The Hope They Left Behind (Premium)

by Sakon Kaidou

  “Let’s take this outside.”

  For some reason, she cautiously looked around the DIN office we were in, and then led me out.

  She took me to a relatively empty café, where we both ordered something, and she continued.

  “Prism Beasts come in two forms: originals and replicas, focused on easy mass production. Replicas are much like the imperium’s Magingears, in that they use MP to move, but your Silver doesn’t... which means that he’s an original.”

  “Seems like it.”

  He did consume lots of MP for powerful Wind Hoof barriers, but I couldn’t recall him ever taking any of it when simply moving. Also, his description mentioned something about some artisan.

  “As far as Prism Beasts go, the Prism Steed series is particularly well-known, as some of them have already been discovered,” she said. “There’s the kingdom’s now-lost national treasure, the lightning-based Gold Thunder. Then there’s the earth-based Obsidian Earth-Edge that the Over Gladiator uses for mounted battles. And there’s the fire-based Ruby Ignition that’s owned by a Superior from Huang He.”

  Oh yeah, I almost forgot that Figaro has a Prism Steed, too, I thought. He says he only uses his for the race battles in the eighth arena because it’s faster for him to just run, though. Apparently, he’d acquired it deep in the Tomb Labyrinth.

  “However, it’s still unknown where the ones based on other elements are,” B3 said. “And it’s highly likely that your Silver is the wind-based Prism Steed.”

  The X rarity and the power of his Wind Hoof made it clear that he was no ordinary item, and what she was saying confirmed it.

  But wait, his official name is “Zephyrus Silver,” right? The way the others are named would have you guess it’s “Silver Zephyus,” but it isn’t. Why? Is there a reason?

  “So he’s really valuable, huh?” I asked.

  “Oh, he is,” said B3. “If I were still in Mad Castle and we weren’t acquainted, I would have attacked you for him.”

  “He’s that expensive?!”

  “He’s worth at least 500,000,000. You could probably get billions for him in Caldina’s auctions.”

  Silver... I had no idea you were such a treasure, I thought. I’ll polish you real good, all right? “Man, am I thankful that no one’s stolen him from me.”

  “While in Gideon, you had the likes of Brother Bear and Marie with you,” Nemesis commented. “I would like to believe no one is idiotic enough to steal from you in that environment.”

  True.

  Sol Crisis hadn’t exactly been wrong about me being a difficult target while in Gideon.

  Wait, doesn’t that mean that I’m in danger now that I’m away from there? I’m kinda worried.

  “Replicas are often silver, so it’s also likely that they simply didn’t realize that Silver is an original,” said B3. “However, there’s no guarantee that people won’t, so why not buy an inventory that prevents Steal and similar skills? It will be expensive, but it will completely negate even the highest level Steal.”

  “Good idea. That’ll be reassuri—”

  “But Superior Jobs might still steal him with their ultimate job skills.”

  “Well, you don’t normally run into them,” I said.

  Superiors focused on thievery (like King of Thieves or something) were probably few and far between. Like, in the low single digits in this entire world.

  “I’m sure I won’t run into them.”

  Her eyebrow arched. “You say that, but how many Superiors and Superior Jobs have you met already?”

  You have a point.

  Well, I would probably meet more Superiors sooner or later, so I could only hope that they wouldn’t be in the thief or burglar groupings.

  Speaking of which, the only one of the four people in charge of the capital blockade incident that I’d yet to meet was the Superior Job of the burglar grouping, King of Burglary, Eldridge.

  I’d heard that he was a really crafty PKer who controlled the flow of battle by stealing both his enemies’ equipment and even their body parts.

  There was little doubt that he would be a formidable foe. I could only hope that I wouldn’t meet him.

  “But... 500,000,000 minimum is really big, isn’t it?” I asked.

  “It really is, but most of that value is not because of the Prism Steed’s abilities, but because they’re antique, and often thought to be works of art,” she said. “Think about it: it’s an OOPArt from 2,000 years ago that’s in a perfect state. There’s no way it wouldn’t be expensive.”

