1

“Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrahh!!”

“Nice, good one! That’s an all-in bet times two!”

“The girl’s a smooth talker, huh, Chun Lu?!”

“I believe her skills are solid, though.”

Naturally, although Enchantress Youren had vanished from the combat arena, the battle hadn’t gotten easy. They were up against a Nue, a half-raid-rank magical beast. With Krusty keeping Enchantress Youren occupied and Leonardo dropping out for a showdown with Elias, Kanami and Coppélia had been left all on their own. There was no way they could match it.

However, the light of mana from the ferocious battle and the destruction of the landscape had summoned reinforcements to them.

“Faithful Blade!!”

“Never mind, just close on in, cover ’em!”

Chun Lu and a man who had the air of a seasoned warrior had appeared, and they launched a surprise strike on the flank of the Nue, which had gone on the offensive.

Kanami was a Warrior class, and Coppélia was a Recovery class. Even if the two of them had managed to buy time, they didn’t have enough attack power to take down the Nue. However, now Chun Lu and her companion, both level 90, had joined in. At this point, they probably wouldn’t lose.

“By the way, who’s this?”

“He’s Zhu Huan, the master of my guild, the Lelang Wolf Cavalry. We met up over there.”

“The Red King faction got taken out by a raid monster. As we tracked them, strange monsters like Eternal Moths and Moon Rabbits showed up, and things got real noisy. We thought this was a guild war, but it’s even nastier.”

“No eating stuff off the ground!”

Kanami landed a spin kick with a heavy thunk. She probably wasn’t thinking anything, but Coppélia attempted to support her based on a conjecture. Apparently, the Nue they were fighting now had fought outside as well, and the subjugation unit had gotten here by following the scars it had left. The leader of that unit was Chun Lu’s boss, Zhu Huan.

That had been lucky.

When it came to getting information here on the continent of Eured, Coppélia’s party, led by Master Kanami, had extremely few connections. To continue journeying through a social situation that changed from moment to moment, they’d been shown that they needed simple combat power—naturally—but that it was also vital to have the protection of information and to be affiliated with an influential group.

Kanami and the others (including Coppélia) and Chun Lu’s guild were mutually independent, so there was no guarantee their interests would always match up, but even so, it should be possible for them to cooperate on a certain level.

However, Zhu Huan had mentioned “the Red King faction,” and that warranted caution. If Coppélia’s memories were reliable (which they were), the word faction referred to a political community. From Zhu Huan’s tone, it was very likely they were either in opposition to or actively hostile toward the Lelang Wolf Cavalry, to which Chun Lu belonged.

In a case like this, according to Coppélia’s forecast, Kanami could get pulled into that conflict as well.

However, for the moment, there shouldn’t be any problem with putting the issue on hold.

She couldn’t deny it was possible they would bring some sort of future disadvantage on themselves by forming a common front with the Lelang Wolf Cavalry here, but it was clear that, at present, their direct combat power fell short by more than 80 percent. Coppélia’s calculating side thought they should accept support during this fight, at least.

Meanwhile, the side that had budded and grown during this journey felt, with something that wasn’t quite resignation or determination, that Kanami would get pulled into some sort of trouble whether they fought alongside the Lelang or not, and so she simply had to support her.

She certainly couldn’t say she had a lot of samples, but in the first place, according to the cases she’d accumulated in the course of their travels, the possibility of Kanami coming into contact with trouble was proportional to time, more than any other parameter. In other words, trouble occurred a set number of times per chronological unit, and there were no prior cases of being able to avoid said trouble through their own efforts.

The fighting grew fiercer.

On a raid where the teamwork between members wasn’t good enough, the most important thing was the main tank, who would take all the enemy’s attacks. The next most important thing was a Recovery class to support the tank. If they could absorb attacks from the target they were trying to capture, the possibility of sudden destruction was off the table, which gave them the leeway to think about the next stage of the battle: how much damage the attackers could inflict in the meantime.

In that sense, due to the participation of the Lelang Wolf Cavalry members Chun Lu had called in, the fight against the Nue grew more balanced.

In particular, Chun Lu and Coppélia were high-level dedicated healers, and their frontline support abilities were good enough to use even on raids.

At this point, even against the Nue’s tremendous electrical attacks, they weren’t using a strategy of desperate evasions that risked their resources. Instead, they’d very nearly built an organized defense system based on each class’s defense spells.

“Master. Enemy reinforcements sighted. Sixteen monsters approaching. Twenty-four seconds to encounter.”

“That’s close!”

“Reinforcements incoming! Keep your guards up!”

“They got all the way in here…!”

However, without giving them time to catch their breaths, new monsters began appearing in the large space. They were Moon Rabbits, vanguard physical-attack types, and Eternal Moths, flying monsters with status-corrupting attacks.

On asking, they learned that these monsters had abruptly flooded out of the foothills with enough force to blanket the land.

“The topography is complicated, and search parameters cannot be established. Requesting lenience.”

“That’s better than our bunch of tactless rubes!”

It was a total melee.

Due to the collapse, several limestone caverns had opened into the big cave. It was possible several underground tunnels had intersected, and a whole area that had grown fragile had collapsed, connecting neighboring caverns to create this massive subterranean area.

The angles and sizes of the limestone caves that made this one up were all different, and they really couldn’t keep an eye on all of them as they went.

“Second wave, enemies intercepted. Add nine.”

“Pain in the butt!”

At that very moment, like a wad of backed-up muck expelled from a sewer, a swarm of Eternal Moths appeared.

As Master had said, they were troublesome opponents.

If you approached them and breathed in their powdery scales, they stole your MP. Possibly because they were referencing parameters of some sort, the amounts of lost MP varied, and at this point, it wasn’t fatal. However, if it accumulated, it would become a resource shortage they couldn’t ignore.

Currently, the most efficient way to fight them was for the Monk Kanami—whose resistance was strong—to charge in and intercept them.

However, in a way, that meant she was held back in this cave, and when she thought about managing her master’s HP and the raid against the Nue, Coppélia wasn’t able to leave, either.

In a raid like this one, where the enemy came in repeated wave attacks, unlike in common examples, the Weapon Attack and Magic Attack classes became important. After all, if they didn’t inflict damage and cut down the enemy’s numbers, at some point, the tanks would be unable to hold up.

The battle grew hotter and more complicated.

In addition, from somewhere in the distance, she could hear the heavy bass sounds of something massive colliding. From what Coppélia knew, there were another two showdowns being conducted in the foothills.

From the speed and attenuation of the echoes, she could tell that those fights were distant enough that they wouldn’t influence them here, but a cluster error of anxiety had formed in her heart.

The enemy was appearing one after another.

It was almost as if Mount Lang Jun had been invaded by demons and had conceived a horde of monsters.

Coppélia had no knowledge about the youth her master called Krus-Krus, but the woman-shaped monster Leonardo kited was Papus, the Genius of Healing. He’d changed his shape, but from his tag stream, the possibility was nearly great enough for certainty. His output seemed to have risen, and even if it had been what it was before, his combat power would have nearly equaled Coppélia’s, Master’s, and Elias’s combined.

Coppélia was also worried about Elias, who had refused her treatment. She hadn’t observed a reduction in combat power, but from his condition, he’d clearly been under the influence of a bad status. She didn’t know whether her Cure could heal him, but it wasn’t all right to just leave him that way.

She was a Cleric. As a recovery magic specialist, she had a responsibility to maintain her companions’ health and status. As a matter of fact, you could say it went beyond “responsibility” to become her reason for existing.

“Master. Lord Elias’s status was abnormal.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We must go to support him.”

“Yeah, but—”

Coppélia held her two Holy Shields in front of her, launching a Punisher attack. This special skill, which fired a light-attribute spell from shields in which the sun’s radiance dwelled, was the closest thing to a maximum-force attack that she had. However, sadly, it was only a healer’s maximum force. She seemed to have managed to dazzle several Moon Rabbits, but she hadn’t even come close to creating a way to break through.

This gap in the enemy forces, which she’d expended precious MP to pry open, was filled back up by the sixth wave of reinforcements. Coppélia relaxed her molars, which she’d been gritting calmly, and slammed her enormous steel shields into the enemy.

Her prediction function warned her that Leonardo was headed for a crisis.

According to her rough calculations, Elias’s comprehensive combat abilities—his attack power, endurance, and defense—were 140 percent of Leonardo’s…and that was a low estimate. If he fought Elias, who had lost his physical control and was rampaging, Leonardo would probably lose his life in the blink of an eye.

