-say, Kanata, have you met any elves yet? They have long ears and skill in spirit magic.”

Wh-why on earth is she suddenly asking about elves?

She stared at me expectantly.

“Um… Are you trying to ask about Pomera-san?” I asked.

“I-I don’t know who that is. I just wanted to ask about your adventuring companions.”

“How do you know she’s my adventuring companion?”

Lunaère practically leapt out of her skin. “I just guessed based on the process of elimination…”

“You’ve seen Philia-chan and Pomera-san before. Why didn’t you try talking to me then?”

“Th-th-that’s… No, I…” Lunaère’s face turned redder and redder. Her eyes darted left and right in a panic. To be honest, she was kind of cute when she was flustered.

“I-I didn’t do anything like that,” she finally said.

“Huh? But…”

“It m-must have been someone who looked like me. Things would go very badly if I tried to go into the city, because of my unholy aura. S-so, it wasn’t me. I d-don’t even know anything about a black robe,” Lunaère said quickly, small tears even forming in her eyes.

“Lunaère-san, I’m not sure this’ll come out right…but no matter what happens, I’ll never hate you.”

When I spoke, Lunaère’s white cheeks turned a deep crimson, and she looked dismayed. She turned her face away, and she tried to hide behind her collar. She glanced quickly at me, then her eyebrows came together in determination. She blinked, steadied her breathing, and turned to face me again.

“A-actually, there’s something I want to tell you, Kanata,” she said.

“Huh?”

“Yes, actually, it’s about a robe to suppress my aura.”

Was that the black robe with red symbols? She must have made it in order to come outside. It would explain how she was able to go into the city. Which meant Lunaère could walk around freely now, right? “Lunaère-san, does that mean you’re going to see the outside world with—”

“I was just going to say that I know nothing about such a robe.” Sweat ran down her forehead. She pressed her hand to her mouth and looked like she had accidentally let something slip.

“It’s okay, Lunaère-san! I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s going on.”

“N-no, you’re wrong. That w-wasn’t me! I wouldn’t secretly follow you around, only to get noticed. Even if I did, I wouldn’t panic—or attack then run away!”

“Is that what happened?!”

Lunaère’s face went pale as she clamped her mouth shut. Then she said, “Wh-while this might have been just a coincidence, I’m glad I got the chance to speak with you. My work here is done. I’ll be going back to Cocytus now, but I look forward to seeing you again.” She drew a magic circle in the air.

“W-wait, Lunaère-san! I still have so much I want to talk to you about!” I grabbed her arm and tried to pull her closer to me, but she dodged and jabbed me in the forehead with her index finger.

“Ow!”

“Space-time Magic Level 10: Gate.”

Lunaère was engulfed in light. I tried to wrap my arms around her to stop her, but I passed through her vanishing form and fell to the ground.

Unlike Short Gate, Gate could be used to teleport as far as the user’s magic power would allow. It was one of the most complicated and time-consuming spells to cast, but Lunaère had completed it in mere moments.

“I have to find a way to stop her from leaving next time.”

 

—7—

 

THE DEMON KING Mother and her four daughters were dead. Only a large number of ragni were left to be cleaned up, and steady pressure on the part of Manaloch’s adventurers would make that happen.

Most importantly, the evacuation to Ploroque had been postponed.

The people of the city believed that Lily had been the demon king herself. With Lily dead, all that remained was an investigation to be sure that no other demon king might be hiding in the shadows. Once that was confirmed, the evacuation would be completely cancelled.

I held the plum-colored gem in my hand, plucked from the ruins of Mother’s corpse. It had a disconcerting evil aura, so I flipped open the Acacia Memoirs to learn more.

 

MOON OF THE ABYSS

Value Class: Godly

A crystal imbued with evil magic. Formed via alchemy from a mixture of the blood of thirteen powerful demon kings. Fragments of their souls still writhe within the crystal.

It has the power to enable a demon king to control far more monsters than usual, and if embedded in a monster’s body, it encourages dramatic growth.

 

How in the world did Mother get her hands on this dangerous thing?

This wasn’t something she would have just stumbled across in the forest while tending to her brood. It was just a hunch, but I was sure that Naiarotop was involved. I should have asked Lunaère about it.