  “2,000 years... so that’s how old the pre-ancient civilization is.”

  “Yes. The ancient civilization ended around that time, too.”

  “Hm?” The “ancient” and the “pre-ancient” both ended 2,000 years ago? “Shouldn’t the pre-ancient civilization have ended before the ancient one?”

  “I’ve only read a little bit on this in the data gathered by The Lunar Society, so I’m not all that knowledgeable, but that seems to be the conclusion historians have come to.”

  Two civilizations, both of which had died 2,000 years ago...

  Silver was a relic from the pre-ancient civilization, so this definitely piqued my curiosity. I wanted to look into this.

  “Anyhow, you’re picking Prism Rider as your next job, yes?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “Might as well. And if I go right now, I should be able to switch during this weekend.”

  Right now, in real life, it was Saturday afternoon. We left for Torne on Friday night, and I’d spent two days here since then, but I still had more than half of the weekend left. I had about four days I could use here.

  I’d heard that the distance between Altea and the town at Quartierlatin was about the same as the one between Altea and Torne, so I ought to be able to go there, switch jobs, and even go exploring for a bit.

  “If you want to switch, you will have to enter the ruins themselves,” B3 said. “Since it was just discovered, many experts must have gathered there. Some of them might even have an answer to your question.”

  “I see...”

  Great! So I might get an archeology lesson. I’d been into history since I was a boy, so I was kinda excited.

  “This should be exhilarating,” said Nemesis, who sounded genuinely curious.

  “Yeah,” I nodded, sharing her sentiment.

  All right, my next course of action was decided. My goal was to switch jobs and investigate the history of the two civilizations!

  My destination was the ancient ruins in the Quartierlatin County.

  Let the quest... begin!

  ◇

  However, right as we were about to take off for Quartierlatin, something happened.

  “Ah, sorry,” said B3. “Someone’s calling me. I’ll log out for a moment.”

  And she did just that.

  Someone seemed to have called her on her phone.

  When you set up a link between your Infinite Dendrogram hardware and mobile, you could set it to inform you of calls, messages, and social network alerts, the same way it informed you whenever you needed to sleep or go to the bathroom. I’d set up a link, myself. It ignored messages, but it always informed me of any calls.

  Usually the only people who called me were my parents and Shu, so it was always best to answer right away.

  “Ray,” Nemesis spoke up. “Since you’re heading for another place instead of returning to Gideon, you might want to contact Brother Bear about that.”

  “You have a point,” I said. “An update certainly won’t do any harm.”

  I’d already told him that I was going to spend the weekend questing with B3, but I had no idea how long I would be switching jobs and investigating the ruins. For all I knew, I might only be able to return to Gideon next weekend or something.

  He could be planning something under the assumption that I would be back soon, so it was best to inform him of this.

  Just in case B3 returned before I was done, I left a note saying, “
I’m also logging out to make a call. — Ray Starling,” and went offline.

  I called Shu and told him all I needed to, but I didn’t really understand what he was saying.

  He kept complaining, telling me something about how he’d been arrested, that he’d destroyed some buildings but was still innocent, and that it was all Gerbera’s fault or whatever, but I wasn’t listening properly.

  Who the hell is Gerbera, anyway?

  It felt like he wouldn’t shut up, so I just hung up and logged in again.

  I looked around. “So B3’s not back yet, huh?”

  “Mm-hm,” Nemesis nodded. “It must be a long call.”

  We continued to wait for another five minutes or so. Then B3 logged in again, looking somewhat apologetic.

  “Sorry for the wait,” she said. “I... My family told me to come to them.”

  B3’s family are practitioners of the Way of Tea, right?

  “I can picture it with B3,” Nemesis said telepathically. “But trying to imagine Barbaroy performing a tea ceremony brings up some amusing results.”

  “Nhh!”

