“Soma, are you alright?”
The next thing I knew, Maki and Layla were peering into my face with worried expressions.
“……I’m sorry to have worried you. I’m fine.”
Of course, I wasn’t fine.
Ringo was dead.
There was no way I could be fine.
Still, I couldn’t let them worry.
I had just enough mental strength left to think that.
I felt as if I had been in a bad dream.
However, the sight of Mitsuki busily giving instructions to the disciples proved that it wasn’t a dream.
“This is the Hisame Dojo.”
“Y-Yeah. Soma looked like he was in trouble, so we helped him walk…”
It seemed they had brought me here since I was useless.
I had apparently caused trouble for Layla and Maki without them realizing it.
As I tried to thank them again, I noticed something strange.
Why was Mitsuki in charge of the dojo?
“…Hey, you two. Where’s Asahi-san right now?”
“That, is…”
Layla faltered.
To fill in the silence, a clear voice came from behind her.
“My father entered the city alone as soon as the fog enveloped it.”
“Mitsuki…”
Mitsuki, radiating the same tense atmosphere as before, walked towards me.
“According to our prior agreement, he was supposed to return once after entering the city, but it seems that was impossible.
For about five minutes, I was able to track his location with the Explorer’s Ring, but then his signal suddenly became very active, and ten seconds later, it vanished.
He likely engaged with a Fragment of the Evil God.”
“That, means…”
Did that mean he was killed by a Fragment of the Evil God?
But I didn’t have the courage to say it out loud.
“However, thanks to that, we obtained some information.
That fog is likely the Evil God’s special ability, as mentioned in the video recordings.
Its effect is probably to prevent escape from the Field.
As long as you don’t defeat that fragment, you can enter the city, but you can’t leave.”
Then, Mitsuki continued,
“The Fragment of the Evil God is strong. Strong enough that my father was killed in just over ten seconds.”
“Mitsuki…”
With a resolute face, she spoke the words everyone had been avoiding.
Mitsuki, with no expression, or rather, suppressing her emotions, I didn’t know what to do.
“Um! I, I saw the final part of the slate…”
At that moment, Maki raised her voice and drew everyone’s attention.
With a look of desperate inappropriateness, she tried to convey information only she knew to us.
“The Fragments of the Evil God kill each other.
And the victor absorbs the power of the defeated.
So, if that fragment reaches the main body where it’s sealed…”
“The main body will revive, no, a stronger Fragment of the Evil God will be born, combining the powers of the fragment and the main body.”
I didn’t understand the motivations of the Fragments of the Evil God.
But they had no reason to stay there after annihilating the city’s inhabitants… everyone.
If, at that moment, the Fragment of the Evil God headed for the main body’s location, the world would truly end.
“…Let’s defeat it.”
Those words came out of my mouth naturally.
Of course.
Those were the words I had been wanting to say ever since I woke up.
“The Fragment of the Evil God. If we don’t defeat it, this world will…”
“Is it really for the sake of the world?”
As I was about to speak with fervor, Mitsuki’s cold words shot through me like ice water.
“If not for the world, then for what?
Do you need to say it out loud? You of all people should know.”
I had no choice but to fall silent.
—Revenge on the one who killed Ringo.
I couldn’t deny that motive.
Denying it felt like denying the regret and pain of losing Ringo, and I couldn’t bring myself to say something like that, even in jest.
“Mitsuki, aren’t you angry? Ringo, and Asahi-san too…”
“Of course, I’m angry. However, there are things more important to me than that.”
No matter what strong words I threw at her, Mitsuki remained unshaken.
This was surely the difference between a facade and the real thing.
The difference between an ordinary person and someone who had made a life of protecting the weak and upholding justice, living in the battlefield.
“That thing is clearly stronger than the fragment in the underground of Ramur that you fought in the game.
Can you win against it?”
“…I’ll win. No matter what.”
I said so with my mouth, but my preparations and equipment were clearly insufficient.
A Fragment of the Evil God was not an opponent that could be defeated by brute force alone.
Without proper countermeasures, I wouldn’t even be able to step onto the same field as it.
But even so, if I didn’t win, what could I do…
“It’s impossible.”
Mitsuki cut off my bravado with a brutal dismissal.
“Wh-What do you base that on…”
“I can tell whether you’re saying it seriously or not.”
In times like these, Mitsuki’s sharp perception and our long acquaintance worked against me.
I felt like I couldn’t hide anything from her.
“Then, what do you propose we do?
If we stay like this, this world will…”
I shouted in frustration, but Mitsuki, without batting an eyelash, calmly replied.
“—Let’s run away.”
But that made no sense.
There was no way to stop even the Fragment of the Evil God.
Yet, ignoring the danger of the main body reviving, we were to run away.
“That’s impossible. Run away? To where would we run…”
“To your world.”
“Wh-What!”
The following words completely defied my expectations.
But it was impossible.
“I can’t do that. Mitsuki, you don’t understand.
Death Flash is a bug that forcibly logs out players.
So, even if it succeeded, only those with player attributes…”
“That’s why I’m telling you, Maki, and you, to run away.”
This time, I was speechless.
“It’s you who doesn’t understand.”
Before I knew it, Mitsuki’s face was extremely close.
Her elegant face drew even nearer, and our hands met.
“The important thing I absolutely want to protect is you.”
“Wh-What…”
Her grip on my hand tightened.
The coldness of our hands transferred our body heat, warming them.
“Please laugh at me for being so naive, with my family, friends, and fellow disciples dying in great numbers.
But for me… for me, I cannot bear to see you die.