For now, the safest place for the gem was inside my Dimension Pocket. It was dangerous, but I thought it could also end up being useful. Also…I couldn’t help myself. Now that I was beginning to understand the value of Godly level items, there was no way I was going to let it go waste.

 

With the demon king problem taken care of, it was time to relax a little. Pomera, Philia, and I decided to have a little celebration to mark our victory at a tavern called the Red Bat.

“Kanataaa, you’re so mean!” Pomera was pouting, her cheeks red. She wasn’t angry. No, it was worse—she was drunk. “You said you’d cover for Philia, and then you ran away! I thought I could count on you… I was shocked! Shocked and surprised!”

She sounded reproachful and banged her glass on the table. Cider splashed out.

“Shocked and surprised mean the same thing…” I said.

“I knooow!” said Pomera with a frown, then plunked her chin on the table.

“Pomera’s really fun right now!” said Philia.

“I’m fun aaall the time!” Pomera grabbed Philia and tickled her vigorously. Philia squealed with laughter and tried to get away.

“Pomera-san is broken…” I muttered as I watched.

First the Hunter’s Kitchen, now the Red Bat. This was the second time I’d seen Pomera in this condition.

She was the worst kind of drunk. At least she wasn’t trying to climb up my back this time. That was a minor improvement.

Last time, Pomera had begged me to forgive her the next day. She told me, “It’s the greatest embarrassment of my life. I’m so sorry I caused you all that trouble. I will never drink again for as long as I live.” She swore that to me with tears in her eyes.

So much for that promise.

“Kanata, this cider is sooo tasty!” said Pomera. “It’s sweet, and it’s got a rich fruity scent that spreads in my mouth…” She got a faraway look like she was trying to feel the inside of her mouth, then whispered, “It makes me forget bad things.”

“I am sorry for the trouble I put you through,” I said with a bow of my head.

“Seeeriously… No one will let me live this down for my whooole life. I’ll never, I’ll never get married…” she said, took a long swig of her cider, and laid her cheek on the table.

“Th-that’s not true. You’re very pretty, and—”

“Hee hee! If that’s what you think, you should do the responsible thing and marry meee!” Pomera tugged on the sleeve of my robe.

“P-please let go, Pomera-san!”

“Nooo, I’ll never let go!”

“I had no choice! It turned out okay in the end, right? We defeated the demon king. We protected Manaloch.”

“But, buuut…”

While Pomera was complaining, a pair of adventurers who looked like they’d just come back from a job saw her and let out cries of excitement.

“H-hey, isn’t that Pomera? She beat the demon king! I heard that even Aries’s Hand Kotone couldn’t stand against that monster, but Pomera beat it in one hit!”

“A-are you sure? She’s pretty drunk.”

I rubbed Pomera’s back. “P-Pomera-san, people are staring! Pull it together!”

The two adventurers came closer to us and one asked, “U-um, are you Pomera, the Holy Fist?”

Pomera frowned and pouted. Evidently, she was not a fan of her new nickname. I didn’t know if that was a better or worse than Saint.

The rumors had been flying since Philia created massive arms that crushed Lily to death. As the story kept getting told and retold, it changed into a tale of Pomera killing the demon king with her bare hands. I hadn’t believed it was that out of hand until I overheard another set of adventurers talking about it only a few hours before.

Between covering for Philia and bashing Alfred with her staff, Pomera had become famous. Now there was a widespread misconception that she was actually a strength-based fighter.

The story went that she’d punched the demon king to death with her bare hands, and she had been so full of fighting spirit that her arms had looked massive when she did. It was a miracle.

And now she was known as Pomera, the Holy Fist.

“Um, Miss Holy Fist, could I shake your hand? I’m a huge fan!” asked one of the adventurers.

Pomera boxed with the air a bit and said, “Pomera’s off right now. I’m having a nice relaxing drink with Kanata. Get in my way and you’ll get the fist!”

The two adventurers backed away and left the tavern.

“Pomera’s so cool! Holy Fist Pomera!” said Philia, hugging Pomera. Pomera looked proud of herself and chugged the rest of her cider.

 

—8—

 

PAUSING TO PUT ON her Impurity Sealing Robe to dampen her aura before entering Manaloch, Lunaère returned to the church to meet up with Noble.

