by Sakon Kaidou
He then showed me the inside of his wallet, and it was doubtful if there was even enough for a carriage back to the village. In fact, it probably wasn’t even enough to pay for the guild request, but in my eyes, that was a sign of just how desperate Louie was.
“I hope we find his father,” Nemesis said telepathically.
Yeah, same here, I thought in response.
“All right, let’s go to Torne, then,” I said. “As for how we get there...”
Silver could fly us there in no time, but I could only let one other person ride with me, at most, so...
“You have a horse, don’t you, Ray?” B3 asked, cutting short my train of thought.
“Ah, yeah, I do.”
“Excellent. I don’t have a horse, but I do have a carriage. Can we get your horse to pull it?”
“Sure.” A carriage would let us all travel there at the same time.
With our destination and means of transportation all set, we began making our way towards Torne.
I’ll admit, I’m kinda curious as to why B3 has a carriage, but no horse, I thought.
◆◆◆
???
After Ray’s group left the diner, a girl sitting at a table some distance away from them, close to the exit, stood up from her chair.
She was just another Master who’d merely happened to be there at that time. However, since she’d seen something that she, as a member of a certain clan, just couldn’t ignore, she left the diner right after confirming that Ray’s group wasn’t there anymore.
She quickly made her way for a certain establishment in the capital. These were the headquarters of her clan, and they had a Japanese aesthetic, though not in the same way as The Lunar Society’s HQ.
It was obvious from its outward design. The building looked like the house of Japanese martial arts practitioners, and it had a dojo affixed to it. Another thing that stood out was the sign that had the clan’s name on it, for it was written very skillfully.
“Big sis! I have something to report! It’s urgent!” the girl from the diner shouted as she ran into the dojo and called for someone inside.
“Damn, you’re loud,” said a woman in a husky tone.
She surpassed 180cm in height, had a body covered in well-trained muscles, eyes that gleamed, and dangerously sharp fangs.
All that, combined with the wolfish ears on her head and the tail behind her, made her appear very much like a carnivorous predator. And because of such appearances, as well as her demeanor, those close to her often referred to her as “big sis” or just “sis” despite no blood relation.
The muscular woman stood in the middle of the dojo, spear in hand. Around her, there were a number of freshly downed Masters, all of whom looked nearly dead. They, too, were Masters belonging to the same clan as the girl who’d just left the diner and arrived here.
From the dire sight before her, the girl assumed that she’d arrived right as they finished training, and she couldn’t be more glad that she was off-duty today.
“And? What is it, Tomika?” asked the muscular woman, making the girl snap out of it. “Weren’t you out to get a quest today?”
“Th-This is serious, sis!” the girl named Tomika shouted.
“Just tell me what’s so serious,” the muscular woman said. “Did my darling finally go online or something?”
The “darling” she spoke of was none other than the clan’s owner. Due to certain real-life circumstances, he hadn’t been able to log in for a while now.
Sadly for those in the clan, his absence had caused the muscular woman’s training to become more intense with every passing day. After all, it was well-known in and out of the clan that she was absolutely head over heels for the young leader.
“The Lunar Society might be planning something...”
“The lunatic cultists? I’m all ears.” Suddenly, the woman began emitting a menacing, pressurizing aura.
It was caused by not only her avatar’s stats, but also by the intensity of her emotion. Everyone present — even the downed clan members — felt it clearly.
“Th-The KoA was in the guild’s diner and, uh...”
“Oh? That hanger-on? By himself?” the muscular woman cut Tomika off and asked.
“Yeah. And he was happily talking with a certain party, and before disappearing, he left them a pouch with something written on it.”
Tsukikage never neglected to have a smile on his face, so it was hard to deny that he’d looked happy, and Tomika had been too far away from them to know that the pouch was nothing more than the payment for his tea.
As a result, the impression she’d gotten from their exchange was exactly as she’d described it.
“Hmm... You sure that wasn’t just a party of cultists?” asked the muscular woman.
“Well... he was talking to that BBB and Ray Starling, the guy who became famous after Franklin’s Game.”
“Ohh...?” The woman, intrigued, cracked a grin. The expression made her look like an actual predator. “The rumored ‘Unbreakable,’ eh? And B3? I was wondering what she’s been up to after disbanding her clan, but I never expected her to be dealing with the cultists. Guess this means the rumors are fake.”
B3 was, in fact, “dealing with the cultists,” but only as a member of a real-life club led by them, and definitely not in the way that the woman imagined it.
“And? What are they planning to do?” the woman asked.
“I don’t know that much... But before they left the diner, I overheard that they were going to Torne...” Tomika confessed.
“Torne? Well, Windstar Festival should start soon. Maybe that has something to do with it.” The woman repeatedly flicked her spear’s handle with her thumb as she tried to figure out the plot between Ray’s group and The Lunar Society — which didn’t actually exist. Though unable to find an answer, she was finally able to make a certain decision.
“All right,” she said. “I don’t know what they’re planning, but we’ll crush them anyway.”
