Chapter 70 : Punishment - 1
Chapter 70: Punishment - 1
I told Armelia.
“Your Highness the Princess. Mr. Benjamin doesn’t seem to be doing well — could you take a look?”
“Of course.”
Armelia placed her hand on Benjamin.
But Benjamin did not open his eyes.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
Indeed.
I spoke without thinking.
“Perhaps Her Highness can only heal a person’s body. Benjamin collapsed because his soul had been tainted, so the Light of Healing probably can’t cure it.”
I answered as naturally as water flowing.
After answering, I thought that this was likely the correct explanation.
The party tilted their heads in unison.
Berseum asked.
“Soul? Is the shadow Aina saw earlier the soul?”
“Yes. Probably.”
“No, how can you answer so vaguely after handing over the vial?”
“Because it actually is ambiguous.”
“Hmm. I’m a bit worried about Aina. Seeing those souls her whole life can’t be good for her mental health.”
He sounded genuinely concerned.
Since Aina had saved Eris, Berseum tended to treat her like his granddaughter.
Then the Diary Book answered.
[On/off is available. Blink your eyes quickly three times and it will work.]
What a convenient feature.
I relayed that to Berseum.
He exhaled as if relieved.
“That’s a relief. So aside from falling asleep, this ability doesn’t carry other risks?”
“Yes. Well. But you’re surprisingly composed in front of someone who can see souls.”
“There was already the matter of Her Highness the Princess, so there’s no need to make a fuss again.”
Not only Berseum answered like that — the other party members nodded as well.
I couldn’t help admiring the party’s composure.
They had chosen their leader wisely.
[From your own mouth…….]
‘Anyway, is Mr. Benjamin all right?’
[Yes. He fainted because the color of the soul suddenly changed. He will wake up soon.]
‘Then there’s nothing more to do here.’
I told everyone.
“Let’s head back. We rescued Cecil and freed Aina’s brother from Edgar’s clutches.”
“Are we going straight back to Deut Territory?”
“That was the plan.”
“Is that safe? Cecil is still in the capital. If Edgar’s backlog of ‘deaths’ finishes, he might kidnap her again at any time.”
That was something I had considered.
As long as Edgar’s letter remained in the ‘sneak-peek’ list, I could execute death upon him whenever I wished.
Any non-participant civilian who could read would kill Edgar the moment they saw the letter.
I could scatter the letters at Deut Territory’s public library… or go to the Tower of Knowledge and hand them out — there were plenty of options.
‘……?’
Suddenly an idea flashed through my head.
No. Wait.
Wasn’t there an easier and faster way than that?
I was about to consider that fleeting thought more carefully.
But then.
“Mason!”
A ghastly cry rang from the sky.
The voice seemed to draw nearer, then with a thud it fell before us.
It had fallen from a considerable height, making a hole deep enough in the ground.
We were stunned and spread out.
Edgar Tyler.
The bastard had descended in person.
“It hurt quite a bit. It was pretty rough.”
“…….”
“This is the first time I’ve experienced so many deaths in such a short period.”
“New experiences are the privilege of the young. Although you are older than I am.”
“Shut up, you damn old coot.”
Edgar was obviously not right in the head.
He hadn’t been right to begin with, but now his face was grotesquely distorted.
His irises were stained with wrath and madness, and the corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
He glared at me with a terrifying intensity and said,
“Say before you die. By what method did you kill so many of us?”
“Were you dead 151 times?”
“156 times.”
Oh? Was that so?
I must have missed counting a few in the middle.
Armelia chipped in between that.
“158. Your head must be scrambled.”
“You’re making me embarrassed. I thought it was 151.”
“Mason, you’re fine. You had other things to worry about. That fellow only had to die, so his situation was much simpler, yet you still forgot the number.”
It seemed Edgar took our conversation as a provocation.
Admittedly, I had hoped it would be taken that way to some degree when I spoke.
“Why are you acting so relaxed in front of me? Didn’t the last fight fail to reveal the answer?”
“…….”
“That I could cut off your heads right now.”
“That’s because I was separated while dueling Ian back then.”
Sienne drew her sword and stepped forward toward us.
Edgar snorted.
“Well, someone like you is qualified to speak arrogantly. You’re qualified, but I suppose you can’t prove it.”
What Edgar said made sense.
No matter the brooch she wore, I didn’t think Sienne could be a match for Edgar.
Maybe she knew it herself — a cold bead of sweat trickled down Sienne’s neck.
‘We have no choice but to run.’
I gripped the Teleportation bead and thought that for a moment.
……
Run?
Why did I keep assuming escape as the premise?
Edgar was truly an annoying and dangerous bastard.
What was the point of running forever from someone like him?
‘Originally I wanted to finish him off in the quest where he dragged the first-place prize to himself.’
So I had planned to make him Magireta’s permanent plaything.
But I couldn’t wait that long.
I tried to make the idea that had flashed through my head a moment ago more concrete.
“Diary Book.”
[Yes.]
“Listen carefully to what I’m going to say now and tell me if it’s possible or impossible.”
I calmly explained the plan.
The Diary Book seemed somewhat baffled and appeared to ponder it for a bit, but soon returned this answer.
[It can be done.]
“Really? Even I think this is a bit of an unreasonable request.”
[If this lets us never see that trash again, we should make the effort.]
“You hate that guy too, huh.”
[Who would like him?]
I snorted at that.
Edgar noticed my laughter and frowned.
“What’s so funny? Have you gone mad because it’s nearly your death?”
“…….”