“He looked so serious and said, ‘No matter what happens, I’ll never hate you.’ I-I had no idea what to say. Where does he get off saying something like that? Like when we first parted ways in Cocytus…” said Lunaère.

Noble just stared at her. Normally, he’d have some sarcastic remark, but that wasn’t the case now.

“Are you even listening, Noble?”

“I get it, you’re in love. You’re also boring the crap out of me.”

“You’re the one who wanted to know what happened! You told me to tell you about Kanata, so that’s what I’m doing. Fine. Whatever. You don’t have to listen if you don’t want to,” Lunaère crossed her arms and frowned with a huff.

“Eh…guess my question wasn’t clear enough. Here, let me be more direct: Why did you run away from him?!”

“Uh…” Lunaère’s eyebrows lowered with unease. “Can’t you just be happy that I managed to talk to him? Th-the reason I came back isn’t that important, is it?”

“It’s definitely important.”

“But the situation is getting better, right? Why are you so unhappy?”

“What excuse are you going to make up to leave him next time? Will there even be a next time?”

Lunaère blinked her large eyes. “I did say that I didn’t know anything about an Impurity Sealing Robe, and that I was going back to Cocytus. I-I just got swept up…”

“Oh! We’re going home now?”

“N-no! B-but there’s that half-elf girl with Kanata and everything!”

“Then you go find him this instant! Get moving, Lady!”

“N-no! I…I said I was going back to Cocytus! And that I know nothing about a black robe! I’ll look like an idiot if I show up in a black robe right after saying that!”

Noble fell over on his side, exasperated. “For the love of… Take me with you next time. I’ll clear everything up. And I want to see Kanata too.”

“I can’t. You don’t understand people’s emotions. You just tell them to do this and do that. What will happen if you say something you can’t take back?”

“Hey, Lunaère, have I ever actually said something that bad? Besides, Kanata made a point of telling you he wouldn’t hate you no matter what. You should believe him.”

“He did…b-but that’s unrelated to this!”

This conversation was going nowhere fast, and Noble was getting fed up.

Just then, they heard a loud voice from outside the church—some sort of fuss was kicking up outside.

“What’s going on? It sounds like a riot…” Lunaère cocked her head to listen.

During Lunaère’s time as a human, she remembered people inevitably growing angry at the increased taxes needed to rebuild the city or kingdom after the downfall of a demon king—things like that. Often, that anger resulted in riots. Lunaère even knew of countries that had survived a demon king’s assault only to be destroyed by the following civil unrest.

With the stress of a forced evacuation followed by the sudden cancellation of that plan, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that Manaloch would see riots break out in the coming days.

“No…” said Noble, “I think they’re suspicious of this place.”

“This place? Noble, have you done something—”

“Me?! No, Lady, it was you! You nearly blew up the church, then repaired it to look better than new!”

“Yes… I did, didn’t I.” Lunaère looked around the church. It was immaculate, since she’d cast Object Memory to repair the building. During a moment of distraction, she’d let the spell run to completion. Now the building was in the same condition as the day it opened.

“Perhaps I should have placed some sort of disguise on it.” She scratched her chin as she pondered.

“Too late for that now. Maybe we should get out of here?”

“But my Impurity Sealing Robe isn’t perfect. We can’t very well check into a normal inn. We could leave the city…but then I won’t be able to spy—I mean, watch over—Kanata. It would be better to stay in the city.”

“Sure.”

“I can’t trust that half-elf to be alone with my Kanata,” she muttered.

“R-right,” said Noble in frustration. Then he perked up as he remembered something.

“What’s wrong?” asked Lunaère.

“So, uh, what’d you bring me back this time?”

“I didn’t get you anything.”

“Oh, come on! I’m stuck here with nothing to do but listen to you complain, and you didn’t even have the gratitude to bring me a snack.”

“F-fine, fine! I’ll find you something.”

“I liked those things from before! The, uh, Groundnut cakes?”

“Groundnut Pies.”

“Yeaaah, Groundnut Pies. Those were great!”

Lunaère heaved a sigh. “It’s rare for you to be so insistent. All right, I’ll buy you some.”

Suddenly, the front door swung open, and they heard the footsteps of multiple people making their way inside.