Words to play by: I don’t know, therefore I PK.
“Let this be a little preliminary match before our actual revenge battle. We’ll screw up whatever the lunatics are planning.”
“But sis, our leader still isn’t...”
“Ha! The only reason why we got messed up by The Lunar Society is because we didn’t have my darling with us to take care of them. I don’t wanna involve him in the revenge match when it’s all our own fault.”
The woman then momentarily fell silent and took a deep breath.
“WAKE UP ALREADY, DAMN IT!” she howled so loudly that the whole dojo shook.
Her voice made all the members spread out on the floor jump up and stand straight.
“We... the K&R, are going on a hunt! Go and prepare!” the Nobushi Princess, Rosa, cried.
Hearing the order of their sub-leader, the members of K&R — the third clan in the kingdom’s rankings and the country’s strongest PK clan — began preparing for an attack.
Thus, because of a minor misunderstanding and a major lack of forethought, Ray’s search quest was about to be gatecrashed by the kingdom’s strongest PK clan.
Chapter Six: Along the Way
Paladin, Ray Starling
Riding our carriage as it left tracks on the dirt path below, we gradually made our way towards Torne Village.
Well, calling it “our carriage” wasn’t exactly appropriate, considering the fact that it belonged B3 alone. Still, it was being drawn by my Silver, so that term wasn’t entirely wrong.
B3 and I were in the coachman’s seat, while Louie sat inside the actual carriage.
The vehicle was very well-designed. Its base was high enough for me to pass under it by simply bending forward, and it had tires akin to those on old off-road cars, letting it easily handle uneven terrain. It was also imbued with various magics, giving it functions such as air conditioning, impact reduction, interior space expansion, and a defensive barrier.
All in all, the carriage was
the Dendro equivalent of an armored vehicle that VIPs would use. That made me all the more curious as to why B3 had only the carriage. After all, what good was a horse-drawn vehicle without a horse to pull it?
“So, why do you have just the carriage?” I let my curiosity take over and asked directly.
In response, B3 placed her hand over her mouth again and took a moment to think before matter-of-factly saying, “This carriage was the common property of my clan.”
“You were the leader of a clan?”
“Yes. It’s disbanded now, though,” she said as she cast down her eyes, looking somewhat lonely. “It had many members who had busy real lives, you see. There were people with children or work to attend to, people in middle management, job-hunting students, police officers, college professors... they were all so busy, they made a college student’s life seem easy.”
She spoke with her eyes fixed upon the scenery directly ahead, but I felt as though what she was actually seeing were visions of the good old days.
“Despite their harsh schedules, we were able to get together and kill monsters, clear quests... go on hunts, have parties, and do lots of other fun stuff.” The look on her face bore not a hint of dishonesty. She really had enjoyed her time with her clan.
...Wait, why are “kill monsters” and “go on hunts” separate? I wondered.
“Maybe she means scavenger hunts?” Nemesis suggested telepathically. “They would be different here than in your world, after all.”
Well... that makes sense.
“But a short while ago, we were dealt a really hard blow. Many of us, myself included, lost gear and other items,” she said before closing her eyes in a regretful manner and cracking a wry smile. “Because of that and the changes in our lives that came with spring, we decided that we’d had enough fun and decided to disband the clan.”
“I see...”
Apparently, no matter how realistic it was, Infinite Dendrogram wasn’t safe from normal MMO-like happenings such as the ending of clans.
“With the disbanding, the clan’s shared items were distributed among the players that would continue playing,” she said. “I can still remember the members offering this carriage to me while saying ‘This slick ride should be yours, boss.’ I appreciated their sentiment and gladly accepted it, but... eheheh.” She giggled as she remembered something—
...Wait, “boss?”
“I accepted the carriage, but didn’t have any monsters for it,” she continued. “It slipped my mind because I always had clan members with tamed creatures that could pull it. Because of that, I haven’t been able to use it once ever since the clan disbanded...”
Suddenly, as I held the reins, she turned to look at me with eyes that looked both slightly lonely and happy.
“It’s nice that we got to use it today.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Thanks again, B3.”
About three hours had passed since we left the capital. We were currently on a road called the “Fadl Mountain Pass.”
Honestly, I felt that “Mountain Pass” was a bit of a misnomer, considering we were passing only hills, rather than mountains.
Anyway, according to Louie, we were about halfway there by now. We’d left before noon, so, at this rate, we ought to reach Torne Village before sundown.
That aside, I couldn’t help but notice that this road was unusually active. Just like us, there were quite a lot of people heading northward, on foot and by carriage alike.
Many even had children with them, making it highly unlikely that they were going on hunting or trading trips.
“Is there something I don’t know about?” I asked.
“The Windstar Festival is happening soon,” said Louie as he stuck his face out through the carriage’s window.
“Windstar Festival?” According to him, the Windstar Festival was an event held by a group of villages situated in the north of the capital, with Torne being the focus.
