by Sakon Kaidou
...Is she twelve or something?
“Oh, with Lady Tsukuyo defeated, we have no reason to keep you here anymore, so you are free to leave. Apologies for the trouble. Here is your cartage fee,” he said as he presented me with a bag of money.
...You’re the ones who brought me here, you know?
“But before you leave, I would like to hear how you discovered me,” he added. “I was right under your nose in the most adequate sense, and I thought it to be quite an excellent hiding spot.” Oh, yeah. He’d asked me about that right after I’d found him out. Well, I didn’t really see the harm in telling him.
“It’s the only conclusion I could come to after considering several factors,” I said.
They hadn’t seemed out of the ordinary when separate, but putting them all together had made me think that that was the answer.
“First of all, Figaro’s chains weren’t able to find you.”
This had made me conclude that he hadn’t been using a Conceal-type skill, and had been hiding in a space where not even the chains could reach.
“When thinking of a place where they couldn’t find you, I quickly considered your shadows.”
Since he was able to control shadows, it hadn’t been far-fetched to believe that he also had skills that allowed him to enter them.
“Well, Crimson Dead Keeper’s Auto Enemy Detect doesn’t reach pocket dimensions and the like,” said Figaro. “I know how his skills work, so I also thought that he was in some nearby shadow. The only difference was that I expected him to be somewhere around Fuso, not Ray.”
Apparently, because they’d been acquainted for long, Figaro had known how King of Assassins operated and had made his own conjecture about where he was. However, he’d had a reason why he didn’t realize — or, rather, couldn’t realize — where the KoA was hiding.
“Then there was the fact that you left me all by myself,” I continued. “There are two points to this, actually.”
First was the time I’d awoken in these headquarters, while the second was Figaro’s battle.
“When I awoke here, I first thought that I wasn’t being observed until the servant came to call me for food.”
However, now I saw just how unlikely that was. Since they’d kidnapped me, they’d probably done their research and surely knew that I had Silver in my possession. If I’d felt like it, I could’ve attempted to get on him and fly off the moment I’d realized that something was wrong, and it was downright weird to not have anyone guarding someone who could escape just like that.
“And that was why you were in my shadow,” I continued. “You were ready to jump out and stop me if I tried to escape, and you prevented me from logging out by secretly staying in contact with me.”
Indeed, I hadn’t been able to log out, not because I was in the effective range of a Type Castle or Territory Embryo, but because the King of Assassins had been keeping contact with me from inside my shadow.
“Yes.” The KoA nodded. “Your assumption is most correct.”
“Then there was the battle between Figaro and Tsukuyo Fuso. Instead of making me Faint again, you just let me do what I wanted, even giving me the option to influence the flow of the battle,” I said. “It wasn’t about me... it was about Figaro.”
“Me?” Figaro said, looking startled.
That was the reason why Figaro had failed to realize that the KoA was within my shadow.
“You people know that Figaro becomes a worse fighter when he has allies, right?” I asked. “That’s why you let me move around and tried to suppress him by making him recognize me as an ally.”
If I’d started to move in a way that made it hard for Figaro to ignore me, his movements would’ve become worse, and that might’ve been exactly what they were aiming for.
“However, that’s not the main reason why you let me do as I pleased,” I said. “You had a different main reason.”
“Which would be...?” the KoA asked.
“Figaro purposely ignored me.”
Figaro couldn’t fight as well when he wasn’t solo, and he circumvented this flaw by doing all he could to ignore the existence of the allies on the battlefield. Though his fighting still became slightly duller, he could still hold himself in a proper fight, and it came at the cost of being thoroughly unaware of what was happening to his allies. And that meant that...
“As long as you were within my shadow, Figaro could never find you.”
After all, he’d have no means of noticing the enemy beneath my feet if he didn’t pay any attention to me.
“You said you were ‘right under my nose,’ and that could hardly be more fitting,” I went on.
Figaro hadn’t been able to discover him, and Auto Enemy Detect couldn’t track him. In that particular situation, he would never have gotten attacked by Figaro, and would thus have been able to focus entirely on controlling his shadows, making it the perfect hiding spot.
“Magnificent,” he said and applauded me. “Your words describe my intentions flawlessly. You have excellent situational awareness.”
“...Thanks?”
“This has been a most productive time for not only Lady Tsukuyo, but myself, as well.”
Despite the fact that I’d just told him the reason why his master had lost, he seemed strangely happy. Though not in the same way as the aberration, he was definitely just as much of a weirdo.
“Now, if you will excuse me, I must log out,” he continued, clearly satisfied. “I must return and make dinner for Lady Tsukuyo, after all... Oh. Or would you perhaps prefer to give me the death penalty?”
“...No. Just go,” I sighed. “I’ve had enough for today.”
This whole incident had made me stupidly tired.
Figaro had been about to pull out his Gloria α, but he stopped upon hearing my words.
Maybe I should just have him cut him down? I pondered.
“Thank you kindly,” said the KoA. “I will make sure to express my gratitude properly someday. Take care...”