Elias was a bit special, but even taking that into consideration, both of them had abilities that put them in the “melee attacker” category. One feature of battles between melee attackers was that, as they struggled, they pushed and shoved at each other, and when this fell apart or approached the critical threshold, both parties expended HP all at once, bringing the match to a conclusion.

Pebbles rattled down from the ceiling.

Near the surface, about six hundred meters to the north, Elias and Leonardo were fighting. She knew that, but at this distance, she couldn’t check their statuses or HP.

Calculating backward from the length of the battle, it wouldn’t have been at all odd for Leonardo to lose his life at this very moment.

“Master.”

“It’s okay,” Kanami told her without turning around.

“Croak-Croak said, ‘Stay back—this guy’s mine!’”

Coppélia wanted to point out that no such thing had happened, but strangely, her looping thoughts seemed to have decreased her arithmetic abilities.

“Just a little longer, and we’ll be able to steamroll these guys, too. First we’ll beat the Nue. Then let’s go pick up Croak-Croak and Eli-Eli, and Krus-Krus while we’re at it.”

“Yes, Master.”

However, that moment came faster than they’d expected.

All at once, as if it had been cut off, the roar of battle receded, and there was an interruption in the enemy reinforcements, which had been surging toward them in swarms.

The pressure eased. It was most definitely a chance to take the offensive.

The silence that had fallen informed them that the distant fighting had ended. Coppélia and Kanami looked at each other, then charged, intending to take the Nue down in one rush.

2

In a subterranean cave where the presence of death hung thickly, Krusty and the Enchantress were continuing their battle, moving slowly and warily.

If she’d stayed near the Nue, its big body would have been used against her as an obstacle, and so, in order to secure a line of fire toward Krusty, the Enchantress had attempted to move their fight. Since it would let him create a one-on-one situation, Krusty had obliged.

“Accursed one—you are holding out well.”

“I fear my unworthiness prevents me from fighting you with everything I have.”

Krusty was smiling thinly.

He’d meant what he said.

Even now, in this very instant, he was nearing the abyss of death moment by moment. In the first place, Guardians had excellent defense, but they didn’t have the HP recovery abilities of a healer.

Obviously, there were exceptions to this, including Krusty’s selected build of Scarlet Knight. Instead of a shield, he used a two-handed weapon with an HP absorption effect—the Fresh Blood Demon Ax—and built his fights around its special skills, realizing HP recovery that was normally impossible for warrior classes.

In order to gain even greater HP recovery abilities, it was necessary to increase the damage on which the ratio was based. To that end, people with this build often chose two-handed weapons, and by necessity, they ended up losing their shields. In other words, the essential condition for creating this build was that the increase in artificial endurance that resulted from the HP recovery had to surpass the decreased defense caused by the loss of the shield.

At present, due to the effect of Krusty’s curse—“HP may not be recovered through recovery spells, or through facilities or items”—he wasn’t allowed to perform his main trick. In other words, not only was his Scarlet Knight build currently unable to recover HP, it couldn’t use the defensive power of a shield, either; it was good for nothing, with no advantages whatsoever.

Of course he was able to use the high attack power of his two-handed weapon, but that was all it was. Even if he boosted that attack power, it would fall far below that of an Assassin or other specialist.

“Scarlet Thrust!”

Shining deep crimson, the attack Krusty paid out slashed through three of the snakelike tentacles Enchantress Youren had unleashed. Ordinarily, that red aura would have robbed Krusty’s opponent of her HP and given it to him. However, that effect hadn’t activated for a while.

“And another!”

A tentacle Krusty had failed to slap down stretched up from his feet, punching at the armor around his waist. The blow wasn’t hard enough to pierce it, but the impact was still there, and he lost a little more HP. Seventeen percent remaining.

They’d been repeating this cycle for a while now.

Even worse, apparently Enchantress Youren’s attacks had the same HP absorbing ability as the Scarlet build, which was practically a synonym for Krusty. As she attacked him, at the same time, she was gradually recovering the damage he’d worked so hard to inflict. It wasn’t so efficient that she’d be unscathed in no time, but it was apparently possible for her to reduce the damage she’d been dealt. Enchantress Youren’s HP simply had more volume than it should.

Krusty currently had a handicap, so he couldn’t be called strong.

However, all that was separate from winning or losing.

The very fact that he could think this sort of thing as he fought probably counted as proof.

There are things I’ve grown able to see, too, hmm?

Krusty was picking up on the intentions of the Enchantress, who was probably one of the invaders who had targeted this land. It might have been a more advanced understanding than what the Round Table Council members had, tied up in Akiba as they were.

In short, she and her kind were usurpers.

They were an alien species who had come here with their sights set on the land’s overflowing mana. They wielded paranormal powers, and their combat abilities made them equal to raid monsters. They were intelligent, and they were after Theldesia.

Krusty sensed this was what colonialism under the great European powers from the Age of Exploration through the discovery of the New World must have been like. He didn’t think he was that far off the mark.

They probably had enough military might to make this world do whatever they wanted.

However, as Krusty swung his ax, he wore a smile like a starving wolf.

He didn’t spare a thought for victory or defeat. He didn’t have to.

I need accessible resources.

Invest them.

He visualized a gate in the center of his chest, then commanded it to activate.

The impression Krusty had was of the gate to a magnificent temple with round, Doric columns. Behind a marble door covered in carvings lay a spring swirling with liquid light. If Krusty fed it with his memories, it would generate a rainbow radiance.

The name “Mnemosyne’s Taboo” surfaced in his mind. This technique apparently converted memories into energy.

The units of energy were minuscule, so it was impossible to express the efficiency of the exchange, but from Krusty’s perspective, it was more than enough. All he had to do was feed in a teaspoon of the taste of a martini at a boring party, for example, or the feel of a muffler that had been unexpectedly wrapped around him on a footpath beside an Amsterdam canal, or the gaze of a relative who’d glared at him in annoyance, and he’d get several thousand, or several tens of thousands, of MP.

Krusty immediately switched from Taunting Shout to a large-scale range attack with Onslaught.

In Elder Tales, MP was a high-rarity resource. When you weren’t fighting, you could recover it rapidly without much trouble, but during battle, you only recovered a few dozen points per minute… And that was at Krusty’s level, with his equipment. In a battle where you didn’t have support from an Enchanter or a Bard, it was a resource that barely recovered at all.

That precious resource filled his body, flooding in through the micro-gate in the center of his chest. Its speed was on the order of several tens of thousands of points per second. His MP didn’t fluctuate from its maximum, but because the amount of excess recovery alone was more than the amount he was consuming, it looked as if it wasn’t falling below the maximum. Not only that, but a rainbow-colored shimmer radiated from his entire body, reinforcing major elements in combat—everything from attack power and defense to his special skill recast times.

The sharp blade, which he swung with enough momentum to burn the air, inflicted steady damage on Enchantress Youren.

Hardened tentacles and the weapon Krusty wielded clashed twice, three times.

The damage per second he was inflicting wouldn’t have been possible for a Guardian in the days of Elder Tales, and the Enchantress’s beautiful face warped in astonishment.

“What are these slashes?!”

“A parlor trick.”

Condescending tone in hand, Krusty charged, not hiding his ghastly smile. He sealed his opponent’s resistance with a mighty close-range attack like a body blow, then shifted into a rush, in which the attack itself acted as defense. Under these circumstances, he didn’t have to worry about running out of MP. He had all the fuel he could ever want.

The Enchantress froze up, startled, for just a moment. Then she desperately began to defend herself.

In this situation, the whole of the battle was simultaneous attack and defense. They couldn’t use skills like Parry or Evade. One had an enormous ax, the other had countless tentacles that sprouted from her sleeves, and they both slammed attacks that emphasized the quantity of blows into each other. The only thing you could call defense were the attacks they launched at each other. Attacks that weren’t shot down struck their opponent.

With blood trickling from his cheeks, Krusty cheerfully threw himself into the center of this raging storm.

Under his hands, Enchantress Youren was being annihilated, a problem being solved. Possibilities were converging on the result of victory, or of defeat. Each step on that route was pleasure. Right now, Krusty was on the verge of obtaining a new result.

“Why, why?!”

However, there was someone who wasn’t happy about this.

It was Enchantress Youren, with whom he was trading attacks.

She ground her teeth in frustration, then turned her practically defenseless back on him. It wasn’t that her soft, feminine curves had made him hesitate, but a momentary gap opened up in Krusty’s fierce onslaught. He’d grown wary of an unknown counterstrike.

Sure enough, the Enchantress did strike back.

With a sticky sucking sound, a huge wave of gray tentacles burst from below Enchantress Youren’s feet, undulated, and closed in.

