Chapter 142 : Companionship – 2
Chapter 142: Companionship – 2
At the time, I had brushed it off as nothing serious.
But it seemed the atmosphere had actually been quite grave.
I asked in a cautious voice.
“Does an ordinary marital fight usually end in decapitation?”
“…….”
“What happened?”
“There’s no reason for me to tell you.”
“To be honest, I’m not that curious either. What I’m really curious about is why you came here.”
“Phew.”
Louis Danahan took off her cloak in a fidgety manner.
Then she roughly crumpled it up…
Fwoosh.
And threw it at me.
“……! What are you doing? This is the first-place reward, the Invisibility Cloak.”
“That’s right. I’ll give it to you.”
“What?”
“After I got my hands on the Invisibility Cloak, I killed Arcane several times. At least a hundred times.”
“…….”
“But no matter how many times I killed him, he kept reviving. Even with this cloak, I can’t truly kill Arcane in the real sense.”
I inferred what she was about to say next.
“……So you’re asking me to kill him? Using the Invisibility Cloak?”
“You don’t necessarily have to use that cloak. Just think of it as the commission fee. Kill him by whatever means you want.”
“Why the sudden change of heart? The last time I saw you two, you were pretty lovey-dovey.”
“Because that bastard betrayed me again.”
Sienne Katrin asked,
“Surely you don’t mean the maggot you said you swallowed—Edgar forced you to eat it? Without your consent?”
“Yes.”
“……I offer you my belated condolences.”
“I don’t need that. That kind of thing.”
She answered like that and abruptly turned her body away.
Benjamin Noel hurriedly asked,
“Are you leaving?”
“Then what, should I stick around with you all? Just because I’ve come to hate Arcane doesn’t mean I’ve started liking you.”
“If you go off alone, Edgar will come looking for you again. What will you do if he tries to take you by force?”
“…….”
“Besides, that guy has a talent for manipulating other people’s souls and turning them into his own. I’ve experienced it myself, so I know well. You might end up just like me.”
“……Even so, I don’t want your help.”
I rapidly turned my mind.
Soon, a good idea came to me.
“Then stay transformed.”
“What?”
“If you disguise yourself as any resident of Deut Territory and blend in, it’ll be fine. Right now, Edgar doesn’t have the Compass or the Teleportation bead. If you do that, he won’t be able to find you.”
“He could ask Magireta and come looking for me.”
“That’s why I’m telling you to stay here instead of going far away. If that happens, we’ll fight Edgar.”
She made a somewhat surprised expression.
Had I said something that surprising?
From our perspective, it was already a huge gain as long as Louis didn’t take their side.
As I had just said, Edgar possessed the talent to manipulate souls and turn people into his own.
Rather than letting Louis return to Edgar’s side again, it would be better to keep her close and monitor her.
She couldn’t answer right away.
In the meantime, Kaid Bel raised his hand and spoke.
“What should I do?”
“Huh? You were still here?”
“That’s really too much.”
“I can’t return the Invisibility Cloak. I’ll be managing this.”
“No, wait a second.”
“Instead, you stay nearby too. If Odline tries to suck you into a hole again, I’ll grab you.”
He scratched his head and said,
“Are you putting me in the party?”
“Haha. You’re good at jokes.”
“……Excuse me. I’m genuinely hurt, you know?”
“Last time, I said I’d accept you into the party, but you changed your words as easily as flipping your palm.”
“…….”
“Accepting you into the party means continuing to clear quests together with you. I can’t go that far.”
I was sorry, but Kaid and Louis were not ‘possibilities.’
It was already overwhelming just protecting my own companions.
I couldn’t, and shouldn’t, make promises like ‘I’ll definitely protect you.’
“Instead, during periods that aren’t quests, I’ll take reasonable care of you.”
“So during quests, I survive on my own….”
“And during rest periods, we help each other. How about we settle on that?”
He nodded briskly.
“Sounds good. Then where’s my room?”
“Out there.”
“Wow, seriously.”
At that moment, Louis opened her mouth.
“Then you follow me.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t want to live in the same house as these guys either, and they don’t want to live with you either.”
“They didn’t exactly say they didn’t want to….”
“Humans with humans, monsters with monsters.”
Hmm. I thought that was just about right.
After all, even if they weren’t my companions, I was reluctant to reveal all my abilities to them.
Partners who only helped each other when necessary.
That would be the appropriate distance between us.
Then, Berseum Ferux spoke up.
“You might have seen it on your way here, but the house next to ours is vacant. The previous residents moved to a new house not long ago and put it up.”
“……?”
“I’ll take care of it, so the two of you can stay there.”
“Oh! Thank you very much. The bed and furniture are all fully furnished, right?”
“…….”
“I’m sorry. I got carried away.”
Kaid bowed his head with an easygoing grin.
A chuckle escaped me at how very much like him that was.
It was then—
[You have safely cleared the Sudden Quest ‘Assassination.’]
[The record during the Sudden Quest ‘Assassination’ period has changed.]
[Due to the influence of the revised content, part of the Future Diary has been modified.]
[The Diary Book’s ‘Shop MAX’ function has been upgraded.]
[You have achieved survival of Armelia in the Sudden Quest. As a reward, 100 points are granted.]
[You have achieved survival of Aina in the Sudden Quest. As a reward, 100 points are granted.]
[You have achieved survival of Berseum in the Sudden Quest. As a reward, 100 points are granted.]
[You have achieved survival of Sienne in the Sudden Quest. As a reward, 100 points are granted.]
[You have achieved survival of Benjamin in the Sudden Quest. As a reward, 100 points are granted.]