Even if we never meet again, just knowing that you are alive somewhere is enough for me to do anything.
Even if I fall, powerless, I will have no regrets.”
—So please, return to your original world.
At Mitsuki’s plea,
the gears in my mind clicked into place, and I felt my heart waver.
“Go back… Right. I can go back, can’t I?”
An possibility I hadn’t considered until now.
However, the conditions were indeed met, it seemed.
“B-But…”
Didn’t that mean abandoning Mitsuki, Layla, and Sahzan, who were looking at me right now?
And Ena and Tiel, who should be in Ramur.
And everyone else who lived in this world?
“As expected, that’s… no good…”
At least.
At the very least, I had to do something about the Fragment of the Evil God in the Capital City…
“…Wait?”
My thoughts, which had begun to drift into the labyrinth, converged in one direction.
It was difficult to defeat the Fragment of the Evil God in the Capital City with a frontal assault.
After all, it was an enemy that had annihilated the Capital City’s inhabitants.
It wasn’t an enemy that I, without any preparations, could defeat.
But conversely.
In this desperate situation, it would be acceptable to use that.
No, if I used it…
“—The forbidden ritual of the Magician’s Guild.”
As I said that, I stood up unconsciously.
“So…ma?”
Maki looked at me with a surprised expression.
Perhaps she thought I had finally snapped at my nonsensical words.
But fortunately, I was sane.
I was sane, and I was about to do something incredibly foolish.
“Mitsuki. The Magician’s Guild event is still incomplete.
Let’s finish that event with our own hands.”
“The Magician’s Guild event? Don’t tell me…”
As expected, Mitsuki was perceptive.
I grinned and said to her, her expression filled with surprise.
“Yeah. The forbidden ritual that devastated the city.
If we use that, we might be able to eliminate the Fragment of the Evil God in the city.”
It was a shoddy plan.
In the city devastated by the Evil God, the magic circle on the roof might be broken, and the event might not function due to the interruption.
Also, even if the activation itself succeeded, it wasn’t guaranteed that a ritual that killed all humans would defeat a Fragment of the Evil God.
“Still, it’s worth a shot. …Right?”
At my words, Mitsuki showed a flicker of surprise for the first time.
“However, you were supposed to return to your original world…”
“Even after defeating the fragment, I can still go back.
…And, I realized something.”
Discarding my embarrassment, I said something I rarely said, with utmost seriousness.
“After all, my last place to return to isn’t my original world.
It’s the place where Mitsuki and my companions are, that’s my place.”
The answer I found only after losing something precious.
But I didn’t think it was too late.
Even if it was just the companions here with me, I…
I…
“—Soooooouuuuuuumaaaaaaa!”
However, my quiet declaration of resolve was shattered by a sudden intruder.
A woman who charged at me with incredible speed.
She was wearing a maid outfit, which was incredibly out of place.
More importantly, she was the one who was involved in the Arken residence incident, the one who stole my ring…
“Your name is, let me see… Clumsy Maid?”
“It’s Lilm! Please remember properly.
I brought you something, you know.”
“No, this isn’t the time for deliveries or anything…”
My words were cut off as I saw what Lilm was holding out.
And my heart probably stopped for a second too.
“Bear?!”
What Lilm was thrusting at me was that bear.
How did the bear that went to the castle with Ringo end up here?
As I stared with eyes filled with suspicion, confusion, and undeniable excitement, Lilm smiled faintly.
“Hehehe. You see. About an hour ago, I used the Magical Pocket’s magic, and suddenly this little guy popped out.
He wrote with a brush that said to take him to Soma’s place…”
The bear could write… but that was beside the point for now.
“Bear! What about Ringo? What happened to Ringo?”
As I asked breathlessly, the bear handed me a piece of paper.
KING SAFE
TOWER OF SORCERY
A string of hiragana, like something typed by a machine.
Concise words that could be called inadequate.
But…
“What is this? Ha, hahahaha…”
I couldn’t stop laughing.
Even as I tried to hold it back, an unnervingly wide grin kept surfacing uncontrollably.
“S-Soma? What’s wrong?”
Maki, who for some reason was keeping her distance from me, asked tentatively.
But I was fine.
…I was truly fine now.
“Don’t you understand? This is a Memo Pad.
And there are only three people in this world who can type on this Memo Pad.”
To type on a Memo Pad, not write, requires the technology from my world, ‘Order.’
And those who have mastered Order are…
“—Me and Maki, who came from the other world. And… only Ringo.”
Selfishly, my mind, which had been clouded like a foggy day, cleared up.
Then, one possibility immediately came to mind.
In Richter’s city, there was one place.
An isolated area that could escape even Mitsuki’s Explorer’s Ring.
“…The Magician’s Guild headquarters, commonly known as the ‘Tower of Sorcery’.”
To enter the tower, which was data-wise independent, one had to open a hidden door. And Ringo, from the previous incident, had threatened a Magician’s Guild executive and learned how to open the hidden door to the tower.
Inside the Tower of Sorcery, a space completely isolated from everything, it might be possible to hide from the Evil God.
And even in that place where all communication was impossible, there was one thing.
Item exchanges using the Magical Pocket were possible.
And, and!
Ringo’s pocket should still have the Magical Pocket Gem that I gave him in the trap room!
Everything connected.
There was no longer any reason to hesitate moving forward.
“…Let’s go to the Tower of Sorcery.
To defeat the Fragment of the Evil God.
And to pick up our companions.”
Wait for me, Fragment of the Evil God.
From now on, it was our turn to counterattack.
Magic is effective from here on. And, blow them away!
Next update scheduled for tomorrow.