However, they weren’t headed for Krusty.

They angled away, rushing toward the shadow of the rocks, charging toward Hua Diao—who was standing as still as a sculpture, looking blank. In the midst of time that seemed drawn out, Hua Diao tried to scream something.

Block the attack.

I can’t.

Take the damage for her with Covering.

Out of range.

Reflexively, Krusty tried to protect her, but it wasn’t possible.

Guardian strategies for protecting companions were mostly built around controlling aggro, and their abilities regarding protecting friends from damage directly were far below those of Monks. If Kanami had been here, things might have gone differently, but she was nowhere in sight. During their ferocious fight, they’d kept moving, and it had divided the battlefield.

When his eyes met Hua Diao’s, she looked apologetic. The next instant, she was covered by a surging gray wave like a muddy torrent, and she disappeared from view.

Martenfolk were noncombatant demispirits, and for one of them, the damage was too great. It could be nothing but fatal.

However—

—Gumon the wolf dog leapt in like a meteor.

She must have summoned up all her abilities in order to come running. With the impenetrable defense of her agility, it would have been easy for her to avoid Enchantress Youren’s attacks, and yet, in order to save Hua Diao, Gumon exposed her defenseless side. The Wise Wolf had made a clearheaded decision, and she chose speed over self-preservation.

Even though the price was her life.

With a light of deep understanding in her eyes, even as she shed a shocking amount of blood, the wolf took the nape of Hua Diao’s neck in her mouth, sped back to Krusty’s feet in a single leap, and set the girl down. She gave a low, satisfied groan and lay down herself.

And then she became bubbles of gently shining rainbow light.

The world is brimming over with the difficult problems you seek.

Your world, your problem, is easy because you aren’t looking for treasure.

I think those around you would be happier if you were a little greedier.

Those with abilities should have intense desires to match, don’t you think, Milord?

He heard a calm voice.

The bubbles rose toward heaven, and what remained was a woman’s severed arm, with slim fingers. It was wrapped in a piece of a D.D.D. uniform and had been cut off near the shoulder. It was ’s arm.

3

Having completely absorbed Gumon’s life, Enchantress Youren had recovered her health drastically, and she smiled sweetly.

Krusty’s HP was down to just 8 percent.

In contrast, Enchantress Youren’s HP was over 60 percent, and still rising.

The gap was great enough that she could feel sure of her victory. Even if he’d managed to gain nearly limitless MP through Mnemosyne’s Taboo, with no means of recovering his HP, Krusty had no way to turn the tables at this point.

“That was astonishing.”

“…”

“I doubt you remember, but I would expect no less from the Adventurer the Supreme Deity and the Heavenly Mother wanted for her nephew. —I’ll ask again: I don’t suppose you’d surrender to us?”

“Are you telling me to play at being a sheepdog?”

“I promise you the most fortunate of canine lifestyles.”

In response to this, his expression still cool, Krusty smiled.

The woman was funny.

Had she noticed she’d confessed to talking to a dog?

Or maybe she had wanted to believe it was actually the other party that was the dog.

Even answering her properly seemed like too much work.

“The tiger-fanged Bucaphi, Genius of Witches, wasn’t it?”

“?! Don’t tell me your memories have—”

With a light click, some sort of piece fell into place. At the same time, the flow of his blood sped up, accelerating into a raging torrent. With the thrill of understanding in his eyes, Krusty smiled fearlessly.

The reality of something being “stolen” had closed the circuit.

Pushing a mental arm through the gate up to its shoulder, he groped through a rainbow ocean as warm as his viscera. The true identity of the heat that made his breath tremble was a complicated emotion. It was amusement, and also irritation. Delight and anger were there together.

The feeling was hard to put a name to, but it definitely did have heat. Keeping the emotion just as it was, he began to take them back, ripping them free.

“The curse—! What happened to the curse that bound you?!”

“It hasn’t been lifted.”

As Krusty had sensed, there was still a negative status on his translucent window.

SOUL DARKENING CURSE.

NATURAL HP RECOVERY IS SUSPENDED.

HP MAY NOT BE RECOVERED THROUGH RECOVERY SPELLS, OR THROUGH FACILITIES OR ITEMS.

THE TELECHAT FUNCTION IS SUSPENDED.

MOVEMENT ACROSS SERVER BOUNDARIES BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE.

MEMORIES ARE LOST.

However.

“It doesn’t say I can’t retake the memories I lost.”

As he’d said, a new condition was added, the words seeming to bleed into existence.

The Enchantress looked pale and dismayed, and Krusty sent her a savage smile.

Through the gate, he retrieved the memories that had melted into rainbow colors. Once he’d retaken them, it also became clear why he’d chosen those memories and released them. Krusty had foreseen that he would take them back.

He’d been sure he would recover them, so he’d offered them up as collateral.

Because he’d known they would come back someday, he’d relaxed and temporarily deposited them elsewhere.

When he was caught up in Calamity Hurts’s rampage in the mountains near Seventh Fall, Krusty had landed on Mount Kunlun, a solitary island that floated in a distant rainbow ocean. On that island, he’d met the grotesque witch Bucaphi. She had wanted him to become her vassal, but he had refused, and as a result, he’d been hit with a bad status that robbed him of nearly all his combat power, then banished into the wilderness of central Eured. Even the memory of his encounter with Bucaphi had been taken from him.

That was what lay behind Krusty’s arrival in this land.

However, those memories were back in his hands now.

They’d been accompanied by memories of the chaperone of his noisy guild, his precocious little sister, his reliable aide, and the reckless slacker princess. As this information flowed in, filling the gaps, he gave a little smile that was different from the one he’d shown the Enchantress.

He’d been unable to hold back a wry smile at his own romanticism.

Even if he’d had memories and connections, the benefits he could gain from them were limited. Still, Krusty didn’t have the sort of temperament that took delight in giving up part of himself.

He also understood the cause of the hostility that blazed inside him.

He’d already faced off against the enemy’s leader on Mount Kunlun. Now that he’d retaken his memories, he knew this clearly. As far as he was concerned, the bewitching woman who’d held him in contempt and had brazenly shown up to take him was already a target for annihilation. He had absolutely no intention of forgiving her.

Papus—this woman, Enchantress Youren—and the Queen Mother of the West, Bucaphi: Everyone who had risen against Krusty and his memories was an enemy. Now that his memories were clear, her true name was displayed in his status window. Apparently, that was the limit of her mimicry.

It was likely that Enchantress Youren and her cohorts were connected to the mystery of the Catastrophe.

They probably had useful information on the current state of the world.

However, that wasn’t the tiniest speck of a reason for letting them live.

“Simply regaining your memories does nothing to change the situation!” she shrieked.

“That’s right.”

…But so what?

Krusty hadn’t taken any notice of the situation in the first place.

The important thing was producing a conclusion. That, and the motive for seeking it.

Compressing the distance between them, which was already the space of a breath, he swung his ax, now scattering rainbows instead of blood. The motion surpassed even Adventurer limits, and if Nyanta had been watching, he might have sensed something similar to Kazuhiko in it. However, right now, Krusty was trembling with the joy of birth, and he wielded his blade like a song.

He instinctively knew where Mount Kunlun was.

It was on the horizon of heaven, somewhere Krusty couldn’t currently reach.

However, his enemies were there, and he’d resolved to destroy them.

Therefore, he should be able to sink his fangs into the place.

The enemy: That had been the thing he’d given up on ever obtaining in his lifetime, what he’d grown tired and endlessly weary over.

The people who’d whispered “Give up” to Haruaki Kounoike might always have said it out of kindness, but they hadn’t loved him deeply.

However, Krusty had been told to seek people who would adore him. By his little sister, and by Takayama, and by Riezé. By Koen and Richou, too. Now that he thought about it, Kushiyatama had said it as well, long ago. With the resolve of someone throwing herself into the flames, Raynesia had shown that she was looking. Even if she understood that her own abilities wouldn’t be enough, that stubborn princess hadn’t given up on wanting.

Krusty had given up his expectations for those around him, but even in the knowledge that they might rip and fall away easily, she’d clung to them. That hadn’t been weakness. It had been nobility.

That night, Krusty had witnessed that nobility.

If he was going to adventure, then what situation could be better than this one, where he’d been transported to a foreign country? Enemies and companions, obstacles and treasures were a solid reality in this vast, white land.

Now that he thought about it, Shiroe and Isaac, and even William, who’d left for the north, had all attempted to make their mark on this world.

Right now, Krusty was emphatically free.

The feeling infused the joints in his arms and legs with the sort of energy that made him want to set off running immediately.