  Damn it, you almost made me spit my drink!

  “B-By the way,” I stammered, doing my best to keep myself from laughing, “where is your family home, anyway?”

  “Kyoto.”

  A refined place, indeed. It was also in Kansai, which would explain why Miss Aberration, who’d studied there when she was a child, now talked in this weird mix of Kyoto and Kansai dialects.

  B3 explained, “My parents planned to invite a very special guest and start a Fujibayashi-style tea ceremony, but everyone there became ill.”

  “Oh, uh, that sounds pretty bad.”

  “It is. And since we can’t have a tea ceremony without a Fujibayashi there, I’m the one who needs to do it. I have to be home by the evening.”

  In a maglev, the journey from Tokyo to Kyoto took only a bit over an hour, but there were preparations and the like, too. And that meant that...

  “Sorry,” she said. “I won’t be able to join you at the ruins.”

  “Hey, there’s no helping that,” I replied. “Family and real life are important.”

  In fact, I doubted I could’ve survived the K&R attack and the Monochrome incident without her, so I had no idea why she was apologizing to me.

  “I’m grateful you say that, but... will you be all right?” she asked.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got my left arm back, so I’m sure I can handle the monsters on the road to Quartierlatin.”

  From what I’ve been told of the current monster distribution, the ones in that area were at about the same level as the monsters in newbie hunting grounds, or just a bit higher. Apparently, monsters escaping the burning of Noz Forest had gone northwards, making the entire distribution shift a bit in that direction.

  I was capable of using Purgatorial Flames again, so I shouldn’t have any problems there. And if things looked really bad, I could just hop on Silver and ride in the sky.

  “That’s not what I meant,” said B3. “You might be attacked by PKers like Sol Crisis again. Not to mention that someone might try to take your Silver...”

  I’d almost forgotten that the wilder Masters were way scarier than the wildest of monsters. “I’ll buy an anti-Steal inventory before I go.”

  With that in mind, it was time to shop.

  B3 still had some time until she had to leave, so she would accompany me for that.

  “I suppose we’re heading to the shop where you messed up and bought a Permit?” she asked.

  Yeah, “messed up” is pretty apt. I didn’t intend the result of that at all, I thought in chagrin. But that was my own fault for not investigating enough — I won’t blame the shop.

  Anyway, the shop had lots of rare and curious items, so it was likely it would have the inventory I was looking for.

  I ran through my memories to try to remember where it was, and it didn’t take me all that long to figure it out. So we headed there right away.

  Standing outside the shop, I noticed a detail I hadn’t paid attention to before, which was that the the sign at the front said, “Monster King’s Antique Store, Central Continent Branch.”

  But there’s only one continent, right? Or do they have shops in Granvaloa, too?

  The name made me raise an eyebrow, but I quickly shrugged it off and went inside.

  Just like last time, the place was completely devoid of customers, which I found strange, considering that it had some pretty good items.

  The shopkeeper inside was the same hooded fellow from last time. I wasted no time in calling out to him.

  “Excuse me, do you have any inventories that aren’t affected by Steal?”

  “Yes,” he said. “We have quite a selection. Give me a moment to bring them from our stores.” Then he went deeper into the shop.

  Just so you know, there weren’t any other employees around. The rarity of the items here made that seem extremely careless.

  Well, I guess I’ll wait while looking around, I thought.

  B3 looked around at the shields. She’d gotten a number of hers broken by Rosa, so she was probably considering stocking up.

  “I should buy some defense, too,” I muttered.

  Most of my defensive equipment, including the BR Armor, had been burned by Monochrome. I could fill the bracer, boot, and coat slots with my special rewards. However, I had no proper upper and lower body armor, so I was wearing some really weak clothing I’d gotten from the gacha.

  “Lose that, and you would be a naked guy in a coat,” Nemesis commented.

  “Now that would just freak people out.”

  “Well, what you have been wearing up until now was quite freaky, too, to be honest.”