[You have achieved survival of Karin in the Sudden Quest. As a reward, 100 points are granted.]
[Current Points: 2,355]
Oh, the Sudden Quest had ended.
With the Invisibility Cloak now in my possession, the future where Edgar assassinated my companions had changed.
I was grinning foolishly when something suddenly bothered me, and I asked,
‘Diary Book. What’s the upgraded function this time?’
[It is Shop MAX.]
‘MAX? Does that mean it’s the final shop?’
[That’s right.]
‘That’s strange. The shop was already lv.6. Even Karin’s Awakening Pill, who joined last, should have been registered.’
Was there anything left to upgrade?
At that moment, the Diary Book said,
[One person is missing.]
‘Missing? Who…….’
[It is you, Mason.]
At those words, a chill ran down my spine.
Right. Our party was not six people.
Including me, we were seven in total.
I hurriedly opened the shop page.
<Always with you. This is the visiting service Diary Shop.> <You may purchase the items below with very affordable points.>
<Since the current level is lv.MAX, all items are available for sale.>
Awakening Pill (Exclusive to Armelia): Purchase complete!
Awakening Pill (Exclusive to Aina): Purchase complete!
Awakening Pill (Exclusive to Berseum): Purchase complete!
Awakening Pill (Exclusive to Sienne): Purchase complete!
Awakening Pill (Exclusive to Benjamin): 500 points.
Awakening Pill (Exclusive to Karin): 500 points.
Awakening Pill (Exclusive to Mason): 50,000 points.
……?
‘Diary Book. I think something’s wrong.’
[No. There isn’t.]
‘No. There is. It’s obviously wrong!’
My Awakening Pill was fifty thousand points?
That was a hundred times more than the others.
[As Mason is a special individual, we shall serve him at a premium price.]
‘Don’t you usually give discounts to special people?’
[Is that so.]
‘Do you realistically think it’s possible to gather fifty thousand points?’
Each time we safely cleared a quest, we received about six hundred points.
Even if we rescued a few more Ordinary participants, it would still be under seven hundred.
So just how long was it expecting me to take to gather fifty thousand points?
‘This is exactly that. You deliberately set an absurd price on an item you never intend to sell in the first place.’
[That’s not true.]
‘Don’t lie. That’s an item no one can buy.’
[Hmm……. It really isn’t.]
I decided to ignore it.
I was curious what kind of ability I would gain if I drank that Awakening Pill.
However, it wasn’t my style to cling to something I couldn’t obtain.
While I was chatting idly with the Diary Book like that,
Louis and Kaid left the house.
Louis departed without even saying goodbye, but Kaid turned back toward us and lifted his nose arrogantly.
“Don’t forget that the cloak in Mason’s hands originally belonged to me.”
“…….”
“There’s no need for words of gratitude. Instead, from now on, you must thoroughly protect me. No matter what happens, please prioritize my safety and happiness above all else.”
“I forgot to mention, but I’ll be charging rent separately.”
“……In that case, I’ll be off.”
He fled in a hurry as if running away.
Armelia said,
“That man is an excellent negative example. He makes you resolve not to become like that.”
“That’s rather cutting.”
“I’m not being sarcastic. I’m one hundred percent sincere.”
“That’s exactly what I meant by cutting.”
In any case, despite many hardships, we safely concluded the Sudden Quest.
I leaned back comfortably in my chair.
Karin opened her mouth.
“Now that the cloak is in our hands, doesn’t that mean we can kill Edgar instead this time? Whenever we feel like it.”
“Even if we do, he’ll just revive soon after.”
“Then we can reuse the strategy that failed before. The cave behind the mountain should still be filled with Mason’s blood.”
“Ah.”
Did she mean we could approach Edgar secretly while wearing the cloak and then use the Teleportation bead to send him flying into the cave?
Not bad.
Feeling tempted, I took out the Compass.
Then I set it to Edgar and displayed the map.
But there was no red dot to be seen anywhere.
What that meant was……
“Hmm. It seems Edgar is still in Hell.”
“In Hell?”
“Odline sent Edgar beyond the black hole. It looks like he hasn’t returned to the world from there yet.”
As I said that much, a sudden chill ran through me.
Edgar could return to the world at any time through a deal with Magireta.
It wasn’t as if Hell suited his tastes, so if he wasn’t returning……
“Could it be that he joined hands with Odline?”
“……! What do you mean?”
“Odline lost Kaid, and Edgar lost Louis. There’s no rule saying losers can’t join forces.”
“Hmm. If that speculation is true, we’d better refrain from recklessly visiting Hell. There’s no telling what kind of trap they might have set.”
At Armelia’s words, everyone nodded.
Even aside from that, Hell wasn’t a place comfortable enough to visit voluntarily.
Besides, Edgar wasn’t our most urgent concern right now.
We first needed to find information about the Ninth Quest, which would begin soon.
I asked the Diary Book.
‘The Sudden Quest ended, so the Future Diary was modified, right? Search for the contents regarding the next quest.’
[Understood.]
[Using the search function to look up the contents of the next quest in the Future Diary.]
[Points Consumed: 100]
[Remaining Points: 2,255]
The pages flipped rapidly.
I examined the contents of the Diary Book and remained silent for a while.
At my unusual demeanor, my companions held their breath as well.
Eventually, unable to endure the silence, Sienne asked,
“Mason. What is it?”
“Just earlier, we were discussing whether or not to go after Edgar. But in truth, it was an unnecessary discussion.”
“Yes?”
“Well…….”
I swallowed hard and continued.
“We’ll be clearing the next quest together. With that bastard Edgar.”