Of course, he’d have to return to Yamato. D.D.D. was a comfortable place. It was his treasure, even if he hadn’t been aware of that. He had no intention of letting it be taken from him.

However, in order to get there, it looked as if he’d have to defeat all his enemies…or maybe someone would come to get him before that happened.

Possibly she’d been overawed by the colorless rage that had quietly accumulated inside Krusty: Enchantress Youren issued an order in a carrying voice. A froth of iridescent bubbles gathered in what had been empty space, and a swarm of giant moths appeared from it and attacked him.

“That’s nothing—”

He slashed through them.

At this point, his enormous two-handed ax was so light it might as well have been made of paper. Actually, Krusty’s very limbs were filled with inexhaustible energy, and they massacred his enemies just as he wanted them to. As if he’d shed his skin, even the air currents felt fresh, and his sharpened nerves picked up the enemy’s movements easily.

“The forces summoned from the moon are limitless. Even if you are beyond the bounds of common sense, how do you plan to oppose numbers like these? On top of that, your life is already a lamp flame, guttering in the wind.”

Impatiently, the Enchantress issued rapid-fire invasion orders.

The Moon Rabbits attacked, comically, their fat bellies wobbling. Krusty drew several of them to himself at once, then knocked the pestles they brandished away, sending them flying.

Even as he operated the micro-gate, with exquisite focus, Krusty closed the distance between them.

Half a step, then another.

His Demon Ax, from which heavy sounds issued, finally inflicted a deep wound on the Enchantress’s tentacles.

He’d sliced off the tentacles with herculean strength, and turning iridescent, they were absorbed into his ax, where they became a red pulse. It was the HP absorption ability he was supposed to have lost.

“—?! But every way you could have recovered was sealed…”

“Your curse is full of holes.”

Krusty’s eyes skimmed across a translucent window. Shining red letters were being added to the Soul Darkening Curse display: HOWEVER, MEMORIES MAY BE RECOVERED. HOWEVER, IT IS POSSIBLE TO STEAL HP FROM GENIUSES.

The calculator known as “a lifetime” ran on life force.

The iridescent, crystalline bay that operated on that principle was an external calculator Krusty could connect to easily. He was reusing that rainbow energy to make additions to the curse.

He remembered Shiroe giving him an explanation, in bits and pieces, in a military tent.

He’d been explaining the possibilities and concept of the skill he’d called the Contract Technique.

The key lay in balancing the risk-cost and rewards with the weight of the act of establishing the contract. The immense cost, which included phantasmal materials, was expended to guarantee the effect gained from the contract, and the mutual agreement of each party acted as the ignition key.

“What are you saying…?”

“You may not be able to understand it. In simple terms, your master went overboard.”

That was right.

What Shiroe had excavated from the foundations of the world was the idea of balance.

Desires that could be granted with the Contract Technique probably extended to everything you could think of. It was terribly powerful and specialized toward granting wishes, and it thought of nothing else; a Mystery that could be considered Shiroe himself. However, it did have clear limits and restrictions. One of these was the cost required to draw up the contract.

The physical contract for the Contract Technique had to be created by a specialist, and it called for expensive materials that corresponded to the scale of the wish—fantasy-class things. In addition, both to draft it and to conclude the contract, the majority of Shiroe’s MP had been lost, and he’d had the greatest capacity among those on his level. To grant a wish, a price had to be paid. That price also had to be commensurate to the wish. On top of that, for the Contract Technique to take effect, the involved parties had to agree and sign it. Shiroe certainly had the sword that cut the Gordian knot, but in order to swing it, he needed the other party’s consent.

The Contract Technique wasn’t an all-powerful spell; it was a clumsy, roundabout method with terrible cost performance. That was the impression Krusty had gotten from listening to Shiroe, and it was also probably what Shiroe himself really thought.

On the other hand, the Soul Darkening Curse truly was powerful. In this world, where resurrection from death was possible, its penalties were even more aggressively vicious than death itself.

Its effect had been big. Too big.

It was too convenient for the aggressor, and too much of a disadvantage for Krusty.

Compared was the Contract Technique, its cost performance was too good, it didn’t require the consent of its subject, and it was far too unilateral. For being magic techniques in the same world, they were impossibly distant from each other.

That was the weakness of the Soul Darkness Curse. In the balanced world of the Spirit Theory that Shiroe had spoken of, its overpowering effect was extremely unstable.

It would have been one thing if Krusty had given his consent, but they’d had to force it on him arbitrarily; it had been effective after a fashion up until now only because it had been harshly branded onto him with the MP of Bucaphi, the Genius of Witches, a level-150 figure who vastly outranked him. However, to Krusty as he was now, in terms of sheer MP, he had the means to oppose it, even if it had come from someone whose level was twice his own.

If trust had been part of the picture…

If they’d been equals…

If he’d at least consented…

In any of those cases, the curse would doubtless never have been broken, but Krusty tore it apart easily. He didn’t have a scrap of the sweet temperament that would have obeyed something unfair.

Enchantress Youren, half panicking, thrust out sharp talons. However, he grabbed her arm with a gauntlet like solid iron, crushing it under his fingers, and when he swung it around with all his might, it tore free and flew off.

Showing no mercy whatsoever, Krusty immediately unleashed Armor Crush, making the very material that formed the Enchantress’s arm disappear. Now Enchantress Youren had one arm, just like Takayama. Everything about Krusty’s attack had been magically strengthened by overflowing MP, by Empathiom.

“Wha—? Do you think an outrage like this will be permitted—?”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who steals others’ memories and degrades them into puppets.”

She didn’t understand the dangers of winning too much. That made her less than second-rate.

Krusty felt pain, as if all the nerves in his body were being torn, and it made him smile. That torment was the price he had to pay for victory. He didn’t need an overpowering victory, or an overwhelmingly advantageous contract, or unilateral exploitation. Even if those led to a temporary victory, they wouldn’t give him a sustainable win.

The thin-ice victory Krusty wanted was a reality he needed in order to continue winning, and to keep from winning too much.

As relentlessly as an icy wind, Krusty carved wounds into the Enchantress. First one, then another.

Their HP grew closer, competed, and drew even.

“Having been soiled with defeat once, I learned about the Adventurers and the Ancients. I degraded Elias and entrapped you, and certain victory was in my hands, and yet—I wasn’t careless; I knew very well how violent you were. How, why…?”

That was probably carelessness right there, Krusty thought.

How slipshod would you have to be to include nothing but your opponents’ violent natures in your assessment?

Had she been planning to buy Manhattan Island with glass beads?

Krusty didn’t know that it had been Kanami’s party that had defeated Enchantress Youren in the form of the Genius Papus. Knowing wouldn’t have changed how he dealt with her. Even now, he had no intention of explaining the reasons behind the Enchantress’s defeat to her.

Even though he was in the middle of a battle, he just shrugged.

Before they knew it, they were surrounded with piles of dead Moon Rabbits and Eternal Moths that were beginning to turn iridescent. The echoes of the pair’s fight had turned the animals into corpses before they could even get a shot in.

Apparently, the backup the Enchantress had been counting on had run out.

“You seem to have misunderstood.”

Speaking to her ironically, Krusty raised his weapon for the killing blow.

This wasn’t worth drawing out.

Just now, countless possibilities had disappeared into the darkness.

The routes of everything had converged, and the results were being integrated and consolidated.

The time for the answer—the end—had come.

“I wasn’t ‘entrapped.’ I was just resting, and I expect Elias only lost his way.”

“You lie—!”

“My condolences on your loss.”

With a heavy sound, the Fresh Blood Demon Ax fell, splitting Enchantress Youren in two from the top of her head all the way down to her groin, then sank deep into the hard limestone.

Dust hung in the air around him, and the reverberations echoed into the enormous cavern.

The area was wrapped in silence, as if the sounds of combat had been an illusion.

In the midst of that hushed gloom, Krusty pulled his ax free with a ponderous scraping noise, then looked at the thing that had been Enchantress Youren with eyes that no longer held any interest.

A few moments later, it turned into a cloud of rainbow bubbles.

As with all questions, there was meaning only in the path that led to the answer, and once it was over, it was no more than the faded past.

The Enchantress had died.

The cause of her defeat had been excessive disdain for her targets and the fact that she’d given herself too great an advantage.

If you had no respect for something, you probably didn’t even consider trying to understand it.

If you didn’t understand the opponent you were competing against, you couldn’t win.

It sounded like a paradox, but to win, you had to respect your opponent.

She’d overlooked that trivial yet important truth.

“Results. That’s all there is.”