“Ah, wait a sec,” I stopped him as I realized I still had a question I wanted answered.
“Yes?”
“Well, this is about the battle between Figaro and the aberr— Tsukuyo Fuso.” There was one point that still didn’t make sense to me. “Why wasn’t Tsukuyo Fuso wearing a Lifesaving Brooch?”
That accessory negated fatal damage, and it was pretty much a necessity in every battle between the more experienced players.
However, when the aberration had been bathed in light from Fang of Gloria: Overdrive, it didn’t look like one had activated, meaning that she hadn’t actually been wearing it. Its presence could’ve changed the outcome of the battle, and I couldn’t help but ask about it.
“That’s simply because Lady Tsukuyo is Lady Tsukuyo,” the King of Assassins answered with a smile on his face and confidence in his tone, as if he honestly believed that that was the only possible response to my question. “All the best. May we meet again.”
Then he went through the logging out procedure and vanished.
“Honestly, I’d prefer it if we didn’t,” said Nemesis, and I shared her sentiment.
After the KoA logged out, we walked out of The Lunar Society’s headquarters.
Honestly, I’d expected to be attacked by the adherents here, but they didn’t seem to mind us all that much, as if they’d been told to leave us alone. In fact, it looked like they were just too preoccupied with fixing the broken mansion.
Man, was the place in a rough state. Seriously, the destruction there rivaled the one left by the Clash of the Superiors, making it clear just how hard Figaro had been rampaging before the aberration came out to face him.
“All right, I’ll go raid the Tomb Labyrinth now,” Figaro said the moment we walked out.
I guess he went berserk on The Lunar Society and saved me only as an extra to his raid, I thought.
“Figaro, thanks for helping me,” I said.
“It’s fine. No need for that,” he replied. “Y
ou worked really hard when dealing with Franklin and the Gouz-Maise Gang.”
“Hm...?” I could understand Franklin, but where did the Gouz-Maise Gang come in all of this?
“Anyway, see you later. I’ll be in the Tomb Labyrinth for a while, so if you need anything from me, just tell it to Shu and he’ll pass it on.”
With those words as his last, Figaro dashed towards the created dungeon. He was really fast, and it only took a moment for me to lose sight of him.
“All right, it’s high time I log off, too,” I said.
In real life, it was past 10PM, so I really wanted to get out, prepare for tomorrow, and go to sleep. Not to mention that I’d been getting alerts for hunger and bladder trouble for quite a while now.
“Very well,” said Nemesis. “Be the best college student you can be.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll enjoy my life for all it’s worth.”
“Do come back here, all right?” she added.
“Eh? Well, I’ll be online tomorrow night.”
For some reason, those words of mine made her seem somewhat... relieved?
“Good night, Ray,” she said.
“Thanks. You too, Nemesis.”
With those words as my last, after being online for a whole complete Dendro day, I finally logged out.
◇◇◇
???
“Damn that sickly meathead prince... And I was so close to turning him back like I did last time,” Tsukuyo grumbled.
“They say that luck is an important factor in victory. Unfortunately, unlike last time, the battle didn’t begin in the middle of the night.”
“And that’s exactly why he came early. And he destroyed the mansion so I couldn’t just hide until it was night... Hmph, oh well. It’s still just one loss, one victory for me.”
“Indeed. What do you wish to do now, Lady Tsukuyo? You cannot go online, so I would strongly recommend you go to sleep.”
“That’s probably best. Spring break is over, and I have lots to do in college tomorrow.”
“Truly. You were intending to gather new members for the club.”
“Oh, yeaaah. I hope I meet a freshman that catches my eye...”
Chapter Four: Real Life Encounter
Reiji Mukudori
It was the day after I’d been kidnapped by Tsukuyo Fuso and her Lunar Society.
I’d honestly been worried about how that would turn out, but thanks to Figaro, I’d had no trouble going offline, getting a decent night’s rest, and making it to college.
The first day wasn’t the entrance ceremony or the start of classes or anything like that. It was simply a guidance session about the college.
Things here were going to be different than in high school or anything we’d experienced before, so this was obviously necessary. We looked through the materials they gave us, listened to their explanations, made preparations for next week’s lessons, and got a description of our schedule going forward, but there was nothing particularly strange about any of it.
I’d expected there to be a few days of group lodging to help us familiarize ourselves with our fellow students, but apparently, they didn’t do those anymore.
Cool, that means I’ll have more time for Dendro now, I instantly thought, before realizing that that probably wasn’t something a model student would think.
Still, we were given some time to introduce and present ourselves to the fellow students with whom we would be learning until we split into different departments two years later.
Since I came from a distant countryside, I obviously didn’t know anyone here, but the introductions were enough for me to memorize the names and faces of about 70% of the freshmen.
Also, I and four others revealed that we had Infinite Dendrogram as our hobby, so, come break time, we gathered up and had a talk about it.
As expected of college students my age, the rest either hadn’t been able to play much because of exams or, like me, had started after their exams were finished.
