Chapter 104 : 1st and 2nd Place - 2
Chapter 104: 1st and 2nd Place - 2
I drifted through the sky… no, through the space scholars had named the universe.
When what felt like about an hour had passed,
the Diary Book looked over the small bulletin board floating before me and spoke.
[It’s done. You’ve passed 99,999,999 meters. An error message popped up.]
‘What error message?’
[Would you like to see it?]
‘Don’t say something so dangerous. If I open my eyes now, I’m disqualified.’
[Anyhow, not only has Mason surely passed, but your first place in this quest is also confirmed. You can probably shout “stop” now.]
I thought for a moment and asked,
‘What about the other participants?’
[I’ll go check.]
A few minutes later, the Diary Book returned to me and answered.
[All the ordinary participants have shouted stop. They, too, surpassed the value the board can display. Only your companions are left, Mason.]
‘…….’
[Mason?]
‘I just had a fleeting thought… forget it, I’ll talk with the others first.’
I held the Diary Book in my hand.
Then I spoke to my party members through a secret conversation.
[It seems we can shout stop now.]
[Did someone tell you that?]
[Who knows.]
[As Magireta would say—an annoyingly evasive answer.]
You heard that, Diary Book.
Armelia spoke again.
[Then shall we wrap this up?]
[Isn’t it a bit of a waste to go back just like this?]
[Well. Honestly, I wanted to look down and see what our world looked like. But we can’t open our eyes right now.]
[So I have a proposal for everyone.]
[Hm?]
[Since we’ve gotten such a great opportunity… why don’t we go all the way to the moon?]
Everyone gasped.
Sienne asked,
[Is there any particular reason we should?]
[We broke through 100,000 kilometers in just an hour. According to Her Highness, the moon is about 380,000 kilometers away. If we fly roughly three more hours, we’ll reach it.]
[…….]
[It won’t take long, so it won’t be a burden. Aren’t you curious? What’s on the moon, who lives there, and so on.]
Aina scoffed.
[Are you one of those who believe rabbits live on the moon?]
[I don’t know about rabbits, but I do feel like someone might be living there.]
[You joke well.]
[No, I’m serious. A thought suddenly came to me. I want to check if it’s right.]
[What thought?]
[It’s so absurd that I don’t want to say until I confirm it.]
Saying it like that seemed to spark some curiosity in the others.
Benjamin spoke.
[But we won’t be able to see the scenery of the moon. Since we can’t open our eyes.]
[No. Recall rule number nine properly.]
During the fall, you must keep your eyes closed. If you open them midway, you are disqualified.
[It says we must close our eyes during the fall. In other words, once we’ve safely landed at the destination, we can open them.]
[Well, that’s true, but…]
[Of course, once we land, Magireta will immediately summon us back to the diving platform. So we won’t have much time to admire the moon’s landscape. At most a few minutes, maybe even just a few seconds.]
Even so, I wanted to check it.
Even if we had only one second to confirm the shape of the moon, flying for three more hours to see it was worth the investment.
[What is it you want to confirm so badly?]
[As I said, I want to talk about it once we arrive.]
[Hmm… but at this speed, the impact when we hit the moon’s surface will be tremendous. Will Sir Berseum’s magic endure it?]
[…….]
[Sir Berseum?]
Berseum’s answer came a beat too late.
[Ah, my apologies, Your Highness. I dozed off for a moment.]
[In this situation?]
[I’m old, after all.]
[No, that’s not it. It seems the backlash from using your ability has hit you. Still, it’s fortunate you didn’t open your eyes without thinking.]
We explained the previous conversation to Berseum once more.
Then we asked if he could keep us safe with magic at our current speed when we hit the ground.
Without much hesitation, Berseum answered,
[More than possible.]
[Really? If it’s even a bit dangerous, we can just give up.]
[No. It’s possible. Right now, I could detonate Kanesella ten times and block it a hundred times.]
That drug really was insane.
And time passed again.
At some point, the Diary Book warned us.
[We’re within 2,000 kilometers above the moon. You should start preparing for landing.]
Looks like we’d arrive in a little over a minute.
I informed the group to brace for impact.
Not that there was anything to prepare, really.
Aside from Berseum layering barrier after barrier using his so-called “infinite power.”
Moments later—
—KU-GWAGWAGWANG!
We crashed into the surface of the moon, creating an enormous crater, and landed safely.
It felt like I had become a meteorite.
No—literally, I was a meteorite.
My companions followed, slamming into the ground around me like bombardment.
“Is everyone all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“Old man. You’ve really grown.”
“Do you think ‘grown’ is the right word for me?”
“You seem lively again. You were gloomy not too long ago.”
“Can you fly in the sky now?”
Berseum shook his head at Benjamin’s remark.
“My mana only became close to infinite. It doesn’t mean I can suddenly create new spells. But thank you for worrying.”
We still kept our eyes closed.
We had reached the destination, but it was probably just caution.
I approached the direction of the voices and faced the others.
“I will open my eyes.”
“Will that be okay?”
“It’s fine. We’re not violating any rule.”
“Mm. But still…”
“If you want to open them, then open them. As your little brother said, it doesn’t violate any rule, so there’s no problem.”
Suddenly, Magireta’s voice echoed around us.
I flinched.
Armelia asked,
“Did you follow us all the way here?”