Muttering, Krusty began to walk back into the cave, which had regained its stillness. When he’d walked a few steps, he turned back again, and there was no longer any crazed heat in his expression. When Hua Diao ran up and clung to him, he scooped her up in his arms.

4

“Yeah, yeah. Your knees are quaking over there, hero! Are you even trying? An old grandma carrying her Chihuahua in Central Park puts a little more effort into this stuff, y’know?”

“Hold your tongue!”

Elias raised his sword, which seemed so massive one got the illusion it was the mountain itself, and put more strength into his left leg, which had been on the verge of shaking. It was frustrating, but Leonardo’s comment had been right on the mark: Even a newborn fawn would probably have walked a bit better.

He swung his great fairy sword, Crystal Stream, less as if he were bringing it down than as if its weight was pulling his center of gravity.

Elias felt resistance, as though he were surrounded by water, and grimaced. With every moment, that resistance bound him more firmly, and even though all he was doing was swinging his sword down, it felt as if he were moving through lead. As a result, Elias’s attack turned into something as childish as a little kid’s make-believe swing, and it shaved away half of half of 1 percent of Leonardo’s HP.

Leonardo’s expression was fierce and bright, but he was covered with mud and dust, and he looked as if he’d reached the acme of exhaustion. Elias’s attacks seemed to shove him, rather than cut him. Leonardo put on a fearless smile and tried to shrug it off, but his feet tangled up, and he stumbled.

“I’m seeing zero damage, Blademancer.”

“Look at your own HP, Frog-Man!”

Gasping and panting as he yelled back, Elias stabbed his two-handed sword into the rock. He couldn’t stand properly, either, and he leaned on the sword, catching his breath.

Leonardo’s HP was down to nearly nothing.

Even though they were both muddy, if you only looked at the numbers, Elias’s overwhelming victory seemed assured. However, that fact was superficial. To shave his HP down to this level from 25 percent, Elias had spent over an hour attacking. Ordinarily, this sort of damage wouldn’t even have taken thirty seconds to inflict, but he’d mustered up all his strength and pared it away with soul-searing determination.

Up until the point his HP was down to 10 percent, he’d been able to fight with passion.

After that, each single percentage point was as hard as digging his way through a massive steel rock with his bare hands, and by now, the only thing that kept him moving was sheer pride.

Elias was losing track of why he was here, and he stood there on just one thought, as if desperately clinging to a rock in the middle of a raging torrent: the idea that he had to overcome the curse.

His movements were clearly going downhill, and the decline in his own motor abilities made him want to cover his eyes. The fairy curse that kept him from lowering his combat opponent’s HP below 25 percent of its maximum ruthlessly restricted his actions.

He didn’t know why, but he seemed to have overcome that restriction. At present, he’d cornered Leonardo to the point where he was right on the edge. However, the curse hadn’t been lifted. That was clear from the handicap constricting around him.

Leonardo was single-mindedly taking Elias’s attacks.

It probably wasn’t an easy trial. Adventurers who had acquired sophisticated fighting techniques had instincts that made them avoid attacks half-unconsciously. Leonardo was negating that, using only his will.

Elias’s magic sword and its swirling streams of water could cleave a boulder in two. That was what he was leaving himself open to. He was probably shot through with the sort of ferocious pain that would make him have to clamp down on his terror.

Even Elias knew these things.

They’d fought several hundred exchanges in this extreme environment, where damage was attenuated. That was enough times for them to have communicated what was in their hearts.

“Hey, hero. Elias. How long have you had your mind back?”

“…”

Elias was at a loss for words.

As Leonardo had said, at this point, he could barely feel that mental cloudiness.

From time to time, pain ran through his head, but his memories of having been taken in by a female monster named Enchantress Youren, and of having turned his blade on his companions, were vivid.

Even if he had been manipulated, the very fact of that manipulation was guilt and humiliation enough to sear him to the core. On top of that, the manipulation hadn’t been all; the words that had spilled out of Elias had been the sense of inferiority that smoldered inside him, which made it even more painful.

In extreme terms, the fact that he hadn’t been able to stop fighting was simply due to his pride.

You could even say he’d been fascinated by the damage he was continuing to inflict beyond 25 percent.

However, now that Leonardo had seen through him, Elias let go of the battle he’d continued to fight and hung his head.

“Leonardo…”

“It’s fine; I don’t care. Quit looking like that.”

Leonardo threw out his chest as he spoke, even though he was covered in damage, then walked unsteadily up to Elias and stuck a fist into his cheek.

It was a parody of a punch.

He hadn’t put his back into it; he’d folded his thumb into the clenched fist he’d raised, and frankly speaking, it marked him as an obvious amateur. However, Elias didn’t even have the strength to evade that whack, and he took it clumsily, staggered two or three steps, and fell. His physical responses were too dulled to even let him fall safely, and he landed on his face on the rocks. He was ridiculous, and it made him smile thinly.

“How d’ya like that?”

“How…am I sup…posed to…?”

Elias lay on the rocks like a wooden doll. Realizing he didn’t even have the strength to get to his feet, he gave up and managed, with great difficulty, to roll onto his back.

His whole body felt as hot as if it had been burned, and in that sense, the cool floor of the limestone cave was comfortable. It seemed as though this heat was his foolish self, and the land was gently reproaching him for it.

“It was a terrible punch… You looked like an amateur.”

“Huhn.”

Even he thought the words were terribly spiteful.

Even though he’d caused him so much trouble, even though he’d actually targeted his life, even though he himself was the only one to blame, Elias couldn’t even apologize meekly. In the end, even now, the fairy curse still bound him. Not only had he attacked Leonardo without so much as letting him argue, he hadn’t managed to complete that attack. His guilt at having done him harm and a feeling of inferiority over not having been able to fully accomplish that harm were fighting inside him.

A feeling of inferiority about the curse and regret that scorched him like heavy oil still bound Elias in the depths of the darkness.

It was true he’d been deceived by Enchantress Youren, but Elias knew that wasn’t the whole reason. As proof, even when the mania had died down, the bad feelings that prickled like a festering wound wouldn’t go away.

Moving very cautiously, as if he was being careful of his joints, Leonardo sat down cross-legged on the rock near Elias, then heaved a big sigh. In terms of HP, he was far closer to “death” than Elias.

Elias had about 10 percent remaining, but Leonardo was below 2 percent. His condition could have been described as “at death’s door.”

Naturally, HP was an indicator of the strength to endure injuries and damage, and it had nothing to do with stamina or accumulated fatigue. For that reason, the pair’s exhaustion wasn’t directly due to HP, but even if that was the case, at this point, when they were both at their limits, there was hardly any difference between them.

“Why did you go along with something this foolish?” Elias asked.

If Leonardo had felt like it, he could have ended Elias’s life a hundred times. That last 10 percent of his HP had been a distance of thousands of miles to Elias, but Elias’s HP couldn’t have been that way for Leonardo.

He probably wouldn’t have been able to manage it in one attack, but he should have been able to tear him up by the roots in the space of two breaths. Leonardo had held his weapons at the ready at first, but ultimately, he’d sheathed them in order to keep Elias company in his desperation.

It had been an incomprehensible act, the meaning of which was unclear.

In response to that question, Leonardo’s eyes widened a bit, and he shrugged his shoulders with a sigh. His attitude was teasing, as if to say, What kind of dim-witted lines are you spouting?

Elias was struck with shame. He hadn’t thought himself wise, but it was likely that he was deeply foolish.

This affair had left Elias thoroughly disgusted with himself. Up until now, people had flattered him, calling him the Ancients’ hero and the strongest knight, and he’d gotten full of himself. Now he was filled with the desire to burn that self to the ground. He couldn’t rescue his comrades, and he couldn’t save the People of the Earth. He felt he had no value, and his existence seemed like an irredeemable crime.

However, what Leonardo said to him was something he hadn’t anticipated at all.

“That ‘fairy curse’ thing is broken already, right?”

Dumbfounded, Elias forgot both the pain and his fatigue and bolted upright, then protested through the awful pain that resulted: “That’s not true—!” …Even if most of the line only came out as a groan.

“My HP went below 25 percent, and you kept chipping away at it.”

Come to think of it, he might be able to say that the curse had partially eased.

However, it wasn’t that simple. After all, Leonardo didn’t know anything.

Even as he realized that the objection itself was an arrogant thought that patronized his comrade, Elias’s heart couldn’t stop trying to justify itself. Even he thought it cowardly and base, but his warped and nearly crushed soul seem to be looking for an escape route, and it was liable to cling to even these lame excuses.

“With speed like that, I really couldn’t overtake you… I accomplished nothing!”