“Lunaère! We gotta get outta here, quick!”

“They’re coming right this way. Just act like a normal treasure chest until they leave.”

“O-okay.”

Lunaère disappeared into the shadows a moment before five humans entered the small room she and Noble had been sharing. Leading the group was an obese middle-aged man wearing a gaudy white and red robe. His hairline was receding, and his face was accentuated by his prominent jowls.

“Reverend Doàr, what could this mean?!” said one of the other men. “This place hasn’t been touched for decades!”

“It’s a miracle. We’ve witnessed a miracle! This is surely a sign of the heavens’ love!” said the fat man, falling to his knees and sobbing.

“A sign of the heavens’ love…?”

“Yes! We cannot waste this undeniable display of divine favor!”

“What would be the best course of action, then?”

“Mm! We must spread the news! Then collect donations and tithes!”

“I see…”

Doàr’s beady eyes darted throughout the church and landed on a lavishly decorated treasure chest, which he shuffled toward on hurried feet.

“What is it, Reverend Doàr?”

“I…I sense a terrifying curse! Yes, it must be. This treasure chest is cursed! The city of Manaloch has no future if I fail to purify it!”

“But why is a cursed chest inside a church blessed by the love of the heavens?”

“I don’t know! It must be a test.”

“Perhaps…”

Doàr pointed a pudgy finger at the door of the church. “Carry it to my home! I’ll deal with it there. You must not open it! It is a truly evil curse and a danger to anyone lacking faith! I must cleanse it alone!”

“Y-yes, sir!”

Two of Doàr’s subordinates lifted Noble and struggled as they carried him away.

“I think that wraps up my inspection,” said Doàr.

“Huh…? Y-you’re not going to conduct a more thorough investigation?”

“That can wait. The curse of the chest must be handled. Instruct everyone to begin spreading the news of this miracle and asking for donations. I’ll be busy for the next few days!”

Doàr and his entourage left the church in a rush.

Lunaère quietly peered through a window and watched the group as they strode swiftly down the street.

“…He’ll be fine.”

 

—9—

 

A FEW DAYS after Kanata defeated Mother, Naiarotop stared at an array of windows into another dimension and tore out chunks of their hair. Images of Kanata were plastered across the display.

“What do I do now…?”

Naiarotop had given Mother the Moon of the Abyss. To be honest, it had been a longshot…but they’d sworn to the Higher God in upper management that they’d do something to get rid of Kanata Kanbara, and Mother had been the best thing Naiarotop could come up with on short notice. They were beginning to think the task was impossible. Kanata and Lunaère were far more powerful than they’d thought.

“This is it… This is the end of my rope. Urgh, how am I going to clean up this mess? Things were bad enough with Kanata Kanbara’s first Memory Sphere going around, but now…”

Naiarotop dropped their head into their hands and let out a heavy sigh.

As a Lower God working for a Higher God, Naiarotop’s failure was seen as their master’s failure. Naiarotop feared what kind of flack they would get for this last screwup.

Even before Kanata’s Memory Sphere was released, Locklore’s ratings had been dropping. Then disaster struck. What should have been a simple liquidation of a dud character—tossing Kanata into Cocytus to get eaten by monsters—turned into a world-breaking nightmare. The dud turned into a stud! Now he threatened to undo years of world building and plot development. The fandom, though meager, was livid.

Flame wars were erupting on the popular social networking site, Gospl. Longtime fans were getting into heated arguments with trolls who were showing up to watch what a train wreck Locklore had become. Naiarotop’s master was the highest trending hashtag, followed by Kanata. Gods had a lot of time on their hands to post about how Kanata was either ruining or saving the show.

“Well…they can’t blame me. I wanted to take care of this decisively the moment it became a problem. That’s right. I proposed the best option. But Master complained and made excuses with his old-fashioned way of thinking. ‘Oh no! You cannot do this, you cannot do that,’ he said… But somehow he expects me to do the impossible! And now the situation has grown worse.”

Naiarotop cradled their head. They could have destroyed the Memory Sphere and Kanata in one fell swoop, but Naiarotop’s master said they had to follow the rules. Whatever the solution to this problem ended up being, it would have to be by the book.