“No.”
“…? No?”
Right. Of course not.
A suspicion that had suddenly come to me while drifting through space—
And that suspicion was strengthened by what she’d just said.
I slowly opened my mouth.
“She didn’t follow us. She was here from the very beginning.”
“What? Ah, well, Magireta is a bizarre being who exists in multiple places at once.”
“That’s true, but… that’s not exactly what I meant.”
“What do you mean?”
“Magireta exists in multiple places because the quests are held in various locations simultaneously.
But this is the moon. There are no quests on the moon.
So why was she here ‘from the beginning’?”
With my eyes still closed, I slowly continued the explanation.
“Because this is Magireta’s home.”
“……!”
“Do you remember what she said during the Frozen Season Quest? What Magireta told us then?”
Armelia answered in a trembling voice.
“‘This is my home, little brother. You don’t need to bring a housewarming gift. That’d be strange between us.’”
As expected, not a single part of Magireta’s words back then had been a lie.
Sienne followed up her words.
“W-wait. This is Magireta’s home…? But this is the moon.”
“That’s right. It is the moon.”
“…….”
“There’s nothing difficult about it.”
I slowly opened my eyes.
And whispered quietly,
“The moon was Hell all along.”
At last, I could see my companions’ faces.
All of them were staring around with horrified expressions.
I also scanned my surroundings.
A purple sky.
Desolate, snow-covered mountains.
Rocks shaped like bizarre, living creatures.
It was identical to the place where we had carried out the Frozen Season Quest.
Then Magireta’s voice echoed.
“As expected of my little brother. You figured it out well.”
“…….”
“Where did you get the hint from?”
“From the first bungee jump to the fifth one. The diving platforms were always located in the exact places where we had done previous quests.”
“Mm. That’s right.”
“But the sixth diving platform wasn’t.”
Why had that been?
Benjamin had said it must be because Hell existed in another dimension, so the bungee jump couldn’t connect directly to our world.
Back then, I thought the same.
But after learning that the moon could be set as a destination, a different possibility came to mind.
From there, my thoughts progressed like this:
–Even the moon, which I thought unreachable, was a place we could physically travel to.
–Then what if Hell was the same?
–What if Hell was physically located somewhere we could reach?
–For example… what if the moon was Hell?
–And that’s why the sixth bungee jump’s diving platform wasn’t placed in a quest location but somewhere unrelated?
–Because if, from Hell, someone set Mogiren Territory or the Imperial Palace as a destination, we might discover the truth during the flight—that Hell was the moon.
After I finished, Magireta nodded.
“My little brother is smart.”
“If you truly wanted to hide Hell’s identity, you shouldn’t have put a hint like ‘the moon can also be set as a destination’ into the rules in the first place.”
“No, really—who would’ve thought there’d be such a cheeky participant who’d actually set the moon as their destination? Much less one who’d safely land on it.”
She shrugged and continued.
“And it’s not like I desperately wanted to hide the truth about Hell. More like, ‘if someone figures it out, they figure it out,’ you know?”
“…….”
“In fact, I thought it might be fun if someone noticed.”
I inhaled deeply.
The air smelled exactly like the air of Hell from the Frozen Season Quest.
“Why did the moon become your home? Why is the moon Hell?”
“…….”
“It’s strange to be asking this only now, but please answer. What exactly are you, sister?”
Magireta slowly lifted a hand—
—and with a sharp snap of her fingers, replied,
“Who knows?”
After that, our group returned to the diving platform.
The other ordinary participants ran toward us, welcoming us.
“You all came back safely!”
“We were worried because it took so long.”
“Sniff… I’m so relieved, truly.”
“Thanks to Mason, all of us surpassed the board’s limit values. Everyone passed!”
“Thank you so much. Really…”
Tears and snot everywhere.
It had been such a harsh, exhausting quest that their joy at surviving must’ve doubled.
Then Magireta appeared.
“Good work, everyone.”
“…….”
“And you… hm.”
In a tone that suggested she didn’t like it, she continued,
“You’re first place in this quest. Since you already received your reward in advance, I won’t be giving you anything.”
“Then you’ll give rewards to my companions, right? We’re joint first place.”
“You’re not joint first place.”
“…Sorry? What do you mean? We all landed safely on the moon together.”
“In the first through fifth jumps, there were differences in score. Back then, your companions shouted ‘stop’ early to make you first place.”
Ah. That was true.
But still—
“But we all surpassed the board limit, so—”
“That’s only the requirement for passing or failing. There was never a rule saying ‘if you surpass the limit, everyone is first place.’”
“…….”
“Don’t be greedy. You should be grateful you survived in one piece.”
Well… she wasn’t wrong.
There was a time when I really wondered if I’d make it.
Snap.
Magireta snapped her fingers.
Another rain of gold coins poured down.
Naturally, including our group, no one paid attention to them anymore.
“You’ve all gotten too used to money. Not even picking up something this precious.”
“You’re just going to pack it into a sack and send it to us anyway.”
“Well, that’s true. Then I’ll send everyone back now. As for you and your friends—should I send you to the usual place?”
I started to nod, then changed my mind.
I looked at my companions and asked,
“Should we go to Deut Territory? Or…”
Armelia finished my sentence.
“You mean go meet that Karin person?”