For that reason, he couldn’t look Leonardo in the eyes; he averted his own gaze and shouted loudly.

It was exactly the sort of deceptive attitude a cornered failure would take.

“I see.”

Leonardo didn’t seem bothered by Elias’s bluff.

The light that shone in from some vague source was already the madder red that announced the end of the day, alerting them to the arrival of the indigo veil.

In the cave that had lost the light and was slowly growing darker, illuminated by a strange glow like residual battle heat from their magic items, the two of them sat quietly.

Elias didn’t know what he should do, and there was nothing he could say.

“—And anyway, was that what you wanted, to kill somebody? You want to kill, so you want to get rid of the curse that keeps you from killing?”

“…What?”

As far as the words went, Elias understood Leonardo’s question, but he couldn’t quite grasp its meaning. He didn’t know what Leonardo was asking.

Do I want to kill someone?

Do I want to kill Leonardo, for example?

No, not at all.

I don’t think I do.

In that case, why was I trying to rid myself of this curse?

In order to protect my companions, and the people.

Something had gotten oddly twisted.

Managing to lean his upper body back against a boulder, Elias stared at the palms of his hands. They were bloodied and covered in wounds. The seemed unfamiliar to him, filthy like that.

Even if someone had explained it to him, he wouldn’t have known what was going on. Possibly because of the lingering heat of the fight, he couldn’t figure out what Leonardo was trying to say. He was irritated by his clumsiness, but his whole body was exhausted, and it wouldn’t let him do as he pleased.

“I’ve never met any, but do fairies do stuff like that? Why did they order you to do something like that? And anyway, is that actually a curse?”

“Not…a curse?”

Elias mulled the words over, slowly, and when he understood them, he looked at Leonardo as if he’d been stung.

It was a possibility he’d never even considered.

The fairy curse was a part of him. He’d felt as if it was a component he was used to and couldn’t cut away, and he hadn’t even been conscious of it.

Then what in the world was this handicap?

Was he saying that this thing, which had bound Elias and forced him to taste despair and loss, wasn’t a curse?

“Right. Comic fans like me don’t call stuff like that curses. —It’s your oath, in solid form. Elias, it’s not that you can’t kill. I know that. You don’t want to kill anybody, no matter who they are, so you kept that oath inside you. It’s not just monsters. People of the Earth and Adventurers and Ancients, too.”

Those weren’t words.

The things that were issuing from Leonardo’s mouth were definitely not words.

They were something from a higher dimension, something quiet, yet infused with immense energy.

Without being conscious of it, Elias tensed up, eyes widening, and waited to hear what would come next.

“Remember red-nosed Princess Rubience. That day, you should have been able to flatten all her mercenaries and make a run for it. There was enough of a strength difference for you to pull it off. But you chose to become a hostage, without fighting. Elias Hackblade didn’t fail to kill because he lost out to a curse. He didn’t want to kill, so he didn’t.”

He was right.

When had he lost sight of that?

The remark pierced Elias like a divine revelation.

He hadn’t wanted to kill.

He’d chosen a path that was more difficult, rather than salvation gained by crushing someone and killing them.

Hadn’t Elias studied fairy swordsmanship because he thought it held enough power to resolve situations without killing his opponent?

What Elias found in Leonardo’s words were the tracks of his own resolve, the path he’d walked when he was young. He’d forgotten it entirely, had assumed it had never been there, but when he turned and looked, there it was, stretching from his own feet back into the past.

The heat that flowed down through him made it impossible for him to raise his head.

“I know that. I read your story…straight from you. That’s why I’ve got your back.”

“Ahh… Ah, agh, ghk…”

Before he knew it, Elias was crying.

He sniffled pathetically.

The “strongest Ancient” was sobbing openly.

If that was true, then what an error he’d committed!

If that was true, what a roundabout way he’d traveled!

However, that remorse wasn’t like the torment that had plagued him up until a moment ago.

It was a harsh, cutting pain, but it was the pain of the acceptance he needed in order to keep walking, making these footprints continue into the future.

“What you’ve got there is a geas, a vow. It’s your power, which you got in order to accomplish something… It’s not a curse; don’t hate on yourself like that.”

Dazzling light flooded from Elias’s left arm, becoming a spreading vortex of rainbow radiance. It plunged through the rock, soaked into the earth, healed the broken trees, healed the small, wounded mountain animals, then rose to the horizon of the sky, gazing up at the morning star in the lingering light.

The curse had been a frail, fleeting thing.

It had been more like a string made from twisted paper than an iron chain, something so fragile it could be destroyed just by doubting it.

Elias had hated his shackles. He’d seen them as a curse that bound him—but that was precisely what had made them a curse. They had absorbed his envy and resentment, had grown endlessly obese, and had become a black blight.

However, those shackles had also been a binding oath.

Illuminated by Leonardo’s morning sun, the curdled darkness cleared.

Seen in the light, it wasn’t a grudge that would hurt Elias.

Just now, he’d been released from it.

He’d retaken his vow, the pride he’d had all along.

5

By the time Krusty and Hua Diao reached that bright room, Kanami’s party was already assembled there.

The room was in a neatly structured underground ruin that was all straight lines, surrounded by solid walls. It was a basement floor made up of halls and cramped corridors as far as the eye could see, stairways that folded back on themselves again and again, and dead ends piled with jumbled magical equipment made of metal.

It’s the ruin of some sort of modern building. A broadcasting station?

That was Krusty’s guess.

If he recalled correctly, those were called dian shi tai in China.

Guided by the sound of noisy voices, he headed deeper in and discovered Kanami, who was excitedly running her hands all over the ruin. Pulling an indigo-haired girl who looked like a maid around with her, she was knocking on the walls, investigating the desks, and putting a hand to her chin and striking poses in front of magic items.

Elias, the guy who’d attacked Krusty, and a man in a green bodysuit were sitting by the wall, looking completely worn out.

Those four must be the traveling group Kanami had told him about. He understood that, but the contrast between the two women’s gaiety (especially Kanami) and the exhaustion of the two men was so sharp it was brutal.

Krusty concluded that not getting involved here was the right thing to do. Fortunately, he had another acquaintance in this big room who seemed likely to help him solve the mysteries of this situation.

“Hey there. That was a hell of a thing to happen, wasn’t it?”

“Master Zhu Huan!”

Hua Diao jumped up to greet him. As she’d said, this wild-looking man was Zhu Huan. He was also one of Krusty’s few acquaintances on this server.

“It’s been a long time, sir. How have you been? I’m afraid that Mount Lang Jun has been badly scarred…”

“Yeah. I know. We helped fight the Nue.”

“Eeeeeep! I’m terribly sorry; I wasn’t aware…”

Hua Diao ducked her head over and over, looking awfully embarrassed. It was funny, and Krusty gave a low laugh, but her sharp eyes spotted him, and she sent him a protesting look.

“Something’s happening outside the mountain as well, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it sure is… You seem different.”

Krusty had spoken to deflect the conversation, but apparently, even the way he’d said it had struck Zhu Huan as a difference in tone. Krusty thought that, if all he knew was the version that had considered his time at the Bai Tao Shrine a vacation and been thoroughly idle, seeing him now, in full equipment, probably seemed strange.

The commotion hadn’t died down.

Kanami and the others had searched the area out of curiosity and were now tired and limp. Even now, though, he caught glimpses of several Adventurers who wore armor with the same design as Zhu Huan’s in the corridor, hunting down Moon Rabbits.

Because none of the monsters that appeared were much of a threat as individuals, as long as they stayed calm and dealt with them, they weren’t much trouble at all. However, the density at which they’d appeared earlier had made them pretty dangerous.

Krusty had asked his question because he’d picked up on the current situation, but apparently, the comment had been sharper than he’d thought.

“Good call… It’s ugly out there. The mountain collapsed, and monsters flooded out. There was even a raid monster, and the lot from the Crimson King faction got wiped out. People from the town will probably be here soon. We thought it was the Ritual of Coronation, but it seems, that wasn’t all it was. What the hell is going on?”

“I really couldn’t tell you.”

As Zhu Huan spoke, his expression was dark, and Krusty shrugged. It was good to have information on the surrounding area, but he didn’t have any thoughts regarding it.

He asked about the Ritual of Coronation. According to Hua Diao, it was a ritual by which heaven was informed of an earthly ruler. Apparently, the king who governed this area used the fairyland’s magical device to report that fact to Mount Kunlun.

That information very nearly matched the Ritual of Coronation in Krusty’s knowledge of the classics. It was probably safe to assume it was generally accurate.

In that case, Krusty chuckled, this was perfect.

It meant he still had a path that led to the Queen Mother of the West.