Locklore’s format and gimmick included strict restrictions on allowable interferences with the world. The raw, uncensored, uncut footage was what got other gods interested. If they interfered—even once—it would shatter the premise and mean certain cancellation.

Naiarotop was well aware of this, but at this point, they were getting desperate. “Duuude… I’m going to get yelled at again. How could a single human give me all this trouble? I’m a god. A god!”

They moved one of the windows and checked the world’s time. Time flow between dimensions was a mathematically complex thing, but the operating system did all the calculations for the Lesser God.

Naiarotop sighed. It had been nearly two hours since Kanata Kanbara’s latest Memory Sphere was released. This was the peak time for people to insult Locklore on Gospl.

“Uuugh… Let’s see what the damage is…”

Naiarotop closed one eye and used their fingers to widen another window. Rows of alien characters flew by.

Gospl was going nuts.

>> Kanata’s prolly OP.

>> It’s kinda cool. Too many people get killed by pathetic enemies. Nice to see the change.

>> LOL if this keeps up the humanoid dragons will get rekt

>> OMG Lunaère’s my dream waifu. Stay tsundere forever, Lunaère!

>> I hate Mitsuru. Kanata should beat her up lmao

As Naiarotop read Gospl, their tension started to drain.

“H-huh…? Have they accepted it?”

The complaints were few and far between. Instead, the fandom seemed to be coming around to the Kanata phenomenon.

Naiarotop’s strained expression slowly turned into a smile. The threat of downsizing was growing smaller and smaller.

“My subject,” came the voice of Naiarotop’s master.

Naiarotop smiled and pointed to the window into another dimension. “Look, Master! Take a look at Gospl! K-Kanata’s actually become popular! Even the new watchers may end up fans after this!”

“You fool, do you really have such a shallow understanding of things?”

“What…?”

A chill swept across Naiarotop.

“Kanata Kanbara has only been accepted because you, other Lower Gods, and myself put in a lot of work. We got ahead of the crisis. Now what happens when Kanbara destroys all the other demon kings and humanoid dragons?”

“B-b-but… Look! Isn’t this good?”

“Oh, who cares about the idiots on Gospl?” said the master.

Naiarotop shut their mouth and bit their lip.

“I can’t believe you would send the Moon of the Abyss into Locklore to try to fix this,” continued the master. “At best, you acted in the gray area of permissible maneuvers. And all for nothing! That was you, right? Or do you want me to think someone else handed that to a demon king?”

“I-I understand what you’re saying, Master. But you were quite angry when your name started trending on Gospl. How was I to know you didn’t care?”

“My name was trending because of your bumbling mistake.”

“Didn’t I say that I would go to Locklore and clean this up myself?” Naiarotop squared their shoulders and took a deep breath. “If you care that much about the balance, you should have let me do as I suggested! You take all the credit when something goes right and put all the blame on me when something goes wrong! Well, it must be nice to be you!”

That was it. Naiarotop knew they’d be downsized, but they would have said their piece. Their fear was replaced with self-righteous anger. Yes, they’d made a mistake, but instead of being allowed to fix it, management had given them the runaround.

“Don’t have a suggestion for that, do you?” Naiarotop continued, their emboldened voice trembling with anger. “Hah! If you can’t stand me, if you want me to shut up, you should just downsize me and get it over with! But that won’t downsize your failures, Master!”

“Hmm… Are you done, my subject? Our policy will not change. You will solve the Kanata Kanbara and Lunaère problem with the minimum amount of interference possible. You will use the tools already in place to their greatest potential. Bending the rules will not be tolerated unless it results in Kanbara and Lunaère’s destruction. If you cannot do this…you are the one who will be destroyed,” the Higher God said in annoyance. Then their voice cut off.

Their master’s presence faded.

“D-dammit! Damn you, Kanata Kanbara!”

In their fury, Naiarotop kicked away one of the windows near their feet before curling into a fetal position.

 

—10—

 

IN A ROOM with four stone walls, two men sat on either side of a table, looking at one another. Two subordinates flanked each man, eyeing their counterparts suspiciously. Weapons were sheathed, but ready.