“You only have one life, unlike me. Do you happen to have some strange resurrection ability among your powers?”
“Who knows.”
Meanwhile the Diary Book floated up with a thud.
Then it flew high off into the distance.
I spoke to Edgar to buy time.
“Are you really going to kill me here? The chance to know your future would be closed forever.”
“I don’t care about that anymore.”
“Don’t bluff.”
“It’s not bluffing. What’s more important than knowing how many games I have left is erasing you from my sight.”
His demeanor turned savage.
We trembled without realizing it.
Despite everything, he was the kind of genius who had earned that name when he himself had claimed it.
If that genius honed his skills for over three hundred years, this was only to be expected.
“Who shall I kill first?”
“Start with yourself.”
“Ugh. Still all talk till the end.”
“I wasn’t only talk — I spoke the truth. Is that so…? Since it’s the end, shall I tell you?”
I forced myself into a haughty pose.
For some reason I wanted to strike that pose at him one last time.
I crossed my arms and looked down at him; Edgar tilted his head.
“What do you mean?”
“Your future. Since this is the end anyway, I’ll tell you.”
“You don’t look like you’ve given up.”
“Of course not. Anyway, listen closely. You were asking how many more iterations you could participate in, right?”
Edgar’s posture changed.
He seemed to wait for my words rather than rush at me.
“None.”
“……What did you say?”
“You — this was the last cycle for you.”
“…….”
“To be precise, this moment was the last. You wouldn’t make the next cycle, nor the next game.”
A brief silence followed.
But Edgar soon began to laugh, his body trembling.
“Hoho. How pathetic. In the end you’d resort to cursing.”
“Who knows.”
“Decided then. I’ll kill you first after all.”
Ta-at!
His form vanished.
It was like an arrow.
I felt a strange slowing of time.
Sienne swung her sword in haste, but it only nicked Edgar’s sleeve.
Berseum’s defensive magic broke with an absurd ease.
I could see Armelia’s pupils dilate in slow motion.
At the end of it all, Edgar was right before my face.
“I’ll kill you fast so blood won’t spatter.”
He had sharpened his hand into a blade and brought it down on my throat instead of using a sword.
I could see every movement, but my body did not move in time.
Then, just before that hand-blade touched my neck—
—thud.
His head blew apart.
Only then did all my senses return to normal.
I wiped the blood pouring onto my face with my palm and murmured.
“I told you. This was the last.”
“Mason!”
Armelia hurriedly smoothed my face.
“I’m fine, Your Highness the Princess. I’m not hurt.”
“I wasn’t touching you because I thought you might be hurt!”
“Eh? Then why—”
“That is—”
She could not form the words and only moved her lips.
Meanwhile the others spoke in turn.
“Was that just now done by you, Mason? You asked the gods again so someone read the letter, right?”
“But the coachman was asleep. No, not just the coachman — everyone on this street was asleep.”
“From the start, letters like that weren’t visible. Huh?”
Armelia had said that at the end and then cocked her head.
She turned her gaze skyward.
Something was falling.
A tremendous amount. Countless.
It looked like paper snow falling.
Sssrk.
Armelia caught one of the countless sheets drifting down.
She read it and widened her eyes.
“It’s Edgar’s letter.”
“C-could it be?”
“Yes. All those many sheets pouring from the sky now must be Edgar’s letters. Am I right? Mason.”
Instead of answering, I looked up at the sky.
‘Thank you so much, Diary Book.’
The Diary Book floated in the capital’s sky and was scattering Edgar’s letters in a near-infinite stream.
Those letters rode the wind and spread across the capital.
The capital’s population was surely around five hundred thousand.
If even a tenth of them could read, fifty thousand people would read the letters.
With that alone, Edgar’s death had been scheduled fifty thousand times.
Magireta would have to erase fifty thousand memories.
But what if she erased their memories and then scattered the letters once more?
And once more.
Once more.
‘No.’
What if we stayed in the capital until the next quest began and scattered letters infinitely?
“Guhk… Aaargh!”
Edgar revived.
But his head immediately burst and he died again.
And he revived once more.
I watched him with indifference and said,
“You truly don’t die, Edgar.”
“Kkraaah. P-please stop.”
“But by the grace of the gods, for some reason, an infinite number of deaths have been reserved for you.”
“Stop it. Please, stop!”
“Even if you join the next quest, you’ll only keep dying and reviving. You’ll never have the leisure to enjoy the game.”
I continued speaking leisurely.
“That’s why this cycle is your last. You’ll be endlessly dying and reviving, unable to ever participate again.”
“N-no. Aaaargh!”
His head burst again.
Time to wrap this up.
“If he keeps dying and reviving here, it’ll only be a nuisance. Nothing good will come from such a phenomenon spreading through the Empire.”
“Mason. Don’t tell me—?”
“Yes. I’d rather this guy die somewhere out of sight. Is there a good place for that?”
“Then how about our place of memories?”
There was a hint of playfulness in Armelia’s tone.
To say that even while facing a corpse whose head had just exploded—Her Highness the Princess truly had grown bold.
I chuckled and nodded.
“I want to send Edgar Tyler to Bucklet Forest.”
The remote wilderness where the Second Quest had taken place—Bucklet Forest.
Now that bastard would repeat his death there forever.
“P-please…….”
Before Edgar could even finish begging after barely reviving—
Sssrk.
His form vanished completely.
All that remained were the citizens of the capital, just waking from sleep and murmuring.
[Aaaargh, it hurts!]
And the only thing echoing from the sky was the scream of the Diary Book.