“Master Immortal…,” Hua Diao murmured.

Her eyes swam anxiously.

“Master Im— Master Krusty. Enchantress Youren is, um… She is an Enchantress, an Ancient, isn’t she?”

She’d hesitated several times, then made up her mind before asking that question.

After—unusually—spending more than a few seconds thinking, Krusty looked down at Hua Diao again. Even if he didn’t mean anything by it, since there was a height difference of over a meter between them, he saw the whirl in her soft hair.

Her gaze darted around restlessly, and her expression looked as if she was searching for an escape route, but her fists were clenched. Even if she didn’t look like it, Hua Diao held an elite position in her tribe. She’d probably thought she had to ask her question, even if she needed to stomp down her unease to do it.

“From now on, call me ‘Krusty,’ please.”

“Oh… Um, that’s… I mean, Mashter Krusty.”

The girl’s bewilderment made her lisp, and Krusty averted his eyes.

To rid her of that unease, he could explain the situation to her gently, but no matter how the chips fell, it wouldn’t change the reality, and it was probably healthier for her to come to terms with it. —That was what he thought, but the greatest part of the reason was that it would be a pain.

If it came down to it, he could just put her in a good mood again with a dessert.

Behind his elegant good looks, Krusty was thinking something quite rude. She was the one Misa Takayama had protected, so until the day he reported it to Misa herself and handed the duty over to her, he needed to do at least the bare minimum to take care of her.

Would she be abandoned here on Mount Lang Jun? Would she be left without a master to serve, to degrade into a monster like the beasts of the field? Hua Diao was on the verge of tears over worries like these, but—intolerably, as far as she was concerned—Krusty came to a decision on his own, without explaining.

He thought, if she said she was an attendant, she should probably stick with him until she was able to take care of him. He’d take her along.

“…Ni hao. Bonjour, aloha. Moi! Also moikkaaa. ”

As Kanami spoke, she gestured as if she was dancing.

The magic device had abruptly come to life, and the voice that issued from it belonged to an utterly bewildered Shiroe. When he heard the voice, Krusty’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.

In the space of a moment, his mind was buried under a vast number of thoughts.

Most of them were considering the possibility that these circumstances were a trap.

Again and again, he performed calculations whose density was in a different dimension from what he’d run regarding Hua Diao a moment earlier. This was just too unnatural. In a battle he’d gotten involved in by sheer coincidence, an old friend with whom he’d reunited—by coincidence—had coincidentally activated a transmission device, which had coincidentally connected to another acquaintance. The odds of that happening had to be astronomical.

As a result, Krusty wondered whether it might be some kind of plot. Was there something behind this?

However, those doubts were shattered by one overheard remark from Shiroe.

“Kanami, you wouldn’t be on the moon, would you?”

The moon. Mount Kunlun.

The casual question showed, more eloquently than anything, that Shiroe had also reached that answer.

A low laugh escaped Krusty.

In that case, this wasn’t incomprehensible. Apparently, the goal, or an incredibly important guidepost that showed the goal, had the mark of the moon carved on it. If they walked toward the same place, they’d eventually meet. It probably meant that, instead of a coincidence, this route was the right answer.

As far as Krusty knew, Shiroe had been working on issues with the Round Table Council’s financial affairs. The Crescent Moon League and Shopping District 8 had proposed and implemented several stopgap measures, but Shiroe had been running around laying the groundwork for a fundamental, nearly utopian operation.

Form an alliance with the Kunie clan and control the Round Table Council’s spending by either suspending the zone leasing system or postponing the automatic funds collection. Put into words, that had been the gist of the project, but it was also true that no matter who heard it explained or how, they couldn’t help but see it as preposterous.

If Shiroe had returned to Akiba and was leading a raid in combat, the plan had probably been realized. The overly serious young man had apparently pulled off another great achievement.

Although I imagine he’s still in the shadows, acknowledged by no one.

However, if Shiroe had pulled off those difficult negotiations and still had his sights set on the moon, there must be some sort of emergency in Akiba as well. They might have acquired some information that Krusty didn’t know. He wasn’t about to try to learn what it was by force.

When he looked for it, the curse was still there in the transparent window, blinking.

He’d softened its effects with his additions, but the curse itself was still alive and well. It was a fact that the Genius Bucaphi outranked Krusty, and the way she’d used the difference in their skills to give him that bad status had been a legitimate procedure. He’d only managed to alter a portion of its contents because he was even greedier than that level difference, and the Soul Darkening Curse itself was still alive. He probably wouldn’t be able to travel across the server boundary. He sensed he had the room to make a few more additions, but if he did it carelessly, he might not be able to cope with some future emergency.

Kanami was wearing a radiant smile.

The way she was mingling exaggerated gestures with her conversation was eloquent and attractive. However, even to Krusty, the content was so outlandish and daunting that she seemed to be skipping not rungs on a ladder but whole building floors.

“Master Immortal? What is that?”

“It’s a disaster.”

“Hweh?”

“Nothing good ever comes of approaching that woman. Compared with her, the Enchantress Youren you’re concerned about is a small-timer. I’d be careful not to let her eat you.”

“E-eat?!”

Hua Diao had been tricked easily again. She turned pale, jumped up, and fled around behind Krusty.

Well, it’s probably better that way, Krusty thought.

He doubted he’d be able to return to the Yamato server for a while.

It wasn’t just because he had a curse that forbade him from crossing server boundaries. Now that he’d found a fun enemy, it would be a waste to go back to Akiba without cleaning them up first.

He’d retaken his memories, but he owed Bucaphi, the Queen Mother of the West, for foisting this curse on him. He’d gotten an invitation, after all, and they had to let him attend the party.

“However, this does mean they know where I am over there now. I expect they’ll send someone for me. Riezé or Misa—one of those two, probably.”

Krusty cocked his head.

He’d avoided thinking about it, but now that he had his memories back, it was clear that the D.D.D. members would come to the Zhongyuan server to reclaim him.

In that case, it would be a race to see which happened first: Would it be the escort’s arrival, or would he solve the mystery of the Ritual of Coronation and launch an invasion against the Queen Mother of the West before they got here?

The fastest way might be to help Zhu Huan start a guild war. Possibly because he’d relaxed and rested up, a very raucous, enjoyable time seemed to have come his way.

As he was savoring that thought, abruptly, he heard a small explosion.

6

There was a bang so light it sounded like a joke, and then the audio that had been streaming in was suddenly mixed with static. Flustered, Kanami ran her hands over a waist-high table that looked like a lectern, pulling and twisting knobs here and there, but it didn’t solve the problem.

Her small “Oh” and the sound of something breaking came at the exact same time.

Kanami turned around, holding a black lever-shaped component. Everyone except for the indigo-haired girl averted their eyes; her own eyes teared up as she began upbraiding the magic item in earnest.

Elias, who felt beholden for having caused so much trouble during this incident, just watched the situation play out. He hadn’t spent all that much of his long life with her, which made it odd that this tepid reaction to Kanami’s acts of barbarism was already a habit for him.

“This stupid thing’s acting up! Hey, hey, you, listen to me. Punch it, kick it! Argh! Tiger Echoooooooooo!”

“Hey, no, knock that off. Kanami! You moron! Oh my God?!”

The young guy who’d called himself Leonardo yelled, but Kanami had gotten desperate, and she crashed into it first, trailing lemon-yellow magic light.

Elias massaged his eyes through his closed eyelids, as if he was troubled.

With a sound of destruction that was just as apathetic as he’d assumed it would be, it spouted pastel smoke that was far more pastoral than he’d expected.

Needless to say, the magic device was completely destroyed, and it fell silent.

“It looks like it broke.”

Kanami turned around with a terribly serious expression, arms folded, and Leonardo hit her with a flying kick. Kanami wasn’t the type to just let herself be kicked; she sent a counter-hook into the side of his face, and the next thing they knew, they had a fight on their hands.

“And you’re the mother of a kid?! Seriously?!” “What are you talking about, my daughter’s an angel, she’s adorable!” “Then don’t break stuff!” “I told you, it just broke on its own!”

Even as they reproached each other, neither stopped their physical onslaught. They paid out high-speed punches, catching them and evading them, acting out a comedic scene.

“Do you wish to be healed?”

“Coppélia… No, I’m all right.”

Elias dropped his eyes and smiled.

There was bitterness in that smile, but it held an even greater sense of satisfaction.

“Coppélia would like to point out that your HP has fallen, Lord Elias. It is a full seventy-two percent below its maximum. Do you wish to be healed?”

“Coppélia. Until the heat of these wounds recedes, I need time to reflect on myself… There are some wounds that don’t need to be healed.”