  “You need armor?” B3 joined our conversation. “Should I give you what I have?”

  “Eh? Your armor?”

  The first thing that came to mind was the Gunhammer Plate, Magnum Colossus — her Barbaroy mode armor — but special rewards like that one were bound to the MVP. Not to mention that she wouldn’t hand it over even if she could. That meant that she intended to give me something else.

  “You mean... lady armor?” I asked hesitantly.

  Crossdressing is a big “no” for me, to be honest...

  “Heh heh,” she giggled before I could voice my thought. “Heh heh heh... sorry. And no, I don’t mean my old armor or anything like that. I mean armor that’s been left to me by my clan members.”

  “Clan members... ohh.”

  Her clan, the great Barbaroy Bad Burn’s Mad Castle, had split up because of the results of their battle against Figaro, and also because many of them were simply too busy with real life. At the time, the members quitting had given their items over to the ones continuing.

  “My job is Full Armor Giant, you know?” she said. “That’s why most of the members, the girls and the guys, gave a lot of their armor to me... heh heh.”

  Again the giggle. She seemed to be remembering something funny, so I decided to just ask what it was.

  She replied with, “Oh, one of the members accidentally handed me a speedo-shaped piece of armor, so everyone else ganked him and it became a real bloodbath... heh heh heh.”

  Is that really something you remember fondly and giggle about?

  “Back to the matter at hand, that’s the male armor I want to give you.”

  “A speedo?!”

  “Not that. I mean something normal.”

  Man, what a relief... It felt like the conversation was going in that direction.

  “I have my Gunhammer Plate, and whenever I wear something else, like right now, it’s always female armor, so I’ve never really used the male armor they’ve given me. They’re like gifts, so selling them wouldn’t sit right with me, and that’s why I’d like you to have a set. Thankfully, the one I’m thinking of is better than any armor here, and you only need a total level of 100, so you can use it right away.”

  I hesitated. “Are you sure I should have it?”


  “Yes. Tools are meant to be used, so would this armor be better off in your hands.” She reached into her inventory and took out a set of armor that would cover both the upper and lower body. It was a composite work, combining crimson beast leather and black metallic armoring.

  “This is Volcanic Darkmetal Armor, otherwise known as just ‘VDA.’”

  That name almost made me say, “Wow, that sounds strong,” but that felt too ten-year-old, so I just kept my mouth shut. Even so, there was no denying that it sounded and looked both strong and cool.

  “It’s magic armor made in Legendaria,” B3 explained. “It has Fire Resistance and Dark Resistance, both level 4, meaning that it reduces fire and dark damage by a whole 25%. Even its leather bits are strong and really hard to burn. And, most importantly, the crafter used their crafting skills to keep the level limit low.”

  Whoa, that’s really grea— hold on.

  My Black Warcoat — an Ancient Legendary item — cut light damage by 100%. That meant that a combined resistance of 50% was also reasonably powerful.

  “How much does it cost, by the way?” I asked.

  “I feel like you won’t accept it if I say the price, so I won’t,” she replied.

  So it’s really expensive.

  “I really shouldn’t—”

  “It’s pointless to leave it rotting in my inventory. Please take it.”

  “Then at least let me pay for—”

  “I don’t want money for something I was gifted.”

  She’s pretty obstinate.

  “You, Marie, and Rook weren’t any better after you defeated Gardranda,” Nemesis commented telepathically.

  Oh, you mean the time when we were splitting the reward.

  It’d happened only a bit over a month ago, but I already felt nostalgic about it.

  Back to the matter at hand... how do I get us both to agr— ah.

  “Let’s do it like this,” I said. “if I take this armor, I won’t take any of the reparations from Rosa.”

  “That is... tolerable.”

  Doing it that way, she wouldn’t be making money from this gift, and I wouldn’t feel like I was getting too much.

  And so, I accepted the VDA and quickly equipped it.

  “You look good,” said B3. “It really complements your bracers and coat.”