The festival was a long-running tradition by now, and it was renowned for the many pinwheel-like decorations all over the villages and the fireworks lighting up the night sky, attracting many tourists from both the local villages and the capital, who, in turn, attracted merchants aiming to profit from them.
“Well, that definitely sounds like a festival,” I commented.
“It is!” Louie said excitedly. “Until last year, we would go there with Dad every year, and it was very fun! But now...”
He suddenly became downcast again. That was only natural, considering that the dad he so adored might not be there for the festival.
“We’ll find your dad, so don’t you worry,” I said.
“Okay. Please find him, mister.”
Chatting more about this and that, we continued following the road north. Eventually, we went up a gently-sloping hill.
“Ah...” Louie gasped, apparently realizing something.
“What is it?” I asked.
“This place...” he said as he looked around with nostalgia in his eyes. “This is where Mom and I met Dad.”
◇◇◇
Four years ago, Fadl Mountain Pass
It had happened four years ago, in Infinite Dendrogram time.
Louie and his mother, Farica, were at the Fadl Mountain Pass, riding a stagecoach to the village of Torne. The aged Needleworker of the village had passed away, and Farica — bearing the same job herself — had been dispatched there by the Needleworker guild as the replacement.
It wasn’t unusual for job guilds to transfer their members to the surrounding towns and villages, but such agreements were never forced, and Farica had volunteered for this role.
Her primary reasons for this were monetary. A year ago, she’d lost her husband, Louie’s biological father, to an accident, and the money he’d left behind was beginning to run dry.
Though she herself had a career as a Needleworker, it wasn’t quite enough for a single mother with a child as young as Louie, especially with the recent increase of skilled Needleworkers... the Masters.
Because of them, supply had started to outpace demand, and tian-made clothes, which were generally lower quality than those made by Masters, had gotten harder to sell. The drop in available work had made it difficult for Farica to get by, and though her situation wasn’t dire, it was definitely getting there, so she’d chosen to take the transfer to Torne.
Since it was a guild assignment, she would receive both the payment for her work and financial aid from the guild, not to mention that distancing herself from the oversupplied cities would greatly increase the demand for her products. Spurred by the wish to have her son grow up healthy, away from the ails of poverty, she’d resolved to take him and move to the village of Torne, and that was no mistake.
Their small household would receive the money to get by, her son would grow up properly, and Torne would have a Needleworker. Everyone involved would benefit from this.
Indeed, Farica’s decision wasn’t a mistake... but alas, Lady Luck, capricious as ever, didn’t favor her on the day of the move. The stagecoach she was on was attacked by over a hundred monsters.
From just over several hundred of metels away, they were charging straight towards the stagecoach, leaving a thick cloud of dust behind them.
It was a horde of “Violent Fanged Boars.” True to their name, they were a brutal, carnivorous type of monster known to vehemently chase the smell of blood.
Though they were native to the area, it was rare for them to hunt in such great numbers. However, this was a world in which the spontaneous appearance of UBMs could greatly alter monster habitats, sometimes forcing them to form large groups. Thus, the boars’ attack on the stagecoach was merely an unfortunate turn of events — one that greatly endangered those without the power to stand up to them.
The coachman hastily tried to turn the vehicle around and escape the boars, but the menacing horde scared the horses into rearing up, panicking, and making the carriage fall on its side.
Passengers and baggage alike dropped
out of vehicle, and though nobody died from that, it didn’t change the fact that the situation was nothing short of hopeless.
“Hurry! Stand up and run!” roared one the tian adventurers tasked with defending the stagecoach.
Faced with this threat, they had completely abandoned their roles.
Some tried to be the rear guard, protecting the passengers as they ran, but the experienced adventurers suggested against it, telling them that it was suicide.
Not many could fault them for that. Even if those adventurers had battle jobs, that number of boars was just too great for only a few sub-level 100 tians.
Escaping along with the passengers while avoiding encounters with monsters was the sound thing to do... the right thing to do.
Alas, doing the right thing was never easy, and this time, it came at the cost of sacrificing two lives — a boy and his mother.
After the carriage fell, Farica was still inside, and her leg was caught under the baggage, while Louie was crying at her side. He begged for someone to help her, but everyone else had already ran away.
It was only natural. The situation was dire, and every second counted. Anyone who tried to save them could easily end up as sustenance for the boars, and even if they were successful, Farica’s bleeding and all the blood that had gotten on Louie would definitely attract the monsters. There was no viable escape plan that included the pair.
Their deaths were definitely unavoidable and perhaps even necessary, so the rest of the people ran while closing their ears to the boy’s tearful pleas.
The cruel inevitability would soon spell the death of the mother and child, and the two had no means of overturning this harsh fate.
However, they did.
“Gringham!” someone roared just as a Boar was about to charge into the carriage’s exposed base and break it open.
That word — no, that call...
“GROAAAAAHHHHHHH!”
...was answered by a giant beast that forced its fangs deep into the Boar’s neck and shattered its upper spine, instantly ending its life.