“Is that so?”

After she answered, Coppélia simply stood there as if she had nothing to do.

Kanami, the master she served, was busy arguing with Leonardo. In that case, the girl was shy to begin with, and there weren’t many people she’d voluntarily talk to.

“Coppélia thought you might defeat Lord Leonardo, Lord Elias.”

“I see.”

“Why did you not do so?”

In an attempt to respond to that question, Elias mentally reviewed the answers that had come to him. All sorts of remarks rose within him, but they all sounded a bit affected, or formal, or empty and official, and he hesitated.

This girl, Elias’s traveling companion, was innocent, and this was a virtue that warranted a type of special treatment even among the group’s eccentric members. It wasn’t only Elias; Kanami and Chun Lu and Leonardo had all given special consideration to her growth.

Her careful question made Elias think seriously.

The words that came to him were washed by the waves in his peaceful heart, slowly pared down—or lost their nonessential components—and, finally, he told her what remained.

“In fights between men, the one whose heart is strongest wins in the end.”

“…?”

“Leonardo was a noble hero.”

Coppélia stood rigidly, her head tilted to one side. Finally, maybe because the words had made sense to her, she nodded. “Is that so?” Elias didn’t know what was going on behind that small forehead of hers, but the dawn-colored eyes that peeked through her bangs seemed to be satisfied.

“I’b zowwy.”

“Just as long as you are sincere there.”

They seemed to have reached a stopping point. Kanami was giving a dejected apology, and Leonardo was standing with his arms crossed and his chest puffed out. Behind them, he could see a big man in blue steel armor. It was Krusty, the Adventurer he’d attacked when Enchantress Youren had led him astray. Thinking that he needed to apologize, he stood up, and in that moment, the air changed.

A straight line had appeared in empty space, and a torrent of jet-black mana spouted from it.

It wasn’t as if the surrounding sounds had cut out, but the room grew tense, as if it had frozen over. The awful pressure made Coppélia reel back.

Conversely, Elias went forward.

The flames in his heart blazed bright red, repelling the malicious presence.

It was a presence he knew. The Words of Death: words from the underworld, a curse that had lured his companions who’d heard it into a frozen sleep. It was that same aura. He felt as if he’d caught a flickering glimpse of the Great Stronghold of the End, the location they’d intended to assault through the Spatial Teleportation Device.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s dangerous.”

Behind him, as Chun Lu began to step forward, he heard Coppélia check her. Even as he kept track of that in a corner of his mind, Elias carefully leveled his two-handed crystal sword.

The fissure in the air yawned open, clad in pale sparks.

The vertical split in space writhed for a few moments, and then the end of the sleeve of an elegant robe emerged. It was magnificent, bordered in gold and silver thread, but that was only true of the robe.

The fingers, which were covered in the golden fur of a beast, were curved in a feminine way, but the talons undermined everything: They had been sharpened to the point where they seemed malformed. They looked a little like the Nue’s, but when you saw them directly, it was doubtful whether anyone could have confused the two. The difference in the sinister atmosphere they radiated was just that great.

Even if it was sheathed in a noble sleeve, it was unmistakably the foreleg of an evil beast.

“Truly excellent evidence of the power that governs this land. I hereby acknowledge thy coronation and promote thee from lost sheep to shepherd.”

The reverberating voice echoed not in their eardrums but in the minds of everyone there. It was graceful yet elderly, and even without borrowing the automatic translation function, it conveyed clear contempt and rejection.

“Queen Mother of…the…West…?”

The words fell from the martenfolk girl’s lips; her voice was trembling. They’d expelled Enchantress Youren, but she’d had a being like this behind her? Elias wasn’t able to gauge the other’s level. He bore the title of “world’s strongest,” and he’d only experienced this a handful of times.

The one clear thing was that the owner of this hand had skills that were in a whole different league from those past experiences.

“This thing is—”

“Gimme a buff. I can’t even make it retreat this way.”

“Cast a barrier.”

To protect the agitated Adventurers behind him, Elias warily confronted the vortex of miasma all alone. However, from beside him, Krusty, the seasoned veteran he’d crossed blades with, stepped forward.

“Your prompt greeting is very much appreciated.”

The herculean strength he’d been shown in that lunacy-fueled fight, and the quiet.

Krusty spoke genteel words with a ghastly smile, and they were hardly out of his mouth when he swiftly raised his enormous two-handed ax over his head.

The man was challenging a powerful demon without the slightest hesitation.

Reckless, he thought.

However, he didn’t even consider trying to stop him.

That’s exactly how it should be, he shouted silently. Leonardo, and now this man, Krusty: Adventurers weren’t simply beings whom Elias protected. Now that he understood that, Elias would probably never be trapped by the Words of Death again.

Even now, the hot blood that traveled through him repelled that despair.

Kanami’s words had awakened Elias’s soul, and now Leonardo’s words were protecting it. At this point, the successor to Fairy Arts had no blind spots.

Elias’s firm resolution that he must not lose, that he had to win, had been a weakness for him. After all, the resolution had been based on the resigned feeling that, if he was defeated, he’d never be able to rise again.

But things were different now. No matter how often he was defeated, he’d get back up.

He’d already done so.

It wasn’t possible that he wouldn’t be able to do that again. Elias wasn’t just Elias; he was also the hero his friend had wished for.

As if matching him, Elias brought Crystal Stream down as well. He saw Leonardo and Kanami come running in after them, and a crowd of Adventurers hot on their heels, with a raid on their minds.

Every one of them must have launched their strongest attack. There was a deafening roar, and spells and projectiles were hurled almost on top of each other. The shock of clashing steel. The space seethed with the light of magic, and by the time it was quiet again, both the sleeve of the horrifying entity and the cursed fissure were nowhere to be seen.

They looked around warily, but there wasn’t even a trace of the abnormal in their surroundings.

“I guess that was just a hello.”

As he sheathed his twin katanas, Elias’s friend shrugged his shoulders.

Naturally, there was cold sweat running down his back, but he didn’t feel any prescient fear. There were no scars there, and it was enough to make them wonder if they’d been under the spell of some trickster’s illusion from the beginning.

“I wonder what that was about. Did she come to check up on things?”

“That was like something out of a horror movie. What the hell was it?”

“It does seem to have had a physical body.”

Coppélia bent at the waist and picked up an ostentatious crown from the battlefield. It was ancient, set with jade and amber, and it was most likely a present from their terrible enemy.

“Nah, it’s not my thing.”

Coppélia had handed the object to Leonardo, and looking disgusted, he passed it on to Kanami, who was next to him.

Kanami took it, looking blank. Then she grinned wickedly, spun it two or three times on her fingertip, and—calling “Pass, paaass!”—tossed it to the knightly Krusty.

With a cold, heavy-lidded glare, he caught the crown with his fingertips. Then, looking at it as if it was something filthy, he flipped it.

The crown spun through the air.

The group was treating it as if they weren’t interested in it, but it was definitely a phantasmal magic item. Even without getting it appraised, they could tell it held an unbelievable amount of mana. If it was something that monster had had, even if they hadn’t overthrown it, they could expect it to boost their combat power dramatically.

It might be a treasure of fairyland, and more than enough to bury the handicap of the fairy curse.

Possibly because his wavering emotions had shown, he felt as if a faint, iridescent shimmer had mingled with the still atmosphere. A bewitching woman’s damp, low, suppressed laugh drifted in the air, like a lingering fragrance.

It was useless.

Smiling wryly, in one smooth motion, Elias drew his transparent sword and slashed.

There was a clear, glassy sound, and then the crown was gone.

No magic item of any kind, not even a splendid treasure, could take the place of Elias’s geas, the fairy vow. Besides, on his journey with his companions, he didn’t need it.

If he was with his companions, Elias could make his wishes come true with nothing but his own strength.

“Let’s go, Kanami, Leonardo. Coppélia!”

Elias puffed out his chest. He still hurt all over, but it made him truly aware of the new power he’d just obtained.

He hadn’t risen a single level.

This adventure hadn’t boosted the fairy knight’s status one bit.

However, just now, Elias had gotten over a wall he hadn’t managed to cross a single time in the past, and he could smile with certainty. He’d become the strongest he’d ever been. There was no telling how many times this made, but on this mountain of wolves, towering in the strong wilderness winds, Elias had been reborn.

He would probably be born again and again, just as long as he meant “hope” for someone. Leonardo’s words had reminded him of that.

The cursed man existed no longer. The vow he’d reclaimed became Elias’s new strength.

<Log Horizon, Volume 11: Krusty, Tycoon Lord—The End>