I felt that five players was a very small number, but it made sense, considering that we were the unfortunate generation of college students whose exam prep had coincided with Dendro’s release.
Anyway, I was excited about the prospect of questing with my new college friends, but alas, all four of them belonged to Tenchi.
There’re seven countries to choose from! Can such a coincidence even happen?! I thought, thoroughly surprised. The four seemed to share my sentiment, so it looked like it did, indeed, happen.
Naturally, going on quests with people on the other side of the continent was a difficult task. While most RPGs had teleports to fix such issues, in Dendro, teleportation was limited to Embryo unique skills, a way of leaving created dungeons, or just some weird accidents. Because of that, we had to postpone our questing to... whenever we had the chance.
Interesting thing to note: though all four of the other players were from Tenchi, they all served different lords, making them rivals, rather than allies. Their country was much like Sengoku Period Japan, so it would be apt to say they were like subordinates to Oda, Takeda, Chosokabe, and Shimazu.
If given the choice, I’d probably side with Uesugi, I thought.
So, with the guidance and orientations over, we freshmen were next confronted by countless canopy tents built on the college grounds — the club invitation zone.
The participants from all clubs were many, and they were full of zeal to gather as many new freshmen as possible. Many of us newbies were fully into it, while to some, this was just a bit too much.
I was one of the latter.
Struggling through the wave of people trying to invite me to their clubs, I made my way to the cafeteria to take a breather.
“Well, it sure looks like the culture gap between high school and college life is bigger than I expected,” I muttered to myself.
Though not in the same way as the one I’d experienced with the foreign culture in Dendro, it was still pretty overwhelming.
Exhausted in both mind and body, I drank some tea while listlessly staring at the bulletin board, which, of course, had posters inviting students to clubs.
“Clubs, eh...?” I murmured.
Many people considered college students improper unless they joined a club and made the most of their youth forming bonds with fellow club members. However, doing so would definitely have a negative impact on my Dendro time.
I was fully aware that a college student had no business prioritizing an MMO over communication and bonds made in college, but I really wanted to preserve as much of my online time as possible.
“If only there was a Dendro club or something...”
If there was, I would get the collegian social experience and not lose any online time because of it.
However, while a club for all games could probably exist, a college would never, ever have a club focused entirely on one game. Ever. At least, that was what I assumed until I looked at one corner of the board.
“...There is?”
Sure enough, a poster there said “Club Infinite Dendrogram” in English, which was as much of a description as it was a title. I questioned why they hadn’t gone with a Japanese name, but I could only assume it had something to do with the abbreviation. “CID” was quite convenient.
Anyway, I wasn’t about to ignore this blessing of a discovery.
A Dendro club was a two-for-one deal for me. It would allow me to live the collegian social life and come to know new fellow players.
Well, things could get awkward if there were people from Dryfe, but that would be interesting in its own right.
I followed the map provided, and made my way to the CID room. It was my first time at this part of the college, so I felt a bit lost every now and then, but I eventually arrived at my destination.
The door had a somewhat fancy-looking wooden plate on it, saying “Club Infinite Dendrogram.”
Slightly tense, I reached out and knocked.
“Come innn,” called someone inside.
“All right, then,” I said as I opened the door.
At that moment, a certain, danger-sensitive part of my brain belatedly reacted to the voice coming from inside and urged me to stop. But alas, I’d already opened the door, and now saw what waited beyond it.
“A freshman, I assume? Hey theeere! Welcome to Club Infinite Dendr—”
That was the moment I closed the door.
I had every reason to do so.
After all, the face I’d seen there was one I’d involuntarily etched onto my brain. It was a visage I’d seen just yesterday... the one belonging to Tsukuyo Fuso.
I might’ve been mistaken, but I had no intention of opening the door and confirming it. It wasn’t far-fetched to believe that the aberration, just like Shu, played as herself. Hell, considering the nature of her cult, it would be the obvious thing for her to keep her real face.
No, screw the reasons why she looked like she did, the person herself was a far bigger problem.
“Damn it! I should’ve been more cautious!”
I’d completely neglected the possibility of her being in the same college as me! I’d been told that cults often used clubs to gather new members, so why hadn’t I connected the dots?! Shit! I’d gone out of the frying pan and into the fire! My college life was in danger of collapsing on the first day!
I hurriedly turned around and got ready to sprint...
“Why are you running?”
...but before I could dash, the door opened, and a slender hand reached out and grabbed me by the nape of my neck. I struggled to move regardless, but I couldn’t make an inch of progress.
It seemed mechanically impossible, but once I glanced back, I saw the she-monster holding on to the frame of the door with her other hand.
Well, I... guess that’s enough to render me completely immobile with one hand... LIKE HELL! What’s up with this upper body strength?! What are you, my sister?!
“Wow, don’t know why, but you seem really scared,” she said, probably oblivious to the true cause of my panic. “Come on, there’s nothing here to be afraid of. Let’s go in and have some tea.”