One of the seated men was a giant with a receding hairline and a glassy-eyed stare, his arm thicker than most men’s waists. This was Bosgin, leader of a band of thieves called the Cup of Blood. With more than fifty members, they were a large-scale criminal organization that preyed on hapless adventurers. Members operated independently, aside from the occasional meetup to report information back to the leadership. Their strength was feared, with their powerful members rivaling A-rank adventurers in strength.

The air was thick with tension as Bosgin spoke. “You know this already, but I ain’t interested in a fight. Something’s come up that we can’t handle on our own. We want your help.”

Bosgin crossed his arms while the man across from him grinned and put his feet up on the table.

“Is that right?” asked the other man. “I don’t think killing each other here would be a bad option, would it?”

“This bastard’s making fun of us!” said one of Bosgin’s subordinates, reaching for his sword.

The giant moved with unnatural swiftness, backhanding his underling into the stone wall. The sword clattered uselessly to the ground.

“Sorry ’bout my lackey’s mouth. Let’s keep talkin’.” Bosgin bowed his head in apology.

“You know I wasn’t joking,” said the other man. “Bosgin, you’re one of the strongest people in this country…someone who could actually fight on even ground against me. With that kind of power, it should’ve been easy for you to live a proper life as an adventurer and still get your fill of thrills. Why’d you choose this path instead? It’s because you thirst for blood, isn’t it?”

Bosgin shook his head. “Gimme a break. My level ain’t even that high, and I ain’t drunk on violence like you. All I want is to get what’s mine and lay low. That’s it. Don’t lump me in with you.”

The other man let out a sigh, his interest waning. “Bosgin, you’re showing Cup of Blood’s true colors. Level is just one indicator of strength. I don’t give up in despair just because I know my opponent is a higher level. Instead, I rise to the challenge and reap the rewards.”

“Stop tryin’ to provoke me. Besides, you got a different opponent.”

“Oh?”

“Let’s get down to business. My guys in the Cup of Blood brought me some intel. The Red Rod of Authority is an item that’s been kept in storage at the king’s castle. It was first used by a traveler from another world hundreds of years ago. They’re gonna bring it out soon.”

“Are you sure about that? I don’t think the royal family would do something like that without reason.”

“You’re right.” Bosgin nodded. “Ain’t been nobody who can use the Red Rod for a while now; that’s why they had it holed up in the treasury. You gotta have a contract with a powerful spirit to be able to wield it. Just been a fancy stick since that traveler who used it died forever ago.”

“So, why now?”

“There’s an S-rank adventurer in Manaloch, the City of Magic. She’s called Aries’s Hand Kotone. She can ignore requirements for using a weapon. You do the math. I bet the royal family’s sending a retainer to Manaloch to give the staff over to her.”

Both men knew that region had suffered a great deal of damage from monsters in recent years. Recently, there had even been an incident with a demon king recently. Despite some unreliable rumors about a C-rank white mage, it was common knowledge that Kotone had contributed greatly to the demon king’s defeat. The royals would have heard about that, and they probably wanted to use the rod as an incentive to keep Kotone from wandering off. Word on the street was that she just wanted to retire.

“Without the Aries’s Hand, the Red Rod of Authority is basically just a decoration, but there’s plenty of rich collectors who want that kind of art in their display case. You get what I’m sayin’?” said Bosgin.

The other man grinned. “I see. You plan to snatch the Red Rod—but Kotone is a tough mark. That’s what you’re getting at?”

“Yeah…that’s about it. But with your help, Lovis, and your people, I bet we could go toe to toe with the Aries’s Hand. Obviously, I’ll lend you some of my people too,” said Bosgin.

Lovis leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms in satisfaction.

“I get it. And I’m in. But I don’t need any help from you. You just rough up Manaloch when the time comes and try not to get in our way. Ha ha… So, my next opponent is the Aries’s Hand? Not bad.” Lovis stood and turned away from Bosgin. “We’ll do this with just the three of us. Let’s hurry to Manaloch, Yozakura, Damia.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Yozakura as Damia nodded twice.

“We might not be the only ones goin’ after the Red Rod,” said Bosgin. “Watch your back.”

“Are you talking to me?” said Lovis with a wave of his arm, though he didn’t turn back. “Let me be clear. I came here today with every intention of killing you, Bosgin. My Black Reapers haven’t gone soft like your Cup of Blood. Our teeth are still sharp.”