Chapter 107 : Joining - 2
Chapter 107: Joining - 2
Edgar suddenly kicked off the bed and got up, putting on his clothes.
Louis asked in a fluster.
“Going to meet it? To Hell?”
“Yes. A teleportation bead could only activate if you set an exact region name or the name of an individual as its condition. Since you know the name of that powerful monster, you can move to it.”
Louis couldn’t keep up with Edgar’s train of thought.
But fortunately for her, she was given a bit of extra time.
“You’ve finally gone crazy. No, you were always crazy, but now you’re even worse.”
Magireta appeared.
Louis felt an instant wave of displeasure and hurried to put on her clothes.
Magireta glanced at her and spoke.
“I know manners, you know. Since you two seemed to be having a good time, I was willing to pretend I didn’t see or hear anything.”
“…….”
“But this is too much. You’re going to Hell to persuade ‘that guy’? You’re planning to make him kill Mason?”
“Yes. And?”
“Sorry, but that won’t do. Hm, no—cancel that. I’m not sorry at all.”
Magireta’s voice was colder than ever.
“That guy…… more precisely, that guy and the other three of my ‘proxies’, are not beings that should be released into the present world. The level gap is way too big.”
“Even better. If it’s that strong, Mason won’t even be able to react and will just die.”
“It won’t end with just your little brother dying. What if that guy doesn’t stop at killing him and settles in the world entirely? In just a few days, your world would be destroyed.”
“…….”
“We’re still in the middle of the Quest period. I don’t want the world to be destroyed in the middle of the game.”
“Then you can just send him back to Hell.”
For a moment, Magireta pressed her lips tightly together.
Seeing that, a bell rang in Edgar’s head.
‘She can’t!’
She couldn’t.
For some reason, Magireta was unable to regulate the four proxies of Hell.
‘Yeah. Maybe that’s one of the hidden rules.’
Soon, a smile curled on Edgar’s lips.
“No matter what you say, I’m sending that impressive monster to Mason.”
“You’ll die.”
“Nuna. Let’s make a deal.”
“What?”
“A deal. We agreed we could make only one deal per Quest, right? We didn’t make any deal in the previous Quest, so I should still have one left.”
He continued leisurely.
“I’ll give you my life. In exchange, don’t interfere with what I’m about to do.”
“Edgar……”
“Oh, right. And don’t ever reveal my current plan to Mason’s gang. Let me think…… how did you say it before.”
He folded his arms, thought briefly, then clapped his hands.
“Whether by words or writing, expressions or gestures. Artistic methods like drawings or mime are also out. If you try to warn Mason in any way, I’ll see it as violating the deal.”
“You dare.”
“When a participant requests a deal, you can’t refuse, right? Since the conditions from my side increased, I’ll add a bit more of my life. Ten lives should be enough.”
Magireta sincerely regretted it.
Why had she given this brat the ability of immortality?
No, she hadn’t given it because she wanted to.
He asked for immortality as his victory wish.
Magireta basically couldn’t refuse the demands of the wish ticket, ‘except under a few special conditions’.
She quietly observed her scale.
‘If it’s infinite lives, it should be lighter. Unlike the lives of ordinary people.’
But the scale judged it favorable for Magireta.
Damn it.
Who even made a scale like this?
……?
‘Who made it?’
The moment her thoughts reached that point.
Magireta’s focus wavered.
It wasn’t very important.
Who made the scale didn’t matter.
Why she couldn’t refuse when a participant requested a deal.
Why more than half of the people must never learn about the existence of the Quests.
Why she was restricted by so many other items in the hidden rules.
Not at all.
None of it mattered at all.
“……Fine. Deal accepted.”
“Thank you. Nuna.”
“Know this one thing.”
“What?”
Louis trembled from head to toe.
A sticky killing intent so cold it felt like her heart might freeze solid.
Even though its target wasn’t her, she felt she might wet herself.
“You just crossed a line.”
The next morning.
We gathered in one place and had breakfast.
But everyone only pretended to eat; not even half the food disappeared.
Berseum let out a deep sigh.
“Hoo. This house will be blown away soon. You said it’ll be around 10 a.m., right?”
“Yes?”
“Hm? What’s wrong, Mason.”
“Of course we have to stop it. What would be the point of seeing the future otherwise?”
Then Aina tilted her head.
“You said the storm would hit only this area.”
“Right. I still don’t know how she’s causing such a phenomenon.”
“And didn’t you say Grandpa’s magic couldn’t stop it? Then how can you make the house stay in one piece?”
“Be…….”
Before saying “Because”, he saw Aina’s sharp eyes and changed the word.
“Before the wind blows, we just stop the wind.”
“That sounded like a forced change.”
“We only need to subdue Karin before the wind starts. In the future, she attacked because we didn’t know she’d come, but this time we do.”
Everyone widened their eyes.
Sienne spoke with a repentant tone.
“I see. We were too trapped in our own thinking.”
“Well, probably because we were more focused on the fact that Mason would…… now in two days, die.”
I answered and took out my compass.
Then I set it to Karin Oblang and searched.
Fortunately for me, this compass didn’t need a real name—just the name that referred to the current target.
Swoosh.
Soon, the Mini Bulletin Board’s map appeared.
Wiping my mouth with a napkin, I said,
“She’s approaching slowly. She’ll soon arrive at the entrance of Deut Territory.”
“Shall we go greet her?”
“Yeah. With the teleportation bead, it’ll be easy to get behind her.”
As I replied, something bothered me.
‘But can the teleportation bead activate without a real name? Karin isn’t her real name. That’s why the Encyclopedia couldn’t show her info.’
Could it activate even without a real name?
But if that were true, then back when Sienne used the alias Sernia, we weren’t able to teleport using that name.
[That was because Sienne herself didn’t think her name was Sernia. It was a sort of pen name for registering as a novel author.]
‘Hm?’
[You’ve teleported near Edgar several times. Edgar also isn’t his original birth name. But right now, he recognizes his name as Edgar.]
‘So the teleportation bead activates when the target recognizes that name as their own?’
[That seems to be the case.]
I nodded, then a strange thought occurred to me.
‘But how do you know all that so well? This isn’t a function of the Diary Book, it’s Magireta’s first-place reward.’
[Who knows.]
I figured she’d answer like that.
I was about to pry further but decided to focus on the current situation.
“Anyway, who will volunteer?”
“Hm? Aren’t we all going together?”
I shook my head.
“In the future, Karin destroyed the house we were in with perfect accuracy. Which means, however she found out, she obtained the information that ‘Mason is in that place’.”
“…….”
“We still don’t know each other’s faces, and she wouldn’t have any tools like a compass. Even so, she managed to locate us—so it must have been thanks to Karin’s unique talent.”
Just like each of us had a talent, Karin must have something similar.
Using that, she must have been soaring freely through the sky.
“She probably has some method to track our location in real time from afar. If that really is the case, at the very least, I need to stay here.”
“You’re saying we have to make that girl drop her guard.”
“Yeah. So again, who wants to volunteer?”
Then Sienne, Aina, and Berseum raised their hands.
Berseum was especially enthusiastic.
“I shall teach the one who destroyed my house a lesson.”
It isn’t destroyed yet though.
Karin retrieved the spirits she had scattered.
The spirits introduced themselves as ‘Aether’, but she simply called them spirits for convenience.
She was the only one who could see them anyway, so she would name them however she liked.
-So so, over there, Mason is in that house.
-In their conversation, the name Mason came out.
-But three of them suddenly disappeared.
-Mason is still inside the house.
She gently stroked the spirits chattering in her palm.
Their stories were still so disorganized that it wasn’t easy to understand them.
‘So where is that house.’
She didn’t bother asking.
Because she could simply request this:
“Then can you smash that house for me?”
-How? How?
“Like boom-crash, pow-faaat.”
-Yes yes! Sounds fun.
“Don’t hurt the people inside. This is just a light show of force. To make our upcoming conversation smoother.”
-People get hurt? They’re not even fish?
How could they be this cute.
Smiling like a doting parent, she sent the spirits off.
Right now, Karin stood on the mountain behind the territory, overlooking everything at a glance.
It was the same place Edgar once used to watch Kanesella explode.
With a confident smile, she murmured,
“When would be the best timing to make an appearance.”
“I thought now would be good, so I appeared.”
A sudden voice behind her.
Karin gasped and tried to turn around.
But a sword was already at her neck.
From the green-haired woman radiated a killing intent strong enough to make her knees shake.
“Don’t move.”
“Uh…… wh-what. Who are you people.”
“Who are you. Why are you talking to your empty palm?”
“…….”
“Well, I’ve gotten pretty used to that thanks to Mason.”
Hearing Mason’s name, she understood.
She remembered the words of one of the spirits earlier.
-But three of them suddenly disappeared.
She had thought it was one of their usual incomprehensible expressions. She didn’t expect it to be literal.
Karin asked calmly,
“How did you know I was here? And how did you suddenly appear behind me?”
“Mason knew you would come today.”
“What?”
“And that you would destroy my house.”
A dignified old gentleman stroked his mustache.
Then he waved his hand.
“Binding.”
The next moment.
Unknown chains appeared from every direction.
Before she could resist, they wrapped around her tightly.
“Ugh! Hey. And who are you. Let go of this while I’m talking nicely.”
“You are hardly in a position to say that, are you?”
“Ghh.”
“Hm. Just as my magic doesn’t seem to work on your talent, it seems you also can’t resist my magic. It’s like fighting with swords only, with neither side having a shield.”
Crack.
The chains tightened even more.
In an instant, Karin could barely breathe.
“Urgh. H-hey. Guys. Help me…….”
“I don’t know who you’re requesting help from, but you should stop. No matter how fast they are, they’re slower than my blade.”
“…….”
“You asked someone to destroy Berseum’s house earlier, right? You should cancel that request. Immediately.”
Karin grit her teeth.
‘What, what. What are these people.’
Setting everything else aside, how did they know she would be here at this exact time today?
Could that Mason guy see the future or something?
“Hurry.”
“F-fine. I said fine.”
Karin recalled the spirits she had just sent.
-Karin, Karin. What’s wrong?
-What game is that?
-Can we still break the house?
She couldn’t answer their chatter.
She didn’t have the leeway.
“Hey. Old man. Loosen this a bit.”
“…….”
“I brought the spirits back. Nothing happened yet so release these chains.”
“I’ll drag you to Mason first. I’ll release you there.”
“Then at least loosen the grip! It really hurts, you know? I can’t even breathe properly.”
Berseum smiled gently as he answered,
“The resentment for destroying my house runs deep. Be grateful I’m restraining myself this much.”
Karin’s mouth opened and closed.
She truly wanted to say this one thing:
‘But I haven’t destroyed it yet…….’